Tome of Battle

[Ahab]

I'm considering getting the Tome of Battle to level the playing field between my Wizard player and the melee-fighters. Would this book balance the classes enough to be worth a buy?

[Flickerdart]

This isn't the right board, you want Roleplaying Games.

To answer your question, though, it'll make melee do what it was always supposed to do. It won't hold a candle to Batman, but it won't have the players falling asleep between saying "full attack again" over and over.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

You people keep prodding my portfolio.

I think that ToB:tBo9S balances meleeists to the desirable level of balance, which of course closes the gap between fighters, monks and several other melee classes and wizards and other 1st tier classes. That said, they are still nowhere NEAR as strong as a well-built wizard or cleric.

[SilveryCord]

I'm considering getting the Tome of Battle to level the playing field between my Wizard player and the melee-fighters. Would this book balance the classes enough to be worth a buy?

Combat wise, yes, it will pretty much lower the gap. Out of combat, wizards can solve any situation instantly, while melee-fighters will go on a quest to find a wizard to help them out--it's just the way 3.5 is. (Consider banning all the tier 1 and tier 2 classes and playing E6--makes for a VERY fun game)

Tome of Battle is worth a buy because it is amazingly fun, but it isn't an auto-fix for an unbalanced game. You should look up variants for spells that are overpowered (For example, the Polymorph variants on this very website, by Rich) and outright ban a few, or make them 'artifact spells' that can only be cast from found scrolls or as an ability of a one-of-a-kind artifact. (Wish, Miracle, True Resurrection).