Stances for a Warblade

[Faulty]

I'm not sure what stances to go with for my Warblade. Starting at level 10, my character is a modified LA 0 Gnoll (+2 Str instead of +4, no racial HD). For roleplaying reasons she's not taking any Tiger Claw maneuvers/stances, and a minimal amount of White Raven ones hopefully. Warblade stances are scarce is all, and I'm really not sure what to use.

[Siosilvar]

At level 10 you'll have a level 1 stance, a level 2 stance and a level 4 or less stance. AFAIK, no level 2 or 4 stances exist, so you'll end up with 2 level 1 stances and a level 3 stance.

Iron Heart:
Absolute Steel: Level 3, effectively gives you Fast Movement (10ft) and Skirmish +0d6/+2 AC.
Punishing Stance: Level 1, +1d6 damage for -2 AC.

Diamond Mind:
Pearl of Black Doubt: Level 3, cumulative dodge bonus for each opponent that misses you, resets at each round. Quite obviously good against hordes of mooks with a few higher-power opponents thrown in.
Stance of Clarity: Level 1, effectively lets you "focus" your AC against one target.

Stone Dragon:
Crushing Weight of the Dragon: Level 3, gives you better damage in a grapple, equal to a greatsword.
Stonefoot Stance: Don't move and you get bonuses against bigger things. Seems rather useless except for "giant-killer" builds.

You said no Tiger Claw, so I'll skip those.

White Raven:
Tactics of the Wolf: Level 3, allies get (at level 10) +5 damage while flanking.
Leading the Charge: Basically what it says, IL10 gets +10 damage on allies' charges.
Bolstering Voice: Bumps up allies' Will saves.

The Verdict
You're probably going to want Punishing Stance and Stance of Clarity, and then pick Absolute Steel or Pearl of Black Doubt, depending on your character.

[Keld Denar]

If you aren't gonna do Tiger Claw, then pretty much Diamond Mind and Iron Heart have the best stances. Punishing Stance is a pretty typical 1st level stance. Who doesn't like more damage? It quickly fades from usefulness though. Absolute Steel Stance is pretty nice if you tend to move a lot while using strikes. Note that you can tumble the distance if you need to. Meanwhile, Pearl of Black Doubt is amazing if you find yourself often swarmed by mooks, as this can get your AC 8-10 points higher on a given turn. It also combos well with Iron Heart's Wall of Blades counter, since if you can block the first hit, your AC goes up 2 points off the first attack!

Higher than that, Stance of Alacrity is SDGDESGNSFDJKGNFD AMAZING. Action economy is king, and surprisingly with ToB, your Swift Action is needed pretty often to do cool stuff. If you reacted with a counter last round, normally you can't boost or activate a swift magic item. This stance lets you. This can be REALLY big, depending on how many swift actions you regularly take. If you plan on using this a lot, pick up Wall of Blades and Lightning Recovery for sure.

[woodenbandman]

Actually, at level 10, punishing stance is trivial. Skip it. You'd probably be better with something like whatever that diamond mind stance is at level 1. Anyway 1d6 is literally nothing at level 10 when you have power attack and weapon crystals and whatnot. Plus the -2 AC matters more at this level when monsters pretty much auto-hit and your hide is juicy tasty power-attack bait.

EDIT: And may I suggest a fighter dip of 2 levels? Delays your maneuvers advancement, but it lets you pick higher level stances. At level 8 your IL is 9 and IIRC that gets you a 5th level stance at that level. Generally a good idea.

[Faulty]

I want to get Warblade 20 if the campaign goes that far, for the dual stances.

I actually have access to Dancing Blade Form at 10th level. Is that useful at all? Seems like it would be.

[Elfin]

Stance of Alacrity is just amazing. As has been said, Punishing stance is good at low levels but trivial at higher ones. Absolute Steel is quite useful, as is Pearl of Black Doubt.

[Faulty]

I won't be worrying about Stance of Alacrity for another 5 levels.

I'm thinking I'll go with Stance of Clarity, Stonefoot Stance and either Pearl of Black Doubt, Absolute Steel or Dancing Blade form. I could always grab Martial Stance to get more.

[Elfin]

Really, don't bother with Stonefoot; it's probably the most useless of the bunch. If you want, it might be a good idea to get Martial Study (no prereq Devoted Spirit maneuver) so that you can pick up Martial Stance (Thicket of Blades).
But only do this if you have 2 flaws and/or are human; otherwise you can't spare the feats.

[Eldariel]

If you are a two-hander, Leading the Charge is probably the best stance for offensive purposes. The big question is, how do you fight? Everything depends on that, really.

Defensively, I'd never play a Warblade without access to Roots of the Mountain. That means you actually have a chance of beating all those Trip/Bull Rush/Grapple-checks big monsters throw at you, especially with Steadfast Boots.

[Elfin]

On another note, you of course shouldn't bother with Pearl of Black Doubt if you have Shock Trooper- and I see no reason why you wouldn't.

[Faulty]

I'm going to be roleplaying her like a Swordsage, so she'll be very focused. I was thinking of really accentuating Diamond Mind, with Iron Heart and Stone Dragon as complements. I am doing two-handed and will have Power Attack, I don't see why I couldn't pick up Shock Trooper.

[Eldariel]

Leading the Charge seems like an excellent combat stance then (note that the boost applies to you too).

[Haven]

I'm going to be roleplaying her like a Swordsage, so she'll be very focused. I was thinking of really accentuating Diamond Mind, with Iron Heart and Stone Dragon as complements. I am doing two-handed and will have Power Attack, I don't see why I couldn't pick up Shock Trooper.

If you're roleplaying her like a swordsage, and also doing a Shock Trooper build, I'd suggest going ahead and dipping Swordsage, as one of their first level stances basically gives you a Blur effect as long as you move at least ten feet in a round, and that'll definitely come in handy.

[Faulty]

I'm really hoping to get that dual stance thing at Warblade 20 if the campaign gets that far. Talk about sexy.

The idea I have going on his a warrior obsessed with physical and mental self-improvement, who'd charge into combat (Shock Trooper, Power Attack), and then use superior weapon skill and will power (Iron Heart and Diamond Mind strikes/counters/stances/boosts) to defeat her opponents.

I plan on using a halbred. I wish Improved Trip wasn't linked to freaking Combat Expertise.

[ColdSepp]

I'm really hoping to get that dual stance thing at Warblade 20 if the campaign gets that far. Talk about sexy.

The idea I have going on his a warrior obsessed with physical and mental self-improvement, who'd charge into combat (Shock Trooper, Power Attack), and then use superior weapon skill and will power (Iron Heart and Diamond Mind strikes/counters/stances/boosts) to defeat her opponents.

I plan on using a halbred. I wish Improved Trip wasn't linked to freaking Combat Expertise.

A two level barbarian dip can get you Pounce and Improved Trip. Note that Shock Trooper requires charging, and you can't use Strikes with it. Charge is a Full Round Action, so you don't have the Standard Action needed to initiate strikes.

[Eldariel]

A two level barbarian dip can get you Pounce and Improved Trip. Note that Shock Trooper requires charging, and you can't use Strikes with it. Charge is a Full Round Action, so you don't have the Standard Action needed to initiate strikes.

You can use strikes that involve charging though, such as Pouncing Charge, Bounding Assault or Battle Leader's Charge.

[Elfin]

Initiating a strike is a swift action, not a standard.
And if you want pounce you can always do a dip into Lion Spirit Totem Barbarian.

[Faulty]

Most strikes are one standard action.

[Eldariel]

Initiating a strike is a swift action, not a standard.
And if you want pounce you can always do a dip into Lion Spirit Totem Barbarian.

Initiating a strike is a standard or a full-round action. Initiating a boost is often a swift action, as are some other maneuvers, but I know of no swift action strikes.

[ColdSepp]

Initiating a strike is a swift action, not a standard.
And if you want pounce you can always do a dip into Lion Spirit Totem Barbarian.

Initiating a boost or stance is a swift action, counters are immediate actions and strikes are standard, as a general rule. There are some exceptions, of course, and some strikes and stances that work with a charge.

However, I maintain that a PA Full Attack (Pounce) on a charge will be as good or better then any strike.

[Faulty]

How exactly do I get pounce with a 2 level Barbarian dip?

[Eldariel]

How exactly do I get pounce with a 2 level Barbarian dip?

Use the Spirit Lion Totem alternate class feature for Barbarian from Complete Champion. Loses Fast Movement, gets Pounce.

And I maintain that charge maneuvers with full PA Shock Trooper are better for characters who have invested levels in acquiring said maneuvers, than just plain full PA Shock Trooper charges (unless refreshing, in which case you obviously just charge).

[Elfin]

Spirit Lion Totem Barbarian.
From CC, I think.

EDIT: Ninja'd

[Faulty]

That actually makes sense from a background perspective. Thank you.

[ColdSepp]

How exactly do I get pounce with a 2 level Barbarian dip?

Go Spirit Lion gets Pounce at Level 1
Go Wolf Totem at level two, which trades Uncanny Dodge for Improved Trip.

Your DM may say no, but you know you want to play A Spirit Totem Wolf Lion. Because its a Wolf and a Lion.

The only way we could be even more awesome is if we could be a Wolf Lion Orca!

Also, a two level dip means you are one IL higher for stances and maneuvers as a Warblade, so better to do that then just 1. Go fighter for an extra feat, if the DM won't combine them.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Most of a Warblade's ability to kill things come from Tiger Claw. With boosts like Xing Mongoose to grant additional attacks, Pouncing Strike, and Blood In The Water, it's very potent damage output.

If you don't want Tiger Claw, consider that Crusader also gets Stone Dragon and White Raven, and also gets Devoted Spirit, which has some *VERY* nice stances. Thicket of Blades has been mentioned, plus the level 1 stance where you heal 2 points per hit you land on an opponent.

If you are wanting to build in some damage mitigation, Crusader is definately the way to go, with built in damage delay which further increases your damage output. Also, Stone Power feat plus Shards of Granite gives you the ability to ignore the first 10 damage per round, plus ignore all DR and Hardness.

I would suggest dipping Fighter for 2 levels for feats.

[Elfin]

Devoted Spirit really does have some nice maneuvers and stances; you might consider playing an elf so that you can go into Eternal Blade- it's a great PrC, and let you access Devoted Spirit. The only downside is that you don't get any Tiger Claw or Stone Dragon, but it's still worth a few levels even if you don't take it to 10. Then again, the capstone is pretty damn awesome.

[ColdSepp]

Most of a Warblade's ability to kill things come from Tiger Claw. With boosts like Xing Mongoose to grant additional attacks, Pouncing Strike, and Blood In The Water, it's very potent damage output.

If you don't want Tiger Claw, consider that Crusader also gets Stone Dragon and White Raven, and also gets Devoted Spirit, which has some *VERY* nice stances. Thicket of Blades has been mentioned, plus the level 1 stance where you heal 2 points per hit you land on an opponent.

If you are wanting to build in some damage mitigation, Crusader is definately the way to go, with built in damage delay which further increases your damage output. Also, Stone Power feat plus Shards of Granite gives you the ability to ignore the first 10 damage per round, plus ignore all DR and Hardness.

I would suggest dipping Fighter for 2 levels for feats.

This is mostly good advise. However, I strongly recommend against Stone Power at Level 10. At this point, 10 Temp HP won't help much, and the penalty to hit applies to all attacks until you start your next round. A lower levels, its great, though.

That said, Crusader is extremely good at tanking and self healing.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

This is mostly good advise. However, I strongly recommend against Stone Power at Level 10. At this point, 10 Temp HP won't help much, and the penalty to hit applies to all attacks until you start your next round. A lower levels, its great, though.

That said, Crusader is extremely good at tanking and self healing.

If you aren't able to compensate for a -5 to attacks by level 10, you have bigger problems than damage mitigation... liberal use of methods for consistently gaining touch attacks is the easiest way, but there are other methods. Also, being able to ignore DR, regardless of the source, is well worth it, particularly when you start squaring off against constructs and outsiders. No having to remember if it is Cold Iron or Silver which bypasses DR anymore, you simply bypass it all. And without any additional penalty above and beyond the -5 from Stone Power to mitigate 10 damage/round.

[ColdSepp]

If you aren't able to compensate for a -5 to attacks by level 10, you have bigger problems than damage mitigation... liberal use of methods for consistently gaining touch attacks is the easiest way, but there are other methods. Also, being able to ignore DR, regardless of the source, is well worth it, particularly when you start squaring off against constructs and outsiders. No having to remember if it is Cold Iron or Silver which bypasses DR anymore, you simply bypass it all. And without any additional penalty above and beyond the -5 from Stone Power to mitigate 10 damage/round.

Yes, but with a two handed weapon, that is an extra 10 damage you could be doing per attack. Including AoOs. However, the Temp HP is maxed at 10, so you gain no further benefit from it. Furthermore, you can PA up to your BAB (or AC, since it was already stated they where getting Shock Trooper), where Stone Power limits you to -5. And as you said, mitigating the To Hit penalty isn't the issue.

PA is the more useful feat, IMO.