Help with a new character

[TaintedLight]

So my Swashbuckler 1/Swordsage 2/Rogue 2/Warblade 1/Master of Masks 4 (don't ask...) met his end when he gambled with Olidamarra for his soul and lost. This leaves me in the position of having to roll up a new character, so I came up with the following:

Human

{TABLE="head"]Level|Class|BAB|CL|IL|Fort|Ref|Will|Feats|Manuever s/Stances
1|Transmuter|+0|1|0.5|+0|+0|+2|Precocious Apprentice, Improved Initiative
2|Warblade|+1|1|1.5|+2|+0|+2||Sapphire Nightmare Blade, Steel Wind, Sudden Leap, Punishing Stance
3|Warblade|+2|1|2.5|+3|+0|+2|Heavy Armor Proficiency|Charging Minotaur
4|Warblade|+3|1|3.5|+3|+1|+3||Emerald Razor
5|Warblade|+4|1|4.5|+4|+1|+3||Bolstering Voice
6|Spellsword|+5|2|5|+6|+1|+5|Practiced Spellcaster|
7|Jade Phoenix Mage|+6|2|6|+8|+1|+5||Foehammer
8|Jade Phoenix Mage|+7|3|7|+9|+1|+5||
9|Jade Phoenix Mage|+8|4|8|+9|+2|+6|Martial Study (Iron Heart Surge)|Revitalizing Strike
10|Jade Phoenix Mage|+9|5|9|+10|+2|+6||[/TABLE]

Typical Spells:

1 Magic Missile x4, Feather Fall, Enlarge Person
2 Bull's Strength, Wraithstrike x2, See Invisibility
3 Dolorous Blow x2, Greater Mighty Wallop

Yes, this guy is going to abuse the crap out of GMW. I made him to replace the damage-dealing machine that was my last character (taking into consideration that I took 4 levels of the oh-so-lacking Master of Masks PrC :D). On average, I figure this guy does in the neighborhood of 30 damage a swing once GMW is on for the day. How can I improve this?

[JeminiZero]

You might want to clarify that GMW = Greater Mighty Wallop, rather than the more commonly accepted Greater Magic Weapon.

Anyway, I would recommmend 2 Wizard levels, as that won't reduce your BAB and Highest Maneuver Level Known (since 2 Wizard levels adds 1 to your initiator level, you will still start taking level 2 Maneuvers at level 4, level 3 maneuvers at level 6 etc).

Needs Adaptive Style in there, and Power Attack as well. You might want to drop Improved Initiative for one or the other. Why are you taking Heavy Armor proficiency? Do you have a means of circumventing the ASF?

[TaintedLight]

You might want to clarify that GMW = Greater Mighty Wallop, rather than the more commonly accepted Greater Magic Weapon.

Anyway, I would recommmend 2 Wizard levels, as that won't reduce your BAB and Highest Maneuver Level Known (since 2 Wizard levels adds 1 to your initiator level, you will still start taking level 2 Maneuvers at level 4, level 3 maneuvers at level 6 etc).

Needs Adaptive Style in there, and Power Attack as well. You might want to drop Improved Initiative for one or the other. Why are you taking Heavy Armor proficiency? Do you have a means of circumventing the ASF?

The Spellsword level at CL 6 gives me -10% ASF but requires that I have heavy armor proficiency. This will allow me to wear a mithril chain shirt with no problems, and I like this very much :D. As for Power Attack, I may switch out Improved Initiative for it but I'm not sold. Damage from my greatclub/warmace would be pretty ludicrous at that point, far better than the favored soul in the party, and the DM already gives him worried looks when he rolls damage.

[WinWin]

ASF only applies on spells with somatic components.

Progression looks solid. Perhaps trade out familliar for a transmuter ACF. Later on pick up improved familliar for a mount if that is your thing.

Personally, i would delay Warblade entry, but you seem to want to soft max BA and get decent HP.

Drop Magic missile. Or at least reduce the number. Swift action Critical strikes probably work better in melee. Bladeweave is a great 2nd level spell for lockdown. Fearsome grapple is a great immediate transmutation. Make sure you have Alter Self in your spellbook, even if it does not make your roster all the time.

[JeminiZero]

Look up the Twilight Enchantment propoperty. At the cost of +1 bonus, it reduces the ASF of an armor by 10% (which reduces a Mithril Chain Shirt to 0%).

While 30 damage might seem like a lot for GMW, lets compare the numbers you can get through Wraithstrike Power Attack. At level 10, using a 2 hander, you can power attack for -9 to hit/+18 damage, and rely on Wraithstrike to ignore armor and hit. You can deliver 2 such attacks per round (3 if hasted), and this doesn't include the base weapon damage + enhancement, strength bonus or Enlargment yet. You could easily hit 30 damage per swing anyway.

For the same spell sot (level 3) you can cast EXTENDED Wraith Strike and pull this off for TWO rounds. For best effect, get a weapon with a wand chamber and put a wand of Wriathstrike inside. 4,500 gp lets you pull this off for 50 rounds without even touching your spell slots. (If you need your swift actions for something else occasioanlly, you can instead make wands of extended Wraithstrike).

[TaintedLight]

ASF only applies on spells with somatic components.

Progression looks solid. Perhaps trade out familliar for a transmuter ACF. Later on pick up improved familliar for a mount if that is your thing.

Personally, i would delay Warblade entry, but you seem to want to soft max BA and get decent HP.

Drop Magic missile. Or at least reduce the number. Swift action Critical strikes probably work better in melee. Bladeweave is a great 2nd level spell for lockdown. Fearsome grapple is a great immediate transmutation. Make sure you have Alter Self in your spellbook, even if it does not make your roster all the time.

Yeah, Magic Missile is mostly there as a default ranged option. Bladeweave is nice, not so sure about fearsome grapple though. This campaign is big on huge monsters.

[TaintedLight]

Look up the Twilight Enchantment propoperty. At the cost of +1 bonus, it reduces the ASF of an armor by 10% (which reduces a Mithril Chain Shirt to 0%).

While 30 damage might seem like a lot for GMW, lets compare the numbers you can get through Wraithstrike Power Attack. At level 10, using a 2 hander, you can power attack for -9 to hit/+18 damage, and rely on Wraithstrike to ignore armor and hit. You can deliver 2 such attacks per round (3 if hasted), and this doesn't include the base weapon damage + enhancement, strength bonus or Enlargment yet. You could easily hit 30 damage per swing anyway.

For the same spell sot (level 3) you can cast EXTENDED Wraith Strike and pull this off for TWO rounds. For best effect, get a weapon with a wand chamber and put a wand of Wriathstrike inside. 4,500 gp lets you pull this off for 50 rounds without even touching your spell slots. (If you need your swift actions for something else occasioanlly, you can instead make wands of extended Wraithstrike).

As I said before, I am trying to limit the shenanigans somewhat. The favored soul is doing 20-30 damage a hit, which is putting our swashbuckler completely to shame. My goal is not to make all of the encounters healthier and harder for everyone else to deal with just because the DM has to compensate for my massive damage boost, just to do competitive damage.

[Krazddndfreek]

You should still consider getting rid of that heavy armor proficiency, its quite useless, when, as JeminiZero mentioned, you could just have a Twilight mithril chain shirt, which also has 0% spell failure. Power attack is still good and useful, and you should probably have it. Adaptive style is even better, take that instead if you can't have both.

[JeminiZero]

As I said before, I am trying to limit the shenanigans somewhat. The favored soul is doing 20-30 damage a hit, which is putting our swashbuckler completely to shame. My goal is not to make all of the encounters healthier and harder for everyone else to deal with just because the DM has to compensate for my massive damage boost, just to do competitive damage.

Fair enough, although I would still recommend getting Power Attack. Then you can just PA for small amounts of bonus damage during normal times, and only activate Wraithstrike/Full PA when you really really need it.