Swordsage tips

[Deme]

I'm about to play a raptoran (from "races of the wild." for those who don't know, they're a race of bird-like people who gain flight at their 5th HD, and until then can do some gliding) swordsage. We're starting at level 1.
I'm debating, at the moment, where I should take him: which disciplines I should focus on, if there are any really good feats, that sort of thing.

I have access to Complete Scoundrel, Complete Adventurer, PHB, PHBII, Races of the Wild, Tome of Battle, and Dragon Magic.

any tips?

[shadow_archmagi]

Wisdom is a VERY key stat. Make sure you have a decent int too. Don't worry about strength too much, you can replace all its combat effects entirely, except for the lifting requirements. But swordsages are light armor anyway. High dex is also ideal.

[Gralamin]

Get a high Dexterity and use a Shadow Hand weapon such as a dagger. Grab Shadowblade so you get dexterity to damage. Pick up a healthy Intelligence and Wisdom. Good Disciplines include Shadow Hand, Diamond Mind, Tiger Claw, and at higher levels, Setting Sun (Baffling Defense is awesome).

[ShneekeyTheLost]

For a Swordsage, think Monk, only with more Awsometastic and less Suckage.

You can wear light armor. Later on, you want Mithral Chain Shirt, because it has no ASF, and it stacks with your Wis bonus to AC.

Wis and Dex are your two key attributes. Strength can almost be a dump stat with the right maneuver/build setup (Shadow Blade to add Dex to damage when in a Shadow Hand stance, and Setting Sun's maneuvers are all geared to taking down people bigger and stronger than you). Decent Con, of course, because everyone needs more hit points. Int can be a dump stat or not, depending on how you feel about skills. Cha is definately a dump stat. So, Dex and Wis top tier, Con and Int second tier, and Str and Cha as dump stats.

[GammaPaladin]

Um, a swordsage has no concern about ASF. He has no arcane spells to fail.

I'd recommend a Mithral Breastplate, unless your dex mod is higher than 5.

OTOH, if it IS higher than 5, then you may just want to go straight to enchanted padded armor for that +8 dex modifier headroom, considering you'll be hitting that as soon as you can afford a +6 dex item.

You can then add Bracers of Armor to get a higher armor value to stack with whatever enhancement bonus you add to the padded.

If your dex bonus goes above +8, then you're in trouble, because getting rid of the padded drops you by 6. Unless you can have regular clothes enhanced, lol.

That would actually be kind of cool though. "I'm wearing a +5 Explorer's Outfit" heh