Swordsage Build advice for a one-shot

[Serenity]

A friend of mine will shortly be running a one-shot D&D session filled with mass combat and over the top roleplaying.

Here's what I know:

* 5th level characters
* Starting gold is 1500 gp
* Stats are 30d4 point buy. From my rolls, I have 69 points to play with.
* It'll be mainly outside, and involves attacking an enemy fort.
* Any non-setting specific book is allowed. I don't have access to that many, though: the core books, EPH, Complete Psionic, Complete Adventurer, Tome of Battle, and BoED.

Since we won't have much, if anything in the way of magic items, I think a ToB character would be a good choice. At the moment I'm thinking Swordsage, though I might also go for Crusader.

Suggestions?

[Demons_eye]

Unamred With VoP? 1.5k gold and short story.... well ya....
Go shadow

[sonofzeal]

A Shadow Hand Swordsage might be invaluable here, using Assassin's Stance + Shadow Blade + Strikes for impressive damage and high stealth potential. See what everyone else is playing though. A Crusader is good if you need backup healing or Tanking, and a Warblade for more straight DPS goodness. If your gaming group likes to charge in the front door, a Warblade's probably better than a Swordsage.

[Serenity]

Yeah, I was definitely considering Shadow Hand as at the top of my priorities. Since we'll be in a place called the Trollfens, a few Desert Wind Strikes are probably also a good investment. Figuring out what everyone else is playing might be a tad tricky, as it's not a regular gaming group, but a sort of 'come one, come all' general awesomeness.

[Demons_eye]

Ok so if you do VoP and have good dex and wis, lets see

18+4 (dex)
15+2 (wis)+1 level



10+4+3+5 22 ac?
No need to eat, endure elements, +1 magic unarmed strike.

[Vortling]

It looks like he'll have much more than that based off how many points he has for point buy. Actually with that much point buy you likely don't need any armor at all. Raise your dex high and pick up shadow blade.

[Demons_eye]

Lol dex 30 wis 30 all others like 2? some are 3.

Thats 30 ac add shadow blade and thats like 20 damge added on to a strike.

[Serenity]

And I could pick up Intuitive Attack for my Bonus Exalted Feat. Wisdom to my attacks, allowing me to dump strength? Yes, please.

[Demons_eye]

LOL totaly forgot that.... Wow now I must make this.....

[Serenity]

So as a fifth level Swordsage, I'd have three feats, which I'd spend on Sacred Vow, Vow of Poverty, and Shadow Blade. With Intuitive Attack as a bonus feat.

Possible Ability scores with my 69 point buy:

STR 11, DEX 18, CON 16 (starts as 15, gets a +1 at level 4), INT 18, WIS 18, CHA 16. I could probably shave points from CHA to pump up the rest. How does point buy scale up past 18?

[Demons_eye]

Hmmm nice, High skills, nice ac. Are you taking VoP? If so then better

10+4+4+5=23 ac? Wis to hit and dex to damge. magic +1 unarmed strike and wis to damge if useing a strike.

Hmm sneak attack stance (cant remember name) , so attack plus 2d6 plus 4 damge

Dam so want one of these

[Serenity]

I figure key stances would be Assassin's Stance and Child of Shadow. Either Hunter's Sense or Island of Blades for his third stance.

[Vortling]

I'd switch your con and your int. As much as high skills are really nice, missing those extra hit point per level is going to hurt more than missing those extra skills. I'd go with Island of Blades over child of shadow. Miss chance is nice, but you can get miss chance from clinging shadow strike.

[Eldariel]

I'd drop Charisma to 12 and up Con to 18. And no, you cannot go past 18 in point buy, which is why something like 69 point buy is generally pointless; almost all 18s. Oh yeah, consider some points from Int or Wis into Str; it's still damage even if you use Dex for everything else.

Tons of skillpoints, HP, AC, damage and such are all good.

[Serenity]

With Shadow Blade, I don't need Strength. I'll just about always be in a Shadow Hand Stance, so I use DEX for damage. And with Intuitive Attack, I use my Wisdom for my attack bonus. Add in a free Weapon Focus on my unarmed strikes, and I don't think I need to worry about being able to hit things well.

So, if I drop my Strength to 10, and my Charisma to 14, from an initial 16, that gives me 5 points, allowing me to boost Constitution to 17, then boost that to 18 at 4th level. So 3 levels of +3 hit points, 2 levels of +4.

[Eldariel]

With Shadow Blade, I don't need Strength. I'll just about always be in a Shadow Hand Stance, so I use DEX for damage. And with Intuitive Attack, I use my Wisdom for my attack bonus. Add in a free Weapon Focus on my unarmed strikes, and I don't think I need to worry about being able to hit things well.

So, if I drop my Strength to 10, and my Charisma to 14, from an initial 16, that gives me 5 points, allowing me to boost Constitution to 17, then boost that to 18 at 4th level. So 3 levels of +3 hit points, 2 levels of +4.

You could afford dropping Charisma to 12; you don't really need it for anything as even the related skills are mostly not class for you. Also, Dex isn't added instead of Str, so if you have Str, you'll get it to damage too.

[Serenity]

Will do...that gives me unarmed strikes doing 1d8+6 damage (+4 Dex, +1 Strength, +1 from VoP).

[Demons_eye]

Get the soupier unarmed strike feat (sorry cant spell it)

[Serenity]

No room, not if I want VoP. I get three regular feats, which I've taken up with Sacred Vow, Vow of Poverty, and Shadow Blade, all pretty essential. Then three Bonus Exalted feats. I'm going with Nymph's Kiss, Intuitive Attack, and Touch of Golden Ice. I take it that if you take Nymph's Kiss at first level, the extra skill point comes in after your normal ones are multiplied by 4?

[Serenity]

How does this Maneuver Selection look?

Burning Blade
Clinging Shadow Strike
Sapphire Nightmare Blade
Distracting Ember
Mighty Throw
Stone Bones
Shadow Blade Technique
Mountain Hammer
Emerald Razor
Strength Draining Strike

And what should I switch out at 4th level? It's a level too soon to upgrade Mighty Throw...

[Demons_eye]

Nvm....
Nice moves tho