Post/Author/DateTime	Post
aukef 05-06-07, 06:15 PM	Hello! Reading the tome of battle, I am really impressed with the mechanics of the new classes; I think they provide versatility and adaptability that the current fighter-like classes lack. I am mostly attracted to the swordsage and the warblade. But I have some difficulties coming up with some 'believable' background stories, especially for the former of the two. What kind of a character would become a swordsage? What would be his motives? How can that be combined with the class abilites? So the question is, can you please help me with thinking of some character concepts for those martial classes? A short background story, combined with some information on how this would mix with the mechanics (suggested stances / maneuvers) would be awesome! Thanks in advance :-) Auke
Radijs 05-06-07, 06:19 PM	Every time I see swordsage I think martial artist. The whole class just seems to scream that in my face. Warblade, well just about anyone who likes to fight And crusader, well the name says it all really. The guy who fights for a goal, a belief or passion.
DojiHoturi 05-07-07, 12:29 AM	I think the Swordsage screams ELF!!! Their view on aesthetics seems to fit the idea that swordplay can be understood as art and to master that art is a worthy goal. My current character is a Cleric of Eilistraee. I have been looking for the right 'fighter' type class to multiclass her into and I think this is it. The concept I am looking at for her future cohort (GM willing) would be a 'Darksong Knight' with most of her levels in Swordsage. My cleric would be Eilistraee's grace. My cleric's cohort would be Eilistraee's rage. Just some thoughts, Doji
pmurray@bigpond.com 05-07-07, 01:45 AM	I'm running a halfling Rog/Warblade. He was a domestic slave since childhood, in the house of a wizard/scholar. High Dex/Int. Learned to pick locks and sneak into the library. His favorite book? "Locksmithing: Beginner to Intermediate". His second favorite? "The Sublime Way of Combat". Great pictures. Spent a few years sneaking into the library to read, and the attic to practise. Eventually got caught, ran off, and joined an adventuring party. He's a sneak attacker/flanker, with mainly tiger claw maneuvers. Telling Blow (PHBII), twin Kukris, Blood in the Water stance. It's all in my sig block :) I'm also thinking about a Swordsage/[cleric|favsoul|paladin] of the Ebberon Sun/War goddess. Forget her name.
BrokenJade 05-29-07, 02:41 PM	I am currently playing a Human Sword Sage lvl 8, He is Called Xian: Acolyte fo the Ebon Phoenix. Essentialy he is the member of a criminal organization run by an 19th Lvl Elf Sword Sage called the ebon phoenix. During his early years he showed some aptitude in understanding the art of war so Ebon Phoenix took him as her apprentice. Now he act as as a scout and sometimes a asassin.
Nived 05-29-07, 10:00 PM	I've had an idea hanging out in the back of my head for awhile. Should I ever meet a DM that'll let me run a ToB character. This one is tied into Eberron though it could easily be stripped of that flavor. Karrnathi Warblade, focused on White Raven maneuvers, he fought in the Last War, was rotated out of combat after a bad injury. He's served as a drill Sargent for a number of years training raw recruits for battle. The military is his life. Of course the Last War has been over for two years and the need for fresh troops is not there. Just before the beginning of the campaign he'd be honorably discharged just after the graduation of the last group he trained. He'd be one of those "I got no where else to go" vets and it's either hit the bottle or find something to do with himself. Cue whatever hook gets him into the story. And no I have no issues with a war vet and Sargent being 1st level.
MagickHobo 05-30-07, 02:38 AM	And no I have no issues with a war vet and Sargent being 1st level. The DMG or Complete Warrior says that most wars are fought by Warriors (NPC class), if any formal training at all, so i don't think there should be a problem either. Right now I'm bringing in a Warblade, named Garrick Stagroff (a :cookie: if anyone can name where I got his last name from) who was in the campign earlier as a bard. But he left after some tragic circumstances (my DM basically ruled that Diplomacy checks were useless, because they inhibited roleplaying I guess.). So i played a fighter for a while, but she died. So now, Garrick is back, and we decided that he was off being "retrained" (PHBII) into a Warblade. Mainly, he's going to be the goofy CG leader type, thats mature and sensible on the field but a crazy fun lovin' guy off. The kinda guy that doesn't pull rank unless he has too, and is always on the goodside of his troops. He's going to be focused on White Raven for the leadery stuff, and Diamond Mind for a nice fencer style combatant.
warwinner 05-30-07, 06:10 AM	A few ideas Swordsage 1] Monks who fight with blades not hands and attain enlightenment through battle/conflict 2] Someone who's calm and serene generally, but skilled in combat [maybe some Elf] 3] A historian/archaelogist/last of a line of mystic warriors trying to resurrect/master an ancient style of fighting 4] A wizard type who learns fighting maneuvers from books instead of spells from spellbooks 5] A warrior/monk Crusader 1] A paladin/blackguard type fighting for a cause/god/race or simply for what he believes right/should Be 2] Someone who fights/lives to keep a promise or realise the wish of a friend/lover/ruler/religious leader/parent 3] A extremely faithful warrior [derives power from faith instead of training] 4] A religious fanatic/extremist Warblade 1] An extremely disciplined warrior who lives to fight 2] A fighter/gladiator/slave from exotic lands [with exotic fighting style] 3] A fighting innovator/trailblazer [Finds new styles of fighting] 4] A fighter/mercenary with unusual skills 5] A disciple/worshipper of gods of war
Daxen 05-31-07, 06:06 PM	The swordsage finds truth in his weapon. Many seek a path upon which they are truely at home, the swordsage has found it in his stances. Many seek a way in which to express truth, the sworsage has found such a way in his manuevers. As swings the weapon so walks the Swordsage, their "style" is a metaphor for how they approach the world. The question is not what type of person becomes a Swordsage, but what kind of Swordsage would any one person be. Create a person and build a style around said person and the way that they approach the world and you will have a decently made Martial Adept in my opinion. It really depends on how the DM runs the whole concept though. Enviroment can be a contributing factor. There are a myriad of variables to the equation. Have fun with it. I do not know if I helped anywhere in my ramblings but I hope I did. Good Luck, Dax
Meshakhad 06-03-07, 04:23 PM	I ran a swordsage recently. He was apprenticed to a well-known swordsage, and sees combat as a higher art. He's rather distant from other people, a fact magnified by coming from the Bedine culture (desert nomads).
phelanarcetus 06-06-07, 12:50 PM	The swordsage I view a lot like the monk. An ascetic, a learned warrior. The warblade, well, while the campaign fell apart just as I was really finding his voice, I'll dump the backstory in. It's written in the character's voice, so it gives a good feel for him. The campaign was the Savage Tide adventure path. (Mechanically he was mostly warblade, dipping into rogue and swordsage, using iron heart, tiger claw, and sneak attack.) I killed my first man when I was thirteen. He was a captain in the Shadowshore City Watch, who thought his rank gave him free reign to do whatever he wanted in the district. In general, he was right; nobody dared to even say anything because it was clear he could lock anyone away for as long as he wanted. In this case, he was wrong. He came to rape my mother. Not for the first time. But this time, I was there when he tried, rather than playing in the alleys with my friends. I was strong for my age, and large as well. He was a small man who had intimidated people with his rank rather than his muscle. I came into the small room where my mother's bed was, grabbed him by the hair from behind, and tore him from between her legs. He howled and reached for his sword. I had no idea how to fight, back then. Just scuffles with friends in the alleys. But I was faster than him, and stronger, and just as angry. My fists smashed into his face again and again, driving him away from the sword he'd left against the wall. I think he died quite a while before I stopped hitting him. Of course, with a dead Watch captain and blood on my hands, it was time to run. The guard might have been corrupt and lazy, but kill one of them, and the hammer came down. We fled, grabbing only a few things from our home. None of the thieves guilds were big enough or strong enough to even consider taking a risk for us, and any other district's Watch would help Shadowshore's find us. We stowed away on a ship, the first ship we found, in a blind panic. Mother became sick, hidden away in the dank hold of a trading ship, with only what little we could sneak to eat and drink, and threadbare clothes. Fortunately, the hold was a place nobody bothered to look on that understaffed ship, or we probably would have been found and turned over to the Watch before she left the pier. We staggered into Port Joli, half-starved and weak. We had almost no money, having had little in the first place, and nowhere to stay. I worked when I could get work, doing odd jobs around the docks primarily, but I had to steal at least as much as I was able to earn. That managed to get us a warm place. Small, even smaller than our home in Shadowshore, but it was a place to sleep. But mother never lost that hacking cough, and within a year she died. I had never really known my father. He was a sailor, and his ship was wrecked in a storm when I was four. I remember a kind, smiling face, but little else. Now my mother was dead, and what friends I'd had were an ocean away. I'd been too busy working, stealing, and caring for my mother to make any new friends. I was alone for the first time in my life. I started drinking then. I would work, I would steal, I would drink, and sometimes I would pick fights in the bars. Almost every morning I would wake up late, hungover, and stagger to work. Soon I found that I could make more money fighting in bars than working on the docks, and I made my way into the underground fighting circuit. I was quick, I was strong, and I was brutal. They called me the Panther. I was too brutal; I injured one too many of my opponents badly enough to take him out of the circuit for a while, and I was ejected. I might even have killed the last of them. But He had been watching, seeing some potential in this wild beast of a boy they called the Panther, and He took me in when I was kicked out of the ring. He made me stop drinking, and I haven't touched the stuff since, and he taught me how to really fight, how to apply knowledge and skill in addition to instinct and natural ability. He never did quite get me to stop stealing, though. The He I speak of was Timroc the Iron Soul, who slew the red dragon Sulerki, who scourged the drow from Sheldomar Valley, thrice-champion of the Dorakaa Tournament. My mentor and my friend. Timroc taught me the disciplines of the blade, and set my feet on the Sublime Way. He was not my only teacher, though. I met Keleth early on in my time fighting in the pits. She was a tiny woman with pale skin and long midnight hair, perhaps not truly beautiful, but to me, she was. I shared her bed for nearly two years, and spent much time with her out of bed as well. She taught me how to sneak and how to steal, not just how to grab whatever was unattended and run. She never really loved me, I know, though I had loved her. I was a diversion to her in bed, and I think she meant to bring me into the thieves' guild. When Timroc made me his pupil and took me away from the city, she scorned me and turned away. Three months ago Timroc cast me out. Well, not so much cast me out as sent me out to make my own name. His hair, iron-grey when I met him, was almost gone, and despite his half-elven longevity, he was growing feeble, finding it harder each day to train with me. "Boy," he said, for he always called me Boy, "my last days are coming fast, and I have taught you all that I'm going to be able to. Your feet are on the Way, but now you must walk it, without me. Make a name for yourself, and make me proud." When I left him, he was roaring at the servants that they were pampering him too much, and that he wasn't a weakling. I think he'll live quite a big longer yet, despite what he told me. I wandered, mostly aimlessly, for a little while, lending my axe to a village or two briefly. They hardly needed it. Then I returned to Port Joli, and found a ship sailing to Sasserine. Why not? Six years have gone by, surely nobody remembers the death of a corrupt Watch captain, nor would connect me to it. The ship carried only a few passengers, and a wealth of cargo. A week and a half out of Sasserine, we were attacked by pirates. A fast ship under Elphgur the Red Reaver came upon us out of a storm, and tried to board us. The ship's captain refused to yield, whether because he had some truly precious cargo, or because he thought we had a chance, or stubborn pride, and so Elphgur's reavers came swinging to our deck, cutlasses ready. It was my first real battle. It was glorious! This wasn't a drunken brawl in a pit under a seedy tavern, it wasn't tossing a spear at some goblins afraid to attack the wall, this was a battle. My hurled spear took one pirate full in the chest as he swung between the ships. The pirates, perhaps a score of them, swarmed across the three boarding planks they lowered. The blood sang in my veins, and the axe was alive in my hands as I went to meet them at one. At the other two, the crew and those other passengers who fought were being driven back, but where I stood, we drove the pirates back. And when I leapt to the next boarding plank, blood streaming from my minor wounds, and cut into the reavers from behind, they broke. Elphgur fled with only eight pirates and no plunder, though close to half of our crew lay wounded or dead. The surviving crew and passengers praised me as the reason for our victory and survival, as I cut down three of the reavers and wounded two more. The praise and adulation almost compared with the heady rush of battle. For ten days I was the toast of the ship, and I gloried in it. Now I stand on the bow, the salt wind in my face, as we sail within sight of the harbor and dock. Look out, Sasserine! I'm coming home.
trickydevl666 06-08-07, 03:31 PM	I believe the type of swordsage you play depends a lot of the maneuvers you choose. I'm playing a beguiler/swordsage/jadepheonix mage and right now he only has shadow hand and desert wind maneuvers... And this is because I feel this character is a sneaky character that when caught can unleash a massive amount of damage and then flee. A swordsage tends to be one who studies fightning and enjoys battle for attaining wisdom. They study their opponents, fight them, and learn how to fight more efficiently. They enjoy studying and will always pick their fights. They would show mastery over their opponents and I feel they would be prideful. But I believe you should definitely choose on what sort of maneuvers your swordsage would use and how they would effect his personality. I like the idea of a setting sun, diamond mind swordsage with a bit of this and that mixed in. A wandering warrior searching for new foes. As a child he was either abandoned or some tragedy or really any situation you want to make it so they found a master. He trained and learned how to fight intelligently while acting defensively. After learning what he could, he left his master to forge a path on his own, to meet new challenges or to train others. When he fights he strikes with precision and he counters effortlessly allowing him to attack and not be hurt and finish his opponents quickly.
Need_A_Life 06-10-07, 07:11 AM	I have plans to play a Warforged Warblade (It sort of pains me, that there's two words in a row starting with "War"). It's a backup character in case my current character dies (he probably will next session, he almost did last time and now he's up against the same challenge only with less backup :weep: ) I've written a background and I'd post it, but since it's not (for once) in english, you probably wouldn't have much use of it anyway. The story was actually made to fit mechanics (which rarely turns out well), but I think it'll be an awesome character to play. First, I started by rolling Traits [UA]; mandatory in our DMs campaign and I got "Focused" [+1Concentration, -1 Spot and Listen]; this made me think about warforged so I picked that. Then I rolled for age and got a '1'. This means that he was created in 997 YK, 1 year AFTER the Treaty of Thronehold, that forbids the creation of more warforged. An interesting plothook, I believe. I looked at my stats (18, 16, 10, 14, 6, 6), which didn't seem to be fit for anything other than a warriortype. I had long been interested in ToB and decided to try a Warblade. Since we're level 4, I decided to just make a level 4 Warblade for ease of things So, I started picking Maneuvers and Stances; taking as many Diamond Mind as possible and supplementing with Iron Hand (plus a single White Raven Stance). He began to take shape as a very calm warrior, with little emotion and very focused on his task. I was fascinated with Weapon Aptitude and decided to take Exotic Weapon Proficiency, which basically means I am proficient with any single exotic weapon (which I can change every morning). Now, I wanted a few maneuvers that weren't accessible to Warblades, so I knew I had to take levels of Swordsage to get them, but that'd have to be later. --- So, I ended up writing a background starting out with him being turned away by a d'Lyrandar, who refuses to hear a bargain he is about to propose. It quickly shifts to him being assaulted by some pompous nobleman, trying to test his mettle against the clearly superior warforged, who gives the noble the chance to surrender. When the noble refuses, he is crushed under over 200kg adamantine, but still has a weak pulse when "Hel Kaakhaar" (the name for the Warforged) leaves to fetch a Jorasco halfling (it's 2 AM, so the streets are empty). He proceeds to walk to Malleons Gate (by this time, it has already been hinted at, that he was in Sharn), where he sees a group of hobgoblins watching a weapon master using a spiked chain displaying his prowess. Without knowing why, he approaches the hobgoblin, who greets him as a friend (though Hel Kaakhaar is doubtful he has ever met the hobgoblin before), and asks if he wants to have a quick duel. The warforged declines, saying that the hobgoblin is clearly more skilled, and the hobgoblin says something like: "So modest..." (Those passages are interrupted by flashbacks, where a hobgoblin fights Hel Kaakhaar, clearly trying to train him. In the last of the flashbacks, the hobgoblin introduces himself with the same name as the one in Malleons Gate) (Another flashback appears, where Hel Kaakhaar is speaking with a "Baron d'Cannith" about wanting to be "set free." The Baron says it's ironic that he created a unit of four, three of which couldn't handle the power that he had bestowed upon them and that the fourth had no interest in the power. He agrees to let the warforged be set free, only his memories would be stripped first. The warforged agrees) (Hel Kaakhaar awakens in High Walls (Sharn), remembering nothing that happened before, but notices an inscription on his left forearm saying: 992-1-1763; Hel Kaakhaar.) --- That's basically the story. There's a few hidden references in the story. For example, where is "992-1-1763" from? A :cookie: for the first right guess.
Marquisstarr 06-11-07, 12:22 AM	I am currently playing a Crusader1/Wizard1 His name is Rolland Bertrand, and he started off his life in a prestigious college of wizardry in a grand city. He had a natural aptitude for magic, and study and contemplation, so he fit in at the college quite well. Seeing as how he caught onto things quickly, and generally did things better than his classmates, he got kinda cocky. Started strutting around the city like he owned the place (who would dare challenge a man who can cast ray of frost huh?) Needless to say, he got his butt whooped by a gang of street toughs who took exception to his attitude. His world kinda fell apart. He always felt invincible, but now he knew that he had a glaring weakness. He began to search all over the city looking for some sort of martial study. He tried many different teachers and schools before he came to the sublime way. It all seemed to fit to him, the focus on precise movements and states of mind. The structuring of oneself and ones surroundings to the point of perfection, that point at which your will becomes manifest. And he was good at it...combat became a joy for him, and he was caught up in the loosing end of a bad war. Now he is a refugee struggling to make his way in a foreign land. He is always torn between his two halves, contemplation versus action. Thought versus deed. And he is at his best when they combine. He does not know it yet, but he will someday awaken to find himself a jade phoenix mage, and will know that he has walked this path many times.