Warblade in Forgotten Realms... How? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Warblade in Forgotten Realms... How? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Duncan_Idaho425
03-06-08, 02:38 PM Howdy do, Gents.

On Sunday I'm going to be rolling a level 1 Warblade for a Forgotten Realms Campaign; I asked my DM what sort of backstory I should have prepared, and I'm not quite sure how to explain how such a character came into Forgotten Realms and where he got training. He told me that I could be our universe's little 'founder' of the class, but that seems... ridiculous? I don't know.

The time is a few years before the Time of Troubles. There is no real specific region, as far as I've been told, anyways.

I've been thinking about making stats for an academy for Swordmasters, that has all the different Book of Nine Swords forms.

Also, I want to sort of base the character off of one my other favorite characters from a game or anime. I'm thinking Ichigo from Bleach, Guts from Berserk, Cloud/Zack from Final Fantasy VII, Siegfried from Soul Calibur, or Duncan Idaho from Dune.

Anyways, that's enough of a post for now.

Suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Luis_Dragunov
03-06-08, 04:24 PM Introducing whole classes seems more the purview of the DM, if you ask me. He should have decided how and where the class is available.
I_roll_ones
03-06-08, 05:29 PM Ignore the fluff of the Warblade. Instead, your character came from a school of combatants devoted to the Red Knight, goddess of tactics. Rather then emphasize pure strength, you learned to hone your mind and intellect into a weapon.

If not lawful or wanting to worship the Red Knight, then the style originally came from there. If you are chaotic, then your temple/church/race/homeplace just stole their tactics, learning from a renegade of that school.
Mad_Jack
03-07-08, 01:21 AM Consider all of the other things in FR that have come from other worlds... Maybe students of the two rebellious schools fled to the FR after the big battle between the schools. If you're the only warblade adventurer in the world, you could have learned your fighting style from some outsider (who learned while visiting the ToB world) or perhaps in one of the more exotic nations - a Rashemi berserker who's recieved "special mystical training" in Tiger Claw would work great as a colorful minion...
The only explanation you need is that the various schools are so rarely studied that most of the world is simply unaware that they exist. Rumors of legendary sword-styles might be found in ancient texts - the schools could have been set in one of the empires swallowed by the sands of Anauroch or whatever that desert's called. Heck, the Suel Arcanamach has a fairly similar flavor to the ToB classes... Pretty easy to plug your character's details into the typical "Jedi-apprentice" story - You were trained by a wandering swordsman, whose style might include three or maybe four of the nine schools (whichever ones you'll be using), and thus there may well be others out there who specialize in other "styles" (another set of 3 or 4 schools)... You could have inherited enemies from your master just by having been trained by him. Perhaps whatever swordsages exist in the FR are a reclusive order of ninja-types dedicated to some grand plan/scheme to do/start/ressurect "X"...

The first time you pull a maneuver on sombody, everybody that sees it will go "WTF?!?", although in a magic-packed world like FR, most folks will probably assume it's your weapon or some magic item that allows you to do those things... Folks who find out that your "magic tricks" are a result of your warblade training will most likely start approaching you with, "Dude, that totally rocks! Teach me how to do that."... You could find yourself with an apprentice at some point.
The_Shaman
03-07-08, 06:13 PM Warblades are very similar in their fluff to fighters imo, so they should be easy enough to include - just have some fairly famous schools train students in obscure martial arts.

Also, take a loot at this: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/frcc/20070911 . Eytan Bernstein is quite a reliable source for the Realms, so I think your DM might at least take an idea or two from there.
Terjon of the Blue Rose
03-14-08, 04:02 AM Personally I'd go for the lost descendant of an ancient Raumathari Battle Mage. The Raumathari battled the demons of Nar in ancient times using a combination of spell and steel. With Mystra's ban occuring after the rise of their empire (and I think the fall) they probably have a few descendants who hope to one day match the strength of their forefathers. While some try by taking up the old mantle of Raumathari Battlemage you have chosen a new route. You are perfecting a new form of magic that draws from your blade and self rather than relying on outside magics that fall under the purview of a meer god.
The_Shaman
03-15-08, 02:45 PM Wait, weren't most warblade maneuvers Ex abilities? This would make them strictly nonmagical... Although of course you could think you were doing magic. Self-delusions can make for some quite interesting characters :P
Terjon of the Blue Rose
03-15-08, 10:59 PM It can indeed but I was more thinking along the lines of seeking something with the power of magic that didn't draw upon the weave. From the point of view of the character i described he is only just beginning to tap the potential of blade magic... a force which, despite what he calls it, needs no actual magic to function.
Dark_Coyote
03-16-08, 01:21 PM ^ Terjon has some pretty good ideas. ^

I, myself, played a martial adept in Faerun as well, with some pretty decent results.

He started off as a young runaway slave from Thay, where most of his family had either died from exhaustion or had been killed for minor transgressions against the Red Wizards.

This particular character escaped to Rashemen. There, through a series of coincedental events, he found himself in service to the Rashemen gynarchy. He became part of an experimental program that had been contrived by Rashemen's leaders, which employed Kara-Tur teachers to train a more disciplined, agile military force. The project employed a handful of martial adepts, and no expense was spared to teach this new cell of warriors.

Unfortunately, the Rashemen berserkers grew discontent with these new upstarts. As time went on, Rashemen leaders were forced to break up the new organization and eventually used the small number of martial adepts as guards for important Rashemen sites.

That was where my story began. Just my two cents though. The DM was satisfied at least. :p
UmaroVI
03-20-08, 07:18 PM You could be a disciple of the school of Penpahg D'Ahn. Depending on how much you and your DM like the novels and such supplementing the FRCS, you can tie your backstory in with Danica Maupoissant (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Danica_Maupoissant) (she was printed in the FRCS as monk, but actually she should be a martial adept). That same page also has a bit more about the disciples of Penpahg D'Ahn, but there isn't a whole lot more written about them - you can more or less make up the rest yourself.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Duncan_Idaho425 03-06-08, 02:38 PM	Howdy do, Gents. On Sunday I'm going to be rolling a level 1 Warblade for a Forgotten Realms Campaign; I asked my DM what sort of backstory I should have prepared, and I'm not quite sure how to explain how such a character came into Forgotten Realms and where he got training. He told me that I could be our universe's little 'founder' of the class, but that seems... ridiculous? I don't know. The time is a few years before the Time of Troubles. There is no real specific region, as far as I've been told, anyways. I've been thinking about making stats for an academy for Swordmasters, that has all the different Book of Nine Swords forms. Also, I want to sort of base the character off of one my other favorite characters from a game or anime. I'm thinking Ichigo from Bleach, Guts from Berserk, Cloud/Zack from Final Fantasy VII, Siegfried from Soul Calibur, or Duncan Idaho from Dune. Anyways, that's enough of a post for now. Suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Luis_Dragunov 03-06-08, 04:24 PM	Introducing whole classes seems more the purview of the DM, if you ask me. He should have decided how and where the class is available.
I_roll_ones 03-06-08, 05:29 PM	Ignore the fluff of the Warblade. Instead, your character came from a school of combatants devoted to the Red Knight, goddess of tactics. Rather then emphasize pure strength, you learned to hone your mind and intellect into a weapon. If not lawful or wanting to worship the Red Knight, then the style originally came from there. If you are chaotic, then your temple/church/race/homeplace just stole their tactics, learning from a renegade of that school.
Mad_Jack 03-07-08, 01:21 AM	Consider all of the other things in FR that have come from other worlds... Maybe students of the two rebellious schools fled to the FR after the big battle between the schools. If you're the only warblade adventurer in the world, you could have learned your fighting style from some outsider (who learned while visiting the ToB world) or perhaps in one of the more exotic nations - a Rashemi berserker who's recieved "special mystical training" in Tiger Claw would work great as a colorful minion... The only explanation you need is that the various schools are so rarely studied that most of the world is simply unaware that they exist. Rumors of legendary sword-styles might be found in ancient texts - the schools could have been set in one of the empires swallowed by the sands of Anauroch or whatever that desert's called. Heck, the Suel Arcanamach has a fairly similar flavor to the ToB classes... Pretty easy to plug your character's details into the typical "Jedi-apprentice" story - You were trained by a wandering swordsman, whose style might include three or maybe four of the nine schools (whichever ones you'll be using), and thus there may well be others out there who specialize in other "styles" (another set of 3 or 4 schools)... You could have inherited enemies from your master just by having been trained by him. Perhaps whatever swordsages exist in the FR are a reclusive order of ninja-types dedicated to some grand plan/scheme to do/start/ressurect "X"... The first time you pull a maneuver on sombody, everybody that sees it will go "WTF?!?", although in a magic-packed world like FR, most folks will probably assume it's your weapon or some magic item that allows you to do those things... Folks who find out that your "magic tricks" are a result of your warblade training will most likely start approaching you with, "Dude, that totally rocks! Teach me how to do that."... You could find yourself with an apprentice at some point.
The_Shaman 03-07-08, 06:13 PM	Warblades are very similar in their fluff to fighters imo, so they should be easy enough to include - just have some fairly famous schools train students in obscure martial arts. Also, take a loot at this: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/frcc/20070911 . Eytan Bernstein is quite a reliable source for the Realms, so I think your DM might at least take an idea or two from there.
Terjon of the Blue Rose 03-14-08, 04:02 AM	Personally I'd go for the lost descendant of an ancient Raumathari Battle Mage. The Raumathari battled the demons of Nar in ancient times using a combination of spell and steel. With Mystra's ban occuring after the rise of their empire (and I think the fall) they probably have a few descendants who hope to one day match the strength of their forefathers. While some try by taking up the old mantle of Raumathari Battlemage you have chosen a new route. You are perfecting a new form of magic that draws from your blade and self rather than relying on outside magics that fall under the purview of a meer god.
The_Shaman 03-15-08, 02:45 PM	Wait, weren't most warblade maneuvers Ex abilities? This would make them strictly nonmagical... Although of course you could think you were doing magic. Self-delusions can make for some quite interesting characters :P
Terjon of the Blue Rose 03-15-08, 10:59 PM	It can indeed but I was more thinking along the lines of seeking something with the power of magic that didn't draw upon the weave. From the point of view of the character i described he is only just beginning to tap the potential of blade magic... a force which, despite what he calls it, needs no actual magic to function.
Dark_Coyote 03-16-08, 01:21 PM	^ Terjon has some pretty good ideas. ^ I, myself, played a martial adept in Faerun as well, with some pretty decent results. He started off as a young runaway slave from Thay, where most of his family had either died from exhaustion or had been killed for minor transgressions against the Red Wizards. This particular character escaped to Rashemen. There, through a series of coincedental events, he found himself in service to the Rashemen gynarchy. He became part of an experimental program that had been contrived by Rashemen's leaders, which employed Kara-Tur teachers to train a more disciplined, agile military force. The project employed a handful of martial adepts, and no expense was spared to teach this new cell of warriors. Unfortunately, the Rashemen berserkers grew discontent with these new upstarts. As time went on, Rashemen leaders were forced to break up the new organization and eventually used the small number of martial adepts as guards for important Rashemen sites. That was where my story began. Just my two cents though. The DM was satisfied at least. :p
UmaroVI 03-20-08, 07:18 PM	You could be a disciple of the school of Penpahg D'Ahn. Depending on how much you and your DM like the novels and such supplementing the FRCS, you can tie your backstory in with Danica Maupoissant (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Danica_Maupoissant) (she was printed in the FRCS as monk, but actually she should be a martial adept). That same page also has a bit more about the disciples of Penpahg D'Ahn, but there isn't a whole lot more written about them - you can more or less make up the rest yourself.