Stats after Racial bonus' and magic Item (see next paragraph).
STR 17 DEX 20 Con 14
INT 14 WIS 14 CHA 15
Starting gold was 450 with the addition of a unique magic item assigned by DM. (+1 Str/Dex/CON Bracers, Psuedo-Barbarian rage 1/day as 1st lvl Barbarian, not winded afterwards). Bought a MW Great sword, Studded Leather Armor, and some adventuring gear.
Group is all elves, and at present consists of an Archer Cleric, a Druid, a Blaster Sorceror, and a Rogue (whom plays an illusionist wizard that mostly casts magic missile with transmutation and conjuration banned in other campaign). Elven Campaign =D.
I'm the only fighter type obviously. Druid has plans to join me on the front lines in a few levels, but until then I'm on my own. I don't anticipate the rogue doing a whole lot.
Going for a charge build here, using Shock Trooper and Leap Attack to drop my AC for attack bonus, and use Wall of Blades to counter any attacks.
1. Warblade 1 - Power Attack (Steel Wind, Moment of Perfect Mind, Charging Minotaur)[Punishing Stance]
2. Fighter 1 - Improved Bull Rush
3. Warblade 2 - Leap Attack (Sapphire Nightmare Blade)
4. Warblade 3 - +1 STR (Wall of Blades)
5. Warblade 4 - Improved Sunder [Stone Foot Stance]
6. Fighter 2 - Shock Trooper and Combat Brute
7. Warblade 5 - Powerful Charge, Improved Initiative (WRT?)
8. Warblade 6 - NOTHING!!!
9. Warblade 7 - Weapon Focus (Greatsword) (Ruby Nightmare Blade)
10. Eternal Blade 1 -
I do believe I've got all my feats in proper order, stop me if I've messed something up. Mostly looking here for critique on my maneuver choices and possible directions to go after 7th level. Or alternative ways to go about things that would be better suited for the sole front-line fighter.
1) Every Elven Initiator-class character needs to head into Eternal Blade. It's a requirement. You've got Diamond Mind maneuvers, so you're part-way there.
2) You qualify, level-wise, for White Raven Tactics, and did not take it. *whap* Bad. No. :P Unless your DM has hit WRT with the nerfbat or the banhammer, it should always be 1st choice for 3rd level maneuvers among classes that can access it. It's just that awesome.
1) Every Elven Initiator-class character needs to head into Eternal Blade. It's a requirement. You've got Diamond Mind maneuvers, so you're part-way there.
So Weapon focus at 9, grab another Diamond Mind Maneuver (Pearl of Black Doubt maybe?), and head straight into it?
2) You qualify, level-wise, for White Raven Tactics, and did not take it. *whap* Bad. No. Unless your DM has hit WRT with the nerfbat or the banhammer, it should always be 1st choice for 3rd level maneuvers among classes that can access it. It's just that awesome.
How is it better than charges being resolved as touch attacks? Letting an Ally go again every few turns sound's pretty cool, but being able to drop full bab into power attack on a leaping charge towards the bbeg as a touch attack sounds much better.
Other than that, your build looks ok. Combat Brute has rather limited viability, especially if you plan on killing your foe in the first round of hits. Once you get Pouncing Charge (best warblade manuver for starting combats) and you combine it with Leap Attack and Shocktrooper, should liquidate the first thing you find.
EDIT:
How is it better than charges being resolved as touch attacks? Letting an Ally go again every few turns sound's pretty cool, but being able to drop full bab into power attack on a leaping charge towards the bbeg as a touch attack sounds much better.
You can't combine Strikes with charges. Charge is a full round action with an attack action at the end, not a standard action at the end. Therefore, no Emerald Razor at the end of a charge. Do what he says, and take WRT. Its great. Giving your wizard an extra action means he can do nasty things like Benign Transposition you and someone else to get you into full attack reach. Its GOOD.
You can't combine Strikes with charges. Charge is a full round action with an attack action at the end, not a standard action at the end. Therefore, no Emerald Razor at the end of a charge. Do what he says, and take WRT. Its great. Giving your wizard an extra action means he can do nasty things like Benign Transposition you and someone else to get you into full attack reach. Its GOOD.
Ohhhhhh
Thanks for explaining that for me.
So Weapon focus at 9, grab another Diamond Mind Maneuver (Pearl of Black Doubt maybe?), and head straight into it?
How is it better than charges being resolved as touch attacks? Letting an Ally go again every few turns sound's pretty cool, but being able to drop full bab into power attack on a leaping charge towards the bbeg as a touch attack sounds much better.
Part 1) Yup. Keep Concentration maxed for best benefit from Diamond Mind and Eternal Blade.
Part 2) My answer presumes there's one or more ally in your party who can cast Save-or-Lose spells. Those can generally hit a wider range of targets (flyers, incorporeal opponents, high Touch AC badguys, etc) than a Charger can. Emerald Razor is a solid choice, but in most situations, it's second-best behind WRT.
Part 2) My answer presumes there's one or more ally in your party who can cast Save-or-Lose spells. Those can generally hit a wider range of targets (flyers, incorporeal opponents, high Touch AC badguys, etc) than a Charger can. Emerald Razor is a solid choice, but in most situations, it's second-best behind WRT.
Possible...maybe...
Most of the party is fairly un-optimized. I was barely able to convince the Good-aligned cleric to not bother preparing cure spells due to spontaneous conversion, and the rogue is convinced that sneak attack with two daggers will outdamage a greatsword, punishing stance, Power Attack and maneuvers.
I'm expecting good things out of the sorceror (took Grease, Enlarge person, and is awaiting approval to go dragonwrought kobold) and the druid when he picks up wildshape, but until then I'm expecting to be on my own.
The 2 lvs in fighter has a downside of potentially screwing with your maneuver/stance progression. You get only 1 stance at EB5, but a warblade8/fighter2/EB5 has IL of only 14, not enough for an 8th lv stance. You are also unable to pick the highest lv maneuver that should be available (ie: a warblade10/EB3 can take a 7th lv maneuver, but a warblade8/fighter2/EB3 has just EL12 and can only select up to a 6th lv maneuver.
Quite a steep cost just for 2 extra feats, IMO (I assume your DM is doing away with multiclassing penalties).
Thus, my recommendation is to stick with pure warblade, as in warblade10/eternal blade10.
Thus, my recommendation is to stick with pure warblade, as in warblade10/eternal blade10.
+1. The benefit for losing hlaf an initiator level must be worthy of the loss. Have you asked your DM about flaws? two of those and you can keep all the feats and have Warblade 10.
Also, have you thought of Lion Totem, Whirling Frenzy Barbarian 1? Now there's a level worth dropping. Maneuvers that say you get a charge allow for you to pounce with the bonus damage. Yum.
This would further improve your versatility. With Shock Trooper + Leap Attack, your charger-abilities will already be plentiful. You could go Extra Rage (to further use your Whirling Frenzy), Improved Sunder > Combat Brute, or such later (Combat Brute is fairly efficient for you since you can follow up a Shock Trooper-charge with Combat Brute Emerald Razor for full). Also, since you're going Eternal Blade, you may want to consider Knowledge Devotion [Complete Champion] and maxing one Knowledge. Finally, at 12, pick Robilar's Gambit [Player's Handbook II]. You may want to take Combat Reflexes for your level 5 Warblade feat. Consider Cleave further up the road too - you can drop a foe with a Charge relatively easily, so whenever fighting against multiple adjacent opponents, Cleave should kick royal ass. Let alone when fighting a swarm; one hit kills two effectively, doubling the pace at which you drop the foes.
Also, switch Str and Dex around; you really, really want as high Str as you can have for all the combat maneuvers, especially since you don't plan on Weapon Finesse/Shadow Blade. I'd actually rather go Wood Elf than High Elf for the major Str bonus. 20/19/14/13/14/14 (with the racial adjustments - unfortunately they get the annoying -2 Int - get an Int-booster) seems much better for you.
Any recommendations for non-charge based builds?
This is not to say you couldn't add those things into your character, I'm just saying they're options beyond Charging that get the job done and keep you useful. Btw, to your normal build, Knock-Down would be a very decent feat especially with Improved Trip added. Marries the Trip-mechanic to your abilities more closely.
All the suggestions I listed go there. Power Attacking build works (in addition to charging). A Tripper build works. A general area control build (perhaps even with Stand Still) with a reach weapon functions just as well. A Dungeoncrasher build dipping 6 levels in Fighter is good. Two-Weapon Counterattack build works. Heck, a TWF Stormguard Warrior-build is just fine. It's ToB, you need to try to make your character suck.
This is not to say you couldn't add those things into your character, I'm just saying they're options beyond Charging that get the job done and keep you useful. Btw, to your normal build, Knock-Down would be a very decent feat especially with Improved Trip added. Marries the Trip-mechanic to your abilities more closely.
A Salient Divine Ability? Wow. That's pretty cool.
A Salient Divine Ability? Wow. That's pretty cool.
Just a general feat that's, for some unexplicable reason, listed under "Divine Feats". I mean, it's not even Epic, let alone Deity-only.
That's like Celerity+Timestop. Well, almost. Except you can affect things. If you can figure a way to break action economy further, you could... let me check.
Okay, you won't have a Swift Action while Islanding, but otherwise, you could, say, when an ally is about to take a fatal hit, go Island and resolve the situation - carry the ally away, stun or slay the striking individual ETC. It's... it's a worthy 20th level Capstone ability, definitely.
1. Warblade 1 - Power Attack (Steel Wind, Moment of Perfect Mind, Charging Minotaur)[Punishing Stance]
2. Fighter 1 - Improved Bull Rush
3. Warblade 2 - Leap Attack (Sapphire Nightmare Blade)
4. Warblade 3 - +1 STR (Wall of Blades)
5. Lion Totem Barb 1
6. Warblade 4 - Shock Trooper; (Charging Minotaur-> Iron Heart Surge)[3rd Lvl Stance here, how about Leaping Dragon Stance?]
7. Warblade 5 - Improved Initiative or Combat Reflexes (White Raven Tactics)
8. Warblade 6 - (Sapphire Nightmare Blade -> Ruby Nightmare Blade)
9. Warblade 7 - Weapon Focus (any Reach Weapon)
10. Warblade 8 - (open)
11. Eternal Blade 1
Some things to remember:
A leaping, pouncing charge with cheesy chargy weapon enhancements is almost ALWAYS better than a strike. The sole exception being Time Stands Still, which has potential, especially when being coupled with the EB's Island in Time. So maneuvers that let you do normal charges are what you should be looking out for.
Two things immediately struck me about your build:
1) Every Elven Initiator-class character needs to head into Eternal Blade. It's a requirement. You've got Diamond Mind maneuvers, so you're part-way there.
I call shenanigans. You get effectively half the maneuver progression (no swapping at even levels) and no notable class features for combat (the knowledge checks are hawt, but warblades are already incredibly swift action starved) until the tenth level. It also costs a crap feat.
Eternal blade is overrated. Stay in warblade for that hawt +Int features without action cost and maneuver swapping. Plus warblade 20 gets dual stance. That's insane.
2) You qualify, level-wise, for White Raven Tactics, and did not take it. *whap* Bad. No. :P Unless your DM has hit WRT with the nerfbat or the banhammer, it should always be 1st choice for 3rd level maneuvers among classes that can access it. It's just that awesome.
This advice is legit.
But really, don't go eternal blade.
Consider adapting a Hood build.
Agreed. I'm currently running a gestalt warblade build of that nature.
Just last night we fought an augmented huge stone golem, and I was able to hit it for 216 damage in one shot while slowed, (expending Sudden Leap to jump as a swift action).
And believe me that's a very low shot for a character of my level using that build
But really, don't go eternal blade.
I don't know that the +INT features, and the Dual Stance that comes in at level 20, which is late, outweighs all the class features from Eternal Blade.
Actually, Eternal Blade's capstone wipes the floor with Dual Stance. Island in Time, once per encounter, take your turn as an immediate action. Really, that's incomparable. Greater Celerity minus the Immediate Action (because your new turn gives you a new one to pay for it, thus you can take another Immediate Action immediately afterwards) and the Daze-stuff. Oh, and spell slot. Every encounter. The thing to remember is that that is usable every encounter. Now, Dual Stance is good, but that's the one respect in which Eternal Blade wins handily. Remember that we're talking about level 20 though and that won't come in most games.
As I said, eternal blade isn't better than warblade until the tenth level. Warblade is better for levels 11-19. Don't build for 20. Build for now til then. Warblade gets +Int to combat maneuvers (no action cost) at 11 and +int to attack and damage (all the better for robilar's and power attack) on AoOs at 15. Stance mastery at 20 is sexy too (most notable is staying in the extra counter stance while you use another stance for DPS or whatnot getting an extra +3 to hit to power attack from a discipline weapon.
Seriously guys, don't drop half your maneuver progression in order for an imaginary twentieth level because there's a very real chance you won't have the character alive when you reach level 20. Be optimal NOW, not at some imaginary twentieth level.
Seriously, level 20 is just as far away as level 30. You're probably not going to see five levels higher than your starting level either way before dieing or retiring the character.
The OP is starting at level 1! That means he shouldn't sacrifice being optimal for 9 levels in order to have a slight edge at another level.
Fvck, if we want celerity we can just use the intimidating rage+instantaneous rage trick to demoralize and get the same effect from level 6 on or so with a few feats.
But yea, Eternal Training, Eternal Knowledge & Time Stands Still are the most powerful class features. The others aren't horrible either though. Remember that out of combat, you can use Defensive Insight without any cost to keep Int to AC for all encounters before you go (effectively helping a crapton against anyone beating you in Initiative, or getting Surprise), and Tactical Insight is huge if you've got multiple Power Attack-willing allies (or when facing something with superhigh AC + touch AC).