Any strong opinions on a straight lvl 20 Warblade vs. a Warblade/Eternal blade build?
The way I see it:
Lvl 20 Warblade
Pros: Dual stances(!), d12 HD, a number of bonus feats; Cons: Some of the class abilities in higher levels are of not necessarily anything to cry home about.
Warblade/Eternal Blade combo:
Pros: Time Stands Still + Island in Time? very nice!, class abilities that seem more useful than a warblades (if only slightly); Cons: loss of a number of bonus feats, d10 HD.
I'd say that Warblade if you are specifically going to use AoO's, and/or have specific combo stances in mind, and/or want a wide range of maneuvers and the ability to switch them out.
Other than that, he'll be doing some tanking since he will be one of two known fighters in a campaign where everyone else wants to play a caster.
The more generous the DM, the better EB becomes, since enhancing Int is costly and should not come at the expense of enhancing Str, and Con as secondary or tertiary.
You also get access to Devoted Spirit, which should save up one or more feats - here I'm assuming you intend to obtain Thicket of Blades.
Eternal Knowledge comboes well with Knowledge Devotion (CC), yielding more attack and damage bonuses.
But in truth the only way to know is to build both. ;)
It's hard to give a perfectly general answer, but I'd say Eternal Blade is often better. You need to have some emphasis on Int to make it worth it, but Int to attack, damage and AC (that part uses up your swift action) against a single opponent is pretty strong.
The more generous the DM, the better EB becomes, since enhancing Int is costly and should not come at the expense of enhancing Str, and Con as secondary or tertiary.
You also get access to Devoted Spirit, which should save up one or more feats - here I'm assuming you intend to obtain Thicket of Blades.
Eternal Knowledge comboes well with Knowledge Devotion (CC), yielding more attack and damage bonuses.
But in truth the only way to know is to build both. ;)
Hee hee. Have any suggestions on a viable build?
Pro: Ability to swap out lower level maneuvers every even level
Eternal Blade
Con: Being an Elf. Sorry, I love elves and play them often just for the sake of playing an Elf. But in 3E, playing one is a nerf in itself. And Half-Elf manages to be worse...
Hee hee. Have any suggestions on a viable build?
The way it works is... I don't do your work for you.
I.e. you post builds and we review them.That said, I'm sure the ToB Build Compendium has some nice Warblade and Eternal Blade builds, so take a gander there.
Hee hee. Have any suggestions on a viable build?
The way it works is... I don't do your work for you.
That said, I'm sure the ToB Build Compendium has some nice Warblade and Eternal Blade builds, so take a gander there.
Fair enough.
Warblade
Pro: Ability to swap out lower level maneuvers every even level
Eternal Blade
Con: Being an Elf. Sorry, I love elves and play them often just for the sake of playing an Elf. But in 3E, playing one is a nerf in itself. And Half-Elf manages to be worse...
I know. The -2 to Con and not getting the extra feat of a human makes me sad :\.
For Feats I took:
1. Education
3. Knowledge Devotion
5. Weapon Focus (falchion)
6. Weapon Specialization (falchion)
9. Melee Weapon Mastery (slashing weapons), Skill Focus (concentration)
12. Improved Critical (falchion)
15. Greater Weapon Focus (falchion)
18. Improved Initiative
Feats probably aren't optimized, but I wanted to get the most mileage I could out of weapon aptitude I could. You can guess what his primary weapon was going to be.
Originally I had thought I got my blade guide's eternal knowledge on top of my ranks, thus Education. After I re-read the class feature I found it wasn't the case, but I figured it was a good use of Warblade's 4+Int mod for skills. It also gets use of Knowledge Devotion much earlier. If someone wanted to drop Education and move Knowledge Devotion down to fifteenth level I wouldn't hold it agains them. I'd probably take Improved Toughnees to make up for the Con modifier.
Swashbuckler 3/Warblade 7/Eternal Blade 10
by the way. I'm not a huge fan of Swashbuckler, but that way you can focus more on Dex+Int.
Here's a standard straight Warblade build. Here is one geared more towards control/lockdown.
@spiral_rider_h: seems okay. I'd switch Improved Critical and GWF out... perhaps WS and MWM as well.
The -2 to Con and not getting the extra feat of a human makes me sad :\.
You could use a snow elf from Frostburn. They get +2 dex and -2 cha. There's no help for the lack of a bonus feat though.
Another option is
Swashbuckler 3/Warblade 7/Eternal Blade 10
by the way. I'm not a huge fan of Swashbuckler, but that way you can focus more on Dex+Int.
Here's a standard straight Warblade build. Here is one geared more towards control/lockdown.
If going that route, I would consider Swashbuckler 3/Crusader 1/Warblade 6/Eternal Blade 10 (if you have some means of getting multiple favored classes anyway (like the feat in UA) or they don't exist for your campaign). You end up with the same initiator level and it lets you front load some Devoted Spirit maneuvers so you can take higher level maneuvers as soon as you get into Eternal Blade.
The -2 to Con and not getting the extra feat of a human makes me sad :\.
You could use a snow elf from Frostburn. They get +2 dex and -2 cha. There's no help for the lack of a bonus feat though.
Dragonborn Snow elf? What's that? An elf with a +2 racial con bonus?
How about Str+(Int*2-3)+Cha+Dex+1/2 IL to a flanked Opponent; and with Clarion Commander you can treat them as flanked for 1 minute with a Intimidate check.
Elf
WarBlade 7 (Int to dmg when flank)
Marshal 6 (Cha to dmg when flank) (had to take 6 levels to avoid XP penalty)
Champ of CL 2 (Dex to dmg)
Eternal blade 1+ (Int to hits and dmg to creature type for that encounter)
Tactics of the Wolf Stance 1/2 IL to dmg when flanking (IL16 @20= +8dmg)
The Eternal Blade bonus is Insight, as is the Warblades flanking bonus, but if you convert the hit bonus to damage via power attack, you can have (Int+Int) or (Int +Int*2) if you weild 2 handed.
BAB +18
Fort +17
Ref +5+(Int capped at 7)
Will +14
A more focused build is
Warblade9
Occult Slayer1 (needed heavy armor prof for CoCL)
CoCL2
Eternal Blade8
Grants
Battle Cunning (ca) +int dmg (insight) when flanking
Tactics of the wolf (stance) + IL/2 when flanking
Elegant Strike (ca) +Dex
Eternal Training (ca) +Int hit and dmg (insight), convert hit bonus to dmg via PA
So you can have up to 3xInt+1.5xStr+Dex+IL/2 to a flanked opponent if weilding a weapon in 2 hands and power attacking for Intx2 (capped by BAB) and you haven't reduced your normal attack modifer at all. IL is 19 at 20th, so +9dmg
Battle Cunning and Eternal Training are both insight bonuses which is why you need PA to convert it to damage.
Feats- required
Wpn Focus (long sword)
Mtd Combat
Dodge
Combat Expertise
Power Attack
Feats- Bonus
Improved Init (req)
White Raven Defense*
Ride-by-Attack
Feats- 2 slots Open
Clarion Commander*
Spirited Charge
* ClrnCmmdr allows you to treat an opponent as flanked for up to 1 minute
I like a simple Warblade 10/Eternal Blade 10. I built one as a fire elf (Unearthed Arcana) but never got to play.
For Feats I took:
1. Education
3. Knowledge Devotion
5. Weapon Focus (falchion)
6. Weapon Specialization (falchion)
9. Melee Weapon Mastery (slashing weapons), Skill Focus (concentration)
12. Improved Critical (falchion)
15. Greater Weapon Focus (falchion)
18. Improved Initiative
Feats probably aren't optimized, but I wanted to get the most mileage I could out of weapon aptitude I could. You can guess what his primary weapon was going to be.
Originally I had thought I got my blade guide's eternal knowledge on top of my ranks, thus Education. After I re-read the class feature I found it wasn't the case, but I figured it was a good use of Warblade's 4+Int mod for skills. It also gets use of Knowledge Devotion much earlier. If someone wanted to drop Education and move Knowledge Devotion down to fifteenth level I wouldn't hold it agains them. I'd probably take Improved Toughnees to make up for the Con modifier.
I've thought about using a falchion before thanks to the extended crit range. Your feats are pretty straight forward!
How are your stats?
How about Str+(Int*2-3)+Cha+Dex+1/2 IL to a flanked Opponent; and with Clarion Commander you can treat them as flanked for 1 minute with a Intimidate check.
Elf
WarBlade 7 (Int to dmg when flank)
Marshal 6 (Cha to dmg when flank) (had to take 6 levels to avoid XP penalty)
Champ of CL 2 (Dex to dmg)
Eternal blade 1+ (Int to hits and dmg to creature type for that encounter)
Tactics of the Wolf Stance 1/2 IL to dmg when flanking (IL16 @20= +8dmg)
The Eternal Blade bonus is Insight, as is the Warblades flanking bonus, but if you convert the hit bonus to damage via power attack, you can have (Int+Int) or (Int +Int*2) if you weild 2 handed.
BAB +18
Fort +17
Ref +5+(Int capped at 7)
Will +14
A more focused build is
Warblade9
Occult Slayer1 (needed heavy armor prof for CoCL)
CoCL2
Eternal Blade8
Grants
Battle Cunning (ca) +int dmg (insight) when flanking
Tactics of the wolf (stance) + IL/2 when flanking
Elegant Strike (ca) +Dex
Eternal Training (ca) +Int hit and dmg (insight), convert hit bonus to dmg via PA
So you can have up to 3xInt+1.5xStr+Dex+IL/2 to a flanked opponent if weilding a weapon in 2 hands and power attacking for Intx2 (capped by BAB) and you haven't reduced your normal attack modifer at all. IL is 19 at 20th, so +9dmg
Battle Cunning and Eternal Training are both insight bonuses which is why you need PA to convert it to damage.
Feats- required
Wpn Focus (long sword)
Mtd Combat
Dodge
Combat Expertise
Power Attack
Feats- Bonus
Improved Init (req)
White Raven Defense*
Ride-by-Attack
Feats- 2 slots Open
Clarion Commander*
Spirited Charge
* ClrnCmmdr allows you to treat an opponent as flanked for up to 1 minute
Cool build! As for my stats, I haven't rolled them yet. Our group typically doesn't do buy-in's.