In my attempt to try and convert a DM to the Pro-Tome of Batlle side some interesting fall out came from it. Without getting in to the lengthy ‘discussion’ of how this came to be- my DM has asked if it would be possible to play a fighter that counted as a full Martial Adept.
What this meant was that:
- For all intensive proposes that ever arose, fighter levels are counted as full Material adept levels.
- Any feats that a Warblade are able to choose for their bonus feats class features are now also counted at Fighter Bonus Feats as well.
- This effectively makes the fighter a Martial adept class with no Maneuvers readied or Known, and must make extensive use of the Martial Study/Stance feats - which is the DMs intention.
- No natural way to recover Maneuvers. If any other way to recover maneuvers through feats/items exists it is allowed so long as the rules normally allow it.
- And quoting him as best I can “Any other modest assumptions that we have over looked can be made without his approval.” And then gave me a very stern look.
So the long and short is that my DM is actually ok with mostly all of Tome of Battle, except he does not want the three Martial Adept classes presented in the book to used.
So is there anything that can be done with a "Martial Fighter?"
I was thinking along the line of Hidden Talent/Wild Talent plus Psychic Renewal for starters.
Will he allow Adaptive Style to be used to refresh maneuvers (and allow fighter to qualify for it)? Given that all of your maneuvers are readied if you're taking them without an actual maneuver progression, I'm going to guess no off hand, but he did mention using feats normally. 
Other than that, I would likely concentrate on picking up useful stances without this. Maneuvers are designed to be refreshed and without that, you lose a bit of their effectiveness. Improved Trip is likely to be better than Setting Sun maneuvers picked up through feats, Improved Disarm beats Disarming Strike, etc...
Another thing you could look at if he allows the prestige classes is taking advantage of some of those-- Bloodstorm Blade is nice and doesn't require much in the way of initiating.
Well, let's take a look at some of the things this can do:
1) White Raven Tactics: the strongest of the maneuvers, this grants an ally a full-round action as a swift action. Even using this only once per combat is probably worth the feat.
2) Thicket of Blades: Build your standard combat-control fighter and then use this to penalize their every movement.
3) Shadow Hand stances: Gain easy access to Shadow Blade for dex-based (TWF + Weapon Finesse) Fighters
White Raven Tactics doesn't actually grant a full round action-- it can be functionally equivalent if it ends the fight before the enemies have a chance to go again, however, it's just changing your initiative. You're buying that full round with the ally's next full round action-- kind of similar to how immediate actions work.
If you do it right the person you use it on will go right before you and right after. So it will give an extra full round. I think you can also use it on yourself so at the worst you will be going at the same time as the opponent next round.
Will he allow Adaptive Style to be used to refresh maneuvers (and allow fighter to qualify for it)? Given that all of your maneuvers are readied if you're taking them without an actual maneuver progression, I'm going to guess no off hand, but he did mention using feats normally.
My DM was... receptive to the idea actaully.
My DM was... receptive to the idea actaully.
That should make the fighter decent as a martial adept then. While it won't have as many high level maneuvers as a straight Swordsage (since they get a maneuver each level and get to replace one every other), you could potentially have more maneuvers readied and you're picking from every school rather than 6 of the 9. If you're careful with your low level choices for maneuvers, you should be able to pick up a fair number that will be useful throughout your career.