Introduction
If you have ever read Tome of Battle, you see that it contains a lot of great material. You have also seen the jade phoenix mage class and may have seen many such builds sprinkled around the gish threads. You probably have no idea how it works though, so this is my attempt to make an easy to read handbook for Mages.
The first question is "Can manuevers and tome of battle stuff really help my mage?". The answer is 'perhaps'. However, it will require losing between 1 and 4 caster levels. Therefore, it only applies to a warrior-mage hybrid build (aka. the gish). The manuevers are helpful because they provide a renewable way to add some extra damage and functionality to your melee attacks.
It should be noted that manuevers only really help when you need to move then attack as a standard action, since the vast majority are initiated as standard actions. For a full attack, a warrior-wizard can simply use the Arcane Strike feat to do solid damage without needing manuevers. Furthermore the Jade Phoenix mage advances disciplines that have rather weak defensive capability, so you cannot expect to pick up solid defensive techniques from this path automatically.
The JPM(Jade phoenix mage) prestiege class itself is roughly equivalent to the Eldritch Knight, having slightly more difficult requirements and only 80% casting advancement, but containing much more useful class abilities including the addition of manuevers, explained shortly.
As expected, wizards and sorcerors will gain the most from the high caster progression.
Power wise, your results may widely vary. As mentioned, taking 10 JPM means -2 caster levels. Plus, you are just about guaranteed to lose a 3rd caster level to meet the prereqs. If compared to overpowered classes such as Abjurant Champion or Phantom Knight, then the JPM comes up lacking. Hence, JPM is roughly equivalent to the Eldritch Knight in my opinion on the power-scale.
Definitions
Martial Base Class - One of 3 new base classes that provide access to manuevers and stances. (Crusader, Warblade, Swordsage).
Martial Class - As base class above, except includes the prestege classes in Tome of Battle.
Manuever - A "spell" that usually lasts for only 1 round and is automatically refreshed at the end of each combat encounter. It breaks down into 4 types:
a. Stance - A permanent buff that provides some benefit and lasts until you wish to cancel it. Counts as a manuever for prerequisites, but really isn't one per se.
b. Boost - A 1 round buff. Example: Add 1d6 fire damage to all your attacks this round.
c. Strike - An attack that has some bonus applied to it. Usually a standard action, but occasionally a full attack. Example: Attack something, do 2d6 extra and penetrate any damage reduction.
d. Counter - A swift action that is typically only useful in a certain situation. Example: If something charges you, you can step aside and mess up their attack.
Initiator Level - Equivalent of Caster Level, but for manuevers. It gets complicated as 1/2 of ANY class level is used as part of the calculation. It would be like a 12th level fighter taking 1 wizard level and having a caster level of 7.
Discipline - Equivalent to a school of magic (evocation, etc.) Each martial class can only learn moves and stances from certain disciplines.
Tome of Battle Quick Synopsis
The short version is that when you get levels in a martial class or JPM you can learn manuevers of levels appropriate to your initiator level. It works just like wizard spell access. 3rd lvl initiator = 2nd level manuevers, and so forth up thru 17th lvl initiator = 9th level manuevers. A 1st lvl crusader taken at 5th character level can pick 1st OR 2nd level manuevers. 1 +1/2 of 4 other classes = 3 which is 2nd lvl access.
Note: Lots more info can be found about Tome of Battle at http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=956362
In fact, you WILL want to read it, but note that it is from a warrior's perspective, not a mage.
Class Features:
Let's examine what the class features of the JPM are:
-You get full BAB, similar to the Eld Knight.
-The class uses d6 HP, just like the Eld Knight.
-Note the high saving throw is Fortitude, not will.
-You gain 1 extra stance at level 5, 2 extra manuevers readied/granted, and 5 new manuevers known.
IMPORTANT: These new moves MUST come from the Devoted Spirit or Desert Winds disciplines!
-You lose a caster level at 1 and 6 only. 5 levels is a very good cutoff point for JPM for this and several other reasons.
-Arcane Wrath - Received at level one. Lets you sacrifice ANY spell slot for +4AB and 1d10 per spell level. It only works on ONE attack, so is inferior to the arcane strike feat. However, the ability to sacrifice even a CANTRIP for a flat +4 AB is quite nice. Consider this when using Touch/ray attacks from your spells when the to Hit is not guaranteed due to lower level, suspected high DEX or deflection AC from the target. Plus, you get it for free. :-)
-Awakening - All knowledge skill checks are at +2. Nice small bonus.
-Mystic Phoenix Stance - Received at level 2. This awesome ability overrides your current stance abilities to provide +2 dodge AC and +1 caster level. This benefit alone usually outweighs any low-level stance you could possibly have.
Furthermore, you can sacrifice a spell to get damage reduction/evil equal to 2 times the spell level sacced. This is actually really good! Considering that a 5/evil damage reduction ITEM costs 70,000 gold, and this can go up to 10/evil max, I would definitely take advantage of this. Note that once you sac the spell, the DR lasts as long as you are in the stance... which can be indefinite until you are ever considered "helpless". Sleeping counts as such, so you will lose your DR overnight. So, I recommend sacrificing your 2nd to 3rd highest level spell (up to 5), to get a goodly amount of DR without losing your very best spells.
-Empowering Strike - Gained at 4th level. When you strike something with a manuever, you can use a free empower before the end of your next turn.
This ability is so-so, as you generally would want to make a full attack against your foe next turn instead of trying to cast a spell on em. If the foe was killed, you could reap the benefits from this ability by zapping another target the next round.
-Firebird Stance - Gained at level 6, this allows you to override your stance benefits for 10 fire resistance and a +3 caster level for fire spells only. The ability to toss up a fire resistance as a swift action is beneficial, but overall I do not care for this stance. You can also sacrifice a spell to get a weak immolation type effect as a swift action. Not really recommended.
-Quickening Strike - Gained at level 8, you can quicken a spell for free when you hit something with a manuever strike. Unlike the Empowering Strike, this is a great ability. Many times, you will move closer to a foe, and use a martial strike. With this ability, you can then quicken-cast a buff like haste, or throw a battle spell, all in the same round. Or, you can hold the ability until the beginning of your next turn, so you could quickened Dimension Door over to that mage and full attack em. This ability gives you a lot of options, but note that it does count as your 1 swift action per round.
-Emerald Immolation- Gained at level 10, this is an excellent ability. The 60 foot blow-up radius is rather high, so try not to kill your party with it. The 20d6 damage is nice, but the main benefit is that you get a FULL heal/restoration and it puts you out of harm's way for a few rounds. Works well if you teleported into enemy lines to attack their spellcasters/archers and get heavily damaged.
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The assumption we are going off of, is that we want some manuevers and ToB(tome of battle) goodness without gimping our spellcasting too much. Hence, we want to get into JPM as quickly as possible with minimal effort.
To qualify for JPM requires:
-- Manuevers/Stances: See below.
-- 9 concentrate and a small number of knowledge skills. Hence, you have to be level 6 to qualify for JPM always. These are trivial for a wizard,bard and managable for a sorceror.
-- Alignment restriction: non-evil only. Not a big deal.
-- Level 2 arcane spellcasting. By level 6 you should definitely have this anyways.
So what this means is that you only need level 2 spells, but must have 6 levels worth of classes. Ideally you want to retain as much BAB and HPs as possible, so you will want some "filler" most likely.
Manuever/Stance Prerequisites:
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You have 4 options for gaining the JPM manuever prerequisites.
1) You can take the new feats from Tome of Battle. You will need one stance and two manuevers for a total of THREE feats! I highly recommend against this approach, as one caster level is not worth 3 feats. You gain much more benefit from your other choices.
Instead, you want to take a SINGLE LEVEL of one of three base martial classes. Note these are BASE classes and subject to multiclassing XP penalties, but that is generally not a problem since all your base classes are so low level.
Note that JPM only advances Devoted Spirit and Desert Sands disciplines, so having access to other disciplines at your first martial adept level is not really all that relevant.
2. Crusader - This is the best, most solid option in my opinion.
-- Full BAB.
-- D10 HPs.
-- Heavy Armor, Shield, and all Martial Weapons proficiencies! This is a HUGE benefit since you can then pick up 1 SpellSword for free for -10% Arcane Failure and also get 1caster lvl, 1BAB, and a saving throw benefit. As such, the crusader replaces the 1 level of fighter you would probably take instead.
-- Best recovery mechanism for manuevers, but you dont get full access to moves at first. Basically, you start with several random ones and every round one more is added until all your manuevers refresh and you can reuse them.
-- You only have access to 3 out of 9 disciplines for move selections. Devoted Spirit is most compatible with JPM since JPM lets you progress those manuevers.
-- You are unlikely to do so, but level 2 crusader adds CHA to will saves and level 3 gives a free re-roll of saving throw once per day. It also learns 1 stance and 1 more manuever at lvl 2.
2. Swordsage - Swordsage is alright, and works well with a DEX-focused two weapon warrior mage.
-- No BAB at level 1. uses rogue bab progression.
-- 6 skillpoints per level.
-- Free permanent +1 initiative.
-- Only Light armor and melee-martial weapons proficiencies granted. No shield.
-- Excellent selection of disciplines: 6 out of 9. Best JPM synergy is gained from Desert Wind manuevers.
-- Highest number of moves known.
-- A free weapon focus for most weapons.
-- All readied moves are always available, but your recovery mechanism STINKS. You pretty much only use 1 move per combat encounter.
-- If you take 2 levels, you can add your WIS to your AC in light armor +no shield. This really isnt all that helpful though until higher levels when you can afford a +WIS item. Also, 2nd level adds a manuever known, a stance known.
3. Warblade - An ok choice.
-- full BAB class.
-- D12 HPs.
-- Medium armor, melee martial weapons, shields proficiencies gained. Good but, not enough to qualify for spellsword. This is the main drawback of the class.
-- Access to 5 disciplines, NONE of which are advanced by JPM!
-- Only able to learn 3 moves. At 2nd level, does NOT learn a new stance.
-- INT bonus to reflex saves. (max bonus equal to warblade level though)
-- Decent recovery mechanism.
Initiator Level Explained:
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This needs to be covered now, so you understand WHY we take class levels when we do.
Your initiator level is calculated as follows:
Your base initiator class levels (either crusader,warblade, or swordsage)
plus your MARTIAL Prestege classes (Jade Phoenix in this case)
plus one half (rounded down) of all your other classes.
The reason this is so important is because when you are able to learn a manuever, the max level of the move to be learned is dependent on your Init lvl. It works like a wizard spell progression. At InitLvl of 1, you can learn 1st level moves ONLY. At InitLvl 3, you get 1st or 2nd level moves. And so forth.
This greatly affects WHEN you take levels of martial classes, as the longer you wait... the more powerful moves you get.
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I am going to do an example with Crusader since I feel it is the best choice due to the armor/wpn proficiencies gained and the strong manuever recovery mechanism.
1 human paragon - feat X, feat X, any optional flaw feats: X,X
2 wizard - recommend conjurer specialist, immediate magic:abrupt jaunt recommended.
3 paragon - feat: X, bonus feat: X
4 paragon - +2 to attribute of choice! (intelligence)
5 Crusader - wpn/armor proficiencies. Manuevers gained.
6 wizard - Feat: X
7 Spellsword - -10% arcane spell failure, +1bab, +1caster lvl.
So now you have +5BAB and 5 caster level with decent hitpoints, excellent customized skill allocation, +2 attribute, and a good number of feats.
Note also that you will not have any multiclass penalties since wizard level is so low.
You can replace with Elf Paragon, or sorceror instead of wizard.
If paragon is disallowed, you can take 4 levels of wiz or sorc, 1 fighter, and 1 crusader instead. In this scenario, you may consider warblade or swordsage since you get profiencies from fighter anyways.
Illumian works well too, if you want to use Krau to make up for caster levels, or even use the persistent metamagic cheeze. (cheeze: NaenHoon sigils plus 6 turn undead attempts = persistent arcane spell. Use Sacred Exorcist at level 12 to get Turn Undead for cheap.)
Now, you can enter Jade Phoenix Mage from 8 onwards. I would finish up with 3 Abjurant Champion for the insta-Shield spell and AC bonuses.
Total at level 20:
Caster Level of 16 (-2 JPM, -1crusader, -1 paragon)
BAB of 18! (-1 wizard, -1 paragon)
Initiate Level of 15 (1crusader +10JPM +4.5 other class lvls/2)
2 stances known. 1 1st lvl, 1 5th lvl.
5 1st and 2nd lvl moves known. One each of up to 3rd,4th,5th,6th,7th level.
---- Advanced Stuff (optional) ---------
You may note we took crusader at level FIVE. This is because if you took it at 4 or less, you would only be able to take level 1 moves. (1crusader + 1/2 of other class levels/is less than 3).
Note that we took JPM at level 8, as our init lvl would be 1+1+ 6/2 = 5, allowing 3rd level moves. Taking JPM at 7 would mean we would have to learn lower level moves.
Starting JPM at 12 would mean 4th level starting moves. JPM at 16 means 5th level starting moves.
SO, you could take levels of other stuff first and start JPM later because the longer you wait to take JPM levels the higher level moves you can pick.
BUT of course, the less time you get to benefit from the moves. Plus, putting off JPM levels doesnt get you higher level moves PER CHARACTER LEVEL.
Example:
JPM starting at lvl 7 means Init Lvl for crusader of 4. By 11th lvl you have init lvl of 8 (1+5+2.5)
A JPM starting at lvl11 has an init level of 6. (1+1+4.5)
So the late-starter learns higher level moves at that particular JPM level, but gets shafted relative to character level in that at character level 11, the late-starter knows lower level manuevers.
Note: I did postpone JPM by 1 level because of the Spellsword benefit, and it bumps your initiator level up one so you can learn 1 higher level of manuever.
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Selection of Manuevers:
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The big question then is how do you select your manuevers? Let's assume the build above as a human for a demo. It works much better just to demonstrate an example.
1 paragon
2 wiz
3 paragon
4 paragon
5 crusader
6 wiz
7 spellsword
8 JPM
9 JPM
10 JPM
11 jpm
12 jpm
13 jpm
14 jpm
15 jpm
16 jpm
17 jpm
18,19,20 Abj Champ
At level 5, you take a crusader. You get to take ONE 1st level stance. As written, your initator level is irrelevant... 1st level of any martial class means you ONLY can get a 1st level stance. It must come from Devoted Spirit, White Raven, or Stone Dragon disciplines. You do NOT have to be in a certain stance to use a particular move!
Stance = bonuses only. Note that this is the ONLY time you can ever pick a white raven or stone dragon manuever easily for reasons explained later. That said, I recommend several devoted spirit manuevers so you can satisfy prereqs for higher level manuevers as you level up your JPM.
You also get to know 5 manuevers of levels 1 or 2. This is due to your 1 level of crusader plus 4 other class levels divided by 2 is an Initator Level of 3. That allows 2nd level moves because the Initiator Level works just like the wizard spelltable as far as level access.
So, pick your 5 moves from DEVOTED SPIRIT, WHITE RAVEN, and STONE DRAGON disciplines. You are limited to those 3 only, but can pick any combination for your 5 picks, as long as prereqs are met.
(Quick note: Prereqs are there to keep you from taking a single high level move from a discipline.. it is nothing more than simply forcing you to take some low level stuff before taking higher level moves. I highly recommend taking several lower level Dev Spirit moves now to meet prereqs later for higher level Dev Spirit manuevers.)
Go here to help figure out what you want: http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=680285
(or Tome of battle, page 40ish)
Note however that there are no boosts and few counters, so you wind up with a lot of situational-strikes.
My picks?
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-- Stance: It really doesn't matter for long. At JPM2, you will use the awesome special ability to override whatever benefit the stance gives.
*Martial Attack - Gives you or a buddy 2 HPs every time you hit something. Several uses for this exist.
or..
*Iron Glare works really well with a reach weapon and enlarge person. All enemies get -4AB against all your allies within your strike area (which is big!)
-- strike: Battle Leaders Charge - Extra 10 damage on a charge, do so without provoking attack of opp.
-- strike: Vanguard Strike - Allies get +4 AB vs foe you hit.
-- strike: Foehammer - Penetrate any damage reduction and add 2d6 to hit.
-- strike: Tactical Strike - 2d6 damage, allies move 5 feet.
-- strike: Stone Vice - 1d6 dmg, foe loses movement.
At level 8 you get a JPM level. You can now pick from DEVOTED SPIRIT or DESERT WIND manuevers. This means that you can NOT pick any more WHITE RAVEN or STONE DRAGON. Also, you have NO DESERT WIND moves as of yet, so you can only take moves with no prerequisites even though you can technically take 3rd lvl moves.
Your Init Lvl for taking moves is 1crusader +1JPM + 6other classes/2 = 5. 3rd lvl moves allowed. NOTE that even though you can take desert sands moves (as per the JPM rules), the moves are added to your CRUSADER list and are considered crusader moves. Hence, your initiator level for both Desert Wind AND DevSpirit are the same.
(I would pick Burning Blade - Its a boost that adds 1d6 +initiator lvl fire damage to ALL attacks this round, so it scales nicely and works well with a full attack sequence.. especially with haste)
At level 10 (3JPM), you learn another manuever. Init level of 7 (1 + 3 + 6/3)
I'd take Flashing Sun - Adds 1 attack to a full attack (stacks with haste), but -2 penalty for all.
Burning Brand is another good one for an instant +5 foot reach ability.
At 12, you learn a move (9 init) AND a stance.
For your stance, you will be using the special JPM stance most of the time. Hence, pick a stance that is NOT general utility, but is especially good in certain situations.
I'd take Thicket of Blades stance with a reach weapon (spiked chain) and enlarge person. Gives lots of attacks of opportunity. Once again, with the JPM special stance, this is of little consequence unless specifically built to take advantage of the Thicket stance.
I'd also take Searing Charge, that lets you Fly during a charge and do 5d6 extra.
At 14, you get a move (11 init).
I would select Leaping Flame. If something attacks you (like an archer), you can instantly teleport to their location up to 100 feet as an immediate action. Pretty cool.
At 16, you get a final move. (13 init)
I would take Castigating Strike for a big 8d6 extra damage, plus 5d6 Area of Effect damage.
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The Extra Granted Manuever feat is extremely desirable as it basically speeds up your manuever recovery and opens up more of your moves quicker if you are a crusader. I HIGHLY recommend this one.
Practiced Caster is very strong since this build loses 4 caster levels. This helps quite a bit for pumping duration of buffs and dispel-resistance and spell penetration.
I would strongly consider using a reach weapon since you have easy access to Enlarge Person. Spiked Chain works very well, but costs a feat.
As discussed below, the Extra Stance and Extra Manuever feats can be useful for picking up extra goodies in combat. I'd only take it at 15 or 18 when you can get a level 6/7 manuever out of it.
Shadow Blade - ONLY for Swordsage entry. Adds DEX to all weapon damage as long as you're in a shadow hand stance. NOTE!!! Take a 1st level shadow hand stance, then override the benefit with the JPM stance ability. The stance is still considered a Shadow Hand stance, thus this feat works. But you get the benefits of the much better JPM stance!
Options for more Moves/Stances:
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1) Use the Extra Stance or Extra Manuever feat. Taking this lets you pick up an extra move/stance if you meet the prereqs. That means your init lvl has to be high enough for the desired move AND you have enough moves in that discipline to meet it.
Initiator Level calculation will be the same as before: Crusader level +JPM level +1/2 of remaining levels.
This is a good option for character level 15 or 18, where you can pick up a high level stance.
2) Take a backloaded level of your martial class. You lose a caster level, so a sorc will not want to give up their 8th level spells of course. A wizard may want to sacrifice their 16th caster level for some extra manuevers though, since with practiced caster and +1CL from JPM stance, they still have a 20 caster level. This works well as it lets you replace weaker moves with better readied moves.
Simple Example: a 2nd level of crusader at 20 means +1 known move, +1 stance known. Initiator level of 2crus +10JPM + 4 from other classes = 16. 8th level moves for the 2 crusader disciplines available.
3) Take a backloaded level of a DIFFERENT base martial class. Same disadvantages as before, but you will have TWO manuever pools, kept track of seperately. You get more flexibility at the disadvantage of having generally weaker moves. You cannot take moves learned from 1 class and move them to the other class list, although ALL moves known DO work for prerequisite purposes.
Complicated Example: Take a level of Warblade at 20. This turns you into a "dual-class" manueverer so you pick up a 1st level stance and can learn 8th level manuevers, using any other moves you have learned as prereqs if needed. (1 warblade +10JPM + 9/2 = 15 Initiator)
Then, you can keep TWO sets of moves ready.. one from Crusader and a seperate list from Warblade. If you have taken some White Raven moves early on as a Crusader, these work as prereqs so you can take high level moves as a Warblade. This is a good thing to keep in mind for character planning.
4) Get an item. There are a few items that grant manuevers, but I probably wouldn't bother. You are unlikely to find one.
5) Cast Heroics spell to get a fighter feat... spend it on Extra Manuever/Stance as described above.
Note: You could gain access to a 9th level manuever by taking 4 levels of a martial adept class. 4 adept +10JPM +3 others = 17th Initiator. I do not recommend this, since you would lose your highest level spells, but it's here for completeness sake.
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Character Options:
You are not required to take 10 Jade Phoenix. In fact, 5 levels is an excellent cut-off since you have learned 3 out of 5 manuevers and all 1 of your stances. So you have picked up most of the benefits at this point, and you can avoid the nasty 6th level of JPM whereby you lose another caster level.
Note that entering JPM at level 12 instead of 8 might be an excellent idea. JPM starting at 12 gives an Init Lvl of 7 for 4th level manuevers. Then you learn a 5th and 6th lvl move, and a 6th level stance! (There ARE no Devoted Spirit or Desert Wind stances at 4th OR 5th level by the way)
Entering at 16 would allow 1 higher level of move, but is not recommended. Learning a 5,6,7 lvl move and 7th level stance sounds great, but there ARE no 7th level stances for Desert Wind or Devoted Spirit, so you would wind up with the same stance as with the level 12 entry.
Hence, I would recommend a build like so:
3 paragon, 2 wizard, 1 crusader, 1 spellsword, 4 Abjurant Champion.
Then, take your 5 JPM and get the no-prereq 2d6+initLvl inferno blade, Flashing Blade, and the Leaping Flame teleport moves. Then you can take the permanent 1d6 fire to melee attack stance, or the awesome Take 11 on any roll once per round stance!
From here, finish off with 1 more Abj Champ and 3 Sacred Exorcist (or whatever). This will buy you 9th level spellcasting at 20, and retain a 17BAB.
Another point to make is that you can delay your 5th JPM level for better stance aquisition. Instead of starting JPM at 12 and ending at 16, you could take JPM at 8,9,10,11. Then take 4 other levels of another class such as Abj Champ, Sacred Exorcist or whatever. Take your 5th JPM level at 16 for a 6th level stance and manuever.
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Entering through Swordsage is possible. In general it is weaker than Crusader, but does provide access to more disciplines.
One possibility is to take a Shadow Hand stance, and grab the Shadow Blade feat as mentioned earlier. You can override the stance's benefit with the JPM one, but it still counts as a Shadow Hand stance, as per customer service FAQ. This lets you apply your DEX to all weapon damage done.
Its a great option for a weapon-finesse mage with light armor who focuses on fighting through high DEX and using magic for buffing , rather than the standard intelligence progression route. This lets you eliminate dependence on STR and lessen the Multiple Attribute Dependency.
This would be a strong combo as your initiative would be fantastic, your AC would be good, and you could gain significant attacks of Opportunity via combat reflexes. You can even use a finessed spiked chain for reach, or use two weapons for more damage.
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It is possible to abuse Persistent Spell by using the Illumian race. All you have to do is take 1+ level of Sacred Exorcist relatively early (for retaining casting, losing 1bab), or 1 level of Soldier of Light (retain BAB, lose 1 caster lvl). Then, apply turn undead attempts through the NaenHoon sigil word(Illumian).
Conclusion:
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The Jade Phoenix Mage is a strong alternative for warrior-mages that provides many desirable abilities to a character and adds quite a bit of flavor.
The examples given are NOT necessarily optimum. You will want to pick different manuevers/stances based on what weapon(s) you use, which feats you want to take, and even what spells you plan on using.
In other words, an Illumian with persistent draconic polymorph into a wartroll with persistent bite of the wearbear, enlarged, with a spiked chain would be a phenominal tripper. Such a character would make great use of Thicket of Blades stance to provoke attacks of opportunity.
A dualwielder heavy DEX mage would benefit much more from the swordsage access to Tiger Claw or Shadow hand disciplines.
Also consider splitting up the JPM levels into the first half where you learn good maneuvers , and take JPM 5, where you learn the stance, till after you take 4 levels of abjurant champion, that'll boost your Init level up by 2, perhaps getting you to 6th lvl stances.
Otherwise, Great handbook.
i think i like
warblade / duskblade / jpm 5 / X
where X is probably abjurant champ
If you cleaned up the presentation using colors, bolding, font sizing, etc., I think this would be an excellent resource.
Agree.
The answer is yes! However, it will require losing between 1 and 3 caster levels.
How are you achieving a good build while losing 1 caster level?
Martial study would mean following the nonmartial adept rules with no recovery
I'm actually not a huge fan of the JPM. Sure, it's better than Eldritch Knight in lots of ways ... or Spellsword ... and it's easy to enter ... but I'm still not a huge fan.
+1
I'm actually not a huge fan of the JPM. Sure, it's better than Eldritch Knight in lots of ways ... or Spellsword ... and it's easy to enter ... but I'm still not a huge fan.
+2
At first sight it looks decent, but looks can be deceiving. imx what you end up with is a poor gish who also happens to be a subpar martial adept.
(1) Maneuver progression ... never a bad thing. Sad part is it gets just Desert Wind and Devoted Spirit.
(2) Desert Wind has some great buffs and boosts for multi-attackers. This is excellent.
(3) Devoted Spirit has things that work better as a single strike ... which is what you need to fuel the free metamagic of the class.
(4) The Desert Wind buffs are too easily duplicated by magic ... really unnecessary. Why do a little zappy thing when you can just scorching ray?
(5) Every gish I play uses Arcane Strike to fuel multi-attacks. Sadly, that free quicken and empower don't really mesh as well.
(6) If I'm gishing, the big thing I really want is Aura of Chaos. In a bad way. And I want to do it because I want to find that really big dude and unload some sort of flurrying full attack with searing blade, arcane strike, etc. Sadly, JPM only gets a stance at 5th. You need an IL of 11 to take that stance ... so 5 from JPM ... 6 more from somewhere else. To really snag it, you need more martial adept, losing more caster, etc.
(7) It's ability to add to hit and damage only works on a single strike.
(8) The knowledge bonus is good for INT casters.
Given that the best gishes tend to shoot for +16 BAB and 17 levels of casting, I just don't see you hitting that well with a JPM build.
I want to be arcane- wraith- striking with Aura of Chaos and maybe some channelled spells. JPM just doesn't do it for me.
I'm not saying it's bad ... far from it ... but I'm saying it isn't made of awesome in my opinion. It's good ... not great.
It may work best with something like a single-shotter (Decisive Strike Monk entry?) and focus on the single-attack strikes (Ancient Mountain Hammer - ish).
With one ability keyed towards INT (knowledge - warblade), need for devoted spirit (crusader) and potential for some CHA to AC (swordsage) you get a PrC that isn't great with any specific other combinations. It has a little something to offer wizards or sorcerers starting with any kind of martial adept ... but not lots to offer any one combo.
Swordsage entry should be noted as something to consider for spontaneous casters ... the reading on Ascetic Mage is "if you can add your WIS to your AC ...".
I *do* like JPM-Arcanamachs somewhat. Really, best entry might be Duskblade 13 / Warblade 2 / JPM 5.
The Decisive Strike Monk won't work tho - that's a single attack as a full-round action, so no go on combining it with strikes.
You can make a perfectly viable character using it, and it can grant some useful tricks (I like Leaping Flame, Martial Study for Shadow Blink is always good, and Heroism [Martial Study] shenanigans are useful). I just don't see it as being worth the payoff personally, I'd rather play a proper gish, or a proper martial adept.
If it was a total of 4 or 5 schools of manuevers (such as RKV), or all manuevers schools it would be a lot better. No it won't be broken for no matter what you do you will have to pick a focus, arcane, or manuevers, and no matter what you do you are losing out on something, and something big.
Remember RKV is a lot closer in synergy from divine plus manuevers, as well as awesome class abilities. Almost nothing beats more actions, almost nothing.
If JPM was Desert Wind and either Tiger Claw/Diamond Mind/Iron Heart I'd be more enthused.
Diamond Mind and Tiger Claw would sell me. Ironheart is well rounded, but I wouldn't bite just for ironheart. Desert wind is just redundant.
With one ability keyed towards INT (knowledge - warblade), need for devoted spirit (crusader) and potential for some CHA to AC (swordsage) you get a PrC that isn't great with any specific other combinations.
Just a quick note. Swordsage does add WIS to AC.
When I get a chance, I will correct the 2 errors that were pointed out. Not sure where I got "desert sands" from, lol.
Also, I need to make it clear that the JPM is not an amazing class. I think it adds a lot of flavor, and works fairly well. The loss of caster levels is pretty harsh though. Hence, I need to curb my enthusiam in the guide and discuss this.
But lets be honest... if you dig around in D&D books and magazines long enough, you can find better ways to go.
Seriously, what compares to the Abjurant Champion? Its a stupidly broken class. Even CLERICS don't have a full casting, full bab, D10 HP class. Fist of Raziel is as good as it gets.
The phantom knight is similarly broke... superior to Eldritch Knight, which in itself really is decent (a full 2 grades better BAB and 1 grade better HPs than sorc for few requirements.)
Plus I dont remember seeing some of the feats mentioned here, ever discussed. I'd like to look into them and check it out.
By the way, does anyone know the source for the LATEST arcane strike? Ive seen about 3 to 4 versions of it, several of which are only for 1 strike (which is garbage).
If you hate the JPM, consider it a guide on what NOT to do.
At the very least, I wanted to give a reasonable introduction to the JPM for a newcomer. That way, they can see at a glance the pros and cons without having to digest the whole tome of battle.Plus, when your DM says that the Abj Champ and Knight Phantom are BS, you have an alternative that is a bit more balanced.
Um... where can I get a quick and dirty guide to formatting tags for forums?
+2
At first sight it looks decent, but looks can be deceiving. imx what you end up with is a poor gish who also happens to be a subpar martial adept.
Its a 4-level dip. Not too shabby, but sucks compared to the RKV.
Oh yeah...formatting.
Um... where can I get a quick and dirty guide to formatting tags for forums?
Welcome to CO. We have handbooks for everything. Even for making Handbooks.
Here's my reasonig ...
(3) Devoted Spirit has things that work better as a single strike ... which is what you need to fuel the free metamagic of the class.
(4) The Desert Wind buffs are too easily duplicated by magic ... really unnecessary. Why do a little zappy thing when you can just scorching ray?
(5) Every gish I play uses Arcane Strike to fuel multi-attacks. Sadly, that free quicken and empower don't really mesh as well.
I think some of the desert wind buffs are pretty good, AND work well with full attacks. One of their low level abilities is to get a flurry for that round and it takes a full round action thus can be used with arcane strike. So you get your normal arcane strike damage AND a free extra attack. Not bad.
The fire damage addition is like a weak arcane strike, but does not eat a spell slot so is good for general purpose melee. At 20, its adding 16-21 fire damage per attack. Vs BBEG you want arcane strike, but for middle of the road baddies, this is decent. You dont want to burn slots everytime you swing a weapon.
You would never want to use certain desert wind moves, such as the aforementioned zappie thing. 6d6 fire orb is not particularly impressive and obviously, you would cast a spell instead. I think there are plenty of other good abilities to pick from.
You can't full attack all the time, and thats where the Dev Spirit comes in handy. Move up to baddie, whack them with a castigating strike for 8d6 extra free damage and some minor AoE damage. Its a standard action that replaces your attack and then you can cast a quickened spell like haste or whatever.
This isn't bad at all! Normally you either cast a spell or make 1 weak attack which you would not want to burn arcane strike for.
(6) If I'm gishing, the big thing I really want is Aura of Chaos. In a bad way. And I want to do it because I want to find that really big dude and unload some sort of flurrying full attack with searing blade, arcane strike, etc. Sadly, JPM only gets a stance at 5th. You need an IL of 11 to take that stance ... so 5 from JPM ... 6 more from somewhere else. To really snag it, you need more martial adept, losing more caster, etc.
You can just go with a 5 level JPM build instead. Take 4 JPM at 8,9,10,11 and take your 5th JPM at 16 which allows you to get a 6th level stance.
3paragon,2wiz,1crusador,1 spellsword, 4 JPM, 4abj champ,1more JPM, 1AbjChamp puts you at level 17 with 14 caster level, 15BAB, aura of chaos, decent manuevers.
3 sacred exorcist brings it up to lvl20 at 17caster, 17bab. This is decent.
(7) It's ability to add to hit and damage only works on a single strike.
That is a very minor part of the class though. Nothing prevents you from taking arcane strike like you normally would. It gives you an OPTION that you dont normally get. Burning a cantrip for +4AB isn't terrible for a ranged touch spell that you want some more insurance on.
Or you can use it to move to a foe, burn a 2nd lvl spell, use a big Strike to guarantee it hits (+4AB), and 2d10 extra damage. You could even burn a cantrip to add +4ab and use 4 points of power attack for +8 damage w/2hander.
This one has XP penalties; I need to post one that doesn't dropping the pure wizard to 2 and using a PrC (Ruathor? Mindbender?) to avoid it.
1 Swordsage
2 Wizard 1
3 Wizard 2
4 Wizard 3
5 Warblade 1 (IL 3)
6 Warblade 2 (IL 4)
7 JPM 1
8 JPM 2
9 JPM 3
10 JPM 4
11 JPM 5
12 JPM 6
13 JPM 7
14 JPM 8
15 JPM 9
16 JPM 10
17 Warblade 3 (IL 15)
18 Swordsage 2 (IL 15)
19 Crusader 1 (IL 15)
20 Warblade 4 (IL 17)
The exact specifics can change ... essentially you advance one martial class to 4 levels (so you get a manevuer swap near the end). You take one other class early to get some maneuvers for qualifications and you basically rely on the +10 IL from JPM to get you in a spot where you can cherry pick higher level maneuvers.
You cast as an 11th level wizard. Honestly, focus on spells that do battlefield control. Be the White Raven. Play it like a Martial God ... and not like a traditional gish.
Play it like a Martial God ... and not like a traditional gish.
QFT
Personally, I think this is a good rule to follow when building JPMs.
I would definitely take advantage of this. Note that once you sac the spell, the DR lasts as long as you are in the stance... which can be indefinitely!
You lose your stance when you go to sleep (or are otherwise helpless). So that's only true for races that don't need to sleep.
1) You can take the new feats from Tome of Battle. You will need one stance and two manuevers for a total of THREE feats! I highly recommend against this approach, as one caster level is not worth 3 feats. You gain much more benefit from your other choices.
While it is true in this case, it's not always so : kobolds willingly sacrifice feats to get the extra spellcasting level from Draconic Reservoir.
I have to agree with the general assessment : I would love to love the JPM but I'm never fully satisfied with my builds (except one of my DMs had/accepted houserules that made it better). Swiftblade and RKV are smoother.
For 3 levels, you cherry pick your skills, get 2bab, get 2 caster levels, and +2 bonus to a stat of choice, and 1 bonus feat, and a few extra HPs.
You could drop to 1 wizard, 3 paragon and pick up quite a few benefits including no XP pen, though youd have to drop 1 level of another class.
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Omen, good catch on the sleep thing. I didnt think about sleeping making you helpless. Ill have to modify my guide and push saccing a spell that is 1 or 2 levels below your maximum spell level.
For kobold, its only 1 feat they need though for 1 caster level. Sure the resovour(sic) kind of stinks, but the Ritual doesnt even take a feat.
Taking dragonborn, and resovour for +9stats and +1CL cant really be compared with taking a full 3 feats for 1 caster level only.
I think if you asked most CO people if they would sac one caster level for 3 feats of their choice, they would jump at the chance.
In any case, even if you DO pay the feats, your manuevers wont be able to refresh, and will be much more limited, AND you dont get the other benefit of crusador (the armor/wpn proficiencies, save pumps)
I will admit that I have the same problem with JPM... I am not quite satisfied with it and want to keep fiddling with it to get more out of it.
PS: How do you change fontsize when you edit? Id like to clean formatting, but for edit, only shows a small subset of the normal functionality.
What would be best would be a single level in something that advanced casting at level 4 (or 5, if I dropped back a Warblade leve, which is doable). I need to check the early entry PrCs.
The build I presented gets some good choices for high level stances, in addition to the JPM ones. Focus on buffs, utilities, etc. BAB is 17, which we all know isn't horrible. Maneuvers I'd favor things that act like a god ... White Raven, Distracting Ember, Sudden Leap, De-buffs, etc. Pick one stat and amp it up and use it for DC based things. Ranged-touches, transposition, glitterdust, etc. Tactical god things.
Bard 4 / Crusader 2 / Jade Phoenix Mag 10 / Sublime Chord 3 / Dragon Slayer 1
Race: Human
Essential: Int. min. 16 and Human or Int. min. 18, Cha. as high as you can get it.
Level by level feats are in bold)
Race: Human
Essential: Int. min. 16 and Human or Int. min. 18, Cha. as high as you can get it.
Level by level feats are in bold)
- Bard 1 - Dodge, Iron Will
- Crusader 1 -
- Crusader 2 - Extra Granted Maneuver
- Bard 2 -
- Bard 3 -
- Bard 4 - Weapon Finesse
- Jade Phoenix Mage 1 -
- Jade Phoenix Mage 2 -
- Jade Phoenix Mage 3 - Practised Spellcaster
- Jade Phoenix Mage 4 -
- Sublime Chord 1 -
- Sublime Chord 2 - Power Attack
- Jade Phoenix Mage 5 -
- Jade Phoenix Mage 6 -
- Jade Phoenix Mage 7 - Martial Study: Ancient Mountain Hammer
- Jade Phoenix Mage 8 -
- Jade Phoenix Mage 9 -
- Jade Phoenix Mage 10 - Martial Study: White Raven Hammer
- Dragon Slayer 1 -
- Sublime Chord 3 -
But lets be honest... if you dig around in D&D books and magazines long enough, you can find better ways to go.
Seriously, what compares to the Abjurant Champion? Its a stupidly broken class. Even CLERICS don't have a full casting, full bab, D10 HP class. Fist of Raziel is as good as it gets.
The phantom knight is similarly broke... superior to Eldritch Knight, which in itself really is decent (a full 2 grades better BAB and 1 grade better HPs than sorc for few requirements.)
Hmm, you're right that Abjurant Champion is better than all the other Gish Prestige Classes (however, that's out of necessity; Gishes don't really compare to straight casters if they start losing more than 2 caster levels and more than 5 BAB, which is really unavoidable when working in core), but Knight Phantom is actually worse than Eldritch Knight; you trade two feats (Still Spell is basically a wasted feat for preparing casters in campaigns; you can't really afford to use it) for:
-Armored casting - something you could get with a Spellsword dip, could get by with Mithril Twilight armor or could just ignore by not wearing armor like real mages do.
-The ability to cast Phantom Steed without spell slots - effectively a saved 3rd level slot - useful at the very start, very blah later on.
-Fly Minus Minus without slots - blaaaah, everyone has Overland Flight by then.
-Blur without slot and a minor debuff aura - aura is blah for everyone but Sorcerers and kinda blah for them too, while the slot is practically useless by the time you get it.
-Brilliant Energy-weapon at will - this one is actually useful as Brilliant Energy is the kind of a sitiuational enhancement that you sometimes want and otherwise NOT, but it's still just a 6th level slot, which while useful, comes so late that it isn't really great.
So effectively, you give up two feats for +1 HD size and a couple of spell-likes; doesn't seem broken to me. Hell, I'd take those feats in a heartbeat; I play Humans over Dwarves for a reason.
Bottomline, Knight Phantom is about on par with Eldritch Knight and both of them need Abjurant Champion to make comparable characters to non-Prestiged casters (since Abjurant Champion is only 5 levels long, it's always just a "secondary filler Prestige" instead of the primary path). You need to remember though that along the levels we're talking, casters are usually Prestiged as arcane casters inexplically lack class features, so it's more fair to compare Gish classes into Arcane Caster Prestiges.
KP gives casting in light armor without having to get too creative on the armor ... that is much handy for many real games.
Abjurant Champion makes nearly everything better.
Yes, every Arcane Gish wants 4-5 levels of Abjurant Champion. That's hardly 'everything' though; rare caster would want the class as the BAB is inconsequential for them and the entry requirements involve losing feats or casterlevels, both of which are rather bad to lose. It's a decent option, but as far as caster PrCs go, hardly an autoinclude or anything near such.
KP gives casting in light armor without having to get too creative on the armor ... that is much handy for many real games.
Yes, but are you willing to pay two feats for it, especially when you can have (Greater) Mage Armor up 24/7, take a level of Spellsword or just pay +1 extra for Twilight? Generally using feats for things you could buy cheaply is a bad idea. No, I'm not saying Knight Phantom is crappy, I'm just saying that the bonuses are quite minor so it's definitely not broken compared to Eldritch Knight.
Yeah I'm not saying it's awesomely broken ... just that in many table top games with random treasure, less crafting of specific-armor-I-need, etc. it is VERY handy.
Then again, if you can't get the armors you want, you need some very compelling reason not to just cast Greater Mage Armor every morning instead, since if you can't decide what's on your armor, chances are it is not going to be better than Free No Penalties Incorporeal Touch +6.
The build is a little aged, at the time I build it, there wasnt a Abjurant Champion.
With Abjurant Champion, I would take the Dragon Slayer and 2 Levels of Sublime Chord out and 3 Levels of Abjurant in.
Or 1 Level Paragnostic Apostel (I think, I mean the one with +2 for Armor Spells)
Exactly that. Free up Iron Will and Dodge.
I'd also move Crusader 2 back a bit. Taking it when you have it has an IL of 2 ... if you put it later it would have an IL of 3 or 4 (not sure how much it really matters though).
An alternative is to for one of those last levels not be a caster and instead spike in Warblade 1 or Swordsage 1. If taken at 19th or so you'll have an IL of 10 (from JPM ... they all count) +4 (for the other 8 levels) +1 = 15 ... that's 8th level maneuvers. Granted, it's still a 1st level stance but the huge power of martial PrCs is that they advance IL for everyone.
If you are a pure spellcaster, initiate of the 7 veil or whatever then maybe losing caster levels is not worthwhile.
From the point of view that nothing compares to a pure spellcaster, then yeah everything not full caster level sucks.
By that logic, everyone should just play a wizard and be done with it cuz everyone else blows.
Compare the phantom knight to other PrCs. Even clerics cant find a 90% progression d8, full bab prestege class with decent abilities.
Keep in mind that a dip in spellsword is NOT a given. It always requires a lategame dip into Dragonslayer or a dip in fighter/cleric/crusader or the like.
The PK does not require this and allows Mithril breastplate OR any other light armor without having to worry about only -10%ASF.
Heck, there are some pretty good armors that count as light armor depending on what is allowed:
Mithril Tesselated Breastplate has quite a bit of ASF I believe, but is light armor, +8Armor bonus.
Celestial glasssteel full plate, etc.
At lower levels, a simple non-mithril chain shirt with no ASF is nice.
A fighter however would be pretty jealous of a class that gives d8, full BAB, AND 90% wizard spellcasting progression.
Emmerald Immolation is the perfect anti-summoner move. Use, say, Shadow Blink to get right next to the summoner, and BOOM. Then, the rest of your party rushes - with the summons significantly thinned out, and the summoner weakened at the very least.
Plus, it's possible to swing CL17 and IL17 - I've done it. If you absolutely must have a certain maneuver that's Level 9, this is suddenly a very good thing.
What I did(Duel character designed mostly around two things: a summoner, and people with whoaholycrapAC): 5 Duskblade/5 Swordsage/10 JPM.
This just about got me to my last spell level as a Duskblade, lets me get away with, say, a Mithril Breastplate without ASF, allows melee touch spells to be channeled through swords(IE, Vampiric Touch.)... This creates a pretty good synergy with Empowering Strike.
Another good general idea is the Sorceror/Swordsage JPM. Take you're Swordsage levels to be least high enough for the AC bonus, take Improved Unarmed Strike as a Prereq to Ascetic Mage, giving you your CHA bonus to AC instead of WIS. You can double this bonus with a Monk dip, and get decent AC without ASF - especially if you use items to pump your CHA and DEX - this also provides Improved unarmed Strike. If you do this Monk 1/Swordsage 2/Sorceror 7/JPM 10, you'll be casting up to 7th level spells, and function as a 19th level caster if you take Practised Spellcaster.
You can also take, say, TWF, TWD, Somatic Weapons, and Improved Two Weapon Defense, and maybe even Greater TWD. That offers, at, say, 18 CHA and 19 DEX, 21 AC without armour.