D&D Guru:Answers to your D&D Questions, and general D&D Chat

[il-Lashtavar]

Considering ToB's errata was rushed and incomplete, Custserv is as good as you're gonna get if you're looking for anything official.

On a personal note, Adaptive Style allowing all of your selected maneuvers to be readied isn't overpowered in the slightest, considering it digs so feverishly into your action economy. Let it work the way Custserv says it should.

[NIlsSyger]

I have book of the nine swords.. that feat works exactly as quoted.

[il-Lashtavar]

... With the addendum that using it to change your readied maneuvers also readies your maneuvers if you're a swordsage or warblade. Which isn't specifically noted anywhere in the book.

[NIlsSyger]

Quote:

you can change your readied maneuvers at any time by taking a full round action. If you are a crusader, your current readied maneuvers are lost and you gain new readied maneuvers as if you readied your maneuvers for the day.

Normal: you can change maneuvers only by spending 5 minutes to do so.

To be honest this feat is better for Crusaders however if your character needs to change the maneuvers readied in mid combat this is a good feat. Since you begin EVERY encounter with all your maneuvers readied I find this pointless if you cant plan ahead. It does not reset your readied maneuvers unless you are a crusader.

[il-Lashtavar]

As I said, WotC's customer service stated that the feat's intention was to replace the 5-minute meditation/training window and act as if you'd woken up in the morning and decided to ready whatever maneuvers you wanted. It's meant to completely refresh them.

[Xerkxes]

il-Lashtavar

... With the addendum that using it to change your readied maneuvers also readies your maneuvers if you're a swordsage or warblade. Which isn't specifically noted anywhere in the book.

okay, this went over my head...

if it's not mentioned in the book.. how do you know Adaptive style allows you to re-ready your maneuvers?

'cause as I'm reading it all it says it changes the currently readied, how does it recharge your expanded maneuvers?

[NIlsSyger]

Xerkxes

il-Lashtavar

... With the addendum that using it to change your readied maneuvers also readies your maneuvers if you're a swordsage or warblade. Which isn't specifically noted anywhere in the book.

okay, this went over my head...

if it's not mentioned in the book.. how do you know Adaptive style allows you to re-ready your maneuvers?

'cause as I'm reading it all it says it changes the currently readied, how does it recharge your expanded maneuvers?

It doesn't unless you are a crusader the way sword sages work is to naturally have all their maneuvers re-readied at the start of each encounter.

Book of the nine swords pg. 16

You begin each encounter with all your readied maneuvers expended, regardless of how many times since you might have used them since you chose them. when you initiate a maneuver you, you expend it for the current encounter, so each of your readied maneuvers can only be used once per encounter.(unless you recover them as described below)

you can recover an expended maneuver buy using a full round action to quickly meditate. Doing this does not provoke an attack of opportunity. if you complete your meditation you can choose one expended maneuver to refresh. It is now available for use in the subsequent round.

So basically you regain readied maneuvers in combat you have to meditate for a full round. All adaptive style does for a sword sage is allow you, (at the cost of a full round) to change your list of readied maneuvers, In my opinion any maneuvers currently expended can not be reassigned using adaptive style. The book seems very clear on the subject on how you regain your expended maneuvers.

btw to answer your question adaptive style only re-readied maneuvers if you are a crusaders, NOT a sword sage or war blade.

[il-Lashtavar]

Really. It's better than you think. Here's the quote

According to the official FAQ archive pdf you can find at http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/er/20061123a, it says on page 38

WotC D&D 3.5 FAQ

If a character uses the adaptive style feat ( ToB 28 ) after he has expended some of his readied maneuvers [...]

Using the Adaptive Style feat completely resets all of the character's readied maneuvers, making them all available for use. If you're a crusader, you also reset your granted maneuvers.

You can look it up if you want to.

Point being, it's the best feat for a Swordsage.

[Brasten]

FAQ is at least better then CustServ. CustServ had a very bad track record of getting stuff very wrong. There were a couple of instances I remember from back when I was a regular on Wizards forums where people asked the exact same question and got two different and almost opposite answers. I wish I could remember them but that was close to 6-7 years ago now.

Personally I try not to touch ToB too much. I'm not the biggest of fans. I have a friend who is, and it's good for him as its the most OP material he'll likely use out the gate... not exactly the biggest min/maxer.

If I were going for Mage/Warrior class outside the Magus/Duskblade/EK/etc., I'd look at Psychic Warrior. If the 3.5 one is seems to weak by late 3.5 standards I'd instead use the one for Pathfinder by Dreamscarred The Weaponmaster Path is ideal if you want a higher attack bonus then Average provides. Mind Knight is another if your willing to devote some of your Power Points to Calling your weapon each fight.

[Xerkxes]

I'll be honest, Psionics isn't my thing.
that.. and I if I played a psionics class my DM would have a s**t eating grin pasted on his face, ear to ear throughout the entire game making cracks me me joining the dark side emotion_facepalm

Personnally my favorite is Incarnum (in both flavour and function), but I like the concept of ToB classes having renewable class resources and so wanted to try something different from what I usually use.

[NIlsSyger]

Xerkxes

I'll be honest, Psionics isn't my thing.
that.. and I if I played a psionics class my DM would have a s**t eating grin pasted on his face, ear to ear throughout the entire game making cracks me me joining the dark side emotion_facepalm

Personnally my favorite is Incarnum (in both flavour and function), but I like the concept of ToB classes having renewable class resources and so wanted to try something different from what I usually use.

The important thing to note is to make a character that YOU feel comfortable playing. if you are not use to spell casting stay away from adaptive style as it can get conductive after a while. I gave you a few suggestions on how pair sword styles (altho no dm lets me play book of the nine) just make sure you are happy with your character and have a good concept of how he works. the important thing to remember is to have fun with it, try new things, figure out ways around your problems and importantly set the villages on fire.

[Brasten]

Bah, come to the Dark Side™. We have cookies, and a subset of renewable powers. Psionic Focus was one of the earliest renewable/expendables. It's actually a subset of Fighter(warrior) I sometimes take out for a spin, the Wild Talent Fighter. Using the character feats I take: Wild Talent, Psionic Weapon, Deep Impact, Aligned Attack, Wounding Attack (because who doesn't love Con Damage), etc. It combines on well with Spring Attack or other single hit focused combat styles. Psionic Archers can be equally painful.

DSP (Dreamscarred Press) did much of the "non-caster" Psionics a better treatment. Of course Pathfinder as a whole tends to bring 2003ish material up to the same level that late 2006 meta was reaching. Which is why when I do occasionally pick up a mixed 3.5/Pathfinder one shot I don't object to ToB material. The power balance between Pathfinder Core and ToB is much better.

I really wanted to see Psionic Foucs using/keeping feats make a bigger play for non-caster classes in core. It felt like a good mechanic for more "mystic" powered feats and replacment abilities... instead we got ToB.

Unfortunatly the Wizards never sold the idea of fantasy psionics well, really took the Eberron setting for me to change my views. Much better setup and explanation for it instead of just pure freaky mind magic.

[il-Lashtavar]

Pfft. Who likes Eberron?

[NIlsSyger]

il-Lashtavar

Pfft. Who likes Eberron?

Artificers?

[Brasten]

il-Lashtavar

Pfft. Who likes Eberron?

Get your hands on Secrets of Sarlona. The Inspired (Quori) of Riedra were done really well for a fantasy empire driven by psionics and dream monsters. The rest of the book is also fairly good. If you take it out of the whole Eberron context and treat it like its own mini-setting, it can be adapted fairly well. It was really that book that final sold me on psionics after putting it aside after a series of bad experiences with 2nd Editions psionics. Beside I never really like the poster child for psionics that Dark Sun was supposed to be. Secrets of Sarlona, much more applicable to "typical" fantasy that D&D covers.