Why is the feat Stormguard Warrior so appealing?

[Endarire]

Tome of Battle 36 has this oft-referenced tactical feat.  I've read it repeatedly, but found no great reason to take it.

Enlighten me!

[X-Codes]

It's the best way for TWFers to do damage: 1 round of touch attacks, then 1 round of real attacks.  Works best if you have an ability that denies your opponent their next turn (and, really, I'd absolutely use a heavy mace in my TWF routine if it meant smacking people with Three Mountains while I build up damage bonuses with my touch attacks).

[ZeroSpace]

As I understand it, it's for one or two of the options that the feat lets you use. The first being Channel the Storm, which gives you a cummulative +4 to attack and damage rolls on your coming turn for every AoO you don't make until then. The other being Combat Rythym, which give a cummulative +5 damage next turn for every no-damage touch attack you land this turn. Of the two, Channel the Storm is the one that sees heavy use on fighter-esque builds, specifcally with Robillar's Gambit and/or Karmic Strike.

Edit: And Swordsage'd.

[bearsarebrown]

Channel the Storm the storm is great. Notice that it doesn't count AoOs not taken as used. Therefore, stick this feat on anything with long reach, never take your one AoO, and reap the benefits.

I've made a build with base size Huge that has Expansion as well. All attacks are auto-Bull Rushes and it has that Crusader aura to make ALL movement provoke. Smack someone once, they go flying, racking up tons and tons of AoOs you didn't take.

Combat Rhythm is a trap 90% of the time and just seems good.

[X-Codes]

Combat Rhythm is a trap 90% of the time and just seems good.

Combat Rhythm isn't the trap, TWF is the trap.  Combat Rhythm makes the trap less crappy.

[RobbyPants]

I don't have the feat handy, but I'm assuming it makes TWF better because you get double the touch attacks to set it up for double the benefit, and that increased benefit is applied to double your attacks next turn?

I guess it's okay once your average expected bonus exceeds your average expected damage per attack, and if you think that you won't be dropping your opponent on the first round of a full attack.

[Bloody Initiate]

Combat Rhythm is a trap 90% of the time and just seems good.

Combat Rhythm isn't the trap, TWF is the trap.  Combat Rhythm makes the trap less crappy.

Combine with Avalanche of Blades for slightly increased chances of not sucking.

[Shadeseraph]

I don't have the feat handy, but I'm assuming it makes TWF better because you get double the touch attacks to set it up for double the benefit, and that increased benefit is applied to double your attacks next turn?

I guess it's okay once your average expected bonus exceeds your average expected damage per attack, and if you think that you won't be dropping your opponent on the first round of a full attack.

Basically. The other main use was for any kind of character. You can use Avalanche of Blades on the first round to load on damage bonifiers, and use Deep Impact + Ruby Nightmare Blade to hit for a lot of damage with some consistency. But it is still a problem because of the loss of a round.

Anyway,I can't remember the exact wording of the feat, but, assuming you can use WRT on yourself, you should be able to both charge and unlease the attack in the same round.

Of course, this assumes that you use WRT on yourself, which is kind of suboptimal. Give the free round to the caster, for fuck sake.

[snakeman830]

Alternatively, since you're a Warblade and refresh your manuvers by full attacking, spend the later iteritives that probably won't hit anyway to boost your damage for next round.

[Bloody Initiate]

Alternatively, since you're a Warblade and refresh your manuvers by full attacking, spend the later iteritives that probably won't hit anyway to boost your damage for next round.

I thought Warblades refreshed their maneuvers by a swift action followed by a standard action with the condition that neither the swift nor the standard action could be maneuvers.

[snakeman830]

Alternatively, since you're a Warblade and refresh your manuvers by full attacking, spend the later iteritives that probably won't hit anyway to boost your damage for next round.

I thought Warblades refreshed their maneuvers by a swift action followed by a standard action with the condition that neither the swift nor the standard action could be maneuvers.

Or they can spend their Swift action and full attack.  It's something a Warblade will probably end up doing anyway and, since normally those last couple of attacks would go to waste, you can instead pump up your attacks for next round.

[Garryl]

Warblade refresh just requires a swift action, followed by either making one or more attacks, or by spending a standard action to do nothing. It doesn't matter how you make an attack if you choose that option. You can make a single, standard action attack. You can make a full-attack. You can charge. You can convince someone to provoke an attack of opportunity from you on your turn. You can get a friendly druid to ready an action to cast Snake's Swiftness on you. Anything works, as long as you attack.

[SorO_Lost]

Stormguard Warrior is a second line of abuse not your primary.

Unless you have boosted your attack chance way up there it's self to assume you're last attack will miss. At any point you full attack, such as pounce, time stands still, recovery, you can augment next turn's damage by 5 per attack. And on that turn it's generally the best time to expend Raging Mongoose or some such. Admitably, this is probably the turn off you keep reading. However, expending a turn to charge this virtually guarantees death next round and is very very powerful when used in conjunction with something like Vampiric Touch.

Channel The Storm is mop up. Combined with Roiler's Gambit oppoents provoke an AoO each time they attack you. A very nice little detail to pay attention to is the 1 AoO per round limit applies to attacking and does not the limit of AoOs people can provoke from you nor the number you can choose to forgo. Depending on the monster this can range from four or more attacks, or a staggering +16 bonus to both attack and damage next turn and all it cost you was two feat slots. OPs suggest Knowledge Devotion which requires skill boosting and is lucky to give even a mere +5 bonus, this thing is flat out insane by all comparisons.

Mindful, it only augments your options. Don't ever build focused on using it.

[Reyemile]

Note that your touch attacks with StormGuard Warrior can still crit if you're going the Blood in the Water route. My Warblade's Kukri's were enchanted with Slowing Burst out of the MIC, since it was a flat-cost enhancement and not a plus. I'd crit 3 times on average on a full attack, and eventually the target would roll a one; a slowed enemy would have a hard time ducking the follow-up massacre.

[Sunic_Flames]

Mostly, because people forget 2 rounds is a long time in D&D.

[X-Codes]

Channel the Storm is a very good ability, although you have to remember that the bonus you care about is the +4 bonus to hit.  Once you get pushed off the RNG, you probably want to start taking your AoOs, especially given that you're probably an initiator, aren't getting heavy returns off Power Attack, and may or may not be using your iteratives at all.

Also, I never considered the option of using this on a touch mage or a Duskblade to get a ridiculously high-damage Vampiric Touch or similarly nasty touch spell.  That's interesting.

[SorO_Lost]

Also, I never considered the option of using this on a touch mage or a Duskblade to get a ridiculously high-damage Vampiric Touch or similarly nasty touch spell.  That's interesting.

...or a JPM?

And yeah, forgot to mention why it's not your primary method of attack. Your goal is to kill something in one round (or less, an attack action!). If that cannot be obtained Rhythm can pull it off. I like the Channel part better since you can generate the bonuses when it's not your turn.