Red Hand of Doom is coming up whenever the current campaign gets around to ending. DM wants Tier 3-4 characters only. Item supply and party support are unreliable, so I need to be as able to handle my own business as much as possible. I expect to need to be able to mow down hordes of goblinoid mooks, and kill hard targets including true dragons before they kill me. We're to start at level/ECL 6 (less any XP burned on item crafting and/or LA buyoff) with 13,000 gp, and should go as far as 10th level, possibly 12th.
I like Warblade for the job. Strikes like Steel Wind and Mithral Tornado should be good for mopping up numerous fragile enemies. Emerald Razor and full BAB are major selling points, because with this DM and group there seems to be a high chance of not having anything like enough strength enhancement, buff spells and weapon enhancement to reliably hit a dragon's AC. I like Deep Impact for the same reason as Emerald Razor, so I've mixed in a little Psychic Warrior. Unfortunately I've not played anything ToB or 3rd Edition psionic before, and this first attempt is looking pretty crummy.
Empty Vessel (LA bought off) Warblade 3/Psychic Warrior 2
Str 14 Dex 12 Con 14 Int 14 Wis 11 Cha 8 (may be changed depending on advice, but needs to be 28 point buy +1 from 4th level)
Feats: Power Attack, Adaptive Style, Psionic Weapon, Instant Clarity, Practiced Manifester
Maneuvers:
Moment of Perfect Mind
Steel Wind
Wolf Fang Strike
Sudden Leap
Emerald Razor
Stances:
Punishing Stance
Psywar Powers:
TBD
Expansion
Progression:
Warblade 4 Deep Impact, Leaping Dragon Stance, Wolf Fang Strike -> Iron Heart Surge
Warblade 5 Bonus Feat TBD, Soaring Raptor Strike
Warblade 6 Str +1, Steel Wind -> Mithral Tornado
Warblade 7 Battle Jump, Lightning Recovery
Warblade 8 maneuver exchange TBD (if any)
Warblade 9 Bonus Feat TBD, Pouncing Charge
Warblade 10 Str +1, Leap Attack, Dancing Blade Form, Soaring Raptor Strike -> Rabid Bear Strike
I'm not sure what to do with my Warblade bonus feats. I'm tempted to pick up Run and Blade Meditation (Tiger Claw) to boost my Jump checks and get more consistency out of Sudden Leap, Soaring Raptor Strike, Battle Jump and Leap Attack, but I think I might be going in the wrong direction here. Is Tiger Claw even worth using for someone who will probably spend most of the time wielding a greatsword, greataxe or glaive? Using Stone Dragon instead, dumping Dex and making use of psywar's heavy armor proficiency is tempting, but I can't make use of that discipline while jumping, falling or flying to engage an airborne enemy. Definitely need some advice on getting my damage output up, here.
I'm thinking my non-Expansion psywar power will be either Force Screen, Vigor, or Skate. Force Screen would help a little if I'm trying to have decent AC, but I have my doubts it will be enough to matter, especially with the size and Dex penalties from Expansion. Vigor should help me stay alive longer if I just blow off AC altogether and rely on reach and damage output to kill the enemies before they can do the same for me. Skate's indirect bonus to Jump checks would help me hit the higher Jump DCs consistently. Your thoughts?
I could possibly go a little more feat-intensive and try to pull off a TWF build instead of going for a few big whacks, but it would be difficult. We're allowed to use flaws, but we can only have 2 feats from flaws, and each feat costs 2 flaws.
Please help!