I'm finding that factotum 3/swordsage 2 is quite powerful in the early game, especially with Weapon Finesse (or feycraft weaponry) and Shadow Blade.
Tons and tons of skills (though getting the houseruled +2 skill points per level helps with that). It gets Dex (and Int) to attack, Str and Dex (and Int) to damage, Dex and Int to initiative, Dex and Wis (and Int) to AC, Str or Dex as well as Int to a huge number of skills, lots of very interesting maneuvers, and that tasty factotum level bonus to skills 1/day.
I'm combining it with shapesand, a whole bunch of masterwork tools for skills, and I'm heading into a few levels of pyrokineticist (then alternating factotum and swordsage) for flaming whips and ranged "fire arrows," which can benefit quite a lot from stances and maneuvers (and are a tasty addition to a Desert Wind using pyromaniac).
I'm seriously liking this guy.
Unfortunately, Shadow Blade doesn't work with whips. It'd be nice if there was a way to make this work. I'd use the aptitude enhancement, but not with flame lash. Alas. Would one level in kensai work? Or maybe Ancestral Relic or Item Familiar?