« on: July 30, 2009, 09:00:48 PM »
I always hear about the unarmed variant on the forums but never the spellcasting alternative. Why is that?
Quick Reference
[spoiler]Unarmed
Lose light armor proficiency in exchange for a monk's unarmed strike advancement.
No chain shirt for a 2d6 weapon you cannot lose.
Spellcasting
Lose light armor proficiency and reduce your HD to a d6 and in exchange to learn arcane spells instead of maneuvers.
Even less spells known and yet even more casting per day than a sorcerer, but more importantly, IL = CL.
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Now take for example a Warblade 6 / Swordsage 2 build. The IL of the 2nd level of the Swordsage is 5, meaning 3rd level spell access. Without the annoying 5 levels in glasscannon for your gish. Your trading in a wider spell selection for faster progression level wise. Very useful for gishes.
Taking it up a notch, Marital PrCs advance ALL ILs you have meaning every ToB PrC is now a theurge of it's own style.
Take for example a Cleric 3 / Crusader 1 / Swordsage 1 / Ruby Knight Vindicator 10 / Contemplative 1 / Fist of Razial 3 / Swordsage +2.
You'll net 8th level divine spells, 7th level maneuvers, and nine 3rd level+ arcane spells, one of which is 9th level and you can cast it every encounter.
Add runestaffs and abuse DMM while your at it.
Discuss.
Logged
Tiers explained in 8 sentences. With examples!
[spoiler]Tiers break down into who has spellcasting more than anything else due to spells being better than anything else in the game.
6: Skill based. Commoner, Expert, Samurai.
5: Mundane warrior. Barbarian, Fighter, Monk.
4: Partial casters. Adapt, Hexblade, Paladin, Ranger, Spelltheif.
3: Focused casters. Bard, Beguiler, Dread Necromancer, Martial Adapts, Warmage.
2: Full casters. Favored Soul, Psion, Sorcerer, Wu Jen.
1: Elitists. Artificer, Cleric, Druid, Wizard.
0: Gods. StP Erudite, Illthid Savant, Pun-Pun, Rocks fall & you die.
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