broken but fun (review is for ppl who know the game)

books:


	• Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying) Richard Baker, Frank Brunner, ... Wizards of the Coast, 2006 - 160 pages average customer review:based on 33 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Excellent

Great new classes in the book. It opens up wonderful new possibilities for melee characters.

broken but fun (review is for ppl who know the game)

I haven't totally devoured the entire book. However, i am currently playing a third level Warblade (class level of four) in a very active campaign. I made sure to OK the class with the DM before using it. I made sure he was aware of how some people declare the class is broken, but he said it would be fine.

I have to admit, i didn't think it was broken until i had taken a few levels in the class. In short, my character just seems over powered, in combat. At the cost of next to nothing, he can add an extra d6 of damage to every other attack...and that is only one of the five "maneuvers" he has in his repertoire. As he continues to level, the amount of extra damage dice continues to climb. Along with these dice come other perks, such as disallowing your enemy to move for a round, or to bypass damage reduction. It just seems too easy to accomplish spell-like abilities for no real cost to the character.

It feels as though these maneuvers not only take the place of figher feats, they are far superior to them. Also, the Warblade gets some pretty decent class features, that make it almost swashbuckelerish, without any real penalties. My character is a Dwarven tank.

I should note that we are playing a rather high powered campaign. Strength and Constitution are both 18 and he has points in Intelligence to aid with the class abilities of the Warblade. He also has no negative modifiers on any of his abilities (all are 10 or above). However, all other characters were made using the same sytem.

I certainly wouldn't say the book is bad. The system they lay out for maneuvers and stances works and is consistent. I certainly have fun playing the axe-wielding cuisinart who mops up the bad guys. Our campaign has a deep enough storyline that just excelling in combat doesn't make for an over-powered character compared to the other characters.

But just be warned, that if you have a large party, with more than one front-line fighter, there may be some jealous glances thrown the way of your Warblade. And if your players aren't mature enough, you may find some arguments breaking out.

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Makes Mellee-dedicated classes far more appealing.

I don't know where to start with this book. Some people will complain that it is "broken" or far too complicated. It's only broken if you let your players actually break their characters. For instance, if I let my Half-Orc Fighter with a 20 Strength score, Monkey Grip, and a Large size Greataxe (which deals 3d6+7 damage) take maneuvers that give him +2d6 damage and bypass damage reduction, that would be broken. Especially if all it takes him to renew that maneuver is not attacking for a round. That would be broken. So that being said, DM judgement is involved. Otherwise, I think using this book is a great way to spice up your tank. For my part, I will never play a Fighter again. I would maybe multi-class a bit with it, but when maneuvers such as those that enhance your allies or allow you to deal extra damage are available, they are much more interesting to me than feats. The base classes presented here also allow for more skill selections, so you're not stuck with the handful that a Fighter is allowed. As far as saying this is more complicated...its not. It's just as complicated as casting spells, you just have to read the system. As long as you've read the system, know what the maneuvers can do, and when the maneuvers are recovered you're fine. I hope that bits of this book show up in 4E, because it makes the dedicated-mellee classes a lot more interesting and fun to play.

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Our new favorite PC book

My entire gaming group reached a consensus: this book is our new favorite book for core classes in DnD 3.5.

First off, a cautionary note: DM's WILL want to read this before letting their player with all the disposable income roll up a character from this book, as its systems are complicated and the character abilities have been created almost whole-cloth. In general, we've found the classes to be powerful for a long time over a long series of encounters, but not QUITE overly so. When compared to the amount of damage a like-level sorcerer can throw around or a twinked-out feat-er, they're about right.

The core mechanics added are the nine martial Styles, which provide a choice of Maneuvers and Stances.

Styles: various fun, flavor-filled fighting styles, each with their own distinct forms, themes, signature weapons, etc. Example: Desert Wind focuses on slashing weapons and often allows a fighter to move quickly around the battlefield and deal elemental fire damage.

Maneuvers: Specific martial attacks with often near-spell-like effects that add a distinct descriptive element to the game. Maneuvers are used once, then lost, but can be regained during combat in a number of different ways, depending on your core class. Many attack-based maneuvers focus on making one standard action to achieve a very nice, powerful effect, so if your player knows his rules, this can actually speed UP combat if he usually plays a dual-wielding cheese monster (no, that's NEVER happened in any of my games...)

Stances: A martial stance that provides a continuous, ongoing benefit. Players can switch between them as a swift action.

The core classes are all very cool, and determine which Styles you have access to. As they start, they have access to a choice of lower-level maneuvers and stances, but these can be readily switched out later for more powerful ones, so their early choices don't become useless later on. In fact, the core classes are so cool, you often will stop looking for a prestige class, unless it is one of the few included in the book that also make use of the martial stance/maneuver system.

In addition to having access to specific style choices, each class also gets interesting class abilities as well. One cool example: the Warblade, a medium-armor figher type, can buy fighter-specific feats as an equivalent figher a few levels lower (read: weapon specialization, greater weapon specialization, etc.). In addition, they can CHANGE any weapon-specific feats to focus on a different weapon, such as weapon focus, weapon spec., with only a short amount of exercise at the beginning of the day. Did your character focus on swords but find a sweet magical greataxe? No problem.

Fans of White Wolf's Exalted game with notice some similarity in the stances and maneuvers to Exalted's Charm structure, the big plus being that lower-powered maneuvers learned early in a characters career can be switched out for higher ones, rather than lingering around at higher levels not doing anything like a bag of caltrops.

All in all, the Book of Nine Swords is not a must-have to play the game, and is certainly not appropriate to every single type of campaign, but most long-time DnD players will find the book adds new spice to their game, with new and interesting options that remain effective no matter what level your character is at the moment.

JT

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Tome of Battle introduces a new combat subsystem for the D&D game. Tome of Battle introduces new rules for players who want new and interesting combat options for their characters. The nine martial disciplines presented within allow a character with the proper knowledge and focus to perform special combat maneuvers and nearly magical effects. Three new martial adept base classes are presented that allow a character to develop their discipline even further. Also included are new feats and prestige classes that build on the disciplines, new magic items and spells, and new monster and organizations.

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