[Class] Swordsage

[Throndir]

Source: Tome of Battle pg 15

SWORDSAGE
?Thick armor indicates a lack of skill. If you lack the training to avoid
your enemies? blows, perhaps you should leave the fi ghting to me.?
?Chen, swordsage
A master of martial maneuvers, the swordsage is a physical
adept?a blade wizard whose knowledge of the Sublime Way
lets him unlock potent abilities, many of which are overtly
supernatural or magical in nature. Depending on which
disciplines he chooses to study, a swordsage might be capable
of walking through walls, leaping dozens of feet into the air,
shattering boulders with a single touch, or even mastering
the elements of fi re or shadow. Whatever his specifi c train-
ing, a swordsage blurs the line between martial prowess and
magical skill.
MAKING A SWORDSAGE
Despite his spectacular combat moves, a swordsage is not a
typical front-line melee combatant. Although a fi ghter, bar-
barian, or warblade might swing a sword more accurately, or
with greater force, a swordsage depends on his repertoire of
martial strikes and stances. This character is also not intended
to be a replacement for an arcane spellcaster, even though he
can create a number of short-range area effects. A swordsage?s
role within an adventuring party isn?t easily defi ned, but his
combination of maneuverability, supernatural power, and
martial arts is useful in almost any encounter.
Abilities: Dexterity and Wisdom are crucial to a sword-
sage. Since he wears only light armor, he must rely on agility
and shrewdness to avoid attacks, and as such his Armor Class
is augmented by his Wisdom modifi er as well as his Dexter-
ity modifier. A swordsage can get along with an average
Wisdom score, but to excel, he wants a good Wisdom bonus.
Since a swordsage often engages in melee, Strength is also
important?although he can use the Weapon Finesse feat to
overcome a low Strength score, and his array of martial strikes
can make up for any lack of damage potential. Intelligence
helps a swordsage master the skills necessary to continue
progressing along the path of the Nine Swords, and Consti-
tution is as important to him as it is to any character.
Races: Most swordsages are humans. It is not uncom-
mon for members of other races to take up the path, though
dwarves and gnomes rarely do. Dwarves are too firmly
grounded to adapt easily to the ascetic lifestyle swordsages
often favor, and the few dwarf swordsages who do exist typi-
cally focus on the Stone Dragon discipline. Gnomes fi nd most
swordsages singularly humorless, although members of this
race occasionally take up the discipline of the Setting Sun,
because they understand better than most how weakness
can be turned to strength. Half-orcs account for a surprising
number of swordsages, especially in the more warlike dis-
ciplines of Stone Dragon and Tiger Claw. Members of this
race are well suited to endure the diffi cult physical regimen
of study and practice that these disciplines require.
Alignment: A swordsage can choose any alignment. The
study of the Sublime Way is its own end, and whether any
particular student chooses to employ what he has learned
in the service of good, evil, law, or chaos is not considered
significant by most who follow this path. Accordingly, a
typical swordsage has at least one neutral component in his
alignment, representing a certain detachment from worldly
matters. Good swordsages tend to be free-roaming champions
of the weak and downtrodden. The less commonplace evil
swordsages believe that their mastery of the martial arts has
made them superior to everyone around them.
Starting Gold: 4d4?10 (100 gp).
Starting Age: As monk.
CLASS FEATURES
Of all three martial adept classes, swordsages learn and
can ready the most maneuvers. This advantage gives them
unparalleled versatility in a given encounter. In one battle,
a swordsage might fulfi ll the role of the rogue, lurking in
shadows and striking when foes are least prepared. In another,
he might be scorching enemies with area attacks, much like
a wizard. In still another fi ght, he might tear an enemy apart
with his bare hands, matching a barbarian?s ferocity with his
own distinctive style of bloodthirstiness. Whatever the occa-
sion, a swordsage is able to contribute, often in completely
unexpected ways.
Weapon and Armor Profi ciency: As a swordsage, you
are profi cient with simple weapons, martial melee weapons
(including those that can be used as thrown weapons), and
light armor, but not with shields.
Maneuvers: You begin your career with knowledge of
six martial maneuvers. The disciplines available to you are
Desert Wind, Diamond Mind, Setting Sun, Shadow Hand,
Stone Dragon, and Tiger Claw.
Once you know a maneuver, you must ready it before you
can use it (see Maneuvers Readied, below). A maneuver usable
by swordsages is considered an extraordinary ability unless
otherwise noted in its description. Your maneuvers are not
affected by spell resistance, and you do not provoke attacks
of opportunity when you initiate one.
You learn additional maneuvers at higher levels, as shown
on Table 1?2. You must meet a maneuver?s prerequisite to
learn it. See Table 3?1, page 39, to determine the highest-level
maneuvers you can learn.
Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even-numbered
swordsage level after that (6th, 8th, 10th, and so on), you can
choose to learn a new maneuver in place of one you already
know. In effect, you lose the old maneuver in exchange for
the new one. You can choose a new maneuver of any level
you like, as long as you observe your restriction on the high-
est-level maneuvers you know; you need not replace the old
maneuver with a maneuver of the same level. For example,
upon reaching 10th level, you could trade in a single 1st-, 2nd-,
3rd- or 4th-level maneuver for a maneuver of 5th level or lower,
as long as you meet the prerequisite of the new maneuver.
You can swap only a single maneuver at any given level.
Maneuvers Readied: You can ready four of your six
maneuvers known at 1st level, and as you advance in level
and learn more maneuvers, you are able to ready more, but
you must still choose which maneuvers to ready. You ready
your maneuvers by meditating and exercising for 5 minutes.
The maneuvers you choose remain readied until you decide
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Disciples of the Sword
to meditate again and change them. You need not sleep or
rest for any long period of time to ready your maneuvers; any
time you spend 5 minutes in meditation, you can change your
readied maneuvers.
You begin an encounter with all your readied maneuvers
unexpended, regardless of how many times you might have
already used them since you chose them. When you initiate
a maneuver, you expend it for the current encounter, so each
of your readied maneuvers can be used once per encounter
(unless you recover them, as described below).
You can recover an expended maneuver by using a full-
round action to quickly meditate. Doing this does not provoke
attacks of opportunity. If you complete your meditation, you
can choose one expended maneuver to refresh. It is now
available for use in a subsequent round.
Stances Known: You begin play with knowledge of one
1st-level stance from any discipline open to you. At 2nd, 5th,
9th, 14th, and 20th level, you can choose additional stances.
Unlike maneuvers, stances are not expended, and you do
not have to ready them. All the stances you know are avail-
able to you at all times, and you can change the stance you
currently use as a swift action. A stance is an extraordinary
ability unless otherwise stated in the stance description.
Unlike with maneuvers, you cannot learn a new stance at
higher levels in place of one you already know.
AC Bonus: Starting at 2nd level, you can add your Wisdom
modifi er as a bonus to Armor Class, so long as you wear light
armor, are unencumbered, and do not use a shield. This
bonus to AC applies even against touch attacks or when you
are fl at-footed. However, you lose this bonus when you are
immobilized or helpless.
Discipline Focus (Ex): As a swordsage, you can focus
your training to take advantage of each discipline?s fi ghting
style. Each time you gain the discipline focus ability, select
one of the six swordsage disciplines to which that focus
applies. You can select a different discipline each time you
gain discipline focus, but you must know at least one martial
maneuver from the selected discipline. Even if you select a
different discipline at higher levels, your discipline choice
for earlier abilities does not change.
This focus manifests in the following ways.
Weapon Focus: At 1st level, you gain the benefi t of the Weapon
Focus feat for weapons associated with the chosen discipline.
See the discipline descriptions in Chapter 4.
Insightful Strikes: At 4th level, you can add your Wisdom
modifi er as a bonus on damage rolls whenever you execute
a strike from the chosen discipline. At 12th level, you can
choose a second discipline to which this ability applies.
Defensive Stance: At 8th level, you gain a +2 bonus on saving
throws whenever you adopt a stance from the chosen disci-
pline. At 16th level, you can choose a second discipline to
which this ability applies.
You gain a +2 bonus on Martial Lore checks made
regarding a maneuver in a discipline in which you have
discipline focus.
Quick to Act (Ex): You gain a +1 bonus on initiative
checks. This bonus increases by 1 at 5th, 10th, 15th, and
20th level.
Sense Magic (Su): Beginning at 7th level, you can spend
10 minutes focusing upon a weapon or suit of armor. If you
succeed on a level check (DC 10 + the caster level of the
weapon or armor), you can identify the properties of that
item, including its enhancement bonus and special abili-
ties. This ability does not reveal the properties of artifacts or
legacy weapons, though it does indicate that such items are
signifi cantly powerful.

Level Attack Bonus Save Save Save Special Known Readied Known
1st +0 +0 +2 +2 Quick to act +1, 6 4 1
discipline focus (Weapon Focus)
2nd +1 +0 +3 +3 AC bonus 7 4 2
3rd +2 +1 +3 +3 ? 8 5 2
4th +3 +1 +4 +4 Discipline focus (insightful strike) 9 5 2
5th +3 +1 +4 +4 Quick to act +2 10 6 3
6th +4 +2 +5 +5 ? 11 6 3
7th +5 +2 +5 +5 Sense magic 12 6 3
8th +6/+1 +2 +6 +6 Discipline focus (defensive stance) 13 7 3
9th +6/+1 +3 +6 +6 Evasion 14 7 4
10th +7/+2 +3 +7 +7 Quick to act +3 15 8 4
11th +8/+3 +3 +7 +7 ? 16 8 4
12th +9/+4 +4 +8 +8 Discipline focus (insightful strike) 17 8 4
13th +10/+5 +4 +8 +8 ? 18 9 4
14th +10/+5 +4 +9 +9 ? 19 9 5
15th +11/+6/+1 +5 +9 +9 Quick to act +4 20 10 5
16th +12/+7/+2 +5 +10 +10 Discipline focus (defensive stance) 21 10 5
17th +13/+8/+3 +5 +10 +10 Improved evasion 22 10 5
18th +13/+8/+3 +6 +11 +11 ? 23 11 5
19th +14/+9/+4 +6 +11 +11 ? 24 11 5
20th +15/+10/+5 +6 +12 +12 Dual boost 3/day, quick to act +5 25 12 6

Class Skills (6 + Int modifier per level, ?6 at 1st level): Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Heal, Hide, Intimidate, Jump,
Knowledge (history), Knowledge (local), Knowledge (nature), Knowledge (nobility and royalty), Listen, Martial Lore*, Move
Silently, Profession, Ride, Sense Motive, Swim, Tumble.
*New skill described on page 28.
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Disciples of the Sword
Evasion (Ex): At 9th level, you can avoid even magical and
unusual attacks with great agility. If you make a successful
Refl ex saving throw against an attack that normally deals
damage on a successful save, you instead take no damage.
Evasion can be used only if you are wearing light armor or
no armor. If you are helpless, you do not gain the benefi t
of evasion.
Improved Evasion (Ex): From 17th level on, you gain
the benefi t of improved evasion. You still take no damage if
you make a successful Refl ex save against an attack, and even
if you fail the Refl ex save, you take only half damage from
the attack. If you are helpless, you do not gain the benefi t of
improved evasion.
Dual Boost (Ex): When you reach 20th level, you can
use two boost maneuvers simultaneously. Whenever you
initiate a boost maneuver, you can also initiate any other
boost maneuver that you know as a free action. Both boosts
you initiate are expended normally. You can use this ability
three times per day.