Swordsage (Dungeons & Dragons)
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| Base classes from Player's Handbook |
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Barbarian |
| Additional/Alternative base classes |
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The Swordsage is a new base class introduced in the Tome of Battle. Like the Warblade and Crusader, the Swordsage is a Martial Adept Class. This means that they utilize the various boosts, counters, strikes and stances available in that book. Swordsages draw from the Desert Wind, Diamond Mind, Setting Sun, Shadow Hand, Stone Dragon and Tiger Claw schools.
The Swordsage is granted several class features as it progresses. These class features primarily focus on improving the Swordsage's abilities with particular styles. The swordsage has the option of choosing different styles or focusing on specific styles.
The class's skill list is similar to the Rogue's and the Swordsage gains an above average number of skills per level. The focus of a swordsage character is on study as much as on combat, as such, they have a smaller hit die and a slower attack progression than the Crusader or Warblade, though both are still within the normal expected range for a frontline combatant class. The Swordsage also has a better save progression than the Crusader or Warblade.
The Swordsage generally focuses on melee combat and can utilize light armor. Despite it's name, many of the Swordsage's styles have unarmed strike available to them and the class can be very Monk-like if the player wishes to go that route. The class can also become a hybrid of combatant and Wizard, forgoing some of its martial maneuvers for arcane spells (though this also entails a sacrifice of another hit die step). Of the three Martial Adept classes, the Swordsage has the most cumbersome method of retrieving its various maneuvers. By spending a full round doing nothing the Swordsage may recover one maneuver. This is balanced by the Swordsage having the greatest number of maneuvers to choose from and the largest number of readied maneuvers available at any time. By taking the Adaptive Style feat, Swordsages can take a full round action to change (and therefore recover) all of their maneuvers, making Adaptive Style all but necessary for most Swordsage builds.
No currently published race has Swordsage as a favored class. However, the class lore indicates that humans, half-elves and half-orcs are most often attracted to the class, with gnomes also commonly interested in it.
[edit] Affiliations
The text describes (but does not give statistics for) two Swordsage affiliations: The Harad Drevin Temple, a martial arts monastery in the tradition of Wuxia films, and the Eighty Empresses, a force of women who are trained as much for poise, attention to detail and knowledge of esoterica as for their fighting skill.
[edit] Iconic
There is not, per se, an iconic Swordsage. However, the example Swordsage given in Tome of Battle is Red Mask, a male half-elf who acts as a Robin Hood or Scarlet Pimpernel-like figure.
