Tome of Battle
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Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords is a rules supplement for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, published by Wizards of the Coast in 2006. The purpose of the book is to increase the power of melee combatants in the D&D game to continue to be comparable to magic user characters into high-level play, by giving them powerful combat maneuvers and stances that can be expended as magic users expend spells. The Book of Nine Swords introduces three new "Martial Adept" core classes (the Crusader, Swordsage and Warblade) and a system of "sword magic" for them to exploit, followed by the usual accompaniment of new skills and feats. The core and largest percentage of the book is the list of maneuvers and stances, which the martial adept character can use to enhance their power and damage similar to the way a magic-using character uses spells. Also described are several new Prestige Classes for martial characters, and eight new Legacy weapons that exemplify the philosophies of the nine schools (the ninth, Desert Wind, the exemplar of the eponymous school, is a slightly modified reprint from the Weapons of Legacy book). A number of martially-oriented monsters, including Valkyries, rounds out the book. Both the base and prestige classes presented in the book follow a new expanded format, which puts a much greater amount of detail into describing the classes and their place in the world compared to the older format. The book is heavily influenced by video games like Soul Calibur and the Final Fantasy series, as well as movies such as The Matrix, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and other Chinese wuxia films (as well as Seven Samurai and other Japanese jidai geki films) and to a lesser extent the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Contents |
[edit] Martial Adepts
Martial Adepts are the base classes introduced in Tome of Battle. Two of the three classes parallel existing classes, but gain different class features, as well as access to the powerful techniques of the "Sublime Way," the semi-mystical martial arts tradition detailed in the Tome: Crusader, which parallels the religious strictures of the Paladin (but unlike the Paladin, is open to any alignment) , and Warblade, which parallels the pure martial prowess of the Fighter. The third, the Swordsage, is most like a Monk in nature, but has numerous additional features. Swordsages are best compared to the philosopher-swordsmen of the Wuxia film genre.
[edit] Temple of the Nine Swords
In the internal mythology of the book, the nine styles were once the properties of different races and wildly divergent philosophies. They were brought together in the person of a man named Reshar, who studied and mastered all nine styles in the astonishingly short period of just three years. After that, he built a temple, which brought all of the styles together under a single roof. This temple survived until after Reshar vanished without a trace, leaving each style an exemplar sword. After that, the masters of the Tiger Claw and Shadow Hand styles plotted against the others, and were cast out. The cast-out masters wandered, gathering pupils, before they returned and slaughtered the original temple, scattering the styles once again to the winds. Yet the scattered disciples of the Nine Schools remembered their period of lost unity, and strive continuously both to pass their arts on to new generations, and to restore the lost glory of the Temple.
[edit] Maneuvers and Stances
The martial arts system presented in the book bears a strong resemblance to the magic system of D&D. Martial arts maneuvers are readied (instead of being memorized); unlike the magic system, a maneuver can only be readied once at a time. Once maneuvers are expended, each class has a method of recovering them. Classes which are not martial adept classes can only recover maneuvers (which have been learned through the Martial Training feat) at the end of an encounter.
Maneuvers differ from magic spells in that they renew much more quickly (at the end of a fight or by performing some action to restore them), and can be "unlearned" in order to learn new maneuvers at a later level. Although maneuvers have levels, they ignore the "spells by level" mechanic familiar to spellcasters, and any maneuver known can be used as long as it is available, regardless of how many maneuvers of the same level were used previously.
[edit] Styles or Schools of the Sublime Way
The nine schools presented in the book each take a different philosophy of martial action, and enhance the warrior in different ways. Each school has a range of maneuvers and stances from first to ninth level, like magic spells.
- Desert Wind: A flowing style, Desert Wind adepts do battle with swift movement and swirling, flaming strikes. Its exemplar weapon is a scimitar, also named Desert Wind.
- Devoted Spirit: A tough style, Devoted Spirit adepts battle their enemies based on their alignment. Its exemplar weapon is a falchion, named Faithful Avenger.
- Diamond Mind: An insightful style, Diamond Mind adepts anticipate their enemies' actions before they happen. Its exemplar weapon is a rapier, named Supernal Clarity.
- Iron Heart: Iron Heart adepts glory in skill above all else. Its style concentrates on balance and footwork. Its exemplar weapon is a bastard sword named Kamate.
- Setting Sun: The "Judo" style of the nine schools, Setting Sun adepts prefer to turn their enemies' strength against them. Its exemplar weapon is a mithril short sword named Eventide's Edge.
- Shadow Hand: One of the two "traitor" schools, the Shadow Hand masters a long time ago assaulted and destroyed the original fighting monastery. Its discipline teaches stealth, deception and ambush, and is effective even if somewhat tainted. Its exemplar weapon is a dagger named Umbral Awn.
- Stone Dragon: This style depends on toughness over all and its abilities can only be used if standing on the ground. Its exemplar weapon is a greatsword named Unfettered.
- Tiger Claw: All-out bestial attack is the trademark of this school, the second "traitor" school. Its exemplar weapon is a kukri named Tiger Fang.
- White Raven: The "leader" style, White Raven's abilities are less about enhancing oneself and more about one's cohorts. Its exemplar weapon is an adamantine longsword named Blade of the Last Citadel.
Without expending a feat, the Desert Wind, Setting Sun and Shadow Hand schools are exclusive to Swordsage characters, Iron Heart to Warblades and Devoted Spirit to Crusaders. Diamond Mind and Tiger Claw are Swordsage/Warblade schools, while White Raven is Crusader/Warblade. Only Stone Dragon is available to all three Martial Adept classes.
[edit] Prestige Classes
All Dungeons & Dragons player resource books add new prestige classes, and Tome of Battle is no exception. Added are eight prestige classes, in the same expanded format as the base classes earlier in the book, and rules for using other prestige classes with the martial adept base classes. Martial adepts continue to advance in their martial skills while multiclassing (either with other base classes or with prestige classes), but more slowly.
The Prestige Classes from Tome of Battle are listed in the article List of prestige classes.
[edit] Martial Monsters
The last section of the book is devoted to monsters one might find and ally with or fight in a martial-centered campaign. It covers four creatures that can be allies or enemies to students of the Sublime Way, including a raksasha variant, the Reth Dekala, remnants of a once-proud warrior race turned into restless spirits, and the valkyrie.
[edit] Reaction
Fan reaction to the book so far has been mixed. Players traditionally attracted to the melee warrior classes (Fighters, Rangers, Paladins, Monks and Barbarians) were quick to praise the book and its included martial arts systems, while more traditionalist players and players typically drawn to magic-user classes have been more critical, accusing the book of stepping on their traditional areas of expertise.
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