A look at the martial adepts-

Project 1
I was given this objective by the DM to show my point of view and attempt to shed some light on
the Tome of Battle.  Hopefully those who read this will have a better understanding of the ToB
and melee characters in general.
Even with just a quick search online you can find that the Fighter class is not very well liked
by the general populace.  The concensus is that the class is "boring".  Gamers who have been around
for awhile think that the Fighter is just too "straight-forward".  Grab a weapon, take feats
appropriate then charge in and hack and slash.  Sounds boring to me as well.  While I'll admit
that the Fighter has tons of versatility, in order to be amazing at higher levels and accomplish
what others would expect you to; you have to pick very standard fighter feats that pretty much
make you awesome at one weapon, even though the fighter should be good at pretty much all weapons.
As far as I can understand, it was the desire of the writers and game designers to make fighters
more appealing.  It might have also been their intent to put fighters on better footing compared to
a Wizard.
One argument that has been heard countless times is that a Fighter can go all day and doesn't have
to worry about running out of a resource as important as spells per day.  A Fighter doens't have to
plan as much to be prepared for most situations, they are tougher physically, less focus to attend to,
and numerous others.  While the other side touts the Wizard as the most powerful by far.  It is
difficult to deny that while the epic Fighter could charge into combat and take out the enemy's
biggest, baddest beast in less than two rounds; the epic Wizard could destroy an entire army in the
same amount of time.
I imagine that many of these argument flew back and forth during the creating process for ToB.
It seems that the writers wanted to draw more attention to the creativity and ability of a quality
melee character.  Make them flashy.  It is my opinion that the writers wanted the melee classes to
continue to be able to perform all day long, and give them more flash akin to a spell casting class,
while not making them "over-powered" in that they would overshadow a true spell casting class.  Of
course I have heard this argument before as well.  "A martial adept gets 9th level abilities, and can
use them all day long."  Yes, that is true, but in reality the 9th level manuevers in ToB don't
compare to 9th level spells.  9th level spells border on, and in some cases actually do, change the
very fabric of reality.  A spell like Wish can alter the lives of countless people.  Sure an adept
could potentially use his 9th level manuevers a bunch more times in one day than a Wizard has spell
slots for 9th level spells, but the adept's abilities are usually a more finite target or circumstance.
While everything I just said is completely relevant to this work, it doesn't have that much to do with
what the DM was looking for.
I will try to address two issues the DM has with the ToB, Swordsages in particular.  While I respect the
DM's decision to "retire" the Swordsage and any other classes he has decided to give this honor to,
recent arguments have come up that make me think part of the decision was made in haste.  Don't get me
wrong I am honored knowing that I personally played a class so well that the DM doesn't wish to have
any other gamer attempt to try to do it so well.  That of course is only a half truth.  The DM thinks
that the class is too powerful, enough to say repeatedly that the class is broken.  One issue he seems
to have is the use of a combination of manuevers that could potentially add up to over 700 hit points
worth of damage.  While the combo is possible for other characters to accomplish, it is done through a

very focused character build and is only possible three times per day.
"Vici", my Swordsage character, had the 20th level Swordsage ability to dual boost 3 times per day.
This allowed for the combo.  A fifth level boost, a seventh level strike, and an eighth level boost all
in one round to deal an intense amount of damage.  Again this was usually focused on one opponent in
an attempt to take out the biggest, baddest beast quickly.  The Wizard could deal that damage to many
targets with area of effect spells.
The campaign, Savage Tide, was an intense and dramatic one.  In which characters were afforded
many opportunities to specialize their class and optimize with wonderful magic items.
There were also several instances of artifacts and relics being found and used by the characters.
This alone makes for some powerful builds.
Vici had the Greater Two-Weapon Fighting feat and three iterative
attacks a round, which gave him a total of six attacks in a full attack action.  If he activated his
boots of speed, then he also had a hasted attack, which brings it up to seven attacks a round.  Using
his seventh level manuever he could charge, now able to go further with boots of speed, and do his full
attack at the end of his charge rather than just one attack.  As a swift action he could use a boost,
his eighth level manuever, to add two more attacks with each hand, which now brings the total attacks
in a round with this combo up to eleven.  If he still had the ability to dual boost and felt that his
target would take damage from fire, he would use his fifth level manuever to add fire damage to each
attack that hit.  Vici used two bastard swords in combat.  Which means, without adding magic
enhancements and figuring at least +5 strength; damage with every attack landing, and not counting
crits- is 11d10+55+(3d6+20{initiator level added to fire damage})x11.  At max that is 583 hit points.
This of course doesn't factor in damage reduction or fire resistance or immunity, misses, fumbles or
crits, or special circumstances and enhancments like "evil outsider bane".
Now, like I said, This combo was only possible three times per day.  So take off the fire boost, which
Vici used least often, and all you have with no magic is 165 hit points of damage.
A Swordsage that finds himself still in combat after this will have to rely on other manuevers and
tactics to not only stay alive but to win the day.  The Swordsage manuevers readied are once per combat.
Which is one reason I tried to end each fight quickly.  Yes a Swordsage can get an expended manuever
back before combat is over, but it takes time (time he must spend doing nothing but focusing on getting
the manuever back) and he could be killed.
The DM, after many years away from the campaign in which this was relevant, thinks that the ability
is too much.  He said a Fighter can't do that.  I said not only can a Fighter do that, I can do better
with a Fighter.  So he asked me to show him.
So I designed a fighter that, at max damage can dish out over 300 hit points of damage a round, without
magic, and without manuevers and can do this all day everyday.  Just a big guys swinging a couple of
swords, so imagine how much more dangerous he would be using magic weapons and enhancements like Vici
did.
Even if you look at it this way, the avarage damage for Vici- swords alone- with every attack landing
is 55 with this combo.  For the Fighter the average damage would be 48 with every attack landing.  This
is without magic or extra attacks for the Fighter.  Vici had to use two high level manuevers in one
round to be able to get this average damage, where the Fighter can get his average damage every time he
does a full attack action.
In light of this it may look like I favor the Fighter class over other melee classes, but I was just
trying to live up to the challenge the DM gave.
I feel that the DM's opinion on the Swordsage class is a little too mired in one experience.  We haven't
really seen anyone else play the class, so Vici is our only example.  And like I've tried to explain,
Vici and his abilities are a product of the most enormous and intense campaign I've ever been a part of.
Vici was one of the only characters that lasted from the first day to the last day, so he had his build
worked out from day one and had the advantage of never having to lose anything.  Magic items, money,
even notoriety all went with him along his career.
If we were to see a different player play the Swordsage class in a different campaign we may be witness
to an entirely new perspective on the class.
While I can easily build a character out of a Fighter that may well out-perform Vici, given the right
circumstances, it is still my opinion that playing melee characters that way are kind of boring.  I am a
fan of the Tome of Battle because of the diversity it brings to the melee classes.  Not that we don't
already have lots of options with prestige classes, but that is probably why there are so many prestige
classes that rely on Fighter abilities; because Fighters are boring.  The Tome of Battle added some much
needed flavor.  I love the idea of "blade magic".  It doesn't always fit a character I'm working on, but
I love the options and combining some of the classes from ToB with other classes is a good way to add
versatility.  Now the DM took away the Swordsage class but allowed the Crusader class and the Warblade
class to have access to the disciplines that are Swordsage only.  Bunk!  Absolute Bunk!  In my opinion
this would be the same as saying "I don't like the Warmage class, so you can be a Sorcerer and have the
armored mage abilities of a Warmage."  I guess a decision like that is totally within the realm of a
DM's right, but that doesn't mean I have to agree with it.
Honestly I don't feel that anything the classes in ToB are capable of is that much different or even
more powerful than the Monk class, but no one seems to have a problem with the Monk.  And if the DM
wants to analyze a power build he should take a look at the Ninja.  With the build I had in mind for my
Ninja character I could easily achieve over 400 Hit Points of damage a round for as many times a day as
I could go invisible or gain sudden strike.
Well that is all I can think of to say on this matter at this time.
Now for the second issue.
The DM has voiced his distate for a section in the ToB that describes how to calculate a character's
initiator level.  Now I can't begin to guess why the designers set it up this way, maybe to add more
appeal to outside classes dipping into ToB and making it a more staple resource at the game table, but
they decided that any base class not a martial adept counts as half an initiator level.  Which means my
Fighter could take the Martial Study feat gain access to 5th level manuevers as his initiator level
would be ten.  That seems pretty powerful except that there are only two 5th level manuevers in the
entire book that don't have any prerequisites (like already having a certain amount of manuevers from
the same discipline).  One is the Shadow Stride that allows you to teleport 50 feet as a move action.
There are countless other ways to accomplish this with a 20th level character and using this manuever is
only good once per combat; not over-powered in my opinion.  Well, what about lower level manuevers you
ask?  At level 20 with an initiator level of 10 you could gain access to manuevers from 1st level all
the way to 5th level.  Even a 19th level Fighter with 1 level of Swordsage is a 10th level initiator
with six known manuevers and four readied.  But you still have to adhere to the prerequisites, and
almost all manuevers 2nd level and higher have a prerequisite of at least one manuever already known.
Taking that route to maybe do some more damage a few times per combat, purely for the sake of being able
to doesn't sound good to me.  It also doesn't sound too powerful.  However, it sounds fun, adding some
changes to a classes normal routine, and increasing their repertoire.
I don't have the time to look over all the options available and try to come up with a build that could
munchkin the initiator level option, but I am willing to look at another person's idea.  If the DM or
someone else could show me how this could be used to make one class or another significantly outshine
the original intent, then I will gladly change my opinion on that matter.