ElDo's Book Club: Tome of Battle

[Elven Doritos]

[ic=Welcome!]Welcome to ElDo's Book Club!
Hopefully, this will evolve to become a series of threads, each week with a "featured" supplement or fantasy-related novel as part of the discussion. Feel free to PM me with future "Book Club" topics in mind!

The point of the "Book Club" is to provide an atmosphere within the Meta section to have a focused conversation without flooding the Meta section every few days with new threads.[/ic]

I recently picked this book up, and it looks sleek. It seems like it's a great book for combat characters to get that extra *oomph*, and I really look forward to reading it.

That being said... I'm having a hard time finding a jumping point. Anybody got any favorite parts of the book to start out with? What are your opinions on the mechanics and the descriptions? I noticed there are some Weapons of Legacy in the book, but I presume it's available enough for non-WoL owners to use? (I have WoL, I'm just curious).

I've heard that it sounds very "anime-y", and I think that's just a misconception that only anime can have stylized, fantastic battle tactics. Thoughts?

[Xeviat]

The best jumping point, in my opinion, after reading the introduction and the classes, skip right ahead to the maneuvers/stances. After that, the feats will make a bit more sense.

If it is fluff you love, read the classes, the powers, and then the Nine Swords (the legacy weapons). The Weapons of Legacy info in the book is enough to be able to utilize it; the only parts that aren't in ToB that are in WoL are the rules on creating your own and the feats and PrC and intro stuff.

As for it being "anime-y", I don't buy that at all. First off, the Crusader is very much a western class; I can't think of one eastern counterpart to it (except perhaps the idea of monks being able to heal themselves). The Swordsage does feel like a mystic monk, but a Warblade who focuses on Iron Heart and Stone Power will feel perfectly western (Diamond Mind, on the other hand, emulates Iaijutsu Masters, and even expert dualist/fencers of the west). So your thoughts are right; though to play devil's advocate, the East is more likely to give mystical powers to non-priests or magi than the west is.