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| Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Richard Baker, Frank Brunner, Joseph Carriker Jr.
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $17.33
You Save: $12.62 (42%)
New (9) Used (6) from $14.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  33 reviews
Sales Rank: 43452
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 160
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 0786939222
Dewey Decimal Number: 793
EAN: 9780786939220
ASIN: 0786939222
Publication Date: August 8, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new, may have remainder mark or slight shelfware
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Product Description
Tome of Battle introduces a new combat subsystem for the D&D game. Tome of Battle introduces new rules for players who want new and interesting combat options for their characters. The nine martial disciplines presented within allow a character with the proper knowledge and focus to perform special combat maneuvers and nearly magical effects. Three new martial adept base classes are presented that allow a character to develop their discipline even further. Also included are new feats and prestige classes that build on the disciplines, new magic items and spells, and new monster and organizations.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 28 more reviews...
You'll need two copies and a bookkeeper August 11, 2006
51 out of 55 found this review helpful
This is an interesting and potentially exciting supplement, but there are so many new rules, you'll need a copy of the book for yourself and your GM. This is one of those supplements where the crunchy bits are so extensive you can't just drop it into an existing game and run with it.
Likewise, the crunchy bits are tightly intertwined and have new rules systems meaning that the GM and the player will need to understand them. Unlike many of the other splat books, this one would be hard to pick and choose - you can't just grab a couple of feats and go, you and your GM will need to understand the rules well.
The system includes three new base classes which are really there to allow you to use the new combat rules. The classes represent three different approaches to extreme combat training.
The book offers about 30 new feats including a large number of tactical feats. The much longer rules section is the maneuvers and stances. Many of the feats either have maneuvers or class levels as prerequisites, meaning you can't just drop them on your favorite fighters.
The maneuvers and stances are the core of the book. They are organized into 9 schools each of which has a different focus. These special tricks allow you to gain advantages in combat. The advantages range from simple bonuses to hit or damage to the ability to take extraordinary actions or create what would normally be considered magical effects.
Because some of these tricks are quite powerful, there is some bookkeeping involved in using them. The suggestion in the rulebook of using tokens (or index cards) to track them is perfect and should probably be considered mandatory.
Overall, this is a great book and a great expansion. The extra bang for fighters is very welcome and allows you to create some very popular cinematic and fiction archetypes that you just can't get with the conventional rules. The extra complexity is worth it, but you definitely need to make sure that you read the rules thoroughly before starting to play or adding this to your campaign.
Brilliant ideas, but a mediocre implementation November 12, 2006
24 out of 35 found this review helpful
The book is based on really great ideas: maneuvers and stances could make VERY interesting even such a dull thing as a duel (it's still too simple in D20 System).
But... The concept of a game balance is totally overlooked in this book.
Consider a feat named "Rapid Assault". It gives the character a healthy +1d6 to damage in the first round of combat - freely! Requirements? Hey, Attack Bonus +1... So, a fighter can take Rapid Assault + Power Attack + Cleave at first level - and 2 fallen gnolls in one round are almost guaranteed...
Snap Kick - another feat - gives to any character with Improved Unarmed Strike something very similar to a flurry of blows: an unarmed attack with the highest attack bonus in addition to basic armed or unarmed one. With -2 to all attacks, yeah. And - oops! - this benefit is fully cumulative with the flurry of blows. If we can pay -5 to attack for +5 to damage (Power Attack), should we pay -4 to attack for TWO additional attacks? ;-)
So I must say: these ideas strongly require a balance check. They really can't be used "as is". I see this problem is overlooked by most reviewers.
 Understand What This is Before You Buy It April 19, 2007
17 out of 20 found this review helpful
The Book of Nine Swords IS NOT a simple expansion of the Dungeons and Dragons combat system; it is three new classes, multiple new abilities that will alter the nature of most games, and an interesting story arc that ties them all together. It is important that the second aspect is realized by all those involved in the game - especially the other players. The new classes are, quite honestly, more powerful than many of the core classes (especially at early levels) - and their addition will change the game dynamic.
The three new classes revolve around new abilities called "maneuvers" that are used during combat rounds. In essence, these are super-powerful combat feats that renew very quickly (sometimes by the next round). While these maneuvers aren't as powerful as a fireball spell, they do offer many bonuses including increased damage, extra melee attacks, and improved armor class. Combined with other abilities that the new classes get, this makes them TOO POWERFUL for most traditional games. In fact, adding them to a current game will probably result in all of the melee-types (fighters, rogues, paladins, etc...) taking at least one level of a new class because of the major power boost they will get.
That's the biggest problem with this supplement - it isn't balanced. This is a trend that has gone on with other recent supplements including Dungeonscape, and makes me wonder if Wizards of the Coast is still playtesting their products prior to release. The classes themselves are fun to play, but they tend to only work well in a campaign focused on them (rather than stuck into an ongoing game). If such a new campaign is to be started, DMs might also want to consider other expanded D20 systems including Monty Cook's Iron Heroes.
A few other notes about this supplement:
- All classes have access to the maneuvers through new feats.
- The new classes often require A LOT of tracking and number-crunching each round.
- A useful way to keep track of crusader maneuvers each round is to use index cards. Write each of your crusader's readied maneuvers on an index card (one maneuver per card); the DM can shuffle and deal the appropriate number of cards to your character during the various combat rounds.
Final thoughts: This product isn't for every DM's game, so be aware of that before you buy it. For those looking to add flavor to a new campaign, though, it has definite potential.
 Breaths New Life into D&D Close Combat September 4, 2006
16 out of 17 found this review helpful
I have to admit I was a bit skeptical about this product when I first heard about it. I generally like my games to have a lower power level, and I haven't bought many "splatbooks" in the past. Plus, over the top fighting styles usually don't excite me. However, as I read some of the promotional material my interest started to peak.
I knew from my gaming experiences that the spell casting classes tended to outclass the physical combatants. Not only did they get much more powerful, but they had a more interesting options. I don't mind playing a weak character (I played a half-orc diviner in one campaign) , but the game is simply not fun when you are unable to contribute to the fights as often happens with physical fighters at high levels.
The book of nine-swords changes this with a dynamic new system of "maneuvers", special fighter abilities that are superficially similar to spells. The book introduces three new base classes collectively known as Martial Adepts: the crusader, swords sage, and warblade that utilize these techniques. The game does this amazingly well and the system is easy to learn (especially if you keep track of the maneuvers on note-cards as the book recommends).
A martial adept can ready a few manuvers at the beginning of each battle and as he uses them, they go away. However, unlike a spell caster, he doesn't need to get a full nights rest to recover his powers - just a few minutes of practice / recovery time. This allows the martial adept to keep the durability that fighters are supposed to have over mages. The maneuvers themselves are very well done - they all have flavor text telling you exactly what they look like in battle and even the more fantastic ones them sound more exciting and flashy then just cheesy.
The martial adept classes give a strong alternative to traditional spell casters without taking their place. High level maneuvers are impressive but not as flexible or powerful as equivalent spells. At the same time, they make front line fighting dynamic and exciting. The book even enhances the power of existing characters, providing several feats that allow anyone to learn a maneuver or two. I would highly recommend this book, its approach is brand new and breaths new life into the D&D combat system.
A Low-Magic Campaign Dream August 16, 2006
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
After a summer of what I've considered a series of poor releases, this book has been the shining beacon to look forward to for D&D campaigns. The supplement is almost entirely self-contained, much like the previous Tome of Magic, in that very few pieces of the book are useful to any characters that are not built directly from the three base classes presented therein. This is probably the largest drawback of the book, aside from the potential that like many D&D supplements, we may see little more from WotC on the subject of Martial Disciplines and Maneuvers in the future.
The highlights of the book are the three new base classes: Crusader, Swordsage, and Warblade. The Crusader has the most complicated system as far as having maneuvers available to him, but its class abilities make it a formidable character option for front-line offense. Swordsages are your "Wizards" of the Tome of Battle, as they have the most options in terms of maneuvers known and disciplines available. Warblades are the closest to traditional fighters, and would be a great class for someone who likes fighter-types but with a little more pizzazz.
You've got nine Martial Disciplines, each with a unique flavor. Desert Wind focuses on mobility and fire damage, Tiger Claw focuses on animalistic movements and attacks, Setting Sun emphasizes throws and trips in a very Judo-like fashion, as a few examples. Each discipline has about 20-30 maneuvers of differing levels, some of which get very powerful. The maneuvers include strikes, boosts, counters, and stances. Strikes are like one-hit spell effects, boosts are temporary bonuses to some attribute, counters are immediate actions that can be used, and stances are lasting effects that only end when you change stances or altogether stop that stance. The advanced maneuvers tend to look very overpowered, but when compared with spellcasters of equivalent levels, they are very much on par. Remember, 20th level spellcasters have a bevy of instant-kill spells at their disposal, 20th level Psions can create their own planes of existence, so being able to deal +100 damage on a single strike as a 20th level Warblade shouldn't be too out of line.
The feats and prestige classes are almost entirely self-contained. Most feats require some knowledge of a martial discipline; all of the tactical feats do. A few prestige classes require caster level prerequisites (Jade Phoenix Mage) or undead turning capabilities (Ruby Knight Vindicator).
As for the Nine Blades themselves, these are Weapons of Legacy that follows the rules of the book of the same name. It is nice to see a little revisit to that text, which I had assumed would quickly fall by the wayside.
In brief, this book is wonderful if you're running a low-magic campaign with an emphasis on a more tactical combat. Even in a high-magic setting, this gives fighter types more flavor in their motions, so "advance, full-attack, full-attack" isn't the only thing they have available. It's not for everyone, but I'm certainly going to make good use of it in my campaigns.
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