"Optimized or balanced for different scenarios," first requires that a character be optimized and balanced.  The problem arises when classes that don't<em>have</em>actual strengths to capitalize on; the Fighter class gets absolutely no abilities except the ability to fight, yet isn't good at fighting past the earliest levels without a tremendous amount of work.  It's standard fare for everyone to have different strengths and weaknesses, but they must first have level-appropriate strengths to contribute at all, which is the Fighter class's problem past the earliest levels.  I can see what this (rather improved) version of Nara is<em>meant</em>to be, but the mechanics just simply don't pan out to anything effective as they are now.<br/><br/>And no, I don't know why it's the Warblade that got the d12 hit die instead of the Crusader.  I mean, Crusader is<em>the</em>defensive juggernaut class in the game (not counting casters), it would make a lot more sense for them, but I'm not complaining.