The good thing about being an Arcane Swordsage is that you can still take actual maneuvers along with spells.  In fact, you could easily make most of your actual lower-level slots be maneuvers, and simply trade them up for higher maneuvers as you advance, while using some of your higher slots to pick up a choice spell or two.<br/><br/>For example, there's a spell in the Spell Compendium called Thunderlance that would be a pretty nice thematic fit for anyone from the House of Storms, while also being a very nice spell for anyone wanting to engage in melee combat...