Tome of Battle in AoW?

[Atch]

I was getting ready to start a play by post campaign of AoW when one of my players gets a hold of the new book, Tome of Battle. After I glanced through it, my player told me that it would be balanced and it wouldn't mess with the game. My problem is that I can't prove him right or wrong. My initial rule was that if it had not been published prior to the last adventure in the AoW campaign then it was not welcome. I did this to make sure that later surprises would have been anticipated by the designers. What I am asking is whether or not anyone here would think that ToB would be welcome in AoW without becoming unbalanced. I really like the adventures as they are, not just because I am lazy either ;), but also because they are good and I don't want to screw them up. I would really really appreciate some input here on this.

Thanks!

[Andreas Hempel]

I really like the Tome of Battle, but that is not because it grants powerful possibilities (which it might do, a look on the optimization boards at Wizards turns up some cheesy combos), but because it gives your players the possibility to play cool, "different" fighters.
The battle maneuvers granted give melee-types some options they have not had up to now (fire damage, counter attacks, heck, even Dimension Door-like teleportation), but nothing that is actually new to the game.
The party wizard will still be better at annihilating hordes of minions of at blasting the BBEG with elemental attacks or at teleporting the group to safety. The party cleric is still the primary healer. The party barbarian in rage is still a fearsome power to be reckoned with. The party fighter still has the most feats (and therefore a variety of options). The party rogue will still be responsible for checking for traps and taking out that handful of sneak attack damage.
I do not think, the book presents you with problems. Check with your player, which combos he wants to use, ban or restrict the cheesy ones (anything which sounds wrong to you) and let him have fun with a melee fighter that has really cool stuff at his disposal.

[Heathansson]

Generally, I think it can be an iffy idea to let the players run in on you with books you don't have. You need time to absorb it all and figure out what it all means. Even IF it's balanced, the knowledge disparity can be potentially dangerous.
I used to run into this a lot playing RIFTS, but I'd go with it and bump things up as I went; probing the pc's defences as it were. When you can't draw a straight bead on the enemy, that's what mortars are for.
That being said, I have the book; being one who never gave much of a thought to game balance as well as being in between games right now, I can't really evince an opinion on it. But it is a fun new toy, IMHO.

[Atch]

Thanks for the input all. I think that will probably not include it in the campaign since it is a play by post and some may not be familiar with it enough sight unseen. The player is cool with my decision but I appreciate the input!