Fastest way to get to Master of Nine?

[axleleft]

Topic kind of says it all. If possible, using Stone Dragon and Improved Unarmed Strike to shatter armor would be pretty neat.

[DetectiveJabsco]

Give me a few hours I'm away from books. However, Shattering the "+5 Half weight Full Plate faycraft armor of XXX" is bad for your Melee guys.

[telehax]

The skill requirements put the limit at qualifying at level 7 and entering at level 8. The standard tricks for bypassing this don't work, no method can achieve four tricks.
The maneuver requirements are easily achievable through items, but if your DM doesn't allow that you can probably fit in the one Martial Study Feat you'll need.

Race: Doesn't really matter. I assume human or similar, but it's not needed.
here are five feat requirements. You get 3 Feats from levels, and possibly 1 from Human, forcing you to either dip, or take flaws. I assume your DM won't let you do that, because if not, this topic's question would be too easy to answer.
Thus, the dip. Due to the way you gain 1/2 initiator level from non-initiator classes, even numbers of levels are best. So a 2 level dip is probably best.

Fighter 2 is probably best if you don't want to lose BAB, but 1 BAB hardly matters, so here's some alternatives and their comparison with Fighter 2:

Sleeping Tiger Monk 2 - Lose 1 BAB, 2 HP on average, gain 2 needed feats just like fighter: Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved Initiative, on top of that, gain Weapon Finesse, +2 Hide, Wis to AC, Evasion, 2 more skill points/level.

Cobra Strike Monk 1/Cleric (Darkness Domain) 1 - Assuming fractional BAB, this loses 1 BAB and 2 HP on average. It gains 3 needed feats: Dodge, Improved Unarmed Strike, and Blind-Fight from the domain. You also get Wis to AC, +2 Escape Artist, one other domain, and the ability to cast from cleric scrolls later, partially negating the BAB loss.

[Tshern]

Armours cannot be sundered while worn though.

[RobbyPants]

Armours cannot be sundered while worn though.

Yeah, I was wondering where he was going with that.  And just a handy rules refernce, from the SRD:

Sundering a Carried or Worn Object

You don’t use an opposed attack roll to damage a carried or worn object. Instead, just make an attack roll against the object’s AC. A carried or worn object’s AC is equal to 10 + its size modifier + the Dexterity modifier of the carrying or wearing character. Attacking a carried or worn object provokes an attack of opportunity just as attacking a held object does. To attempt to snatch away an item worn by a defender rather than damage it, see Disarm. You can’t sunder armor worn by another character.

[tristanayres]

Perhaps he/she is referring to the STone Dragon stances DR bypassing abilities. Though that doesnt make much sense as only a few armors grant DR anyway (Unless you utilize UA variants I guess) Anyway Im tired and rambling I'll leave you to it.

Thanks for your time

[Maat_Mons]

You could use unarmed variant swordsage 1 / fighter 1 / warblade 5.  Warblade 5 gives you a bonus feat with blind-fight and improved initiative both being options.  Fighter 1, of course, gives you a bonus feat.  Unarmed variant swordsage 1 gives you improved unarmed strike, but more importantly, it gives you 6 maneuvers and 1 stance to use to meet the prerequisites for higher level maneuvers, allowing you to branch out more.  You can take the other 2 feats by 3rd level no matter your race.  You lose 1 point of base attack bonus, but also gain weapon focus. 

[Hallack]

Fastest way?  Looks like 8th level is the level of entry and with many means of doing so.  It is just a matter of figuring out which method you prefer.

Warblade5/Monk2 (varient for two prereq feats) is a good one but would require using a Feat to take Martial
                        Study.

Unarmed Swordsage (human) can do it without multiclassing at all but burns up all his feats on prereqs.

Basically there are many combos using these classes and others that can work.  Without knowing more specifically what your looking at not much we can tell you other than there is lots of ways.

[Suzerain]

Hmm. What about using the eat-stuff-for-HD + psychic reformation trick to bypass the skill stuff? And, if needed, buy feats via magical locations (or heroics) and DCFS. Combined with tricks for unlimited WBL that should yield Master of the Nine at 2nd (you can take the "open minded" feat to get more skill points).

[axleleft]

Oops, right y'all are on the armor bit. Without any of the odder tricks I'd like to get into the class with the most free feats - i.e. more character level feats to spend on non-prerequisites to the PrC. I do like the idea of breaking weapons with one's fists though.

[Brainpiercing]

You can Polymorph into a Bebilith.... I think the armour sundering attack is ex .

[woodenbandman]

Cobra Strike Monk. Dodge and Improved Unarmed Strike in one level.

[axleleft]

Cobra Strike Monk. Dodge and Improved Unarmed Strike in one level.

Is the level 6 perk of the Cobra Monk worth taking that many levels of monk? Or Monk 4/Swordsage 4? What would be a good exit level on the unarmed damage? Or are there maneuvers that would help get around that?

[telehax]

No. No it isn't.