Multiclassing Fighter and Warblade
Fighter and Warblade multiclass pretty well. Warblade levels count as Fighter levels (excepting the first two), and Fighter levels count half as Initiator Levels.
That said, Fighter 3 is pretty useless, unless you’re taking the Zhentarim Soldier substitution levels. You probably want to avoid that if you can. Ask your DM to retrain them as Warblade levels, starting early, or perhaps as something else.
Something 4/Warblade 1 is a good break-down because that way you start your Warblade career with Initiator Level 3 – you can take 2nd-level maneuvers right off the bat.
As such, you might take Fighter 4 before switching to Warblade. Another feat is not really a great option, but it’re there (don’t take Weapon Specialization; it’s awful). You could even take Martial Study, to get a maneuver that’s “always readied” (but that you cannot recover) – even something from a school Warblades don’t get.
Better options include Barbarian (Lion Spirit Totem from Complete Champion can get you Pounce, and Rage is good), or Cleric (the BAB loss is a shame, but not a huge deal: Domains can get you a wide range of things, you could get some utility spells, and Travel Devotion from Complete Champion is an excellent option), or even Ranger (great BAB/skills, some feats). If your Charisma is good, Knight might be OK (d12 HD, mostly, though, since you won’t get Bulwark of Defense at Knight 4), and if you can retrain one of those Fighter levels, Paladin’s Divine Grace is pretty awesome.
Replacing Fighter with Warblade
This is mostly about taking maneuvers that replicate your feats. I’ll just go down the list:
Skills
You have 2 more skill points per level now. I recommend Concentration for one because Diamond Mind is an excellent discipline and relies on it heavily. The other can be whatever you like.
Power Attack
This is probably a feat you should still take as a Warblade.
Cleave and Great Cleave
There are maneuvers that have similar effects as these, from White Raven or Iron Heart.
Improved Critical
How do you have this? It requires BAB +8. Anyway, it’s not a very good feat, and is unlikely to change much about your character if he doesn’t have it (which is why it’s not a very good feat).
To replicate the idea that your warrior is good at that perfect strike that does extra damage, take a look at the Diamond Mind discipline. It’s all about having that perfect strike.
If you really want to focus on critical hits, take blood in the water (Tiger Claw stance), and probably just take Improved Critical as a feat, or make a keen weapon, or buy a scabbard of keen edges.
Toughness
A Warblade’s HD is a d12 to the Fighter’s d10; that’s an average of 1 HP more per level, and 2 at 1st level. Thus, a Warblade 2 without Toughness has exactly the same average HP as a Fighter 2 with Toughness. After 2nd level, this continues to favor the Warblade unless the Fighter continues to burn feats on Toughness (which is a terrible idea; Toughness is an awful feat).
If you really want to spend a feat on your HP, take Stone Power; it’s very, very good. Temporary HP that you can refresh every round can take a lot of HP off that which is actually hitting you over the course of a day.
Recommended Low-level Warblade Maneuvers
Take moment of perfect mind (Diamond Mind counter); between maxed Concentration ranks and a good Con score, it’s almost a free pass on one Will save per combat (more if you recover it). The Reflex and Fortitude save versions aren’t nearly as important because Fortitude’s your good save, and Reflex saves tend to 1. just be damage, rather than death or worse; you have a lot of HP for a reason, and 2. tends to deal half that damage even when you do save.
Take mountain hammer (Stone Dragon strike) when you can: in addition to being a great attack, it’s the Initiator Swiss Army Knife. It ignores Hardness, which means you can mountain hammer your way through almost anything given enough time. Better than an adamantine pickaxe.
Punishing stance (Iron Heart stance) is probably the best stance available to you among the 1st-level stances. The aforementioned blood in the water (Tiger Claw stance) is not bad, either, though you really have to build for it. Hunter’s stance (Tiger Claw stance) is a good second stance, since it gives you some utility. Taking a Tiger Claw stance also allows you to take sudden leap (Tiger Claw boost), which is a great choice (that requires that you know another Tiger Claw maneuver).
Otherwise, pick two or three disciplines to focus on, and take the maneuvers that sound cool. Iron Heart and Diamond Mind come highly recommended, and White Raven does as well if you’ve got other melee types in the party. Tiger Claw is very good as well; Stone Dragon has some powerful effects but it does tend to lag behind the others, particularly if you enforce the requirement that they be initiated while standing on the ground.
Troublesome Maneuvers
You should consider iron heart surge and white raven tactics. These are both 3rd-level maneuvers (a bit out of your reach at this point), but they have to be mentioned. They’re the two most problematic maneuvers in the book, but they’re also very good, even ignoring the stupid abuses that their poor wording can cause.
Iron heart surge is extremely vague in how it works, and due to some poor wording in the book and some really poor interpretation in a Customer Service answer, it can do a lot of things it probably shouldn’t (like arguably shutting off the sun...) and can’t do a lot of things it probably should (like throwing off mind control). It’s a great maneuver as long as you and your DM agree on what it does or doesn’t work on. Mostly, if you can imagine Conan shouting “By Crom!” and getting out of it, iron heart surge should work on it. That’s basically what the maneuver is.
White raven tactics is very powerful. It’s broken, however, if you allow it to be used on yourself (which, by strict RAW, it can be since you count as your own ally). Just clear it with your DM before you take it; if he’s aware of the shenanigans it can get up to, he may not appreciate seeing it on your sheet without a talk first. I do not recommend using it on yourself in most campaigns.
Best Answer
Option 2 I don’t like much at all. If you are going to attack with simple weapons, Intuitive Attack is the way to go (and then the Strength is largely wasted, even before getting Wild Shape), and if not, well, then you can’t go with Option 2. So that’s out.
Option 1 and Option 3 are more competitive. Being able to attack physically prior to Wild Shape is likely useful, and that Dexterity is probably the way to do it. However, as a mystic ranger, you are a solid spellcaster: I think you are better off going with Option 3, and just acting like the spellcaster you are. That should get you to level 5 without too much trouble.
Plus, if you want to attack physically in Option 3, you can take Intuitive Attack and use those simple melee weapons, or take Zen Archery and use that longbow: your damage will be poor, at least until you get those damage feats (Knowledge Devotion, Power Attack) that you’ll also use when Wild Shaped. Remember: all natural weapons are simple, and Intuitive Attack applies to them. If your Wild Shape form has a higher Strength than your Wisdom, it’s worthless, but if not, it’s still got some value even after you get Wild Shape. As for Zen Archery, ranged natural attacks are rare so you may want to continue using ranged weapons sometimes. Definitely speak to your DM about what ranged weapons you might be able to use while Wild Shaped into primate forms or similar.
Once you have Wild Shape, definitely also take Natural Spell. You’ll be able to put those spellcasting skills that you exercised before you had Wild Shape, while Wild Shaped. That’s very good.
Another thing to consider is Sword of the Arcane Order from Champions of Valor. This feat allows you to keep a spellbook and fill it with sor/wiz spells, which you can prepare with your ranger spell slots. These spells use your Intelligence rather than Wisdom to set the save DC, but they’re still ranger spells, which means, among other things, that you don’t have to worry about armor interfering with the spells. If you take this feat, the 15 Intelligence that you have under Option 3 becomes very valuable.