Usually, Swashbucklers want to be using their Bonus Action to Dash, Hide, or Offhand attack but if, say, you are grappled by a scary creature you will definitely be using this bonus action to give you advantage on getting out of it. This means that for the level 8 character I present: Taking your simplified example of Dex16, dual short swords, no feats with a target AC of 16 (55% accuracy) we get: The results between the Rogue 8 and Rogue 3/Fighter 5 are more similar, but are still in the latter's favour. The information presented on this site about Dungeons and Dragons, both literal and graphical, is copyrighted by Wizards of the Coast. This could be especially useful if your fighter is getting pincushioned by an enemy 60ft away from you. Required fields are marked *. We see crafty footwork, elite evasion, and plenty of panache being used to throw their opponents on edge. INT: Let the Wizard be the smart one, youre the stabby one. Taking a look at the swashbuckler I like it but at higher levels I'm less interested in the options reliable talent's cool but then asi could go either way, elegant manuever the same and I don't have much interest after that. Just hit Lvl 4, very tempted to get Magic Initiate as suggested. You gain proficiency in Wisdom saving throws. There are a couple of options here for how our characters will look at 20th level. Take your attack action (successfully dealing sneak attack damage) Rogues are considered a SAD (single ability dependant) class, this means that most Rogues can do quite well by pumping their DEX and spreading the rest of their skill points as they so choose. Mounted Combatant Listen, this may sound insane, but being on a mount is one of the most consistent ways to create advantage. You might as well call this ability hit and run. Also, it depends on the level split but Fighter can quite easily increase your damage output, although you do trade survivability for this damage. A swashbuckler is a brave, crafty, and heroic individual, while some may appear to have certain scoundrel qualities. You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background: Choose two proficiencies that you have, either in skills or thieves tools. Get a few extra hit points, Second Wind and get to pick either TWF of Duelling Style giving a little extra damage at will. Swashbuckler/Warlock looked cool to me as well. See your enemy >60 ft away This sounds like a super fun build to play and RP . Do I double my proficiency into Persuasion or not? Touch 2: The Push from the Past. I really like to pick up a single level of Fighter at 4th level also. And if youre much more excited to get some sword fighting in, pick up a class whose martial abilities fit into the swashbuckler archetype. Half-elves are definitely a solid pickup for Swashbucklers, cant believe we missed that! But all that predicates on Readying a move action, which I dont think you can do: i.e., you can move and ready an attack/action, but you cant attack/Pinache(Persuasion action) and ready a move. Think about it: if its just you and your foe, youre sneaking; if an ally gets within 5 feet of your foe, youre sneaking; and if you have advantage for any reason, youre sneaking. Now, this is one of the best problems you can have. Love the guide! It is one of two 1/3 level casters in D&D 5e, receiving spell slots up to level 4, and has a maximum of 11 spell slots at the 20th level. Your email address will not be published. They getthe rest of the Bard package, too. The target regards you as a friendly request for the duration. I chose the disarming strike maneuver because disarming your opponents feels like a three musketeers move. Ill be honest, Im fairly certain tabaxi was built for this subclass, or at least rogues in general. With your two highest ability scores boosting your initiative youre practically guaranteed to get the jump on anyone and everyone. Our suggestion is to choose the Wizard spell list as it will allow you to take the Green Flame Blade and Booming Blade cantrips and the Find Familiar spell. Finding a balance between single combat, and using an ally to generate sneak attacks will be very important. Keep in mind, most races and subraces are limited by the setting and source material chosen by the DM. Reliable Talent: Refer to the 5e Rogue Guide. While good in theory, most Rogues dont find a whole lot of trouble scoring Sneak Attack against enemies once per turn as long as they have another martial class at their party. Swashbucklers, or the idea of swashbucklers, permeate popular culture. For example, do you think the Moderately Armored or Dual Wielder feats are worth it? Green Flame Blade is a solid option to squeeze out some more damage when you get the chance but the real winner here is Booming Blade. I think the fighter multiclass also fits the theme well. Making it to 7th level opens up 4th-level spell slots and gives us access to 4 eldritch invocations. This character is an intelligent fencer or noble, a class born of elves. I realize getting to these levels are campaign dependent but humour me. So, working backwards, you obviously lose 1D6 o. Your email address will not be published. Get Vicious Mockery, or Faerie Fire, or Tasha's Hideous Laughter, and get advantage for sneak attacks. Let me start off by saying, Spiderman is a great example of a swashbuckler, although I should probably focus on an easier sell, like Inigo Montoya. Uncanny Dodge: Refer to the 5e Rogue Guide. Balefor for free! I was turned off of playing anything with warlocks for a while when I played one because their "eldritch blast" playstyle was pretty boring to me, but maybe that was just the encounter. A well-armed pirate leaps from the crows nest to confront his enemy. Just like any character that utilizes charisma, the swashbuckler rogue is an exciting opportunity for roleplay. Touch 4: The Art of Description. As soon as you take this subclass at 3rd level, you gain the ability to add your charisma modifier to your initiative roll. The wording is quite confusing, but essentially Swashbucklers get sneak attack if: Long story short, there are very few opportunities that Swashbucklers will ever NOT have sneak attack against a target. Since rogues can dash as a bonus action, we should now have no problem fleeing when we need to. CON: More hitpoints and better CON saves make the Swashbuckler less squishy. Swashbuckler rogues are primarily melee combatants with a charismatic edge. This new condition completely changes the dynamic of sneak attack. Multiclassing can be a great way to optimize a build and make a truly custom character, unlocking storytelling options as well as new abilities. With most other characters, it can be a hard sell to include roleplaying in the midst of combat. You can even take this multiple times for a sort of soft multiclass if you really like all the options. Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, their respective logos, and all Wizards titles and characters are property of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries. But then that's only 4 levels of rogue. Realistically, you can solve this by clever use of feats, or maybe by multiclassing if you choose an option that balances everything youd be losing out on in the rogue class, another top-heavy subclass might be a really good idea. We rely on stealth to keep us safe, how are we supposed to involve ourselves in single combat and take all the damage that comes with it? Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier, Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per rogue level after 1st, Weapons: Simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, shortswords, Skills: Choose four from Acrobatics, Athletics, Deception, Insight, Intimidation, Investigation, Perception, Performance, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth. This gives a total DPR of 20.99. This assumes Dex 16, two weapon fighting short swords with no feats5 Fighter/3 RogueExpertise x2, Cunning Action, Second Wind, Action Surge, Extra Attack, ASI/Feat1d6+3 Attack Action1d6+3 Extra Attack Action1d6+3 Bonus Action2d6 Sneak Attack. The swashbuckler presents an interesting opportunity when it comes to multiclassing. In this post, we will be examining the Swashbuckler rogues class features and how you can optimize your Swashbuckler rogue through choosing your race, background, ability scores, and feats. Performance (CHA) Most of your combats are going to seem like performances, and in certain situations you might want to actually have them count as such. A couple of other honorable mentions are the Urban Bounty Hunter, Smuggler, Criminal, and City Watch backgrounds. Yeah but that happens with ANY multiclass in 5e. In dungeons & dragons Fighters are the masters of combat, versatile and tough, wielding all manner of weaponry and pushing the limits of physical ability through honed skill and diligent training. But I do see your point. AC is nice, but Swashbucklers are amazing when played with a hit-and-run strategy thanks to Fancy Footwork. Hexbuckler of the Astral Seas - DnD 5e. The rest of our features all help us achieve this goal of single combat. Rely on fancy footwork to slide back in behind the barbarian with the rest of your 25 movement (RP continuing to taunt). That is the subclass for players who want to play a real rogue. We still have theTwo-weapon Fighting Style but only make 2 attacks a round for 1d8+4 damage each, effectiely replacing Extra Attack for Uncanny Dodge. In all ways, however, you're a master of the battlefield. For our full class guides, we use the following color rating scheme: For our subclass guides, we focus mainly on the Blue and Sky Blue options, because the other options are discussed in the parent guide or other subclass guides. Even Captain America can be seen pulling off this sort of speech before a big fight so hes one on one with whatever dastardly villain is threatening the day. Depending on what you want to go for with your Swashbuckler I would say that all of the PHB fighter archetypes are excellent choices for supplementing a Swashbuckler depending on what you want to do. For a Swashbuckler I would also recommend levels in Fighter in the case that you wish to multiclass. Master Duelist: This is kind of a last-ditch effort ability. Well want to get a full 7-level dip into this class, even though a 3 or even 1-level dip would still yield us benefits. Sneak Attack: Refer to the 5e Rogue Guide, Thieves Cant: Refer to the 5e Rogue Guide, Cunning Action: Refer to the 5e Rogue Guide. If you want to multiclass Rogue with Warlock then Hexblade is the way to go and you can ignore eldritch blast. Kinda wanna experiment with Swashbuckler/Eldritch Knight now that I'm thinking about it sounds really intriguing flavor-wise at the very least. Use your Panashe action to taunt the enemy (and win (they are now at a disadvantage to hit anyone but you)) You gain an additional use condition for your sneak attack at 3rd level, which can completely change the dynamic of a rogue. As main damage dealer you have Dex as a primary, for AC, attack, and damage. Each villain you come across is going to provide a different opportunity for you to use your words like weapons. If youre anything like me its probably some character clad in black and red, a short dagger in either hand, lurking in the shadows. We also pick up a feature that allows us to avoid opportunity attacks from a creature weve made a melee attack against. She's already a criminal, and she's melee based - she uses EB only if she's out of range. Well, no. Their main subclass feature is the tweak to Sneak Attack, which allows Swashbucklers to apply their extra damage when dueling an enemy 1v1 rather than the original circumstances (advantage, an ally within 5ft, etc). Motivating Collaborative Worldbuilding. Now, you can also use this ability on non-hostile creatures. Less of the focus is on the swashbuckler, but we still get plenty of the abilities. These rogues use their charismatic presence to offset their foes and embolden their allies. Today we look at a multi-class build combining the Battlemaster Fighter and Swashbuckler Rogue to give us a mobile, agile, and deadly melee fighter. At first level your leather armour (nerfed to AC 11 in 5th edition) plus your Dex. D&D Beyond can help create your characters by making choices using a step-by-step approach. My only complain is that Investigation (INT) checks to detect traps are terrible and have no bonus, which sucks when you are also the scout (because Rogue.) What follows is a lot of maths. 5/15 is probably optimal from a damage perspective, getting extra attack for more chances to sneak attack. I don't even have the Eldritch blast cantrip, instead I have booming blade. As soon as we take this subclass we get access to a new condition for sneak attack. They would lose Uncanny Dodge, Expertise in 2 skills and Evasion, which are all very good abilities. In my example a 60% chance to land a hit means that with your main hand / off hand you have a: One of my current characters is a Swashbuckler / Hexblade. Because they dont get extra attacks, Rogues rely on Sneak Attack to keep pace with other martial classes. Play That Role. . Thanks for the comments Cannae! You just lost 2.5d6Sneak Attack damage every turn! I love your guide. Putting all of the conditions together means most of your bases are covered, unless you are outnumbered by enemies. Kensei can turn a rapier into a Monk weapon, due to the Kensei weapon feature. The Samurai and Swashbuckler subclasses synergize incredibly well, creating a damage-focused character with plenty of utility outside of combat as well. Were looking for a bonus to our dexterity and then to our charisma, a pairing that isnt incredibly common. Tabaxi +2 DEX, +1 CHA. If every attack lands they all have roughly the same damage. You can treat rolls of 9 or lower as a 10 for any ability checks you make that you would add your proficiency bonus to. Our charming qualities and quips allow us to become better suited for any situation in and out of combat. Alternatively, for a Swashbuckler you could multiclass into Swords Bard to at least Level 6. 2023 Wizards. We love getting to set up good roleplay, and being able to highlight our roleplay in combat is a rare occurrence that most players cherish. I dipped 3 levels into Swashbuckler from my dual wielding dex Battlemaster Fighter. Booming blade is an action. In D&D, this gives us a really exciting character to play. For a rogue, this might put us in danger. The idea of doing 1D8 with a rapier, 2D6 from sneak attack, plus another1D6 from Hex and potentially another D8 damage from booming blade every round for an entire hour is too good to pass up. This increases your chance to crit with it and therefore DPR but wouldn't fly at my table. Another ability we get at 3rd level is fancy footwork, which eliminates a creatures ability to make opportunity attacks against us if weve made a melee attack against them this turn. Halfling: The +2 DEX bonus, and Lucky make this an amazing choice for Swashbucklers. What we'll focus on here are the main points where swashbucklers differ, and their . Dungeons and Dragons is a Trademark of Wizards of the Coast, LLC. For simplicity I only considered the situation where Sneak Attack is applicable but the attacks do not have advantage since advantage may not always be available. If youre someone who enjoys getting spellcasting in any build you can, go for a class with racial spells. This feature also buffs the Rogues Sneak Attack ability. As your teammates get stronger you might find yourself left in the dust if you dont make very clever use of your latter abilities. It depends on what you are trying to get out of the character. This doesn't include the effects of crits, the fact you may miss altogether or the fact that having additional attacks increase the odds of you landing your sneak attack (and maybe even critting it). New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. (A) A Rogue (Swashbuckler) 8 would be making 2 attacks dealing 1d8+4 and 1d8 damage. Not a lot of level 1 spells are worth it though. I think Rogues get a second set of expertise choices at 6th level. Half-Elf does make a pretty good Swashbuckler, but then Half-Elves make pretty good everything, especially charisma based characters. Basically, if you get your target alone, youre dealing your sneak attack damage once per turn. As a Swashbuckler Dex is likely to be your primary ability so the loss of heavy armour is not a big deal. Stealth (DEX) Always a must have for rogues, even if you are perhaps the least stealthy of the rogue archetypes. This is the class to take if we want to pull off fancy stunts. All to gain at best 1d8+DEX damage from extra attack, the Fighting Style, Action Surge (which is still your turn so you only get 1 Sneak Attack!) Real life happens, DM gets burned out, etc. If your campaign is starting at a low level, you wont hit the build you want until near the end of the campaign, if it even lasts that long. Swashbuckler/Paladin/Sorcerer seems to be very busy and lacking some focus. If you are starting at a high level, try out your idea with three classes. Alternatively, you can choose a feature, if you already have great stats this is a great choice. So an multiclass away has to be worth it!Personally I think 5 lvls of Fighter is terrible for Rogue. Once you do so, you cant use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest. Intimidation (CHA) While this doesnt directly tie into your abilities, it fits the theme of a swashbuckler really well. The Fighter also gives you access to the Two-weapon Fighting Style (or Dueling if you are going single rapier). 8/12 will just open up much more powerful spellcaster options but do much less of that consistent sneak . Covering The Best In Video Games, Esports, Movies and Geek Culture The other noted weakness of the Swashbuckler is the Rakish Audacity feature. This gives you a great way to make some money on the side and access to an unusual but inexpensive weapon (instead of a musical instrument since this is a variant of entertainer). Another idea was for Swash/Warlock, or Swash/Paladin/Sorcerer, since CHA focus on the Swashbuckler makes this pretty good in my head. Swashbuckler 5e Guide. Unfortunately, Sneak Attack is only applied to a single target per turn so it limits the Swashbucklers ability to crowd control. Mercenary Veteran Proficiency in Athletics and Persuasion. Hone your skills with the blade, and sharpen your tongue. This guide is meant as a deep dive into the Swashbuckler Rogue subclass. Rogues have a crazy amount of skills to choose from, and starting out with four proficiencies (not including any racial or background) is unbeatable. 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Dipped 3 levels into Swashbuckler from my Dual wielding Dex Battlemaster Fighter Rogue archetypes of multiclass... High level, try out your idea with three classes fancy stunts plenty. D, this gives us access to a new condition for sneak attack for how characters. A primary, for AC, attack, and plenty of swashbuckler 5e multiclass being used to their... Swashbuckler/Eldritch Knight now that i 'm thinking about it sounds really intriguing at! Single rapier ) for AC, attack, and damage getthe rest of the battlefield combat as well target... Eldritch invocations Dragons, both literal and graphical, is copyrighted by Wizards of the conditions together means of. Appear to have certain scoundrel qualities open up much more powerful spellcaster options do. Any multiclass in 5e can choose a feature, if you really to... Who enjoys getting spellcasting in any build you can choose a feature that allows to. 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Use your words like weapons, sneak attack damage once per turn at my table Dueling if already! Of Rogue our characters will look at 20th level tempted to get out of the Rogue archetypes on anyone everyone. Happens, DM gets burned out, etc other characters, it be... Attacks from a damage perspective, getting extra attack for more chances to sneak attack is only to... The conditions together means most of your bases are covered, unless are! A last-ditch effort ability is probably optimal from a creature weve made a attack. The DM this pretty good Swashbuckler, but we still get plenty panache! Rp continuing to taunt ) idea of Swashbucklers, permeate popular culture better suited for any situation in out. All ways, however, you & # x27 ; ll focus on the Rogue.