Making the best swashbuckler (in style, not class)

[Aximili]

I'm making a swashbuckling styled character, and I wanted help with making a good build. All I know so far is that being a rogue is probably essential.

I have no need for her to deal the same damage as the Leap attackers, that's not her job. She'll deal with the social skills of the group, and have dex skills for her own sake.
She'll fight light armored, with a rapier and some other weapon (usually a dagger (no I wasn't inspired by entreri)).

The Stats will be ordered as DEX/INT/(CON or CHA)/STR/WIS
We'll be starting at level 1, and will hardly reach levels beyond 14.

So, I just wanted some sugestions, be them as builds, feats, PrC or whatever.

My thoughts were to go with Rogue/Swash for the extra defense that the gives me (the DM would probably allow me to combine the Shield of Blades variant with the rapier and the Daring Outlaw feat). But hey, what do I know?

[Rachel Lorelei]

A lot of the things the Swordsage can do are great for swashbucklers, as is the Shadow Blade feat. Do you have the Tome of Battle?

[Sornjss Lichdom]

The easyest wya to get social skills is take one lvl of binder class, plus 10 to diplomancy, and disguise self at will, comand once every five rounds. AwEsOmE

[Aximili]

A lot of the things the Swordsage can do are great for swashbucklers, as is the Shadow Blade feat. Do you have the Tome of Battle?

Sorry, forgot to say. Every single WotC book available, except for ToB.:smallfrown:

As for the binder, I'll have a look at it. Is it from Tome of magic?

[Sornjss Lichdom]

ya but you dont really need it if you look hard enough, theres enough info online,

heres the vestiage i was talking about:
Naberius:
Special requierments: 4 ranks in bluff, or any knowledge or profession skill.
Sign: Deep growly voice (like Riddick).
Influence: Love the sound of your own voice, and must when given the oppritunity must speak uninterrupted about any topic for a number of rounds equal to your effective binder level.
Granted abilities: Disguise self at will.
Heal one point in each damaged ability damage every round, and 1 in all damaged abilities every hour.
Pick a number of skills equal to your con mod that you have no ranks in and can't be used untrained.
Can command as the spell to one living target up to 30ft away, at 14th EBL becomes suggestion, once every five rounds.
May take 10 on diplomacy and bluff even if threatend or distracted and may rush diplomancy with no penalty.

[BardicDuelist]

See if your DM will let you use Swift Ambusher for the Riposte variant from Cityscape. Then you can have a rogue who deals a great deal of extra damage. If not, Rogue 3/Swashbuckeler X is a generally a good build with Daring Outlaw. You get ful Sneak Attack and 19/20 BAB. Use the Dungeonscape variant that allows you to apply 1/2 SA against creatures normally immune. You give up trap sense (fair trade since you would only get a +1 bonus anyway). Combat Expertise and Deadly Defense are very useful feats. If your DM will allow a feat from FR (I forgot the suppliment) Allied Defense lets everyone adjacent to you benefit from your CEx bonus. Combine that with the flanking feats in PHB2 and you can gain SA while boosting the party's rogue or other melee combatant's AC simultaneously.

[tannish2]

1 level in dervish(complete warrior) movement mastery is excelent for any character who plans on being mobile, they get ok skills if i recall and the requirements arent bad skill-wise

[Aximili]

See if your DM will let you use Swift Ambusher for the Riposte variant from Cityscape. Then you can have a rogue who deals a great deal of extra damage. If not, Rogue 3/Swashbuckler X is a generally a good build with Daring Outlaw.
As much as I like the scout, I feel like a d8 HD and average BAB won't be enough to make up for the rogues d6 and (also) average BAB. So that's why I was thinking more towards swashbuckler levels, but I haven't got a clue as to how many levels of each would be best, nor to which feats would help the most.:smalltongue: (besides, of course, daring outlaw)


1 level in dervish(complete warrior) movement mastery is excellent for any character who plans on being mobile, they get ok skills if i recall and the requirements aren't bad skill-wise
But they are heavy feat-wise. I'd need 4 feats, plus the two that I planned for the character (TWF and DO), and three of them are pretty lousy ones :smallfrown:


Anyway, If it matters (and I believe it does), I finally convinced my DM to allow ToB. I already have all the intentions of getting the Shadowblade feat, and I even wanted to combine the Swash with the Swordsage, but I just realized that the character would suffer from MAD.

So, I'm gonna take a peek at the WotC message boards about ToB in search for some enlightenment. If anyone cares to comment, I'll appreciate the help.