Which is better for a Swashbuckling Rogue: Magic Initiate or Dual Wielding?

[Eshfyre]

I'm trying to decide which would be best for my Swashbuckler: taking Magic Initiate at level 4 and sticking with rapier or taking stats or some other feat and stick with dual wielding shortswords?

Magic Initiate would give me Booming Blade or Green Flame Blade and Find Familiar (which I would definitely reskin my owl as a Parrot since I'm a pirate) which is cool and flavorful, however with Fancy Footwork I can Disengage for free negating the cost of dual wielding attacking a second time and I get Sneak Attack damage as well (I think?). So my question is which is better?

[DarkKnightJin]

Sneak Attack can only be applied once per turn.
You get 1 boost of damage per turn. Thr Familiar could help with scouting, and giving you Advantage on attacks when needed.

[Khrysaes]

I'm trying to decide which would be best for my Swashbuckler: taking Magic Initiate at level 4 and sticking with rapier or taking stats or some other feat and stick with dual wielding shortswords?

Magic Initiate would give me Booming Blade or Green Flame Blade and Find Familiar (which I would definitely reskin my owl as a Parrot since I'm a pirate) which is cool and flavorful, however with Fancy Footwork I can Disengage for free negating the cost of dual wielding attacking a second time and I get Sneak Attack damage as well (I think?). So my question is which is better?

Booming blade would let you hit the opponent, and then move away with Fancy footwork, either having the enemy hold position, or take the damage to chase you.

[Captain Bob]

Depends on how kind your DM will be to you when you spring advantage-rolled booming blades every turn. If he's likely to have your owl friend go up in flames from fireballs every encounter....probably not worth ~4.5 damage when you could just make 2 attack attempts --- note that having more than one chance to hit your once a round sneak attack is a pretty nice thing for rogues...you only really need one attack to hit, so having 2 dice rolls kinda insulates you from natty 1's. Which means that IF you end up losing your familiar all the time to the fires of war, dat cantrip becomes riskier and I would argue, less valuable than striking twice.

I'd also argue that you'd be better off reaching closer to maxx'd dexterity in the long run, it gives you so much awesome stuff between to-hit, damage, initiative, AC, saving throws (which also has synergy with your save proficiency and class feature evasion at level 7). If damage is the concern, dip a level of fighter at some point for two weapon fighting - it'll roughly even out if you have 18-20 dex, and oddly enough It may be a more palatable opportunity cost than giving up an ASI. Particularly because you also could go into a neat fighter rogue MC if you have the inclination later on.

[Khrysaes]

Depends on how kind your DM will be to you when you spring advantage-rolled booming blades every turn. If he's likely to have your owl friend go up in flames from fireballs every encounter....probably not worth ~4.5 damage when you could just make 2 attack attempts --- note that having more than one chance to hit your once a round sneak attack is a pretty nice thing for rogues...you only really need one attack to hit, so having 2 dice rolls kinda insulates you from natty 1's. Which means that IF you end up losing your familiar all the time to the fires of war, dat cantrip becomes riskier and I would argue, less valuable than striking twice.

I'd also argue that you'd be better off reaching closer to maxx'd dexterity in the long run, it gives you so much awesome stuff between to-hit, damage, initiative, AC, saving throws (which also has synergy with your save proficiency and class feature evasion at level 7). If damage is the concern, dip a level of fighter at some point for two weapon fighting - it'll roughly even out if you have 18-20 dex, and oddly enough It may be a more palatable opportunity cost than giving up an ASI. Particularly because you also could go into a neat fighter rogue MC if you have the inclination later on.

Note that nothing would prevent you from taking the other feat the next asi. I believe, since off hand attacks are bonus actions, that you could booming blade AND use a secondary attack.

[pdegan2814]

When I played my Swashbuckler, I took the Dual Wielder feat. Mostly for RP reasons, so I could have him fight with a rapier and dagger, duelist-style. Plus, since Swashbucklers can step away from people they attack without having to use their Bonus Action to Disengage, I had an extra chance to land that Sneak Attack each turn.

[Talionis]

Note that nothing would prevent you from taking the other feat the next asi. I believe, since off hand attacks are bonus actions, that you could booming blade AND use a secondary attack.

This would be cool if it's the way it works. I'm Jimbo or sure it is though.


I would say Magic Initiate by far unless you don't want it for a role play reason. Booming Blade and then moving is really powerful. Having a familiar is fun and gives you a lot of options, even if it needs to clear out in combat situations.

You can always two hand attack without the feat and you won't always want to use Booming Blade so in those situations you attack twice without the feat.

Totally agree Rogues get so much from Dexterity so I'd push that before getting two weapon fighting feat.

[Talionis]

Note that nothing would prevent you from taking the other feat the next asi. I believe, since off hand attacks are bonus actions, that you could booming blade AND use a secondary attack.

This would be cool if it's the way it works. I'm Jimbo or sure it is though.


I would say Magic Initiate by far unless you don't want it for a role play reason. Booming Blade and then moving is really powerful. Having a familiar is fun and gives you a lot of options, even if it needs to clear out in combat situations.

You can always two hand attack without the feat and you won't always want to use Booming Blade so in those situations you attack twice without the feat.

Totally agree Rogues get so much from Dexterity so I'd push that before getting two weapon fighting feat.

[Captain Bob]

Doesn't work that way. Booming blade is a weapon attack as a component of casting the spell - you don't take the attack action, and thus don't generate the use of your bonus action for an offhand attack. Basically it's either or.

Also I'm advocating the fighting style so you can add your mod to offhand attacks, the duel wielder feat isn't worth in my eyes - especially not before you've reached dexterity cap.

[guachi]

Green Flame Blade and Booming Blade interact with Horde Breaker (as en example) and you'd get the extra attack from that ability as Horde Breaker triggers off of weapon attacks not the Attack action.

[Rhaegar14]

I mean... why not both? You could take Magic Initiate, dual wield short swords, and primarily rely on your familiar and Booming Blade, falling back on two weapon attacking when necessary. Unless you already have advantage, that second attack is actually not more opportunities to land your once a turn sneak attack; two attacks without advantage is two attack rolls, and one attack with advantage is two attack rolls.