Swashbuckler / Fighter Build Advice

[McSkrag]

I’m helping my wife build an AL-legal character that’s a melee rogue. She wants to be a melee skirmisher type build so I’m thinking swashbuckler with a fighter dip will be very effective in combat with some out of combat utility.

High Elf, or Half High-Elf
Swashbuckler X / Battlemaster 3
STR 8 | DEX 16 | CON 14 | INT 10 | WIS 13 | CHA 14

Fighter 1 - Fighting Style Defense or ? Proficiency CON saves
Rogue 1 - Expertise Acrobatics, Stealth
Rogue 2 - Cunning Action
Rogue 3 - Fancy Footwork, Rakish Audacity
Rogue 4 - +2 DEX
Fighter 2 - Action Surge
Fighter 3 - Battlemaster: Precision, Trip attack?, Riposte?
Rogue 5+ - Rogue life

ASI's: +2 DEX, Res WIS, Alert?, Lucky?

She'll use hit and run tactics with Booming Blade and Precision to make sure she hits. Rapier + Shield should give her a good AC. Rogue life gives cunning action, uncanny dodge, evasion, and out of combat skills.

What do you guys think?

[Snowbluff]

Swash + BB is illegal.

Instead of Swash, take Arcane Trickster to get BB.
Then be a Wood Elf for +5 speed.
Take Mobile so you can avoid AoO and 10 more speed.
Grab Longstrider as your level one spell for more speed. :3

[bid]

Swash + BB is illegal.
Both are in SCAG.

[Crgaston]

Swash + BB is illegal.

Instead of Swash, take Arcane Trickster to get BB.
Then be a Wood Elf for +5 speed.
Take Mobile so you can avoid AoO and 10 more speed.
Grab Longstrider as your level one spell for more speed. :3

This is banging, but High Elf or Half High Elf will get you BB if you want it.

Instead of Fighter, consider Dragon Sorcerer. That gets you better AC than studded leather and a bunch of cantrips and utility spells. Take it to L3 for metamagic and Shadow Blade.

Battlemaster is hella fun too, if that's what's pressing your buttons. Riposte is a must-have. Commander's Strike might be good depending on party composition. Menacing or Goading are good for a mobile character since you get to add damage and screw your enemy over. I feel like Trip Attack is meh because that's something you can do without a maneuver, and it really doesn't benefit you that much since you can already get SA through positioning.
Pushing Attack might be fantastic if your DM lets you add it to a Booming Blade hit. Otherwise it's merely excellent.

[Snowbluff]

Both are in SCAG.

Huh. How right you are. I guess I only ever use it for BB and BS.

[McSkrag]

Swash + BB is illegal.

Swashbuckler is in SCAG (and XGtE) along with the half-elf varients and booming blade. So it works with PHB+1. Good times! :)



Instead of Swash, take Arcane Trickster to get BB.
Then be a Wood Elf for +5 speed.
Take Mobile so you can avoid AoO and 10 more speed.
Grab Longstrider as your level one spell for more speed.


That's a super solid build. Personally I have a similar wood elf Arcane Trickster / Bladesinger who uses BB + longstrider that I love to play.

But my wife is still learning to play, so I think she will do better with a few solid tactics vs. the complexity of spells. That's why I thought battlemaster would be a good choice.

[bid]

Riposte is a must-have. Commander's Strike might be good depending on party composition.
Riposte is a nice way to convert reaction into SA.

Commander's strike requires taking the attack action and forgoing an attack. Very bad deal for a rogue.

Fear/aggro is the best 3rd maneuver, whichever fits your RP concept.

[Crgaston]

Riposte is a nice way to convert reaction into SA.

Commander's strike requires taking the attack action and forgoing an attack. Very bad deal for a rogue.

Fear/aggro is the best 3rd maneuver, whichever fits your RP concept.

You're absolutely right... I was thinking in terms of an F5/Rx build where there is the extra attack to play with, Not applicable to this build.

[CheddarChampion]

Go half elf and start with 8/16/14/10/12/16.

I say when you're out of superiority dice and you have many d6's of sneak attack, switch to TWF (between fights) to better the chances of landing at least one hit.
It seems like a better chance of +6d6 or so is better than a lesser chance of +6d6 +2d8, for example.

[McSkrag]

Pushing Attack might be fantastic if your DM lets you add it to a Booming Blade hit. Otherwise it's merely excellent.

You sold me on Pushing attack. By RAW it should work with BB since it only requires a "weapon attack" and not the attack action. Also works with ranged attacks and pushing enemies around is just good fun.


Go half-elf and start with 8/16/14/10/12/16.

I say when you're out of superiority dice and you have many d6's of sneak attack, switch to TWF (between fights) to better the chances of landing at least one hit.

It seems like a better chance of +6d6 or so is better than a lesser chance of +6d6 +2d8, for example.

I like that race/stat combo. Good call.

And I will have her get shortswords and daggers for TWF situations.

[CTurbo]

I can confirm that a Swashbuckler/Battlemaster that spams Riposte is an extremely effective melee character. Add Sentinel for an even better combo. Stand next to your buddy and you're pretty much guaranteed to get off a second Sneak attack each round.