What would a "Good" Swiftblade look like?

[SangoProduction]

Swiftblade is a prestige class that grants a couple bonuses for being under the effects of Haste.

An incredibly intriguing concept, to be sure. After all, being fast is a fantasy all itself...although turn based RPGs with set optimal positions, and no other real use for movement speed do kind of suck most of the fun out of that fantasy.

It's an incredibly disappointing prestige class, not least of which due to requiring that you be a mage before you ever enter the class, and then you get bland bonuses.

But I'm trying to think of what you'd actually do to make it interesting. Like sure, you can continue casting progression. That's a way to at least not make it actively bad. (Doesn't help with being a SwiftBlade, though.) But what would make the class a compelling pick up?

Maybe some abilities that break the "normal" flow of turns. Like once per round, as a free action even while it's not your turn, or in the middle of another action (like movement), you may make an attack.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

That's not on the official WotC PrC list (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/lists/prc), and it's not in the PF PrC list (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/), so you need to say what book it's in. Even then, pretty much all of the official content can be found online, so people can give advice or at least know what you're talking about even if they don't own the book. Third party material is usually too obscure to find many people that have enough knowledge of the thing you're talking about to be able to help.

I recommend you take a look at Swiftblade (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/prc/20070327), it sounds like it fits the same theme and it's quite good. There's even a helpful handbook (http://minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=333.0) on it.

[SangoProduction]

Yeah. Swiftblade. That's the one.

[Elves]

AFAIK it's considered decent, which is rare for half-casters. But your casting can still be maintained with sublime chord. An example of a swiftblade build that gets 9th level spells would be x1/bard 2/swiftblade 7/sublime chord 7/swiftblade +3, qualifying for swiftblade with the firesouled or evolved undead templates (bought off). Albeit, doesn't get 16 BAB without fractionals.

What is the class not doing that you want it to?

Edit: Cute name for that build -- "Speed of Sound"

A build that would use Primary Contact retrain cheese and Codex Anathema to get 16 BAB: battle sorcerer 4/swiftblade 4/warrior skald 1/sublime chord 5/swiftblade +6

[Gruftzwerg]

build ubercharger + HIPS (e.g dip shadowdancer 1) = pounce + movement action to move away and hide again.

Flexibile Mind (feat from Dragon Magazine - needs chaotic alignment) lets you pick 2 skills as class skill for all classes. Pick move silently and hide to max em.

Darkstalker (feat) to have a more reliable hide skill.

Become a stalking predator gish^^

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Wild Elf with two flaws, Battle Sorcerer 4, Dodge, Mobility, Versatile Spellcaster, Ancestral Relic. Your relic is an Elvencraft (RotW) Composite Longbow (also functions as a staff), all three portions masterwork, with three wand chambers. Make it a custom Runestaff (MIC p224) that allows you to cast Haste 1/day (among others). Whenever you modify your relic's properties you can completely change what properties it has.

So at 4th level you have a +3 BAB, you can meet the skill requirements, you've got the required feats, and you can spend two 2nd level spell slots to cast Haste 1/day. You'll have spent all of your zero 3rd level slots not casting anything that's not Haste and meet that requirement as well.

Once you've got all the Swiftblade levels you want, take Abjurant Champion. If you need a few filler levels, a single level of Dragonslayer and then one level of Spellsword both get full BAB, two good saves, and advance your spellcasting. Dragonslayer gives you the proficiencies for Spellsword, get its Iron Will prerequisite from the Otyugh Hole without spending a feat on it.

[Efrate]

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?601292-Iron-Chef-Optimisation-Challenge-in-the-Playground-C

You can do a fair bit have a look.

[Fouredged Sword]

Another viable swiftblade is one that doesn't really bother ether finishing the class or bother being a caster. Caster>non caster is a real problem in 3.5 but consider the following.

Rogue 5 / Trapsmith 1 / Swiftblade 9 / X

You qualify for swiftblade on the back of Trapsmith having haste as a 1st level spell, allowing you to cheaply carry pearls of power to cast it 6-8 times a day. Between evasion, Blurred Alacrity, and Evasive Celerity you have a pretty flat 50% chance that anything anyone tries to do to you fails outright as you ether pass the evasion check to cause zero damage or have a 50% chance any single target attack or effect simply fails. You cannot be held in place due to the freedom of movement effect.

Then perpetual options kicks in and you get an extra action every turn.

It's not a massively powerful build, but it's a solid rogue who's blindingly fast and hard to hit.

[Elves]

Rogue 5 / Trapsmith 1 / Swiftblade 9

If you're doing a low-casting swiftblade who can't use the capstone, obvious uses for extra standard actions are shadow pounce and standard action maneuvers.

Catalogues of Enlightenment is probably the easiest way to enter trapsmith.
TOB 5/trapsmith 1/swiftblade 9/TOB base or PRC +5 is a simple build that gets 8th level maneuvers.
TOB 4/trapsmith 1/swiftblade 9/legacy champion 6 would get 9ths but you can't finagle the trapsmith skill reqs without inspire greatness cheese.

or put it on a generic shadowpounce build:
rogue1/dirty fighter1/totemist 2/x3/telflammar 4/swiftblade 9
x3 probably includes a warblade level so you have a refresh mechanic for WRT from a discipline item, or could be all warblade if you want it natively.

[Rebel7284]

Swiftblade is a pretty good class for gishing due to the miss chance upping your survivability and perpetual options being very very good. I have played suboptimal Swiftblades and had fun, but if you are trying to optimize it, do this:

Elf.
Martial Wizard 6/Swiftblade 9/Abjurant Champion 5

That's it. You can pick up the Swiftblade requirements as bonus feats and you get 9th level spells and 17 BAB.

Of course, the best Swiftblade build is gestalt.
Wizard 5/Swiftblade 1/Spelldancer 1/Swiftblade +8/X 5
//
Factotum 5/Wizard 1/Factotum +3/Wizard +1/Factotum +2/Wizard +1/Factotum +1/Y 6

With up to three standard actions per turn, full Wizard casting, Int to everything, free metamagic, amazing skills, the ability to ignore all Spell Resistance, and whatever you squeeze out of X and Y, you end up being a seriously ridiculous character.

[Elves]

Martial Wizard 6/Swiftblade 9/Abjurant Champion 5
That's interesting, I guess the 9th level ability really is the important part. I was assuming you'd want 10th, but yeah, maybe that's not needed. Makes it way easier.

[Nihilarian]

That's interesting, I guess the 9th level ability really is the important part. I was assuming you'd want 10th, but yeah, maybe that's not needed. Makes it way easier.you're a wizard so you can just cast time stop, as long as you get your 9th level spells.

Its a solid capstone for a bard build though