Swashbuckler (Gish) build advice

[spbtc]

I've been mulling over a Swashbuckler type character with a minor in Gish and I feel like I'm spinning in circles. I have a couple of "design elements" to make things challenging.

1) Front-liner. I first started thinking about this character when our small party lost it's front liner due to RL. I wanted something that could stand on the front line and provide at least some cover to our casters. But, I'm not interested in a classic tank.

2) Swashbuckler. The character is dashing, mobile, colorful, charming. Two weapon fighting (yes, I know it's not optimal, but I really like how it plays to type).

3) Gish. I'd like to be some sort of Gish, but not necessary to be a full on caster.

So, I think it's pretty clear the core class is Swords Bard, with multiclassing. I'm leaning custom lineage and taking Two Weapon Fighting (for the AC bonus and the flexibility in weapon choice) or Mobility.

The question is what to multiclass?

I know a Hexblade dip is the obvious choice, but it feels dark for a very light hearted character and the Hex Warrior feature doesn't mesh with two weapon fighting (as it wouldn't apply to the off hand weapon) and doesn't really make this build less MAD. I also don't see Eldritch Blast playing any substantive roll in the build and Hex competes with off hand attack for Bonus Action. On the other hand, Shield and Armor of Agathys would be incredibly useful, and Hexblade's Curse is a great little boost for the cost of a single Bonus Action. So, maybe.

Fighter dip? Good base HP, a fighting style (Defense) and Second Wind are all pretty useful for survivability, especially in the treacherous first few levels. CON save proficiency, always handy for a Gish. Either dip get us access to Martial Weapons and Medium Armor. With Two Weapon Fighting that gives me a starting AC of 18 at L1 - again, key for early survivability. Fighter dip is more functional than flavorful (but that's Fighter) but solid.

Then it's a straight 6 levels of (Swords Bard).

I think I'd like to round out the first 10 levels with 3 levels of (Swashbuckler) Rogue. So by L10 I have 3 attacks per round w/auto Disengage, 3d6 sneak attack which is available when mano a mano, Expertise x4 (Persuasion, Perception, Acrobatics and something else), spellcasting, initiative bonus in the range of +6/7.

After that it's probably all Bard.

Thoughts?

[MrStabby]

I don't know if you were concluding that you were going to be a swords bard or starting there...

If you just want to play a swords bard - thats fine.

If you want a dexterous gishy charismatic fighter...

Dexterity paladin is an option. Yes it makes multi-class harder, but would you want to?

Warlock is also good - even not as a dip.


There are even some synergies you could exploit, depending on level.

Things like swashbuckler rogue + warlock could be good. Uncanny dodge and armour of agathys are nice bedfellows. Likewise uncanny dodge and fiend pac temp HP or similar. Hexblade's curse and sneak attack damage can make for more frequent and quite painful critical hits. Shadows of moil can be a great source of advantage for sneak attack as well (not that the swashbuckler really needs it).

You could also go a lighter magic route and lean on feats. Play a swashbuckler rogue and add a hexblade dip to use charisma for attacks. Then take the fey touched feat. Then shadow touched, aberrant dragonmark, fey teleportation etc.. With a lot of these spells coming in on a short rest coupled with short rest warlock spells, you can be casting a lot of spells in one day - comparable to a half casting class anyway.

[N810]

I ran a swashbuckler Samurai a few years back, I flavored him as a veteran adventurer who came out of retirement.
I ran the classes 50/50 up to level 10 or so I probably would have gone mostly rogue after that.

[animorte]

My first thought when anybody mentions Swashbuckler Rogue is a reminder to my duelist. It’s multi-class with Vengeance Paladin and is just supreme at dueling. This would be my recommendation, especially since you mentioned a little Gish and some front-lining.

Of course, you could choose any preferred Paladin subclass if you don’t want to just be a duelist. Either way, Paladin offers some gish-ness and supportive options while Rogue fills out nice skill areas. It’s kind of crap at range though (in comparison), but that’s to be expected.

I’ve always taken it mostly Rogue, just a few levels of Paladin. Of course, you know aura is nice. I’ve also had several variations, but it’s silky overboard multi-class shenanigans.

[CTurbo]

Swashbuckler/Vengeance Paladin is really strong and also fitting.

Another totally different option is to start Draconic Sorcerer 1, then go Swashbuckler.
Sorcerer gives you-
1. AC of 13 plus Dex so when you get Dex maxed out, your AC will be 18.
2. Booming Blade. As a Swashbuckler, you can hit a target with Booming Blade dealing a ton of damage, and then simply back away from it. If it chooses to follow you on it's turn, it takes more damage.
3. Two first level spells and four cantrips in which, aside from Booming Blade, I used as utility when I played this. (Control Flames, Minor Illusion, Mage Hand) Green Flame Blade would not be a bad choice here.

I think you'd want at least 5 levels of Rogue, because Uncanny Dodge is great, and I can see going Rogue 7 for Evasion too, but if you want more Gish after Sorc 1/Rogue 5, take 3-6 levels of either Swords and Valor Bard.

Valor offers a Shield which would bring your AC to 20, but Swords may be the better more fun option and also would let you take the Dueling Fighting style. TWF wouldn't work if you plan on using Booming Blade. If you do still want to use TWF, I recommend Swashbuckler 5, Swords Bard 3, Vengeance Paladin from there.

[da newt]

Being dashing is more of an attitude than a high CHA score - there are plenty of viable options.

Dexadin is the KISS answer.
Bard works well.
Dex based Eldritch Knight is potent.
Ranger is a good sword gish.
Hexblade warlock is another easy answer - feel free to spin it happy go lucky vs the cliche brooding dark lord wanna be.
Bladesinger is a great sword gish.


Add a smidge of rogue to taste or whatever tickles your fancy. With all the race options out there to flavor / add a bit of magic you can make most anything work.

[Sherlockpwns]

I’m a fan of the self-buff wizard (or sorcerer). You basically only take buff spells and utility spells. Wizards ironically have more power here, as both war or bladesinging have their places.

The beauty part is you don’t need INT (or whatever)- just focus on spells with no DC; there are actually quite a few! The rest is as simple as 1 level fighter dip to get the weapons/armor needed to front line. Booming blade and flame blade are not quite as good as 2 attacks, but you’ll make up for it in various spells- and all those self buffs are essentially the swashbuckling theme, be it haste or mirror image, or greater invisibility! And don’t forget blind fighting style and fog cloud.

Race is whatever, though if you want to skip using a shield you can go dwarf and not even dip fighter… plus a swashbuckling dwarf sounds like my style of dumb.