D&D 5e: Swashbuckler Rogue Guide. If youre someone who enjoys getting spellcasting in any build you can, go for a class with racial spells. A Swashbuckler excels in single combat, and can fight . You can't rely on that for damage output, but the Sneak Attack will help a lot. I would recommend starting Rogue for the bonus skills (Rogue then Fighter gives you 4 + background + race while Fighter then Rogue gives 3 + background + race). Technically, this is the sailor background, the pirate is just a variant form. She's already a criminal, and she's melee based - she uses EB only if she's out of range. No more waiting in the shadows for one of your party members to engage an enemy before you rush in. Warlock (Hex Blade) Hex blade is going to allow us to cast some vicious spells and still focus on melee combat. Spies, thieves, assassins, these are the archetypes that I picture whenever someone mentions a rogue, be it D&D or not. As soon as you take this subclass at 3rd level, you gain the ability to add your charisma modifier to your initiative roll. Uncanny Dodge: Refer to the 5e Rogue Guide. Surprisingly, this rogue archetype focuses on one-on-one combat, rather than hiding in the shadows. So long as you are not incapacitated, no attack roll has advantage against you. Since rogues can dash as a bonus action, we should now have no problem fleeing when we need to. Sticking with Swash allows for an additional ASI. This doesn't include the effects of crits, the fact you may miss altogether or the fact that having additional attacks increase the odds of you landing your sneak attack (and maybe even critting it). That is the subclass for players who want to play a real rogue. It depends on what you are trying to get out of the character. Fey Touched This lets you boost your charisma by 1, and gives you access to Misty Step and another divination or enchantment spell once a day. Plus Uncanny Dodge at 5th, Evasion at 7th! Defensive Duelist This is a great way to boost your AC if youre using a finesse weapon. document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Eldritch, and Blast. Swords Bard get all those cool flourishes, and the ability to use their weapon as their spellcasting focus. A well-armed pirate leaps from the crows nest to confront his enemy. At first level your leather armour (nerfed to AC 11 in 5th edition) plus your Dex. We cover the best background for Rogues in our 5e Rogue Guide, the only changes would be: Ability Score Increases (ASI) at 4th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level. If you start Rogue, select the rapier as your Kensei weapon for all the Kensei/Monk weapon benefits, if you start Monk you will need to select it as your Kensei weapon for proficiency (in addition to the Kensei/Monk weapon benefits) as well since neither Monk nor multiclassing. So make sail, dawn your feathered cap, and gear up as many one-liners as you need, this is going to be a great character for you. Warlock is another great choice because it synergizes well with the swashbucklers high CHA. Thats where speed, elegance, and charm come in. This means at level 12 with 3 ASIs you have 20 Dex and 18 Cha. Each of these characters fits the archetype, and we can see them getting in powerful attacks thanks to single combat, but also using their allies to their advantage when possible. Doesn't have to be a longsword. Rakish Audacity: Their Rakish Audacity allows Swashbucklers to add their CHA modifier to their Initiative roll. Real life happens, DM gets burned out, etc. At third level you choose your roguish archetype: Swashbuckler. Deception (CHA) Of the charisma options, this is one of our least likely choices. Speed, Elegance, and Charm. Is that something specific? Maybe youll clip a halyard to bring yourself atop a sail-like Jack Sparrow, or maybe you want to pull off any one of the stunts in the fight between Inigo Montoya and the Dread Pirate Roberts. Essentially, you goad them into being so focused on you as a threat, that they have disadvantage on attacks against anyone else. Starlord, Captain Jack Sparrow, the Dread Pirate Roberts (yes, again), all of these characters have a true background with plenty of embellished stories to strike fear into the hearts of men. Covering The Best In Video Games, Esports, Movies and Geek Culture 4. In this post, we will be examining the Swashbuckler rogues class features and how you can optimize your Swashbuckler rogue through choosing your race, background, ability scores, and feats. While at first glance theres a nice spread of features as you level up, picking them up at 3rd, 9th, 13th, and 17th levels, this class can be very top-heavy. Once you use this feature, you cant use it again until you finish a short or long rest. Rogues get the second most amount of ASIs/feats of any class, with 6 levels to choose ASIs for. While we still want to look for good skill proficiencies, we can put a little more focus into other features that a background can provide us for. Hone your skills with the blade, and sharpen your tongue. Glad you liked the guide! Pure Rogue vs Shadowbuckler or Drunkbuckler. Once you do so, you cant use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest. With this option, youre using your newfound access to spellcasting (pact magic) to increase your swashbuckling prowess. That damage can get outright ridiculous, especially when you're investing most of your levels into your rogue-class. No matter how you want to fight, the swashbuckler subclass is going to let you do it better. This skill is good for a specific build, and mainly a different type of bard like thief or scout would pick this up. Before we start using our charisma left and right for Panache at 13th level, lets boost it by 2 so we have a +4 modifier. What I love is the variety that comes with this kind of a move. Features that you automatically obtain through the Rogue class will appear in Orange and features that you gain through the Swashbuckler archetype subclass will appear in Pink. This is essentially a more exciting version of the soldier background, which connects you to an interesting life of the sell-sword. Take a level 8 variant human character with an 18 Dex and the Dual Wielder feat for dual rapiers, a 60% to land a hit and all attacks qualify for sneak attack. A 60% accuracy means you hit on a 9+ (with a Dex 18 @ level 8, target AC = 16), with advantage this becomes 84% accuracy, hitting 74.25% and critting 9.75% of the time. Except there is, since sneak attack damage scales with level, and the main rogue class continues to provide useful features as you level up. This effect lasts for 1 minute, until one of your companions attacks the target or affects it with a spell, or until you and the target are more than 60 feet apart. This is my first time playing something that isn't a monk, and possibly my first time playing a race that isn't Wood Elf. Covering The Best In Video Games, Esports, Movies and Geek Culture Well want to get a full 7-level dip into this class, even though a 3 or even 1-level dip would still yield us benefits. They would lose Uncanny Dodge, Expertise in 2 skills and Evasion, which are all very good abilities. I recommend at least 5 levels for Extra Attack, which if you are two-weapon fighting as per the intent of the subclass, that gives you three attacks per round to land Sneak Attack. 1000% yes. So, yes, you could casting it, move, and dash in the same turn. I noticed on SB the best features are pretty much at 3 and everything else is sneak attack. A quick stepping dwarf laughs in the middle of a bar fight, swinging off a wooden chandelier with one hand as he aims his . Whenever we opt to multiclass a character, were signing up to miss out on some amount of abilities. So an multiclass away has to be worth it!Personally I think 5 lvls of Fighter is terrible for Rogue. As she sees her opening, she leaps out to attack, and just as quickly disappears into darkness once more. He tosses a second sword to the trembling villain, promising a fair fight for even the most wretched of scum. Alternatively, if you fail an ability check, you can treat the d20 roll as a 20. We also discuss options that normally would be good for a typical build, but underperform when used in a subclass. In D&D, this gives us a really exciting character to play. Combine this with their buffed sneak attack and Swashbucklers will commonly find themselves dancing around the battlefield, sneak attacking to their hearts content. Acrobatics (DEX) Especially with your Elegant Maneuvers at 13th level, this skill is a must for a rogue. Thank you for this great article! Required fields are marked *. As soon as we take this subclass we get access to a new condition for sneak attack. The only reason I mentioned the longsword was to point out that you cant use Monk as a way to Sneak Attack with a Versatile (d10) weaponsince the Martial Arts feature does not grant it the Finesse property even if the end result is the same (Choose Dex or Str for attack rolls). Disarming Strike, Riposte, Parry and many others are all great options. Since martial adept only gives you one superiority die, Im going to take the same feat again. Therefore, I'll have an opportunity to be a smug outcast or an honorable prince. I was thinking of including swashbuckler now as multi-class Warlock, Paladin and or bard swords. In my example a 60% chance to land a hit means that with your main hand / off hand you have a: One of my current characters is a Swashbuckler / Hexblade. Ultimately though, it depends on what you are trying to get out of the character. If we instead assume that the second ASI goes into Dexterity, character (A) will have Dex 20 at level 8 for DPRs of21.59 (L8) and24.78 (L9). If you are starting at a high level, try out your idea with three classes. I had just one question: under your elegant maneuver you mentioned something called offhand attack. Rogue 5e Class in Dnd Classes (5th Edition) - 5e Races best dndraces.com. So I come back to wondering about the in-combat use of Panache. As with most rogue subclasses, Swashbucklers tend to be a single target combatant. This is an ability that you have to be creative to use. To me this feels like the classic hero move, getting the big bad to focus on you. Lets take a +2 to our dexterity, moving us up to 19 for a modifier of +4. You get to add expertise to two more skills, or thieves tools. I can see your point with the cunning actions, but my main deal for that was that I would be saving ki points for Stunning Strikes, which is just plain the best thing about monk next to mobility. Rogues are masters of stealth and subterfuge, only plunging in the knife at opportune moments before . In all ways, however, you're a master of the battlefield. Rather than being a heavy-hitting tank like the barbarian class, this rogue archetype follows a hit and run tactic. Instead, a rogue now takes half of 2d10 on a failed save and no damage on the successful save. Is it another option for cunning action? Looking forward to getting full Swashbuckler at level 3. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. From it, I see that my feats are going to tied up until at least 12 level. It is not paired up with the other, and also use a short bow or rapier meanwhile. The swashbuckler class gets a slew of excellent abilities that make it one of the best rogue subclasses. Additionally, you gain a new condition that you can make sneak attacks under. Half-Elf does make a pretty good Swashbuckler, but then Half-Elves make pretty good everything, especially charisma based characters. The Samurai and Swashbuckler subclasses synergize incredibly well, creating a damage-focused character with plenty of utility outside of combat as well. After that we want anything that will complement our playstyle. Motivating Collaborative Worldbuilding. DnD 5e - Practical Guide to Multiclassing. This will let us conjure our weapons up out of thin air (interdimensional space) and opens up exciting invocations like Eldritch Smite and Improved Pact Weapon so that our melee damage, which is still our focus, can become even stronger. Im willing to multi with three classes because I think it would be interesting to have so many options like a true bard. They would be a dual wielder and a paladin of ellistraee. We can take martial adept here and grab up an impressive maneuver. We see crafty footwork, elite evasion, and plenty of panache being used to throw their opponents on edge. A swashbuckler build would be a complete and utter failure if it was not a fantastic duelist. This time Ill go with Riposte for a fun reaction attack. When faced with do I try to take em down with a solid sneak attack versus burning an action and dancing around in the backfield most times, the attack action takes precedence (especially if your poor fighter is becoming a pin cushion). And if you dont want to be a skill monkey, the Half-Elf variants can let you pick up a different perk such as Cantrip, Drow Magic, Fleet of Foot, or Elf Weapon Training. Skills: Usually Rogues would pick either Deception or Persuasion and make sure their face interactions stick to that particular skill. Of course, you dont lose out on the other sneak conditions. 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