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168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons' swashbuckler rogue offers a way to play the class as "loud and proud" instead of "silent but deadly." Unlike the ambush and flanking tactics of a more conventional subclass, the swashbuckler has features aimed at putting them center stage and drawing attention instead of hiding from it.
A swashbuckler rogue can cover the traditional utility skills of a rogue while also leveraging their charisma to represent the party in social situations. How you build the character will allow you to rely more heavily on the subclass-specific features or fall back on the rogue class's bread-and-butter abilities.
Best Species For A Swashbuckler Rogue
The Swashbuckler cares more about charisma than other rogue archetypes; your species choice can reflect this. Changelings are an already potent choice for rogues, able to change shapes and disguise themselves easily.
A swashbuckler with this can use the same feature to accentuate their personality and stand out more heavily instead of disguising themselves, or use it to turn off the bombastic parts of their physical presence when the a🐟dventure calls for more subtlety𝕴.
A powerful choice from the player's handbook is the high elf. The +2 dexterity is a powerful early stat boost, but the real standout feature is that high elves learn one wizard cantrip of their choice.
The cantrip Booming Blade increases the damage of your wea�✤�pon attack and coats enemies in an energy field that deals bonus damage when they move.
The Fancy Footwork feature from your subclass allows you to step away from an enemy you attacked without prompting an attack of opportunity. ✃Melee enemies must chase you to stay in range, triggering the bonus damage each turn.
If your DM allows you to pick flying species, a winged species such as Variant Tieflings or Aarakocra can build on the already powerful mobility of a rogue. The Fancy Footwork ability allows you to dive into combat and then fly away from the enemy you attacked without risking attacks of opportunity.
There is also some fun imagery to playi♔ng a fairy with an ey♛e-patch and two scimitars.
Check which sourcebooks the game will use before picking an option from outside the player's handbook. Some sourcebooks such as Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, allow for players to substitute the ability score increases provided by a species.
It can be fun to play a traditional strength-focused species such as the mountain dwarf or centaur and put a new spin on them by turning them into a rogue. Mountain dwarf also gives you access to medium armour so it is quite a strong choice. Similar rules are available for customising a character's background.
Best Ability Scores And Skills For A Swashbuckler Rogue
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Ability Score |
Uses |
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Dexterity |
Dexterity is king for rogues of any kind. Your sneak attack uses finesse weapons that scale to your dexterity for their accuracy and damage. It gives you better initiative and allows you to dodge most AoE attacks. With light armour it will also determine your Armour Class. Your ability to use ranged weapons will also scale to dexterity. |
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Charisma |
The Rakish Audacity ability allows you to add your charisma bonus to your initiative. Combining a high dexterity and charisma allows you to act early in combat. Charisma is also used for your level nine archetype feature, panache, a taunt-like ability that can force an enemy into a one-on-one duel. |
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Constitution |
Constitution is never a good stat to ignore. With only light armour and no shield, you'll want to keep constitution in mind to increase your survivability through extra hitpoints. |
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Wisdom |
Wisdom doesn't activate any of your class features but is tied to important skills such as perception and insight. Placing one of your expertise skills on perception can shore up otherwise weak scores in this area. |
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Intelligence |
Intelligence isn't used for any of your class features or major skills. Your points will already be heavily split for this build🐻, so this will likely be the lowest priority. |
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Strength |
Strength is the least useful stat for most rogues. You'll want enough that you're still able to use the athletics skill, but dexterity's acrobatics skill covers the major us💧e cases, such as evading grapples. |
If you want to lean into the swashbuckler's showboating flavour, you could prioritise strength instead of dexterity. Using the expertise feature to increase your athletics ability could make the Swashbuckler into a powerful grappler, letting you play them like a Pro-Wrestler.
You'll still want to keep a strong dexterity score, making this a difficult build to do.
For skills, you have free rein to lean into the rogue staples or veer off toward a more charisma-focused character. Acrobatics and stealth are both boosted by your considerable dexterity, but with proficiඣency and even expertise in these skills, they become reliable tools to f🤡all back on.
Acrobatics will keep you out of enemy grapples, while stealth will avoid some fights entirely.
Charisma offers you intimidation, deception, and persuasion. Which of these offers the best utility will ultimat💃ely come down to 𒊎how you role-play the character.
If your DM allows it, plan with other members of the group. Depending on the skills and classes other people are playing, it can help to take skills that complement them or cover up gaps in the group's overall ability.
What skills other players have may impact you similarly: Your ability to sneak may be disrupted in a party where everyone else is wearꦰing heavy armour.
Feats For A Swashbuckling Rogue
You may be forced to take fewer feats when playing as a swashbuckler to keep your dexterity, charisma, and constitution high. The remaining Ability Score Improvements can be used to take feats that either shore up the class's weaknesses or build on their strengths.
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Feat |
Applications |
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Alert |
This feat builds on the class's existing strengths. Gaining an additional five to your initiative rolls on top of your charisma and dexterity gives you a maximum modifier of +15! Immunity to surprise is a strong secondary benefit to ensure yꦛou cꦬan always act first. |
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Magic Initiate |
An outsider choice that allows you to learn two cantrips and a first-level spell from another class. Copying the cleric cantrip Thaumaturgy can create all sorts of dramatic conditions that your charisma can leverage, am⛄plifying your voice and causing the ground to tremble as you try and roll an intimidation check. Alternatively, stealing the spell Find Familiar from the Wizard list gives you access to a magical companion that can aid you both in and out of combat. Your class features allow you to sneak attack without advantage when fighting one-on-one, but the familiar counts as an adjacent ally for gaining the more standard sneak attack condition. Your DM may also allow the familiar to take the help action, granting advantage on an attack. You'll want to be careful, as the familiar barely has any hitpoints. Outside of combat, the familiar can scout ahead of the party or sneak through spaces too large for a medium creature. |
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Moderately armoured |
A rogue favouring strength over dexterity will want to upgrade their armour and potentially pick up a shield. The moderately armoured feat allows you to do both of these; othe🐬rwise, you would need to multi-class. |
The Mobile feat is a staple of many rogue builds but offers very little to a swashbuckler. Your Fancy Footwork ability already provides the main bonus of ignoring opportun𓄧ity attacks.
Swashbuckler Rogue Fighting Style
An important component of a swashbuckler's fighting style is the ability Rakish Audacity, unlocked at level three. It allows you to activate the rogue's sneak attack without needing advantage if the creature you a🌟re fighting has no allies or enemies standing near i𝓰t.
In a one-on-one fight, this is nearly guaranteed to activate on every attack, but even in group environments, you can use the ability to pick off any isolated combatants, such as wizards or archers hiding away frꦗom the front lines.
Where other rogues would need to use their cunning action to disengage from combat, a Swashbuckler can instead use their bonus action to make an extra attack when dual wielding. An off-hand weapon will not benefit from your dexterity bonus to damage but offers a second chance each turn to activate your sneak attack if the first one misses.
Rolling with disadvantage will still prevent you from sneak attacking when the other conditions are met. This makes you vulnerable to spells such as blindness.
Role-Playing A Swashbuckler Rogue
Despite the associations of the name, you don't have to play a Swashbuckler as a pirate character. This doesn't mean it isn't fun to have your magic initiate familiar take the form of a parrot perched on your shoulder.
- The Pirate background gives the feature Bad Reputation, allowing you to commit minor crimes without facing the consequences. This can be used to play into a chaotic or evil swashbuckler, engaging in raucous behaviour and taking direct approaches to problem-solving.
- The high charisma the class relies on also allows you to play them as a socialite noble, dueling with a rapier. The Noble Background can include the feature Retainers, which can be flavoured as dueling attendants or a trio of swooning fans.
- The gladiator, a variant of the entertainer background, offers some fun personality suggestions that are well suited to the swashbuckler alongside an explanation of why your rough and tumble brawler has good charisma and stage presence.