THF Swashbuckling Bard? Is there such a thing?
- Thread starter Grimstad
- Start date
Mand O'Lin
Singer of Songs Drinker of Drinks
The all knowing Oracle has revealed the answer:
Sources being the wiki:
"Swashbuckling requires wielding a finesseable or thrown weapon in your main hand, wielding a Buckler or nothing in your off hand"
Sources being the wiki:
"Swashbuckling requires wielding a finesseable or thrown weapon in your main hand, wielding a Buckler or nothing in your off hand"
Grimstad
Well-known member
Lol... thanks.The all knowing Oracle has revealed the answer:
Sources being the wiki:
"Swashbuckling requires wielding a finesseable or thrown weapon in your main hand, wielding a Buckler or nothing in your off hand"
As the bard above says, no. You cannot be both Thf and Swashbuckling. That being said, you can still do a Thf bard just fine; Warchanter is quite strong now, and is even better at the buffing aspect than Swashbuckler is. You can pick up a lot of the Swashbuckler exclusive perks in other places, too. Evasion is more accessible than ever, Deflect Arrows is available from Tabaxi or Vistani, Int/Cha/Dex to-hit from Universal or racial trees, etc. I think Swashbuckler has been powercrept a bit, and could use a light revamp (Mostly giving it some imbue dice and maybe more melee power/sonic spell power in the tree), but I still find it pretty fun to play, especially as a SnB build with Dwarven waraxes+Bucklers..
If you're interested in playing a Thf bard, I'd say go for it! Pure bard can work, but Warchanter also has some synergy with barbarian, so it might feel more familiar to you than playing a pure caster.
Or, if you wanted to break into Swf, you can use the same gear you'd use while Thf, with the main differences being your weapon set (using a Swf weapon mainhand+buckler/runearm/nothing in your offhand). There's plenty of weapons that are easily accesible for Swashies, so it's not too hard to break into leveling/endgame if you so choose.
If you're interested in playing a Thf bard, I'd say go for it! Pure bard can work, but Warchanter also has some synergy with barbarian, so it might feel more familiar to you than playing a pure caster.
Or, if you wanted to break into Swf, you can use the same gear you'd use while Thf, with the main differences being your weapon set (using a Swf weapon mainhand+buckler/runearm/nothing in your offhand). There's plenty of weapons that are easily accesible for Swashies, so it's not too hard to break into leveling/endgame if you so choose.
Grimstad
Well-known member
Thanks, I'll look into it
seph1roth5
Well-known member
Swashbuckler has a few nice active attacks you can use 2-handed, but definitely don't want to t5 the tree.
Grimstad
Well-known member
I don't plan on going iconic again for a while. i'm trying to collect past heroic lives for buffs.
Zvdegor
Melee Artificer Freak
as I wrote you can do with many race now thx to dex trance
If you have Feydark, then it doesn't really matter if you use PDK as you can get cha to hit/dam from the universal tree. That being said, going str-based is now also completely possible for Warchanter, and works pretty well for a lot of races. 15/3/2 or 14/4/2 bard/ftr/rog splits were both pretty popular builds for a while, especially as swf+buckler Swashbuckler. Dwarf 16/3/1 or 15/3/2 with Dwarven Axe is a pretty solid way to play a Swashie, and has most of the things you're looking for (minus using a true thf weapon!).
If you're wanting to lean into the melee support idea, I'd suggest going pure bard or 18/1/1 bard/ftr/cleric or fvs and using Warchanter. The big thing Warchanter brings is the combination of bard buffs+solid CC; Swashbuckler just feels more geared toward solo play, and as I said earlier, has been powercrept a bit. Warchanter really shines in groups, as you get to buff everyone, CC lots of stuff, then stand next to your allies as you mop everything up.
With some of the more recent changes, Warchanter DC's scale off bard level plus str/dex/cha, so you can make a lot of different races+builds work with it. Clr/Fvs splashes get Divine Might for cheap tactics+damage (4 points for 2 min!), which would be useful even if you went str or dex as your mainstat. You could also take the dex trance from Horizon Walker if you have the tree, though it's more expensive (13 pts for 2 min). If pure, you could use Harper to pick up int for your tactics (8 pts for 2 min), and you'd still get to take the Warchanter capstone. Between those three stats, you cover the majority of races, so it's super flexible when farming for a PL (class or racial).
As of right now, Lamm has Dragonlord, which has a str trance, though it's locked behind 3 ftr. That might be something to play with in the future, if it sticks around.
What would the 1/1 or 3/2 be?
Also.... mix cha trance from dragonlord? Mix up the level balance between the two?
I mean you get +2 multi, a cha trance, cha to damage+tactics if you use a greatsword, cha for all things songy-casty in bard...
Zvdegor
Melee Artificer Freak
18/1/1 is 18 bard/1 barb or Ftr/1Fvs (for trance)
the other one is splashe with ftre and rgo levels iirc
QuantumFX
Well-known member
Probably 1 FvS or Cleric for Divine Might and 1 Fighter or Barb for a feat or run speed. And 15 Bard/3 Rogue/2 Fighter for option two. But....
...you are making a case for 15 Bard/3 Dragon Lord/2 Rogue.
If I'm reading this right, you'll need 5 Dragon Lord/15 Bard. And you'll need to give up the Warchanter tier 5's. But you should have a beefy number of imbue dice and some excellent tactics modifiers.
Fisto Mk I
Well-known member
saekee
long live ROGUE
Well the OP could do it, would just need to swap to SWF in combat and then swap to THF when running from one group to another.The all knowing Oracle has revealed the answer:
Sources being the wiki:
"Swashbuckling requires wielding a finesseable or thrown weapon in your main hand, wielding a Buckler or nothing in your off hand"
They can do a nice screenie too with stats, kills etc holding the THF weapon after killing stuff SWF and ending the quest.
I presume you're talking about Shining Crescents. Presuming nothing has been fixed yet, it's a very odd weapon:
- As a 2H weapon, it will get full Power Attack bonuses.
- It's technically typed as a sickle, so it benefits from sickle-specific feats (including Swords to Plowshares).
- It will also work with Weapon Finesse and Single Weapon Fighting. I haven't tested to see how it interacts with Offhand Versatility; though in theory, it shouldn't work since OV requires an empty offhand.
- In theory, it should also work with heroic SWF feats + THF Specialty, but I'm not leveling to 31 just to test that out. Likewise it should theoretically work with Prescient Curve (GMoF), turning it into a ki weapon.
- But it does NOT work with Swashbuckling, which explicitly requires a 1H melee weapon and Shining Crescents is 2H. [So why does it work with SWF which should also require a 1H weapon? Because SSG. ]
- But it use quarterstaff animations so it works with Acrobatics and Quick Strike from Acrobat tree. However it doesn't benefit from Staff Training / Specialization because (again) it's typed as a sickle.
- EDIT: does not work with Shadarkai chain attacks.
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Fisto Mk I
Well-known member
Your search-fu (or memory) is better than my.