Duelist
THIS IS NOT A GUIDE.
This is a concept build that may or may not be optimized. While the tendency is usually to "make things work well", the building process is driven by the concept, so there could be better choices available to min-max a similar build.
The concept was born from the image above, it looks nice and it fits what I have in mind. I am also sure, that as soon as you DM hears: "I'm going to play an awesome Tabaxi Swashbuckler!" he will think of this. Please, have patience.
The character is also based on Inigo Montoya, the Spanish fencer in "The Princess Bride".
In the land of far far away our feline hero is a well reknown swordsman, excellent with sword and sharp of tongue. He is used to accepting a duel when a conspicuous bet is on the plate and doesn't miss the occasion to mock the adversary before the fight and once he has won. Our hero is following on the footsteps of a legend and wants to be like him... not true. He wants to be better. He is now travelling the continent searching for the best combatants, swordsmen and duelists with one goal in mind, beat them all. Duel, battle or war doesn't matter, he will rise above the others, he will became a legend.
Another slant on the story could be that he is looking for his nemesis, a duelist that he wasn't able to beat at first, or that he is looking for an old member of the mercenary squad that decided to betray his companions. There are multiple options, just pick one.
The idea for multiclassing into fighter is that our hero finds some books written by this legendary duelist on the "Art of Weapons - tricks and tips on how to win". Every chapter read from the book is teaching our duelist a new trick, a new skill to be better at fighting. The new trick or skill is obviously the one learned with the fighter level.
I wanted it to be cool, but at the same time I wanted a little bit of silliness. I also wanted him to say:
"Hello, mi nombre es Fulgencio Alejandro Felipe Garcia Fecundo Diego Jose Alberto de la Santissima Trinidad Rodriguez y Calderon, but you can call me Paco"
and I thought that a Tabaxi would have been perfect for it. Also because:
- they have Feline Agility that in my opinion fits perfectly with the Hit and Run tactics
- they have Darkvision and a good starting skill set (Perception and Stealth)
I AM USING A 27 POINT BUY, if you are using a different method to allocate abilities, I'm sure you are intelligent enough to understand what to do.
Let's start with the fact that I love Constitution and I will generally try and get a very high score on that, even though it means to have a lower score in my second important ability. I am of the opinion that I don't want to be downed. Downed means zero usefulness, I'd rather be charmed and start beating on a party member than be downed and do nothing. Oh the laughs...
With that out of the way, I wanted to optimize some of the aspects trying to be true to the type of character I'm building.
- Tabaxi are slender, that justifies my Strength dump;
- they are not very Intelligent, they are NOT stupid but they usually act on instincts and awareness rather than contrived plans, that's why I will bump a little Wisdom;
- Charisma is important to the Swashbuckler for the bonus to initiative with Rakish Audacity and 9th level' skill Panache. Since we are starting Rogue and we get plenty of proficiencies and two Expertise, I think we will have plenty of bonuses to put on Persuasion without the need to waste precious initial points just to get to that +3 modifier in Charisma.
This would be my preferred ability points distribution for this build:
| Ability | Score | Racial | Total | Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strength | 8 | 8 | -1 | |
| Dexterity | 15 | +2 | 17 | +3 |
| Constitution | 15 | 15 | +2 | |
| Intelligence | 8 | 8 | -1 | |
| Wisdom | 12 | 12 | +1 | |
| Charisma | 13 | +1 | 14 | +2 |
Level 20 build progressions are useless, even in the case one wants to play a Lv20 adventure the progression is not that helpful. In my opinion this build is great to play at medium levels (6-15), lower than 6 you are a plain Rogue and above 15 you won't get anything that will drastically change your game play. Fighter 3rd attack comes in play at Lv20, too late for it to be a game changer.
I will list anyway all the twenty levels of the build to see the full progression, so it is easier for one to make some adjustments if wanted.
I also think that jumping too much between classes can be detrimental, so while we will stay on one of the two classes for a bit, we should be able grab good features that change our way to play the character thus enjoying it. We will start as Rogues because of the initial skill proficiencies and the backstory. We then proceed to grab five levels in Fighter and since we are there we also grab the sixth for the sweet ASI. We then go Rogue up to nine and then we close with the remaining levels in Fighter.
If you expects that this build will talk about Booming Blade, using a Rapier with a Shield, sorry I am not. That would be a high optimized build that could use a Half Elf Moon/Sun as race and the Booming Blade cantrip at the beginning. Also a VHuman with magic initiate would work, but in both cases you won't be as cool as the feline fencer, so deal with it.
The plan with the build is to dual wield, so that we can get more opportunities to Sneak Attack, after hitting our target we will move away without provoking attacks of opportunity thanks to Rakish Audacity. The first two levels we won't have this opportunity, so on Lv1 we will probably stay ranged while on Lv2 we will use our bonus action on Cunning Action.
When taking the Maneuvers, there is one that holds a lot of value and it is Riposte since when triggered it will allow the feline fencer to Sneak Attack outside his turn.
SA = Sneak Attack
SD = Superiority Dice
HC = Hand Crossbow
SS = Short Sword
RP = Rapier
The build will progress along these lines:
| Level | Class | Weapons | Sneak Attack | Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rogue | HC | 1d6 | Expertise |
| 2 | Rogue | SS+SS | 1d6 | Cunning Action |
| 3 | Swashbuckler | SS+SS | 2d6 | Fancy Footwork, Rakish Audacity |
| 4 | Swashbuckler | SS+SS | 2d6 | ASI +1 Dex +1 Cos |
| 5 | Swashbuckler | SS+SS | 3d6 | Uncanny Dodge |
| 6 | Fighter | SS+SS | 3d6 | Two Weapon Fighting, Second Wind |
| 7 | Fighter | SS+SS | 3d6 | Action Surge |
| 8 | Battle Master | SS+SS | 3d6 | Riposte + other two Maneuvers |
| 9 | Battle Master | SS+SS | 3d6 | ASI +2 Dex |
| 10 | Battle Master | 2xSS+SS | 3d6 | Second Attack |
| 11 | Battle Master | 2xRP+RP | 3d6 | ASI Any feat (Dual Wielder is assumed here) or +2 Cha |
| 12 | Swashbuckler | 2xRP+RP | 3d6 | Expertise |
| 13 | Swashbuckler | 2xRP+RP | 4d6 | Evasion |
| 14 | Swashbuckler | 2xRP+RP | 4d6 | ASI any feat or +2 Cha |
| 15 | Swashbuckler | 2xRP+RP | 5d6 | Panache |
| 16 | Battle Master | 2xRP+RP | 5d6 | Study Your Enemy |
| 17 | Battle Master | 2xRP+RP | 5d6 | ASI any feat or +2 Cha |
| 18 | Battle Master | 2xRP+RP | 5d6 | Indomitable |
| 19 | Battle Master | 2xRP+RP | 5d6 | Improved Combat Superiority |
| 20 | Battle Master | 3xRP+RP | 5d6 | Third Attack |
As already said, the build is based on a specific idea so it is concept driven. If I wanted to minmax this build I would have chosen to use the SCAG Half Elf Moon/Sun choosing Booming Blade as my initial cantrip. Grab a shield and overshoot Dexterity so at Lv4 I could pick Elven Accuracy feat and that's as good as it gets.
What I don't like about the build is the AC. We are not squishy, we go in and out without any problem and we have different ways to reduce/avoid damage. So, why do I care about the AC? Because of Riposte we need the enemy to miss us. I think that having an Armour Class of 15/16/17 (maybe 18 if the feat Dual Wielder is taken) is a little too low and we won't trigger Riposte as many times as the shielded variant of this build.
Taking Dual Wielder will also help with drawing/stowing two weapons at once, because from RAW you can freely interact with only one weapon during the attack action. It is also possible that your DM will totally let you ignore this from the beginning, or at least from Lv1 in Fighter since you'll pick up Two Weapon Fighting. At that point it would be very dumb to ignore the fact that one is capable of using and fighting proficiently with two weapons, but doesn't know how to draw/stow two weapons at once.