I've started a campaign with a Tabaxi rogue and plan to go swashbuckler. The party has a lot of magic users and I want to steer away from that for this build. I'm also trying to avoid multiclassing. I'm looking to maximize my damage using that criteria.
My stats are: Str. 8, Dex. 16, Con. 14, Int. 10, Wis. 14, Cha. 13 after racial bonuses. I probably should have sacrificed Wis to max Dex but I'm a junky for perception.
Anyway. I'm looking for some ideas on feats and ASI choices. Should I push Dex first or sprinkle half feats in? At 4, I'm thinking crossbow expert using a rapier and hand crossbow. My DM will look the other way on reloading. Then +2 Dex at level 8. But, what about martial adept or sentinal? Iny ideas?
Well, I guess my first question is; do you want maximize damage, or do you want to be a junkie for perception? hah I think you should just go for the maxed DEX from level 1, and feed your perception-addiction later on (unless it's somehow crucial to your character or party that you are good at perception, in which case ignore me).
Swashbucklers also excel at close-combat, although there's no reason to not use ranged weapons, your class features allow you to move from any monster you've made an attack against and as a Tabaxi you have a good amount of movement, instead of a ranged attack you can just walk from enemy to enemy without provoking opportunity attacks so double-wielding blades also works well in my experience.
Sentinel is a good feat to use with the Swashbuckler, I think it's pretty standard for a Feat choice. If you're looking for straight up damage and you're going with the Rapier and crossbow, Piercer is also something that can benefit both where you can reroll damage dice with pierced weapons and add more dice to your crits with piercing weapons.
My stats are: Str. 8, Dex. 16, Con. 14, Int. 10, Wis. 14, Cha. 13 after racial bonuses. I probably should have sacrificed Wis to max Dex but I'm a junky for perception.
FWIW, putting expertise in Perception will make your Wis score almost irrelevant (for Perception) in the long run.
The stats are the stats. The campaign has already begun, but I still have time for the rest. Piercer is interesting with a rapier & hand crossbow. Sentinal adds to those juicy sneak opportunities too. Dual wielding means no ability added to off hand and technically doesn't work with a rapier. Fighting Initiate feat and dual wielder feat seams a steep price. I have to sqeeze a Dex bump in somewhere. Ugh. I did put these limits on myself.
Yea I hear you, I ended up duel wielding a Rapier and a Dagger with Piercer for my swashbuckler rogue. I liked that the dagger allowed me to still throw it for a ranged attack, or use it as a second melee attack when I end up surrounded. I found myself abandoning my hand crossbow, but that was partially to do with the reloading which your DM is willing to ignore (super awesome), but also because it took away a potential 2nd melee attack that I found I needed more often than not (unlucky rolling, lots of melee combatants in this particular campaign).
I hear you that you'd need to pick up feats to be able to have 2 really good blades in hand, but imo, the extra attacks are all about increasing your chances to land your sneak attack, so not getting the +3 damage on the second attack was often okay if it meant that I was getting a 2nd chance to land sneak attack, or finish off someone who was blasted by sneak attack with your primary action. With piercer, you get 2 rolls to get the highest d4 roll for the dagger damage so it ended up being okay hah. Alternatively, you could go for a short sword in the off-hand, but that wouldn't work as well with Piercer, you'd probably go a different route for your feat if that's the case, but then at least you get a d6 for your off-hand attack instead of the daggers d4 as long as you're okay with losing out on the possibility of a range attack.
"Forcing" the need for a dex bump really did put some limits on you hah but oh well, what's done is done. It can be a fun challenge!
Edit: ****, you know what, I've only just realized that every DM I've ever had has been incredibly lenient with their dual-wielding rules and have always allowed me to do a bonus action attack while wielding a rapier, without needing a feat. It literally has never registered with me that the Rapier is not a light weapon. So **** me I guess lol, most of my suggestion is based on the DM allowing this so uh..... take it with a grain of salt I guess lol
I've started a campaign with a Tabaxi rogue and plan to go swashbuckler. The party has a lot of magic users and I want to steer away from that for this build. I'm also trying to avoid multiclassing. I'm looking to maximize my damage using that criteria.
My stats are: Str. 8, Dex. 16, Con. 14, Int. 10, Wis. 14, Cha. 13 after racial bonuses. I probably should have sacrificed Wis to max Dex but I'm a junky for perception.
Anyway. I'm looking for some ideas on feats and ASI choices. Should I push Dex first or sprinkle half feats in? At 4, I'm thinking crossbow expert using a rapier and hand crossbow. My DM will look the other way on reloading. Then +2 Dex at level 8. But, what about martial adept or sentinal? Iny ideas?
Well, I guess my first question is; do you want maximize damage, or do you want to be a junkie for perception? hah I think you should just go for the maxed DEX from level 1, and feed your perception-addiction later on (unless it's somehow crucial to your character or party that you are good at perception, in which case ignore me).
Swashbucklers also excel at close-combat, although there's no reason to not use ranged weapons, your class features allow you to move from any monster you've made an attack against and as a Tabaxi you have a good amount of movement, instead of a ranged attack you can just walk from enemy to enemy without provoking opportunity attacks so double-wielding blades also works well in my experience.
Sentinel is a good feat to use with the Swashbuckler, I think it's pretty standard for a Feat choice. If you're looking for straight up damage and you're going with the Rapier and crossbow, Piercer is also something that can benefit both where you can reroll damage dice with pierced weapons and add more dice to your crits with piercing weapons.
FWIW, putting expertise in Perception will make your Wis score almost irrelevant (for Perception) in the long run.
The stats are the stats. The campaign has already begun, but I still have time for the rest. Piercer is interesting with a rapier & hand crossbow. Sentinal adds to those juicy sneak opportunities too. Dual wielding means no ability added to off hand and technically doesn't work with a rapier. Fighting Initiate feat and dual wielder feat seams a steep price. I have to sqeeze a Dex bump in somewhere. Ugh. I did put these limits on myself.
Yea I hear you, I ended up duel wielding a Rapier and a Dagger with Piercer for my swashbuckler rogue. I liked that the dagger allowed me to still throw it for a ranged attack, or use it as a second melee attack when I end up surrounded. I found myself abandoning my hand crossbow, but that was partially to do with the reloading which your DM is willing to ignore (super awesome), but also because it took away a potential 2nd melee attack that I found I needed more often than not (unlucky rolling, lots of melee combatants in this particular campaign).
I hear you that you'd need to pick up feats to be able to have 2 really good blades in hand, but imo, the extra attacks are all about increasing your chances to land your sneak attack, so not getting the +3 damage on the second attack was often okay if it meant that I was getting a 2nd chance to land sneak attack, or finish off someone who was blasted by sneak attack with your primary action. With piercer, you get 2 rolls to get the highest d4 roll for the dagger damage so it ended up being okay hah. Alternatively, you could go for a short sword in the off-hand, but that wouldn't work as well with Piercer, you'd probably go a different route for your feat if that's the case, but then at least you get a d6 for your off-hand attack instead of the daggers d4 as long as you're okay with losing out on the possibility of a range attack.
"Forcing" the need for a dex bump really did put some limits on you hah but oh well, what's done is done. It can be a fun challenge!
Edit: ****, you know what, I've only just realized that every DM I've ever had has been incredibly lenient with their dual-wielding rules and have always allowed me to do a bonus action attack while wielding a rapier, without needing a feat. It literally has never registered with me that the Rapier is not a light weapon. So **** me I guess lol, most of my suggestion is based on the DM allowing this so uh..... take it with a grain of salt I guess lol