Swashbuckler/Fighter Swashbuckler/Mage

[Jon Young]

Hey folk, i was just wondering whether i should pursue either of these classes.. think they are viable dual classes?

[]RiPPeR[]

sure they are, try the swashbuckler/mage its great

[Xyx]

Swashbuckler/Fighter might suffer from a slight lack of Hit Points, but has considerable advantages in return.

Does anyone know whether a Con 17+ character dualled to warrior after level 10 suddenly receives Con Hit Point bonuses?

[incandescent one]

I think Assasin fighter would work better... I mean think about it, you only really need two abilities to make this work. Use any item, and assasination. Imagine having a fighters thaco and doing 4 assasinations a round and each with a x7 multiplier....

Damage galor ! ooo la la la

[spork]

A swashbuckler/mage is really an optimal mix of classes. I went through all of SoA solo with one, and it wasn't even hard.

I was curious about an assassin/mage so I made one for ToB, and I was disappointed. She hardly ever got a chance to backstab, and when she did, it was against enemies that would have not given a swashbuckler much trouble in ordinary combat. When it came time to go toe-to-toe, she was a real wuss. A swashbuckler/mage would be a much better choice.

A swashbuckler/fighter is a worse idea. You'd be better off with a beserker/thief (or vanilla fighter/t, or kensai/t): more HP, and a much briefer time spent with your first class deactivated, because thieves advance levels faster. In ToB I made a new wizard-slayer who dualled to theif, and I'm very happy with the result. A wizard-slayer who can use any item just rocks. There are no down sides.

[PDF]

Xyx,
Con HP modifiers above 16 work only on "Fighter Hit Dice".
Suppose you are Thief 5th level, max hp is 30 + 10 from CON. If you become Fighter you'll gain a new Hit Dice at 6th level and if you have 18 CON could gain an additional 10+4, for a total of 54.
So you won't ever gain the CON 17 bonuses on your first class Hit Dice if it ain't fighter !

Spork I'm sory to see an Assassin/Mage is much less good than a Swashbuckler/mage, I just created one...
However I don't see how you can have difficulties to backstab ...Where did you put your Thief skill points ? Hide/Move silent (as an assassin should do ) or pilfering/lock picking (things for gnomes ) ??
For my part I'll put ALL in stealth, to help the assassin's first advantage - poisonous backstab.
Obviously it's different with a Swashbuckler who cannot backstab and so should concentrate on traps & locks.

Did someone ever try a Swashbuckler (10-13 th lvl) /Cleric ? This one should kick a$$, dual wielding CF and FotA, all this with boosters like Draw upon Holy Might and Blade Barrier, and protections like PFE 10' !

Too bad a Cleric/Swashbuckler ain't possible ...
This

[ 08-02-2001: Message edited by: PDF ]

[jeremiah]

Originally posted by spork:
<STRONG>
A swashbuckler/fighter is a worse idea. You'd be better off with a beserker/thief (or vanilla fighter/t, or kensai/t): more HP, and a much briefer time spent with your first class deactivated, because thieves advance levels faster. In ToB I made a new wizard-slayer who dualled to theif, and I'm very happy with the result. A wizard-slayer who can use any item just rocks. There are no down sides.</STRONG>

Actually they kick butt. If you don't mind soloing a fair bit in the early parts (druid grove, copper coronet slavers, thief stronghold, and city side quests), you can reach the mid-teen levels as a swashbuckler pretty fast as rogues level faster. The fact that disarming traps and opening locks gives xp helps. Detect illusions is good to develop (helped in the circus quest). Getting the summoning tools like the horn of valhalla and kithrix helps.

That way you recruit NPCs at maximum level as well ( no need to waste xp getting them there). If you minimize it to 2 you maximize the xp as well.

With this, I reached level 24 swashbuckler as party of 4 was entering Underdarkto dual and made 25 fighter as party finished off the marching mountains. Plenty of time to enjoy but the character was nearly maxed out on xp though. All you can look forward to is equipping with the uber items. -19AC without shield and THAC0 of -17 for both hands (strength of 22 belt and Montolio's cloak).

As for hp, find familiar and paladin's bracers then Tzu San's bracers. FYI, Use any item carries over to your new class immediately so as a level 1 fighter, you character can use any weapon, armor/robe, gauntlets/bracers, rings, scrolls (stoneskin/tensor's transformation) etc.

Only thing is there is a bug when importing this character so don't count on playing the character in a new game. Enjoy it while it lasts though in your one game.

[ 08-02-2001: Message edited by: jeremiah ]

[THE JAKER]

That's a very interesting post, Jeremiah.

I have a question and it is: Special Abilities for Swashbucklers

I've read two posts that talk about swashbucklers using a whirlwind attack. Do they get this ability? I thought it was only in the fighter pool. It seems logical and fair that they would get it, since they are kind of fighters and 'assassination' isn't going to do them much good without a backstab multiplier.

Sorry if it's a stupid question...

[jeremiah]

Originally posted by THE JAKER:
<STRONG>That's a very interesting post, Jeremiah.

I have a question and it is: Special Abilities for Swashbucklers

I've read two posts that talk about swashbucklers using a whirlwind attack. Do they get this ability? I thought it was only in the fighter pool. It seems logical and fair that they would get it, since they are kind of fighters and 'assassination' isn't going to do them much good without a backstab multiplier.

Sorry if it's a stupid question...</STRONG>

Yeah they get it in place of assasination (they get no backstab multiplier). Didn't bother with it as I only chose UAI before dualling.

[THE JAKER]

Thanks for the info.

[Xyx]

Originally posted by jeremiah:
<STRONG>Use any item carries over to your new class immediately</STRONG>