GameBanshee Forums

I'm going through Shadows of Amn again. This time with a party. I'm thinking of making a swashbuckler. But at the same time I do like backstabbing. The thing is that I like thieves but still I'm not sure if I should go with a swashbuckler. The one thing keeping me from doing it is the fact that I'm not sure if you can pick more than one whirlwind attack. If you can then I might as well go with it. The only reason I think you cant is because as a thief you can only get one assassination point. I'm just not sure if that goes for whirlwind attack as well. Is it worth trading backstabbing for more muscle?

They are different styles of play. You CAN pick more than one whirlwind attack, however, you should be just fine using Improved Haste from items.

The Swashbuckler has a good THAC0 and is fully capable of holding his own against many threats and can achieve -24 AC legally.

Unlike a normal thief with Use Any Item, the Swashbuckler can actually fight toe to toe without much trouble as the average thief (Thief, Bounty Hunter or Assassin) lacks the THAC0 to do so.

A Swashbuckler is a curious thief kit, eliminating all use of Hide in Shadows and Move Silently since that can't backstan anyways. If Backstabbing is essential in your style of play, don't play one. However, they fit in nicely in both a party that needs a little more melee and a party that needs a full-time thief, since he recieves no penalties to thieving skills and he recieves various great levelled bonus' to fighting skills.

He's fun, though he's less of a Rogue and more of a Pirate.

It depends totally on your playstyle. Personally I find that backstab opens up for a lot of powerful combos such as timetrap/mislead and would not trade it for a few muscles, but hey, that's just me. If you are more of a toe-to-toe player, go for it. They are definitely usable.