Quick Links
Dungeons & Dragons' swashbuckler rogue offers a way to play the class as “loud and proud” instead of “silent but deadly.” Unlike the ambush and flanking tactics of a more conventional subclass, the swashbuckler has features aimed at putting them center stage and drawing attention instead of hiding from it.
Related:Dungeons & Dragons – Best Species For A Rogue Character
A swashbuckler rogue can cover the traditional utility skills of a rogue while also leveraging their charisma to represent the party in social situations. How you build the character will allow you to rely more heavily on the subclass-specific features or fall back on the rogue class’s bread-and-butter abilities.
Best Species For A Swashbuckler Rogue
The Swashbuckler cares other rogue archetypes; your species choice can reflect this.Changelingsare an already potent choice for rogues, able tochange shapes and disguise themselves easily.
A swashbuckler with this can use the same feature to accentuate their personality and stand out more heavily instead of disguising themselves, or use it to turn off the bombastic parts of their physical presence when the adventure calls for more subtlety.
A powerful choice from the player’s handbook is thehigh elf. The+2 dexterityis a powerful early stat boost, but the real standout feature is thathigh elves learn one wizard cantripof their choice.
The cantripBooming Bladeincreases the damage of your weapon attack and coats enemies in an energy field that deals bonus damage when they move.
TheFancy Footworkfeature from your subclass allows you to step away from an enemy you attacked without prompting an attack of opportunity.Melee enemies must chase you to stay in range, triggering the bonus damage each turn.
If your DM allows you to pick flying species, a winged species such asVariant Tieflings or Aarakocracan build on the already powerful mobility of a rogue. The Fancy Footwork ability allows you todive into combat and then fly awayfrom the enemy you attackedwithout risking attacks of opportunity.
There is also some fun imagery to playing a fairy with an eye-patch and two scimitars.
Check which sourcebooks the game will use before picking an option from outside the player’s handbook. Some sourcebooks such as Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, allow for players tosubstitute the ability score increases provided by a species.
It can be fun to play a traditional strength-focused species such as the mountain dwarf or centaur and put a new spin on them by turning them into a rogue. Mountain dwarf also gives youaccess to medium armourso it is quite a strong choice. Similar rules are available forcustomising a character’s background.
Uses
Dexterity
Dexterity is kingfor rogues of any kind. Your sneak attack usesfinesse weapons that scale to your dexterityfor their accuracy and damage. It gives youbetter initiativeand allows you tododge most AoE attacks. With light armour it will also determine your Armour Class. Your ability to useranged weaponswill also scale to dexterity.
Charisma
TheRakish Audacityability allows you toadd your charisma bonus to your initiative. Combining a high dexterity and charisma allows you to act early in combat. Charisma is also used for your level nine archetype feature,panache, a taunt-like abilitythat can force an enemy into a one-on-one duel.
Constitution
Constitution is never a good stat to ignore. With only light armour and no shield, you’ll want tokeep constitution in mind to increase your survivabilitythrough extra hitpoints.
Wisdom
Wisdom doesn’t activate any of your class features but is tied to important skills such asperceptionandinsight. Placing one of your expertise skills onperceptioncan shore up otherwise weak scores in this area.
Intelligence
Intelligence isn’t used for any of your class featuresor major skills. Your points will already be heavily split for this build, so this will likely be the lowest priority.
Strength
Strength is the least useful stat for most rogues. You’ll want enough that you’re still able to use theathleticsskill, but dexterity’sacrobaticsskill covers the major use cases, such as evading grapples.
If you want to lean into the swashbuckler’s showboating flavour, you couldprioritise strength instead of dexterity. Using theexpertise feature to increase your athletics abilitycould make the Swashbuckler into apowerful grappler, letting you play them like a Pro-Wrestler.
You’ll still want to keep a strong dexterity score, making this a difficult build to do.
For skills, you have free rein to lean into the rogue staples or veer off toward a more charisma-focused character.Acrobatics and stealth are both boosted by your considerable dexterity, but with proficiency and even expertise in these skills, they become reliable tools to fall back on.
Acrobatics will keep you out of enemy grapples, while stealth willavoid some fights entirely.
Charisma offers you intimidation, deception, and persuasion. Which of these offers the best utility will ultimately come down to how you role-play the character.
If your DM allows it, plan with other members of the group. Depending on the skills and classes other people are playing, it can help to take skills that complement them or cover up gaps in the group’s overall ability.
What skills other players have may impact you similarly: Your ability to sneak may be disrupted in a party where everyone else is wearing heavy armour.
Related:Dungeons & Dragons: Best Multiclass Combinations
Feats For A Swashbuckling Rogue
You may be forced to take fewer feats when playing as a swashbuckler to keep your dexterity, charisma, and constitution high. The remaining Ability Score Improvements can be used to take feats that eithershore up the class’s weaknessesorbuild on their strengths.
Applications
Alert
This feat builds on the class’s existing strengths. Gainingan additional five to your initiative rollson top of your charisma and dexterity gives you amaximum modifier of +15!Immunity to surpriseis a strong secondary benefit to ensure you’re able to always act first.
Magic Initiate
An outsider choice that allows you to learn two cantrips and a first-level spell from another class. Copying the cleric cantripThaumaturgy can create all sorts of dramatic conditions that your charisma can leverage, amplifying your voice and causing the ground to tremble as you try and roll an intimidation check.
Alternatively, stealing the spellFind Familiarfrom the Wizard list gives you access to amagical companionthat can aid you both in and out of combat. Your class features allow you to sneak attack without advantage when fighting one-on-one, but the familiar counts as an adjacent ally for gaining the more standard sneak attack condition. Your DM may alsoallow the familiar to take thehelp action, granting advantage on an attack. You’ll want to be careful, as the familiar barely has any hitpoints. Outside of combat, the familiar can scout ahead of the party or sneak through spaces too large for a medium creature.
Moderately armoured
A rogue favouring strength over dexterity will want toupgrade their armourand potentially pick up a shield. The moderately armoured feat allows you to do both of these; otherwise, you would need to multi-class.
TheMobilefeat is a staple of many rogue builds but offers very little to a swashbuckler. Your Fancy Footwork ability already provides the main bonus of ignoring opportunity attacks.
Swashbuckler Rogue Fighting Style
An important component of a swashbuckler’s fighting style is the abilityRakish Audacity, unlocked at level three. It allows you toactivate the rogue’s sneak attack without needing advantageif the creature you are fighting has no allies or enemies standing near it.
In a one-on-one fight, this isnearly guaranteed to activate on every attack, but even in group environments, you can use the ability topick off any isolated combatants,such as wizards or archers hiding away from the front lines.
Where other rogues would need to use their cunning action to disengage from combat, a Swashbuckler can instead use their bonus action tomake an extra attack when dual wielding. An off-hand weapon will not benefit from your dexterity bonus to damage but offers asecond chance each turn to activate your sneak attackif the first one misses.
Rolling with disadvantage will still prevent you from sneak attacking when the other conditions are met. This makes youvulnerable to spells such as blindness.
Role-Playing A Swashbuckler Rogue
Despite the associations of the name,you don’t have to play a Swashbuckler as a piratecharacter. This doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to have your magic initiate familiar take the form of a parrot perched on your shoulder.
