A friend of mine wants to play an elegant nonforce using Fencer. The existing specialisations doesnt match, so i made this up, using Force and Destiny:

Swashbuckler
Cool, Charm, Coercion, Melee

Grit X Quick Draw X Parry X Rapid Reaction

X . | . | . X

Parry - Defensive Training X Fencer* - Lethal Blows

X . | . X . |

Dodge - Rapid Reaction - Parry X Feint

X . | . | . |

Grit - Feint X Improved Parry X Lethal Blows

| . | . | . |

Dedication X Dodge X Feint X Deadly Accuracy

*Fencer = When making checks using the Melee skill, the character may use Agility instead of Brawn.

What you want is almost entirely found in the Warrior/Shii-Cho Knight specialization. You don't need to be a Force User to buy into that specialization and only 3 of the talents within are Force Talents, 2 of which you can completely avoid buying.

Quick question, what career does your custom Swashbuckler spec go under? Smuggler?

I see a Fencer tree, not a Swashbuckler. It's a whole tree built around fencing and that's it, more or less one dice pool. I don't think it's OP or unbalanced, but I also don't think it's terribly interesting or enables a compelling character.

1 hour ago, 2P51 said:

I see a Fencer tree, not a Swashbuckler. It's a whole tree built around fencing and that's it, more or less one dice pool. I don't think it's OP or unbalanced, but I also don't think it's terribly interesting or enables a compelling character.

I see what you mean, it's all focused on combat despite 3/4 career skills not being directly about combat checks.

Hmm what about if that tree was half half social check related? Like having inspiring rhetoric and scathing tirade included into it, with an added talent or two about movement as well as melee focused talents for the other half?

I'm all for custom specs and stuff. In concept, I think you could be on to something, but here are my suggestions:

a. As said before, the talents indicate a fencer, the name and skills indicate a swashbuckler. Charm and coercion could get swapped out for athletics and coordination if you want fencer, while throw in some social stuff if you want those current career skills. Adding a description like the books do would also help clarify this.

b. Add custom rules for fencing. The swashbuckler should be allowed regular combat, of course, but I think it might nice to use opposed melee or something special in order to better indicate the nature of fencing as a sport.

c. Figure out a career to go with. For Edge, Hired Gun might be the obvious choice, while it also has the "flashiness" of a smuggler. Likewise, Soldier is the obvious choice with Age of Rebellion, but the "civilized" sort of archetype and social skill might make diplomat a nice fit. In Force and Destiny, Guardian and Warrior are the best options, although Mystic could be a possibility.

d. Make that talent tree look a little nicer. Use an image or spreadsheet.

How about this...

"Not Left-Handed"

Once per encounter, character can make an Opposed Cool vs. Cool check against one opponent. If Successful, the character upgrades the ability of all combat and social check once, for a number of rounds equal to Presence.

"Not Left Handed (Improved)"

When performing the Not Left Handed action, the character may spend 2 Advantage to reduce the target's melee defense by 1, or downgrade the Difficulty of social checks against the target once, for a number of rounds equal to Presence.

I see there is something missing. I think the fighting style will work (difficult to hit, enhanced crits) but it misses the "flashiness".

I will look through my books to find some movement skills for some chandelier swinging , but i also like the idea of social buffs.

Did someone fell in love with the idea? Because i could need some help of a native speaker with the fluff text.

Edit: This specialisation could be used for some Tapani Expanse add-on

so here is my second thought with slightly better graphics (my gimp fu isnt that great)

My biggest problem with most custom specs is the fact that the talents that end up on the trees are all talents you would absolutely want to have , firstly most trees have two "sides" to it and I think this would benefit from social skills, the swashbuckler isnt all combat. Secondly what is a general combat skill like deadly accuracy doing in there, take a look at similar trees , example - martial artist (with martial grace), infiltrator has the one that adds cunning to the damage, enforcer has walk the walk, marauder has the one that adds damage to brawl/melee , in fact to be honest marauder would be good spec for a fencer if you ignore the largely, pigeon holing names, for the talents, yes it lacks parry. Martial Artist would be another good choice if you replace, iron body with another talent , marital grace with a custom add presence to damage talent for a destiny point or strain spend(or change brawl to melee), have the spec concentrate on coordination for those targetted hits like the martial artist, and mind over matter with a talent thar works with presence.

To me that would work better. Take a look at gunslinger , which is perhaps the single most powerful spec for (1 handed) ranged combat and I would say this would be even better for melee!

Id look closely at both performer and martial artist trees , work from the martial artist but replace some of the talents with similar but more appropriate talents, even adding a talent that adds presence to the damage for a DP (distracting strike). That way you are getting as close as you can to a fully play tested spec tree, without the play testing. One of the power tests I would say for something that is OP in SWRPG is whether a character type would pick this, and yes absolutely any melee character would pick this over any other spec, many lightsaber players as well.

Edit another option is to take the gunslinger and turn it to a dual wielding melee spec

I would look at hotshot pilot as an example tree. Not because its directly related to a swashbuckler bit because its a presence focused spec with presence focused combat talents. Look at makashi duelist

I would place this spec in the Bounty Hunter career, a duelist for hire, a provocateur. Something like Richard St Vier in Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint . Slip Deceptive Taunt into the talent tree somewhere, for getting the fights started. Signature abilities would be fitting, as well.

Otherwise, if you truly want a "swashbuckler," it needs to be revamped, as previously suggested.

55 minutes ago, TheShard said:

I would look at hotshot pilot..

Now I'm envisioning a Corellian Sendoff inspired talent, causing two melee opponents to collide, or inadvertently skewer one another...

Since I'm working on a Lords of the Expanse conversion, I agree that a swashbuckler-type spec would fit nicely. And, i love @awayputurwpn 's Princess Bride shout-out. So, let me try my hand at this.

2 hours ago, Nytwyng said:

And, i love @awayputurwpn 's Princess Bride shout-out.

I somehow missed his post, upthread. The improved version of that talent should be Not Left-Handed (Either).

2 hours ago, Edgehawk said:

I somehow missed his post, upthread. The improved version of that talent should be Not Left-Handed (Either).

I know...my love for movie quotes was overruled by my all-consuming need to hew closely to naming conventions

4 hours ago, Nytwyng said:

Since I'm working on a Lords of the Expanse conversion, I agree that a swashbuckler-type spec would fit nicely. And, i love @awayputurwpn 's Princess Bride shout-out. So, let me try my hand at this.

Really nice work!

I'm thinking that Disarming Smile and Improved Not Left Handed kinda step on each other's toes. Probably should lose one. Or change the homebrew talent slightly. Maybe it just downgrades the Difficulty of any check made against that target once, for rounds=Presence.

Some input: someone mentioned swinging from chandeliers. What about the Freerunning talent in there, in place of the 15-XP Parry?

Additionally, I would take out the 20-XP Lethal Blows and Heroic Fortitude and replace them with Grit & Toughened, respectively.

Also, Smooth Talker gives Success, not Advantage

With all the Monkey Island I've played, I kind of want to see Scathing Tirade in there somewhere, with maybe its Improved version, too. But I think the Left-Handed talents also cover that some trope of witty repartee among sword fighters.

9 minutes ago, SavageBob said:

With all the Monkey Island I've played, I kind of want to see Scathing Tirade in there somewhere, with maybe its Improved version, too. But I think the Left-Handed talents also cover that some trope of witty repartee among sword fighters.

Oh yeah! You could replace Disarming Smile with that one.

Or replace the 15-XP Second Wind with it, and connect it to Disarming Smile.

I still believe Swashbuckler should get a career.

Hired Gun

Bounty Hunter

Smuggler

Soldier

Diplomat

Guardian

Warrior

Mystic

Pick one.

Hired Gun, definitely. Play up the mercenary aspect. And plus the career needs a bit more diversity

You guys should be looking for inspiration in the Entertainer specialization... that thing is full of good stuff for a swashbuckler.

Distracting Behavior, anyone?

Also - a Swashbuckler needs more than to be an Agility based melee fighter - they should be a Cunning based melee fighter, with Agility and Presence as secondary. And if you're going to be doing that, you need to look at the Infiltrator (one of my favorite Specializations) for inspiration as well.

Lastly, given the fact that the Gunslinger got tucked into the Smuggler Class, that's where I'd be tempted to put a Swashbuckler as well. The Class skills just line up too nicely with the way I'd approach one.

Looking forward to seeing the final version...

Cheers,

2 hours ago, awayputurwpn said:

Really nice work!

I'm thinking that Disarming Smile and Improved Not Left Handed kinda step on each other's toes. Probably should lose one. Or change the homebrew talent slightly. Maybe it just downgrades the Difficulty of any check made against that target once, for rounds=Presence.

Some input: someone mentioned swinging from chandeliers. What about the Freerunning talent in there, in place of the 15-XP Parry?

Additionally, I would take out the 20-XP Lethal Blows and Heroic Fortitude and replace them with Grit & Toughened, respectively.

Also, Smooth Talker gives Success, not Advantage

Some good ideas (and downthread, too).

I’ll play around with it when I get home. Kinda had the chandelier-swinging in mind with Dramatic Entrance.

And thanks for catching the typo from when I was entering everything into OggDude’s.

I don't see the Swashbuckler archetype as primarily cunning. Cunning is the characteristic that governs Deception, Skulduggery, Perception, Streetwise, and Survival. None of those skills really scream "Swashbuckler" to me.

The Presence skills, on the other hand, work well overall, and imply a certain amount of panache, a certain flair. Especially Cool and Charm, but also Negotiation (rather than Deception) and Leadership (for the three-musketeer-types). "Swashbuckler" connotes chivalry and gallantry, rather than cunning.

I like it @awayputurwpn not left handed , I would actually limit the upgrades, only to that target. To me this is an excellent example of a custom spec. I would say though there are a features one too many "signature talents" , not left handed, deceptive taunt and better luck next time, That being said there are already a few specs out there with similar, (martial artist , gunslinger amongst others) so definitely no OP. I definitely like it

Correcrion meant @Nytwyng