The original concept was to create a rakish Gnome Duelist based very loosely on Oliver Platt's portrayal of Porthos with a bit of the Dread Pirate Wesley.
The Duelist is the target of much ire, being accused of not dealing damage and being generally useless. A small Duelist would have compounded damage issues and his Parry ability would suffer. I'm not opposed to focusing on Combat Maneuvers like Trip and Disarm, but the Duelist PrC doesn't seem built towards those mechanics.
Ironically, the Rake and Swashbuckler archetypes don't appeal to me, mostly because I've played many the Rogue, and am hoping for a slightly different crunch than flank and full-attack. At least not a straight Rogue, anyway.
Looking at the Fighter Archetypes, the ones that jump out immediately are the Free-Hand, Two Weapon, and Mobile. Only the Free-Hand Fighter seems to benefit from being lightly armored.
At the moment, I'm thinking along the lines of a multi-classed Free-Hand Fighter and Swashbuckler Rogue. I'm haven't started planning a level progression or feats because I'm still unsure how I want to contribute to combat. Can this character deal worthwhile damage without being a straight Rogue? Can he survive in melee without the AC of full plate? Are combat maneuvers a viable alternative, or are they the sole purview of spiked chain fighters?
If you're going the Free Hand Fighter route, make sure to use the version of the archetype that the creator presented on a thread here on the forums rather than the version printed in the APG (which is buggy and underpowered).
If you're going the Free Hand Fighter route, make sure to use the version of the archetype that the creator presented on a thread here on the forums rather than the version printed in the APG (which is buggy and underpowered).
Where can I find that? I did a search on "Free Hand Fighter" on the boards earlier, but didn't see. I do hope it fixes the Weapon Training ability. I've always felt that the bonuses should progress.
Why take Rogue at all, if you want a classic duelist and are tired/bored of the flank/twf/sneak attack mechanic? Sneak attack is somewhat lackluster without TWF, and Free-Hand fighter excludes that combat mode.
I'd go for the Shadowdancer if you want a rogue-ish flavor. Fighter 5 can get you into and all the granted abilities work pretty well with just a single weapon. Granted HiPS is better with Sneak Attack, but it's still pretty useful without it.
I'll take another look at Shadowdancer, I hadn't really thought about it. The Rogue dip was mostly for the class skills. Though the skill points are nice; and Evasion; and Uncanny Dodge helps with not being Flat-Footed, which would severely lower the AC of a Dex based Fighter. I was reading in the other duelist thread and the collegiate fighter alternate seems like a good way to get skills. I'm not sure about the flavor, though. Plus my DM is a real stickler, at least for me because I tend to make optimized characters.
Although, I don't typically play optimized characters. Somewhere during the process I come up with something like a Gnome Duelist and play that instead. Yet, I still get labeled a "min-maxer."How unfair.
The author's suggested revision of the FHF is here. This is how the variant works in my games.
There is a thread up now discussing Duelist ideas. There's a lot of wacky approaches to the PrC.. maybe you'll find something you like.
I played a gnome bard who had a swashbuckler flavour, once, and it was a ton of fun. Honestly, Inspire Courage is the only ability in the game that really expresses the feel of the charismatic fencer, to me. I miss playing that little guy.
I was briefly considering an Arcane Duelist, however, I'm playing a Magus in another campaign with the same group, so I thought it a bit too similar.
Thanks for all the links, too!