The Adventures of Eugagglius Zarbian, Swashbuckler!

[mechaPoet]

I've created a playtest Swashbuckler for Pathfinder Society play, herein lies his adventures and mishaps.

The Stats, version 1.0:

Eugagglius Zarbian
CN Male Gnome Swashbuckler 1, Faction: Taldor

(Point Buy 20)
STR 10 DEX 17 CON 10
INT 10 WIS 10 CHA 17

Gnome traits:
Low light vision, Keen Senses, Academician (+2 Kn: Nobility), Weapon Familiarity, Magical Linguist, Gift of Tongues

Feats:
Combat Reflexes

Combat Stats:
AC 19 (touch 14, flat-footed 16), HP 10
Melee to hit +2
Ranged to hit +4
CMB +0
CMD 13

Traits:
Combat: Fencer; Taldor Faction: Vindictive

Skills: (4 ranks + 1 from favored class)
Acrobatics +4 (ACP -3), Bluff +8, Escape Artist +4 (ACP-3), Intimidate +7 (although he takes a -4 trying to intimidate for each size category larger his target is), Knowledge Nobility +6

Gear:
Rapier, 3 daggers, Chain Shirt, Buckler, Backpack, Sunrod

The First Adventure: Scenario 06: Black Waters

The party:
Eugagglius Zarbian!
Pregen human monk 1
Human Samurai (sword saint) 1
Small-sized Aasimar Oracle 1
Halfling Druid 1/Ranger 2

So far we've got one dedicated caster in the party, the oracle, and 4 melee combatants. Sent off to investigate the remains of the Tri-Tower School, which used to be an elite academy for noble youngsters, Eugagglius actually had a chance to put his Knowledge: Nobility to use! Unfortunately, my rolls were too poor to get anything out of it, despite multiple opportunities.

There wasn't much besides combat encounters throughout this scenario, so I'll just focus on those, and try to prevent spoilers for those who haven't played this scenario so far.

Encounter at the entrance to the catacombs:

The entrance was surrounded by a large body of water, marked by a severed arm floating on the surface. Ever ready for action, Eugagglius headed straight into the foul-smelling black water for the arm. Unfortunately, the water was too deep for a gnome to wade in, and I couldn't take 10 to swim because of my -3 armor check penalty, so I spent a point of panache for some swimming derring-do. I only managed to roll a 1 on my extra d6, which was not enough to keep the poor, proud gnome from failing the check. The samurai was kind enough to wade in, pull Eugagglius out, and let him ride on the human's shoulders out to the middle of the pond. When the giant water beetle came out to attack, the samurai was quickly downed into negative hit points and Eugagglius fought the beast while standing on his floating comrade's body. The monk waded in to attack, but even a flanking bonus wasn't much help for Eugagglius' meager to-hit bonus. He did manage a crit, restoring his panache to full, but only managed to do 7 damage. The gnome was largely ignored during the fight, as the mindless creature attacked at random.

First encounter in the catacombs:

When facing the bugbear zombie, all the melee classes managed to surround him in his starting corner and beat on him til he went down. The most exciting moment came when I rolled a natural 20 on my parry roll versus the bugbear's also fairly high attack--but I realized after the fight was over that I had forgotten to account for my fencer trait (assuming that the trait applies, which I think it does), but also the -4 size penalty for parrying a larger creature. The bugbear definitely had enough power to knock me out in one hit, probably a maximum of two, but maybe this will get better once I get swashbuckler finesse. In any case, Eugagglius had to switch to his dagger to deal slashing damage against this zombie, which honestly didn't affect his damage much, which isn't to say he managed to do much damage.

Second encounter in the catacombs:

Most of the party made their perception checks to notice the ghouls approaching the room full of child ghosts, so all of the party (except the oracle) simply surrounded the bottleneck of the stairway and took out the ghouls one by one. Even when Eugagglius managed to hit, it didn't do much compared to the flurrying monk or clawing ranger. The samurai should probably have been able to take out any one of the ghouls in one hit (give or take a few HP), but was simply rolling miserably. Eugagglius with his 19 AC still hadn't been hit all scenario, but now that we were fighting intelligent undead, it felt more like he was being ignored than before, when the mindless zombie and water bug attacked at random. If a ghoul HAD managed to hit him, though, I wouldn't have had much hope for his +0 fort save...

The boss chamber:

The constantly splashing waves in the final boss' hexagonal room were no match for Eugagglius' great reflex save, but the boss himself was a little tougher. He managed a parry/riposte combo due to a very poor roll on the wight's part, but the riposte was also a flop. Again, Eugagglius felt ignored when the wight had a flurrying monk, a two-clawed ranger, and a I-took-out-most-of-your-HP-with-my-challenge-and-Iaijitsu-strike samurai to deal with. Making the save to resist the wight's stench aura was also simply a matter of luck with the die.

Optional fight:

Once we had rescued the girl we found at the bottom of the catacombs, we tried to convince the insane sorcerer to leave behind his ghostly daughter and come back to the surface with us. As the man was unflappable in his will to stay, the samurai and I simply started to leave. The druid/ranger, though, who had bought a bottle of holy water before, decided to see what would happen if he poured it out near the ghostly children. Predictably, the children screamed and dissipated when the holy water made contact, and the enraged sorcerer attacked. He started to cast a spell, but was cut short by the oracle's cause fear. The ranger, monk, and Eugagglius chased after him, which was difficult for the 20ft/round gnome to manage to keep up with. Once we had chased him downstairs to a dead end, the fear ended and Eugagglius took a color spray to the face and fell unconscious (with his +0 will save) without ever having touched the sorcerer. Luckily the monk subdued him with some nonlethal flurries and resisted his spells.

Overall, Eugagglius has proven fairly fun to play, but is certainly not quick or mobile as the swashbuckler description seems to imply, even with his high dexterity. Nor does it seem like he is a brute-killer,and nor does it seem that his small stature, with "the right mix of discipline and daring" is anywhere close to "the perfect counter to size and strength." Perhaps this will change past level 1, but for now the only thing about this swashbuckler that seems to fit the ACG description that his attacks are at best "annoying."

[magnuskn]

Yeah, the class is missing so far some mobility options. Acrobatic Charge and the like would be something to shoot for for the final product, IMO.

[Damien_DM]

As GM of the Black Waters game, I have the impression as well that, despite the flavor text at the outset, Swashbuckler as a class disadvantages Small races more than many other melee classes, especially at low levels. As a rogue you'd have SA to fall back on, while as a fighter or paladin you might go mounted with a lance. Also, the Swashbuckler theme encourages Dex-fighting builds on the surface, but aside from raising AC I don't see much benefit over just doing a Str-based fighting build instead.

Perhaps if Swashbucklers could add Dex to hit and damage from level 1 they'd be stronger?

From a RP perspective I didn't see any mechanics-related issues; as mentioned above, most failed checks were due to bad die rolls rather than lack of access to usable skills.

[JLeeBly]

At level 3 the Swashbuckler is adding their level to damage rolls (which should always and forever be outpacing your DEX modifier in Society play) just by having a panache in your reservoir.

I have the impression that most of the classes do not really differentiate themselves, or come alive for that matter, until Level 3.

I played Murder's Mark as a Skald, along with an Arcanist, Shaman, Hunter, and Fighter. At level 1, the Skald looks like a Bard with a weird Inspire Courage, the Shaman looks like Wizard (Arcane caster with special abilities and no hexes), the Hunter looks like a Druid, and the Arcanist looks like a Sorcerer.

I've built an Ifrit Swashbuckler I'm very excited to play with. The impression I got from the deeds is that early on, you'll be very defensive (you can parry and you can 5' shift), you can punish (riposte, if you're bothering to take Combat Reflexes), and you can get yourself out of tight situations (like you attempted with the water). By level 3, you have swashbuckler finesse (Eugagglius will be hitting on +7 instead of +2 at Level 1), adding level to damage (give those damage rolls a +3, or +6 if you panache it), demoralizing enemies as a swift action (your victim is taking -2 to most every roll, which means it'll be easier for you to punish with the parry), and swashbuckler initiative is going to get you into battle quicker (and if you take quick draw, you'll always have a weapon out in battle to offset flat-footed attacks with a parry or make some of your own).

I think your build will turn out just fine. I really like the flavor, and I believe you'll be happy with it once you hit later levels.

[mechaPoet]

Per the PFS level 1 rebuild rules, I've changed some things around on Eugagglius. I adjusted his stats and swapped out his first level feat.

STR 13 DEX 16 CON 10
INT 12 WIS 10 CHA 15

Feat: Weapon Focus (Rapier)

The Second Adventure: Scenario 04: The Frozen Fingers of Midnight
So for this one, everyone in the party was level one, but there were 7 of us: Eugagglius, a samurai, two wizards, a druid, Kyra, and a tiefling abyssal(?)-blooded bloodrager who had 20 STR and three natural attacks while raging.

I'm not even gonna give a blow-by-blow this time, as every encounter was more or less the same. The tiefling routinely did 10-20 damage AT LEAST with a full attack, and the samurai put out at least 10 or so when he got a swing in (and wasn't going to negative hit points every time the 2nd-level barbarians hit him). Eugagglius, by comparison, had terrible rolls the entire night. I failed every in-combat acrobatics check, most skill checks (I rolled terribly on a DC 10 check though and made that. So that's something I guess.), and nearly every attack roll. That's bad luck. But every time I DID manage to hit something, it did what was essentially negligible damage. At first level my rapier does 2-5 damage. I doubt I could drop a goblin, much less the hulking barbarians that the flavor text of the swashbuckler says I should be good at fighting. Maybe once my hit die gets me some more HP, and my BAB starts to outscale my to-hit ability modifier, and my precise strike damage and swashbuckler finesse start helping me, it'll be better, but right now Eugagglius feels pretty useless. It was a good thing that there were actually competent front-line fighters in the party, or we would have been toast.

[Eirikrautha]

mechaPoet wrote:

Per the PFS level 1 rebuild rules, I've changed some things around on Eugagglius. I adjusted his stats and swapped out his first level feat.

STR 13 DEX 16 CON 10
INT 12 WIS 10 CHA 15

Feat: Weapon Focus (Rapier)

The Second Adventure: Scenario 04: The Frozen Fingers of Midnight
So for this one, everyone in the party was level one, but there were 7 of us: Eugagglius, a samurai, two wizards, a druid, Kyra, and a tiefling abyssal(?)-blooded bloodrager who had 20 STR and three natural attacks while raging.

I'm not even gonna give a blow-by-blow this time, as every encounter was more or less the same. The tiefling routinely did 10-20 damage AT LEAST with a full attack, and the samurai put out at least 10 or so when he got a swing in (and wasn't going to negative hit points every time the 2nd-level barbarians hit him). Eugagglius, by comparison, had terrible rolls the entire night. I failed every in-combat acrobatics check, most skill checks (I rolled terribly on a DC 10 check though and made that. So that's something I guess.), and nearly every attack roll. That's bad luck. But every time I DID manage to hit something, it did what was essentially negligible damage. At first level my rapier does 2-5 damage. I doubt I could drop a goblin, much less the hulking barbarians that the flavor text of the swashbuckler says I should be good at fighting. Maybe once my hit die gets me some more HP, and my BAB starts to outscale my to-hit ability modifier, and my precise strike damage and swashbuckler finesse start helping me, it'll be better, but right now Eugagglius feels pretty useless. It was a good thing that there were actually competent front-line fighters in the party, or we would have been toast.

Haven't you heard? According to a vocal group here on the message boards, the swashbuckler is over-powered and needs a damage reduction. Your (and others, including my) experiences playtesting are completely wrong... if you were just playing correctly against core-only fighters you'd be dominant!

All kidding aside, thanks for the playtest report... its very similar to what I've experienced (and what many others have seen). The SB needs a serious buff for levels 1-5...