| Jon Otaguro 428 |
The GM allowed me to change the paladin I was playing to a swashbuckler to try out the new class. In the playtest, I was mostly fighting 4 HD guardsmen, so they weren't much of a threat. It also meant I couldn't get back any panache points. I was doing around 30 damage per hit, which is pretty good for a level 10 character.
In my opinion, swashbuckler plays at a power level above a fighter at level 10 - in that it gets weapon training, some bonus feats, precision damage of 1 per level, +2 initiative, nimble for bonus to dodge, and 4 skill points per level. More so at level 11 when I gain evasion, uncanny dodge, improved uncanny dodge, immune to sunder/disarm/steal, bleed and signature deed. When I commented on what swashbucklers got at level 11, some of the other players thought that was a lot to get at one level.
I misread opportune parry in that I thought I could use it after the result. This makes it kind of weak until you get signature deed. I didn't use any active deeds except for opportune parry (which I used wrong). So generally I would probably just use panache offensively until level 11 with signature deed. To help power level at low levels, it might be helpful to make precise strike level 1 and opportune parry and riposte to level 3. I don't really see opportune parry as being very useful until you get signature deed.
I would definitely play the swashbuckler in it's current form, but think that it might be a little too good at high levels and maybe a little weak at lower levels.