Originally based on the Adamant Entertainment swashbuckler, but heavily modifier to the point of basically no longer being recognizable, this is my take on a swashbuckler base class.
BaB: Full
Strong Saves: Fort and Reflex
Hit die: d10
Class Skills: The swashbuckler's class skills (and the key attribute for each skill) are Acrobatics (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Escape Artist (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Nobility) (Int), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Stealth (Dex), and Swim (Str)
Skill Ranks per Level: 4 + Int modifier.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A swashbuckler is proficient with all simple and martial weapons. They are not proficient with any armor or shields.
Stance (Ex) Several swashbuckler abilities refer to a "stance". A swashbuckler is considered to be in his stance, and gets the benefit of these abilities, when he is wearing no armor, wielding a piercing melee weapon that is covered under the Weapon Finesse feat, and wielding nothing in his off hand (he may hold an item, such as a potion, in his off hand but may not equip a weapon or shield). A swashbuckler in his stance also gains a +3 dodge bonus to AC. A swashbuckler does not gain the benefits of being in his stance while helpless, pinned, or unable to attack with his weapon.
Parry (Ex) While in his stance, a swashbuckler may ready an action to parry an enemy's strike. When he is attacked in melee, he may make an attack roll against the enemy attacking him. If his attack roll is higher then that of the attacker, their attack is considered a miss regardless of the swashbuckler's AC. If the swashbuckler's parry roll exceeds the enemy's attack roll by 5 or more, the creature provokes an attack of opportunity from the swashbuckler. If his parry roll exceeds their attack roll by 10 or more, the enemy is considered flat footed against the swashbuckler's attack of opportunity.
A swashbuckler must be aware of an attack in order to deflect it. He does not need to be able to reach his attacker to make a parry attempt, but must threaten them to be able to take an attack of opportunity. As long as the swashbuckler did not move on his turn, however, he may take a 5-foot-step after successfully deflecting the attack and before making the attack of opportunity.
Weapon Finesse While proficient in all martial weapons, dexterous swashbucklers are particularly effective with light weapons. The swashbuckler gets Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat.
Swift Defense (Ex) At second level, a swashbuckler gains a +1 shield bonus to AC while in his stance, and also gets Dodge as a bonus feat (even if he doesn't meet the prerequisites).
Thrust (Ex) At 2nd level, the swashbuckler learns how to exploit an opening, dealing extra damage. The swashbuckler may thrust when he is in his stance and his opponent is denied her Dexterity bonus to her armor class (whether the target actually has a Dexterity bonus or not) or is flanked. This extra damage is 1d6 at 2nd level, and increases by 1d6 for every 3 swashbuckler levels, to a maximum of 7d6 at 20th level. Should the swashbuckler score a critical hit with a thrust, this extra damage is not multiplied. The thrust bonus stacks with the rogue’s sneak attack and similar abilities.
Swashbuckler's Style (Ex) At third level, a swashbuckler chooses a particular style of combat to pursue, gaining benefits depending on the choice. Once made, the choice of style cannot be changed. A swashbuckler only gains the beneifits of his style while in his stance.
Pinpoint Strike: A swashbuckler who selects this style may choose to add his Dexterity bonus instead of his Strength bonus to the damage of his melee attacks. When making a single attack as a standard action, or when taking an attack of opportunity granted by the parry class feature, the swashbuckler may instead add 1-1/2 times his Dexterity bonus to damage.
Rapid Flourish: With this style, the swashbuckler may make an extra attack at his full base attack bonus whenever he makes a full attack routine. If he does, all his attacks that round take a -2 penalty. This ability functions similarly to a monk's flurry of blows, save that instead of needing to use a special monk weapon the swashbuckler must be in his stance to gain this benefit.
Cunning Riposte: Upon selecting this style, the swashbuckler gains Improved Disarm as a bonus feat, even if he doesn't meet its prerequisites. In addition, when making a disarm attempt as an attack of opportunity, the swashbuckler gains a +2 bonus to his CMB.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex) At 4th level the swashbuckler retains his Dexterity bonus to armor class even when he is considered flat-footed.
Evasion (Ex) At 5th level the swashbuckler is adept at avoiding unusual attacks. If he makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage. Evasion can only be used if the swashbuckler is wearing light or no armor. A helpless swashbuckler does not gain the benefit of evasion.
Hone Defenses (Ex) At 6th level, the swashbuckler's shield bonus to AC from the swift defense ability increases by +1. Additionally, the swashbuckler may convert his shield bonus to AC into a dodge bonus (which stacks with any existing dodge bonuses) for 1 round as a swift action.
At 12th and 18th levels, the shield bonus to AC increases by a further +1. Finally, at 18th level, the swashbuckler may convert his shield bonus into a dodge bonus as an immediate action.
Find the Mark (Ex) A 7th level swashbuckler is almost supernaturally aware of chinks in his opponent's defense. Whenever he confirms a critical hit while in his stance, he may add his thrust damage even if the target is not denied her Dexterity bonus to AC or flanked.
Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex) A swashbuckler of 8th level or higher can no longer be flanked.
This defense denies a rogue the ability to sneak attack the character by flanking her, unless the attacker has at least four more rogue levels than the target has swashbuckler levels. Similarly, only a swashbuckler of at least four levels higher may apply her thrust damage when flanking.
If a character already has uncanny dodge from another class, the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum rogue level required to flank the character.
Improved Parry (Ex) The swashbuckler's ability to deflect incoming attacks improves at 9th level. The swashbuckler may always take an attack of opportunity upon successfully parrying an attack (as long as the target is within reach) and the attacker is considered flat-footed if the swashbuckler's attack roll exceeds the attacker's roll by 5 or more.
Additionally, the swashbuckler may ready an action to parry as a move action; as a full-round action the swashbuckler may ready to parry the next two attacks of his choice. This is an exception to the normal rules that readying is a standard action.
Swashbuckler's Panache (Ex) At 10th level, a swashbuckler's skill with their chosen style increases, granting them one of the benefits listed below based on the combat style they selected at third level. Alternatively, the swashbuckler may forfeit the listed bonus in exchange for choosing a second combat style from the level 3 list. As with swashbuckler's style, these benefits apply only while the swashbuckler is in his stance.
Pinpoint Strike: The swashbuckler gains Vital Strike, Improved Vital Strike, or Greater Vital Strike as a bonus feat (their choice, but they must meet the prerequisites of the feat). When making any form of Vital Strike, or when taking an attack of opportunity granted by the parry class feature, the swashbuckler may add double his Dexterity bonus to damage.
Rapid Flourish: When making a full attack, the swashbuckler may make a second additional attack at his base attack bonus -5 (he still suffers the -2 to all of his attacks that round). In addition, each time the swashbuckler sucessfully strikes an opponent, he gains a stacking +1 bonus to all attack rolls against that opponent until the start of his next turn.
Cunning Riposte: The swashbuckler receives Greater Disarm as a bonus feat without needing to meet the prerequisites, and his bonus to disarm checks when making an attack of opportunity increases to +4. In addition, upon disarming an opponent the swashbuckler may choose which square within 15 feet to have the disarmed item land in; if an ally (or the swashbuckler) in that square has an empty hand, they may make a DC 10 Dex check to catch the disarmed item.
Improved Evasion (Ex) At 13th level, the swashbuckler’s evasion improves. In addition to taking no damage on successful saves, the swashbuckler now takes only half damage on failed saves.
Deflect Arrows (Ex) At 15th level, the swashbuckler may use his weapon to deflect ranged attacks. This ability functions as the feat of the same name, except that the swashbuckler uses a weapon instead of his bare hands and this ability can only be used while the swashbuckler is in his stance.
Greater Parry (Ex) A 16th level swashbuckler can effortlessly deflect incoming attacks. He may parry an enemy's attack (as if he had readied an action to do so) as an immediate action.
Flawless Strike (Ex) As a full-round action while in his stance, a 19th level swashbuckler can make a single, perfect attack. This attack automatically threatens a critical hit (and is automatically a regular hit if the roll to confirm the critical fails). If the critical is confirmed, the target must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 swashbuckler's level + Dex modifier) or be staggered for 1 round.
Peerless Swashbuckler (Ex) At 20th level, the swashbuckler practically becomes one with his weapon. While in his stance, he cannot be disarmed. Once per round upon making a successful attack, the swashbuckler may make an attack as a free action (even if it isn't his turn).
I like this revision
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I like it! A few thoughts:
Stance: If it was me, I would probably model the stance dodge bonus after Canny Defense.
Parry: Sweet. Encourages a defensive fighting style. What if you had some caveats in there about this working with fighting defensively and total defense? Something like, "If you ready an action to parry while fighting defensively, the normal attack penalty does not apply. If you are using the total defense action, you may parry as many attacks as you have iterative attacks." Also, I would suggest the opponent losing their dex bonus rather than becoming flat-footed. Every rogue and barbarian over 4th level is immune to flat-footed.
Weapon Finesse: Of course :)
Swift Defense: I honestly don't love this. I guess I'm not sure why it works the way it does. Why is it a shield bonus? Why include Dodge? Again, I would include something in here about this ability working with defensive fighting. Perhaps the bonus increases if you do so, as per the Graceful Edge feat.
Thrust: Yes! The number one problem with dex-based builds is the lack of damage. Way to address that. Would you consider changing it to a flat bonus that can multiply on a crit? Perhaps +level to damage when you meet the requirements? It would make the damage slightly more reliable.
Swashbuckler Style: I really like these options. Dex to damage has been toyed with for a while, and the Rapid Flourish is a great way to improve damage. I would be comfortable making the damage bonus a flat 1.5 * dex. Equal to a two-handed fighter, and the two-handed fighter still gets more benefit from Power Attack. Cunning Riposte . . . Eh. Disarm is irritating to me as a DM, because it doesn't work at all against 3/4 of the enemies you meet, and it works too well against fighter-type bosses which renders them fairly anti-climactic. What if you rolled in a different combat maneuver option as well, like being able to use Dirty Trick as the attack of opportunity instead? It would keep this style viable against many more enemies.
Uncanny Dodge: Sure.
Evasion: Sure.
Hone Defenses: Yeah, you kinda lost me on this one. What's the benefit of being able to turn a shield bonus into a dodge bonus? If you want a scaling defense bonus, you might be better of using Monk AC as the model.
Find the Mark: This makes the high crit-range of the rapier VERY scary. I like it.
Improved Uncanny Dodge, Improved Parry: Yup, fine with those.
Swashbuckler Panache: So, you list 3 feats here for Pinpoint Strike and say that the Swashbuckler may pick any of them, but they have to meet the requirements, and the only one that they meet the requirement for is Vital Strike. I guess I'm confused as to what you were going for here. I feel like this might have been modeled better if the styles improved at BAB break points (+6, +11, +16). Rapid Flourish is fine, I have the same issue with Cunning Riposte here as I did at level 3.
Improved Evasion: Sure.
Deflect Arrows: I see that you put this around the same place that the Duelist would get it. I feel like it's a bit too late i both cases, but it's a strangely balanced feat anyway. What if this was inherently part of the Parry ability?
Greater Parry: Does this mean that the Swashbuckler gets one free Parry in addition to his normal parries? Or that he can automatically attempt to parry all attacks against him?
Flawless Strike: Eh. Staggering Critical is a feat that you can get at level 13, it's got a better save DC, and I've got a great chance to critical in the round without this, especially if I'm doing Rapid Flourish. This would make a lot more sense as an extension of the Pinpoint Strike style.
Peerless Swashbuckler: Interesting. Not sure about it though. The extra attack (I'm assuming it's at your highest attack bonus) is ridiculously good. It feels like an extension of the Rapid Flourish Style, though. Cannot be disarmed feels like part of the Cunning Riposte Style. I feel like there's another possible route here . . .
1: Stance, Parry, Weapon Finesse
2: Swift Defense +1, Dodge, Thrust 1d6
3: Swashbuckler Style
4: Uncanny Dodge
5: Evasion, Thrust 2d6
6: Hone Defenses +2
7: Find The Mark
8: Improved Uncanny Dodge, Thrust 3d6
9: Improved Parry
10: Swashbuckler Panache
11: Thrust 4d6
12: Hone Defenses +3
13: Improved Evasion
14: Thrust 5d6
15: Deflect Arrows
16: Greater Parry
17: Thrust 6d6
18: Hone Defenses +4
19: Flawless Strike
20: Peerless Swashbuckler, Thrust 7d6
Swashbuckler's Style (Ex) A swashbuckler chooses a particular style of combat to pursue, gaining benefits depending on the choice. Once made, the choice of style cannot be changed. A swashbuckler only gains the benefits of his style while in his stance.
Pinpoint Strike: A swashbuckler who selects this style may choose to add his Dexterity bonus instead of his Strength bonus to the damage of his melee attacks when he attacks as a standard action.
Rapid Flourish: With this style, the swashbuckler may make an extra attack at his full base attack bonus whenever he makes a full attack routine. If he does, all his attacks that round take a -2 penalty.
Cunning Combatant: Upon selecting this style, the swashbuckler gains Improved Disarm and Improved Dirty Trick as bonus feats, even if he doesn't meet their prerequisites. In addition, when making a disarm attempt as an attack of opportunity, the swashbuckler gains a +2 bonus to his CMB.
Weapon Finesse The swashbuckler gains Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat.
Parry (Ex) Starting at 2nd level, while in his stance, a swashbuckler may ready an action to parry an enemy's strike. When he is attacked in melee, he may make an attack roll against the enemy attacking him. If his attack roll is higher then that of the attacker, their attack is considered a miss regardless of the swashbuckler's AC. If the swashbuckler's parry roll exceeds the enemy's attack roll by 5 or more, the creature provokes an attack of opportunity from the swashbuckler. If his parry roll exceeds their attack roll by 10 or more, the enemy loses his dexterity bonus to AC against the swashbuckler's attack of opportunity.
A swashbuckler must be aware of an attack in order to deflect it. He does not need to be able to reach his attacker to make a parry attempt, but must threaten them to be able to take an attack of opportunity. As long as the swashbuckler did not move on his turn, however, he may take a 5-foot-step after successfully deflecting the attack and before making the attack of opportunity.
Thrust (Ex) At 2nd level, a swashbuckler gains the ability to strike precisely, adding his swashbuckler level to his damage roll when he is in his stance and his opponent is denied her Dexterity bonus to AC (whether the target actually has a Dexterity bonus or not) or is flanked. This bonus damage is not multiplied on a critical hit.
Evasion (Ex) At 3rd level and higher, a swashbuckler can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If he makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if the swashbuckler is in his stance.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex) Starting at 4th level, a swashbuckler can react to danger before his senses would normally allow him to do so. He cannot be caught flat-footed, nor does he lose his Dex bonus to AC if the attacker is invisible. He still loses her Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. A swashbuckler with this ability can still lose his Dexterity bonus to AC if an opponent successfully uses the feint action (see Combat) against him.
If a swashbuckler already has uncanny dodge from a different class, he automatically gains improved uncanny dodge (see below) instead.
Bonus Feat (Ex) At 5th level, and every five levels thereafter, a swashbuckler gains a bonus feat in addition to those gained by normal advancement. These bonus feats must be combat feats.
Improved Style At level 6, a swashbuckler's skill with their chosen style improves, granting them benefits listed below based on the combat style they selected at 1st level.
Pinpoint Strike: The swashbuckler gains Vital Strike as a bonus feat. When making a Vital Strike, or when taking an attack of opportunity granted by the parry class feature, the swashbuckler may add his Dexterity bonus to damage.
Rapid Flourish: When making a full attack, the swashbuckler may make a second additional attack at his base attack bonus -5 (he still suffers the -2 to all of his attacks that round).
Cunning Combatant: The swashbuckler receives Greater Disarm and Greater Dirty Trick as bonus feats without needing to meet the prerequisites, and his bonus to disarm checks when making an attack of opportunity increases to +4.
Find The Mark (Ex) A 7th level swashbuckler is almost supernaturally aware of chinks in his opponent's defense. Whenever he confirms a critical hit while in his stance, he may add his thrust damage even if the target is not denied her Dexterity bonus to AC or flanked.
Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex) A swashbuckler of 8th level or higher can no longer be flanked. This defense denies a rogue the ability to sneak attack the barbarian by flanking her, unless the attacker has at least four more rogue levels than the target has swashbuckler levels.
If a character already has uncanny dodge (see above) from another class, the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum rogue level required to flank the character.
Improved Parry (Ex) The swashbuckler's ability to deflect incoming attacks improves at 9th level. The swashbuckler may always take an attack of opportunity upon successfully parrying an attack (as long as the target is within reach) and the attacker is considered flat-footed if the swashbuckler's attack roll exceeds the attacker's roll by 5 or more.
Additionally, the swashbuckler may ready an action to parry as a move action; as a full-round action the swashbuckler may ready to parry the next two attacks of his choice. This is an exception to the normal rules that readying is a standard action.
Greater Style (Ex) At level 11, a swashbuckler's style or styles improves again, granting them benefits listed below based on the combat style they selected at 1st level. Alternatively, the swashbuckler may choose a second combat style from the level 1 list. As with swashbuckler's style, these benefits apply only while the swashbuckler is in his stance.
Pinpoint Strike: The swashbuckler gains Improved Vital Strike as a bonus feat. When making a Vital Strike, or when taking an attack of opportunity granted by the parry class feature, the swashbuckler may add 1-1/2 his Dexterity bonus to damage.
Rapid Flourish: When making a full attack, the swashbuckler may make a third additional attack at his base attack bonus -10 (he still suffers the -2 to all of his attacks that round).
Cunning Combatant: The swashbuckler receives Quick Dirty Trick as a bonus feat without needing to meet the prerequisites, and upon disarming an opponent the swashbuckler may choose which square within 15 feet to have the disarmed item land in; if an ally (or the swashbuckler) in that square has an empty hand, they may make a DC 10 Dexterity check to catch the disarmed item.
Counterattack (Ex) At 11th level, a swashbuckler can make an attack of opportunity as an immediate action against one opponent who he fails to parry, so long as the attacking creature is within the swashbuckler’s reach. The swashbuckler may only make one attack of opportunity in this way per round.
Improved Evasion (Ex) This works like evasion, except that while the swashbuckler still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks, he henceforth takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless swashbuckler does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.
Acrobatic Charge (Ex) At 14th level, a swashbuckler gains the ability to charge in situations where others cannot. He may charge over difficult terrain that normally slows movement. Depending on the circumstance, he may still need to make appropriate checks to successfully move over the terrain.
Greater Parry (Ex) At 16th level, a swashbuckler can effortlessly deflect incoming attacks. He may parry an enemy's attack (as if he had readied an action to do so) as an immediate action.
Superior Style (Ex) At level 11, a swashbuckler's style or styles improves again, granting them benefits listed below based on the combat style they selected at 1st level or improving the style they selected at 1st or 11th level. As with swashbuckler's style, these benefits apply only while the swashbuckler is in his stance.
Pinpoint Strike: The swashbuckler gains Greater Vital Strike as a bonus feat. When making a Vital Strike, or when taking an attack of opportunity granted by the parry class feature, the swashbuckler may add double his Dexterity bonus to damage.
Rapid Flourish: If you hit an opponent with at least two attacks in a full-attack action, you deal an additional 1d10 points of damage plus 1-1/2 times your Strength modifier. You can only deal this additional damage once each round.
Cunning Combatant: Whenever a swashbuckler scores a critical hit with a melee attack, if his confirmation roll exceeds your opponent’s CMD, he may disarm his opponent or apply the effects of a dirty trick combat maneuver.
Deflect Arrows (Ex) At 17th level, a swashbuckler gains the benefit of the Deflect Arrows feat when using a light or one-handed piercing weapon. The swashbuckler does not need a free hand to use this feat.
No Retreat (Ex) At 18th level, enemies adjacent to the swashbuckler that take a withdraw action or a 5-foot step provoke an attack of opportunity from the duelist.
Crippling Critical (Ex) When you confirm a critical hit using a light or one-handed piercing weapon, you can apply one of the following penalties in addition to the damage dealt: reduce all of the target's speeds by 10 feet (minimum 5 feet), 1d4 points of Strength or Dexterity damage, –4 penalty on all saving throws, –4 penalty to Armor Class, or 2d6 points of bleed damage. These penalties last for 1 minute, except for ability damage, which must be healed normally, and bleed damage, which continues until the target receives magic healing or a DC 15 Heal skill check.
Master Style (Ex) At 20th level, a swashbuckler masters their style of fighting. While in his stance, he cannot be disarmed, and he gains the benefits listed below for his 1st level combat style, or improves the style gained at 1st or 11th level. Alternatively, the swashbuckler may choose a third combat style from the level 1 list. As with swashbuckler's style, these benefits apply only while the swashbuckler is in his stance.
Pinpoint Strike: The swashbuckler gains Devastating Strike as a bonus feat. When making a Vital Strike, or when taking an attack of opportunity granted by the parry class feature, all critical threats are automatically confirmed.
Rapid Flourish: Once per round upon making a successful attack, the swashbuckler may make an additional attack at his highest base attack bonus, even if it is not his turn.
Cunning Combatant: The swashbuckler can make a disarm combat maneuver against a creature he threatens as an immediate action when he is the target of a melee attack from another creature. If successful, the attack changes to target the target of the swashbuckler’s maneuver instead of the swashbuckler himself. Additionally, as a standard action, a cad can use a dirty trick maneuver against a number of enemies equal to 2 + his Dexterity bonus (if any) adjacent opponents that he can reach, making a separate combat maneuver check against each opponent. He must use the same dirty trick maneuver against each opponent.
1: Stance, Style, Weapon Finesse
2: Parry, Thrust
3: Evasion
4: Uncanny Dodge, Dodge bonus +1
5: Bonus Feat
6: Improved Style
7: Find The Mark
8: Improved Uncanny Dodge, Dodge bonus +2
9: Improved Parry
10: Bonus Feat
11: Greater Style
12: Counterattack, Dodge Bonus +3
13: Improved Evasion
14: Acrobatic Charge
15: Bonus Feat
16: Greater Parry, Dodge Bonus +4
17: Deflect Arrows
18: No Retreat
19: Crippling Critical
20: Master Style, Dodge Bonus +5
Some might argue that some aspects of the "Swashbuckler" archetype are still missing, such as greater mobility. Perhaps that could be a 4th style?
If you don't like any of the alterations I've suggested, that's fine. I was bored, and I like what I came up with. I'd totally play this class.
Cool feedback, thanks! Here's some counter-feedback:
The dodge bonus from Stance is meant to make up for the lack of armor. I considered the Canny Defense route, but a) Didn't want to screw first level swashbucklers, b) Didn't want to make them MAD by requiring Int for AC, and c) Didn't want to copy an existing ability.
The +3 AC bonus means that a 20 Dex swashbuckler has the same AC as a normal 20 Dex character in Studded Leather. A lower-Dex Swashbuckler loses out to someone wearing a chain shirt. Up to 26 Dex, the Swashbuckler loses out to someone wearing elven chain. Past 26 Dex, however, the swashbuckler wins the AC game. I had considered making it only +2; not sure which is more balanced. I do prefer a flat bonus to adding a second attribute to AC.
I hadn't considered having Parry combine with fighting defensively; it's not a bad idea, but it's already a really wordy ability and I'm not sure I want to add to it. Also, it's more of an alternative to fighting defensively - it's not about protecting yourself, it's about aggressively deflecting attacks. You are right, however, that it should deny Dex to AC rather than cause flat-footed.
Swift Defense is a couple things. It's another free feat so that Swashbucklers can easily get Mobility and Spring Attack. It's a shield bonus to AC because that thematically fits with the theme of deflecting attacks, and because swashbucklers really have no way to GET a shield bonus to AC. It's mostly to keep their AC semi-competitive with someone doing sword-and-shield, since their fighting style is sword-and-no-shield.
Thrust is supposed to be a variant of sneak attack, and supposed to stack with sneak attack for more underhanded swashbucklers who want to grab rogue levels. A flat bonus to damage might be mechanically better, but is in my opinion less "Cool". It also fits nicely into existing mechanics - if it's a damage bonus you gain in all the same situations that a rogue gains sneak attack, why would it not work like sneak attack?
I think 1.5 Dex to all damage would be a bit much, simply because if you take Pinpoint Strike you probably dumped your Strength to all hell and are min-maxing the heck out of your Dex. Also, each of the style options is supposed to be roughly equal to a feat, "plus a little". In this case it's Dervish Dance, plus bonus damage when you make single attacks, which Pinpoint Strike is focused on.
Cunning Riposte is definitely the mechanically weakest style. However, it's also the most thematically strong. One of my goals with this class was "if there's any debate about whether or not this is Guybrush Threepwood's class, I've done something wrong". And the iconic image of the swashbuckler effortlessly disarming his foe is strong. :)
Hone Defenses is kinda based on the original version of Swashbuckler having a scaling bonus to AC. I also wanted to do something unique that wasn't just a copy of the Monk AC ability. The point of turning a shield bonus into a dodge bonus is that a) It's a nice way to boost your AC if you are getting a shield bonus from somewhere else, and b) Dodge bonuses apply to touch AC. I actually originally designed this ability with the thought of the swashbuckler being able to focus their defense on dodging rather then deflection for when they are fighting a mage.
On the upgraded Pinpoint Strike, I did have it originally just giving Vital Strike. However, I changed it for the (somewhat edge case) of a multiclass swashbuckler/something else who already took Vital Strike and has the BaB to qualify for Improved by swashbuckler level 10.
I didn't want to add deflect arrows to the parry ability because I didn't want to further complicate it, AND because I wanted it to be a separate defense rather than dependent on the swashbuckler's very limited number of parries per round.
Greater Parry means the swashbuckler gets one free parry no matter what he is doing. Each round, whether he readied to use parry or did something completely different, he can spend his immediate action to parry one attack.
Flawless Strike is not the most amazing ability, I agree. It does, however, allow a cool "lockdown" combo: If your opponent has low Fort, you can reliably stagger them every round... and then Greater Parry the one attack they can get against you. It also means that the swashbuckler can auto-hit monsters with really high AC. Basically the swashbuckler is supposed to be REALLY good at one-on-one fights, and this seems to fit that theme. I might add a line that the attack ignores miss chances; it's supposed to, but that wording is probably unclear.
Yeah, I could change the capstone to be ANOTHER style upgrade, that's not a bad idea. The free attack after an attack was such a cool ability, though, that I wanted all swashbucklers to have it. It also does benefit all three styles: A pinpoint strike swashbuckler has very limited attacks per round, and needs all the extra he can get, and a cunning riposte swashbuckler can use the free extra attack to perform a combat maneuver. Good catch on needing to add "at highest BaB".
I also agree that something to do with better mobility would be nice, but I'm not sure where to put it. I don't want to flood the class with styles, and I want each style to be a very strong choice.
Just finished reading your suggested re-write, and there are definitely some things I really like. I do like the style being three-tier and improving at BaB break points. I will probably shuffle things around to make that happen. I originally didn't want to put the style at 1st level because it makes the swashbuckler a strong dip, but that was before I switched it from light armor to no armor.
This is a comment based on the flavor of the class, as skills - thought mechanical - are highly suggestive of the flavor of the class. You have your movement based skills (acobatics, climb, swim) and some courtly ones (nobility and perform for dancing), and while you have included bluff and sense motive I don't see diplomacy and intimidate. These are can be very important skills depending on your vision of the archetype. Finally, I see you have included some thief skills (slight of hand and stealth). Again - my vision of the swashbuckler - I don't think these belong.
@Salamandyr: I had a very narrow theme in mind when designing this class. I wanted a class that focused on a weapon with an empty off hand, dervish dance style, but did not use dervish dance. So the opportunity to represent other kinds of swashbucklers was lost there.
The lack of armor is really just a style thing for me. Fighting without armor takes more panache, you know?
I agree on the mobility thing and I'm working on that. Although the Precise Strike line is somewhat mobile due to the emphasis on Vital Strike, and I'm already considering giving a class feature that allows spring attack + vital strike.
Move + full round attack is a VERY powerful ability (just ask anyone whose played with the Mythic rules) and I don't hand it out lightly. But it could be appropriate here, I don't know.
@Ciaran Barnes: Diplomacy I don't really see as fitting the theme of the swashbuckler, and intimidate I'm kinda torn on. It's halfway between appropriate and not appropriate. Stealth I do think is appropriate, especially for a class that has a sneak attack-like ability. Sleight of Hand, while inappropriate for picking pockets, is the skill for concealing a weapon on your person and therefore kinda appropriate there. I could see dropping Sleight of Hand for Intimidate, though.