So I am theorycrafting a Guiding Blade swashbuckler to go alongside my girlfriends Scythe two-handed fighter.
We tried out the duo as a regular swashbuckler in a one shot but I came up with the issue of, if I am giving my crits away, how do I regain my panache. Then I found the Guiding Blade, it slows down my feat progression but I feel like it does what I wanted to do with my concept even better.
My build would look something like this as a Guiding Blade
1) weapon finesse(from swashbucklers finesse)
1) combat expertise
1) butterfly's sting (human)
1) Precise Strike (teamwork feat)
3) combat refkexes
4) lookout (teamwork feat)
5) dodge
5) improved critical( swashbucklers training)
7) mobility
8) stealth synergy (teamwork feat)
9) lunge
11) Spring Attack
12) coordinated charge (teamwork feat)
13) whirlwind attack
15) Piranha Strike
16) Outflank (teamwork feat)
The idea of the build is using my turn to either full attack or whirlwind attack to proc Butterfly's sting on as many targets within range as possible, using lunge and swashbucklers flair to get a 15 foot reach.
My partner will then attack (using cleave/full attack/whatever is needed) to get the x4 crit on her scythe and any remaining ones would be dealt with via allies.
And each enemy defeated would be another panache point back in my pool.
The teamwork feats I figure I would pick up some utility ones to help with my out of combat effectiveness. So stealth synergy at 4th, and lookout turns my standard action in a surprise round into standard actions for all of my friends.
However my biggest concern is my defense, I trade out opportune parry and riposte for something that would make me be attacked MORE. And I lose out on the dodge bonus so that i can give it to them. I mean it is in character for my character to do something like that but I'm worried about survivability
So I was wondering if I can get some advice on how to boost defenses and the overall concept of this build? Is there a better option for this?
Well, a buckler plus good DEX plus a mithral medium armor is already pretty defensive. Crane Style instead of a buckler is very high defense, but costs feats. Multiclassing with Urban Barbarian and some Extra Rage grants +4DEX.