As I started recently building out a Rascal Swashbuckler more I started to more deeply think on how it might play in combat and found it to be surprisingly more complex than you'd think. Dirty Trick having both Attack and Manipulate traits makes it a bit more of gamble than some of the other styles (Fencer, f.e.) and it got me thinking more about how you might optimize and find the right niche for it. So what are people's thoughts on how to effectively build this out? I have my own ideas, of course, but I was curious if there were some strategies I hadn't considered or might have disregarded too quickly.
It's a thought I had! Rascal having it's bravado linked to Dex alone allows you to push your secondary stat to whatever you wish whether it be Cha, Wis, Int, or Str. My own thoughts were to shift into Wis so you can have more Perception and two good knowledge skills if you choose as well as possible spellcasting dedications.
A curious thing I noted is the dedication doesn't seem to indicate that you gain Dirty Trick as a skill feat? Am I reading that right? If so that makes the style kind of suboptimal compared to others in that context...
A curious thing I noted is the dedication doesn't seem to indicate that you gain Dirty Trick as a skill feat?...
The dedication is for the Swashbuckler Multiclass Archetype and Swashbuckler Dedication says (first sentence), "Choose a swashbuckler’s style." The swashbuckler style Rascal explicitly grants training in Thievery and the Dirty Trick general feat.
So, a Dex/Cha Fighter with no training in Thievery, upon taking the Swashbuckler dedication and choosing the Rascal swashbuckler style gets trained in Thievery and gains the Dirty Trick skill feat.