[PId6]

Swashbuckler


Game Rule Information

Swashbucklers have the following game statistics:

Abilities: As before.
Alignment: Any.
Starting Gold: 5d4 x 10 (125 gp)
Hit Die: d8
Class Skills (4 + Int modifier per level): Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Local), Knowledge (Nobility), Martial Lore (Int), Perform (Cha), Profession (Cha), Sense Motive (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex), Use Rope (Dex).

Level	Bab	Fort	Ref	Will	Special	Maneuvers Known	Maneuvers Readied	Stances Known
1st	+0	2	2	0	Weapon Finesse, Grace +1	5	5 (2)	1
2nd	+1	3	3	0	Dramatic Entrance, Strength of Intellect	5	5 (2)	1
3rd	+2	3	3	1	Dashing Strike 1/encounter	6	5 (2)	1
4th	+3	4	4	1	Combat Reflexes	6	5 (2)	2
5th	+3	4	4	1	Grace +2, Uncanny Dodge	7	5 (2)	2
6th	+4	5	5	2	Dramatic Acrobatics	7	5 (2)	2
7th	+5	5	5	2	Strike of Insight	8	5 (2)	2
8th	+6	6	6	2	Dramatic Irony	8	5 (2)	2
9th	+6	6	6	3	Improved Uncanny Dodge	9	5 (2)	2
10th	+7	7	7	3	Grace +3	9	6 (3)	3
11th	+8	7	7	3		10	6 (3)	3
12th	+9	8	8	4	Dramatic Moment 1/day	10	6 (3)	3
13th	+9	8	8	4	Acrobatic Mastery	11	6 (3)	3
14th	+10	9	9	4	Dashing Strike 2/encounter	11	6 (3)	3
15th	+11	9	9	5	Grace +4	12	6 (3)	3
16th	+12	10	10	5	Dramatic Opportunity	12	6 (3)	4
17th	+12	10	10	5	Dramatic Moment 2/day	13	6 (3)	4
18th	+13	11	11	6	Certainty of Cunning	13	6 (3)	4
19th	+14	11	11	6		14	6 (3)	4
20th	+15	12	12	6	Grace +5, Dramatic Victory	14	7 (4)	4

Class Features

Spoiler

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: Swashbucklers are proficient with all light and martial weapons, light armor, shields, and a single light or one-handed exotic weapon of your choice. Some of the swashbuckler’s class features are dependent on being no more than light-armored and not encumbered.

Maneuvers: You being your career with knowledge of five martial maneuvers. The disciplines available to you are Diamond Mind, Iron Heart, Setting Sun, and Tiger Claw. Once you know a maneuver, you must ready it before you can use it (see Maneuvers Readied, below). You learn additional maneuvers at higher levels, as shown on the class progression table. You must meet a maneuver’s prerequisites to learn it.

Upon reaching 4th level, and at every even swashbuckler level after that (6th, 8th, 10th, and so on), you can choose to learn a new maneuver in place of one you already know. In effect, you lose the old maneuver in place of the new one. You can choose a new maneuver of any level you like, as long as you observe your restriction on the highest-level maneuvers you know; you need not replace the old maneuver with a maneuver of the same level. You can swap only a single maneuver at any given level.

Maneuvers Readied: You can ready all five maneuvers you know at 1st level, but as you advance in level and learn more maneuvers, you must choose which maneuvers to ready. You ready maneuvers by exercising for 5 minutes. The maneuvers you choose remain readied until you decide to exercise again and change them. You need not sleep or rest for any long period of time in order to ready your maneuvers; any time you spend 5 minutes in exercise, you can change your readied maneuvers.

You begin an encounter with all your readied maneuvers unexpended, regardless of how many times you might have already used them since you chose them. When you initiate a maneuver, you expend it for the current encounter, so each of your readied maneuvers can be used once per encounter (unless you recover them, as described below).

Swashbucklers are similar among martial adepts to the crusader, though rather than the divine, swashbucklers trust in the whims of fortune and fate to grant them the right skills at the right times. As such, you do not control access to your readied maneuvers. Before you take your first action in an encounter, two of your readied maneuvers (randomly determined) are granted to you. The rest of your readied maneuvers are withheld, currently inaccessible. At the end of each turn, one previously withheld maneuver (again, randomly determined) is granted to you, and thus becomes accessible for your next turn and subsequent turns.

You can freely choose to initiate any maneuver that is currently granted when your turn begins, but you cannot initiate a withheld maneuver. If you choose not to employ a maneuver in a given round, your currently granted maneuvers remain available, and a previously withheld maneuver is granted, as described above. In other words, it doesn’t matter if you use your maneuvers or not—at the end of each of your turns, one withheld maneuver from your selection of readied maneuvers is granted to you. Over the course of a few rounds, all of your maneuvers will eventually be granted.

If, at the end of your turn, you cannot be granted a maneuver because you have no withheld maneuvers remaining, you recover all expended maneuvers, and a new pair of readied maneuvers is granted to you. Randomly determine which of your maneuvers are granted and which are withheld. At the end of your next turn, a withheld maneuver is granted to you, and the whole process of leaping into the arms of fortune begins again.

You begin an encounter with an additional granted maneuver at 10th level (bringing your total to three), and again at 20th level (bringing your total to four). You may not take the Extra Granted Maneuver feat to increase this.

Stances Known: You begin play with knowledge of one stance from the Diamond Mind, Iron Heart, Setting Sun, or Tiger Claw discipline. At 4th, 10th, and 16th level, you can choose an additional stance. Unlike maneuvers, stances are not expended, and you do not have to ready them. All the stances you know are available to you at all times, and you can change the stance you currently use as a swift action. A stance is an extraordinary ability unless otherwise stated in the stance description. Unlike maneuvers, you cannot learn a new stance at higher levels in place of one you already know.

Weapon Finesse (Ex): As before.

Grace (Ex): You gain a +1 bonus to dodge AC and initiative. This bonus increases by +1 at level 5 and again every 5 levels thereafter. This bonus only applies if you are wearing light or no armor and are unencumbered.

Dramatic Entrance (Ex): At level 2 or above, you leap into battle just at the nick of time, making a spectacular display of your timely arrival. In the opening round of combat or in the moments leading up to combat, you may ignore damage caused by your entrance up to an amount equal to twice your class level, such as from breaking through a window, leaping through flames, or falling from a great height. In addition, during that round you may charge over terrain that would normally slow your movement, as the Acrobatic Charge ability.

Strength of Intellect (Ex): You have confidence that your superior planning and intellect will always win the day. At 2nd level, you may add your Intelligence modifier to your Will saves.

Dashing Strike (Ex): At 3rd level, you gain the ability to channel your sheer flair into your attack, taking advantage of your opponent’s opening to deliver a devastating and picturesque hit. Once per encounter, whenever you make an attack of opportunity or an attack against an enemy without their Dex bonus to AC (be it on a standard attack, a part of a strike, or a single swing of a full-round attack), you may add your Charisma bonus to the attack roll and add your class level to the damage roll. This ability may only be used with an attack from a light or finesse-able weapon (such as whip or rapier). At level 14, you gain an additional use of this ability per encounter, but you may not use this ability on more than a single attack per round.

Combat Reflexes (Ex): At 4th level, you gain Combat Reflexes as a bonus feat as long as you are unarmed or light armored and are not encumbered.

Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 5th level, you gain Uncanny Dodge as the rogue ability.

Dramatic Acrobatics (Ex): At level 6, you learn to use your showmanship to drive your acrobatic maneuverings to success. You may add your Charisma bonus to Balance, Climb, Jump, and Tumble checks as long as you are unarmored or light armored and are not encumbered.

Strike of Insight (Ex): At 7th level, you are able to guide your attacks precisely against your opponent’s weak points. You gain an insight bonus to confirm critical hits equal to your Intelligence modifier.

Dramatic Irony (Ex): At 8th level, you learn to use witticism and subterfuge to lower your opponent’s guard. You may now feint as a swift action (if you have the Improved Feint feat, this becomes a free action that can be performed once per round). If your feint is successful, the target loses its Dex bonus to AC against all attacks you make this turn. In addition, if you make a witty pun or spout a catchphrase while making this feint, you gain a bonus to your feint equal to half class level (DM determines whether your pun or catchphrase qualifies).

Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 9th level, you gain Improved Uncanny Dodge as the rogue ability.

Dramatic Moment (Ex): At level 12, you know that heroes make their own drama. Though sheer panache, you are able to purposefully give the appearance of failure, only to snatch success at the last dramatic moment. Once per day, you may reroll the result of a failed attack roll, skill check, ability check, or saving throw, adding your Charisma bonus to the reroll. You must take the result of the second roll, even if it is worse than the first. At level 17, you may use this ability twice a day, though you may not use this ability more than once per round; after all, no one likes a repeat performance.

Acrobatic Mastery (Ex): As before, but this also extends to Balance and Climb checks.

Dramatic Opportunity (Ex): At 16th level, you learn to take advantage of every opening, every opportunity your enemy gives you. Whenever you are to make an attack of opportunity against an enemy, you may use a granted standard action strike against that enemy instead. This strike is expended as normal.

Certainty of Cunning (Ex): At level 18, you weave complex plans within the smallest instant, thinking through the tactics of any given situation even in the middle of a fight, giving you an uncanny ability to predict your opponents’ attacks. As a free action, designate an enemy. You gain your Intelligence bonus as dodge AC to avoid that enemy’s attacks while it remains so designated. You may only designate a single enemy at a time. If you have the Dodge feat, you must designate the same enemy for that feat, and its effects stack.

Dramatic Victory (Ex): At 20th level, you learn that fortune favors the victor. Whenever you defeat or slay an enemy in combat, you may immediately recover all expended maneuvers and have a new set of readied maneuvers granted to you, as if you had ended your turn with no withheld maneuvers remaining. You may choose the specific maneuvers to be granted here, though the total cannot exceed your normal number of granted maneuvers in the first round of combat.

Updated: 9/1/2009