Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

Alright, so here's the second supplement that I came up with. This is a Swashbuckler as a subclass of Thief.

The "by Syron" right below the title should be removed or replace by a "A Thief Subclass"
"If a Swashbuckler uses any other weapons or a shield, he or she can’t use any of his or her special abilities as those abilities require both a free hand a good balance" should be "and good balance"
Its thieving skill values should be lesser than those of a thief of equal level despite the XP difference
Considering the class has a base +0 in dex its piercing attack seems to poor for its requisite

Alright, so I've made corrections to the typos. I've also looked at other subclasses and am currently going with a reduction of 5 for Open Locks, Remove Traps, Climb Walls, and Listen.

Now on Piercing Strike, its bonus to damage is from the Dexterity Score (not modifier), this means a minimum of a +9 bonus to damage rolls and a (usually unlikely) maximum of +18, if the requirements are met. This may be an issue because it is unusual and easily misread. I'm thinking of replacing the mechanic with a flat bonus to damage with one-handed melee weapons unrelated to Dexterity.

Oh, the attribute score makes more sense, but yes, I think it could be easily mixed, a flat bonus or multiplier goes more with game rules I think.

A few more revisions were made after looking some more at other examples. Charisma requirement was reduced to 11. A note was added that Distract and Enthrall may have additional effects at the GM's discretion. Distract's bonus to attack and damage was changed to a flat +2. Piercing Strike was replaced by a gradually growing bonus to damage with one-handed weapons.

I think that it should largely be in line with the average supplement now.

Syron, I have re-attached your supplement with a release number added on (r3 as you made 2 revisions so far). Please remember to include and increment that number with any additional revisions, thanks!

Is the racial adjustment for enthralling only applicable to humans?
I'm not sure why an elf would have a bonus against an orc or why a demi-orc would be penalized against an other demi-orc.

Out of curiosity, why do you hate dwarfs? Why are they the only ones who cannot swash buckles? If gnomes, of all peoples, and half-orcs can swash buckles, why can dwarfs not?

Seems rather prejudicial ...


OK, that was all written tongue-in-cheek, but seriously, why single out dwarfs?

Dwarf are usually all guts and strength rather than finesse.
Although, we do have dwarven thieves.

Yeah, I don't see why a dwarf couldn't do it, but it would probably look a bit different.
I don't follow dwarven fashion very closely. Maybe fewer feathers, more bells?

Dwarves aren't on the list because of the restriction on Charisma. Otherwise, I would have put them on. I felt that Charisma was a fundamental factor in being a Swashbuckler.

The racial adjustments on Enthralling are not taking the target's race into account. I am leaving it to the GM to determine inter-racial reaction bonuses or penalties as makes sense for the setting and individuals involved. Perhaps I should have added a sentence or two to clarify that. What is on the racial adjustments is largely intended to work with the Thief Options Supplement for those interested, and not something I personally have much attachment to keeping. As for what I choose on them, I started with the idea of Elves are connected to fey creatures, fey creatures are prone to charm effects, I'll give Elves the primary Enthrall bonus. From there I went down a list of possible bonuses and penalties.

I'm open to changing these things, as they aren't the core of the concept I want to put forward.