AU Unfettered vs. AEG Swashbuckler -- compare and contrast please!

[hong]

I think Josh knows which light fighter class I'd rather play.

 

[blackshirt5]

I think Josh knows which light fighter class I'd rather play.

Which one'd that be?

 

[hong]

Which one'd that be?

You'd know that if you went to my website.

ANYway, to stop hijacking the thread further: it looks like there's a plethora of light fighter classes available now. I haven't seen either the unfettered or the AEG swashbuckler, but now there's another swashbuckler class in Complete Warrior. So I'll just throw in my impressions of that one.

Stats at a glance: Fighter BAB, d10 HD, good Fort save, 4 skill points/level, some good skills incl. Tumble.
Abilities: Weapon Finesse at 1st level; grace (competence bonus to Ref saves, which effectively gives the swashbuckler a "medium" Ref like that seen in d20 Modern); level-based AC bonus vs selected targets; Int bonus to damage (stacks with Str bonus, doesn't apply to creatures immune to crits); take 10 on Jump and Tumble; plus a grab-bag of others.

Overall, it's not too shabby balance-wise. The Int bonus to damage (and a couple of other abilities) can be really nasty against anything that can be critted, but otherwise the fighter will do more damage and probably have better AC. Some of the class abilities seem a bit weird, though (reroll one d20 roll/day at 11th, wounding critical deals 2 points of Con damage per crit at 19th level). If there's something about the light fighter/swashbuckler schtick that requires causing Con damage, I must have missed it.

OTOH, I'd have liked to have seen at least some class abilities that worked off Cha. One of the basic elements of the swashbuckler schtick must surely be the swashbuckling _attitude_; panache, charm, rapier wit, or whatever else you want to call it. As it is, there's nothing stopping the swashbuckler treating Cha as a dump stat, and that seems to work against type, if nothing else.

 

[Mercule]

But he's an amusing troll.

Hong: Troll Jester.

Although, if you're paying attension, Hong usually has a point. It's just that he seems to prefer normal damage to non-lethal.

 

[blackshirt5]

Hong: Troll Jester.

Although, if you're paying attension, Hong usually has a point. It's just that he seems to prefer normal damage to non-lethal.

Agreed; unlike some others(ELF PORN ELF PORN BUY THE BIGARSE BOOK OF ELF PORN IT IS TEH GR34T3ST!; I like OD&D; 3rd sucks hard) hong makes sense and has a point in what he's saying.

 

[Desdichado]

Hmmm, that Complete Warrior class doesn't sound half bad, although it doesn't seem to give me any reason to not use Unfettered instead.

So, hong, are you saying you use your martial artist and a swashbuckler both, or do you only have the one role in Britannia 3e?

 

[TracerBullet42]

Hong: Troll Jester.

Although, if you're paying attension, Hong usually has a point. It's just that he seems to prefer normal damage to non-lethal.

Troll Jester....hehehe. I like that.

And I agree, while Hong may poke the occasional fun at someone, he does it playfully...much like the little kitten he has for an icon.

Funny to think that this thread started comparing the Unfettered and Swashbuckler classes, eh? I have not seen the Unfettered, but I do like the Swashy-dude in the CW. I haven't looked at how well it leads to the duelist PrC, but I'm guessing that'd be a nice combo.

Happy Turkey Day and stuff...

 

[Wombat]

I have both books. Of the two I would gladly use the Unfettered class in any D20 campaign, where I would be very hesitant about using the Swashbuckler class from SA. Overall I find SA to be not very well thought out -- there are interesting tidbits, but the power levels of all the classes and items are a bit, well, hinky. Some are way too powerful, some not powerful enough, and many of the PrCs are just plain silly (Entertainment Officer??).

Due to the overall read of the book, admittedly heavily coloured by my dislike of Theah both in its original and its D20 incarnations, I would not use any of the classes in my games. Green Ronins Skull & Bones has much better material for the same general era, when it comes to that, but more importantly the Unfettered class would be a perfect class in any of the three base settings (Theah, semi-historical Carribean, Diamond Throne).

As for the "power creep" issue, I do not really see it. The XP chart in AU is higher than in the base game, precisely because the XP chart is not in the SRD. The AU XP chart is, indeed, 10% higher, but in terms of play, I have not found the classes to be any more powerful in terms of play (many argue that the Magister is less powerful, albeit more flexible).

My own mileage only, of course, based on direct play.

 

[Desdichado]

D'oh! I forgot Skull & Bones is supposed to have a swashbuckler or some sorts as well, isn't it? One more to compare. I'm up to four that seem relatively legit in print.

 

[hong]

Hmmm, that Complete Warrior class doesn't sound half bad, although it doesn't seem to give me any reason to not use Unfettered instead.

So, hong, are you saying you use your martial artist and a swashbuckler both, or do you only have the one role in Britannia 3e?

Well, originally I didn't have martial artists in Britannia; there's not much of a Britannian tradition of people doing wire-fu stunts or killing things with their bare hands. But then someone expressed interest in playing an MA, and the irony of making a class and then not using it got too much. So now they're in, to fill the light fighter niche more than anything else. I'm resigned to people at high levels doing wire-fu with the aid of magic items anyway, so it's not going to make that much of a difference. And ultimately, I have a weakness for wire-fu stunts; one of these days, I _am_ going to run Exalted....

I don't think there'd be a problem with swashbucklers as well, if someone really wanted to play one. The class doesn't pose major conceptual problems with integrating it into the background, like if someone wanted to play a psion or alt.spellcaster, for instance. Multiclassing MA/swashbuckler might be problematic in terms of game balance, but off the cuff, that seems unlikely.