Shattered Kingdoms

Exactly! Bash is pretty much cruise control to victory, and as it stands a bashed swashy really doesn't stand much of a chance in combat vs a merc/barb. This gives the swashy a viable chance.

Sure, I agree that the bash change may balance the playing field a bit, we'll wait and see.

As for other tactically sound things a warrior could do aside from bash, there's always like disarm, and blitzkrieg, and headbutt...and bite...

Swashbucklers by their nature are extremely nimble blade wielders, capable of superior swordplay they are extremely difficult to land blows on thanks to their superior evasion tactics.

I propose a new skill for swashbucklers, trainable at around veteran/expert level called Feint. As stated above, swashbucklers are extremely nimble swordsman, and as such should be very difficult to keep tripped or bashed(moreso than they are now).

Feint would basically just be a passive skill which is in practical purposes an enhanced dodge, that only work on skills such as Gore/Bash/Trip. Skills designed to keep enemies on the ground, lagged out. The chance to successfully feint would obviously be based on the swashbucklers dexterity vs his opponents dexterity(or perhaps even intelligence). A successful feint would enable the swashbuckler to easily avoid a bash or trip or gore aimed at the swashbuckler, and act as a failed trip/bash/gore for the swashbucklers opponent.

Although I believe what I'm stating is easily understandable, the visuals seemed to be a big success so I'll demonstrate again.

P.o.V = Mercenary
Valthanos = Swashbuckler

Successful Feint



So basically, a successful feint as demonstrated allows the swashbuckler to avoid trips/bashes and in the case of bash the opponent falls on his/her face and is lagged three rounds, just like a normal missed bash. In the case of trip, you can have either the critical misses, in which the person attempting trip fails, and is lagged three rounds, or you can have the non-critical misses, in which the trip fails, but the person attempting to trip is only lagged one round.

A failed feint would obviously result in the swashbuckler being bashed/tripped.

I've always been of the opinion that swashbucklers were lacking in comparison to mercenaries, and even barbarians to a slight extent. They're still competative usually, but when a mercenary/barbarian in stellar gear comes along, swashbucklers just get schooled hard.

Feint I think would even the playing field significantly, having a very high chance to avoid trip/bash/gore enables the swashbuckler to almost always stay on his feet and use his abilities such as dirt/disarm/taunt/kick in an attempt to swing the battle in his/her favor. It also allows them the liberty of quaffing flasks/herbs regularly. Another reason I think such an ability would be highly useful, is because swashbucklers are the only melee class that can't afford the luxury of standing behind a pet while still dealing damage. In order for swashbucklers to deal any effective damage at all they have to be in the front row, and always in danger of being bashed/tripped. This ability would allow them to do so with a far greater chance of survival.

Thoughts, questions, comments?

1. a movement made in order to deceive an adversary; an attack aimed at one place or point merely as a distraction from the real place or point of attack: military feints; the feints of a skilled fencer.