Best Feats for Swashbuckler Rogue 5e
by Prince Phantom
The fantasy of the Swashbuckler is one that is well trodden by media, and almost always a crowd pleaser. So, how does D&D’s take on this trope hold up? Not good, and in desperate need of some help. A full review of the subclass is beyond the scope of this article, so I’ll summarize.
We must add Charisma to the list of abilities we care about, we get nothing to augment our poor damage, we are forced into melee, we are encouraged to tank as one of the frailest classes in the game, and our high level features are laughable at best. All that being said, this is D&D, and you can still have fun with a bad character. No amount of feats are going to make this subclass truly great, but let’s see what we can do.
Best Feats for Swashbuckler Rogue 5e
1 Level of Hexblade Warlock: Ok I’m sorry but I promise this does more for us than any feat ever possibly could. We get to prioritize our Charisma as our attacking stat, meaning all our Swashbuckler abilities that we actually care about (all 2 of them) are much more effective. We gain medium armor and shields, so we can get our dexterity to 14 and be happy, freeing up our stats to pump more into Constitution, which we will need since we are trying to make the squishiest class in the game into a tank. We’ll even take Hexblade’s Curse, a feature I don’t even think is that great. It fits into the theme of us picking a strong foe and dueling it, and actually rewards us for that fallacy with a bit of extra damage. We can also pick up Booming Blade this way, boosting our damage even further and working great with our Fancy Footwork free disengage. I know this list is about feats, but please, for the love of all that is bad and unholy, take 1 level of Hexblade.
Magic Initiate (ASAP): Oh boy Magic Initiate! I wonder what spel- it’s Find Familiar. Take Find Familiar. Have it use the help action every turn to give you advantage. Is this overpowered like everyone says it is? Heck no! You’re playing a Swashbuckler, you need all the help you can get! If you refused that Hexblade dip, this can also get you Booming Blade, otherwise grab some utility cantrips and go nuts. Spells make everyone better.
Moderately Armored (Lv 4): Again, if you refused the Hexblade dip, these first two feats can combine to give you a decent amount of what you’re missing out on. This bumps our AC from a max of 17 to 19 (without us needing to max Dexterity) and means we are likely holding a rapier and shield during combat. Do not be fooled into thinking that duel wielding short swords is better. We should be able to get advantage on all our attacks, so we should be landing sneak attack every turn. Our bonus action could be used for much better things than an occasional extra d6 of damage.
Gift of the Gem Dragon (Lv 4): A half feat to boost our Charisma, and a reaction that makes us better at tanking. This reaction does compete with Uncanny Dodge, but it is much better. The strategy is to attack our target, then back away far enough so they must use the majority of their movement to reach us. If they hit us, we push them away and now they don’t have enough movement to get back to us and do the rest of their multi attack. Once we run out of uses for this, we can fall back on Uncanny Dodge. This is another reason for us to dip Hexblade, as we need the save DC for this to be as high as possible.
Telekinetic (Lv 4): We’ll be using our bonus action to dash on many of our turns, as we need to stay far away from dangerous enemies so we don’t get swarmed. We really don’t want to be in walking distance of more than one enemy. Many turns, however, we won’t need to dash, so having a secondary use for our bonus action is very welcome. Use this push to get your allies out of grapples, push orcs into that Wall of Fire that your wizard set up, and if your DM is really nice, off that conveniently placed cliff. I did find that I use this to help my allies more than hurt my enemies, so you’ll probably make some friends with this one. Mage Hand is also great, and I really wish more rogues than Arcane Trickster could use it to steal and pick locks.
Inspiring Leader (Lv 8): Level 8 is the point where this is really starting to give a ton of extra hp to the party. We desperately need some temp hp to sustain ourselves with our very dangerous playstyle. Do note that if someone else in the party takes this or you have another source of temp hp like an Artillerist Artificer or Twilight Cleric, take something else as temp hp does not stack. Another one for the pile of “reasons to take a Hexblade dip”.
Tough (Lv 8): This is your alternative if your party has temp hp covered. A flat 16hp at this level is very nice. It equates to about two hits at this level, and scales quite well. Most builds can take tough at higher levels as a filler feat, but we actually need it now.
Resilient (Lv 10): Rogue is nice enough to give us an extra feat at level 10, which is a perfect time to shore up our Wisdom saves. I seriously cannot overstate how bad it is to fail a Wisdom save, especially as a melee martial. If we fail a save for a fear effect, we are likely useless for the rest of the encounter, and fear is one of the least concerning effects a Wisdom save an inflict! Our whole skirmished fantasy falls apart spectacularly at even the slightest disruption of our abilities. We can’t afford not to take this.
Fey Touched/Shadow Touched (Lv 12): A dash of magic can go a very long way. On rogues particularly, I feel these two feats are pretty comparable. The spells they grant are useful in different ways, but I will say that Misty Step isn’t quite as good on rogues as we can dash as a bonus action. Still very useful to get out of a grapple or other bad situation however. This is really an instance of pick your favorite. You won’t go wrong with either.
Eldritch Adept (Lv 16): I’m taking this strictly for Misty Visions. Silent Image as a cantrip is both mechanically very useful, and just plain fun. If you need inspiration for this, watch the original Aladdin’s Genie. Go nuts with this. You’ve survived this long as a terrible subclass, you’ve earned it.
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