Philotomy's Swashbuckler Class, Revised

[Deleted]

I followed a link from his excellent website and found this, a proposed fighter sub-class. Here is Philotomy Jurament's "Swashbuckler".

Here's how I might do it:

First, I'd add a new Dex adjustment for all PCs. Dex of 15+ grants a 1 point adjustment (i.e. penalty) to enemy "to hit" rolls if the PC is aware of the attack and wearing no armor (i.e. AC9)

* Hit Dice, Attacks, Saves, & XP advancement as Fighting Man
* Special +1 adjustment to all saving throws (fast and lucky). At 5th level, this goes up to +2.
* Retains any Dex adjustment to enemy "to hit" rolls while wearing light armor (e.g. leather) and/or using a buckler. May not wear heavy armor (e.g. chain, plate mail).
* Limited to 1-handed weapons (but may use two 1-h weapons) and missile weapons
* Stealthy: +1 to surprise (e.g. 3:6 instead of 2:6)
* Perceptive: Only surprised 1:6. Listen/hear noise 2:6


A built-in advantage this class will have is mobility. He'll have a good movement rate and low encumbrance, but Fighting Man hit points. He'd be an excellent scout (tough, fast, quiet, perceptive, resourceful/lucky).

I like it. It meets my Big 3 criteria for OD&D goodness; clean, simple, and fast. Still, I was wondering if a little more fiddling might be in order. Read the following additions and let me know what you think. Are they usable, are overpowering, or just plain silly?

*In-Fighting: halving of normally imposed penalties for fighting in difficult conditions such as: low-light, no-light, poor visibility, underwater, poor footing, etc.

*Deft Parry: DEX adjustment is subtracted from all damage rolls inflicted by an enemy combatant (but damage is never reduced below "1") but not, for instance, a large falling rock.

Since Swashbuckler is already being used in the rules, can anyone think of good alternate name? Scout? Ranger? Peltast? Skirmisher?

[apeloverage]

Barbarian.

[Deleted]

Hmm ... now that you say it, I believe that would make a rather decent barbarian class.

[Morandir]

I agree; the restriction to one-handed weapons doesn't really fit with the barbarian trope, though. Of course, it would be easy enough to drop it. Philotomy's stuff is great - I'm using his Thief class in my game, and it's worked great. I may have to tweak this for my S&S/Planetary Romance homebrew...

Mor

edit: Perhaps Raider would work for the class name?