It's a fun class that basically begs you to weaponize persuasion. Power Attack (only req 13 str), Dazzling Display, Cornugan Smash and Dreadful Carnage will have your Swordlord constantly debuffing the enemy essentially for free. Start Aldori Defender, grab everything needed for Aldori Dueling Mastery and the Swordlord prestige. Pick up Intimidating Prowess and leverage strength not for damage but better class perks, plus few items for yet more persuasion (I ended up with 37, not including intimidation bonuses, by level 20), and sink your 'free' fighter feats into the fighter exclusive weapon masteries to flesh out your role as King of the Dueling Sword. I really had a lot of fun raiding Tenebrous Depths and Varnhold's Lot with this set up. I wouldn't multi-class too much. You're nailed to the cross that is your dueling sword and using Aldori Defender or Fighter is the most efficient way to make your trick pony work.
Thanks for the guide! I'm currently following this and I'm level 13. But... I decided to respec and remove Slayer and add Vivisectionist. I think that 1 level of Vivi adds a lot more than Slayer, and you still have enough skill points to switch to Aldori Swordlord at level 6. Though I did give myself an INT of 12.
vivi is a great 1 level wonder as ever and its ok on most builds including this one. this guy is not intelligent. he always puts negative stats on his builds. I watched his videos to better understand the game and the only thing I understood is that he is the worst in UA-cam to follow 100% what he says. every single video of his has some misinformation or something that once you understand the game its clearly not great to do if you want to play unfair difficulty. only rewatching this one cause I did not watch it when I played the game a year ago and now I am playing again while I wait for baldurs gate and other pnp based games to come out of early access and decided to have a party of chars that have to have at least one prestige class on their builds.
In a nutshell: If you play on anything lower than Unfair, where you would require cheese tactics, and you need a strong tank: Multiclassing with Aldori Defender, Scaled Fist, and Paladin into Swordlord, up until at least level 5, while picking up Dodge, Combat Expertise and all 3 Crane Style feats, is quite likely your best bet. :P
I really want to play one, but do not know enough of the Pathfinder classes to get to unfair. Guess need to play on lower levels until I get it figured out. Thank you for the Guides
I went with 2 rogue thug archetype levels personally to get the fear effect on dazzling display weapon finesse and uncanny dodge. It also unlocks a bit of backstabbing and I might spend some feats on getting more backstab dices later on. I intend to mix those rogue levels with lots of warriors to raise that weapon proficiency/backstab/group feats and go for crit feats later on in the game. With the fear effect roll on crit I should be able to sustain good dmg high def and a morale debuff most of the time.... I'm not sure how the final build will look at the end though, I'm going a bit blind and try stuff out atm.
This is the DEX build I used but I skipped Slashing Grace since you don't need it with Bloodhound dueling sword: Aasimar for wings (+3 Dodge AC) after level 10. Angel, Azat, or Peri - all of them get +2 CHA so it depends on whether you'd rather have +2 INT, STR, or DEX. Lawful Good because there's a nice late-game robe (in the Pitax chapter IIRC) for LG-only monks (+5 Dodge AC) and it's a paladin pre-req. Aldori Defender 8 for Steel Net (description says it should be granted at level 7 but in-game it's not available until 8) Duelist 7 for Elaborate Defense and up to +7 to AC and damage (based on INT) Sacred Fist 1 for CHA to AC and Crane Style (2 gets another feat + Evasion) Paladin 2 for Divine Grace (+CHA to saves) and one use of Smite Evil (good for boss fights) Feats: Dodge + Combat Mobility for AC bonuses and Duelist pre-reqs; Combat Expertise; Weapon Focus:Dueling Sword + Aldori Dueling Mastery (+AC & Initiative and makes dueling swords work with Duelist bonuses); Aasimar Wings; Improved Critical:Dueling Sword; Weapon Finesse. Outflank + Seize the Moment; Duelist 4 provides free Combat Reflexes
Hey there, happy new year! How do I change the grip? Meaning how do I switch to one handed fighting with a duelist sword? I have just that equiped but the character ingame wields it two handed. Or is that just an animation thing? Peace
This class honestly has me scratching my head a lot cause it reads very cool, but it feels like a bad aldori defender in that your multi classing all over the place and spreading yourself out so much to have a glorified version of a already existing subclass. Anyone feel the same?
I'm playing on normal, but I'm using a aldori defender/aldori swordlord with only a single point in monk scale fist. (trying to go defender 9 swordlord 10 at 20 - if I ever get there doing the new dlcs). The idea is getting the steel net on defender 8, crane style with wings from monk and adaptive tactics from swordlord, every one of those 4/5 abilities reduce the penalties and/or improve the bonus from combat expertise and fighting defensively. Right not I've got a character level 15 that has 47 AC out of combat, but goes over 60 once combat starts, and can get even higher if the enemy is shaken and confidence shattered etc. Buffing the character should bring the ac even higher. The MAIN problem is that the only thing going for it on the attack side is normal attacks with a crap ton of dex and the hit chance/damage is based on dex, it can hit for 20~30 ish per strike - I can get better results with the ranger or rogue, plus the cleric can use strong spells hitting for over 140 damage and kanerah can hit for over 100 with a well hit kineticist blast. It's very tanky, but not very strong. Nice for being the main character due to persuasion too. I'd advice going with aasimar muselsomething (the +2 charisma) for the wing feat after level 10 (+3 ac against melee). Honestly, this is hella tanky. I don't really like the idea of going duelist on the main character, because I'd like to have INT on the duelist, but CHA on main character for persuasion, that's the main motive I enjoy swordlord more.
5 років тому
I feel the exact same. My Aldori Defender is impossible to hit and is a great sponge for soaking up all the attacks coming her way.
One can say the same about all prestige classes and their corresponding base archetypes. But roleplaying-wise it implements an important concept for this setting, the Aldori training for already competent warriors. And, obviously, you don't have to spread, it works well with quite a few single base classes.
I have checkrd this clase out but if i am going the daceling display rout i want to do it whit a slayer whit a reatch weapon and strength build whit the menesing renger stans + some extra cleave fets u can rely hit alott of peapole fore allot of damege and u hitt evrything when u remove dex from the exussion but u neead stengt 15 fore cornegon smach shatter and dredful charnege and u want those to proc daceling automateckly so u dont have to spend a action to do a daceling
My english professor had double deficit dyslexia. And said that living with, and overcoming it, is a matter of taking the time to double check what you read and write. Even if you're dyslexic. If you see a word underlined after typing it. Then you know it's wrong and need to check it.
Dazzling display is brutal with a paladin. They’re charisma based, and you want a lot of it, plus they’re self healing front line fighters. A level of thug makes them comically broken imo. Plus the sneak attack is nice if anything ever flanks your target. I think this route into sword lord is underrated, it’s easy to get there and smite evil is a nice damage boost for this.
Slayers get sneak attack and loads of extra feats and this is feet hungry so the slayer gets all of it on curve and sneak attack u dont need flanking u have Dazzling display
cause he is not a thinker. and most of his builds are based on pen n paper instead of what the game rules show you whats best and when he does that he forgets to think about better options anyway...
well i just play as the aldori defender and just spec it into a defenseable fighter. i picked a human aldori defender and speced him to have 10 strength, 20 dex, 8 con, 12 intelligence, 10 wisdom and 15 charisma. then speced him to have combat expertise, aldori dueling, disarm, but yea with only aldori defender and swordlord the character is able to counter attack and have high armor count. and a good sword you can use for chapter 2 until 5 or more is the swordsman's passion a dueling sword with +2 enchantment and agile effect on it which makes it good for high dex :)
or u konw bloodhound that is a +5 agaile whit a 18-20 crit mod so u whit a feat can get it to 15-20 all u have to do to get it is sto have 2 dimension door so level 8 octavia can do it no prob
You read each abilty and then laugh saying nothing in the description works in unfair difficulty lol. It's just dumb to play unfair, renders everything in the game obsolete. What's the point? To play unfair, you cheese, exploit, cheat in every way you can think of to one shot every enemy as quickly as possible as if this was braindead Fortnite, and try to not get hit even once..... That is bullcrap, removes everything interesting about this game, every mechanic.
A friendly recommendation... Your build videos are all consist of "Too much information". Keep things simple and straight forward, 10 mins is enough. Example: Level 1 - This, Level 2 - This, Level 3 - This. If you want to input more information for people that wants to know, Elaborate at the end of the video...have a bit more organization. Every one of your build video becomes babbling simply due to you are throwing in way too much information without any organization.
None of these are build videos. Literally all of them are just introduction to classes. IF you want a cookie cutter "pick x at each level", there are plenty other content creators for it.
A friendly recommendation... If you lack a brain and you don't want more information than you can handle, go play braindead Fortnite or braindead Apex Legends where you can just go like "pew pew pew look mom i have no brain pew pew pew pew pew".
It's a fun class that basically begs you to weaponize persuasion. Power Attack (only req 13 str), Dazzling Display, Cornugan Smash and Dreadful Carnage will have your Swordlord constantly debuffing the enemy essentially for free. Start Aldori Defender, grab everything needed for Aldori Dueling Mastery and the Swordlord prestige. Pick up Intimidating Prowess and leverage strength not for damage but better class perks, plus few items for yet more persuasion (I ended up with 37, not including intimidation bonuses, by level 20), and sink your 'free' fighter feats into the fighter exclusive weapon masteries to flesh out your role as King of the Dueling Sword. I really had a lot of fun raiding Tenebrous Depths and Varnhold's Lot with this set up. I wouldn't multi-class too much. You're nailed to the cross that is your dueling sword and using Aldori Defender or Fighter is the most efficient way to make your trick pony work.
"Like a Frenchman" ... made me nose my coffee.
Thanks for the guide! I'm currently following this and I'm level 13. But... I decided to respec and remove Slayer and add Vivisectionist. I think that 1 level of Vivi adds a lot more than Slayer, and you still have enough skill points to switch to Aldori Swordlord at level 6. Though I did give myself an INT of 12.
vivi is a great 1 level wonder as ever and its ok on most builds including this one. this guy is not intelligent. he always puts negative stats on his builds. I watched his videos to better understand the game and the only thing I understood is that he is the worst in UA-cam to follow 100% what he says. every single video of his has some misinformation or something that once you understand the game its clearly not great to do if you want to play unfair difficulty. only rewatching this one cause I did not watch it when I played the game a year ago and now I am playing again while I wait for baldurs gate and other pnp based games to come out of early access and decided to have a party of chars that have to have at least one prestige class on their builds.
In a nutshell: If you play on anything lower than Unfair, where you would require cheese tactics, and you need a strong tank: Multiclassing with Aldori Defender, Scaled Fist, and Paladin into Swordlord, up until at least level 5, while picking up Dodge, Combat Expertise and all 3 Crane Style feats, is quite likely your best bet. :P
"The French Manner"
Why not sword saint instead of slayer?
I really want to play one, but do not know enough of the Pathfinder classes to get to unfair. Guess need to play on lower levels until I get it figured out. Thank you for the Guides
Unfair is basically "Find a way to cheese", you won't be missing much of the experience if you play one step above normal
I went with 2 rogue thug archetype levels personally to get the fear effect on dazzling display weapon finesse and uncanny dodge. It also unlocks a bit of backstabbing and I might spend some feats on getting more backstab dices later on. I intend to mix those rogue levels with lots of warriors to raise that weapon proficiency/backstab/group feats and go for crit feats later on in the game. With the fear effect roll on crit I should be able to sustain good dmg high def and a morale debuff most of the time.... I'm not sure how the final build will look at the end though, I'm going a bit blind and try stuff out atm.
2 Rouge Thug instead of what please? How did it play out?
This is the DEX build I used but I skipped Slashing Grace since you don't need it with Bloodhound dueling sword:
Aasimar for wings (+3 Dodge AC) after level 10. Angel, Azat, or Peri - all of them get +2 CHA so it depends on whether you'd rather have +2 INT, STR, or DEX.
Lawful Good because there's a nice late-game robe (in the Pitax chapter IIRC) for LG-only monks (+5 Dodge AC) and it's a paladin pre-req.
Aldori Defender 8 for Steel Net (description says it should be granted at level 7 but in-game it's not available until 8)
Duelist 7 for Elaborate Defense and up to +7 to AC and damage (based on INT)
Sacred Fist 1 for CHA to AC and Crane Style (2 gets another feat + Evasion)
Paladin 2 for Divine Grace (+CHA to saves) and one use of Smite Evil (good for boss fights)
Feats: Dodge + Combat Mobility for AC bonuses and Duelist pre-reqs; Combat Expertise; Weapon Focus:Dueling Sword + Aldori Dueling Mastery (+AC & Initiative and makes dueling swords work with Duelist bonuses); Aasimar Wings; Improved Critical:Dueling Sword; Weapon Finesse. Outflank + Seize the Moment; Duelist 4 provides free Combat Reflexes
Hey there, happy new year!
How do I change the grip? Meaning how do I switch to one handed fighting with a duelist sword? I have just that equiped but the character ingame wields it two handed. Or is that just an animation thing?
Peace
Nice guide, I need to try it by myself. Could you show to us your stats? Strenght, wisdom itp.
This class honestly has me scratching my head a lot cause it reads very cool, but it feels like a bad aldori defender in that your multi classing all over the place and spreading yourself out so much to have a glorified version of a already existing subclass. Anyone feel the same?
Everyone feels the same. Plus he's also a worse version of duelist.
Thanks for the heart MBG.
I'm playing on normal, but I'm using a aldori defender/aldori swordlord with only a single point in monk scale fist. (trying to go defender 9 swordlord 10 at 20 - if I ever get there doing the new dlcs).
The idea is getting the steel net on defender 8, crane style with wings from monk and adaptive tactics from swordlord, every one of those 4/5 abilities reduce the penalties and/or improve the bonus from combat expertise and fighting defensively. Right not I've got a character level 15 that has 47 AC out of combat, but goes over 60 once combat starts, and can get even higher if the enemy is shaken and confidence shattered etc. Buffing the character should bring the ac even higher.
The MAIN problem is that the only thing going for it on the attack side is normal attacks with a crap ton of dex and the hit chance/damage is based on dex, it can hit for 20~30 ish per strike - I can get better results with the ranger or rogue, plus the cleric can use strong spells hitting for over 140 damage and kanerah can hit for over 100 with a well hit kineticist blast. It's very tanky, but not very strong.
Nice for being the main character due to persuasion too.
I'd advice going with aasimar muselsomething (the +2 charisma) for the wing feat after level 10 (+3 ac against melee). Honestly, this is hella tanky.
I don't really like the idea of going duelist on the main character, because I'd like to have INT on the duelist, but CHA on main character for persuasion, that's the main motive I enjoy swordlord more.
I feel the exact same. My Aldori Defender is impossible to hit and is a great sponge for soaking up all the attacks coming her way.
One can say the same about all prestige classes and their corresponding base archetypes. But roleplaying-wise it implements an important concept for this setting, the Aldori training for already competent warriors. And, obviously, you don't have to spread, it works well with quite a few single base classes.
so this is like a finesse fighter like a swashbuckler?
I dont think that a guy that trows weapons at people, like he said, to duel them can be called a swashbuckler lol
I have checkrd this clase out but if i am going the daceling display rout i want to do it whit a slayer whit a reatch weapon and strength build whit the menesing renger stans + some extra cleave fets u can rely hit alott of peapole fore allot of damege and u hitt evrything when u remove dex from the exussion but u neead stengt 15 fore cornegon smach shatter and dredful charnege and u want those to proc daceling automateckly so u dont have to spend a action to do a daceling
Holy shit mate, use the auto-correct or spellcheck function; PLEASE.
Well my dyselexsaya makes even
that hard some time
My english professor had double deficit dyslexia. And said that living with, and overcoming it, is a matter of taking the time to double check what you read and write. Even if you're dyslexic. If you see a word underlined after typing it. Then you know it's wrong and need to check it.
Dazzling display is brutal with a paladin. They’re charisma based, and you want a lot of it, plus they’re self healing front line fighters. A level of thug makes them comically broken imo. Plus the sneak attack is nice if anything ever flanks your target. I think this route into sword lord is underrated, it’s easy to get there and smite evil is a nice damage boost for this.
Slayers get sneak attack and loads of extra feats and this is feet hungry so the slayer gets all of it on curve and sneak attack u dont need flanking u have Dazzling display
I don't see why you didn't dip into Rogue as well.
cause he is not a thinker. and most of his builds are based on pen n paper instead of what the game rules show you whats best and when he does that he forgets to think about better options anyway...
@@lucasbiermann257 he did explain he didn't want to lose the +1 BAB that slayer got over bard or rogue
well i just play as the aldori defender and just spec it into a defenseable fighter.
i picked a human aldori defender and speced him to have 10 strength, 20 dex, 8 con, 12 intelligence, 10 wisdom and 15 charisma. then speced him to have combat expertise, aldori dueling, disarm, but yea with only aldori defender and swordlord the character is able to counter attack and have high armor count. and a good sword you can use for chapter 2 until 5 or more is the swordsman's passion a dueling sword with +2 enchantment and agile effect on it which makes it good for high dex :)
or u konw bloodhound that is a +5 agaile whit a 18-20 crit mod so u whit a feat can get it to 15-20 all u have to do to get it is sto have 2 dimension door so level 8 octavia can do it no prob
You read each abilty and then laugh saying nothing in the description works in unfair difficulty lol. It's just dumb to play unfair, renders everything in the game obsolete. What's the point? To play unfair, you cheese, exploit, cheat in every way you can think of to one shot every enemy as quickly as possible as if this was braindead Fortnite, and try to not get hit even once..... That is bullcrap, removes everything interesting about this game, every mechanic.
A friendly recommendation...
Your build videos are all consist of "Too much information".
Keep things simple and straight forward, 10 mins is enough. Example: Level 1 - This, Level 2 - This, Level 3 - This.
If you want to input more information for people that wants to know, Elaborate at the end of the video...have a bit more organization.
Every one of your build video becomes babbling simply due to you are throwing in way too much information without any organization.
None of these are build videos. Literally all of them are just introduction to classes. IF you want a cookie cutter "pick x at each level", there are plenty other content creators for it.
A friendly recommendation...
If you lack a brain and you don't want more information than you can handle, go play braindead Fortnite or braindead Apex Legends where you can just go like "pew pew pew look mom i have no brain pew pew pew pew pew".