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Magness · 01-04-2005, 11:41 AM

Swashies are purebred theives from the perspective of skills. They're a little better than normal thieves in combat, at the expense of backstabbing.

OTOH, Fighter-thieves (multiclass) are halfbreeds. As thieves, they'll only be about half as effective, skill-wise, since they'll only be leveling up about half as fast. OTOH, they will be able to backstab, will be able to wear heavier armors, shields and helmets, will be able to take 2 weapon prof points in any weapon. (Swashies can only take 2 points in thief's melee weapons.)

I think that if you are trying to decide on a PC, you have to ask yourself what you're looking for. If you want a character that's very strong in the thieving skills, go for the swashy. If you're looking for an even more combat oriented thief and can accept the tradeoff of some skills, then perhaps the F/T is for you.

I've played a couple of swashies all the way through SoA and ToB with great success. They can be very fun to play. And if you like traps, you can be one bad ass trap layer.

01-04-2005, 11:41 AM	#4
Magness Quintesson Join Date: January 7, 2001 Location: Manchester, NH, USA Posts: 1,025	Swashies are purebred theives from the perspective of skills. They're a little better than normal thieves in combat, at the expense of backstabbing. OTOH, Fighter-thieves (multiclass) are halfbreeds. As thieves, they'll only be about half as effective, skill-wise, since they'll only be leveling up about half as fast. OTOH, they will be able to backstab, will be able to wear heavier armors, shields and helmets, will be able to take 2 weapon prof points in any weapon. (Swashies can only take 2 points in thief's melee weapons.) I think that if you are trying to decide on a PC, you have to ask yourself what you're looking for. If you want a character that's very strong in the thieving skills, go for the swashy. If you're looking for an even more combat oriented thief and can accept the tradeoff of some skills, then perhaps the F/T is for you. I've played a couple of swashies all the way through SoA and ToB with great success. They can be very fun to play. And if you like traps, you can be one bad ass trap layer.