Best BG3 Swashbuckler Build Rogue – Stealth & Thievery!

Welcome to the best BG3 Swashbuckler Build. For this build, we’ll be using the Swashbuckler subclass of the Rogue, an especially agile subclass that can dance around enemy Opportunist Attacks and throw sand at enemies to Blind them. The BG3 Swashbuckler Build works for both PC and Console (PS5 and Xbox Series X/S).

Please visit our Best BG3 Builds overview page for more builds or check out our Best BG3 Rogue Build with the Thief subclass or our BG3 Astarion Build. If you are interested in more Rogue subclass builds, check our BG3 Rogue Builds category page. To get an overview of all classes please visit the BG3 Classes overview page.

You can also use this build for Astarion if you have recruited him to your party or chosen him as your main character.

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Swashbuckler Build Table of Contents:

• Swashbuckler Build Overview
  • Rogue Class Summary
  • Swashbuckler Subclass
• Swashbuckler Character Creation (Level 1)
  • Best Race
  • Skills & Background
  • Abilities
• Swashbuckler Levelling Guide
  • Early Game (2-4)
  • Mid Game (5-8)
  • Late Game (9-12)
• Swashbuckler Build Equipment
  • Early-Game
  • Late-Game
• Swashbuckler Build Extra Info
  • Tips & Tricks
  • Best Potions
  • Illithid Powers (Optional)
• FAQs

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Before we proceed, let’s take a quick look at the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Swashbuckler Rogue in Baldur’s Gate 3:

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BG3 Swashbuckler Overview

Here is a quick overview of the Rogue class and Swashbuckler subclass. If you’re already familiar with how they work, skip this section.

Rogue Class Summary

Rogues are the main “stealth” class in Baldur’s Gate 3. While other classes can stealth, none encourage and reward this playstyle as much as the Rogue.

Rogue Benefits

• Skill Expertise – You can choose some Skills that you are Proficient in and become an expert at those Skills, doubling your Proficiency Bonus. This allows you to be extremely good at, for example, Sleight of Hand and Acrobatics (two of the most important Dexterity Skills) right from the start of the game.
• Sneak Attacks – If you have  Advantage against a target, you can perform a Sneak Attack. This is more likely to hit and deals lots of bonus damage, with the bonus damage increasing as you level up. This allows you to deal crazy damage and even OTK some enemies at the start of combat.
• Cunning Actions – You can perform Dash, Disengage and Hide with a Bonus Action instead of a full Action, so you can get a lot more done on your turn.
• Uncanny Dodge and Evasion – Unlocked at Levels 5 and 7, respectively, these allow you to negate a large portion of damage from attacks, making the Rogue more durable than you would expect.

Swashbuckler Subclass

The Swashbuckler is a Rogue subclass that’s very much themed around “playing dirty”. But the main advantage of the Swashbuckler is that it makes the Rogue much easier to play, allowing you to utilize your Sneak Attack even if you aren’t hidden, as long as you’re in melee range of an enemy and don’t have Disadvantage against them.

The Swashbuckler builds on the Rogue’s basic features, making it easier to use and even more effective:

• Rakish Audacity – You no longer need Advantage to perform Sneak Attacks against opponents. You can always use them as long as you are in melee range and don’t have Disadvantage. This makes your Swashbuckler  build much easier to play and more flexible in combat – even in situations where hiding isn’t possible, you can still get the maximum damage.
• Fancy Footwork – Hitting an enemy prevents them from launching an opportunity attack against you. Great for hit-and-run attacks.
• Dirty Tricks – From Level 4, you can use Dirty Tricks to Blind or Disarm an opponent, making them much easier for your party to fight. Better yet, this only consumes a Bonus Action, so even if it fails, you can still do more attacks on your turn.

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Character Creation (Level 1) for BG3 Swashbuckler Build

In this section, we will explain the best options to choose when creating your BG3 Swashbuckler Character, such as Background, Race, Skills and Abilities.

Race

Your race isn’t hugely important, and the build will work fine if you just pick your favourite race and go from there.

However, there are still some useful passive features sourced from your race and subrace, which may be of advantage when it comes to the Swashbuckler build. The table below shows the five most promising options:

Skills & Background

The Swashbuckler Build is best played with high Dexterity, and fairly high Charisma, since we’ll have plenty of points spare and the Vicious Mockery Cantrip that we unlock at Level 4 uses Charisma to determine its Success Chance. Therefore, we’ll be aiming for the most useful skills that fit these qualities.

To begin with, you need to choose your character’s Background. We recommend the Urchin background, which gives you the following Skill Proficiencies:

• Stealth (DEX) – Makes it easier to succeed in stealth checks – staying hidden when an NPC is looking in your direction.
• Sleight of Hand (DEX) – Used to determine your success chance when lockpicking and pickpocketing.

The Rogue gets to choose an additional four Skills to be Proficient with, from a limited selection. We recommend these choices:

• Acrobatics (DEX) – Makes you more resistant to enemies’ attempts to push and shove you.
• Deception (CHA) – Used to pass Deception checks in dialogue.
• Intimidation (CHA) – Used to pass Intimidation checks in dialogue.
• Persuasion (CHA) – Used to pass Persuasion checks in dialogue.

If you chose the Human race, you can choose one more Skill. Performance is the one remaining Charisma skill, so it’s a solid choice.

Finally, the Rogue gets to choose two of its Proficient Skills for Expertise. Your Expert Skills will double your Proficiency Bonus in them.

I recommend applying your Expertise to your Acrobatics and Sleight of Hand skills.

Abilities

Finally, you need to allocate the Ability Points for your Swashbuckler Build. As mentioned previously, it’s really important to maximise your Dexterity, as this will improve your attack rolls and your performance with Dexterity based skills, most importantly Acrobatics and Sleight of Hand. It also boosts your Armour Class, which is especially important since we’ll only be Proficient with Light Armour.

Secondly, any character in Baldur’s Gate 3 really needs to start with at least 14 Constitution, which will increase your Maximum Hitpoints.

The swashbuckler benefits from a bit of extra Charisma, so it’s good to put some points in there, too.

Allocate your Ability Points to look something like this:

•  10 Strength
•  16 Dexterity
•  14 Constitution
•  10 Intelligence
• 12 Wisdom
•  14 Charisma

Bolded Abilities are essential. The others can be tweaked if you want.

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Swashbuckler Levelling Guide – BG3

We will now walk you through the process of levelling up your Swashbuckler. Note that this is a very linear class and subclass combo in terms of how it progresses, so there aren’t many choices to make while levelling up.

Early-Game Swashbuckler Levelling Progression BG3

In this section, we will walk you through the levelling-up process for the Baldur’s Gate 3 Swashbuckler Build. We’ll start with the early game, at levels 2-4.

• Level 2
• Level 3
• Level 4

Level 2

At Level 2, we gain some new Bonus Actions:

• Cunning Action: Dash – Double your Movement Speed this turn.
• Cunning Action: Disengage – Focus on retreating safely. Moving won’t provoke Attack of Opportunity.
• Cunning Action: Hide – Allows you to Hide using a Bonus Action.

While other classes can perform these abilities, doing so consumes a normal Action rather than a Bonus Action. This effectively means that the Swashbuckler can Dash or Disengage on the same turn that they attack, while other classes cannot.

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Level 3

At Level 3, you get an additional 1d6 for Sneak Attack Bonus Damage, meaning Sneak Attacks will now do between 2 and 12 bonus damage (instead of 1-6), depending on the damage roll.

At Level 3, you also need to choose the subclass for your Rogue Build. For this build, we’re using the Swashbuckler subclass.

For choosing the Swashbuckler, you’ll immediately gain the following bonuses:

• Fancy Footwork – If you make a melee attack against a target, they cannot target you with Opportunist Attacks for the rest of your turn.
• Rakish Audacity – You gain a +2 bonus to your Initiative Rolls. You no longer need Advantage to use Sneak Attacks, as long as you do not have Disadvantage and are within 1.5 metres of the target.

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Level 4

At Level 4, you must choose a Feat for the BG3 Swashbuckler Build. Feats are strong passive effects that can enable a certain build idea or give a stat buff to increase damage or survivability.

Choose Ability Improvement and use it to improve your Dexterity score to 18. This will improve your accuracy and weapon damage and make you better at various actions, such as Lockpicking.

The Swashbuckler subclass also unlocks the following Bonus Actions at Level 4:

• Dirty Trick: Flick o’ the Wrist – Flick your weapon and attempt to Disarm your target.
• Dirty Trick: Sand Toss – Throw sand in your target’s eyes, attempting to Blind them.
• Dirty Trick: Vicious Mockery – Deals 1d4 Psychic Damage to the target. The damage increases at Level 5 and Level 10. Gives you Dirty Advantage for up to 2 turns, giving you Advantage on your next attack. Your target also gets Disadvantage on their next Attack Roll, unless they succeed on a Wisdom Saving Throw.

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Mid-Game Swashbuckler Levelling Progression BG3

We’ll now go through the mid-game levelling, levels 5-8.

• Level 5
• Level 6
• Level 7
• Level 8

Level 5

When you reach Level 5, your Swashbuckler build unlocks a few extra features to make it stronger.

Firstly, your Proficiency Bonus is increased from +2 to +3, meaning you’ll now get a +3 bonus when rolling for skills that you’re Proficient with.

You also get another Sneak Attack Die, so your Sneak Bonus Damage can now roll up to 18.

Lastly, you get the  Uncanny Dodge passive feature. This is a Reaction, meaning it cannot be performed manually. Your character will perform it when they are attacked by an enemy, up to once per round. Uncanny Dodge will cause you to take half damage from the incoming attack.

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Level 6

At Level 6, there aren’t many choices to make.

All you need to do is choose two additional Skills to gain Expertise with.

I recommend choosing Stealth and Deception, but it is up to you.

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Level 7

At Level 7, you will gain an additional sneak attack damage die, meaning your bonus damage from stealth will now be 4-24.

You also gain the  Evasion passive, which gives you extra resistance to spells and effects that normally deal half damage on a Saving Throw. Now they’ll do no damage if you succeed the Saving Throw, and half damage if you fail it.

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Level 8

At Level 8, you’ll get to choose another Feat for your Swashbuckler  Build.

Choose the Ability Improvement feat and use it to improve your Dexterity to 20.

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Late-Game Swashbuckler Levelling Guide BG3

We’ll now go through the end-game levels for the Baldur’s Gate 3 Swashbuckler Build, Levels 9-12.

• Level 9
• Level 10
• Level 11
• Level 12

Level 9

At Level 9, the Swashbuckler’s Proficiency Bonus is improved to +4. This means you now have a +4 bonus added to rolls for any skills you are Proficient at (or Attack Rolls using weapons you’re Proficient with). This bonus always applies unless you roll a 1 (Critical Fail/Miss).

You gain another Sneak Attack Die here, too, meaning your attacks from stealth will now deal 5-30 bonus damage.

You get the  Panache Action from the Swashbuckler subclass. You can use it outside of combat to Charm an enemy, or in combat to impose Disadvantage on all of their Attack Rolls against any character other than you. Succeeding with your Panache Action uses the Persuasion Skill. The target must use their Insight Roll for the Saving Throw.

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Level 10

Unlike most other classes, Rogues can choose an extra Feat at Level 10.

Choose Savage Attacker. This Feat makes you reroll your damage dice twice when rolling melee weapon attacks and automatically chooses the highest roll. This will increase your average damage output when making melee weapon attacks.

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Level 11

At Level 11, you’ll gain another Sneak Attack Die, giving your attacks from stealth a possible 6-36 bonus damage.

You also gain the  Reliable Talent passive, which guarantees that rolls with any of your Proficient Skills will be at least 10. If you roll below a 10, the value is increased to 10. This means you can no longer Critically Fail when rolling for skills that you have Proficiency with.

Note that this only applies to Skills, not weapons, so you can still roll below 10 when attacking with a weapon you’re Proficient with.

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Level 12

If you’ve reached this point, then you have finished levelling up your Swashbuckler build. Congratulations!

At Level 12, you’ll get to choose one more Feat for your character.

We got all of the most important Feats already – the last choice is up to you.

Personally, I tend to choose Alert, which boosts your Initiative by +5, making it very likely that you move first in combat.

Another handy option is Mobile, which gives you extra Movement Speed. But if you want to try something else, go for it.

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BG3 Swashbuckler Build Equipment

Below is the recommended Equipment setup for this Swashbuckler Build. We have split the equipment into an early-game and late-game section, to ensure you can make use of this build regardless of how far into the game you are.

In each section there is a table with an overview of the recommended equipment.

Don’t worry if your equipment doesn’t exactly match what is listed here – the build still works fine if some pieces of equipment are different. Don’t be afraid of experimenting and trying different combinations, too.

Early-Game

Early-game equipment can be obtained in Act I and the earlier parts of Act II.

In the early game, the Swashbuckler can be a little bit fragile. The equipment selection here is intended to improve your defences, make you more mobile and increase your damage potential.

• Defensive items
  • Cloak of Protection
  • Spidersilk Armour
• Mobility items
  • Haste Helm
  • Disintegrating Night Walkers
  • Amulet of Misty Step
  • Crusher’s Ring
• Damage Boosters
  • Caustic Band
  • Sword of Screams
• Utility items
  • Gloves of Thievery (Makes Lockpicking and Pickpocketing much easier!)

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Late-Game

Late-game equipment is available in Act III and the latter parts of Act II, however sometimes items from the early-game section remain powerful enough to be carried into late-game.

Don’t worry if you don’t have everything on the list. View it as more of a wishlist than a precise blueprint. You may not be able to get everything in your playthrough, depending on your choices.

An overview of the purpose of each item in this BG3 Swashbuckler Gear setup:

• Defensive Items
  • Ring of Regeneration
• Mobility Items
  • Disintegrating Night Walkers
• Damage Boosters
  • Bhaalist Armour
  • Broodmother’s Revenge & Ring of Regeneration Synergy (important)
  • Caustic Band
  • Duellist’s Prerogative
  • Shade-Slayer Cloak
• Accuracy Items
  • Mask of Soul Perception
• Utility items
  • Gloves of Thievery (Makes Lockpicking and Pickpocketing much easier!)

Interesting Alternative Items

These items are also very useful, and you may want to use them instead of the above recommendations:

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Swashbuckler Build Extra Info

Below is some additional info that will help you to play the Swashbuckler Build, including tips and tricks, info about the best potions, and the best Illithid Powers.

Best Swashbuckler Build Tips & Tricks for Baldur’s Gate 3

This BG3 Swashbuckler build is intended to give you great mobility, and places slightly less emphasis on sneaking around than our other Rogue builds, since the Swashbuckler technically doesn’t need to sneak at all to activate their Sneak Attacks. However, do try to still sneak when possible to get the -1 Critical roll requirement from the Shade-Slayer Cloak. This will stack with the similar effect from Duelist’s Prerogative.

We’re also using items like the Mask of Soul Perception to make your attacks more accurate. The Bhaalist Armour is ideal for the build, because it will make most nearby enemies Vulnerable to Piercing Damage. But don’t worry if you can’t get it in your playthrough. In this case, you should use the Bonespike Gloves, which give a similar bonus.

The ideal way to play the build is to ensure you do not have Disadvantage against your target, then do a Rakish Sneak Attack (you don’t need to sneak with the Swashbuckler to use sneak attacks). You can then follow up with the Dueller’s Enthusiasm Bonus attack, which recharges every turn. Make sure you spend the Reaction to deal 5 bonus Necrotic Damage. Earlier in the game, you won’t have access to all of these tricks, as a lot of it is dependent on the Duellist’s Prerogative weapon. But you should still focus on using the Rakish Sneak Attacks as often as possible.

When you have collected the most important parts of the equipment mentioned above, you can get very high damage on your Rakish Sneak Attacks even without buffing yourself or landing a Critical Hit – see the tooltip shown below:

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Strongest Potions for the Swashbuckler Build in BG3

The Potion of Speed is arguably the most powerful potion in Baldur’s Gate 3. It doubles your Movement Speed and gives you an extra Action each turn.

One drawback of this potion is that when it expires, your character will be Lethargic for one turn, unable to move or take any Actions. So you should be careful not to have your character stranded in a dangerous position when the potion runs out!

You can craft the Potion of Speed in the alchemy menu by combining Ashes of Hyena Ear with any Salt. Create ashes, salts and other alchemy concentrates by combining three of the same ingredients together – for example, combining three Hyena Ears will create Ashes of Hyena Ear.

Hyena Ears can normally be looted from either Hyenas or Gnolls – you can find a lot of them around the Risen Road in Act I, for a good supply of them, which should last you a while.

You can combine this with the Elixir of Bloodlust. Elixirs and Potions can be stacked with each other, but you can only have one Elixir active at a time. Potions tend to expire after a few turns, whereas Elixirs last until your next Long Rest, unless you drink a different Elixir in the meantime.

The Elixir of Bloodlust grants your character another Action when you kill an enemy. This effect can only trigger once per turn. Combined with the Potion of Speed, this gives you two additional attacks if you defeat an enemy on your turn.

It can be crafted by combining Ashes of Worg Fang with any Salt. Worg Fangs are looted from Worgs, the beasts usually kept by Goblins.

This is an OP alchemy combo that you can use to turbocharge the Swashbuckler’s damage output in tough fights!

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Swashbuckler Build Illithid Powers (optional)

Illithid Powers are unlocked later in BG3 when you learn more about Mind Flayers and Tadpoles. By eating Jars of Mind Flayer Parasites you gain one point. This is another optional skill tree that you can get access to if you want. Here are some of the best Illithid Powers for the BG3 Rogue Build with the Swashbuckler subclass:

• Mind Blast: A conal blast of Psychic Damage that can also stun several targets at once. If the Swashbuckler is outnumbered by several advancing enemies, then Mind Blast can help to swing things back in your favour.
• Cull the Weak: When you reduce a creature’s hit points below a certain threshold, this power instantly kills it and deals 1-4 Psychic Damage to nearby enemies. This is particularly effective when engaging groups of weaker foes, enabling you to thin their numbers rapidly.
• Fly: This can be used to reach hard to get to places or change positions in combat.
• Mind Sanctuary: This creates an area that allows all within to use Actions and Bonus Actions interchangeably. This typically means you can deal more damage, since you can use your Bonus Action as a normal Action. However, enemies who are inside the area will also enjoy its benefits. Be careful with your placement so that your party gets buffed by the Mind Sanctuary and not the enemies!
• Psionic Backlash: This is a top-tier Reaction from the Illithid Powers skill tree in BG3. It allows you to deal Psychic Damage when a nearby enemy casts a spell. This is especially useful if the target is casting a Concentration Spell. The damage from Psionic Backlash can immediately break their Concentration, ending the spell’s effects.

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Swashbuckler Build Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

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