My try at a swashbuckler. [3.5]

[Amechra]

The Fencer

Hit Dice: d8

   BAB  Fort    Ref    Will  Abilities                              Prowess
1   +0    +0     +2     +0    Skirmish (1d6), Prowess, Martial Tricks (1)          1
2   +1    +0     +3     +0    Parry                                                2
3   +2    +1     +3     +1    Arrogant Charm                                       3
4   +3    +1     +4     +1    Martial Tricks (2), Evasion                          3
5   +3    +1     +4     +1    Skirmish (1d6, +1 AC)                                4
6   +4    +2     +5     +2    Fancy Footwork                                       5
7   +5    +2     +5     +2    Flawless Guard, Uncanny Dodge                        5
8   +6    +2     +6     +2    Martial Tricks (3)                                   6
9   +6    +3     +6     +3    Skirmish (2d6, +1 AC)                                7
10  +7    +3     +7     +3    Quick as a Hare                                      7
11  +8    +3     +7     +3    Stand Proud, Improved Evasion                        8
12  +9    +4     +8     +4    Martial Tricks (4)                                   9
13  +9    +4     +8     +4    Skirmish (2d6, +2 AC)                                9
14  +10   +4     +9     +4    Lightning Reaction                                  10
15  +11   +5     +9     +5    A Light Touch, Improved Uncanny Dodge               11
16  +12   +5     +10    +5    Martial Tricks (5)                                  11
17  +12   +5     +10    +5    Skirmish (3d6, +2 AC)                               12
18  +13   +6     +11    +6    Improved Quick as a Hare                            13
19  +14   +6     +11    +6                                                        13
20  +15   +6     +12    +6    Martial Tricks (6), Neverending Prowess             14

Class Skills: Coming Soon!
Class Features: Coming Soon!

<Synopsis> A partial initiator, with a couple twists. Besides that, he has some strong class features, like Lightning Reaction (use a Strike as part of an AoO; spend some prowess), Quick as a Hare (spend some prowess, initiate a strike as a move action), Fancy Footwork (Extra 5-foot steps, perfect for triggering Skirmish), and my personal favorite, Flawless Guard! (think a toned down Perfect Heavenly Defense.) Melee deserves nice things, and this dude is going to make one-handing WORK.

I hope.

[Bozwevial]

Needs more seduction.

I'll be curious to see how you make one-handing work.

[Amechra]

Arrogant Charm. Third level. WAAAY ahead of you (first part I thought of.)

Basically, Prowess is a pool of points that at first gives you a bonus to dodge AC, which can be transfered to attack, only as long as you are one-handing a weapon (a buckler is allowed, as its in the name of the style, damn it!).

Two handing makes you hit hard? One handing makes you hit; and with maneuvers piggybacking on your high to hit...

[Bauglir]

My only question is, why would you ever not use a buckler if it's allowed? I know there's no mechanical imbalance with getting some extra AC, it just seems to kill the possibility of REALLY one-handing and to make it into sword-and-board with a tiny board. Gonna add any special defenses for choosing not to use the buckler?

[bearsarebrown]

Give it a climb speed equal to highest movement speed and make it never provoke AoOs from movement. And at a low level, no higher then 3. Possibly make it scale (Ignore 1 AoO per round per 3 levels).

Those two changes go a long way in letting the character play in a more swashbuckling way instead of 5ft steps and full attacks. The next thing to do is encourage swashbuckling! Give it bonuses when it does piratey stuff. Tome's Swashbuckler is a great example with things like Silly Hat, Witty Repertoire and One More Thing.

[Amechra]

Prowess is intended to do that kind of stuff.

And Arrogant Charm is just the thing to make the ladies swoon and men try to kill you dead.

I will handle this all, don't you worry.

As for the buckler... I'll think of something.

[Bloody Initiate]

Here's what I know about one-handing IRL that could be applied to D&D:

Generally the point of one-handing is to maintain better balance and such. You have a hand free, it does NOT sit on your hip, it does important shit.

Some important shit it could do:

Formidable bonuses to balance checks. I know balance is useless blah blah, don't care. If it's useless that means you can apply it in obscene amounts and no optimizer will call it broken, thereby freeing you from balance-killers for several mid levels (Where a lot of BFC is coming into play but flight isn't on everyone yet).

Stand from prone as a swift/free action with no AoO. Having an arm free gets you off the ground faster.

Tumble full speed, the ability to tuck one arm under and such is very different from fumbling with a metal shield or a two-handed weapon. Climb while wielding a weapon. Get free attacks any time you make a disarm, grapple, trip, bull rush, overrun, because you have a hand free.

Get goofy shit like eye pokes. Get goofier shit like turning someone's helmet around or pulling their cloak over their head so they can't fucking see. Get super goofy shit like unlacing their armor or snatching their spell component bag (Free disarms against non-weapons every round?). NOBODY uses the the "snatch item" feature of disarm, when in fact it's probably the most interesting option.

In the MUD I play warriors get a skill called "Dirty tactics" that has a random chance to trigger and inflicts random status conditions with 1 minute durations. Shit like half speed (Stomps on your foot), blindness (Gouges you in the eye), silence (Punches you in the mouth), etc. There are tons of status conditions in D&D, inflict them with you free hand.

Get +1 AoO every round.

The suggestions above include IRL benefits of one-handing and some random fantasy shit.

[bearsarebrown]

Free Hand for movement - Slowly grant (Ex) Freedom of Movement, screw free action stand from prone, allow a DC 10 Reflex save to avoid falling prone, ever(Don't scale the DC, the idea is that by level 5 or 6 he's supposed to always make it). Full speed Tumble is probably a more elegant way of becoming immune to movement based AoOs. Allow Tumble while climbing.

Free Hand for attacks - Free snatch( ) is a great idea. If it gained an ability like Dirty Fighting(Ex) which granting abilities as you gained in level, like Bardic Music... from Snatch Item to Blind(Ref vs Blind) and so on, with the conditions you named. Make it a Swift Action at will.

Tome version is here. Here are ideas I think are worth stealing and altering, Combat Climbing, Tie Down and Stylish Hat as part of Dirty Fighting(Ex), and you could use I'm Not Left Handed to fix the one handed fighting problem(acts as if TWF but only holding one weapon). After that the abilities start getting weird.

And I see no good reason it's not full BAB with only a d8 and a single save. Full BAB and d10 or partial BAB and two good saves and a d12 at least.

[Garryl]

If you're supposed to never fall prone by level 5 or 6, why not just give an ability at level 5 or 6 that says you don't fall prone anymore?

[Amechra]

Hmm...

Might keep those in mind.