The way I understand it, swashbucklers are both weak in pk but also boring to play, my idea addresses both parts.
So, at say journeyman, swashbucklers can learn weapon styles, these will be in a seperate form than skills, like songs are for bards.
Once learned, the swashbuckler gains a new weapon style, may be dependant on race or (the way I picture it) starting kingdom.
Each kingdom will have several of these and one will be learned at random (like specific songs are learned for bards), swashbucklers can then, lets say at mentor, teach each the other various styles (again like bards teach each other the other songs).
Each style will have its own mastery progress (starting from say... average when learned), will improve as long as the swashbuckler is using the proper weapons, and once mastered will give the swashbuckler a unique buff but only while using the proper weapons.
Some weapon style ideas and their benefits just off the top of my head, names and weapons mentioned may be stupid but bear with me, its just to give some ideas.
Zhenshi
-Zhensh Samurai style, main hand katana, off hand wakizashi or another katana. Once mastered the swashie gains a bonus to his peak strength and/or charisma.
-Desert nomad, main hand scimitar, off hand curved dagger or another scimitar. Bonus can be a bonus to peak con and fortitude saves. (May require the use of a turban too, hehe)
-Garazul pirate style, maybe cutlasses and daggers, bonus to taunt of some sort.
Ayamao
-Bladedancer style, main hand longsword or falchion, off hand another falchion or some dagger of a sort. Once mastered the swashbuckler gains a large bonus to his accuracy and ignores part of their enemy's armor.
-Speed of the fay style, a combination of epees/rapiers. When mastered the swashbuckler gains lightning reflexes, gaining a large bonus to his reflex saves and peak dex and making it very hard to bash.
Taslamar
-City Watchman style, main hand longsword or broadsword, off hand short sword. Veteran of many battles the watchman gains a large speed bonus with his favourite blades.
-Duelist style, main hand rapier/epee, off hand some sort of dagger. The duelist gains a bonus to disarm and is very hard to disarm himself.
Teron
-Shadow Blade style, main hand straight dagger, off hand another dagger. Maybe bonuses to dirt kick and trip?
Empire could have something with khopesh or gladius, I could go on but you get the idea.
Could be very complex to implement and would further encourage people holding more weapons than they should but would put the class out of it's stale state.
Discuss
