The Swashserker – Barbarian/Rogue Multiclass Build Guide
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Why Swashserker?
Just looking to build an efficient damage dealing build, the Swashserker combines the Berserker’s Fenzy ability with the Swashbuckler’s Rakish Audacity to have a consistent stream of advantage and damage during a fight. Barbarians already benefit from a lot of attacks as Rage adds bonus damage on top of each hit, and with more attacks coming, that’s more opportunities to land a Sneak Attack making the damage of this build super consistent! Plus, the flavor of a smooth-talking pirate foaming at the mouth in anger every so often is definitely a fun roleplaying opportunity!
Quick Level Up Guide
| Level | Class Features/Feat | Notes |
| 1 – 1 Barbarian | Rage, Unarmored Defense, Weapon Mastery | Rages Per Day: 2 Rage Damage Bonus: +2 |
| 2 – 2 Barbarian | Danger Sense, Reckless Attack | Rages Per Day: 2 Rage Damage Bonus: +2 |
| 3 – 3 Barbarian (Berserker) | Berserker Frenzy Primal Knowledge – Intimidation | Rages Per Day: 3 Rage Damage Bonus: +2 |
| 4 – 4 Barbarian | Feat: Dual Wielder (STR) | Rages Per Day: 3 Rage Damage Bonus: +2 |
| 5 – 5 Barbarian | Extra Attack, Fast Movement | Rages Per Day: 3 Rage Damage Bonus: +2 (This is the final amount of Rages and Rage Damage Bonus you’re getting) |
| 6 – 5 Barbarian 1 Rogue | Expertise, Sneak Attack, Thieves’ Cant, Weapon Mastery | Sneak Attack 1d6 |
| 7 – 5 Barbarian 2 Rogue | Cunning Action | – |
| 8 – 5 Barbarian 3 Rogue (Swashbuckler) | Fancy Footwork Rakish Audacity Steady Aim | Sneak Attack to 2d6 |
| 9 – 5 Barbarian 4 Rogue | Feat: Strength to 20 | – |
| 10 – 5 Barbarian 5 Rogue | Cunning Strike, Uncanny Dodge | Sneak Attack to 3d6 |
| 11 – 5 Barbarian 6 Rogue | Expertise | – |
| 12 – 5 Barbarian 7 Rogue | Evasion, Reliable Talent | Sneak Attack to 4d6 |
| 13 – 5 Barbarian 8 Rogue | Feat: Defensive Duelist (DEX) | – |
| 14 – 5 Barbarian 9 Rogue | Panache | Sneak Attack to 5d6 |
| 15 – 5 Barbarian 10 Rogue | Feat: Constitution to 18 | – |
| 16 -5 Barbarian 11 Rogue | Improved Cunning Strike | Sneak Attack to 6d6 |
| 17 – 5 Barbarian 12 Rogue | Feat: Constitution to 20 | – |
| 18 – 5 Barbarian 13 Rogue | Elegant Maneuver | Sneak Attack to 7d6 |
| 19 -5 Barbarian 14 Rogue | Devious Strikes | – |
| 20 – 5 Barbarian 15 Rogue | Slippery Mind | Sneak Attack to 8d6 |
Questions About Multiclassing?
Not every inherent interaction here is going to be mentioned in the guide, so check out the multiclassing guide to help answer any additional questions you may have!
What’s The Game Plan Of The Swashserker?
The Swashserker is a pretty straightforward damage class that focuses on utilizing Reckless Attack, Rakish Audacity, or other means to gain advantage on attacks which activates Sneak Attack to deal even more damage.
Your turns are going to be straightforward with activating Rage, getting advantage on your attacks, and bombarding an enemy with hits (the first one to connect being a Sneak Attack). Your Bonus Action is mostly going to be taken up by an attack, but with your Cunning Action, you can Disengage or Dash as needed. Simple and effective!
Important Notes For The Build
- Remember that Reckless Attack and Sneak Attack work perfectly together as Reckless Attack gives you the advantage you need when you couldn’t get it otherwise!
- While losing some Sneak Attack damage sucks, Frenzy from Berserker gives you an additional 2d6 damage on your first hit which makes up for the Sneak Attack damage lost!
- Danger Sense and Evasion work really well together, don’t forget about both of them when presented with a DEX saving throw!
- While I’m not the biggest fan of Uncanny Dodge, using it in conjunction with your Rage damage resistance can make you unnaturally resilient to a particularly big hit.
Level One Build
Species: Goliath (Hill Giant)
Attributes:
| POINT BUY | |
| STRENGTH | 15 (+2 background) = 17 |
| DEXTERITY | 14 |
| CONSTITUTION | 15 (+1 background) = 16 |
| INTELLIGENCE | 8 |
| WISDOM | 10 |
| CHARISMA | 8 |
Class: Barbarian
Class Features: Rage, Unarmored Defense
Skill Proficiencies: Athletics and Perception
Background: Farmer (Tough)
Starting Equipment: Scimitar, Short Sword, 10 Javelins, Explorer’s Pack, and 10gp + 50gp from background
Species: Goliath (Hill Giant)
For any martial character, it’s hard to justify not going for Goliath as the Hill Giant topple is so incredibly good to get advantage on attacks. There are other solid options for species as well like Human for an additional origin feat or Aasimar as they are just generally strong, but Goliath is generally going to be my choice.
Attributes
| POINT BUY | |
| STRENGTH | 15 (+2 background) = 17 |
| DEXTERITY | 14 |
| CONSTITUTION | 15 (+1 background) = 16 |
| INTELLIGENCE | 8 |
| WISDOM | 10 |
| CHARISMA | 8 |
Barbarians are always going to prioritize Strength and Constitution so they are the ones who get the buff. Barbarians also only need 14 DEX as, as tempting as it is to stick with unarmored defense, Medium Armor is going to be better most of the time.
Proficiencies – Athletics and Perception
The classic proficiency choices for Barbarians.
Background – Farmer
While I would’ve preferred getting a background with Alert, but getting additional Strength and Constitution is very important for Barbarians. That being said, Tough is still an excellent feat for Barbarians and will help you stay alive in the face of your lower average AC compared to other martial characters.
Starting Equipment – Scimitar, Short Sword, 10 Javelins, Explorer’s Pack, and 10gp + 50gp from background
This is going to be a dual wielding Barbarian/Rogue so you’re going to be needing some Finesse weapons!
Starting Class – Barbarian
Barbarians come with three inherent features that is emblematic of Barbarians in general – Rage, Unarmored Defense, and Weapon Mastery.
Rage is a bonus action activated ability that gives you a big boon in combat a few times a day (that will incrementally climb as you level up). While Raging, you have advantage on all Strength checks and saving throws, you gain bonuses to your Weapon damage, and you have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. You can maintain this powerful state for 10 minutes as long as you keep attacking, force an enemy to make a saving throw, or you use your bonus action to actively maintain it. You start with 2 Rage charges per day, but once per day after a short rest, you get one charge back which is a nice change from 5e. An absolutely excellent ability overall.
Unarmored Defense is easy, your AC is 10 + CON modifier + DEX modifier. So for level 1, your AC will be 15 which is solid, but nothing special.
Weapon Masteries are the new feature coming in One D&D that gives you a weapon’s mastery property when you select it. I would pick Scimitar and Shortsword initially, but you can change them as you find new weapons.
The Build Level 2 Onward
Level 2-5
Level 2
Class: 2 Barbarian
Class Features: Danger Sense, Reckless Attack
Equipment: Try to pick up some Medium Armor at this point or sometime soon, Scale Mail being your cheapest option.
Now you have access to Danger Sense and Reckless Attack!
It’s hard to know how often Danger Sense will come into play, but it is an excellent class feature as traps can be very dangerous in lower levels.
While Reckless Attack is definitely still a bit of a risk, once you get access to Sneak Attack, this will be a common offensive tool when you can’t get advantage any other way (which is unlikely to happen) to ensure your damage remains consistent. Until then, this will be a high risk/high reward offensive option for you to use when needed.
Level 3
Class: 3 Barbarian (Berserker)
Class Features: Frenzy, Primal Knowledge
Now that you get your subclass, you get a new subclass ability to work with as well as a base class ability.
Frenzy gives you additional damage while you’re both Raging and Reckless Attacking, very flavorful for a path called Berserker. While the damage doesn’t scale the best in much later levels, but right now, that extra damage is going to be really impactful and will stay relevant for quite awhile.
For your base class feature, Primal Knowledge gives you more proficiencies from the base Barbarian class, and this is a solid time to pick up Intimidation, but it’s really up to you what you want at this point.
Level 4
Class: 4 Barbarian
Feat: Dual Wielder (STR)
This build requires Finesse weapons to work, so you may as well make the best use of them! Rage works well with more weapon attacks, so getting a feat that lets you get a functional Extra Attack which is obviously a big deal!
Level 5
Class: 5 Barbarian
Class Features: Extra Attack, Fast Movement
Extra Attack and Fast Movement are huge for this class!
Extra Attack literally doubles your potential damage and is the best feature that any martial class could pick up.
Fast Movement is a nice movement boost to help you navigate the battlefield, something martial characters would always be happy to have.
Level 6-10
Level 6
Class: 5 Barbarian 1 Rogue
Class Feature: Expertise, Sneak Attack, Thieves’ Cant, Weapon Mastery
Now that you have your Extra Attack, you can now transition into Rogue for the rest of your career!
Expertise allows you to take two of your skills and add double your proficiency bonus to them to make them extremely reliable. Since these are your main proficiencies, I would choose Athletics and Perception.
The second ability is the Rogue’s most iconic one – Sneak Attack. Sneak Attack adds extra damage if you can attack an enemy while you have advantage from any means whether that’s through having allies near, attacking from hiding, or any other means of gaining advantage you may naturally have. For you, this is going to be trivial between Reckless Attack from the Barbarian or Rakish Audacity from Swashbuckler. As a quick note, there may be some confusion on how you can get Sneak Attack as a Barbarian as it requires a Finesse or Ranged weapon to activate. Well while you have to use a Finesse weapon, you don’t need to use Dexterity for it! Both the Scimitar and Shortsword are Finesse weapons making it that you can still do your Barbarian nonsense while also getting Sneak Attack!
The third ability, which is really just pure flavor, is Thieves’ Cant. This is like its own language that only other rogues or similarly nefarious individuals would know so you can speak in code and such.
The final ability is Weapon Mastery and you already have 3 so this may not be useful anymore, but if you find yourself using additional weapons, then this is good!
Level 7
Class: 5 Barbarian 2 Rogue
Class Features: Cunning Action
Normally this is one of the best abilities for Rogues, this does contend with Rage and your extra attack from the Dual Wielder feat so it is a bit awkward. Is this bad? Of course not! Having additional options is never a bad thing so your bonus action can be used to activate Rage (which is what I would use at the start of most fights), an extra attack, the Dash action, the Disengage action, or the Hide action! Competing action economy isn’t fun, but more options is never bad!
Level 8
Class: 5 Barbarian 3 Rogue (Swashbuckler)
Class Features: Fancy Footwork, Rakish Audacity, Steady Aim
3 levels in Rogue brings your subclass, Swashbuckler, and two new features to the table – Fancy Footwork and Rakish Audacity.
Fancy Footwork gives you a piece of the mobile feat by stopping any creature who you attacked to hit you with an opportunity attack. This is good to dip in and out of a creature’s melee range which gives you a lot of versatility in how you want to approach combat.
Rakish Audacity is the Swashbuckler’s key feature that lets them get Sneak Attacks simply by having no allies around them and being 5 feet away from the enemy. While having advantage would obviously be beneficial to help connect, being able to get Sneak Attack in this way is very good and will make your Sneak Attacks super consistent without being compelled to Reckless Attack.
Finally, you get Steady Aim which lets you give up your bonus action and movement for a turn in order to have advantage on your next attack. This is unlikely to be something you’re going to be using, but you have it.
Level 9
Class: 5 Barbarian 4 Rogue
Feat: Strength to 20
Class Features: None
While you could look to grab more feats to 20 Strength, I like just pushing it to 20 now. You have enough other feats you’d be happy with that you can just enjoy having the best attacks possible now.
Level 10
Class: 5 Barbarian 5 Rogue
Class Features: Cunning Strike, Uncanny Dodge, Sneak Attack to 3d6
This level brings two new features to the table with Cunning Strike and Uncanny Dodge.
Cunning Strike is an interesting ability that lets you trade in Sneak Attack damage dice for a small, but generally good additional effect. You start with three different options for your Cunning Strike – Poison, Trip, or Withdraw.
Poison can be solid, but Constitution saving throws are generally the easiest to save out of.
Trip is definitely solid if you have other martial allies and especially if they’re behind you in the turn order (which they will likely be).
Withdraw lets you reposition without drawing opportunity attacks so you don’t have to use your Cunning Action to disengage.
Overall, this ability is pretty good as you have versatile options that can all be impactful!
Uncanny Dodge lets you use your reaction to halve the damage of one incoming attack. Unfortunately, this is a pretty bad ability as multiattacks are going to become more common making the ability to halve just one of those attacks pretty forgettable. Furthermore, Defensive Duelist is going to be taking your reaction more often than not, but if you know that you have to take some damage on a turn, then this is here for you.
Level 11-15
Level 11
Class: 5 Barbarian 6 Rogue
Class Features: Expertise
You get two more bouts of Expertise, and you only have three total options so I would probably pick Intimidation and Survival.
Level 12
Class: 5 Barbarian 7 Rogue
Class Features: Evasion, Reliable Talent
7 levels in Rogue brings two neat abilities with Evasion and Reliable Talent.
Evasion is a really solid ability that makes any effects that forces Dexterity based saving throws way worse against you as you naturally mitigate half of their effect and potentially the whole effect if you pass the save. This combines really well with the Barbarian’s Danger Sense to make it much easier to pass DEX saves!
Reliable Talent is a cool ability that makes all rolls for skills you’re proficient in be a minimum of a 10, which means you have a much higher chance of passing skill checks with skills you are proficient in and you’ll very rarely fail checks involving skills you have Expertise in. Not super relevant for this build in particular, but I’m definitely not complaining.
Level 13
Class: 5 Barbarian 8 Rogue
Feat: Defensive Duelist (DEX)
While this build doesn’t need more DEX, Defensive Duelist is too good of a feat to not grab at this point! As this build has little to do with their reaction (beyond Uncanny Dodge, but I do not like that ability unless you’re desperate), getting a functional Shield every turn that consumes zero resources is really powerful.
Level 14
Class: 5 Barbarian 9 Rogue
Class Features: Panache
Level 9 brings your next subclass ability with Panache!
Panache is a strange ability that makes you an unparalleled smooth or smack talker. You can use your action and make a contested Persuasion/Insight roll in order to charm the target in one of two ways. If they’re hostile to you, they’ll have disadvantage on attacks not aimed at you for a minute or until an ally decides to hit them. If they’re neutral or friendly to you, they are charmed and regard you as a friendly acquaintance. This ability is definitely not strong enough to use in battle, but outside of battle this is a good way to persuade people to do things for you that a normal Persuasion roll may not have normally succeeded in. Not special for this build, but it’s a thing.
Level 15
Class: 5 Barbarian 10 Rogue
Feat: Constitution to 18
Class Features: None
You get yet another feat and you may as well start buffing your Constitution for better health and saving throws!
Level 16-20
Level 16
Class: 5 Barbarian 11 Rogue
Class Features: Improved Cunning Strike
Level 11 brings an improvement to your Cunning Strike! Now you can use two Cunning Strike features simultaneously, and while you still have to pay the associated costs, this is still a pretty solid ability!
Level 17
Class: 5 Barbarian 12 Rogue
Feat: Constitution to 20
You get your final feat for this build, and once again, I would just bolster your Constitution. A little boring, but effective.
Level 18
Class: 5 Barbarian 13 Rogue
Class Features: Elegant Maneuver
Your next subclass feature is Elegant Maneuver, which you can use your Bonus Action to gain advantage on Acrobatics or an Athletics check on your turn. I guess this is helpful when you really need to pass an Acrobatics roll, but this ability is extremely disappointing.
Level 19
Class: 5 Barbarian 14 Rogue
Class Features: Devious Strikes
You get your final upgrades to your Cunning Strikes with Devious Strikes!
Like the original Cunning Strikes, you get three more options that have both higher costs and more powerful effects with Daze, Knock Out, and Obscure.
Daze can limit somewhat limit what an enemy does on their turn, but considering not many monsters have uses for their Bonus Action, this probably isn’t that good of a feature.
Knockout takes out most of your Sneak Attack dice, but you have a chance to render an enemy unconscious until it passes the save or takes damage. This ability could have been strong if they were stunned for a full turn cycle, but just one ally being able to take advantage of this makes this pretty bad.
Obscure is easily the best of these options as you can potentially blind an enemy which is a pretty brutal status condition.
Overall, this ability is not particularly great, but they can’t all be winners.
Level 20
Class: 5 Barbarian 15 Rogue
Class Features: Slippery Mind
For your final class feature, you get Slippery Mind.
Gaining proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma saving throws is very strong, even if it comes a bit late in your progression. Wisdom, in particular, is the most common spell saving throw you’ll have to contend with so you’ll have a substantially better chance of passing these saves now.
