Swordsman

Relying on speed and evasion, a swordsman fights in the front, pushing to close the distance with any enemy. Often exposed in combat, a swordsman must be a master of evasion, ruggedly tough, or kill foes very quickly.

Special Recruitment Bonuses
Any Swordsman coming from De Valtos will have increased attributes.

Rash Courage
A talent useful for recovering from being knocked back to position three as well as to convert a swordsman from a defensive roll to an aggressive role. This is the only Swordsman talent capable of moving out of position 3. Without this, or a move from another job, you will be forced to spent a lot of initiative simply swapping position to recover. If you rely on high armor values to survive, be wary of this talent as it will reduce your armor by a small amount.

Bravery Line
A helpful on init talent with no real drawbacks. The bonus initiative can help them take the first turn which is particularly useful if you need to apply a defensive buff or finish off a foe before your enemies get their first attack.

Sharp Counter
A very powerful and unique defensive talent. Sharp counter must land in order for the buff to be given; thus it is expensive to miss. The buff boosts defenses significantly, allows counter attacks against foes that attack you from positions 1 and 2 that do not change their position during their attack. (Some Pistoleer talents are good counters to this talent.) On higher difficulties, the AI will often avoid attacking a character with this buff active. Thus, a defensive strategy involving buffs to the evasion or armor of others is still warranted. A special note that makes this ability especially powerful is that the swordsman will counter attack with Balanced Blade, if it is learned. This effectively gives you two talents, for the price of a single 1.5x initiative price.

Balanced Blade
Balanced Blade has a unique effect that it will be used as a counter attack by any class if it is known as a skill, and apply the self buff. This includes the Swordsman, Bodyguard, and Wing Commando classes.

Balanced Blade grants a long-term buff for a bit of an initiative cost, supposing you hit.. The buff granted if you hit is very good across the board. Basic attacks are still viable alternatives for when you don't want to pay such a high initiative cost. There's little point in using this if you already have the buff. However, the best use for this talent is the counter-attack used by Sharp Counter's which will use this talent (with no initiative cost) if you have both learned.

Slashing Retreat
A situational talent, this attack moves you further back as well as giving you some powerful defensive buffs. As you can only hit the front position with this talent it may seem rather limiting. However, the proper use of this talent is an excellent way to avoid counter-attacks from a foe buffed with Sharp Counter, as your movement-while-attacking avoids the counter attack effect.

Strength of Steel
This buff is an excellent way to build a strong defender. At higher levels, the healing and morale restoration will be significant and the Parry dice bonus will be absurdly good. The initiative cost is very low. Coupled with another character with any healing talent, your front-line swordsman can become very hard to kill.

Devastating Charge
Perhaps the best reason to field a swordsman in position 2, this attack can only be used from that slot. Dealing a whopping 50% stun (which makes it ideal against tough foes like Xeno) as well as a small initiative drain (which if used right may deny a foe a turn) and reducing parry for followup attacks, this attack is a quick way to shut down nearly any threat that you can land a blow on.

Flash Fury
Flash Fury is useful for a variety of reasons, high damage potential, knockback to counter enemy swordsmen, and removing buffs. If you lack a character with buff removal, consider getting this talent third or fourth in your swordsman talents.

Skewering Thrust
This talent is the alternative to Devastating Charge. They both require position 2 and both move you to position 1 upon using it. You should really pick one or the other. This talent is all about damage and hits two targets at a time. However, it will cost you double the initiative to use. If you aren't likely to kill either foe with this attack, be sure your swordsman has enough health, armor and evasion to survive their reprisal.

Bladesman Rally
This is an ultra-cheap way to restore morale and clear debuffs. Strength of Steel, for all of its merits, cannot clear existing debuffs. Consider this talent if your combat crew lacks any other talents that can remove debuffs, or if you find yourself running out of morale on your frontline frequently.

Blade and Hilt
This is the ultimate aggressive talent for the swordsman. The buffs are very powerful and only require hitting one of the two foes in order to be obtained. However, they will leave your defenses lacking in return.