You focus your training on the art of the blade, relying on speed, elegance, and charisma in equal parts. While other warriors are brutes clad in heavy armor, your method of fighting looks more like performance. Rakes, duelists, and pirates typically follow this archetype.
A swashbuckler excels in single combat, and can fight with two weapons while safely darting away from an opponent. Swashbucklers are especially talented at making difficult maneuvers to escape enemies or attack from an unexpected direction.
Fancy Footwork
When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you learn how to land a strike and then slip away without reprisal. During your turn, if you make a melee attack against a creature, that creature cannot make opportunity attacks against you for the rest of your turn.
Rakish Audacity
Starting at 3rd level, your unmistakable confidence propels you into battle. You add your Charisma modifier to your initiative rolls.
In addition, you don't need advantage on your attack roll to use your Sneak Attack if no creature other than your target is within 5 feet of you. All the other rules for the Sneak Attack class feature still apply to you.
In other words, a swashbuckler can make a sneak attack without having advantage on the roll as long as they don't have disadvantage and: none of the target's allies are within 5 feet of you; or if one of your allies is within 5 feet of the target.
Panache
At 9th level, your charm becomes extraordinarily beguiling. As an action, you can make a Charisma (Persuasion) check contested by a creature's Wisdom (Insight) check. The creature must be able to hear you, and the two of you must share a language.
If you succeed on the check and the creature is hostile to you, it has disadvantage on attack rolls against targets other than you and can't make opportunity attacks against targets other than you. This effect lasts for 1 minute, until one of your companions attacks the target or affects it with a spell, or until you and the target are more than 60 feet apart.
If you succeed on the check and the creature isn't hostile to you, it is charmed by you for 1 minute. While charmed, it regards you as a friendly acquaintance. This effect ends immediately if you or your companions do anything harmful to it.
Elegant Maneuver
Starting at 13th level, you can use a bonus action on your turn to gain advantage on the next Dexterity (Acrobatics) or Strength (Athletics) check you make during the same turn.
Master Duelist
Beginning at 17th level, your mastery of the blade lets you turn failure to success in combat. If you miss with an attack roll, you can choose to roll it again with advantage. Once you do so, you can't use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.