Precise Strike (Ex): At 3rd level, while she has at least 1 panache point, a swashbuckler gains the ability to strike precisely with a light or one-handed piercing melee weapon (though not natural weapon attacks), adding her swashbuckler level to the damage dealt. To use this deed, a swashbuckler cannot attack with a weapon in her other hand or use a shield other than a buckler. She can even use this ability with thrown light or one-handed piercing melee weapons, so long as the target is within 30 feet of her. Any creature that is immune to sneak attacks is immune to the additional damage granted by precise strike, and any item or ability that protects a creature from critical hits also protects a creature from the additional damage of a precise strike. This additional damage is precision damage, and isn't multiplied on a critical hit.(…)
Emphasis mine.
Does this mean that a level 20 Swashbuckler does 20 extra damage every 'swing' of their one-handed weapon so long as they maintain 1 or more Panache? Or is there something about Panache abilities that I'm not accounting for?
Best Answer
You read that swashbuckler deed correctly
The swashbuckler deed precise strike, an extraordinary ability, does, indeed, allow, for example, a level 20 swashbuckler that possesses at least 1 point of panache and that attacks with a light or one-handed manufactured piercing melee weapon in one hand—and doesn't wield in his other hand a weapon and doesn't in that other hand carry a shield—to deal with that weapon an extra +20 points of precision damage.
The deed forces a lot of conditions onto the swashbuckler, essentially mandating he employ a very specific—and widely considered suboptimal—fighting style if he wants the benefit of the deed precise strike. The swashbuckler earns that +20 points of damage (that only affects those foes vulnerable to precision damage and that isn't multiplied on a critical hit).