I wrote a dualist, a dual-wielding duelist (pun very much intended!). It works fairly well from a swashbuckler base (uses your free Weapon Finesse for entry, skills are easy and recommended anyway).
The dualist is different from the duelist, obviously, in that the dualist uses two weapons, rather than keeping one hand free. It also is not specifically Intelligence-based, but on the flip side you can (and should) use armor. All that said, it puts your Insightful Strike feature to good use (as a static damage bonus, that damage is multiplied on a critical hit, and the dualist is quite good at critical hits), and as I said, your Weapon Finesse bonus feat eases entry quite nicely.
The dualist is all about attacks of opportunity, using them as a kind of round-by-round resource for its special abilities. The dualist parries, and at higher levels, counter-attacks, using (typically) a pair of rapiers. The dualist is also fairly “sticky,” making it excellent at defending its allies.
I’ve personally played the dualist a few times, and it was quite fun. Furthermore, I know several other people who have played it, and I’ve received great feedback. It’s one of my best-received classes, and I think it’s likely an excellent fit for you.
The rules as written don't say that a Wisdom (Perception) test is called for in this situation.
SRD, p 94 (emphasis mine):
When you attack a target that you can’t see, you have disadvantage on
the attack roll. This is true whether you’re guessing the target’s
location or you’re targeting a creature you can hear but not see. If
the target isn’t in the location you targeted, you automatically
miss, but the GM typically just says that the attack missed, not
whether you guessed the target’s location correctly.
However, part of this is still a DM call.
The above doesn't help tell you whether the human is 1. "guessing a target's location" or 2. "targeting a creature they can hear but not see." So it's probably your call as DM. If it's option #1, the human would be picking a space and attacking a hypothetical opponent in that space. If it's #2, the human would know what 5' x 5' space the elf is in, and would take disadvantage on the attack roll. #1 is a lot harder for the human than #2.
Facts to take into consideration when making that call as the DM:
- If the elf isn't hiding, then they presumably aren't taking steps to remain silent as well as unseen. As a DM, you may rule that those sounds are sufficient to tell what space the elf is occupying, and allow the human to move adjacent and attack (with disadvantage).
- If the elf is trying to remain silent as well as unseen, you may want to revise the premise of the question and say that it does count as being in hiding and make a Dexterity (Stealth) roll for it.
- Be wary of making a ruling that makes it harder to attack a non- hiding elf than one that is hiding. If you were to rule that the non-hiding elf couldn't be located with a Wisdom (Perception) test because it isn't hiding, but that a hiding one could, you're creating a weird paradox in which it's more advantageous to stand there than to take steps to conceal oneself.
Best Answer
The only information available to us in D&D 5E about Airships comes from the DMG and an entry in
They are mentioned as existing in other adventure modules, but the only thing like stats comes from a single line on DMG 119, and
The DMG gives you the functional stats of the airship, but nothing in the way of dimensions. The only sort-of useful information it provides here is the crew compliment, the max number of passengers, and how much cargo it can carry. 10 Crewmen, 20 Passengers, 1 ton of cargo. The exact dimensions are unknown...because we don't know how much space is dedicated to each crewman, how much space is dedicated to each passenger, how much space is dedicated to the operation of the ship, and so on.
From this point on...you're in purely homebrew territory. I can point you in a direction that would potentially be helpful...but I cannot offer you a concrete answer, because no such answer exists.
So, you have two options here, as far as I can say.
Simple: You know the ship can carry 20 passengers...so allow your players to 'secure' some of the passenger cabins to serve as a brig. This is the simplest way to do it, and can be handled by having them shell out some money to reinforce the walls, and replace the door with a sturdy one that locks. Alternately, they could sacrifice their cargo capacity to put manacles down in the cargo hold and use that as a brig. This is the easy way that doesn't require a lot of work on your part.
Detailed: The best reference I can aim you at for truly homebrewing up an airship is the 3.5E Conversion of the Spelljammer ship creation rules. Obviously, this isn't going to be perfect, because a Spelljammer flies according to very different rules than a normal airship. But...the rules for determining how large it is, how much stuff you can put inside of it, etc...those are very helpful.
An important thing to bear in mind...in this document 'Tonnage' is NOT representative of a physical ton of weight or of a ton of cargo. It is a ship-scale reference for size that represents a cube measuring 1,350 cubic feet. Assuming a 9-foot ceiling, that means 1 'Ton' of ship is 30 5x5 squares. Again, this is NOT a perfect answer, but it is the only pre-made homebrew tool I have found that fills out that level of detail aboard a ship, if you so desire.
The pdf for these rules can be found here: http://lost.spelljammer.org/TBLIV/lsccs3e/3eShipConstruction.pdf
Thanks to suggestion from nitsua60. I would like to point out that while converting 3.5 content to 5e is generally something of a nightmare, I have found this particular conversion to be quite simple. That fan-made Ship Construction guide is better organized than the original AD&D Spelljammer construction guide, and is simple and straight forward to work with.