Class Role-locking

[Enkidoh]

The thing is, throughout the FF series, PLD has always been about high defense, low attack and defending the rest of the party (Cecil Harvey in FFIV is the archetype for the Job in the series), in other words, a tank.

So hence why it's role locked in FFXIV - it's always been a tank and always will be. The DD opposite to PLD in the FF series is the Dark Knight, or DRK as it was known in FFXI. High damage, low defense (and even some mastery of black magic). Both Paladin and Dark Knight traditionally wield swords so they're effectively two sides of the same coin.

Unfortunately, Dark Knight isn't in the game yet so basically you're out of luck if you want to play a DD swordsman role. You could always try DDing in a party, but your other party members will expect you to tank as that's what you're there for.