For one-on-one dueling, using a weapon you can wear as a sidearm, the rapier has the advantage; that’s what it’s optimized for. If small group combat is a possibility, other swords might be useful: an estoc if you might encounter armor, or a curved sword if you need to move quickly between multiple opponents.

I would rule out the epee and small sword. They are basically rapiers that sacrifice effectiveness in order to be less cumbersome as fashion accessories.

My party was hurrying through some caverns to rescue some prisoners. While taking a shortcut they encountered a roper, dangling from the ceiling among the stalactites.

Several of the party spent most of the fight hanging upside-down, being pulled upwards toward the roper.

After they’d defeated the roper and moved on to where one of the prisoners was being held, he asked them why they hadn’t come sooner.

The sorcerer replied, “We got held up.”