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View Full Version : Blackguard as a Base Class [3.5]



SurvivorX
2009-12-06, 05:42 PM
The Blackguard is, in my eyes at least, meant to be the Evil foil for the Paladin. It's never really made any sense to me then, for Paladin to be a base class and Blackguard to be a prestige class - isn't Evil usually viewed as the "easy way" to solve a problem? After all, it's easier to just let a village of people die than to save them, so why should it be easier to be a righteous defender than to be a villainous monster?

So, even though I'm sure it's been done in the past, I've decided to alter the Blackguard to become a base class. I'm basically keeping everything the same as the one in the 3.5 rulebook, except cutting the prereq's and converting all of his abilities to match up with the Paladins, stretching it out over 20 levels, etc.


The Blackguard
{table="head"]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special

1st|+1|+2|+0|+2|Aura of Evil, Detect Good, Smite Good 1/encounter

2nd|+2|+3|+0|+3|Dark Blessing, Poison Use

3rd|+3|+3|+1|+3|Aura of Despair

4th|+4|+4|+1|+4|Rebuke Undead

5th|+5|+4|+1|+4|Smite Good 2/encounter, Fiendish Servant

6th|+6/+1|+5|+2|+5|Sneak Attack +1d6

7th|+7/+2|+5|+2|+5|

8th|+8/+3|+6|+2|+6|

9th|+9/+4|+6|+3|+6|Sneak Attack +2d6

10th|+10/+5|+7|+3|+7|Smite Good 3/encounter

11th|+11/+6/+1|+7|+3|+7|

12th|+12/+7/+2|+8|+4|+8|Sneak Attack +3d6

13th|+13/+8/+3|+8|+4|+8|

14th|+14/+9/+4|+9|+4|+9|

15th|+15/+10/+5|+9|+5|+9|Smite Good 4/encounter, Sneak Attack +4d6

16th|+16/+11/+6/+1|+10|+5|+10|

17th|+17/+12/+7/+2|+10|+5|+10|

18th|+18/+13/+8/+3|+11|+6|+11|Sneak Attack +5d6

19th|+19/+14/+9/+4|+11|+6|+11|

20th|+20/+15/+10/+5|+12|+6|+12|Smite Good 5/encounter

[/table]
Note that with the exception of switching out the Paladin's abilities for the Blackguard's, this is totally identical to the 3.5ed Paladin's chart.

All abilities are identical to the ones in the blackguard description in the 3.5 DMG, with the following exceptions:
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Blackguards are not proficient with tower shields.
Aura of Evil (ex): The power of a blackguard's aura of evil (see the detect evil spell) is equal to his blackguard level, just like the aura of a cleric of an evil diety.
Rebuke Undead: The blackguard rebukes undead as would an evil gleric of three levels lower.

Blackguard Spells
A blackguard's spells per day are exactly the same as the Paladin's.

1st-level spell list:
Bane, Curse Water, Corrupt Weapon, Create Water, Inflict Light Wounds, Detect Poison, Detect Undead, Doom, Endure Elements, Magic Weapon, Protection from Good, Read Magic, Resistance, Summon Monster I*
2nd-level spell list:
Bull's Strength, Darkness, Delay Poison, Eagle's Splendor, Ghoul Touch, Owl's Wisdom, Resist Energy, Shield, Undetectable Alignment, Zone of Truth, Summon Monster II*
3rd-level spell list:
Inflict Moderate Wounds, Deeper Darkness, Discern Lies, Dispel Magic, Heal Mount, Magic Circle against Good, Greater Magic Weapon, Prayer, Blindness/Deafness, Bestow Curse, Summon Monster III*
4th-level spell list:
Break Enchantment, Inflict Serious Wounds, Death Knell, Dispel Good, Unholy Blight, Symbol of Pain, Poison, Enervation, Summon Monster IV*
*Evil monsters only.

What do you all think? Does it seem to match up with what I'm looking for - the Blackguard converted to a base class that matches up with the Paladin in nearly all regards?

Surrealistik
2009-12-06, 05:48 PM
Smite uses should be per encounter, and Will should be high (of course Paladins in your game would benefit from such tweaks comparably).

SurvivorX
2009-12-06, 07:03 PM
Hmm, yeah that makes sense to me. I was basing it completely off the one in the book, but those are logical tweaks. *fixed*

Helinon
2009-12-08, 10:49 AM
I know quite a few people in my group that are going to love this. :smallbiggrin:+:smallmad:

Surrealistik
2009-12-08, 03:14 PM
Blackguard needs Cure Disease (oops, missed the Sneak Attacks, well, use or lose Inflict Contagion I guess), Lay on Hands (Poison Use really isn't equivalent) and Divine Health equivalents. My recommendations:

Withering Touch (Su): His loyalties ascertained, the fell deity of the Blackguard sees fit to reward his obedience with a deadly touch, capable of channeling lethal profane energies.

Beginning at the 2nd class level, a Blackguard with a Charisma score of 12 or higher can inflict wounds by touch. Each day he can inflict a total number of hit points of Profane damage equal to his Blackguard level × his Charisma bonus. A Blackguard may choose to divide these points of damage among multiple recipients, and he doesn’t have to use it all at once. Using Withering Touch in this way requires a successful melee touch attack and doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity.

Alternatively, a Blackguard can use any or all of this power to heal damage to Undead creatures and Evil Outsiders by touching them.

Using Withering Touch is a standard action.


Profane Resilience (Ex): Reveling in the gifts of his dark patron, the Blackguard is spared from mortal and magical blights alike.

At the 3rd class level, a Blackguard gains immunity to all diseases, including supernatural and magical diseases.


Inflict Contagion (Sp): Pleased by his steadfast devotion to evil, the Blackguard's baleful master grants him the ability to bestow a dubious "gift" upon his enemies.

At 6th level, a Blackguard can produce a Contagion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/contagion.htm) effect, as the spell, once per week. He can use this ability one additional time per week for every three levels after 6th (twice per week at 9th, three times at 12th, and so forth). Add half the Blackguard's class level to the DC of this effect. The Blackguard may also bestow any disease at his option with a base DC equal to or less than 10 + his class level.

Further, add half the Blackguard's class level + the Blackguard's Charisma modifier (if any) to the treatment and subsequent save DCs of any disease inflicted with this ability. Attempts to magically cure a disease inflicted in this way must succeed on an opposed caster level check.

Helinon
2009-12-08, 03:34 PM
From looking at this it look basically empty from level 6 on. There just needs to be more stuff to put in to make this class more bad***! There has to!

Surrealistik
2009-12-08, 03:47 PM
Only problem with adding more stuff is that we need to come up with Paladin equivalents :P

Helinon
2009-12-08, 03:54 PM
damn..... good point. Now that i checked the paladin class, there is no real reason to go past level 6. That sucks for all those dogooders out there.

Glimbur
2009-12-08, 05:26 PM
Have you looked at these (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#paladinVariantsFreedom SlaughterAndTyranny)?

hamishspence
2009-12-08, 05:29 PM
While Unearthed Arcana and Dragon Magazine have done evil paladin 20 level classes, they were all tied to a specific alignment.

This one appears to be general.

Maybe it could be the counterpart to an "Any Good" variant paladin class?

deuxhero
2009-12-08, 05:37 PM
Someone on this board alredy made a base class blackguard based on the rebalanced Paladin (good, but hard not to be with such a base)