Good Blackguard builds?

[deuxhero]

Aside from stacking its aura with things like Paladin of Tyranny and (Dark Companion) Hexblade and Entropmancer's force reroll on saves (as demonstrated in the IC for Entropmancer), is there anything it can do well?

[Big Fau]

Not really. The class suffers from bad design rather extensively. Most of what it can do can be replicated by a Fighter or a Paladin (minus the evil stuff).

[deuxhero]

I'm very well aware the class is "early 3.5 melee", that's why I asked.

[Big Fau]

I'm very well aware the class is "early 3.5 melee", that's why I asked.

The only thing I can really think of off-hand is the retraining trickery, but I don't understand that trick well enough to inform you.

[Piggy Knowles]

Eh, I guess blackguard qualifies you pretty easily for Nar Demonbinder without dropping any BAB. You could build a pretty solid gish that way, I suppose, although the Nar Demonbinder's spell list isn't the best for gish-y goodness.

Ex-Paladin 1/Blackguard 10/Nar Demonbinder 2/Spellsword 1/Abjurant Champion 5/whatever 1 would give you 8th-level arcane spells, 4th-level divine spells, and +19 BAB. I'm sure someone could turn that into a cleaner build, but in general, the idea is sound.

[Feralventas]

Bard6/Warblade2/Blackguard-

Light offensive and defensive capacity while supporting the party and providing buffs left and right, and still having a good spot as party-face. Focus on White Raven for your Warblade maneuvers, and use the 6 levels in Bard to max out Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Hide and Move Silently along with, of course, perform Sing, as well as to pick up the prerequisite feats.

And then you become exactly what conservative folks fear about hard-rock party music. Impress and Corrupt the youth, attract a following of fans, make deals with strange and unsound creatures to gain more power and influence and rather than fighting your own battles, make it easier for others to fight for you.

You are now the rock-out-loud champion of chaos, evil, and harbinger of the abyss. Congratulations.

[Cog]

The only thing I can really think of off-hand is the retraining trickery, but I don't understand that trick well enough to inform you.
It's not retraining, and considering how explicit the rules are, it's barely even trickery. Gray Guard, from Complete Scoundrel, says levels in the class count as Paladin levels for determining Blackguard abilities; one of those abilities is to trade Paladin levels for Blackguard. Get past 11th level with a mix of Paladin and Gray Guard, go into Blackguard, then convert your actual-Paladin levels into more Blackguard levels; you now only have levels in prestige classes.

[RandomLunatic]

There are none. Blackguards have to be Evil. *Rimshot*

[deuxhero]

Actually, 3.5 Blackguard isn't in one of the books with a "if you cease to meet the requirements, you lose all abilities" (which may have been a mistake because it was consistently in 3.0 and only in very early 3.5) or have a spefific note attached to it, so you can change alignments and keep abilities.

[Urpriest]

It's not retraining, and considering how explicit the rules are, it's barely even trickery. Gray Guard, from Complete Scoundrel, says levels in the class count as Paladin levels for determining Blackguard abilities; one of those abilities is to trade Paladin levels for Blackguard. Get past 11th level with a mix of Paladin and Gray Guard, go into Blackguard, then convert your actual-Paladin levels into more Blackguard levels; you now only have levels in prestige classes.

This does, incidentally, leave you with none of the fun extra abilities ex-Paladins get, since you traded in all your Paladin levels.

A (potentially) better option involved Shadowbane Inquisitor (CAdv) which like Gray Guard counts as Paladin levels for ex-paladin stuff and retains its abilities when you fall. With it you can do something like Sneak Attack Fighter 1/Paladin 4/Shadowbane Inquisitor X, where X is 7-10, then trade your Paladin levels for Blackguard and end up as Sneak Attack Fighter 1/Shadowbane Inquisitor 9/Blackguard 10 with 7d6 Sneak Attack and Full BAB, more if you substitute the last two or so Shadowbane levels for something else.

[Human Paragon 3]

One fun thing about blackgaurd, if you can call it that, is that it qualifies for staggering strike without multiclassing. You can go strait Base Class X/Blackguard 10, since BG gets sneak attack and power attack. He'll be a pretty good staggerer, too. Stack on a few other debuffing feats and you have a pretty good dirty fighting knight.

[Person_Man]

If you happen to be playing a short campaign that starts at ECL 11, then Fallen Paladin 1/Blackguard 10 is actually a fairly potent build. But beyond that, there's not much place to go.

And Whatever X/Blackguard 4 is actually a fairly good deal for Cha to Saves, Aura of Despair, Rebuke Undead (for divine and domain Feats), and Sneak Attack (for Craven and Staggering Strike). It just doesn't make sense in a game world with so many other classes that offer those options with no pre-reqs.

[gkathellar]

Really, Dark Blessing is the only truly worthwhile thing the class offers, but it's not terrible without it. You get limited spellcasting, and your list does get expanded by a supplement here and there. You get some Sneak Attack and full BAB, neither of which are actually bad. Fiendish Servant is kind of lame, but at least it's something.

So while there's nothing really capital-a Alright to get from Blackguard, it's not exactly the worst class ever designed.


There are none. Blackguards have to be Evil. *Rimshot*

No, no, sir, this (http://instantrimshot.com/classic/?sound=rimshot) is how you should be signing off your puns.