Blackguard advice

[danielxcutter]

You know, I haven't seen much advice for the prestige class. Besides Shadowbane Inquisitor, but the problem is that it kinda blows before Falling. Also, I'd also appreciate it if you suggested spells to prepare and races to be. Anything?

[Flickerdart]

There are basically two cool things to do with a blackguard. Otherwise it's a very weak class.

Paladin of Tyranny: A paladin of tyranny is still a paladin, but doesn't fall when he becomes a blackguard. This lets him cash in on the "levels of paladin" bonuses essentially for free.
Nar demonbinder: Blackguards can easily enter this prestige class, as they learn summon monster IV at 7th level.

[Fuzzy McCoy]

You can also use it as a jumping point into Ruby Knight Vindicator.

[danielxcutter]

There are basically two cool things to do with a blackguard. Otherwise it's a very weak class.

Paladin of Tyranny: A paladin of tyranny is still a paladin, but doesn't fall when he becomes a blackguard. This lets him cash in on the "levels of paladin" bonuses essentially for free.
Nar demonbinder: Blackguards can easily enter this prestige class, as they learn summon monster IV at 7th level.

Paladin of Tyranny is a bit iffy to use at tables, but Nar Demonbinder... Is it a powerful class?

[The Viscount]

You sometimes see people discuss adding in some Hexblade and/or Shaman for Cha to saves again, if you just want stacking things.

Blackguard is actually compatible with Bone Knight, so you might see some use there.

As with most martials, a dash or splash of initiator is much appreciated, especially swordsage if you want to focus on SA.

If you want to make your Fiendish Servant actually useful, the Improved Fiendish Servant feat goes a long way.

Nar Demonbinder is quite powerful, particularly for summoning.

[DrMotives]

The thing with Paladin of Tyranny to Blackguard is, it's kind of a weird transition. One thing that always confused me & my group before UA came out was why was Paladin a base class & Blackguard a PrC? It seems terribly inconsistent. The paladin variants seem to fix this issue better. While RAW says nothing on this, it just makes more sense to have all paladin flavours either base classes or be Prestige Paladins / Blackguards.

[emeraldstreak]

Do it in Pathfinder if you can, it's more fun.

[Flickerdart]

The thing with Paladin of Tyranny to Blackguard is, it's kind of a weird transition. One thing that always confused me & my group before UA came out was why was Paladin a base class & Blackguard a PrC? It seems terribly inconsistent. The paladin variants seem to fix this issue better. While RAW says nothing on this, it just makes more sense to have all paladin flavours either base classes or be Prestige Paladins / Blackguards.

A blackguard isn't just a dark paladin - he is a paladin that was tempted to evil by a fiend, fell, and embraced evil.


Paladin of Tyranny is a bit iffy to use at tables, but Nar Demonbinder... Is it a powerful class?

It focuses on planar binding and fighting against outsiders. It has a very small spell list, but the list goes up to 8th level, so anything that adds spells to your list is very useful for them. Blasting, summoning, and a little bit of utility won't make you a primary caster, but they'll keep a primarily melee guy relevant into the late levels.