Make Blackguard Base Class

[LiegeTai]

As title says.

Edit class to make it more inline with paladin progression.. but evil. That way you have the choice at LVL 1 to be LE Blackguard and the opposition to the goody goody LG Paladin. I personally like the idea of a church of bane/bhaal cult on the surface and the UD.

Also a the UD won't feel so gimped when rolling Paladins.. because now blackguards and evilness!

Swap remove disease for cause disease.
Lay on hands can remain, or be swapped to cause harm instead of heal.
Add Summon (as pets so will also allow for summon creature to be used) Divine to paladins at 5, empower it at 10 15 and 20, Drawn from the Planar LG summons. (Mirror for blackguard except evil) at 15 + 20 give summon feat bonuses.
Change spell casting on Blackguard from Int based to wisdom (to bring it inline)

[chad878262]

But then what will non humans do if they want a dip for edm?

[niapet]

What about straight up Evil paladins for evil gods that are Lawful Evil? They get smite good instead? IDK never played a paladin so don't know if there is anything I'm not thinking of?

[Sun Wukong]

Please, will someone think of all the innocent power builders!

Anyhow, with more serious tone...

The problem is the need for a custom spellbooks. One solution would be to expand the Paladin spell book with evil spells that real Paladins cannot cast, and the other is to add a feat per spell level that grants spontaneous spellcasting without the use metamagic or bonus spell slot items.

As for the evil 'Paladin' base class, what would you even call it? Assailer?

[Sun Wukong]

And anyhow, Rangers are not tied to nature deities on this server, because they are not tied to nature deities in Forgotten Realms. Only Druids proper are.

Therefore, nothing is actually stopping you from making a: Bane worshipping lawful evil ranger that for all intents and purposes is an anti-paladin. Not to mention that you will have the easiest time meeting the Blackguard skill requirements if you desire such, and as ranger you can actually have few rather evil animal companions by default. Hellhound springs to my mind.

Hmn... Hunter 11/Blackguard 4/Fighter 12/Something else 3?

[niapet]

Just Paladin? I mean if the game needs two classes for some reason call it Paladin (good) and Paladin (evil) ?

[niapet]

And anyhow, Rangers are not tied to nature deities on this server, because they are not tied to nature deities in Forgotten Realms. Only Druids proper are.

Therefore, nothing is actually stopping you from making a: Bane worshipping lawful evil ranger that for all intents and purposes is an anti-paladin. Not to mention that you will have the easiest time meeting the Blackguard skill requirements if you desire such, and as ranger you can actually have few rather evil animal companions by default. Hellhound springs to my mind.

Hmn... Hunter 11/Blackguard 4/Fighter 12/Something else 3?

That sounds okay. Man I hate 3.5 lol...

[Incarnate]

I believe this the one you're seeking: Anti-Paladin?

Class Features of the Anti-Paladin

All of the following are class features of the anti-paladin:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: All unholy warriors are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all types of armor (heavy, medium, and light), and with shields (except tower shields).

At 5th level, and at every five levels thereafter, the unholy warrior may smite one additional time per day, to a maximum of five times per day at 20th level.

Divine Grace (Su): At 2nd level, the unholy warrior gains a bonus equal to her Charisma bonus (if any) on all saving throws.

Aura of Fear (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, an unholy warrior exudes an almost palpable aura of menace and evil. Each enemy within 10 feet of her suffers a -4 morale penalty on saving throws against fear effects. The unholy warrior herself is deadened to the emotion of fear, and is immune to all fear effects. This ability functions while the unholy warrior is conscious, but not if she is unconscious or dead. An unholy warrior can suppress or activate this aura as a free action.

Spells: All unholy warriors gain the ability to cast divine spells as early as 4th level (if their Wisdom score is high enough to grant bonus 1st level spells). Each unholy warrior has a unique spell list, and members of these classes must choose and prepare their spells in advance. Unholy warriors gain spells at the same rate as paladins.

Aura of Evil: The power of an anti-paladin's aura of evil (see the detect evil spell) is equal to his anti-paladin level.

Detect Good (Sp): At will, an anti-paladin can detect good, as the spell.

Smite Good (Su): All unholy warriors can smite a certain type of enemy a number of times per day. Smiting a target requires a normal melee attack. The unholy warrior adds her Charisma bonus (if any) to her attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per unholy warrior level. If the unholy warrior accidentally smites a target that is inappropriate, the smite attack has no effect, but the ability is still used up for that day.

At 5th level, and at every five levels thereafter, the unholy warrior may smite one additional time per day, to a maximum of five times per day at 20th level. An anti-paladin's smite targets creatures of a good alignment.

Slaughter the Weak (Ex): Beginning at 2nd level, an anti-paladin takes a perverse and horrendous glee when facing opponents in battle that are weaker than himself. He gains a +2 morale bonus to attack and damage rolls with melee weapons when he attacks any creature that has fewer Hit Dice than he does.

Dying creatures who have less Hit Dice than the anti-paladin suffer a -2 penalty to save against death knell spells cast by the anti-paladin.

Death Knell (Sp): The anti-paladin can cast death knell, as the spell, once per day at 3rd level, at a caster level equal to his anti-paladin level. At every five levels thereafter the anti-paladin can cast death knell an additional time each day.

Turn or Rebuke Outsider (Su): When an anti-paladin reaches 4th level, he gains the supernatural ability to turn or destroy good outsiders by channeling energy. He can instead rebuke or command evil outsiders with a use of this ability if he chooses. The anti-paladin may use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + his Charisma modifier. The anti-paladin turns or rebukes outsiders as a cleric of three levels lower would turn undead.

Fiendish Mount (Sp): Anti-paladins gain a fiendish mount at 5th level. This ability functions just like the special mount ability of the paladin class except that an anti-paladin's special mount always has the fiendish template, and it remains for 1 hour per anti-paladin level once called.

Contagion (Sp): At 6th level, an anti-paladin gains the ability to cast contagion, as the spell, once per week. He may use this ability an additional time each week every additional three levels, to a maximum of 5 times a week at 20th level. Caster level is equal to the anti-paladin's class level.

Code of Conduct: An anti-paladin must be of chaotic evil alignment and loses all class abilities if he ever willingly commits a good act. He must work at all times to undermine the works of civilization and good peoples, and must never offer mercy or grant quarter unless he betrays his word within the next hour. He cannot join an organization, but he can perform services for others as long as the services are for pay and ultimately lead to chaos and devastation.

Associates: An anti-paladin may adventure with any non-good alignment, but remains hateful and distrustful of any "allies." As soon as an ally is no longer useful, the anti-paladin usually kills her (or at the very least, sacrifices her for his own personal gain). He never knowingly associates with good characters, nor will he continue an association with someone who balks at senseless murder or refuses to reward him for his aid. An anti-paladin may only accept henchmen, followers, or cohorts who are chaotic evil. Anti-paladins always suffer the -2 penalty for cruelty when determining their effective Leadership score to recruit a cohort.

[NegInfinity]

As title says.

Edit class to make it more inline with paladin progression.. but evil. That way you have the choice at LVL 1 to be LE Blackguard and the opposition to the goody goody LG Paladin. I personally like the idea of a church of bane/bhaal cult on the surface and the UD.

Also a the UD won't feel so gimped when rolling Paladins.. because now blackguards and evilness!

Swap remove disease for cause disease.
Lay on hands can remain, or be swapped to cause harm instead of heal.
Add Summon (as pets so will also allow for summon creature to be used) Divine to paladins at 5, empower it at 10 15 and 20, Drawn from the Planar LG summons. (Mirror for blackguard except evil) at 15 + 20 give summon feat bonuses.
Change spell casting on Blackguard from Int based to wisdom (to bring it inline)

I'd rather not have MORE homebrewing.

If you can dig up a similar base class from source books, code it and write feats for it, then get it QC approved and deployed, then sure.

Blackguard, however, is a special case, and can only act as a "base class" in case of fallen paladins, which would require DM approval, no matter what. It is not just an anti-paladin, although it can fullfill this role as well.

[Rad-Icarus]

I'm really enjoying my blackguard character as a build, and while I'm not sure it should be a base class (evil or Anti-Paladin suggestions seem more suitable)... I wouldn't mind a few changes.

Requirements:
- As a pure class dynamic function, hide seems like an odd choice for a skill requirement. Whether it would stretch the PnP translation too much, I'd think Intimidate might be better? Or maybe intimidate 5 ranks or lore: religion or Lore: the planes?

It may simply be too late to alter that now with existing builds being what they are. Just a suggestion.

Spellbook:
- The healing spells seem out of place and don't really add much to the blackguard's arsenal. How about desecrate, bestow curse, and maybe Living Undeath instead of some of the healing spells?

Otherwise, most of the changes are pretty great. An enjoyable class that's pretty good in a group of baddies.

[scriver]

I want a "Blaggard" base class, which functions just like a Fighter, except instead of free feats they get "(hero) tactics" d6 damage dice which stacks with sneak attack and have a chance of randomly dazing, stunning, blinding, or knocking enemies down.