"Evil needs no purpose."
Those men and women that don upon themselves the mantel of blackguard are not common criminals or villains that pursue earthly goals, for a blackguard is a walking manifestation of malevolence and an agent of the lower powers upon the prime material. Their names are spoken in curses and bards weave tales of their legendary evil, but only those that have faced a blackguard themselves can understand the depths of their depravity and how little humanity they have inside their twisted souls.
This class is by no means a paladin that was multiplied by -1. A blackguard is first and foremost someone who either corrupts or destroys entire civilizations in his wake. His is meant to bring evil into every facet of mortal life be it through words or violence.
Starting Age: As Paladin
Starting Equipment: 5d5x10gp
Alignment: A blackguard must be evil. A blackguard who stops being evil loses all supernatural abilities of this class and can take no more levels in blackguard.
Hit Die: d10
Base Attack Bonus: 1/1
Good Saving Throws: Fort and Will
Skill Points: 4+Int
Class Skills: Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Bluff (Cha) Knowledge (All) (Int), Ride (Dex), Hide (Dex), Move Silently (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis) and Spellcraft (Int)
| Level: | Abilities: |
| 1: | Dark Arsenal, Demon Eyes, Vile Immunity, Aura of Evil |
| 2: | Unholy Favor, Mantle of Sin, Dark Speech |
| 3: | See All Evil, Maleficar |
| 4: | Eviscerate, Wound the Soul |
| 5: | Mantle of Sin, Devil's Tongue |
| 6: | Army of Evil, Taint |
| 7: | Corrupt, Sacrifice |
| 8: | Mantle of Sin, Unholy Pact |
| 9: | Possession, Lord of Terror |
| 10: | Bane of Angels, Ruin |
| 11: | Mantle of Sin, Form of Evil |
| 12: | Witch Flight, Dark Revelation |
| 13: | Portal, Defile |
| 14: | Mantle of Sin, Face of Evil |
| 15: | Profane Oration, Nature of Evil |
| 16: | Army of Hell |
| 17: | Mantle of Sin |
| 18: | Death of Reason |
| 19: | Dark Messiah |
| 20: | Mantle of Sin, Incarnation of Infinite Evil |
Class Features
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A blackguard is proficient with all Simple and Martial Weapons as well as all armor and shields but not tower shields.
Dark Arsenal (Ex): Select five fiends (these can be named fiends), the character becomes proficient with any weapons or armor they are shown as having in their monster entries.
Aura of Evil (Su): The Blackguard radiates on aura of evil equal to his Blackguard level.
Vile Immunity (Su): The Blackguard is immune to poison and disease.
Demon Eyes (Su): The character can see perfectly in the dark. At level 4 he is able to see perfectly in magical darkness.
Fall (Ex): A paladin who takes a level in blackguard can trade any or all of his paladin levels for blackguard levels.
Unholy Favor (Ex): The character gains his charisma mod as a profane bonus to all saving throws.
Mantle of Sin (Su): As the Blackguard gains levels he draws from the primal forces of evil which have plagued mortals since the dawn of time. Each time he gains Mantle of Sin he can choose one of the following abilities:
Greed
“For Greed all nature is too little.”
The blackguard is now permanently under the effect of Detect Magic. In addition, he may have ten magic items attuned to him at once rather than the normal limit of eight.
After level 8 Detect Magic becomes Arcane Sight and Greater Arcane Sight at level 16.
Lust
“Love begins with an idea; Lust with a sensation.”
The character gains the blinding beauty ability of a nymph but it affects other senses as well, so if a character hears the blackguard’s voice he is rendered deaf, if he touches the blackguard he is rendered numb and so forth (note that only creatures with scent can actually smell a character from a range other than grapple and only those with touchsight or tremorsense can touch from a distance other than point blank). This ability only affects creature belonging to the same creature type as the blackguard and magical means of perception are not affected.
After level 10 the range of this ability increases to 60 feet and it affects any non-mindless creature.
A creature that saves against this ability cannot be affected by it for 24 hours. The allies of the blackguard are unaffected.
Wrath
“‘Wrath is the last thing in a man to grow old.”
The blackguard gains the Rage ability of the Tome Barbarian but without the damage reduction and a number of Rage Dice equal to his blackguard level divided by four (rounded up) as well as 5 feet Combat Movement for every rage dice.
Gluttony
“Gluttony is a sign something is eating us from within.”
The blackguard may now sustain himself on the flesh of sentient creatures without repercussions to his health and may consume without ever getting full. He gains Fast Healing equal to his blackguard level as long as he eats at least one sentient creature each day.
At level 9 he also gains the ability to devour the souls of the recently slain sentient creatures, nourishing himself, preventing aging for one year per HD of the soul and making resurrection impossible. He also becomes immune to death effects, ability damage, ability drain and energy drain as long as he consumes the soul of at least one sentient creature each day.
Sloth
“Sloth wastes the sluggish body.“
The blackguard radiates an aura of deceleration. Each round all enemies within 60 feet of the blackguard that have not moved 10 feet or more must make a will save or be slowed for 1 round. After level 12 this effect paralyzes enemies for 1 round instead.
The blackguard can start and resume this ability as a free action.
Envy
“Envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those that are envied.”
The blackguard gains the sneak attack ability of the rogue with a number of sneak attack dice equal to his blackguard level divided by four (rounded up). He can also instantly tell the exact CR of a creature just by looking at it and when sneak attacking a creature with higher CR than he is, all sneak attack dice gain a +2 bonus to damage.
Pride
“It was Pride that changed angels into devils and men can become even worse.”
The blackguard can never have his alignment altered by magical means and may use his charisma bonus in place of his wisdom bonus when making will saves. The blackguard radiates an aura of despair that affects all enemies withing 30 feet, giving them a penalty to all d20 rolls equal to his blackguard level divided by four (rounded up).
At level 8 the aura radiates out to 60 feet.
All mantles are tied to Blackguard levels rather than character level.
Dark Speech (Su): The voice of the character is filled with evil from beyond time and speaks directly to the spirit, granting him a +2 bonus to all charisma checks and the ability to speak with any evil creature and any creature with a soul.
See all Evil (Su): The blackguard sees deep into the hearts of mortals, letting him determine if a creature he sees is evil just by looking at it.
Maleficar (Ex): The character counts as knowing all spells with the [Evil] descriptor for the purpose of activating magic items. The blackguard also never needs to pay the corruption cost for casting these spells. Lastly, the blackguard can instantly identify evil items just by looking at them.
Eviscerate (Su): The character can make all damage he deals be vile damage. His attacks are also evil aligned.
Wound the Soul (Su): Each time he deals damage the blackguard inflicts 2 point of wisdom damage + 1 more point every six levels after gaining this ability.
Devil’s Tongue (Sp): The character can further coax evil from those around him, letting him use Suggestion at will. However, instead of being limited to reasonable suggestions the blackguard can only make suggestions for actions that cause suffering for others and either benefit the target or leave it unaffected.
Army of Evil: Character gains Army of Demons but instead of outsiders you can have any evil creature be your follower.
Taint (Su): Any magical item that is attuned to the blackguard for more than a day becomes tainted and radiates an aura of evil with a strength equal to that of the blackguard. A non-evil character trying to use a tainted item gains a negative level (similarly to a holy/unholy weapon) for every two levels of blackguard. Evil creatures are instantly compelled (prevented by immunity to compulsion) to return the item if using it without the blackguard’s permission. While this level loss can cause a creature to die, it will never result in a wight spawning from the corpse.
Artifacts are immune to this ability due to their power and extraordinary conditions are required to taint them. This has similar consequences as the artifact's destruction.
Corrupt (Sp): If the blackguard is allowed to speak for ten full rounds then he can replicate the effects of the Curse of Crumbling Conviction on single target which was able to hear him speak. However instead of becoming neutral, the target becomes evil. The blackguard must have addressed the target directly during his speech for it to function. In addition once the blackguard begins to speak the target must make a Will save or become fascinated for the duration of the speech.
This ability can only ever be used once per creature and if it fails the blackguard may never attempt to corrupt that creature again. However depending on the persuasiveness of the speech and the mental state of the listener the DM can increase the save DC for this ability by up to 10.
Sacrifice (Su): The blackguard is now able to sacrifice a sentient creature in the name of the evil once per week. Sacrificing another creature requires a minute for every HD that it has and grant the blackguard access to one fiendish sphere of his choosing for the rest of the week. The levels of the sphere are as follows:
Basic access for a 5-9 CR creature
Advanced access for a 10-14 CR creature
Expert access for a 15+ CR creature
Sacrificing good creatures is especially pleasing for the gods of evil and counts as having a CR 2 points higher than they actually do. Sacrificing evil creature on the other hand has no effect since their souls are already destined for the lower planes. Also, if the blackguard has a proper vessel (usually a black sapphire), he can trap the soul for his own use rather than sending it to hell for the above benefits.
Unholy Pact (Su): The blackguard is able to forge a pact with any creature in possession of a soul, granting the target a service of its choosing for a price. The second party must agree to the conditions willingly and as a result both they and the blackguard become bound by a Geas spell with a few key differences. Should the second party attempt to go against the Geas, the blackguard is instantly made aware and is allowed to take the soul of the target (which has the same effect as sacrificing it) which does not allow a save. However if the blackguard goes against the conditions of his Geas then the pact becomes null and both Geas spells are lifted.
Should one Geas effect be lifted in some way, both of them are lifted.
Possession (Su): When killed by an intelligent creature the blackguard may use the evil of the act to send his soul into the body of his murderer (unless his soul was in some way destroyed). Once this happens the blackguard will slowly begin to wrest control over the body from his host. For each day that passes after the possession the host must make a will save with a progressive -1 penalty. Once 3 failures are accumulated the creature turns evil (skip this if the creature was already evil). Once another 3 are accumulated the blackguard gains full control of the body as the hosts soul ceases to exist. The blackguard can opt to keep the new body or return to his old one, if his new body has a HD number of its own then the blackguard must sacrifice a number of levels equal to the possessed creatures CR - 1 to be allowed to keep the body for himself.
If the host creature dies before the possession is complete then the blackguard dies as well. If someone tries to revive the blackguard while possession is in progress then the blackguard is made aware of this as normal and may opt to abort the possession. If he does then he is revived and all changes to the possessed creature's psyche are reverted.
Effects that protect against Compulsion can prevent possession but are powerless if it has already occurred. Only a carefully worded wish cast by a high level caster can stop a possession already in progress. Creatures who can naturally possess others are immune to this ability.
Lord of Terror (Ex): The blackguard exudes an aura of fear whenever he charges into battle or fells an enemy. Creatures within 60 feet must make a will save or be panicked for 2d4 rounds, those that succeed become immune to this ability for 24 hours.
Bane of Angels (Su): As a standard action the blackguard can perform an attack that deals an extra d6 damage to good creatures for each blackguard level. If that creature is also an outsider or native outsider it is instantly destroyed upon a failed fortitude save.
Ruin (Su): Whenever the blackguard threatens a critical hit it is automatically confirmed and he can then opt to deal the damage multiplied by the critical in a 10 feet radius spread. In addition, the character becomes immune to vile damage.
Form of Evil (Su): The character can assume the form of a fiend as swift action, gaining the half-fiend template minus the wings. The SLAs of the half-fiend template carry over between forms for the purpose of determining their number of uses (so used SLA remain used for the day).
Witch Flight (Su): The character gains a pair of demonic wings made from hellfire that can be summoned or dismissed as a swift action. These wings grant the character a flight speed of 120 feet with perfect maneuverability.
Dark Revelation (Sp): The character has tapped into the very heart of evil and the infinite knowledge within, essentially gaining the ability to use Contact Other Plane once per Charisma modifier per day but only limited to Greater Deities representing his contact with the primal forces of malevolence. The character also rolls charisma instead of intelligence to avoid the negative consequences of the spell and can use the Sacrifice ability to reduce the DC by the sacrificed creature’s CR.
Portal (Sp): The character can replicate the Planar Travel portion of the Gate spell with the only possible destination being the Lower Planes.
Defile (Su): Wherever the blackguard goes, despair follows in his wake. All enemies with 60 feet of the character are denied all types of morale, sacred, luck and insight bonuses.
Face of Evil (Sp): Once per day the blackguard can concentrate to posses a single evil creature at least two levels lower than him. The target must be on the same plane as the blackguard and he must know its name, face and approximate location (a radius of 60 feet). The target gets a will save to avoid possession, if it passes it knows that someone attempted to control it.
If it fails then the blackguard gains full sensory input as interpreted by the mind of the victim and can control its body as he sees fit for as long as he maintains concentration. At any point during the possession, the blackguard may use the body of the victim as a portal. Doing so allows the target to make a fortitude save to shake off the possession. If it fails then the body of the victim is destroyed and the blackguard materializes in its place along with all of his equipment. No matter what happens, if the victim is still alive when the possession ends, it does not retain any memory of what happened while it was being possessed.
Effects that protect against Compulsion will stop the possession from taking hold. Effects that foil Teleportation will also prevent the second mode from working. Creatures who can naturally possess others are immune to this ability.
Profane Oration (Ex): The Corrupt ability can now affect an unlimited number of targets at once. Targets that fail their final saving throw now become fanatical towards the blackguard.
Nature of Evil (Su): As long as there is virtue, there will be sin. The Blackguard becomes immortal and his soul cannot be destroyed or devoured, only imprisoned. If that happens the blackguard will still eventually escape after 10000 years have passed but the evil of the character is so legendary at this point that others will most likely attempt to free him before that.
Army of Hell (Su): Every follower of the blackguard receives the Form of Evil ability and their bodies no longer age.
Death of Reason (Su): The blackguard has cast off the last shreds of his mortality, becoming one with the evil he serves. From now on, the blackguard can never be anything other than evil, all attempt to change his alignment, personality or goals automatically fail as do all attempts to read his thoughts. He also no longer has a law/chaos axis and simply counts as whatever alignment is most beneficial to him at the time. Finally, against creatures that have less than 20 wisdom the blackguard gains DR 20/epic, SR equal to 15+HD and a +7 bonus to all attack and damage rolls.
Dark Messiah (Ex): The blackguard has become the herald of the dark crusade. All evil creatures of CR 8 or less that see the blackguard on the battlefield abandon their former loyalties and join his side in battle.
Incarnation of Infinite Evil (Su): At the end of his path the blackguard stands at the source of all corruption in the multiverse and from there, he can see it all. The blackguard both knows and perceive everything that any evil creature on the same plane as him knows and perceives, provided that it is of a lower level than the blackguard.
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This took me a few weeks to make but now at least it is more or less done. Need to come up abilities for levels 17&18, do some general editing and balance the whole thing of course.
I wasn't really happy with the current array of classes in the tomes, as even though they have a lot of fiend themed stuff there was no actual blackguard that people could play, so I set upon myself to fix that. Hopefully by the end of this we will have a class that can easily be used in any tome game and, more importantly, people will want to use it.
Feel free to comment and point stuff out. Saving throws for everything are 10+1/2 level+Cha mod.
EDIT: The class is now complete.
