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Thrune
2005-08-27, 07:20 PM
This was written because of the Blackguard prestige class, the quintessentual villain. However, I feel that the way it is written, diabolists are heavily discouraged due to the fact that the Blackguard won’t improve the use of their class abilities(Spellcasting). Because of this, I designed a modified Blackguard prestige class for Diabolists, mostly Arcane ones.

Prerequisites
Alignment: Any Evil
BaB: +4
Skills:Hide 4 ranks, Knowledge(Religion) 2 ranks, Spellcraft 4 ranks, Knowledge(The Planes) 2 ranks.
Feats:Cleave, Improved Sunder, Power Attack
Ability to cast 2nd level spells.
Special: The character must have made peaceful contact with an outsider.

Hit Die:D8
Class Skills
As blackguard, but no Handle Animal and Spellcraft, Knowledge(Religion), and Knowledge(The Planes) are added.

BaB:As Blackguard
Saves:As Blackguard
Special:As Blackguard, but at 3rd, 6th, 9th levels give -5% arcane spell failure chance.
Spells:No blackguard class spells. Continued spell progression but not at 3rd, 6th, or 9th levels.

The class requires that you be at least 6th level(Divine) or 8th(Arcane) to meet the BaB requirements.

So what does everyone think about it? Overpowered? Please say so if you think so.

Possibilities to modify include: Dark Blessing at 5th level not 2nd, Sneak Attack starts at 7th level not 4th, Detect Good is only 3/day, Aura of Despair is at 4th level not 3rd.

I don’t want to remove any of it’s major class abilities, just spellcasting.

Another option would be to make it just the same as normal, but replace blackguard spellcasting with increasing spells per day every level but 10th or 1st(10th or 1st, not 10th and 1st).

catfan
2005-08-27, 10:26 PM
I'd just give +1 divine spellcasting level at every even level, and otherwise leave the blackguard unchanged. Paladins and blackguards (?) have a caster level equal to half their class level, so I figure that giving them 1/2 spellcasting is reasonable.

For an arcane specific blackguard, that's tougher. Full BAB, 2/3 spellcasting, and good HD is unreasonable given all the other special abilities blackguards get. I'd still say 1/2 spellcasting, drop the HD to d8, and drop BAB to 3/4. 5% spell failure at 1, 4, 7, 10?

Ojoxsofeta
2005-08-28, 12:36 AM
My thoughts:

A little overpowered, perhaps, but not too bad. At the end of the progression, your cleric should be casting at 14th level (assuming I've done everything correctly and Cleric Oevil is entering the Diabolist 1 at character level 7), getting you 7th level spells by 17th level (and ninth level at the end of the progression). What might be more prudent is to cut casting in half, as you will often see in Dragon; yes, it will slow down your ability to cast, but you're no longer gimped by having to start over again with first level spells. Actually, having looked at the number of spells you can cast at tenth level, I would strongly reccomend cutting it to half.

You might also want to look into possibly trading out the sneak attack for the reduction of the arcane spell failure for wizards and sorcerers in this mix; the failure reduction is highly worth it for these types.

You know what's crazy? A Bard4/Fighter1 with 14 Charisma can make the Diabolist prestige class faster than a cleric can. *clicks and whistles go off* I must make a bardic blackguard sometime... a black-bard if you will.
;D

Gerbo_Giantslayer
2005-08-28, 09:43 AM
not to spoil the fun but the Diabolist already exists, in the BoVD,