Blackguard 2.0

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Okay, let's face it. A lot of stuff in the Blackguard class... doesn't make sense. Come on, sneak attack? Requiring ranks in Hide? Psha... whatever. So, here's my take on it. PEACH away

Anti-Paladin v1.0
So, what do you call a paladin who serves an evil diety? Whatever he wants you to...
An antipaladin is, to be blunt, the dark side of the paladin's coin. He serves a diety with just as much fervor as a paladin does, has abilities which match a paladin... the only difference is the complete and total lack of compassion and decency.
Hit Die: d10
Requirements:
To qualify to become an Anti-Paladin, a character must fulfill the following criteria:

Alignment: Must be Lawful evil
Base Attack Bonus: +5
Skills: Knowledge: Religion (5 ranks)
Spells: Must be able to cast Protection from Good as a divine spell
Special: Must be able to Rebuke undead.
*Extra Special: May meet the requirements for being able to cast Protection from Good as a divine spell and Rebuke Undead as a fallen paladin who was once able to cast Protection from Evil and Turn Undead as a Paladin
Class Skills:
An Anti-Paladin's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (nobility and royalty) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), and Sense Motive (Wis).
Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.
{table="head]Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special | Spellcasting
1 | +1 | +2 | +0 | +0 | Rebuke Undead, Aura of Evil, Unholy Fervor, Code of Honor | +1 Caster Level
2 | +2 | +3 | +0 | +0 | Profane Protection, Harmtouch | -
3 | +3 | +3 | +1 | +1 | Aura of Fear, Fiendish Mount | +1 Caster Level
4 | +4 | +4 | +1 | +1 | Profane Weapon | -
5 | +5 | +4 | +1 | +1 | | +1 Caster Level
6 | +6 | +5 | +2 | +2 | Unholy Weapon | -
7 | +7 | +5 | +2 | +2 | | +1 Caster Level
8 | +8 | +6 | +2 | +2 | Aura of Despair | -
9 | +9 | +6 | +3 | +3 | | +1 Caster Level
10 | +10 | +7 | +3 | +3 | Deathtouch | -[/table]

CLASS FEATURES:
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: None additional
Spells: An Anti-Paladin continues the divine spellcasting progression of the class which allowed the character to qualify for the prestige class. If that class was Paladin, he continues full spellcasting progression rather than half spellcasting progression, and replaces the Paladin spell list with the Blackguard spell list.

Code of Honor (Ex): An Anti-paladin looses all class abilities if he acts in a way the GM decides is inappropriate, or if his alignment ever changes from LE.
Aura of Evil (Ex): An Anti-Paladin gains an aura of evil equal to his antipaladin level plus any aura of evil he might already possess
Rebuke Undead (Su): An Anti-paladin adds his antipaladin levels to whatever class he already has to rebuke undead.
Unholy Vervor (Ex): An anti-paladin's levels in paladin (if any) stack with his antipaladin levels for all level-dependant effects and calculations. Furthermore, if the ex-Paladin had Divine Health as a class ability, then he automatically regains his immunity to all diseases.
Profane Protection (Su): A Blackguard adds his Charisma modifier (if any) to all his saves
Harmtouch (Su): As the standard paladin ability of the same name, except that it is based off his Anti-Paladin levels, and instead of positive energy, it is negative energy which will harm most beings, but heal undead.
Aura of Fear (Su): Starting at 3rd level, an Anti-Paladin gains an Aura of Fear. Any opponent who enters within 10' of him must make a Will save (DC = Anti-Paladin level + Wis Mod) or become Frightened. If cornered, a Frightened creature begins cowering. Effects last for 1d4 rounds after leaving the aura. Success on the will save indicates creatues within the aura are only Shaken, which wears off as soon as they leave the aura. This is a mind-affecting fear effect.
Fiendish Mount (Sp): As per the Special Mount Paladin ability, except the riding creature in question gains the Fiendish template. The GM may allow other appropriate mounts, which may or may not have the Fiendish template, at GM's discression. The mount continues to progress based on the number of Antipaladin levels the character has, from the Paladin's Mount chart.

Profane Weapon (Su): At 4th level, any weapon an Anti-Paladin wields is considered to be Evil for purposes of penetrating DR.

Unholy Weapon (Su): At 6th level, any weapon an Anti-Paladin wields is considered to have the Unholy trait and do +2d6 damage against any good character.

Aura of Despair (Su): At 8th level, the Anti-Paladin gains an additional aura which reduces the saves of all opponents within 20 feet of him by half of his Charisma Modifier. This may not be used at the same time Aura of Fear is used. As a free action, an Anti-Paladin may decide which aura is in effect at the beginning of his turn.

Deathtouch (Su): As per the Death domain granted ability, based on total Anti-Paladin levels. If the Anti-Paladin already has the Death domain, then he gains one additional use per day, and his Anti-Paladin levels stack with his Cleric levels for determining damage of this effect.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

What, no comments? Come on, at least let me know if you think it's a good concept or not...

[Haruspex]

It doesn't seem that much different compared to Blackguard 3.5, but I think it's a bit better. You got rid of the odd feat and skill prerequisites, and that can only be a good thing.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

It doesn't seem that much different compared to Blackguard 3.5, but I think it's a bit better. You got rid of the odd feat and skill prerequisites, and that can only be a good thing.

1) No sneak attack progression. I thought it was pretty lame

2) No paladin/blackguard tradeoff, or bonus abilities for having x paladin levels. Instead, Paladin and Shadowknight stack for purposes of determining level-dependant abilities. Oh, wait... if he had the paladin disease immunity, he gets it again.

3) Contaigon progression to replace the sneak attack progression. Since the paladin has cure disease, I figured it was the most logical.

4) Spellcasting progression is based on previous class's spellcasting progression. As straight cleric10/Shadowknight 10 (which is entirely possible), you can have a cleric caster level of 15.

5) Harmtouch to counter Lay on Hands, with Deathtouch as the capstone 10th level ability

6) Aura of Fear to match Aura of Courage.

So yea... it isn't actually very similar at all.

[EvilElitest]

Well i think you should make it into a core class. Blackguards is not *really* the oppsate of a paladin as they don't have any code of conduct. An anti paladin could very well be a core class with their own code.
from,
EE

[Haruspex]

1) No sneak attack progression. I thought it was pretty lame

2) No paladin/blackguard tradeoff, or bonus abilities for having x paladin levels. Instead, Paladin and Shadowknight stack for purposes of determining level-dependant abilities. Oh, wait... if he had the paladin disease immunity, he gets it again.

3) Contaigon progression to replace the sneak attack progression. Since the paladin has cure disease, I figured it was the most logical.

4) Spellcasting progression is based on previous class's spellcasting progression. As straight cleric10/Shadowknight 10 (which is entirely possible), you can have a cleric caster level of 15.

5) Harmtouch to counter Lay on Hands, with Deathtouch as the capstone 10th level ability

6) Aura of Fear to match Aura of Courage.

So yea... it isn't actually very similar at all.

Okay, I had a detailed look at the blackguard prc and yeah yours is significantly different. My mistake.
By the way, what's a shadowknight? I'm assuming it was the in-development name of this class.

[EvilElitest]

In everquest i think a shadow knight is a Necro/Blackgaurd class.
from,
EE

[Quellian-dyrae]

Aura of Fear strikes me as overpowered. Not only does it make the anti-paladin virtually untouchable by other melee warriors, considering their probable low Will saves (except an actual paladin, of course) but if such a foe even attempts to face an anti-paladin it's entirely likely that it'll be out of comission for several rounds. My advice would be to lower its radius to 10' (same as paladin aura of courage) and have it render foes within shaken, rather than panicked. It's not too major an ability, but it serves a melee-oriented character well enough.

I'd also say to get rid of aura of despair. If you lower its aura effect to shaken, that will already inflict a -2 saving throw penalty on foes that fail to resist. Also, the paladin really doesn't get anything similar, and the anti-paladin already seems to have enough advantages over its counterpart (although, granted, a good few of them won't actually work on a paladin).

Other than that though it looks like a solid class.

[Closet_Skeleton]

I prefer the original Blackguard because it was open to everyone. Yes, hide sucked as a prerequisite but having to be a Paladin or Cleric sucks even more.

Why would a Blackguard want to lose an ability like Sneak attack that works well if they use their Fiendish Servant to flank with an opposite version of the Paladins worst ability? Blackguard get Sneak attack because they're evil honourless bastards.

[TheThan]

Yes I agree this should be a base class, in fact I was working on one, but this one seems a bit better. It wouldn’t be hard to give it half spell casting progression and expand on his abilities. Maybe you could set it up like the paladin, with a lot of abilities in the early levels, after all a evil knight person is probably not going to live very long, so to represent this he’s got fewer higher level abilities.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I had based this on the Prestige Paladin variant from the SRD, because in my opinion, Paladin should be a PrC.

I'll tone down Aura of Fear. On further reading, it is too broken. Aura of Despair... I think I'm going to make it not stack with Aura of Fear, you choose which aura to use, not both. May do away with Despair entirely, not too sure at this point.

I don't think Sneak Attack works with an Antipaladin. I see it as a tank class, not as a sneak class. That's why I removed the Hide skill prerequsite and the sneak attacks

And yes, Shadowknight was the first idea I had for the name of the class, but I decided it sounded to Everquesty.

My next goal is to beef up the Prestige Paladin to match this guy. Basically, adding an Aura of Resistance which gives half his charisma mod to his allies within 20', and giving him some sort of capstone ability. Oh, and turn it into a 10 level PrC.

[TheThan]

I had based this on the Prestige Paladin variant from the SRD, because in my opinion, Paladin should be a PrC.

I'll tone down Aura of Fear. On further reading, it is too broken. Aura of Despair... I think I'm going to make it not stack with Aura of Fear, you choose which aura to use, not both. May do away with Despair entirely, not too sure at this point.

I don't think Sneak Attack works with an Antipaladin. I see it as a tank class, not as a sneak class. That's why I removed the Hide skill prerequsite and the sneak attacks

And yes, Shadowknight was the first idea I had for the name of the class, but I decided it sounded to Everquesty.

My next goal is to beef up the Prestige Paladin to match this guy. Basically, adding an Aura of Resistance which gives half his charisma mod to his allies within 20', and giving him some sort of capstone ability. Oh, and turn it into a 10 level PrC.

Yeah, I agree a blackguard shouldn’t be a sneaking evil guy, he should be a strong warrior type. Like a “black knight” you know the leader of a legion of monsters attempting to overthrow the kingdom. Leave the assassin to the sneaking. Which is why I like the idea of it as a base class. It’ll be great in an evil game, or as a solid BBEG.

[Icewalker]

Yeah, I've always seen blackguards as the mighty dark champion type. I like the new prereqs, any evil divine caster can get into it. I can't really tell whether or not it is overpowered, but I like it. Good stuff.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Nerfed the Aura from Panicked to Frightened, I still think it should be better than simply Shaken if they fail their save.

I may write this up as a base class, however it is still my opinion that both Paladin and Antipaladin should be prestige classes. I don't allow Paladins in any game I run, unless it's the Prestige Paladin variant.

[Terror_Incognito]

I've been wondering how the Blackguard PrC compares with the Evil Paladins variants. Wouldn't those classes render the Blackguard redundant.

However, I've always prefered the Blackguard over Evil Paladins, flavour wise.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I've been wondering how the Blackguard PrC compares with the Evil Paladins variants. Wouldn't those classes render the Blackguard redundant.

However, I've always prefered the Blackguard over Evil Paladins, flavour wise.

I never liked the Evil Paladin Variants, so I wrote this up.

1) The Anti-Paladin's Harmtouch doesn't have a save, which the two evil paladin variants allow. I've never seen the point in allowing a will save if you already require a touch attack, considering how little damage you're actually doing.

2) Aura of Despair was changed to half the charisma mod, because I always figured it should be dependant on the force of the anti-paladin's personality

3) Deathtouch capstone ability, to give people a reason to go all 10 levels.

4) This is a PrC, not a base class. You could have a Cleric10/Antipaladin10 and cast spells as a 15th level Cleric, 2 uses of your Death Domain granted ability (if you grabbed the Death domain), rebuke as a 20th level cleric, with the Aura and the Mount. Or you could have a Fighter4/Cleric1/Prestige Paladin5/Anti-Paladin10. In short, a Paladin who fell and became an Anti-Paladin.

But mostly, I found the Paladin of Slaughter and Paladin of Tyrrany to be... silly. That's why I wrote this up to begin with.