Blackguard are the anti-paladin corrupted by contact with evil outsiders or failing their ideals. They are the opposite side of the paladin coin smiting good and being an unrepentant force for evil.

Role: Tank DPS

Characteristics: Anti-Paladin prestige class

Source: Dungeon Master's Guide

Game Rule Information

The Blackguard has the following game statistics.

Abilities: Charisma and Wisdom are used for your abilities, Strength and Constitution for being strong in combat.

Alignment: Any Evil

Hit Die: d10

Starting Gold: N/A

Class Skills

The Blackguard's class skills are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), and Spot (Wis).

Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modifier) × 4

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Blackguard.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Blackguard is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all types of armor, and with shields.

Aura of Evil Ex: The power of a blackguard’s aura of evil (see the detect evil spell) is equal to his class level plus his cleric level, if any.

Detect Good Sp: At will, a blackguard can use detect good as a spell-like ability, duplicating the effect of the detect good spell.

Poison Use: Blackguards are skilled in the use of poison and never risk accidentally poisoning themselves when applying poison to a blade.

Dark Blessing Su: A blackguard applies his Charisma modifier (if positive) as a bonus on all saving throws.

Spells: A blackguard has the ability to cast a small number of divine spells. To cast a blackguard spell, a blackguard must have a Wisdom score of at least 10 + the spell’s level, so a blackguard with a Wisdom of 10 or lower cannot cast these spells.

Blackguard bonus spells are based on Wisdom, and saving throws against these spells have a DC of 10 + Caster level. When the blackguard gets 0 spells per day of a given spell level he gains only the bonus spells he would be entitled to based on his Wisdom score for that spell level. The blackguard’s spell list appears below. A blackguard has access to any spell on the list and can freely choose which to prepare, just as a cleric. A blackguard prepares and casts spells just as a cleric does (though a blackguard cannot spontaneously cast cure or inflict spells).

Smite Good Su: Once a day, a blackguard of 2nd level or higher may attempt to smite good with one normal melee attack.

He adds his Charisma modifier (if positive) to his attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per class level. If a blackguard accidentally smites a creature that is not good, the smite has no effect but it is still used up for that day.

At 5th level, and again at 10th level, a blackguard may smite good one additional time per day.

Aura of Despair Su: Beginning at 3rd level, the blackguard radiates a malign aura that causes enemies within 10 feet of him to take a -2 penalty on all saving throws.

Command Undead Su: When a blackguard reaches 3rd level, he gains the supernatural ability to command and rebuke undead. He commands undead as would a cleric of two levels lower.

Sneak Attack Ex: This ability, gained at 4th level, is like the rogue ability of the same name. The extra damage increases by +1d6 every third level beyond 4th (7th and 10th). If a blackguard gets a sneak attack bonus from another source the bonuses on damage stack.