Blackguard (The Antipaladin)

The blackguard epitomizes evil. He is nothing short of a mortal fiend. The quintessential black knight, this villain carries a reputation of the foulest sort that is very well deserved.

Consorting with demons and devils and serving dark deities, the blackguard is hated and feared by all. Some people call these villains anti-paladins due to their completely evil nature. Blackguards are the fanatical zealots serving evil deities as crusaders, commanders, and champions.

They are the profane standard-bearers, the battle-line breakers, and the unforgiving masters of fell armies. Blackguards serve their deity by spreading their dogma and mercilessly slaying those who refuse to convert. The evil of an Blackguard is an unequivocal force that shakes even the mightiest warriors of goodness.

The blackguard has many options available to him – sending forth dark minions and servants to do his bidding, attacking with stealth and honorless guile, or straightforward smiting of the forces of good that stand in his way.

Fighters, ex-paladins, rangers, monks, druids, and barbarians make for indomitable combat-oriented blackguards, while rogues and bardic blackguards are likely to stress the subtle aspects of their abilities and spells. Sorcerers, wizards, and clerics who become blackguards are sometimes called diabolists and favor dealing with fiends even more than other blackguards do.

As NPCs, blackguards usually lead legions of undead, evil outsiders, or other monsters to conquer their own doomed demesne or expand their existing territory. Sometimes they serve more powerful evil characters as dark lieutenants. On occasion they operate alone as hired killers or wandering purveyors of ill, destrucnon, and chaos.

Adventures: Blackguards adventuring alone or with a small group are typically attempting to become strong enough to lead the armies of his deity. Adventuring provides an Blackguard with an opportunity to suffuse his deity’s will throughout the land as well as overcome challenges and defeats the opponents of his agenda. Some may be on profane quests offered by his order. Blackguards frequently refer to their adventures as crusades.

Characteristics: Blackguards are carefully crafted leaders. They are brutal and unrelenting, placing their every resource on the line to achieve a goal. Blackguards exist to bring glory to their deity first, and then to their Order and self (though many scheme for themselves above their Order).

Religion: Blackguards are devout followers of the patron deity of their Order. While any evil deity could have an Blackguard order, more prominent orders fall under the auspices of the more violent deities.

Background: Most Blackguards are abducted as children after a raid. Those that survive the ordeal of childhood in an Blackguard order are typically so warped by the experience that the title of Blackguard has an appeal that they cannot deny. Many take their ascension to Blackguard hood with pride bordering on (and often fully qualified as) hubris, and some are outright insane.

Some Blackguards who hail from particularly corrupt societies are forced into an Blackguard order by their parents to maintain the family reputation. In such societies, an Blackguard order may even be a mere extension of the military complex that already defines the social system.

Races: Blackguard orders typically take only one race for their initiates, but a deity may have many Blackguard orders at his disposal. Most Blackguard orders are composed of humans, elves, or half-elves, though some exceptions may exist.

Other Classes: Blackguards tend to work best with fighters or other classes that they can bully, but consider it a point of pride to work with a cleric of their deity. Blackguards are distrustful toward others of the class and feel secure only when the leader of the group.

Role: An Blackguard will always try to assume the leadership position. Blackguards are so convinced of their own strength and infallibility that having anyone else lead would be an insult.

Requirements:

Blackguards have the following game statistics.

Abilities: Charisma enhances an Blackguard ‘s smiting powers, ability to rebuke undead, and primary class skills. Strength is important for him because of his role in direct combat. A Wisdom score of 11 is required to access the most basic Blackguard spells, and a score of 14 or higher is required to his most powerful spells (at later levels).

• Hit Die: d10.
• Alignment: Any evil.
• Skills: Hide 5 ranks, Knowledge (religion) 2 ranks.
• Feats: Cleave, Improved Sunder, Power Attack.
• Special: The character must have made peaceful contact with an evil outsider who was summoned by him or someone else.
• Starting Gold: As Paladin
• Starting Age: As Paladin

Class Skills:

The blackguard’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Charisma), Concentration (Constitution), Craft (Intelligence), Diplomacy (Charisma), Disguise (Charisma), Handle Animal (Charisma), Heal (Wisdom), Hide (Dexterity), Intimidate (Charisma), Knowledge (religion) (Intelligence), Profession (Wisdom), Ride(Dexterity), Sense Motive (Wisdom).

Skill Points at Each Level: (2 + Intelligence modifier per level; x4 at first level)

The Blackguard
	Spells per Day
Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
1st	+1	+2	+0	+0	Aura of Evil, detect good, Smite Good 1/Day , poison use	–	–	–	–
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+0	Dark blessing, Negative Energy Healing, Lay on Hands, Divine Grace	–	–	–	–
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+1	Aura of Cowardice, Intimidation Specialization, Divine Health command undead, aura of despair	–	–	–	–
4th	+4	+4	+1	+1	Rebuke undead, Sneak attack +1d6	0	–	–	–
5th	+5	+4	+1	+1	Fiendish servant, Smite Good 2/Day, Special Mount	0	–	–	–
6th	+6/+1	+5	+2	+2	Inflict Disease 1/Week	1	–	–	–
7th	+7/+2	+5	+2	+2	Sneak attack +2d6	1	–	–	–
8th	+8/+3	+6	+2	+2		1	0	–	–
9th	+9/+4	+6	+3	+3	Inflict Disease 2/Week	1	0	–	–
10th	+10/+5	+7	+3	+3	Sneak attack +3d6, Smite Good 3/Day	1	1	–	–
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+3	+3		1	1	0	–
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+4	+4	Inflict Disease 3/Week	1	1	1	–
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+4	+4		1	1	1	–
14th	+14/+9/+4	+9	+4	+4		2	1	1	0
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+5	+5	Inflict Disease 4/Week, Smite Good 4/Day	2	1	1	1
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+5	+5		2	2	1	1
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+5		2	2	2	1
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+6	Inflict Disease 5/Week	3	2	2	1
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+6		3	3	3	2
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+6	Smite Good 5/Day	3	3	3	3

Class Features

All of the following are Class Features of the blackguard prestige class.

Weapon and Armour Proficiency: Blackguards are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all types of armour (light, medium, and heavy), as well as with shields (except tower shields).

Aura of Evil (Ex): The power of an Blackguard ‘s aura of evil (see the detect evil spell) is equal to his Blackguard level, just like the aura of a cleric of an evil deity.

Detect good (Sp): At will, a blackguard can use detect good as a spell-like ability at will, as the 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 + spell level + the blackguard’s Wisdom modifier. 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 per day, an Blackguard may attempt to smite good with one normal melee attack. He adds his Charisma bonus (if any) to his attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per Blackguard level. If the Blackguard accidentally smites a creature that is not good, the smite has no effect, but the ability is still used up for that day.

At 5th level, and at every five levels thereafter, the Blackguard may smite good one additional time per day, as indicated on Table: The Blackguard , to a maximum of five times per day at 20th level.

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

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.

Negative Energy Healing (Ex): After attaining second level, an Blackguard is healed with negative energy such as from an inflict light wounds spell, and is damaged by positive energy such as from a cure light wounds spell.

Lay on Hands (Su): An Blackguard ‘s lay on hands ability functions similarly to the Paladin skill of the same name, except that instead of channelling positive energy, an Blackguard channels negative energy, which heals creatures such as undead that have Negative Energy Healing, and harms creatures that are healed by positive energy.

Aura of Cowardice (Su): Beginning at third level, an Blackguard becomes immune to fear (magical or otherwise). Each opponent within 10 feet of him takes a -4 penalty on saving throws against fear effects and opposed checks from the Intimidate skill. This ability functions while the Blackguard is conscious, but not if he is unconscious or dead.

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.

Intimidation Specialization: After attaining third level, when an Blackguard uses the Intimidate skill to demoralize an opponent in combat (see Intimidate skill), it takes only a move action.

Rebuke Undead (Su): When an Blackguard reaches 4th level, he gains the supernatural ability to rebuke undead creatures by channelling negative energy through is body. He rebukes undead as an evil cleric three levels lower than his Blackguard level. This ability requires a Unholy Symbol.

Sneak Attack: 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.

Special Mount (Sp): Upon reaching 5th level, an Blackguard gains the service of an unusually intelligent, strong, and loyal steed to serve him in his crusade against good (see below). This mount is usually a heavy warhorse (for a Medium Blackguard) or a warpony (for a Small Blackguard ).

• Once per day, as a full-round action, an Blackguard may magically call his mount from the infernal realms in which it resides. This ability is the equivalent of a spell of a level equal to one-third the Blackguard ’s level. The mount immediately appears adjacent to the Blackguard and remains for 2 hours per Blackguard level; it may be dismissed at any time as a free action. The mount is the same creature each time it is summoned, though the Blackguard may release a particular mount from service.
• Each time the mount is called, it appears in full health, regardless of any damage it may have taken previously. The mount also appears wearing or carrying any gear it had when it was last dismissed. Calling a mount is a conjuration (calling) effect.
• Should the Blackguard ’s mount die, it immediately disappears, leaving behind any equipment it was carrying. The Blackguard may not summon another mount for thirty days or until he gains an Blackguard level, whichever comes first, even if the mount is somehow returned from the dead. During this thirty-day period, the Blackguard takes a –1 penalty on attack and weapon damage rolls.
• See The Paladin’s Mount for additional information regarding an Blackguard ‘s mount, which is the evil equivalent of the standard paladin’s mount.

Inflict Disease (Sp): Beginning at 6th level an Blackguard gains the spell-like ability to use Contagion as the spell at a caster level equal to his class level. The Blackguard can choose which of the diseases from the table in the Contagion spell description to inflict upon his victim. This ability is only effective against living creatures, and requires a melee touch attack to deliver. This ability is usable once per week at 6th level, twice per week at 9th level, three times per week at 12th level, four times per week at 15th level, and five times per week at 18th level.

Spells: Beginning at 4th level, an Blackguard gains the ability to cast a small number of divine spells, which are drawn from the Blackguardspell list (see below). An Blackguard must choose and prepare his spells in advance.

• To prepare or cast a spell, an Blackguard must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a paladin’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the paladin’s Wisdom modifier.
• Like other spellcasters, an Blackguard can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on Table: The Blackguard . In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Wisdom score. When Table: The Blackguard indicates that 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 does not have access to any domain spells or granted powers, as a cleric does.
• An Blackguard prepares and casts spells the way a cleric does, though he cannot lose a prepared spell to spontaneously cast a cure spell in its place. An Blackguard may prepare and cast any spell on the Blackguard spell list, provided that he can cast spells of that level, but he must choose which spells to prepare during his daily meditation.
• Through 3rd level, an Blackguard has no caster level. At 4th level and higher, his caster level is one-half his paladin level.

Code of the Order: An Blackguard must be of lawful evil alignment and loses all class abilities if he ever willingly commits a good act (exceptions made for minor good acts such as aiding a party member, etc. The DM must exercise his discretion when determining if an act is too good for an Blackguard ).

Additionally, an Blackguard’s code requires that he respect the authority of his order or other ruling body, actively thwart the efforts of good, assist those belonging to his order (provided they do not use the help for good or chaotic ends), and punish those who stand in the way of his Blackguard order.

Associates: While he may adventure with characters of any evil or neutral alignment, an Blackguard will never knowingly associate with good characters, nor will he continue an association with someone who consistently offends his order’s code. An Blackguard may accept only henchmen, followers, or cohorts who are lawful evil.

Blackguard Spell List:

Blackguards choose their spells from the following list:

1st-Level Blackguard Spells:
Anarchic Water	A flask of water swirling with motes of gold.
Bane	Bane fills your enemies with fear and doubt.
Boneblast	1d3 Constitution damage to subject.
Cause Fear	One creature of 5 HD or less flees for 1d4 rounds.
Clear Mind	The divine touch spreads until you feel your concerns and anxieties fade away.
Corrupt Weapon	Weapon confirms critical hits against good foes. (New)
Cure light wounds	Cures 1d8 damage +1/level (max +5).
Curse water	This spell imbues a flask (1 pint) of water with negative energy, turning it into unholy water.
Deafening Clang	You empower the touched weapon with magic that causes it to emit a loud clang when it is struck against a hard surface, such as a floor, wall, or creature.
Death Grimace	Caster leaves magical “calling card” on a corpse.
Demonflesh	Caster gains +1 natural armor/5 caster levels.
Detect Poison	You determine whether a creature, object, or area has been poisoned or is poisonous.
Detect Undead	You can detect the aura that surrounds undead creatures.
Distort Weapon	This spell makes a weapon strike true against good foes.
Divine favor	Calling upon the Strength and Wisdom of a deity, you gain a +1 luck bonus on attack and weapon damage rolls.
Divine Sacrifice	Giving up some of your life force to win the battle, you empower your next blow against your foe.
Doom	One subject takes -2 on attack rolls, damage rolls, saves, and checks
Endure elements	A creature protected by endure elements suffers no harm from being in a hot or cold environment.
Find Temple	At ease and filled with a reassuring calm, you close your eyes for a moment to allow your deity to guide you to a holy place.
Golden Barding	You create a suit of barding for your mount to wear.
Know Greatest Enemy	Your eyes flash green, turning golden as your survey your opponents. The most powerful is wrapped in a brilliant, shimmering green aura.
Inflict light wounds	Touch deals 1d8 damage +1/level (max +5).
Magic weapon	Weapon gains +1 bonus.
Protection from Chaos/Good	This spell wards a creature from attacks by creatures, from mental control, and from summoned creatures.
Read magic	By means of read magic, you can decipher magical inscriptions on objects-books, scrolls, weapons, and the like-that would otherwise be unintelligible.
Resurgence	By laying hands on your ally and saying a brief prayer, you convince a higher power to grant him a second chance.
Rhino’s Rush	A violent fury consumes you. You seek nothing more than to charge at your enemies and bash in their heads.
Sticky Saddle	This spell “glues” you to your mount. It becomes impossible for you to fall or be thrown off your mount.
Strategic Charge	A red nimbus surrounds you as you move smoothly across the crowded battlefield.
Summon monster I	Calls extraplanar creature to fight for you.
Summon Undead I	The undead you summon appear in a burst of smoke and fog, but you can’t shake the impression of screaming faces in the cloud’s tendrils.
Traveler’s Mount	With words of encouragement, you make the creature better able to handle the rigors of overland travel, at the expense of its ability to fight.
Restoration, Lesser
virtue

2nd-Level Blackguard Spells:
Aura of Glory
Boneblade	Turns a bone into a magic weapon.
Bull’s strength	Subject gains +4 to Strength for 1 min./level.
Cure moderate wounds	Cures 2d8 damage +1/level (max +10).
Curse of Ill Fortune	You place a temporary curse upon the subject.
Darkness	20-ft. radius of supernatural shadow.
Death knell	Kills dying creature; you gain 1d8 temporary hp, +2 to Strength, and +1 level.
Delay poison	The subject becomes temporarily immune to poison.
Demoncall	Caster gains +10 on one Knowledge (the planes), Knowledge (arcana), or Knowledge (religion) check.
Devil’s Eye	Caster can see in even magical darkness, up to 30 ft.
Eagle’s splendor	Subject gains +4 to Charisma for 1 min./level.
Enemy’s Heart	You cut out an enemy’s heart and consume it, absorbing that enemy’s power as your own.
Fell the Greatest Foe	The subject gains the ability to deal greater damage against larger creatures.
Ghoul touch	This spell allows you to paralyze a single living humanoid for the duration of the spell with a successful melee touch attack.
Hand of Divinity	You call upon your beliefs and a great pair of hands appears around your target, cradling it in its power.
Inflict moderate wounds	Touch attack, 2d8 damage +1/level (max +10).
Owl’s wisdom	The transmuted creature becomes wiser. The spell grants a +4 enhancement bonus to Wisdom, adding the usual benefit to Wisdom-related skills.
Pernicious Poison	You weaken the target’s defenses against poison.
Resist Energy
Shatter	Sonic vibration damages objects or crystalline creatures.
Summon monster II	Calls extraplanar creature to fight for you.
Summon Undead II	Functions like Summon Undead I, except that you can summon one undead from the 2nd-level list or two undead of the same kind from the 1st-level list.
Undetectable alignment	An undetectable alignment spell conceals the alignment of an object or a creature from all forms of divination.
Zeal	You invoke a divine shield to protect you as you close with a chosen opponent.

3rd-Level Blackguard Spells:
Abyssal Might	Caster gains +2 to Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, and SR.
Blindness/deafness
Bestow curse
Contagion	Infects subject with chosen disease.
Cure serious wounds	Cures 3d8 damage +1/level (max +15).
Deeper darkness	Object sheds supernatural shadow in 60-ft. radius.
Demon Wings	Caster flies at his land speed.
Dispel magic
Heal mount
Greater magic weapon
Hell’s Power	Caster gains +2 AC and +1 to existing DR.
Inflict serious wounds	Touch attack, 3d8 damage +1/level (max +15).
Magic circle against good
Masochism	For every 10 hp damage caster takes, he gains +1 on attacks, saves, and checks.
Prayer
Protection from energy	Absorb 12 points/level of damage from one kind of energy.
Spiritual Chariot	You cast this spell, and a large and ornate chariot made of transparent, faintly glowing azure energy forms behind your special mount.
Summon monster III	Calls extraplanar creature to fight for you.
Summon Undead III	This spell functions like Summon Undead I, except that you can summon more powerful undead.

4th-Level Blackguard Spells:
Break enchantment
Claws of the Savage	Subject gains claws that deal damage based on size.
Cure critical wounds	Cures 4d8 damage +1/level (max +20).
Death ward
Dispel good
Freedom of movement	Subject moves normally despite impediments.
Implacable Pursuer	With this spell, you become an unerring tracker, instantly aware of your quarry’s location whenever it’s on the move.
Inflict critical wounds	Touch attack, 4d8 damage +1/level (max +20).
Poison	Touch deals 1d10 Constitution damage, repeats in 1 min.
Summon monster IV	Calls extraplanar creature to fight for you.
Vile Lance	Creates +2 shortspear that deals vile damage.
Visage of the Deity, Lesser	When you cast this spell, your body changes into a form more like your deity’s (in a very limited fashion, of course).
Winged Mount	You touch your special mount and it sprouts giant, feathery white wings.

Corrupt Weapon

Blackguards have access to a special spell, corrupt weapon, which is the opposing counterpart of the paladin spell bless weapon. Instead of improving a weapon’s effectiveness against evil foes corrupt weapon makes a weapon more effective against good foes.

Fallen Paladins

Blackguards who have levels in the paladin class (that is to say, are now ex-paladins) gain extra abilities the more levels of paladin they have.

A fallen paladin who becomes a blackguard gains all of the following abilities that apply, according to the number of paladin levels the character has.

1-2	Smite good 1/day. (This is in addition to the ability granted to all blackguards at 2nd level.
3-4	Lay on hands. Once per day, the blackguard can use this supernatural ability to cure himself or his fiendish servant of damage equal to his Charisma bonus x his level.
5-6	Sneak attack damage increased by +1d6. Smite good 2/day.
7-8	Fiendish summoning. Once per day, the blackguard can use a summon monster I spell to call forth an evil creature. For this spell, the caster level is double the blackguard’s class level.
9-10	undead companion. In addition to the fiendish servant, the blackguard gains (at 5th level) a Medium-size skeleton or zombie as a companion. This companion cannot be turned or rebuked and gains all special bonuses as a fiendish servant when the blackguard gains levels. Smite good 3/day.
11 or more	A fallen paladin of this stature immediately gains a blackguard level for each level of paladin he trades in.

The character level of the character does not change. With the loss of paladin levels, the character no longer gains as many extra abilities for being a fallen paladin.

Blackguard’s Fiendish Servant

Upon or after reaching 5th level, a blackguard can call a fiendish bat, cat, fiendish dire rat, horse, pony, fiendish raven, or toad to serve him. The blackguard’s servant further gains HD and special abilities based on the blackguard’s character level (see the table below).

A blackguard may have only one fiendish servant at a time.

Should the blackguard’s servant die, he may call for another one after a year and a day. The new fiendish servant has all the accumulated abilities due a servant of the blackguard’s current level.

Character Level	Bonus HD	Natural Armor Adj.	Strength Adj.	Intelligence	Special
12th or lower	+2	+1	+1	6	Empathic link, improved evasion, share saving throws, share spells
13t-15th	+4	+3	+2	7	Speak with blackguard
16t-18th	+6	+5	+3	8	Blood bond
19t-20th	+8	+7	+4	9	Spell Resistance

Character Level: The character level of the blackguard (his blackguard level plus his original class level).

Bonus HD: Extra eight-sided (d8) Hit Dice, each of which gains a Constitution modifier, as normal. Extra Hit Dice improve the servant-s base attack and base save bonuses, as normal.

Natural Armor Adj: This is an improvement to the servant’s existing natural armor bonus.

Strength Adj.: Add this figure to the servant’s Strength score.

Intelligence: The servant’s Intelligence score. (A fiendish servant is smarter than normal animals of its kind.)

The abilities mentioned in the ‘Special’ column of the accompanying table are described below.

Empathic Link (Su): The blackguard has an empathic link with his servant out to a distance of up to 1 mile. The blackguard cannot see through the servant’s eyes, but they can communicate empathically. Because of the limited nature of the link, only general emotional content can be communicated.

Because of the empathic link between the servant and the blackguard, the blackguard has the same connection to a place or an item that the servant does.

Improved Evasion (Ex): If the servant is subjected to an attack that normally allows a Reflex saving throw for half damage, it takes no damage on a successful saving throw and only half damage on a failed saving throw. Improved evasion is an extraordinary ability.

Share Saving Throws: For each of its saving throws, the servant uses either its own base save bonus or the blackguard’s, whichever is higher. The servant applies its own ability modifiers to saves, and it doesn’t share any other bonuses on saves that the blackguard might have.

Share Spells: At the blackguard’s option, he may have any spell (but not any spell-like ability) he casts on himself also affect his servant. The servant must be within 5 feet at the time of casting to receive the benefit. If the spell has a duration other than instantaneous, it stops affecting the servant if it moves farther than 5 feet away and will not affect the servant again even if the servant returns to the blackguard before the duration expires.

Additionally, the blackguard may cast a spell with a target of ‘You’ on his servant (as a touch range spell) instead of on himself. A blackguard and his servant can share spells even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the servant’s type (magical beast).

Speak with Blackguard (Ex): If the blackguard’s character level is 13th or higher, the blackguard and servant can communicate verbally as if they were using a common language. Other creatures do not understand the communication without magical help.

Blood Bond (Ex): If the blackguard’s character level is 16th or higher, the servant gains a +2 bonus on all attack rolls, checks, and saves if it witnesses the blackguard being threatened or harmed.

This bonus lasts as long as the threat is immediate and apparent.

Spell Resistance (Ex): If the blackguard’s character level is 19th or higher, the servant gains Spell Resistance equal to the blackguard’s level + 5. To affect the servant with a spell, another spellcaster must get a result on a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) that equals or exceeds the servant’s Spell Resistance.

Ex-Blackguards

An Blackguard who ceases to be evil, who willfully commits an act that is severely out of step with his alignment, or who grossly violates the code of conduct loses all Blackguard spells and abilities (including the service of the Blackguard ‘s mount, but not weapon, armor, and shield proficiencies). He may not progress any farther in levels as an Blackguard . He regains his abilities and advancement potential if he atones for his violations (see the Atonement spell description), as appropriate.

Like a member of any other class, an Blackguard may be a multiclass character, but multiclass Blackguards face a special restriction. An Blackguard who gains a level in any class other than Blackguard may never again raise his Blackguard level, though he retains all his Blackguard abilities.

Paladinhood

An Blackguard who becomes Lawful Good may change all his Blackguard class levels to Paladin class levels on receipt of an Atonement spell cast by a Lawful Good cleric (the character must already be Lawful Good- they cannot use a single Atonement to change alignment and class). Equally, a Paladin who becomes Lawful Evil may become an Blackguard on receipt of an Atonement spell from a Lawful Evil caster.

EPIC BLACKGUARD

Hit Die: d10.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Intelligence modifier.

Spells: The Blackguard’s caster level is equal to one-half his class level, as normal. The Blackguard’s number of spells per day does not increase after 20th level.

Lay on Hands (Su): Each day an Blackguard can cause a total amount of hit point damage equal to his Charisma bonus (if any) times his class level, as normal

Smite Good (Su): The epic Blackguard adds his class level to damage with any smite good attack, as normal. He can smite one additional time per day for every five levels higher than 20th.

Command Undead: The blackguard commands undead as a cleric of two levels lower, as normal.

Rebuke undead: The epic Blackguard rebukes undead as a cleric of two levels lower, as normal.

Sneak Attack: The epic blackguard’s sneak attack damage increases by +1d6 every three levels after 10th.

Fiendish Servant: Up to 20th character level, a fiendish servant’s powers depend on its master’s character level, not his or her blackguard class level. After that, they depend on his or her blackguard level. For every five blackguard levels above 10th the fiendish servant gains +2 bonus Hit Dice, its natural armor in-creases by +2, and its Strength and Intelligence each increase by +1.

Special Mount: The epic Blackguard’s special mount continues to increase in power. Every five levels after 20th the special mount gains +2 bonus Hit Dice, its natural armor increases by +2, its Strength adjustment increases by +1, and its Intelligence increases by +1. The mount’s Spell Resistance equals the Blackguard ‘s class level + 5.

Inflict Disease (Sp): The epic Blackguard can use inflict disease one additional time per week for every three levels higher than 18th.

Fallen Paladins: A blackguard who trades in more than ten levels of paladin can gain more than ten levels of blackguard, but only if his character level is 21st or higher.

Bonus Feats: The epic Blackguard gains a bonus feat (selected from the list of epic Blackguard feats) every three levels higher than 20th.

Epic Blackguard Bonus Feat List: Armor Skin, Devastating Critical, Epic Leadership, Epic Prowess, Epic Reputation, Epic Toughness, Epic Weapon Focus, Great Smiting, Improved Aura of Despair, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Sneak Attack, Improved Spell Capacity, Legendary Commander, Legendary Rider, Lingering Damage, Negative Energy Burst, Overwhelming Critical, Perfect Health, Permanent Emanation, Planar Turning, Spectral Strike, Spontaneous Spell, Undead Mastery, Unholy Strike, Widen Aura Of Despair, Zone Of Animation.

The Epic Blackguard
Blackguard Level	Special
21st	Inflict Disease 6/Week
22nd	–
23rd	Bonus Feat, Sneak attack +4d6,
24th	Inflict Disease 7/Week
25th	Smite Good 6/Day
26th	Sneak attack +5d6, Bonus Feat
27th	Inflict Disease 8/Week
28th	–
29th	Sneak attack +6d6, Bonus Feat
30th	Inflict Disease 9/Week