Blackguard

From HGWiki

• Blackguard information on NWNWiki

Blackguards are villainous knights who have devoted their lives to the powers of darkness.

HG Customization

• Some Blackguard abilities including Charisma based saves bonus and spell casting requires the character have an Evil alignment dimension.

• Legendary BAB: +15

• Class Changes [1]

• Legendary Ability Bonuses: Legendary Blackguards gain +1 per 5 legendary levels to Strength and Charisma.
  • Hide is now a class skill for Blackguards in Legendary Levels.

• Blackguard Spell Changes

• Paladin levels add to Blackguard levels for the purpose of calculating the Caster Level for Blackguard spells. Note however you can not cast Paladin spells when you are of an evil alignment much as you can not cast Blackguard spells when you are of a good alignment.

• Blackguard Spells: Blackguard spells are wisdom based and require base wisdom of 10 + the spell's level to cast. If you have HG Enhanced, you may now cast blackguard spells using the radial or ordinary quickslot-binding (by right-clicking on a quickslot and binding it to a spell) instead of using the spell sticks from the pedestal at docks. The Extend Spell metamagic also works for Blackguards if you have HG Enhanced. To change memorized Blackguard spells you need to use the !sb change bg SIMTools command.

Note: To access metamagic spells using level 5 slots (people quite often take Extend Spell for longer duration if they have a spare feat) you will need the following - !enhmode must be switched on for the character in question, you must have a base casting stat (Wisdom in the case of Blackguards) of 15 and you must be wearing gear with added level 5 slots.

• It is worth planning out the feats you intend to take during Epic levels (21-40) to ensure you do not end up having to take some of the less useful Blackguard bonus feats.

• Divine Might: Duration doubles with at Cleric 21, Paladin 21, or Blackguard 21, and triples at character level 41 if the previous requirement is met. If the Blackguard does not belong to a quasiclass and has 21 levels in the class, they receive a 50% bonus to their charisma modifier for divine might damage.

• Divine Shield: Duration doubles with at Cleric 21, Paladin 21, or Blackguard 21, and triples at character level 41 if the previous requirement is met. A divine damage shield is also added to the effect at level 21, inflicting damage equal to the character's CHA bonus + 1d6 on anyone swinging at the character in melee combat. The base damage also increases by 50% at character level 41, to (3/2xCHA bonus) + 1d6. It also provides 1% immunity to divine damage per point of charisma modifier, regardless of caster level. Characters with control class Paladin or Blackguard gain Shield AC equal to their Charisma modifier / 2, if they do not receive Wisdom AC from any other source and do not belong to a quasiclass.

• Smite Evil/Good: Only pre-legendary levels count for damage calculating purposes. Pure Paladins and or Blackguards regain one use every minute.

• Greater Smiting:
  • Smiting has been significantly enhanced. Check out the Greater Smite page for more information on the details of this ability. Blackguards can use Greater Smite to do Cold, Negative, Magical, or Divine damage to a small group of targets. If the Blackguard does not belong to a quasiclass, their Greater Smite will also deal Vile damage.
  • Legendary Paladins, Blackguards, and Champion of Torm receive +1 Strength for each Great Smiting feat they possess upon taking level 41.

• Divine Inspiration: Clerics, Paladins and Blackguards with at least 36 base Charisma can find the Divine Inspiration ability which allows them to use Turn Undead as a Bard Song substitute.

• Call of the Grave: At Blackguard 11, the Contagion ability instead casts a mass Vampiric Touch spell centered on the target at the Blackguard's caster level, with a +15 bonus to spell penetration.

• Dark Blessing: Dark Blessing requires evil alignment to grant its Charisma bonus to saves.

• Create Undead: Functions the same as the spell of the same name scaling with levels and Foci in Necromancy

• Summon Fiend: Functions like the Planar summon spells scaling with levels it is also improved with the Epic Fiendish Servant feat.

• Turn Undead has been significantly enhanced. Click the 'show' button below to see all the details.

Turner Changes

Turn Undead now has enhanced mechanics and enemies have a Turn Resistance (TR) value proportionate to their difficulty. A turner's turner level is equal to their cleric level. In addition, if the turner has at least 3 levels in Paladin or Blackguard, 2 less than their number of Paladin and Blackguard levels are added to the character's turner level. Further, if the character has Smite Good or Smite Evil uses remaining and the Planar Turning feat, a Smite use will be expended and the 2-level penalty for Paladin or Blackguard will not be applied. Legendary levels count as turner levels, if the control class is Cleric, Paladin or Blackguard. Turner level is further increased by certain cleric domains. Sun Domain adds +1 per 2 legendary levels for turning undead. Plant Domain adds +1 per 4 legendary levels for turning vermin. An elemental Domain (Fire, Water, Air or Earth) adds +1 per 4 legendary levels for turning elementals, if the Cleric has the Planar Turning feat. An alignment Domain (Good or Evil) adds +1 per legendary level for turning outsiders, if the Cleric has the Planar Turning feat. A turner may turn a total TR value of monsters equal to (turner level + Charisma modifier) * 3. A turner's destruction DC is equal to 10 + (Turner levels / 4) + (Cha modifier) + (2 within Medium radius or 1 within Huge radius). When rolling to turn, a turner's Turn Power (TP) is equal to their turner level. For all valid targets except constructs, if the turner's TP + d8 is greater than or equal to the target's Turn Resistance, the target will be turned. In addition, if the TP roll exceeds the target's TR by 10 or more, the target must make a Will save against the destruction DC or be destroyed. For turning constructs (requires Destruction Domain), the turner rolls TP + Spell Penetration + d20 against the construct's Spell Resistance. If successful, the construct will take 1d3 points of damage per point of TP. In addition, if the turner has the Planar Turning feat, the construct must make a Will save against the turner's destruction DC or be destroyed. Targets that are turned but not destroyed will be immobilized and unable to act. If they are damaged, they receive up to one Will save every round (against the turner's destruction DC) to free themselves. Optionally, the targets can be feared rather than immobilized, by using the !opt turnimmob SIMTools command. Characters with the Planar Turning feat may now buy the Sun, Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Destruction, Good, Evil, and Plant domains as feats in legendary levels. These will not add domain spells, but do increase the breadth of turning ability. Only characters with Blackguard levels can turn creatures of good alignment.

Types of Blackguard

• Melee Non-Smiter: Kyomu Yori Kurai. Open Subrace: Oxec Tuzzom ia Wount

Melee Blackguards without smites focus on maximizing damage per second with their weapon. Without smite feats a Blackguard can more easily afford feats like Over/Dev Crit or put extra points in off stats like Dexterity to increase defence. Splashing Fighter allows access to Weapon Specialisation and splashing Weapon Master also increases critical threat range and multiplier.

• Melee Smiter:

Smiter Blackguards gain the ability to do massive AOE damage every 2 minutes (reduced to one minute if pure 30 Blackguard class levels pre-41 and the 10 other levels being Paladin/Champion of Torm) or so. To do this properly they need to take Extra Smiting and all 10 Great Smite feats before level 41. Apart from improving smite, for each Great Smite feat a Blackguard has before level 41, they receive one point of STR (maximum +10) when they take level 41. This lets Blackguards achieve both great AB and smiting ability. To maximize smite AB, it is best to be pure a Blackguard taking 30 levels of this class before level 41

All Blackguards not of Half-Elf base race should consider taking the Blind Fight Feat to gain access to LSA Listen as Listen is not a class skill for Blackguards.