Blackguard
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In Dungeons & Dragons, Blackguard is a base character class in older versions of the game, and a prestige class as of edition 3.5. A blackguard is the antonym of a paladin and is an evil warrior who receives a variety of magical powers from binding pacts with Fiends or evil gods.
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[edit] Abilities
Like paladins, the abilities of blackguards are tied to their charisma and wisdom scores. Most of a Blackguard's abilities are reversals of Paladin abilities, such as:
- Cause Disease instead of Cure Disease
- Cause Light Wounds instead of Lay on Hands
They also have other spells, such as Cause Fear or Summon Fiendish Ally.
Their Hit die is d10, and their base attack bonus accumulates on a 1/1 basis.
[edit] Power over the undead
A blackguard gains the ability to rebuke undead like an evil cleric, rather than turning undead like a paladin. A rebuked undead will be stunned in awe of the blackguard, while a commanded undead will become the Blackguard's servant.
A Blackguard can also make a bolster check to give the undead more strength against a good cleric's turning attempts.
[edit] Similarity to paladins
Blackguards and paladins are dramatically opposed, but not complete opposites. Many of the abilities of a blackguard mimic or replace abilities of a paladin (such as the Fiendish Servant ability, which replaces the paladin's Special Mount ability), and Blackguards are required to be of any evil alignment, while paladins are required to be lawful good.
Those paladins that have turned evil or otherwise broken the paladin code of honor, which includes honesty, fairness (refraining from poison use), and protection of the weak, are fallen paladins and gain bonus abilities if they take the blackguard prestige class. The more levels a character has as paladin, the better and higher the bonuses become if they take blackguard levels. If a level 11 paladin or higher becomes a blackguard, they may even exchange any paladin levels for the same number of blackguard levels.
[edit] In Dungeons and Dragons miniatures
The human blackguard is a lawful evil commander in Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures.
[edit] Source of the term
Blackguard (usually pronounced "blaggerd", IPA: ['blægard]) is a somewhat archaic term for a scoundrel. This can be disputed as it was also a common profession name for shoeshines, as they would polish boots - hence guarding the black color of the boot.
