Blackguard

Blackguard

HitDie: d10 Mana: d6  Skills: 4 Saves: Frw Defense: 1/4
 +toHit: Archery 100%, Brawl 100%, Melee 100%, Thrown 100%
   It's uncommon in the extreme for free-willed, intelligent living beings to willingly and knowingly devote themselves to the ideal of evil. Oh, certainly, Theyra is well stocked with murderers, tyrants and all manner of despicable corruption -- but at the end of the day, the vast majority of Evil characters commit their amoralities for false ideology or personal profit, and then turn around and rationalize their acts as best as they can within their own value systems. The blackguard, however, is the exception to this rule.
   A blackguard is fully cognisant of the objective quality of good and evil, and in that context has willfully and knowingly embraced evil, determined to live up to the image of everything unholy and profane. This deviant psychology includes a willful drive to cultivate and nurture sociopathy and to engage in all manner of wicked acts simply because their are so. The blackguard may be superficially motivated by powerlust, bigotry, guilt or any other common drive, but in the end if is a kind of spiritual perversity, a love of evil, that drives them to do the things that they do. They know what they are, and they enjoy it.
   No mainstream religion on Theyra tolerates blackguards. Despite his objective alignment, Erich will expend truly significant military force to hunt down and destroy a blackguard -- or anyone suspected or accused of being one -- often killing hundreds of innocents in the process. Neither does the priesthood of Xel tolerate them, fearing that their perversity and theatric nature would draw too much of the wrong kind of attention down on their ranks. A few blackguards worship Zurvash, but the majority serve either the Multitude or the archdevils and demon princes of the Lower Planes directly.

CLASS REQUIREMENTS
   The blackguard is a prestige class. It counts as a favoured class for all characters. In order to become a blackguard, you must have:
   * Alignment -- Obviously, any character who wishes to become a blackguard must be utterly Evil. Changing to a non-evil alignment causes all of the blackguard's supernatural class features to become inaccessable.
   (That loss is not yet enforced. A blackguard who turns non-evil keeps every class feature. Only the paladin's fall from grace is implemented.)
   * Base Attack Bonus -- An aspirant must have a BAB of at least +6 in one category.
   * Skills -- A character must be a creature of blood, terror and brutality even before becoming a blackguard, possessed of an Intimidate score of +12 or higher. He must also be knowledgable in the ways of the Lower Planes in order to attract a patron, with a Knowledge (Infernal) rating of +10 or higher.
   * Religion -- Very few gods will tolerate a blackguard as a follower. In addition to gods who do not tolerate Evil followers in general, Xel, Erich, Immotian and Khasrach will not accept blackguards among their worshippers.

CLASS SKILLS
   The class skills of the blackguard are Craft, Find Weakness, Intimidate, Knowledge (Infernal), Knowledge (Theology), Knowledge (Planes), Poison Use and Ride.

CLASS FEATURES
   * Proficiencies -- The blackguard is proficient with blades, impact weapons, polearms and spears, and with all classes of armour and with shields.
   * Spellcasting -- Blackguards practice certain diabolical magic. They gain one caster level for every even blackguard level, and choose their spells from the special blackguard list. Blackguards cast spells just like priests do, being able to cast in any armour freely, but needing to have a holy symbol equipped (if they have a god).
   * Unholy Grace -- Just as a paladin does, a blackguard may add his Charisma bonus to all of his saving throws as a grace bonus.
   * Sense Light -- Starting at 1st level, a blackguard can use detect good as an innate spell-like ability at will.
   * Smite Good -- A blackguard can smite Good-aligned creatures. When she perform the Great Blow maneuver against a Good creature, a blackguard adds her Charisma bonus to the attack roll and gains a bonus to the damage roll equal to her blackguard class level.
   * Command Undead -- Starting at 3rd level, a blackguard can rebuke or command undead exactly as an evil priest of 1st level does. Every additional blackguard level increases this effective level by one.
   * Aura of Despair -- Starting at 4th level, a blackguard projects an aura of crushing despair around himself, not unlike that of a mummy. The aura reaches out to a radius of 20 feet around the blackguard; all who enter it and are not evil or immune to fear suffer a -2 morale penalty to all rolls.
   * Sneak Attack -- A blackguard gains a sneak attack just like a rogue's, starting at 5th level. Blackguard levels stack with rogue, assassin or any similar levels for determining the total level of this ability a blackguard possesses.
   * Fiendish Servant -- Starting at 5th level, a blackguard can summon an imp or quasit, as suits his alignment, who will serve him loyally. The creature remains until dismissed, and if slain can be summoned anew the next day.

SPELL LIST
   1st level -- bane, cause fear, convulsion, cure light wounds, doom, inflict light wounds, magic weapon, malignance, mount, pain touch, protection from good, spiritwrack.
   2nd level -- bladethirst, bull's strength, cure moderate wounds, death knell, deeper darkness, inflict moderate wounds, scare, shatter, summon swarm, visage of death.
   3rd level -- adamant facade, animate shadows, blackmantle, contagion, cure serious wounds, greater magic weapon, inflict serious wounds, magic circle vs. good, phantom steed, sign of discord.
   4th level -- animate dead, burning blood, cure critical wounds, inflict critical wounds, lesser planar conjuration, thornwrack, wall of fire.
   5th level -- evard's black tentacles, infernal blood, nightmare, slay living.
   6th level -- create corporeal undead, harm, heal, planar conjuration.
   (death knell and planar conjuration are not yet implemented.)

THE BLACKGUARD
   Level  Def  Fort Refl Will Special Abilities
     1    +0    +2   +0   +0  Sense Light, Smite Good
     2    +0    +3   +0   +0  +1 caster level,
                              Unholy Grace
     3    +0    +3   +1   +1  Command Undead
     4    +1    +4   +1   +1  Aura of Despair,
                              +1 caster level
     5    +1    +4   +1   +1  Sneak Attack +1d6,
                              Fiendish Servant
     6    +1    +5   +2   +2  +1 caster level
     7    +1    +5   +2   +2  Sneak Attack +2d6
     8    +2    +6   +2   +2  +1 caster level
     9    +2    +6   +3   +3  Sneak Attack +3d6
     10   +2    +7   +3   +3  +1 caster level