Blackguard
| Level | Proficiency Bonus | Features | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | +2 | Dark Menace, Shroud of Shadows | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2nd | +2 | Fighting Style, Spellcasting, Dread Smite | 2 | — | — | — | — |
| 3rd | +2 | Vice, Vice's Reward | 3 | — | — | — | — |
| 4th | +2 | Ability Score Improvement | 3 | — | — | — | — |
| 5th | +3 | Extra Attack | 4 | 2 | — | — | — |
| 6th | +3 | Deathly Aura | 4 | 2 | — | — | — |
| 7th | +3 | Vice Feature | 4 | 3 | — | — | — |
| 8th | +3 | Ability Score Improvement | 4 | 3 | — | — | — |
| 9th | +4 | — | 4 | 3 | 2 | — | — |
| 10th | +4 | Vice's Strength | 4 | 3 | 2 | — | — |
| 11th | +4 | Improved Dread Smite | 4 | 3 | 3 | — | — |
| 12th | +4 | Ability Score Improvement | 4 | 3 | 3 | — | — |
| 13th | +5 | — | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | — |
| 14th | +5 | Dark Blessing | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | — |
| 15th | +5 | Vice Feature | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — |
| 16th | +5 | Ability Score Improvement | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — |
| 17th | +6 | — | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| 18th | +6 | Aura Improvement | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| 19th | +6 | Ability Score Improvement | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| 20th | +6 | Vice Feature | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
Dark Menace
You are a warrior first and foremost, demonstrating your battle prowess through complex fighting maneuvers and weapon mastery. Even so, you are unconstrained by cumbersome notions of virtue, and you readily exploit any advantage available. You've found that the dark vice growing in your soul is a fighting boon. You draw on this darkness, spreading it to your enemies when they are vulnerable. Whenever you have advantage on a melee attack, the enemy takes extra damage equal to your charisma modifier.Shroud of Shadows
Shadow rises at your beck and call. You can command it to sheathe you in a protective swirl. When a creature attacks you, as a reaction you can conceal yourself in shadow which causes enemies to have disadvantage on attacks made against you until the start of your next turn. You also gain 5 + blackguard level temporary hit points. Once you use this ability, you cannot use it again until you complete a long rest.Fighting Style
At 2nd level, you adopt a style of fighting as your specialty. Choose one of the following options. You can’t take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again.Defensive
While you are wearing armor, you gain a +1 bonus to AC. When a creature you can see attacks a target other than you that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll. You must be wielding a shield.Dueling
When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.Great Weapon Fighting
When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.Spellcasting
By 2nd level, you have learned to draw on divine magic through concentration and bloodlust to cast spells as a cleric does. See Spells Rules for the general rules of spellcasting and the Spells Listing for the Blackguard spell list.Preparing and Casting Spells
The Blackguard table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your spells. To cast one of your blackguard spells of 1st level or higher, you must expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest. You prepare the list of blackguard spells that are available for you to cast, choosing from the blackguard spell list. When you do so, choose a number of blackguard spells equal to your Charisma modifier + half your blackguard level, rounded down (minimum of one spell). The spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots. For example, if you are a 5th-level blackguard, you have four 1st-level and two 2nd-level spell slots. With a Charisma of 14, your list of prepared spells can include four spells of 1st or 2nd level, in any combination. If you prepare the 1st- level spell inflict wounds, you can cast it using a 1st-level or a 2nd-level slot. Casting the spell doesn’t remove it from your list of prepared spells. You can change your list of prepared spells when you finish a long rest. Preparing a new list of blackguard spells requires time spent in prayer and meditation: at least 1 minute per spell level for each spell on your list.Spellcasting Ability
Charisma is your spellcasting ability for your blackguard spells, since their power derives from the strength of your vices. You use your Charisma whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Charisma modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a blackguard spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier
Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier
Spellcasting Focus
You can use a holy or unholy symbol (see the Adventuring Gear section) as a spellcasting focus for your blackguard spells.Dread Smite
Starting at 2nd level, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can expend one spell slot to deal necrotic damage to the target, in addition to the weapon’s damage. The extra damage is 2d8 for a 1st-level spell slot, plus 1d8 for each spell level higher than 1st, to a maximum of 5d8. The damage increases by 1d8 if the target is a fey or a celestial.Vice's Reward
Starting when you choose a vice at 3rd level, you are a living expression of your vice. Your dedication to the dark side and devotion provides you a boost in spirits. As a bonus action you can infuse yourself with one of the following effects: You gain temporary hit points equal to 5 + your Charisma modifier. You have advantage on your next saving throw. You gain a +2 bonus to AC until the start of your next turn. Once you use this ability, you cannot use it again until you complete a long rest.Vice
When you reach 3rd level, you choose a vice that fuels your dark magic as a blackguard. Up to this time you have been in a preparatory stage, committed to the path but not yet succumbed to it. Now you choose the Vice of Domination detailed at the end of the class description or one from another source. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 7th, 15th, and 20th level. Those features include vice spells and the Spirit of Vice feature.Vice Spells
Each vice has a list of associated spells. You gain access to these spells at the levels specified in the vice description. Once you gain access to an vice spell, you always have it prepared. Vice spells don’t count against the number of spells you can prepare each day. If you gain a vice spell that doesn’t appear on the blackguard spell list, the spell is nonetheless a blackguard spell for you.Spirit of Vice
Your vice allows you to channel unholy energy to fuel magical effects. Each Spirit of Vice option provided by your vice explains how to use it. When you use your Spirit of Vice, you choose which option to use. You must then finish a short or long rest to use your Spirit of Vice again. Some Spirit of Vice effects require saving throws. When you use such an effect from this class, the DC equals your blackguard spell save DC.Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.Extra Attack
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.Deathly Aura
Starting at 6th level, whenever an enemy creature within 10 feet of you takes damage from you or an ally they suffer necrotic damage equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum of +1). A creature can take this extra damage only once per turn. At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet.Vice's Strength
Starting at 10th level The vice darkening your soul is never far from your thoughts. It lends you strength when other forces threaten to overpower you. You cannot be frightened. You also have advantage on saving throws and against charm and sleep effects.Improved Dread Smite
Clad in plate armor that swims in murky darkness which clings to her like a cloak, a khord marches forward like an iron wall. Her Warhammer crushes the skulls of those before her, sweeping strikes scattering her enemies until they break and flee in terror. Her grim face shows no signs of celebration at her victory as she dominates the battlefield, subjecting all to her might.
A Half-Orc crouches behind an outcrop, his black cloak making him nearly invisible in the night, and watches an orc war band celebrating its recent victory. Silently, he stalks into their midst and whispers, a dark curse, overtaken by fury and two orcs are dead before they even realize he is there. Silver hair twinkling in a swarm of darkness that seems to consume only him, an elf laughs with maniacal hatred. His spear flashes like his eyes, in a surge of rage and hate, as he jabs again and again at a twisted giant, until at last his darkness overcomes its prey.
Whatever their origin and their mission, blackguards are united by their vices to stand against those they deem enemies. Whether sworn before a dark god’s altar and the witness of a cultist to crush all who oppose, in a crypt of an ancient evil to wipe all life from the face of the world, or in a moment of desperation and grief with the dead as the only witness as fury takes over, a blackguard’s vice is a powerful bond. It is a source of power that turns a devout warrior into a dark champion.
Call of Darkness
The world knows paladins to be shining paragons who champion lofty ideals such as compassion, nobility, sacrifice, and valor. Such virtuous figures are symbols to the common people, icons from which they draw strength and courage to stand fast against the encroaching darkness. Yet in every light a shadow lurks-the brightness of these noble warriors is equaled by the shadow spreading from their sinister counterparts. Blackguards are shadow warriors who embrace the power of what most people consider to be a vice or a dark emotion. A blackguard’s vice becomes a central focus for that individual’s divine power. Dominance, fury and hate are among the forces that blackguards cultivate to fuel their might. Feared and Loathed Because malevolent deities and wicked forces in the cosmos are more likely to hold a vice in esteem, most blackguards are villains. Nevertheless, blackguards who cling to higher ideals do exist. A heroic Blackguard might be born when a divine soldier who tries to exemplify virtue cannot control his or her anger or some other base emotion. Such blackguards are referred to as fallen paladins. Other heroic blackguards cleave to a vice that a non-evil religion or deity promotes as an asset, or they have learned by necessity to turn their negative tendencies into a divine focus so that they can lead productive lives. The power of vice is alluring because it offers fewer restrictions than virtue does. Though the power comes easily, a blackguard always faces the worst temptations of his or her vice, as well as that of other negative emotions that echo the vice. Scruples can be hard to maintain in the face of such a lure. A truly heroic blackguard can never give in and take the easy path. Heroic blackguards have a hard road to travel. Their truly immoral counterparts form orders that actively oppose virtuous knights and cavaliers. Whether or not a specific blackguard is a member of such a dark order, those same knights and cavaliers rarely understand that a person can channel divine power through a vice without becoming debased. The common people rightly fear all blackguards the same way they fear the black knights of legend. A blackguard who uses the divine power of the dreaded vices to combat evil still has difficulty finding a wide array of allies. He or she rarely enjoys a hero's accolades. Because of this most Blackguards take on the life of an adventurer, to avoid the towns and looks of scorn, or to further their dark ambitions. Adventuring Blackguards take their quest for strength seriously, for they view it as the only way to survive.Creating a Blackguard
The most important aspect of a blackguard character is the nature of his or her vice. Although the class features related to your vice don’t appear until you reach 3rd level, plan ahead for that choice by reading the vice descriptions at the end of the class. Are you a calloused veteran given way to your anger, but sworn to fight for justice and to make a positive difference in the world? Are you a stoic hell-knight bent on dominating all in front of you for your hellish master? Or are you a wicked villain who indulges in your hatred, sent as an angel of death by the gods or driven by your need for revenge? How did you experience your darkest desires to becoming a blackguard? Did you feel a twinge of rage mid combat that overcame you, blinding you to consequence as you lashed out at your enemies with unbridled fury? Did another blackguard sense the potential within you and decide to train you, nurturing you to become the world’s greatest dominator for order and justice? Or did some terrible event—the destruction of your home, perhaps—drive you to hate your enemies and see them purged from this world at all costs? Perhaps you simply found yourself walking down this dark path alone because no one else understood that sometimes, in order to do the right thing, sacrifices are necessary. Or you might have known from your earliest memories that the blackguard’s dark vices were your calling, almost as if you had been sent into the world with that purpose stamped on your soul. As dark warriors of shadow against, or sometimes for the forces of wickedness, blackguards are rarely of any good alignment. Most of them walk the paths of destruction and retribution. Consider how your alignment colors the way you pursue your unholy quest and the manner in which you conduct yourself before gods and mortals. Your vice and alignment might be in harmony, or your vice might represent the inner struggle of trying not to go too far.Quick Build
You can make a blackguard quickly by following these suggestions. First, Strength should be your highest ability score, followed by Charisma. Second, choose the soldier background.Class Features
As a blackguard, you gain the following class featuresHit Points
Hit Dice: 1d10 per blackguard level Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + your Constitution modifier Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + your Constitution modifier per blackguard level after 1stProficiencies
Armor: All armor, shields Weapons: Simple weapons, Martial weapons Tools: none Saving Throws: Wisdom, Charisma Skills: Choose two from Arcana, Athletics, Deception, History, Intimidate, Leadership, Medicine, Perception, Persuasion, Religion, and Sleight of HandEquipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:- (a) a martial weapon and a shield or (b) two martial weapons
- (a) five javelins or (b) any simple melee weapon
- (a) a priest's pack or (b) an explorer's pack
- chain mail and a holy or unholy symbol
Comments