Blackguard build

[EvilDonut]

Hello...I was thinking about going a DEX based fighter, 2 weapons fighting, blackguard, weaponmaster to play trough all three campaigns (yes, i know that would get me op on HotU....but i fancy being level 40 lol). Do you think it is good, or just crap?

[claudius]

You might be able to find some builds like your idea here http://www.mwmdragon.com/worldofamon/builds/buildindex.html

Or maybe hard to find exact build but you can find what is generally strong in 2 weapons DEX fighters/melee.

[captainwiseass]

You won't be overpowered in HOTU, but you will in SOU. That one's supposed to be started with a level 1 character.

[Selphea]

Taking Blackguard as a class means:

- Needs Cleave
- Gets Cha to saves
- Option to take Divine Might and Divine Shield (Requires 13 Str for Power Attack)
- A weak summon that you can spend an epic feat on to make it slightly less weak
- Slow Sneak Attack progression, but the only class with full BAB to get Sneak Attack
- Two useless Inflict spells

That makes it quite Str and Cha oriented, and by itself, generally weaker than Paladin. Divine Might and Shield also makes it quite feat-hungry. What makes Blackguard interesting are two things.

One is pairing with Bard for its prestige classes. The Bard class also needs Cha, gives Tumble as a class skill and unlocks RDD and Pale Master which normally aren't accessible to Paladin. But the Blackguard is perfectly fine with being non-lawful.

A Bard/RDD/Blackguard can stack Bard Song, Divine Shield, RDD's natural armor and Tumble for above average AC, while Curse Song and RDD Strength makes things easier to hit, to pair with Blackguard's damage from Divine Might and Sneak Attack.

A Bard/Pale Master/Blackguard can stack Bard Song, Divine Shield, Epic Mage Armor and Bone Skin for ridiculous AC bonuses that, with gear, will most likely exceed the default hard cap. No RDD Strength, but still has the Bard and Blackguard offensive buffs like songs and Divine Might.

The second route is to exploit Monk. A Monk gets Cleave for free, so it can circumvent the 13 Strength requirement to get a class with higher BAB and gain Sneak Attack at the same time. It can then use Bull's Strength to patch up low Strength, and use Improved Knockdown to land Sneak Attacks. This would be a complete deviation from intended design since it can get away with 8 Str instead of 13, but would have no use for Charisma as a result. The third class can then be Shadowdancer for a combination of Hide in Plain Sight + 17 BAB for ten Kama attacks + Sneak Attack, or Cleric for a ton of buff spells and Darkness/Word of Faith to get Sneak Attacks.

[EvilDonut]

Mmh....And what about a Paladin/Blackguard/Fighter (or weaponmaster) build?
Is it viable, considering that paladin doesn't lose its powers when changing alignment?

[Selphea]

Originally posted by w0lv3n:

Mmh....And what about a Paladin/Blackguard/Fighter (or weaponmaster) build?
Is it viable, considering that paladin doesn't lose its powers when changing alignment?

It's viable but you don't get as much. Both classes give you access to Divine Might and Divine Shield by themselves, so stacking them does nothing. The Cha to saves stacks, but you need Str or Dex to bring your AB up. You don't get Tumble to stack with Divine Shield, you don't get Evasion to use with Cha to saves.

So all you get is a Paladin with some weak Sneak Attack scaling who would have done better as Rogue/Paladin.

[Bishop]

Bard, rdd, blackguard is pretty no brainer. Tons of strength, buffs, song bonus, decent bab, knockdowns->sneaks, devastating criticals. Sohuld be good i think.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/nwnecbguild/paragon-of-pain-bard-8-rdd-10-blackguard-22-t2354371.html
Try something like this maybe.

[Chibbix]

I know im late to the party but i just made a very nice build similar to what you're discussing.

You can go dex based and get finess to get a higher chance to hit but it won't get the bonus to damage strength gives. It also will take a feat slot. The starter stats i went with was:

Str: 14
Dex: 14
Con: 14
Int: 12
Wis: 10
Cha: 16

Dump every stat level into cha, get epic spell focus necromancy, use WotB, laugh your ass off

Go the first 28 levels pure sorc get epic warding and epic mage armor and thats it for the epic spells (it can be scary leveling up to 29 and not having them because of the spellcraft but you'll get 2 feats at 29 and can take both). Make sure to get bulls strength (you get 1 per day from blackguard but you can't maximize it), eagals splendor, and cats grace. Most of the level 5 spells kinda suck so you can maximize all of them (+5 to str, dex, and cha) i take knock but you can get endurance in place of it or Melf's acid arrow (losing a spell with no save kinda sucks though as does losing knock if you want to solo). Also make sure to get 2 ranks of great charisma. Go 3 levels of blackguard then sorc again at 31 (to bring your spellcraft up to 34) and 32 and get them epic spells. Finish off the rest of the levels in fighter for the bonus feats and BaB/HD.

Make sure you get 5 poits of hide; but besides that, you mainly want to just get concentration and spellcraft and save your points for devotion or whatever the knockdown resistance is, and still save 8-10 points for spellcraft. Make sure to take the automatic still spells (I, II, and III) and combat casting (and improved combat casting respectively) you can use those last skill points you have freely, i normally take hide and move silently to help with the backstabs from concealment.

If you take disable traps, knock and find some +3 str and dex items and pick the right feats. You'll find you're 30 sorc/3 blackguard/7 fighter and a full level caster, that can disarm traps and open locks, with epic weapon proficiency (although if you want to dual wield it would probably be greater proficiency and two weapon fighting, i prefer greatswords myself ), cleave, power attack, 24 str, 33 charisma, 24 dex (after buffs), epic warding, epic mage armor, can wear plate and cast any spell in it, can backstab on every attack with improved invisibility, can use flaming weapon scrolls to add +12-14 fire damge to your attacks, 2 attacks per round that have something like +40/35 BaB, can poision your weapon for a 10+dex to your basic attacks, and your charisma (freaking +11, my god) is added to all saving throws. I'll post my exact feats per level and spell selection if you want, this was just a rough idea kinda thing for you. Have fun.