Heroes of Shadow Review Part 1 – The Blackguard

I like Paladins. No, let me rephrase that. I love Paladins. They've always been one of my favorite classes, imbued with Divine power to protect the innocent, and punch Evil in the mouth.

I could regale bore you with tales of my first Paladin, Valric Manfred the Shadowbrand for hours on end, and he was just one of many.

When I started playing the new Edition, however, well, I could see something was wrong with my favorite class. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with Paladins who choose to Defend, it's certainly in theme. But where were the Paladins that ran around smiting Evil?

The only Divine Striker was the Avenger, who, while pretty cool, isn't a Paladin. More like a Vatican Assassin or something. And yes, I'm aware of the Ardent, which is certainly a step in the right direction, but there was something a bit off about that build as well.

Here we have a Paladin who chooses to be a bad Defender in order to kick ass. Why not just cut out the middleman?

Enter the Blackguard, the Anti-Paladin Cavalier. Where the Cavalier has Virtues, he has Vices. He sure ain't Lawful, and he's probably not Good. But more importantly, he's a Striker. No Auras here, the Blackguard is here to take names and kick butt!

Which begs the question. Is he any good at it?

The Good

The Blackguard is a Strength-based melee class. That means he already has a strong melee basic attack, so he can charge and make opportunity attacks if need be. He can also use heavy thrown weapons, if you want to be like The Mighty Thor.

While he does use Charisma to power his special abilities, it doesn't need to be super-high. A 16 should do nicely, which means just about any race that has a bonus to Strength or Charisma can be a fine Blackguard.

Granted, there are two races that grant a bonus to both, the Dragonborn and the Vyrkola, but there are reasons those may not be the best choices. I'll get to them in a bit.

So unless you really want to poach some Charisma-based powers from the core Paladin (bah, puny Implement Powers), there are many fine choices for your Blackguard's race.

Secondly, the Blackguard is a Paladin, and he's built on the same chassis. Which means that I can officially award the Blackguard the title of World's Toughest Striker. 15+Constitution hit points, 10 starting healing surges, +1 to Fortitude, Reflex, and Will, as well as proficiency with Plate and Heavy Shields make the Blackguard a menace on the battlefield. If you want endurance, the Blackguard is your guy. Where other Strikers may quickly fall flat after a few Encounters, this guy keeps on going, and that's a good thing, because...

The Bad

The Blackguard is a mediocre Striker. He does have a damage-boosting mechanic, adding Charisma to his damage rolls...provided he has Combat Advantage. Unlike the Thief, the base Blackguard doesn't really have any way to guarantee Combat Advantage either, which will be an issue.

The Blackguard is capable of some ridiculous damage, but you're not going to see it every round, let alone every combat! Both Vices have a different method of delivering the big hits, and I'll discuss them in turn.

First, Domination.

Domination has a familiar-sounding method of increasing their damage output. If the Blackguard has temporary hit points, they can, as a free action, take damage equal to their Charisma-modifier. They then add a bonus to their damage roll equal to the damage they took.

Domination comes with an At-Will attack that grants them temporary hit points, just to give them a good chance to actually start their turn with at least one temp h.p.. I should also note that the class as a whole has several other ways to get temporary hit points, but that's the easiest method.

All Blackguards have an At-Will attack that inflicts 2 bonus damage per enemy adjacent to them (maximum of +8), and an Encounter power that works a little like the Cavalier's Holy Smite- when they target an enemy with an At-Will attack, they can use their Dread Smite to automatically inflict cold/necrotic damage, and if the attack hits, toss on ongoing 5 cold/necrotic.

So, if the following conditions are met:

• Blackguard has temporary hit points on their turn.
• Blackguard has combat advantage against an enemy.
• Blackguard is adjacent to four or more enemies.
• Blackguard attacks with Vengeance Strike, uses Dread Smite, and hits.

(Assuming Str 18, Cha 16): 1 [W] +15 damage, plus 5 cold/necrotic, plus 5 ongoing cold/necrotic.

That's a really nice hit, and it doesn't even consider other bonuses, just raw Strength and Charisma! At the same time, however, there are going to be many turns where you can't combo like that, and likely turns where you're doing 1 [W] + Strength damage!

This makes the Blackguard a very swingy Striker, even more so than the Rogue.

As for Fury Blackguards, they have a little easier time inflicting their damage. They get a +2 bonus to damage when they have Combat Advantage (on top of the existing bonus), which rises to +4 if the enemy is bloodied. They also have an At-Will attack that gives them Combat Advantage on their next attack. This makes them a little less swingy, and possibly somewhat more accurate as well.

It's still far from guaranteed, and in most battles, their damage output will seem less spectacular than other Strikers.

The Ugly

As the Blackguard rises in level, he gains access to other methods to increase his damage, but many of them are Encounter-based or equally situational. This means that a Blackguard player needs to be patient, and wait for the right moment to get synergy with his various damage boosting techniques.

He isn't very good at front-loading damage, and his nova takes some setup. With the right party, his job gets a lot easier, but most Strikers prefer to be able to function alone, without depending on others.

This isn't to say that the Blackguard is bad- he's not. But if your (or your fellow player's) idea of a good Striker is someone who can front-load massive damage and kill enemies within the first few turns of combat, then you should stick to Rangers or Rogues.

The Blackguard is good in games like Encounters, where you have to conserve resources over the course of a month, and you can afford to be patient, waiting for that moment when the stars align just so, and you deal so much damage your DM will faint dead away!

In something like LFR, however, where there are generally less combats (due to time constraints), the Ardent will be vastly superior to the Blackguard, as they can afford to spam their abilities.

In summation, the Blackguard is a rewarding class, but the rewards are somewhat different than other Striker classes. If you like the idea of being a darkly divine hero who smites his enemies in close combat, and can take any amount of punishment the game can dish out, then you should definitely check out the Blackguard!

Races

Dragonborn seem to be a natural fit for Paladins of all stripes, and the Blackguard is no exception. However, the main problem with them is that their Dragonbreath power's damage is based on Constitution, and that may be an attribute you'll have a problem raising high enough to be relevant. If you're not playing pure Essentials, there exist Feats to mitigate this, but be careful not to spend too many Feats on a single Encounter ability!

Vyrkolas, with their noble bearing and dark ancestry, make excellent Blackguards. However, when bloodied, they do take a minor penalty to their healing surge value. It's not much, and at higher levels, it is quite probably academic, but it is a small hit to their overall toughness, which is a big selling point of the class.

There are few bad choices, but Dwarves are a pretty solid choice. The +2 to Con won't go to waste, and the minor action Second Wind will only increase your overall toughness. Further, if your game allows for non-Essential Feats, Dwarves have a lot of nice ones to choose from, including the excellent -to-slightly overpowered Dwarven Weapon Training.

That's all for now, I hope you've found this review to be informative. See you next time for more D&D Heroes of Shadow reviews!

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