The wind blew noisily across the Ramparts of the fortress, shuddering the gold banners of King Berenor violently as night descended upon the fortress.
It was strangely cold, even for an october night, and an uneasy quiet settled over courtyard below. Even the town crier had called it a night due to the unbearable weather. The scarce few guards that remained on duty patrolled long streatches of open wall, and it was no surprise that the robed figure got so close the stone walls before he was spotted.
"Halt!" came an uneasy, shivering call from the top of the wall. "Who goes there?" asked the shaky, wet-behind-the-ears guard. The robed figure assessed the guard quickly. His sword was on the wrong side of his belt, his cloak was mis-fastened, and the armor adorning his chest bore the dull luster of shoddy second-rate smithing. He was green for sure.
The robed figure paused only a moment to take in the perched guard before he continued to walk towrads the great gates. As he neared, the massive sword on his back became more visible. Its edge gleamed as though doused in darkness itself. The newbie guard yeleld into the courtyard below, "Tresspasser at the gates!", and was quickly joined by an archer on the wall. Knocking an arrow, he aimed carefully at the robed figure, whom currently glared at the door, trying to find a weakness. The arrow came out of the bow with a loud TWANG, amplified by the brittle cold and silence. As quickly as it took for the archer to release the arrow, so quickly did the robed adventurer vanish into a deep, pitch darkness.
A loud scream, followed by a massive crash saw the gates of the fortress hewn in two with one enormous blow. The fell warrior had made his full across the courtyard before the guards even spotted him.
Dawn broke slowly on the walls of the fortress, and a figure robed in pitch black stood at the top of one of the ramparts. Leaned across his shoulder was a great sword, drenched in long-dried blood. Shattered bodies filled the courtyards, arrows littered the ground, along with shattered metal and splintered shields. Countless innocents lie dead in their beds, unable to defend themselves from the dark crusader. It wasn't long before the crusader tired of the view from his perch and left.
The new guard stood on top of the wall and watched in awestruck horror -- an expression he had held since the first of his freidns died -- as the man left. In his hand, he clutched a piece of parchment with a hastily scribed note written on it. It had the name of the king's brother scrawled on it, and bore the seal of a note that King Berenor had recieved only one day previous to the massacre.
And so passed the Great King Berenor. His gold banners, soaked in the blood of his servents. The crusader would return home with a new song to sing.
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I've seen so many barbarian blackguard builds posted in the search engine, alot with devastating critical, and it seems that these builds dont do the power of the Barbarian Blackguard any justice. So, I've taken some charisma, and took up the challenge of making a nice build out of this un-sorted mess.
Humbly, do I present the Dark Crusader of the Black Rage.
PvM or PvP, 1-40. Non-Lawful Evil
Human
Str - 17 Dex - 8 Con - 14 Int - 13 Wis - 8 Cha - 14
Skills to invest in: Discipline (43), Perform (15), Hide (5), Taunt (43), Spellcraft (19), Concentration (43) (Or skill of choice if you are going to use medium armor)
These can be further modified by adding Universal Save items and Fortitude/Reflex/Will save items.
And now, variations.
The first variation drops 2 great strength feats for earlier Epic Weapon Focus and Epic Prowess. In the respective blackguard slots, take any feats you want. Dev, Epic fiendish servant, whatever tickles your pickle. This loses 1 AB and some damage.
The second variation drops 2 great strength feats for extend spell and Toughness. This variation loses 1 AB.
Im sure many class variations may be taken on the core class progression, but these are the primary glaring variations you could take without changing the primary build concept.
Basically, this is a barbarian with a nasty bite, Darkness and Darksight for sneaks, and plenty of bard buffs to help you become a walking machine of destruction. In my version of the build I use clothing class armors (if available, a sequencer), so that i can freely cast my buffs. The build is far from slacking in HP, and barbarian rage helps justify the use of low AC armors because of the huge constitution bonus. But the low AC got me into more than my share of trouble when fighting high AC enemies, often getting hit more than I hit them, without a doubt.
The primary goal of the build is to be able to make a character who can take on a good number of sticky situations without much difficulty.
Edited By Freedom-Fighta on 10/29/06 02:21
Can't edit post for some reason. HP is 480, Raged HP is 600, Fully itemed with +6 Constitution is 720. Toughness variation adds +40.
Why the single level of Bard pre-epic? Seems like if you're willing to lose the 1 AB for taking any, you might as well do skill dumps.
For attributes, I'd drop Str to 16, bump up Int to 14 and Con to 15, and change one attribute increase from Str to Con. You lose 1 AB/Damage, but gain 43 skill points, 1 fort save, and 40 HP.
I'd also work Terrifying Rage into the build by postponing some Barb into epic.
Looks good, though. Nice AB and damage, Bard goodies, sneak, and bonus points for using BG.
It's nice build, though I question the worth of Divine Might with only 14 base CHA. _________________ "With Europe liberated, the people of the world turned their attention to that old devil, the United States of America [...] We taught that monster of old the true meaning of freedom." Star Wreck
Alot of my builds have at least moderate PvP roots from their primary concept, which is why I include so may "itemed out" statistics.
On alot of PvP servers, +12 to charisma, +6 Strength and +6 Constitution isnt a very far stretch at moderately high levels.