First blackguard game

[will_asher]

My first game with randarts is also my first game as a blackgaurd. First, there needs to be something that tells you when you choose the class that your spells points drain themselves when you're not in combat for a while. It took me a while to figure out what was happening with that.

Second, it doesn't seem worth carrying around the 2nd spellbook until you have a decent fail rate on venom or werewolf form. And sometimes venom is obsoleted by a branded weapon by the time you get the spell, leaving werewolf form as the only really useful spell in the book. Am I missing something here?

Also, every once in a while in combat, it says that I stumble. What's that about?

[Selkie]

A blackguard has shield bash which can stun an enemy in combat, except sometimes it fails and you stumble

[archolewa]

Maiming Blow stuns your enemy, which is *incredibly powerful.* So powerful, its an early game game changer. Relentless Taunting increases the chances that enemies melee you or move towards you and *decreaaes the chances they will breathe or cast spells.* The fear spell is great crowd control of you find yourself in a bad position. Useful to let you reposition yourself without eating tons of arrows or hound breaths, but a bit more situational. Not every weapon has a venom brand, and some would benefit a lot from them. Try giving the Glaive of Pain the venom brand and slaughter some Greater Titans for example.

That being said, enemies who are weak to poison but not other elemental branda are rare so its a bit situational.

[will_asher]

Good to know. In that case, I think I'll start carrying that book around and using maiming blow.

Also, why is my hit point recovery impaired?

[Sphara]

Good to know. In that case, I think I'll start carrying that book around and using maiming blow.

Also, why is my hit point recovery impaired?

Yeah, 2nd book is the cheese of Blackguard class.

Blackguard has innate impaired HP recovery. Since that intrinsic does not stack from other items, Ring of Open Wounds is one of the best items early blackguard can get. It can be activated for healing around 30-40 HP without any drawbacks, and it recharges quickly.

[archolewa]

Also note though that you gain health as you lose magic. So you will have faster regeneration so long as you have mana.

[Nick]

The 'S' command shows all your character's race and class abilities, and is particularly informative for blackguards.

[will_asher]

I didn't know about the S command. (Or possibly I forgot about it because I knew all about the existing classes until recently.)

[Nick]

I didn't know about the S command. (Or possibly I forgot about it because I knew all about the existing classes until recently.)

You didn't forget, it's new

[wobbly]

That being said, enemies who are weak to poison but not other elemental branda are rare so its a bit situational.

This isn't actually true, particularly if we pick fire. Besides obvious stuff like red dragons/fire giants/hellhounds there's most of the greater demon list, chaos/law/balance dragons, kavlax, a bunch of humans etc.

[DavidMedley]

Thanks for the feedback, Will, and thanks to everyone else for the excellent answers!

[Selkie]

Thanks for the feedback, Will, and thanks to everyone else for the excellent answers!

Hello David, I wrote some detailed Blackguard reports from 4.2.1 and really loved the new class. I understand there are some changes for 4.2.2 (which I haven't played yet). Please could you briefly explain some of the changes to the class?

[DavidMedley]

4.2.1 to 4.2.2 there are not a lot of changes but yeah I should write them up on here.