Warlock Project thread prompted some discussion of Blackguard, so I thought about an idea I got from it for making a Blackguard in DDO using the existing classes.

Warning: This is a flavor build, and so, there are no plans for EE. Not to mention, I am not a professional builder, this is just me throwing an idea out with minimal research done. Use this at your own peril. Thank you.

Lawful Neutral - 3 Rogue/9 Fighter/8 Cleric

3 Rogue for Venomed Blades and for 2d6 Sneak Attack damage (both traits of the Blackguard) and also Evasion is useful I guess

8 Cleric for Warpriest and 4 slots for Level 4 spells (could go as low as 7, though.

9 fighter for general martial competency. And I suppose Kensai or Stalwart Defender could be useful.

Notes:

I was tempted to leave Cleric at level 6 for the Warpriest core, but level 7 and 8 are easily within reach and grant level 4 spells. This is purely for flavor since Paladins get up to level 4 spells, too. That and the fourth level spells also include all the alignment spells, including Order's Wrath and Unholy Blight, which are good flavor for this build even if it's not spells that Blackguards would usually get. Feel free to drop a level of Cleric in favor of either Rogue or Fighter.

You might be tempted (and I know I was) to go Dark Divine Disciple as well, and utilize the harm line of spells to deal some negative energy damage. However, you don't have the stats to get your wisdom high enough to get decent DC's, so most of the time, even at low levels, your negative energy spells will be dealing half damage. The only SLA that this wouldn't effect would be Chill Touch, which you could use as an inverted version of Lay on Hands, if you so chose. I wouldn't recommend anything beyond Chill Touch and things that improve negative energy.

Oh, also, avoid sources of light damage in Warpriest. You are not light, you are dark and evil. You have Venomed Blades for that purpose, anyways.

Why not Favored Soul, you ask? This is intended to emulate a Blackguard from 3.5, whose spells are Wisdom based. Not an Antipaladin from Pathfinder whose spells are Charisma based. That and Cleric gets the ability to change spells. Those are literally the two reasons. If you don't care about any of that stuff, be my guest, I'm not the one playing your character. You'll probably end up wanting 9 FVS instead of 8 Cleric, though.

You can't replace Rogue with Drow for Venomed Blades. Drow do not get sneak attack dice, which is one of the core features of the Blackguard and what sets them apart from Paladin.

You have Evasion, so you could easily do Light Armor. You also have Heavy Armor Proficiency, so you can also go Heavy Armor for PRR. I'd suggest deciding early, at the same time as you decide which combat style to go for. You could also do trapping if you want, but that doesn't really fit the flavor. BUUUUT what can you do? You have it, might as well use it, if you like.

Important stats for this build are Strength, Constitution, and Charisma (for Divine Might). Coincidentally, just like a Paladin. Unlike a Paladin, however, you are going to have a lot of feats to work with. So this is still probably better than a Pure Paladin, at least before Update 23. Woops.

...Incidentally, it's probably not too hard to change this into a replacement for Paladin. Replace Rogue with something else (like even more levels of Fighter) and have a blast.

Um...

So how did I do? I left the feats and abilities completely open because, just like Paladin, there's several ways you can build a Blackguard.

And, for the tons of people on this forum who are more experienced with this game than me, how well can you do with this build while still sticking to character? I'm genuinely curious.