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The Blackfire Adept is a weakish PrC in terms of power; if you're any sort of optimizer, you'll never play this. However, it is moderately flavorful, and it does make for some decent NPC builds. So here's a miniguide.
Class requirements. First, the good news: the BA is a pretty easy prestige class to enter. Two useful feats, two useful skills, and a single language, and you're in. And you can start at sixth level. It's one of the easiest PrCs to enter. If you want to play this as a PC, building towards it is easy: play a full caster class with access to Summon Monster and the Planar Binding/Planar Ally spells. Don't even try this with a partial caster, and don't try it with a full caster that is heavily dependent on level advancement in its original class. Classic wizard, sorceror and cleric are probably the best here.
Blackfire 1. Now the bad news. There's no way around this: the Blackfire Adept makes a weak player character. You give up an entire level of casting when you enter this PrC, and if you stay with it you give up two more. You know what you call a 15th level character who can't cast 7th or 8th level spells? That's right -- a bard.
To add insult to injury, what you get in return is (with one exception) not that great. Sacred Summons is a fine feat, but it's just one feat. And the aura restriction means that you only get the benefit when you summon creatures that are NE. That's okay if you yourself are NE, because of this quirk in the Summon Monster spell: "Creatures marked with an "*" [which is most of them] always have an alignment that matches yours, regardless of their usual alignment." But if you're any other alignment, then the summoned creature's alignment will match yours, which means it won't "exactly" match your NE aura.
Personally, I think this is nonsense and I'd allow my players to use this feat freely for any nongood creatures that they summon. But your DM may not agree. Check in advance.
Blackfire 2. At second level, you get the weird Blackfire taint. Check this out: Quote: At 2nd level, as a standard action, a darkfire adept can corrupt the planar substrate into strands of darkfire that create a destructive resonance between herself and a target within 30 feet. She gains a +1 profane bonus on attack rolls and caster level checks against the target, and the target takes a –1 penalty on saving throws against the adept's attacks (or –2 if the attack is a conjuration effect). The taint lasts a number of rounds equal to her class level, though a successful Will save (DC 10 + the Darkfire Adept's class level + the Darkfire Adept's Charisma modifier) reduces this to 1 round. The effect immediately ends if the target moves more than 30 feet away from the Darkfire Adept.
The profane bonus and penalty become +2 and –2 (–3 against conjuration effects) at 6th level. They become +3 and –3 (–4 against conjuration effects) at 10th level.
This is classic Paizo PrC design: we're going to give this PrC a cool-seeming ability, but design gods forbid it should actually be all that powerful, so let's nerf it like three different ways. In this case, we have a debuff that would be pretty good except that it (1) requires a standard action, (2) only affects one target, (3) has a 30' range, (4) allows a Will save to reduce its effect to one round, which (4a) is probably have a low DC save given that (4b) it works off your Adept level, not your caster level, and (4c) uses Cha, which is probably not your strongest stat, and finally (5) allows the target to completely negate the effect by strolling a few feet away.
Your buddy the Court Bard has a debuff that's as good as yours, except it's an area effect, allows no save, and can be done as a move action. Your other buddy the Mesmerist has a debuff that allows no save, can be done as a free action, and has all sorts of cool side effects. You have a debuff that looks cool as hell -- corrupt the planar substrate into strands of darkfire! -- but in practice is so situational as to be almost worthless. About the only time you'll get to use this is (1) in a surprise round, or (2) if you're casting on a captive creature, either a prisoner or something that's bound in a conjuring circle.
Is there any way to leverage this? Well, basically anything that allows you to sneak up on a foe and get a surprise round. Invisibility, Improved invisibility, stealth stuff, improved initiative, yadda yadda. If you can throw this in the surprise round and then win initiative, you can get a debuff + Save Or Suck one-two punch. But honestly, +1 to overcome SR and -1 on saves is hardly worth burning a surprise round. When it's +2/-2 it's getting okay, but at that point you're at least 11th level and you *really* have better things to do with a surprise round.
So far, the Blackfire Adept is looking pretty crap -- you've given up a full level of casting for one feat and a mediocre, super-situational debuff power. Does the next level help?
Blackfire 3. Quote: At 3rd level, a darkfire adept may choose one evil outsider subtype from among the following: asura, daemon, demodand, demon, devil, div, kyton, oni, qlippoth, or rakshasa. Against outsiders with that subtype, she gains a +1 profane bonus on saving throws, caster level checks, Charisma checks, and Charisma-based skill checks. When using the planar ally or planar binding spells, she can call 2 additional Hit Dice of outsiders with the chosen subtype, and those creatures gain temporary hit points equal to her class level, a +1 profane bonus on saving throws, and a +1 profane bonus to the caster level DC for effects that would banish, dismiss, or dispel them.
At 6th level and 9th level, the darkfire adept may select an additional evil outsider subtype for her darkfire pact. In addition, the bonus against any one of her selected subtypes (including the one just selected, if so desired) increases by +1.
Let's sort out the dross first: +1, as noted above, is not that great. And since it's a profane bonus, it doesn't even stack with your taint power.
What's intriguing here is the "2 additional hit dice". Okay, that's solid. Giving the creature a bonus on saves and more hit points is just gravy -- and let's note here that the extra hp are based on your total level, not your adept class level. So at 10th level you're giving your called creature 20 more hp.
That said, you can get exactly this effect with the Augment Calling feat. And there's even a magic item that does the same thing: the Caller's Feather. It's 2,000 gp per use, but at high levels that's not really an issue. So one could reasonably ask, why would I play (let's say) a Wizard 6/Blackfire Adept 3 when I could just play a Wizard 9 who has taken Augment Calling? The Blackfire Adept gets Sacred Summons and a crap situational debuff; the straight Wizard gets to cast fifth level spells. Heck, the Adept doesn't even get to call up planar creatures until 10th level!
Fair enough. The answer, I would say, is that the Adept should always take Augment Calling. Boom: now you're at +4 HD. You can't cast Lesser Planar Binding until 10th level, but once you do, you can call up creatures with up to 10! hit dice! That's very powerful. I wouldn't call it OP, and I honestly can't say it makes up for that lost level of casting, but it moves this PrC from "why would anyone ever" to "okay, I could see it". And it stacks with level -- at 14th level you can use Planar Binding to grab creatures with up to 16 HD, and at 16th level Greater Planar Binding is, woo, bringing in the pit fiend.
Blackfire 4. At this level you get spontaneous casting of a slightly improved Unholy Blight. (There's a bit of rules confusion here -- you can't normally use Unholy Blight to attack objects -- but the intent is clear that you can, so I'd just say objects are neutral.) Unusually for Paizo, it uses a slot system to scale with level. This is actually okay -- not great, but okay. Improves to pretty good if you're playing Way of the Wicked or some other campaign where you're regularly fighting good-aligned opponents.
Okay, so this is where you STOP. Your 5th level of Blackfire Adept costs you another level of casting, which is... no. Just, no. There's nothing in this class that is remotely worth that. The 5th level power (Breaching) is super situational unless you have a DM who insists on throwing weird anti-teleportation effects at you (and the lost levels mean you couldn't use Teleport until 11th level anyway). The 6th level power (Breaching Legion) is a cool concept, but effectively nerfed by your lost caster levels. At 11th level you're casting like a 9th level caster, so you can cast Summon Monster V and summon a CR 6 babau demon that has a 40% chance of summoning a second CR 6 babau. That's a 40% chance of a CR 8 encounter. Your buddy the wizard can cast Summon Monster VI and get a CR 8 creature like an erinyes, straight up. You do also get your Darkfire Pact going up to +2, but still... no. Just not worth it.
Okay, so TLDR and conclusion: the Blackfire Adept is a very weak prestige class. The only reason to ever play it is if you want to call a lot of monsters with Planar Ally and Planar Binding. If you're going to do that, then (1) get a DM ruling on how you can use Sacred Summons, (2) invest in Augment Calling, and (3) grit your teeth and realize that you're going to be pretty weak for four levels (from sixth to tenth). Once you hit 10th level, draw your conjuring circle and start calling creatures: now this PrC becomes okay. If you're in a campaign where you fight a lot of good-aligned creatures, maybe take one more level of Adept. Otherwise, walk away and never look back.
This PrC could conceivably be balanced a bit better if the campaign involved some strong in-game incentives -- like, join the secret society of Blackfire Adepts and gain access to their Library of True Names, or some such. But AFAIK there's no such incentive in canon; if anyone knows otherwise, I welcome correction.
[The Adept is better as an NPC class, allowing some flavorful and interesting NPCs. When/if time allows, I'll do a post on that.]
Doug M.
Oh, and this is also THE MINIGUIDE TO THE DARKFIRE ADEPT
for for people who use the pfsrd.
Doug M.
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I know some Black fire adept that will thank you alot for this mini guide. Xanthir Vang approve :D
Quote: At 3rd level, a darkfire adept ... and those creatures gain temporary hit points equal to her class level, ...
Quote: Let's sort out the dross first: ...
... Okay, that's solid. Giving the creature a bonus on saves and more hit points is just gravy -- and let's note here that the extra hp are based on your total level, not your adept class level. So at 10th level you're giving your called creature 20 more hp.
I'd always thought that the reference to 'class level' indicated your levels in the class being referenced. In this case, while the previous level's power says 'Darkfire Caster class level' and level 3 says 'class level' they both mean the same thing. I think 'character level' is used when a character's total class levels are meant to be calculated. They may have 'spelled it out' the first time because it was the first reference to a power using the Darkfire Adept's class level and subsequent times are just short-hand.
Pizza Lord wrote:
I'd always thought that the reference to 'class level' indicated your levels in the class being referenced.
I'm okay with that interpretation. It doesn't make much of a difference, except to make the crappy Darkfire Taint debuff very slightly less crappy.
Doug M.
Douglas Muir 406 wrote:
To add insult to injury, what you get in return is (with one exception) not that great. Sacred Summons is a fine feat, but it's just one feat. And the aura restriction means that you only get the benefit when you summon creatures that are NE. That's okay if you yourself are NE, because of this quirk in the Summon Monster spell: "Creatures marked with an "*" [which is most of them] always have an alignment that matches yours, regardless of their usual alignment." But if you're any other alignment, then the summoned creature's alignment will match yours, which means it won't "exactly" match your NE aura.
Personally, I think this is nonsense and I'd allow my players to use this feat freely for any nongood creatures that they summon. But your DM may not agree. Check in advance.
You do know that Sacred Summons only allows you to summon creatures quicker whose subtype matches your aura right? And not creatures whose alignment matches your aura?
(Say your aura is CE you can summon Demons and other creatures with Chaotic and Evil in their subtype description. Like this:
CE Medium outsider (chaotic, demon, evil, extraplanar))
"to summon creatures whose alignment subtype or subtypes exactly
match your aura" - UM p. 155.
Pretty sure you know this. Just making sure there is no confusion on this subject.
the Diviner wrote:
You do know that Sacred Summons only allows you to summon creatures quicker whose subtype matches your aura right? And not creatures whose alignment matches your aura?
(Say your aura is CE you can summon Demons and other creatures with Chaotic and Evil in their subtype description. Like this:
CE Medium outsider (chaotic, demon, evil, extraplanar))
"to summon creatures whose alignment subtype or subtypes exactly
match your aura" - UM p. 155.
Pretty sure you know this. Just making sure there is no confusion on this subject.
No, I was actually thinking alignment not subtype. -- Okay, that moves this feat from being finicky to being almost completely crap. There are only a handful of creatures on the Summon lists that have any alignment subtypes at all. If you're CE or LE, you can summon demons and devils, which there's an average of about one per level, with more of them at higher levels. If you're CE or LE and 9th level or higher, you'll be able to use this feat intermittently -- but you're trading away the flexibility of using Summon Monster to bring in different creatures, which is one of the spell's main appeals. You're Chaotic Evil and you want to use this feat on Summon Monster V? You get a babau, because that's your only option.
And if you're anything else but LE or CE, you're SOL, because all the other alignments are even worse. Neutral Good? Three creatures, two agathions and an angel. Chaotic Good? You get exactly one -- the Lillend Azata. Chaotic Neutral? Hope you like that Chaos Beast, because it's the only thing on the list for you. Lawful Neutral? Gosh, whoops -- there isn't a single LN creature on the list.
So Sacred Summons is actually a very limited feat to begin with -- it's pretty close to worthless unless you're LE or CE. (I suppose you could make a case for LG, because Lantern Archons are so great, but only from levels 5-10 or so.) Yet for some reason the designers decided to make it a major class feature of the unfortunate Blackfire Adept. Oh dear, oh dear.
Doug M.
One last thought on the Blackfire Adept as a player character class: one of the least bad ways to go is be a Lawful Evil wizard. Take five levels of wizard, then three levels of BA, then go Diabolist. One you hit 10th level you'll be able to use Lesser Planar Binding to call devils with up to 8 HD. You'll get +1 on the Will save to catch them and +3 on the contested Charisma check to bind them (+1 from BA and +2 from Diabolist). Then when you turn them loose, your devils will have an additiona +10 hp and +1 profane bonus on saves. That's not too bad. At 11th level add Augment Calling and you can really turn up the heat, calling devils of up to 10 HD.
If you decide to go this route, build with Cha at least 12, go to 14 if you can manage it. Then make sure you take the following feats:
Spell Focus: Conjuration
Augment Summoning
Superior Summons
Augment Calling
Optional but recommended: Evolved Summons, because it gives you unparalleled flexibility -- you can call up a creature with gills in water, add 5 resistance to some energy type, increase its damage output, or simply give it +2 to AC.
Optional: Summon Evil Monster. Gives you several more creatures you can get the benefit of Sacred Summons from.
This is a slow-burn build: you're underpowered for four whole levels, six through nine. But starting at 10th level you should be both competitive and flavorful. Exactly how competitive depends on how your DM handles the Planar Binding spells, but under RAW you should be quite strong. And at 16th level, woo, you can call and bind a Pit Fiend. Did they laugh at you back at the Academy. Well now you'll show them. You'll show them ALL AH HA HA HAAAA.
Doug M.
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Another thing you could consider with such a build. Take the Acadamae Graduate feat. Buy yourself a Cord of Stubborn Resolve. And own a wand of Infernal healing.
When you summon creatures using the Summon Monster line you can now do so with a standard action. This will every now and then make you fatigued. But with the belt that fatigue will just turn into 1d6 nonlethal damage because of the belt.
Voila! Standard action summons that works with all the various creatures and not just one or two.
Think I would just try to early entry Diabolist for 3 levels, go back to wizard for 1 level to grab 5th level spells, then go into Blackfire Adept. Rings of Summoning Affinity would help a lot. Also I would definitely ask the DM to make fiendish creatures count but that's house rule.
the Diviner wrote: But with the belt that fatigue will just turn into 1d6 nonlethal damage because of the belt. Sure, there are several different ways around the fatigue imposed by that feat. A Wand of Lesser Restoration is probably the cheapest, though it does require a UMD roll and a standard action. But then, when you're a Diabolist, you just have your imp companion invest some ranks in UMD, and then fly around with a "golf bag" of low-level but useful wands.
Doug M.
Dastis wrote: Think I would just try to early entry Diabolist for 3 levels, go back to wizard for 1 level to grab 5th level spells, then go into Blackfire Adept. The Diabolist doesn't drop any caster levels, so there'd be no reason to dip back into Wizard. Also, if you start Diabolist at level 6? You want to blast straight through to Diabolist 5 as fast as possible, because you want to grab Hellish Soul before somthing perma-kills you.
But anyway: the advantage of your strategy is that you avoid the four underpowered levels 6 through 9. Also, you can start casting Lesser Planar Binding at Level 9 instead of 10. That's pretty good! The disadvantages are smaller but multiple. (1) Entering Diabolist at 6th level, while possible by using a scroll, is hard -- you have a significant chance of failing and wasting a pile of money; (2) you're underpowered at levels 10 and 11 instead, and (3) you're waiting until 12th level before you can get those extra two dice on your bindings. Of course, you can just take Augment Calling at 9th level, which partiall compensates. Finally (4) in this build you're waiting a long, long time -- seven levels -- until you can get Hellish Soul and no longer have to worry about permanently dying. So overall I think your build is definitely a strong alternative, but it does come with some drawbacks.
Doug M.
If you do go all the way through Blackfire Adept, you get a chance to penetrate not only anti-teleportation effects with your summoning/calling, but also Anti-Magic Fields, Prismatic Wall/Sphere, extradimensional shelters, and even naturally magic-dead zones, and you destroy whichever one of these you penetrate EXCEPT for naturally magic-dead zones(*). The cost in delayed spellcasting/caster level progression is bad, as noted above, but NOBODY else can do this at all. Unfortunately the delayed caster level progression nerfs this by 3 levels by the time you get it, so have Magical Knack for a trait (worth getting it with Additional Traits if you need other traits first) -- at least this reduces the total caster level delay to 1 level.
(*)Presumably whatever you just summoned/called gets to stick around despite the magic-dead zone not being destroyed (but can't use its own magic unless it has the same ability), but this isn't spelled out.
Blackfire Eruption also disintegrates anything that it reduces below 0 hit points, which means that they're not coming back without Miracle, True Resurrection, or Wish.
Incidentally, the ability to get into the prestige class by way of being able to cast Summon Monster III as a spell-like ability looks like it was designed for entry by Summoners, but then the writers forgot to have the prestige class progress the Summon Monster spell-like ability (or anything other than spellcasting), so in practice this doesn't work.
UnArcaneElection wrote: If you do go all the way through Blackfire Adept, you get a chance to penetrate not only anti-teleportation effects with your summoning/calling, but also Anti-Magic Fields, Prismatic Wall/Sphere, extradimensional shelters... This is pretty rad, but in most campaigns it really won't be an issue. I mean, how many Anti-Magic Fields does one typically encounter? Incredibly cool when it happens, but there's no way this can justify losing three levels of casting.
Mind, it /does/ provide an in-game rationale for Anti-Magic Fields and whatnot being not quite invulnerable: sure, you can set something like this up, but there just might be a Blackfire Adept out there who can crack into it.
Quote: Blackfire Eruption also disintegrates anything that it reduces below 0 hit points, which means that they're not coming back without Miracle, True Resurrection, or Wish. Well, Disintegrate does that too. As do low-tech methods like burning the body, cutting the thing's head off and taking it away, etc. What makes Blackfire Eruption mildly interesting (IMO) is that it ignores hardness. This would be awesome, except that the damage against nongood creatures (and, presumably, objects) is frustratingly feeble -- d8/2 levels, halved. That means that at 12th level you'll do an underwhelming 14 points of damage on average. So, nice if you encounter an adamantite door with Hardness 40, but otherwise not really a thing. Basically this is your go-to mid-level spell for zapping good-aligned enemies, especially good outsiders. It's decent for that -- not great (it still allows SR) but decent. But overall, nothing to get excited about.
Quote: Magical Knack for a trait (worth getting it with Additional Traits if you need other traits first) -- at least this reduces the total caster level delay to 1 level. [thumps head] Duhhh, OF COURSE anyone who takes this PrC should take Magical Knack. You still lose a level of spells, but at least your ECL isn't trashed. Very good catch!
Doug M.
Good advice, OP and you are right about it being more suited for NPCs.
It is underpowered for a full caster, yet it is still a monster Summoner thus a very strong opponent.
It's evil, and not even subtle about it, it makes for thin characterization. Possibly it could be used in some court intrigue with binding pacts, but it most comes over as some villain hamming it up with cackles and madness in his eyes.
Even for evil PCs it isn't ideal. Consider Hell's Vengeance. I haven't read it, but if it is anything like every other AP, the party doesn't stay in the same place for long. Blackfire Adepts are happier with a solid summoning room and time and ritual. They don't really shoot from the hip.
They do make great villains though. A particularly memorable one is *MINOR SPOILERS (because he's on the cover anyway)* a very creepy and monstrous bad guy from Wrath of the Righteous. This fellow oozes personality and other substances. Having said that, his power doesn't really come from Blackfire Adept so much that he is around level 16 and Mythic with an alarming template.
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The new Paths of he Righteous player companion leaks (from subscribers who have pdfs) reveal a two feat chain that gives you back lost spell casting levels from prestige classes. You can take the final feat more than once. So at the cost of four feats you could get all three lost casting levels back.
^FOUR feats to get three levels back? That sounds like a really expensive trade, and it's 80% of a VMC in feat cost.
UnArcaneElection wrote: ^FOUR feats to get three levels back? That sounds like a really expensive trade, and it's 80% of a VMC in feat cost. VMC? -- But anyway: if the first feat does something for you and isn't just a feat tax, then maybe.
Doug M.
Just spellcasting levels lost in prestige classes, or would it work for general multiclassing? There's a number of prestige classes which require that before entry.
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A mixmatch of Blackfire Adept and Riftwarden could make for an interesting character, and the RAW does not forbid it :-)
Story wise : A True Neutral Blackfire Adept that aims for dominating the faction through using their hated enemies' techniques against rivals. And when he does rule the Adepts, he will steer them away from the actions that Riftwardens find the most offensive
Okay, so I've just been made aware of the new feats (from Paths of the Righteous) that return casting levels lost from taking a PrC. First there's Favored Prestige Class, which lets you treat one PrC as a favored class. That's obviously suboptimal -- you'd be better off taking toughness -- but not completely useless. Then there's Prestigious Caster, which has Favored Prestige Class as a prerequisite. This feat restores one lost level of casting! And you can take it multiple times to restore multiple levels.
This isn't amazing, but it does make the Blackfire Adept slightly less miserable. Burn these two feats and you're still pretty weak from sixth to eighth levels, but at ninth you start using Lesser Planar Binding to call 12 HD creatures.
One slight complication: since it already costs two feats to become a Blackfire Adept, if you want to enter this class immediately but not lose a level of casting at 6th level, then you'll have to play either a human (bonus feat) or a wizard (bonus magic feat at 5th). Otherwise you'll have to take your two prerequisite feats at 1st and 3rd levels, then Favored Prestige Class at 5th, and Prestigious Caster at 7th.
Doug M.
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