[Sten]

Quote: Evil deities like nothing more than to see a pure heart corrupted, and thus a fallen paladin of this stature immediately gains a blackguard level for each level of paladin he trades in. For example, a character who has twelve levels of paladin can immediately become a 10th-level blackguard with all abilities if he chooses to lose ten levels of paladin. The character level of the character does not change. This, of course, is in every way a profitable trade for the evil character, since he has already lost most of the benefits he gained from having those paladin levels. However, with the loss of paladin levels, the character no longer gains as many extra abilities for being a fallen paladin. Thus, a fallen 15th level paladin could become a 10th-level blackguard/5th level paladin and gain the first three extra abilities on this chart because of the character's remaining five levels of paladin. Smite good 4x/day.

I used to play a Paladin/Fighter/Blackguard here on Thay before the reset, and they don't change Paladin levels over to Blackguard levels.