The Shadowmage
The places where light and darkness meet have long symbolized opposition and balance. The clash of good and evil, even of chaos and law. The School of Shadow teaches mages to use these contrasts to reach the secret source and union of all shadow and harness its power. Shadow mages tend to be grim sentinels who have exchanged the bright spark of a normal existence for the power of twilight and darkness. Very few shadow mages are of good alignment; a great number are neutral, and some have embraced the darkness completely and turned to ways of evil.
Shadow mages are closely tied to the Plane of Shadow. They have discovered that every shadow in Faerun has a mystic connection or source in Shadowland. A wizard with skill and a strong heart can use the most mundane shadows as a doorway to this realm of dusk and darkness, calling forth its powers for their own purposes. A number of shadow mages eventually become shades, or creatures whose physical forms have been completely replaced by shadow-stuff, although this doesn't happen to player character shadow mages except in extraordinary circumstances.
In addition to the normal advantages and penalties associated with specializing in a school of magic, a shadow mage's effectiveness is tied to the lighting condition at the time he casts a spell from this school. Naturally, shadow mages are weakest in broad daylight and progressively stronger in weak daylight or dusk, partial darkness and finally complete darkness. It's not the strength of a shadow, but instead the overall absence of light that strengthens the connection to the plane of gloom.
Hit Die: d4.
Requirements: To qualify to become a Shadowmage, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Skills: Concentration 8 ranks, Knowledge (Arcana) 8 ranks, Spellcraft 8 ranks.
Feats: Spell Focus (Shadow), any metamagic feat.
Spellcasting: Ability to cast 3'rd level arcane spells.
Special: The character must have visited the Plane of Shadow and have knowledge of its history and its inhabitants.
Class Skills: Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Disguise, Hide, Knowledge (all), Profession, Spellcraft.
Class Features:
Weapon & Armor Proficiency. The Shadowmage gains no proficiency with any weapons or armor.
Spells per day: A Shadowmages' training focuses on magic. Thus, when a character gains a new level of Shadowmage, she gains new spells per day as if she also gained a level in whatever spellcasting class she belonged to before she added the prestige class. She does not however gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained.
Shadow Mastery: At 1'st level the Shadowmage gains +1 Caster Level to all spells cast in the Sub-school of Shadow. Furthermore you also gain +1 Caster Level with all spells cast with the Darkness descriptor. This ability increases to +2 Caster Level at 5'th level, and +3 Caster Level at 10'th level.
Bonus Feat: At 2'nd level the Shadowmage gains a bonus feat. This must be a metamagic feat.
Shadow Armor: At 3'rd level, you can summon shadows to surround you in a black aura that injures creatures that make contact with it. Any creature striking you with its body or a hand held weapon take 1d4 hit points of damage +1 point per 2 caster levels, Will saving throw negates (DC = 15 + Int modifier.) If the creature has Spell resistance, it applies to the damage. This spell-like ability takes a standard action and lasts 1 round/level. It may only be used once a day.
Insidious Shadows: At 4'th level, when casting spells from the Sub-school of Shadow, or with the Darkness descriptor while under starlight or in total darkness, your opponents receive a -4 penalty to their Saving Throws against these spells..
Improved Shadow Mastery: At 5'th level You gain +2 caster level to all spells cast in the sub-school of shadow, and spells with the Darkness descriptor.
Improved Darkvision: At 6'th level the Shadowmage gains Darkvision up to 120 feet, and can see through all forms of magical darkness.
Shadow Resistance: At 7'th level the Shadowmage gains Spell Resistance equal to 12 + caster level against all spells while she's within 10 feet of some sort of shadow or darkness.
Bonus Feat: At 8'th level the Shadowmage gains a bonus feat. This must be a metamagic feat.
Shadow Double: At 9'th level, once per day, the Shadowmage can use a standard action to create a double of himself woven from shadowstuff. The double has the ability scores, base AC, hit points, saves, and attack bonuses of its creator, but no equipment. (Any apparent clothing or equipment is nonfunctional.) Since it can use anything its creator can, the double can attack the creator's enemies if given a weapon or item with which to do so. Alternatively, it can function as the target of a project image spell, duplicating the crator's actions and functioning as the origin of the creator's spells when it is within his direct line of sight. Mentally commanding the double is a free action. Using it as the originator of a spell counts as an action of the sort needed to cast the spell for both the creator and the double. Causing either the creator or the double to leave the plane they share dismisses the double.
The double lasts 1 round per caster level. The death of the double does not affect the shadow adept or vice versa. If the creator dies the shadow double still lasts until its duration expires.
Superior Shadow Mastery: At 10'th level you gain +3 caster level to all spells cast in the sub-school of shadow, and spells with the Darkness descriptor.
CL-BAB-FS-RS-WS-Special- Spells per day
1'st-+0-+0-+0-+2- Shadow Mastery - +1 level
2'nd-+1-+0-+0-+3- Bonus Metamagic feat - +1 level
3'rd-+1-+1-+1-+3- Shadow Armor - +1 level
4'th-+2-+1-+1-+4- Insidious Shadows - +1 level
5'th-+2-+1-+1-+4- Improved Shadow Mastery - +1 level
6'th-+3-+2-+2-+5- Improved Darkvision - +1 level
7'th-+3-+2-+2-+5- Shadow Resistance - +1 level
8'th-+4-+2-+2-+6- Bonus metamagic feat - +1 level
9'th-+4-+3-+3-+6- Shadow Double - +1 level
10'th-+5-+3-+3-+7- Superior Shadow Mastery - +1 level
First impression is that I really like the Shadow Double ability.
Not so keen on the casterlevel bumps for Shadow-spells and savingthrow penalty abilities.
Yes. Great concept. But it really belongs in the FR General section. I'll have 18D move it.
LK is moving it to the Running the Realms Forums.;)
Seems interesting. I like the idea of a shadow mage that is not tied too much to the shadow weave instead of just plain old magic. Do you have or are planning on a 4e conversion?
Well the OP did have DIE 4E DIE in his sig awhile back so...
On topic, Looks cool.
Yes. Great concept. But it really belongs in the FR General section. I'll have 18D move it.
LK is moving it to the Running the Realms Forums.;
Running the Realms is a purposeless board.
Regardless, just make sure the OP knows where the hell his post went, 'Less he feels back stabbed and is forced to search for it on his own.
Yes. Great concept. But it really belongs in the FR General section. I'll have 18D move it.
LK is moving it to the Running the Realms Forums.;
Running the Realms is a purposeless board.
Regardless, just make sure the OP knows where the hell his post went, 'Less he feels back stabbed and is forced to search for it on his own.
What!? Screw you man! Running the Realms is Awesome! Of course im just saying that because my FR 4e Spells Thread ended up there, but still with WotC's decision to not make any more source books for the Realms, its really up to us to decide whats what, and that sort of stuff usually ends up in Running the Realms.
Running the Realms is a purposeless board.
It has fewer posts, certainly, but I enjoy reading the topics there. Well, most of them.
Yes. Great concept. But it really belongs in the FR General section. I'll have 18D move it.
LK is moving it to the Running the Realms Forums.;
Running the Realms is a purposeless board.
Regardless, just make sure the OP knows where the hell his post went, 'Less he feels back stabbed and is forced to search for it on his own.
It's not purposeless while we have it. Why search when you can subscribe.;)