What form(s) of magic oppose shadow?

[elijah snow]

In Dungeons and Dragons, what form(s) of magic oppose shadow magic?

I am designing a Pathfinder/3.5E adventure that requires a powerful artifact whose inherent magic and magic-wielding agents oppose magic from the plane of shadow.

Thoughts from any edition would be helpful.

[fba827]

No idea if one was ever officialy defined, (and it's been a long while since I've read my 3.5 stuff) so just making suggestions to consider...

*something with "light"
*of the elemental types, fire gets you cloest to light
*since it's an artifact just say it does an extra +X against creatures with the shadow subtype (maybe make X whatever a ranger favored enemy bonus would be, or double, or something)
* for flamestrike there is that special damage (going completely from memory here) that was light and fire and you couldn't resist the light half of it, perhaps something similar

But, anyway, as said, I don't know anything official so I can't be any "real" help, just trying to think of possible house-ruled options.

[Protagonist]

I haven't looked at it for a while, but for 3.x the Book of Exalted Deeds had some very strong "light"-type spells. Maybe this could serve as an inspiration.

For 4E I'd say something dealing radiant damage

[Dragonblade]

In 4e, shadow is loosely tied to undeath and necrotic energy, its opposite is radiant energy which is loosely tied to the Feywild, though I would say it has some stronger ties toward angels and divine beings.

In prior editions of D&D, this dichotomy was represented by the planes of negative and positive energy. Shadow wasn't really opposed by anything that I can recall. It was just a mysterious demi-plane in 2e and prior.

[Felon]

Originally Posted by Dragonblade

In 4e, shadow is loosely tied to undeath and necrotic energy, its opposite is radiant energy which is loosely tied to the Feywild, though I would say it has some stronger ties toward angels and divine beings.

In prior editions of D&D, this dichotomy was represented by the planes of negative and positive energy. Shadow wasn't really opposed by anything that I can recall. It was just a mysterious demi-plane in 2e and prior.

There was a Dragon magazine article that offered us a counterpart to the Plane of Shadow. It was called the Plane of Radiance. Perhaps another instance of the symmetry fetish often seen in older editions.

In the recently-released Manual of the Planes, the Feywild is described as being the Shadowfell's opposite in broad respects. Whereas the shadowfell provides a distorted reflection of the material plane at its most decayed and entropic state, the feywild reflects the material plane in the lushness and splendor of its youth, untouched by civilization.

[ferratus]

I like to associate Radiant damage with Astral Fire and the Astral Plane.

[arscott]

In 3.5, the closest thing the plane of shadow has to an opposite is the Etherial plane. What about a magic item that deals with Ether?

[Staffan]

I always liked the Dark Sun interpretation of shadow as something separate from darkness, and dependent on light. The novels have various shadow creatures that are almost unstoppable in direct sunlight, but if you can get them indoors into darkness they become far weaker.

That goes against the way Shadow tends to work in 3e and 4e though. In the Forgotten Realms books, there are a series of feats aligning you with the Shadow Weave as opposed to the regular Weave. These feats make you better at spells with the Darkness descriptor, as well as Enchantment, Illusion, and Necromancy. They make you worse at Evocation and Transmutation spells (unless they have the Darkness descriptor), and totally incapable of casting spells with the Light descriptor.

So the obvious way of having an anti-Shadow artifact would be to load it up with Light effects. Spells like searing light and sunburst would fit the bill. 2e (and likely 1e) had some cool moon-themed priest spells, like starshine and moonbeam that might fit the bill as "light out of shadow"-type spells (although, those spells tended to be pretty weak for their level).

A more subtle approach would be to attack the Enchantment/Illusion aspects of Shadow Magic. Effects that give you clarity of thought and vision. True seeing and mind blank might be a bit too absolute, but maybe a more specific dispel illusion type of effect.

[Ismaul]

Feywild <------> Shadowfell
Arcane <------> Shadow