[FR] Transforming into a Shade

[ascendance]

One of my players really wants his character to turn into a Shade.

The character got a book on the subject from no less than Larloch himself.

So, I call upon the collective wisdom of ENworld... what should the process of turning into a Shade entail? From what I understand, becoming a Shade entails exchanging your life force for shadow.

Any ideas?

 

[FireLance]

Mechanics or flavour?

Mechanics-wise, to add the shade template to a character, you could stat it up as a template class (see this WotC article for an example) and allow him to gain levels in it.

Flavour-wise, you might want him to undergo a ritual to bond himself to the Plane of Shadow, bathe in the blood of a shadow dragon, require him to be almost completely drained of Strength by an undead shadow, whatever.

 

[Tewligan]

You could require the character to find and bargain with some powerful entity on the Plane of Shadow. Who, of course, keeps the character's life force that it replaces with shadowstuff and can use that life force later on down the road to force the character to commit some nefarious deed on its behalf. Not that it mentions that minor detail to the character at the time of the bargain...

Or, maybe only so many shades can exist at one time. To become a shade, one has to first scour ancient libraries, consult sages, etc. to learn the necessary rituals. Then he has to find and kill a shade so that he can steal its essence to become a shade himself. Of course, any shade knows that there will always be people looking to steal the Gift of Shadows, so they're sure to have plenty of defenses - you don't last long as a shade if you can't hold onto that power. If the character DOES manage to kill a shade and reach shadehood himself, then he just became a target for ambitious adventurers very similar to him back in his "fleshy" days.