Laurefindel
Legend
I'm currently converting to 5e a character we created back in AD&D 2nd edition, that also got converted to D&D 3rd edition and gained a lot of power there. It started as a shadow mage in 2e, who then became a shadow adept in 3e (a prestige class in the 3e Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting). To make things even more complicated, that character became a shade (a template also from 3e Forgotten Realm era).
Although this is mostly just a fun experiment, I'm asking for feedback on a few homebrewed archetypes I've made for that conversion. This thread is about the 2e shadow mage conversion attempt, but you can find my version of the shade here.
N.B. reference to the Plane of Shadow rather than Shadowfell is intentional.
[sblock=SHADOW MAGIC ARCANE TRADITION]
Shadow Magic
The shadow magic arcane tradition emphasizes on spells affecting the mind and senses by tapping into the Plane of Shadow to give substance to illusions.
Unlike Shadow Weave magic, shadow magic is an ancient arcane tradition using Mystra’s Weave to harness the stuff of shadows. Despite of this, the concepts of Shadow Weave magic closely align with the principle of reflection that underpins shadow magic. Shadow wizards can thus truly understand the Shadow Weave, and many are naturally attracted to it and learn to utilize it.
Shadow Casting
Because it draws its energy from the Plane of Shadow, shadow magic is closely tied to the lighting conditions at the time of casting. Starting at 2nd level when you select this arcane tradition, targets make their saving throw with disadvantage when you cast a spell in an area of darkness. If you are in bright light when you cast the spell, your opponents gain advantage on their saving throws instead.
Sustaining Shadows
Starting at 6th level, you can draw sustenance directly from the Plane of Shadow and require only a day’s worth of rations per week. In addition, your connection to the Plane of Shadows keeps you comfortably cool yet protected from arctic cold. You have advantage on Constitution checks made to avoid the effect of cold or warm weather. Finally, you have advantage on Constitution saving throws made to avoid the effects of poison and disease, and gain resistance to poison damage.
Shadow Walk
As of 10th level, when you are in an area of dim light or darkness, you and up to 8 willing creatures of your choice can enter the Near-Shadow; a place where the borders of the Material Plane blur with those of the Plane of Shadow. Doing so requires 1 minute of incantations and preparation.
In this space between worlds, you can travel along the edges of the Plane of Shadow and step back into the Material Plane when you reach your destination; a method of travel commonly referred as “shadow walking”. As you take advantage of the distortion of distances between the two planes, traveling this way allows you to cover 10 times more distance for each hour of travel than you normally would on the Material Plane at your traveling speed.
Travel appears to be normal in the Near-Shadow as shadow walkers must tread the paths, climb the hills and cross the rivers as they would on the Material Plane. While the Plane of Shadow echoes the Material Plane, the blurring of reality between these two planes prevents you from telling with accuracy where your position stands relative to the Material Plane. It’s impossible to judge distances accurately in the near-shadow and you can’t you predict perfectly where your travel will end, making this ability virtually useless for scouting or spying.
When traveling in the Near-Shadow, you must orient yourself with an ability check using your spellcasting ability. If you are proficient in the Survival skill, you may add your proficiency bonus to this roll. The DC for this check = 10 + the number of hours spent in the Near-Shadow. On a successful check, you and your group emerge 1d10 x 100 feet in a random horizontal direction from the target destination. On a failed check, the distance off-target equals 1d10 x 1d10 percent of the total distance that was to be traveled.
On a natural roll of 1 (i.e. the d20 produces a result of 1 before the application of any modifier), a mishap occurs and you and your group emerge from the Near-Shadow 1d10 days later than expected, although time wasn’t altered for the travelers.
Shadow walk can also be used to travel to the Plane of Shadow itself by leaving the path on the edge of the Material Plane toward deeper shadows.
A creature lost or abandoned on the way of a shadow walk emerges back on the Material Plane 1d10 days after the moment it entered the near-shadow. The creature appears 50 miles per “day” spent in the near-shadow from the point of entering, in a random direction.
Once you have used this ability, you must take a long rest to use it again.
Shadow Conjuration
You can use material from the Plane of Shadow to shape quasi-real illusions of creatures, objects, or forces. Beginning at 14th level, you can use an action to mimic any conjuration or evocation spell of 5th level or lower on the wizard spell list by spending a spell slot of the copied spell’s level. Additionally, the spell mustn’t have a casting time greater than action, require expensive component, emit light in a 5-foot radius or more, or deal radiant damage to be eligible for shadow conjuration. If the mimicked spell requires concentration, you must maintain concentration on your shadow conjuration as well.
Shadow conjurations are weaker than their regular counterparts in many aspects. Creatures and objects created with shadow conjuration possess half their normal amount of hit points, and can support half the weight of their real counterpart. Shadow creatures and energy attacks deal only half as much damage as their regular counterparts, and fixed durations of 10 minutes, 1 hour, 8 hours and 24 hours are halved from that of their original spells. No shadow conjurations can be made permanent; permanent durations are reduced to 24 hours instead. Lastly, shadow conjurations cannot cast spell, even if the imitated creature normally does so. Spell save DC and other numerical effects however, remain unaffected.
Any shadow conjuration attacking or otherwise causing damage is automatically recognized by the target as an illusion over a vague, shadowy form.
[/sblock]
Also, I made a Shadow Weave magic feat for actual users of the Shadow Weave. It's more of a Forgotten Realms thing...
[sblock=SHADOW WEAVE MAGIC FEAT]
Shadow Weave Magic
You have discovered the dangerous secret of the Shadow Weave and can tap into it to make your spells last longer, more difficult to detect, and harder to dispel. When you select this feat, you gain the following benefits:
Harnessing the powers of the Shadow Weave comes at a price however. When you acquire this feat, your Wisdom is permanently reduced by 2 points. Rest and magic do not reverse the Wisdom loss, but you can strike a deal with the goddess Shar, creator of the Shadow Weave, by converting to her faith and completing a quest from one of her clerics in order to recover your lost Wisdom.
[/sblock]
Change Log
May 6th
- 1st version posted
May 8th
- figured out spoiler tags
- included "dim light" in 2nd level ability
- replaced "Potent Spells" with "Shadow Walk"
- Shadow Conjuration reduced to "level 5 and lower" duplicates.
Although this is mostly just a fun experiment, I'm asking for feedback on a few homebrewed archetypes I've made for that conversion. This thread is about the 2e shadow mage conversion attempt, but you can find my version of the shade here.
N.B. reference to the Plane of Shadow rather than Shadowfell is intentional.
[sblock=SHADOW MAGIC ARCANE TRADITION]
Shadow Magic
The shadow magic arcane tradition emphasizes on spells affecting the mind and senses by tapping into the Plane of Shadow to give substance to illusions.
Unlike Shadow Weave magic, shadow magic is an ancient arcane tradition using Mystra’s Weave to harness the stuff of shadows. Despite of this, the concepts of Shadow Weave magic closely align with the principle of reflection that underpins shadow magic. Shadow wizards can thus truly understand the Shadow Weave, and many are naturally attracted to it and learn to utilize it.
Shadow Casting
Because it draws its energy from the Plane of Shadow, shadow magic is closely tied to the lighting conditions at the time of casting. Starting at 2nd level when you select this arcane tradition, targets make their saving throw with disadvantage when you cast a spell in an area of darkness. If you are in bright light when you cast the spell, your opponents gain advantage on their saving throws instead.
Sustaining Shadows
Starting at 6th level, you can draw sustenance directly from the Plane of Shadow and require only a day’s worth of rations per week. In addition, your connection to the Plane of Shadows keeps you comfortably cool yet protected from arctic cold. You have advantage on Constitution checks made to avoid the effect of cold or warm weather. Finally, you have advantage on Constitution saving throws made to avoid the effects of poison and disease, and gain resistance to poison damage.
Shadow Walk
As of 10th level, when you are in an area of dim light or darkness, you and up to 8 willing creatures of your choice can enter the Near-Shadow; a place where the borders of the Material Plane blur with those of the Plane of Shadow. Doing so requires 1 minute of incantations and preparation.
In this space between worlds, you can travel along the edges of the Plane of Shadow and step back into the Material Plane when you reach your destination; a method of travel commonly referred as “shadow walking”. As you take advantage of the distortion of distances between the two planes, traveling this way allows you to cover 10 times more distance for each hour of travel than you normally would on the Material Plane at your traveling speed.
Travel appears to be normal in the Near-Shadow as shadow walkers must tread the paths, climb the hills and cross the rivers as they would on the Material Plane. While the Plane of Shadow echoes the Material Plane, the blurring of reality between these two planes prevents you from telling with accuracy where your position stands relative to the Material Plane. It’s impossible to judge distances accurately in the near-shadow and you can’t you predict perfectly where your travel will end, making this ability virtually useless for scouting or spying.
When traveling in the Near-Shadow, you must orient yourself with an ability check using your spellcasting ability. If you are proficient in the Survival skill, you may add your proficiency bonus to this roll. The DC for this check = 10 + the number of hours spent in the Near-Shadow. On a successful check, you and your group emerge 1d10 x 100 feet in a random horizontal direction from the target destination. On a failed check, the distance off-target equals 1d10 x 1d10 percent of the total distance that was to be traveled.
On a natural roll of 1 (i.e. the d20 produces a result of 1 before the application of any modifier), a mishap occurs and you and your group emerge from the Near-Shadow 1d10 days later than expected, although time wasn’t altered for the travelers.
Shadow walk can also be used to travel to the Plane of Shadow itself by leaving the path on the edge of the Material Plane toward deeper shadows.
A creature lost or abandoned on the way of a shadow walk emerges back on the Material Plane 1d10 days after the moment it entered the near-shadow. The creature appears 50 miles per “day” spent in the near-shadow from the point of entering, in a random direction.
Once you have used this ability, you must take a long rest to use it again.
Shadow Conjuration
You can use material from the Plane of Shadow to shape quasi-real illusions of creatures, objects, or forces. Beginning at 14th level, you can use an action to mimic any conjuration or evocation spell of 5th level or lower on the wizard spell list by spending a spell slot of the copied spell’s level. Additionally, the spell mustn’t have a casting time greater than action, require expensive component, emit light in a 5-foot radius or more, or deal radiant damage to be eligible for shadow conjuration. If the mimicked spell requires concentration, you must maintain concentration on your shadow conjuration as well.
Shadow conjurations are weaker than their regular counterparts in many aspects. Creatures and objects created with shadow conjuration possess half their normal amount of hit points, and can support half the weight of their real counterpart. Shadow creatures and energy attacks deal only half as much damage as their regular counterparts, and fixed durations of 10 minutes, 1 hour, 8 hours and 24 hours are halved from that of their original spells. No shadow conjurations can be made permanent; permanent durations are reduced to 24 hours instead. Lastly, shadow conjurations cannot cast spell, even if the imitated creature normally does so. Spell save DC and other numerical effects however, remain unaffected.
Any shadow conjuration attacking or otherwise causing damage is automatically recognized by the target as an illusion over a vague, shadowy form.
[/sblock]
Also, I made a Shadow Weave magic feat for actual users of the Shadow Weave. It's more of a Forgotten Realms thing...
[sblock=SHADOW WEAVE MAGIC FEAT]
Shadow Weave Magic
You have discovered the dangerous secret of the Shadow Weave and can tap into it to make your spells last longer, more difficult to detect, and harder to dispel. When you select this feat, you gain the following benefits:
- All your spells with a fixed duration increase by one category. Spells with a duration of 10 minutes now last for 1 hour, spells with a duration of 1 hour now last 8 hours, and spells with a duration of 8 hours now last 24 hours. Spells with a duration of 24 hours remain unaffected.
- A spellcaster must make an ability check using its spellcasting ability when using detect magic to sense one of your spells. The DC equals 10 + the spell’s level. On a successful check, the spell is detected and its aura can be sensed normally.
- You can add your proficiency bonus to the ability check’s DC when one of your spells of 4th level or higher is targeted by a counterspell or dispel magic spell. The DC thus equals 10 + the spell’s level + your proficiency bonus.
Harnessing the powers of the Shadow Weave comes at a price however. When you acquire this feat, your Wisdom is permanently reduced by 2 points. Rest and magic do not reverse the Wisdom loss, but you can strike a deal with the goddess Shar, creator of the Shadow Weave, by converting to her faith and completing a quest from one of her clerics in order to recover your lost Wisdom.
[/sblock]
Change Log
May 6th
- 1st version posted
May 8th
- figured out spoiler tags
- included "dim light" in 2nd level ability
- replaced "Potent Spells" with "Shadow Walk"
- Shadow Conjuration reduced to "level 5 and lower" duplicates.
Last edited:
The lights/illumination in the area seem to falter and your vision darkens a bit. In the still flickering torchlight, the shadows surrounding you all become deeper, more distinct, and seem to dance with a carefree ferocity...
