Question regarding Shades

[UltimaGabe]

A friend of mine is relatively new to D&D, and he's started playing with our fairly experienced group. He IMed me the other day, saying that he talked to some of the other people in the group, and bought another book- I've only talked to him online, so the details are kinda sketchy- and he says he's remade his character to fit some new classes from some of the newer books (which we allow in our campaign, if a new class fits your character concept better). So then he said he made his character a shade. He listed what his class levels were, and I noticed that although he's a Shade, he hasn't taken any sort of Level Adjustment into account. I explained to him online what a Level Adjustment is, but he says that he's read the description over and over and he says there's nothing in the description about a Level Adjustment. He said the book is called "The Book of the Forgotten Realm"- and he's sure that it isn't the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book.

Through talking to him, I realized that he's reading a monster description rather than a Template. He said the granted abilities are SR 11, speed increases of 20 ft. in darkness, he gains +2 to attack in darkness, +4 to all saving throws, +4 to listen and spot, +8 to Hide. He then said that it says "Challenge Rating: +2". I assured him that that meant his ECL is at LEAST +2, but he didn't seem to believe me.

Anyone know what book he's reading? Anyone know of an updated (3.5) template for making a character a Shade that I can send him?

 

[Knight Otu]

Here's the link to the Web Enhancement for the Player's Guide to Faerun, which updates existing monsters to 3.5 rules. You don't need to download it, just scroll down to the end of the excerpt - Shades are LA +5 (and IIRC, they have been LA +5 ever since the FRCS errata came out).

He might be reading Races of Faerun, but I'm pretty sure it also lists an LA...

Yep, but it lists an LA +4. Since the Web Enhancement is newer, you'll propably want to go with that one (pg 147, right below the subheader SHADE and the Region).

 

[Telperion]

Through talking to him, I realized that he's reading a monster description rather than a Template. He said the granted abilities are SR 11, speed increases of 20 ft. in darkness, he gains +2 to attack in darkness, +4 to all saving throws, +4 to listen and spot, +8 to Hide. He then said that it says "Challenge Rating: +2". I assured him that that meant his ECL is at LEAST +2, but he didn't seem to believe me.

Anyone know what book he's reading? Anyone know of an updated (3.5) template for making a character a Shade that I can send him?

I would suggest to your friend that he takes something a little lighter to start with. I played with a Shade (in a Forgotten Realms campaign) and it was quite a job. You see the shade gets a boat load of special abilities and such, but all of those abilities fly out the window if he is not in at least a shadowed area, and in bright daylight he looks rather out of place.

The LA that I used was +3, and that was from the Forgotten Realms 3.5 book.
In any event my character was a fighter 3 Shade, and whenever he was sneeking around in the shadows, or it was nigthtime things went smoothly. But as soon as someone cast Daylight or something else that takes all those lovely shadows away you end up with a basic level 3 fighter with no special abilities what-so-ever.

Now, if the rest of the characters are used to moving around during nights, evening and early mornings, then all is fine. Shadowy caves and alleyways work fine as well. But, if this not the environment the group is usually in the player with the Shade character is going to lose a whole lot of abilities, which make the character so great to begin with.

 

[UltimaGabe]

I explained all of this to him (including the fact that he's going to have to give up 5 levels of his existing classes to take the Template), and he still seems to want to do it. Oh well. I guess that's his own problem.

 

[Spatula]

He's looking at the Shade template in the monster section of the 3.0 FRCS, page 314-5. There's no level adjustment listed because the book does not present them as a PC race (the PC races are all listed in the front of the book).

 

[Knight Otu]

There's no level adjustment listed because the book [FRCS] does not present them as a PC race.

Actually, it has a level adjustment. On page 288, a few LA's are listed from the MM, MoF and the FRCS. The shade is one of them, with an LA of +2 (which was errata's to +5, must be at least 5th level, IIRC).

 

[Spatula]

Ah, I thought there was an LA in there somewhere, but I couldn't find it. But like I said, it's not a part of the template description.

 

[UltimaGabe]

He's looking at the Shade template in the monster section of the 3.0 FRCS, page 314-5. There's no level adjustment listed because the book does not present them as a PC race (the PC races are all listed in the front of the book).

He isn't, though. I asked him if it was the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book several times, and each time he said no. He said the title of the book is "The Book of the Forgotten Realm".

 

[Spatula]

Ask him to read what it says on the spine of the book.

 

[Pax]

He's probably gotten himself a non-WOTC product, is all.