Shadow & Spawning

[tazmagnum]

During my campaign, one of the PC's was drained by a Shadow, to Strength of 0. According to the Monster Manual, the player dies, and can be spawned & controlled by the Shadow that killed it. I have 2 questions:

1) What hit dice does the character (now a Shadow) use? (3 or the number Hit Dice he had before dying?

2) What happens to him after the 1d4 Rounds that he is controlled by the Shadow? In other words, does the character after those rounds control his own actions, albeit as a Shadow.

Thanks

 

[LokiDR]

1) he is a shadow, the creature. It isn't a template.

2) the fallen character is permently controlled, it just takes 1d4 rounds for him to come in as a shadow.

 

[Thanee]

Just a little sidenote... did you notice, that a Shadowdancer can make an army of shadows using his shadow companion to drain all opponents, who are not immediately dead (i.e. dying, stabilize, drain strength to zero)!

Yikes!

Bye
Thanee

 

[LokiDR]

Just a little sidenote... did you notice, that a Shadowdancer can make an army of shadows using his shadow companion to drain all opponents, who are not immediately dead (i.e. dying, stabilize, drain strength to zero)!

Yikes!

Bye
Thanee

There have been a few threads on that. I think most DMs house rule it. There may even be some offical clarification, but I don't know what it is at the moment.

 

[mikebr99]

Just a little sidenote... did you notice, that a Shadowdancer can make an army of shadows using his shadow companion to drain all opponents, who are not immediately dead (i.e. dying, stabilize, drain strength to zero)!

Yikes!

Bye
Thanee

The Shadow companions of the Shadow dancer are the same alignment, but any Shadows created by them would still be evil and very resentful of their relationship to the Shadowdancer. Please note that the shadow companions have the control over the spawn (not the Shadowdancer), and, being evil will try to twist every command that gets to them 3rd party. They will also try to remove the Shadowdancer from the picture as he has no direct control over them.

In the chaos of a big melee... the Shadowdancer and his companions will be spending alot of time watching their backs rather then in combat where they should be... it'll turn out to be more of a liability then anything else trying to control an army of Shadows with one or two companions. YMMV

Oh... and now the Shadowdancer has to protect his companions at all costs... lest he gets overwhelmed by his former army.

 

[tazmagnum]

What about the characters Belongings?

I forgot to ask, what do you think should happen to the Character's equipment, after the character becomes a shadow?

I mean, the Shadow is Incorporeal, so does the equipment fall on the ground?

Thanks

 

[Caliber]

Just a little sidenote... did you notice, that a Shadowdancer can make an army of shadows using his shadow companion to drain all opponents, who are not immediately dead (i.e. dying, stabilize, drain strength to zero)!

Why worry about the Shadowdancer? Shadows by themselves can easily do this.

One or two in a small village, say population 50, can convert the entire town into shadows rather quickly.

They grow exponentially. One shadow becomes two. Two become four. Four become eight. Eight becomes ... well you can see that this is getting nasty quickly.

In fact, I think I might have just gotten a campaign idea ....

Hehe