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A pit of Shadows was the trap my boss Lich had at the entrance of their dungeon. Cheap, efficient, self-renewable and eco friendly! Soul goes out probably adding one more to the pit, body stays perfectly intact for future use. I was so happy that they didn't fall for it, as the horror of what would've happen was better than permakilling a PC. Lich was super pissed when they threw a fireball in it though. Decades of farming Shadows ruined!

@sebbychou

2 жыл бұрын

The average fireball damage isn't high enough to kill an average shadow, surprisingly. And max HP shadows are impossible to kill with an unaugmented fireball. Food for thoughts.

Shadows are the most likely creature to cause an undead apocalypse. Just one, loose in a city, can spread like wildfire.

@WebDM

2 жыл бұрын

agreed!

@mattyule5312

2 жыл бұрын

Wights are also a strong contender for this. Granted they can only make 12 zombies, but the big difference is the wight is intelligent which can be argued as being far worse, since it commands the zombies.

@mlp_firewind8129

2 жыл бұрын

@@mattyule5312 I think wights and shadows are a good example of why you don’t need a Romero style zombie virus in dnd. While people have made good attempts to make zombies themselves infections. The idea of an army of stealthy slithering darkness creeping in through the crack in your door. Or a commander who can infinitely replenish their fire team of fighters. That sounds far more intimidating and far more fantastical.

@Taricus

2 жыл бұрын

@@mlp_firewind8129 I have an old campaign world that had a localized undead apocalypse. It really was a magical disease, but turned people into a type of ghoul instead. Packs of ghouls and ghasts with the ability to infect the living makes them much stronger with just that one addition. Now there is a city-state in the southern region of one continent that is ruled by an undead nation. A ruling family of vampires controls it and humans and demi-humans are kept like livestock for the undead there. It's constantly at war with a city-state to the north-east that has a ruling family with a long history of paladins and to the west with a confederacy of halfling states in the hills, but they are usually too busy with dealing with a hill giant infestation to lend much help 😝

@MrDavidKord

2 жыл бұрын

Now THAT sounds like a terrifying apocalypse adventure. How the hell didn't I think of that? Thank you, good sir!

When I used this they used lanterns and such to light up the area. I had the shadows use the hide action in the big guy's shadow. My party are all Doctor Who fans so were appropriately freaked out

@WisdomThumbs

2 жыл бұрын

That worked on my players too!

A hidden advantage of the Shadow is actually it's name. When a player passively perceives one all you have to say is "you see a shadow move by". The party will be aware that SOMETHING is nearby, but not what or where. SpOopY!

21:00 Silence in the Library, and Forest of the Dead. Two great doctor who episodes that everyone planning to cast a lot of shadows should watch.

I wish dnd had more monsters like the shaddows. In the way that a shaddow is mechnically a calamity waiting to happen. I love when a lore wise monster is hyped up to be super dangerous but mechnically theres like no backup. Give us more potential calamity type monsters.

This is exactly what I needed. I'm currently running a campaign where one of the antagonists is a minor Goddess whose domain is "The Night"

@TheGraphicOz

2 жыл бұрын

I once played in a campaign where these little bastards were the stock enemy of the BBEG. Let's just say I was glad I chose to play a barbarian and had a starting STR of 20.

@a0point0of0view1

2 жыл бұрын

In dungeon of the mad mage there is a variation of the shadow, a shadow assassin which is a sort of a mix of the two creatures, still only do 1d4 str damage but have two attacks, might be interesting for a greater servant or as an template as an idea for others

Shadows definitely have the potential to swing above their CR and I love the horde aspect to them

Shadows are one of those creatures that punch way above their CR. In pathfinder 1e they are CR 3 and incorporeal, so they can easily TPK an unprepared party.

@aurtosebaelheim5942

2 жыл бұрын

It helps that incorporeality is a much bigger deal in pathfinder 1e. Unless you have a good source of force damage or access to a Ghost Touch-equivalent, basically any incorporeal creature can party-wipe. Even dedicated anti-undead effects don't bypass the "magical effects from a corporeal source deal half damage/have a 50% chance to fail", so Positive Pulse and Disrupt Undead are still pretty useless. They also bypass most AC bonuses, so armour-tanks are screwed unless they have a backup Mage Armour. If you have a Cleric, Spiritualist (it's nice that they're good for something at least) or force-spammer (you've got a few options, I like Arcanist with Force Strike, but a Magic Missile Sorcerer works fine too) you're basically fine though. I kind of like that Pathfinder has a variety of low level trick monsters that can screw you over if you didn't prepare. Swarms are the common example, but my favourite is Gremlins for bringing DR/cold iron to the table alongside a bunch of interesting SLA's.

@superkeaton9912

2 жыл бұрын

Super agreed, as my group found out in our very first game of 5e. Four first level characters, one narrow hallway, total tpk.

@MithranderGray

2 жыл бұрын

Can confirm. My first TPK in 5e was a "medium difficulty" encounter with a group of shadows vs a level three party.

The Suicide Squad in the Valley of Shadow. A group of death row inmates sent in to clear the shadow scourge. Each dead shadow knocks a year off their sentence. Worse yet, the only villagers left would be evil so there are no friends here. Just uneasy allies.

As always, super inspiring. That idea of finding a village that's fallen, and the bodies have no shadows? Super ominous, tempted to use it for a one-shot.

@Bluecho4

2 жыл бұрын

If I were running it, I'd remind the players that bodies, if not disposed of, can rise as undead. They spend in-game hours dragging all these corpses that have no visible wounds, have no shadows, and plainly died in terror over to a mass grave or pyre. Make them terrified of the bodies AND whatever killed them. Really throw them for a loop when night falls, and the shadows themselves come to life by the dozens.

Thank you, I'm using this. I'm running a nautical game. Next session, a shadow is going to get on the ship. When they're a few days away from port, the shadow will start taking out the crew below deck. Perhaps the group wake to find the entire night crew dead, and then the shadows come.

@grindcoreninja6527

2 жыл бұрын

I like the idea, it would be fun to make it a session long mystery, some of the npc crew suspect each other and it because a who done it, until the shadow is seen or something.

@xaxzander4633

2 жыл бұрын

Dungeon magazine has this exact thing in issue # 50 its my go to 1st ship adventure.

@O4C209

2 жыл бұрын

I changed the Shadow to a Shadow Assassin (from Dungeon of the Mad Mage). It's a beefed up Shadow (CR 9) that makes Shadows from its kills. My party is mid level so I wanted a little bit more of a challenge.

@itzybitzyspyder

2 жыл бұрын

I did this for the intro to RotFM.

@xaxzander4633

2 жыл бұрын

@@O4C209 5E i did the same and left his drain ability. and expand it.

Yeah, the monster shows are back! Honestly, I enjoy the length of the episodes as they are, because it feels like y'all hit the noteworthy points and then noodle about a bit, generating AWESOME ideas in the process. I love the ones where y'all give me like 5 great ideas and go, "Have fun and let us know what works!"

*The Shadow Knows*

@FlaminTubbyToast

2 жыл бұрын

5 points to people who get the reference

@WebDM

2 жыл бұрын

@@FlaminTubbyToast already surprised that the reference has been recognized outside of ourselves!

@dustinsmith2021

2 жыл бұрын

An old radio show from like the 60’s idk the name.

@geoffallan5331

2 жыл бұрын

@@WebDM But it's an amazing source for names. I'd play Farley Claymore....

_Gasp_ A _The Shadow_ reference!? Respect!

My favorite "high Level" Shadow encounter is a scenario where 1+ shadows get loose in a city. Maybe a necromancer, maybe an ancient tomb is uncovered, etc. The Shadow's peasant killiing potential is phenomenal if you don't catch them quickly, and once slain, the average non-evil peasant becomes another Shadow monster in 1d4 hours, leading to a Ghost-Apocalypse fairly quickly. Shadows provide endless opportunities for bad luck. For example there's an ambush in an official module with 6 shadows. Because the overall area didn't feel very threatening in general, only one of my players actually went into the room, and did so as a Wildshaped Str 1 Spider. When the life-hating Shadows all swept in at once, the character was killed in a single round. Ouch.

I put a Lvl 11 paladin against 4 AC 13, shadow ARCHERS in an MC Esher-esque environment. May be my best work yet. But yeah, I do all sorts of things with Shadows. Top 10 monster for sure.

I'm actually planning an adventure with the exact opposite twist. In order to avoid the shadows, the PCs will have to plunge the area into complete darkness. Only then can there be no shadow.

It's been sooooo long since we've had a monster show. I'm so happy ;V;

A town has come down with a sickness of its people suffering from weakness, your party is sent to investigate and find a cure. You have to hunt out in the darkness to find the shadow(s) while keeping the people alive, the shadow does not attack the party at the start but kills off people they interact with or like. It could make a horror type of atmosphere.

When I ran Shadows I let them hide in dim light without breaking line of sight. It wasn't overpowered. The party couldn't kill it and the shadow didn't kill any of the party members because they had torches with them. It was a cool encounter. The players were rightly scared.

The ultimate strategy for fighting Shadow hordes is to focus on convincing your DM to let you keep your personality and alignment... ...y'know, after you're turned into a Shadow.

A session my players frequently bring up as a favorite fight was when I used Shadows. During a moonlit fight against undead creatures while chasing a necromancer, a party member would slay a creature before turning to the next foe... Only for the shadow of said creature to rise up and envelop the surprised party member. I had described the shadows trailing the undead, but the party just heard it as flavor - no one ever thought of them as actual Shadows. The tension that new, surprise dynamic brought was amazing, and made for an incredibly close low-level fight that they ultimately felt really good about. I love Shadows. Thanks for doing this video.

Far and away one of my favorites. Especially dig how Jim finds inspiration within the simple mechanics of light, vision and shadow's ability to squeeze and slip around.

Glad to see a new monster show! I think of everything you guys do, the monster shows might be most helpful/inspiring to me as a DM.

Have you tried stepping through the Shadows and coming out the other side? Also, would 46 and 2 Shadows be a deadly encounter?

@pranakhan

2 жыл бұрын

Yes, vs. Jung the Twilight Cleric

@brandonskoubo5176

2 жыл бұрын

I've been crawling on my belly Clearing out what could've been I've been wallowing in my own confused And insecure delusions For a piece to cross me over Or a word to guide me in I wanna feel the changes coming down I wanna know what I've been hiding In my shadow

@TheGraphicOz

2 жыл бұрын

@@brandonskoubo5176 Came here to say this, but you beat me to it XD

I love these episodes because while i love playing dnd i honestly dont have the time to read through every monster, and remember every nice little nuance. Watching these gets the wheels turning

I’m running a 20th level campaign, and shadows are one of the few low CR monsters I can still throw at my party to make them get real serious real quick.

I've very successfully used a single large creeping shadow slowly overtaking a temple room where each tendril were played as individual shadow monsters. Regarding shadows murdering high level characters, if you're using the mob rules where they have guaranteed hits by quantity of members, they're kind of one of the ultimate steamroller... reminds me of the ghost army in Return of the King haha.

When I clicked on this Video I hoped the Intro would be a "The Shadow" reference. And you Guys didn't let me down.

@WebDM

2 жыл бұрын

Web DM knows!

Shadows are a great fight regardless of character level. Because of that strength drain, they hit HARD. I love ‘em.

so happy for this video. love the deep dives into monsters and how to use them in a campaign. long-form content is always my jam.

Missed ya last week. Thanks y'all for being y'all

It's funny you mention Vashta Nerada that's literally what I did in my campaign. My players are SO terrified of shadows now, they literally do not f*** with them and will leave a Dungeon if they get a whiff of them.

In my last campaign a legendary red dragon incinerated a town and the shadows of the people left from the dragon's blast became shadows that attacked the party when they came to investigate. Similar to the shadows burned into the ground after the nuclear attacks in Japan.

These are great monsters! Good to see another vid from you all.

Just to say a huge thanks to the channel, its really improved my DMing. Keep up the excellent work please!

I'm really diggin these deep dives into specific monsters, please do more

I always used the shadows that Dr. Facilier summons in The Princess and the Frog as inspiration. I find them more fun when they are 2d.

Glad to see everyone back and in good health and spirits!

Gave me some really fun ideas, thanks guys 👌 would love to see longer videos

Just wanted to say that WebDM has been a part of my life since Volo's, Thanks guys.

My favorite story with shadows comes from one of the first games I ever ran. They were searching an abandoned research facility where many researchers had turned into shadows. The fight had been going for a while and the arcane trickster decided to cast light on her sword, which I thought was really cool. I basically decided that the weapon would be magic for the purposes of resistance. Then she rolled a crit and did enough damage to have killed it from full and then some. So I decided the light within the blade purified the shadow, driving out the darkness and leaving just the soul. Since the soul has nowhere to go, it bound to the blade and I slowly made it a sapient magic item that stayed with us for the rest of the campaign

Thank you for this gift.

I always look forward to your videos. Every single one has been informative and I have been able to use something y’all have said from each one. Since you asked about length, I love your longer ones (so much more info), but really the length is irrelevant. As long as you get all the information out, I personally do not care if it is 20 min or 2 hours. Each topic is different. I truly appreciate all the work y’all have done.

Great format! Keep up, guys!

Awww yeah!! Monster videos are back!

Gonna use this in my next campaign! Love the idea of the bodies having no shadows.

My lvl 19 artificer almost died because a demilich stuck their anti-magic field on me and I was surrounded by shadows. Now I was wearing my gauntlets of ogre power, so while I was under the anti-magic my strength went from 8 to 3 and ooo boy was it nail biting when I inevitably got hit by another of the 8 shadows and my strength got reduced to 0. The DM then was like "OH WAIT, WAIT, WAIT. I forgot the anti-magic field only lasted for the last round, what's your AC with you magic stuff back?" "25" "So....they _all_ miss" And so I was alive, with my gauntlets keeping me up as they can't reduce my strength with them, ha!

@itzybitzyspyder

2 жыл бұрын

It's already hard enough to kill players without a lenient DM....

So glad someone is finally aware of the power of shadows

So glad you are back. Missed you strangers.

@WebDM

2 жыл бұрын

We're happy to be back too! Thank you so much.

I had one of my players die to a shadow in a game. Bad situation where they split up to caper a building (WDH) and the lithe bard got surrounded while an ally was facing off against a group of thugs just on the other side of the door he was next to. He got to the point where he couldn't even hold his rapier effectively for his strength was so low and his gear so heavy. Then the killing blow came. The party stole a horse and fought a retreating offensive that turned into a mad dash to get their slain companion to the paladin's temple on the other side of town. The paladin pledged into debt with the temple in return for the resurrection of the bard who continued to adventure with the party, though he never again cast a shadow. The shadow is still out there, desiring nothing more than to be rid of its former owner.

I missed the monster episodes, I hope more are coming up!

We just started running Curse of Strahd and ended up having to fight 5 shadows at lvl 2... Freaking death trap!!

I saw a look of terror on my DM's face when I asked "What would happen if you put a Shadow inside a suit of armor? Like have it manipulate the armor."

Love the idea of magic light being difficult terrain for a shadow. I'm thinking about gradients of shadow providing "cover"...magical darkness provides complete cover, normal darkness is 75% cover, flickering torch/campfire shadows provide 50%, etc. I also think a shadow monk's shadow-step could be an interesting monster buff to freak a party out. "How many of them are there?!" "IDK, they're coming from everywhere!"...there's just one shadow-stepping around the room.

I once made an antagonist called Sulyvahn -> reference to dark souls. He’s a high level shadow with spells and can summon shadow versions of creatures that die near him. He can also temporarily take people’s shadows or hide in other’s shadows. If he takes a shadow he gains additional max hp.

I was just about to run a game with these monsters. Thanks for the added help!

This gives me another idea for my Breath of the Wild/Elden Ring inspired campaign. Long story short, one faction summoned a great old one to sever the world from the influence of the gods and another faction tried to prevent it by casting a 10th level spell to trap that area in a time loop at the cost of millions of lives throughout the land. Others, aware of the cost of this spell, attempted to turn to necromancy and undeath to avoid being claimed by the spell and now one of the consequences of their actions will be to inadvertently create a small plague of shadows that ravaged their town.

And another day passes that I miss webdm

That intro was priceless 👌

I found a handy trick to defeating Shadows. When our party encountered one, I declared "You are me, and I'm you," and then it wasn't a threat. ...well, our paladin did lay into it with a good smite, but I'm sure that was incidental.

Great timing. I was wanting to use shadows in a dungeon I’m making for my campaign. It’s a resting place for an ancient vampire in a century long slumber. Think Viktor from Underworld.

*I love the videos as long as the topic support it .*

An idea that came to mind is Have magic lights work similar to a plant growth effect 4 feet of movement for every 1 foot it moves. Almost trapping the higher level shadow in place

One thing about light is that it casts shadows itself. Just because a PC has a light source doesn't mean a Shadow can't hide within that radius. Just have them duck behind an object, like a tree or grave marker. The Shadow is hiding in the shadow of the object cast by the party's own light source. These spots of darkness could get pretty big, depending on placement. Another point: if a Shadow can move through 1 inch gaps without squeezing, it stands to reason it could hide in 1 inch wide gaps. Under bookcases, on the underside of a table, behind the door the party opened to enter the room and probably didn't think to check behind...

There's a weakened version of the Shadow in the Kobold Press Tome of Foes, called a Shroud. Less strength damage, but if they inflict 12 damage in a fight they evolve into a Shadow and gain hp correspondingly.

I dig some of these out-of-the-box uses for shadows, and shall promptly yoink them. ;) As for show length, I think 20-45 minutes is the sweet spot for this format, long enough to go in-depth, but any longer and I start wanting to skip ahead.

@WebDM

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the feedback!

Shadows are a perfect cure for a party relying solely on darkvision :D

One of the first adventures I ever ran the bad guy was a beefed up shadow. I gave it other shadows that were tethered to it. The players were on a ship and shadows are great for that because they don't take up any space really.

This was a good length video for me but I do watch KZread on 2x speed. I'd love to see more "monster spotlight" type segments from you, creatures appropriate for level 5-10 parties in particular.

Our crazy DM threw shadows at our 5 member level 1 party. We squeeked it out but but we could have easily been done for.

Nice job guys! I had a high level priest_wizard of Shar port the yawning portal into the plane of shadow and attack some Halruuan mages. He rode a fang dragon that transmuted into a shadow dragon once the Portal was ported. 😂 after 3 rnds of combat a bunch of shadows flew into the YP & started attacking the party(who's job it was to survive and get down the well!) Shadows on the plane of shadow become CR 2 creatures. Bumped up stats & immunities & increased movement. Had to break until next session. Party was taken completely unaware. 😮😂😂😂

The likely next encounter in the megadungeon I'm running is 4 Shadows + a Spectre. This was convenient timing for me haha.

I ran a Campaign Arch finale with shadows for my level 8 party last week. Had to beef them up abit.. but the combat was centered around the wizard concentrating on a spell for 3 rounds to ressurect a god. The shadows job was to soley target the wizard while the party deffended. The shadows damage was irrelevent, but the wizards strEnght was super low. The combat came down to rolling the D4 strenght drain. On a 4 the player was dead and the ritual failed... They rolled three leaving them on 1hp! I LOVE SHADOWS.

I ran an adventure featuring shadows that I wrote once. The premise was that the party was sent to the farming city to investigate because the harvest was late in arriving to the capital. There was a necromancer that pulled one shadow from the shadowfell and as an experiment unleashed it on this village and slowly every person there was killed by these shadows and left their withered corpses as the only evidence. It was really fun to see the party try to figure out what happened to all of these people until night fell.

So two things I would draw inspiration from in regards to mixing up Shadows are Black Sabbath from Jojo and Pride from FMA, both have different aspects of using shadows to their advantage and can make the players extremely paranoid of either the light or the shadows depending on which one you use

Shadows in 3rd edition are even scarier (CR 3), due mostly to flight and incorporeality. I'm using a group of six greater shadows (CR 8) as minions in an upcoming fight against my 15th level party, and am confident they will be effective enough not to be ignored.

My personal preference is to create 5 "grades" of Shadow, whose naming convention is based on the phases of the lunar cycle. How you enhance their abilities is up to you. I don't have the stat blocks I wrote up, handy at the moment, so I can't really tell you what I did. (Haven't played in over two years) I remember fluff really well...but mechanics, not so much. . Shadows encountered during a Full Moon are baseline Shadows from the book, without alterations. . Those encountered during a Gibbous Moon are slightly more powerful, slightly more pale, and slightly more transparent. . Shadows found during a Quarter Moon are again slightly upgraded from that of the Gibbous, and again are just a bit paler and more transparent. . When encountered during a Crescent Moon, they're further upgraded, and by this point are a significant challenge for even a mid-level party. Again, tiny bit paler and more transparent than before. . Shadows encountered during a New Moon are at the height of their power, and are no small threat even to an upper-level party. They're so pale that it seems as if they should be glowing, but they're all but invisible, and obviously give off no light anyway. Like a very lightly smoky version of a Predator's cloaking effect...or extremely clear Aerogel. . . . I also tended to run their behavior based on how old they are, and this behavior applies across all "phases" of Shadow. . A shadow that has existed for less than a year (Newborn), is mostly just a murder machine, barely better than a wild animal, but with no regard for any role in an ecosystem. It just kills on impulse...in a never-ending effort to destroy whatever life or goodness it encounters. They take shelter from the sun wherever it's convenient at the moment, and move on to find more victims as soon as it's safe to do so. It will use its abilities in clever and practical ways, but has no patience or interest for strategy. They don't care what phase of the moon it is, but they obviously do the most damage during the Crescent and New Moons. It will always flee rather than risk its existence, however. . One that has lasted for a decade or more (Adolescent), behaves like a serial killer. Careful, methodical, sadistic. It chooses prey carefully, studying every prospect, and taking the time to stalk and terrorize it over days, even weeks before finally going for the kill. They're choosy about their resting places, but they're rarely permanent and not especially secure. These creatures are easily spooked by potential threats, and won't stick their necks out for a kill if the conditions seem questionable. If they even think there might be a trap for them, they'll move on...though they may attempt revenge later on whomever they blame for the apparent slight against them. They do the majority of their hunting during the Quarter through New Moons, generally only scouting for new prospective victims during any other time. . Those that manage to survive at least a century (Mature), often start cults, or even criminal organizations, depending on circumstances (or both). They interact with their followers and minions only during the New Moon phase, and have a carefully selected hiding spot both for day time, and for the Full (and usually Gibbous) Moons. They rarely come out even during a Quarter Moon, but readily search for new victims during the Crescent and New Moons. They also typically have lair actions available when encountered in said lair, and may have some legendary actions if they're several centuries old. . Shadows that survive for a millennia (Ancient) are unliving nightmares. Even other powerful undead give these extant atrocities a wide berth. These creatures are in full control of their impulses, cold, methodical, pragmatic...completely divorced from their baser wishes. Ironically, these beings are as likely to seemingly do good, as they are to commit atrocities, simply because you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar. These beings rarely have a cult or organization of their own, but likely have several other Shadow-cults or living nobles under their influence. They're the ultimate power behind the throne, never revealing themselves to any of their subordinates, and using disposable messengers or untraceable magic for all communication. Everything about their "empires" are deeply and tightly compartmentalized, and most Mature Shadows who have their own cults don't even realize they themselves are serving an even older and more cunning Shadow. As Shadows are capable of spreading quite quickly, these entities will actually commission adventurers to cull local populations of younger Shadows, both to keep their spread under control, and also to prevent any competition against them from arising in the future. These creatures have well-appointed, often self-sufficient "lairs" maintained by living slaves who cannot leave that place (without being obvious and getting easily caught)...and typically have several of them across which they rotate their stays, occasionally establishing new ones and abandoning old ones across the ages. Their lairs are nearly impossible to find or reach anyway, as their entrances are typically only big enough for the smallest of creatures (or the Shadows themselves) to pass. Even so, they're essentially small dungeons themselves, with a variety of false rooms and traps scattered everywhere. As a result, these beings have not only a terrifying suite of legendary actions (because of their age), but lair actions galore. They absolutely will not leave their lairs except during a Crescent or New Moon, and then only rarely. . . . At one time, I used such a creature as the BBEG...Caligin Recherche. It spent the entire campaign commissioning the party to do epic acts of heroism as a "mysterious benefactor" at times, and often just by using proxies to make requests on its behalf, usually to thwart an evil that it itself had had staged just for them. It spent all that time cultivating them into paragons of virtue, only to tear them down at the end and consume them to create new and fully-devoted shadows that it could mold into its perfect servants. And yes, it was a TPK when they finally went after him. And yes, the party was actually ok with it because I didn't fudge rolls and I didn't actually make him too powerful. I just played him as an ancient and super-intelligent menace. I gave them everything they needed to know...and they still attacked his lair during a Crescent moon because they were too afraid they wouldn't be able to find him again if they waited. They knew they fucked up, and that was the consequence. They definitely did better the second time around...maybe a little too good, as I'm pretty sure most of them were metagaming pretty hard...but I didn't mind. I made those things dangerous for a reason...a little metagaming isn't unjustified, I suppose.

Thanks.

For shadow stride I'd use rules similar to the druids tree stride. So you've got 40 ft of movement and up to 4 hops I think.

"Hey, who turned out all the lights...hey, turned out all the lights...hey, who turned out all the lights..."

Just as a side note, if, and I repeat IF, you can befriend one, they make an AWESOME Warrior Sidekick. My sewer dwelling Ghostwise Halfling Wildfire Druid has a Shadow as a sidekick, and instead of summoning a Wildfire Spirit, I am able to set the Shadow ablaze and he becomes my wildfire spirit. And dang... Is he fun to run with.

Only 2 players I've ever killed in campaigns were from hidden shadow attacks. 5 the first time and 4 with a wraith the second. When they all get the first attack with advantage they can take down midlevel characters before they get to attack.

When I first saw this monster my first thought was a campaign about an ancient dwarven mountain city that is overrun by them because its underground. It also gives the Drow and Duergar something to grill the party about, imagine a conversation with a drow priestess where she's like "If the Drow weren't evil then we will be overrun by shadows since we're in the underdark and if we stop worshipping Lolth then she would stop the 'Hallow' spell from working and they would enter the city." The question of if a Shadow can kill a 20 level oc depends on the number of shadows, one should be pretty easy to take out, but a village full of them? dozens of shadows seems like a tall order for any non magically protected low strength pc. Unrelated but how would you rule the strength increasing items like 'gauntlets of ogre power' and 'potions/belt of giants strength' when it comes to strength drain?.

Pitch black campaign - shadows everywhere

50 shadows along with two Allips to help mitigate turning bombs from clerics can and has tpked an 18th level party of 6.

I have a whole dungeon and drow faction based on shadows. Also a pack of shadows could be great against a beholder.

Going to run a oneshot centered on shadows, and my party’s only cleric rolled 5 for their strength. This is going to be fun

We've all seen zombie beholders and death tyrants, but have we ever seen a shadow beholder? It could have been slain by a horde of shadows when it went into the wrong place for a lair. Sounds terrifying and badass. Off the top of my head... 1. The eye cone creates a cone of impenetrable darkness (anti-light field) instead of an anti-magic field. It can see through its own cone of darkness. 2. Its eyebeams all have an additional effect of an ability score drain. Change eyebeams as desired otherwise. 3. Anything killed by its beams becomes a shadow as per usual. 4. Sunlight vulnerability, though it will try to immediately snuff out any light it can with its cone of darkness.

@WebDM

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Sounds pretty nasty

I like the idea of the Shadow being able to hitchhike in the PC's shadow just to mess with them. They get attacked and the attacker disappears so the scout returns to the rest of the party only for his shadow to jump out and attack the cleric, that kind of tomfoolery.

Probably my favourite enemy

I’m already thinking of how to make them more of a threat. Let them absorb the str drain and at some point they gain enough str to form their own body. Don’t know what to make that. But turn their goals from random killing to an actual goal.

The old school Shadows could only be hit by magic weapons. They were a good 'next step' undead encounter. They teach players that you don't want to get touched by some things. Old school ghouls, ghosts, an wraiths that stole levels or paralysed on touch can be hard to suddenly encounter. The Shadows are a good way to get some practice for the heavier undead beasties. You never encounter just one. They're always in packs and ready to writhe over the characters, like the Doldrums in the Phantom Tollbooth.

Nice

The non-evil stipulation also prevents evil characters from just "volunteering" to become shadows.

As a DM i've tried with my party of 3 level 18 characters in a part of Waterdeep dragged into the shadowfell. They managed to survive against around 30 shadows and 3 custom shadows i made stronger (like 150hp each and some other stuff). Except for a few strength reductions they never have been in a real danger. They should have been really stupid to die, which fortunately didn't happened.

If anything would have benefited from touch attacks being retained in 5e this would be it. Really, any non-corporeal creature shouldn't have to account for physical armour when it can pass through anything of physical substance. Tangent: I loved these monsters back in the day (AD&D 2nd Edition). As a necromancer, Summon Shadow (5th lvl) = you gain an unliving mob of goons (minimum three) for one round + 1 round per level (minimum 10 rounds = 10 minutes in AD&D) that can create more of themselves and theoretically take their creations back to the Negative material plane whence they came (GM decision on that one). Add on that they required +1 weapons to hit and had half decent hp, they became great battlefield/mass combat minions. A BBE of mine smashed a whole flank of a PC army with that spell. They just mobbed regular soldiers then turned them. Rinse and repeat. Before the PCs could figure out what was going on there was a seething mass darkness where their meat shields used to be. Terrifying back then, even now really, though they're a bit easier to handle.

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? THE SHADOW KNOWS