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Fellfire
Master of Realmslore
1965 Posts |
 Posted - 20 Sep 2016 : 20:49:36
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Shadow-stealer, shadow-snatcher, shadow-eater. I haven't found it yet, but I'm sure it's out there. Demons, fey, undead, Sharran shadow adepts, priests of dark and foul gods. I've even read of derro surgically removing a persons' shadow. What I'm wondering is what would the mechanical effects of losing your shadow be? I had thought to ask ESdB as I seem to recall him saying that somebody had taken Ilira's, but he hasn't been around in a while. Why would something steal your shadow? What good would it do them? Would it regenerate? What do you think?
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Misanthorpe
Love is a lie. Only hate endures. Light is blinding. Only in darkness do we see clearly.
"Oh, you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but.. blinding. The shadows betray you because they belong to me." - Bane The Dark Knight Rises
Green Dragonscale Dice Bag by Crystalsidyll - check it out
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Edited by - Fellfire on 21 Sep 2016 05:09:01
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 20 Sep 2016 : 21:47:10
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I was working on a system where the individual 'mortal' was formed of three parts - the physical (body), the mental (mind), and the spiritual (soul), which corresponds to the (Prime) Material, Astral, and Ethereal planes (each piece rejoins its plane of origin upon death). These also correspond to the Id, the ego, and the Super-ego in psychology.
Now here is an idea that was inspired by a short story I read in a fantasy anthology (the shadow part, not the rest)-
Your physical body represents the 'you' in this world. Your reflection represents your 'soul', and your shadow represents your 'spirit', or rather, the thing that makes you, YOU (your mind). Each is just an image of the three different 'faces' of you. (in that short story, I believe the shadow represented the soul of a person, but I adapted it for D&D).
Thus, in order to create an undead, you simply remove just one (or two) portions of the 'whole'. Why do vampires have no reflections? Because they are souless. A strange form of undead could have a soul and a body, but no sense of 'self', and thus, have no shadow (Peter Pan was undead?  )
I was working out rules for all of this, right around the time those 'preview' books came out about 4e (you know, the ones that were actually advertisements that they tricked people into buying?) There was a lot of great 'plans' in those books that never saw fruition in 4e, and one was this same method of the 'rule of three' in regards to the undead. When I saw that, I choose to wait and see what they did with it, rather than waste my time creating a sub-system that would ever get utilized. Alas, that was one of the ideas that got thrown in the wastebasket before the final product came out.
Thus, a 'shadow person' is just an imprint of a person's leftover 'ego' (sense of 'self') that gets left behind in the prime Material, for whatever reason. This actually makes loads of sense when applied to RW paranormal activity (which I like to cleave to as much as possible, for realism). Without a soul or physical body, its basically 'ego run-amok' (so, possibly 'pure evil').
Hope you can use some of that. 
EDIT: In that short story, there were 'shadow collectors' who stole people's shadows, and those people became 'living zombies', which still works perfectly well with my slight modifications. There were people in the town who were acting like Ju-ju (VooDoo) Zombies, and were missing their shadows. The only way to combat one of these 'Shadow thieves' was with hiring another one who was stronger. Even after the battle, no-one embraced the 'hero', because they, too, had people's shadows, and most folks find that horrifying (so basically, those guys were loners and mercenaries, fighting others of their ilk).
(And YES, I got your PM - still need to find time to answer properly). |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 20 Sep 2016 21:57:07 |
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Fellfire
Master of Realmslore
1965 Posts |
Posted - 20 Sep 2016 : 21:53:05
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| Thanks, Markus. |
Misanthorpe
Love is a lie. Only hate endures. Light is blinding. Only in darkness do we see clearly.
"Oh, you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but.. blinding. The shadows betray you because they belong to me." - Bane The Dark Knight Rises
Green Dragonscale Dice Bag by Crystalsidyll - check it out
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36779 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2016 : 00:42:45
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| My thinking... I'd say that if you stole someone's shadow, it would leave them more vulnerable to cold-based attacks and level drains, and would likely impair healing. I'd further say that the shadow itself could be used in a manner akin to the Hollywood versions of Voodoo dolls. |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11695 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2016 : 01:26:38
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| Stealing someone's shadow and "wearing it" might be a good way to pass yourself off as them, adding some kind of boost to illusion magics where you duplicate them. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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Fellfire
Master of Realmslore
1965 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2016 : 02:01:52
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| Unable to recieve healing magics is a good incentive to reclaim your shadow. Unless it was consumed in some vile ritual. |
Misanthorpe
Love is a lie. Only hate endures. Light is blinding. Only in darkness do we see clearly.
"Oh, you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but.. blinding. The shadows betray you because they belong to me." - Bane The Dark Knight Rises
Green Dragonscale Dice Bag by Crystalsidyll - check it out
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Fellfire
Master of Realmslore
1965 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2016 : 04:47:55
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| So, Markus using your logic a shadow would have no body or spirit (mind), only existing as soul tainted with shadow-stuff. Whereas a vampire exists as body and spirit without soul and a ghost exists as spirit (partial, anyway) and soul (ghosts appear in mirrors?) without a body. Am I getting that right? Body/mind/spirit I understand, but the division of soul and spirit is confusing. |
Misanthorpe
Love is a lie. Only hate endures. Light is blinding. Only in darkness do we see clearly.
"Oh, you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but.. blinding. The shadows betray you because they belong to me." - Bane The Dark Knight Rises
Green Dragonscale Dice Bag by Crystalsidyll - check it out
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2016 : 07:18:06
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I've stretched the meaning of 'spirit' to mean the 'mind' of a person, but not in a physical, 'brain sense', but rather, 'sense of self' (the ego, in psychology). Animals do not have the soul, only the spirit. So yes, if the a vampire has no soul, thats why they have no reflection.
The soul is the 'cosmic stuff' which connect us to 'god' (or in D&D terminology, to outer planes). I'm running into a problem here, which is probably why I stopped working on it - if the soul is connected to the gods, then THAT should be part of the astral, not the mind (spirit). The 'soul' is the part that normally moves on to some afterlife. Hmmmm... bit of a conundrum, unless I rearrange the Great Wheel just a tad, but thats a major change that effects so much else. I could just cheat and chalk it up as one of those 'great mysteries of the universe'.
So yeah, the combinations would be:
Lesser Undead
Body Only - Zombie
Spirit only - shadow
Soul Only - ghost
Greater Undead
Body & spirit - vampire
Spirit & Soul - wraith
Body & Soul - mummy (ancient dead)
Something along those lines. As I said, I was in the middle of working everything out when I just stopped, so its pretty rough. More like an idea on how to better represent undead in-game, and their creepiness. For example, maybe because a mummy has no shadow, thats why folks never detect one sneaking up on them (its a stretch, I know). The Greyhawk setting had intelligent undead known as Animus, and that would be similar to a vampire (no soul), but without the vampire powers and weaknesses.
One could surmise that one type of undead could possibly evolve into another type, in much the same way that mortals 'level up', or that deities have 'tiers'. If I were to go that route, I would say the Animus could possibly start to develop energy-draining (or even blood-sucking) powers over time, but as this happens, they have to develop a corresponding weakness (sunlight, holy symbols and/or water, wooden stakes, etc). So an undead could possibly get more powerful, but would still have to remain within its group I have outlined above. Ghosts could become more powerful incorporeal types, like haunts, or revenants. A zombie could possibly become a ghoul, if it was somehow given some sort of self-will. A wraith could become a wight (or would that be the other way around? I always get them mixed up) A vampire or a mummy might be able to become a lich (maybe to remove some of those weaknesses?) that way, you could create special types, like a 'ghoul king'.
And I guess they could 'jump groups' if something weird happened, like a ghost possessed the body of a zombie, or some other combination occurred. Hmmmmm... what would happen if a vampire ran into its own ghost (soul)? That would be VERY interesting. 
I recall a discussion awhile back about bringing someone back to life in a weird way like this - taking an undead and summoning its soul from the afterlife, and somehow managing to merge them.
Liches are special - they technically have all three parts still, which is why they are so damn powerful. The trick there is that they keep their soul in a phylactory, so its separated from them. Without an attached soul, you just get an amoral, thinking, physical creature (I recall The Golden Compass did some interesting things in that regard). The phylactory anchors the soul in this world, and allows the mind/spirit to continue in a body (even to take-over other people's bodies, which is how some liches work).
I picture phylactories and the lich-ritual being distantly related to the magic we are talking about in another thread - the magic of 'soul cages'. There are many different types of those, including lamps, rings, mirrors, forges, and even acorns and phylactories. They are really all just the same type of thing, with different outward appearances, and with different power levels (so some can trap the soul of a god... which might explain Orcus with a good story).
And to take it one step further, there should be another type that traps the spirit (mind) - perhaps those elven gems, Kiira.
You wouldn't need to trap the body - its already anchored to the Prime Material.
The biggest problem I have with all this is souls themselves - there is just so much conflicting lore. For example, souls are a form of currency in the lower planes. They are supposed to be extremely valuable, and therefor should be of 'finite' quantity. We've had threads discussing that - souls are something unique to mortals that outsiders (including gods) find valuable. Yet, we have evidence that souls can be split, and then 'regrow' into whole souls over time. If thats the case, then why hasn't some clever fiend figured out how to harvest souls? Just tear them apart and grow new ones somehow.
We'd have to bring the '5th Element' into the equation - life itself (which in FR, = magic). There has to be some reason why a human (or saurial, etc) body can 'grow' soul-stuff, but that it can't be done any other way. And to continue this train of thought, maybe a full soul also continues to produce this extra 'soul growth', and thats what the gods are really after with religions. They siphon-off the excess from their faithful. Mortals are some sort of divine soul-stuff generating machine that can't be duplicated in any other fashion. Hmmmmmm... there's a really epic story in there somewhere. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 21 Sep 2016 07:28:15 |
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Fellfire
Master of Realmslore
1965 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2016 : 10:09:22
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| Undead shadows can speak and "grow" (which I assume means learn) so they don't seem to be mindless undead like skellies and zombies although hunger for and vengeance upon the living dominates their thoughts. |
Misanthorpe
Love is a lie. Only hate endures. Light is blinding. Only in darkness do we see clearly.
"Oh, you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but.. blinding. The shadows betray you because they belong to me." - Bane The Dark Knight Rises
Green Dragonscale Dice Bag by Crystalsidyll - check it out
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Fellfire
Master of Realmslore
1965 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2016 : 10:28:06
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| This is getting way off-topic, but can shadows take class levels? |
Misanthorpe
Love is a lie. Only hate endures. Light is blinding. Only in darkness do we see clearly.
"Oh, you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but.. blinding. The shadows betray you because they belong to me." - Bane The Dark Knight Rises
Green Dragonscale Dice Bag by Crystalsidyll - check it out
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Artemas Entreri
Great Reader
USA
3131 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2016 : 12:57:07
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| All kinds of fun gaming implications can be drawn from this. |
Some people have a way with words, and other people...oh, uh, not have way. -Steve Martin
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Fellfire
Master of Realmslore
1965 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2016 : 13:14:20
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| Libris Mortis has monster class levels for ghoul, morgh, and wight. Why not? Ephemeral Exemplar from the same book would allow use of non-ghost touch corporeal items. Spellcasting classes might be a little harder RAW. Maybe a modified Eidoloncer from Ghostwalk? |
Misanthorpe
Love is a lie. Only hate endures. Light is blinding. Only in darkness do we see clearly.
"Oh, you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but.. blinding. The shadows betray you because they belong to me." - Bane The Dark Knight Rises
Green Dragonscale Dice Bag by Crystalsidyll - check it out
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2016 : 17:10:42
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I don't see why not. AS I said above, anything should be able to 'level', even a zombie (given the right set of circumstances). They would just have to conform to the restrictions of their grouping (so a shadow could only become more powerful forms of shadow {spirit} undead).
As for implications, reading back through some of my thoughts from last night, I guess I inadvertently associated 'mind' (spirit) with negative energy, which actually works out pretty well (if one were to go with the philosophy that intelligence itself is inherently evil).
Shadow creatures are all intelligent, Fellfire, because (within my homebrew system) they are 'pure mind'. In other words, all the 'self' is still there, without the 'heart' (soul/morals) or physical drawbacks (fear of pain, etc). They are just selfishness, incarnate. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 21 Sep 2016 17:11:18 |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2016 : 17:59:54
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And now I'm thinking that it might be fun to connect the three pieces of 'life' (the Tri-Force? ) to the seven deadly sins.
The first two would be Lust and Gluttony, connected to 'body'.
The second two would be greed and sloth, connected to 'spirit'.
The next two would be wrath and envy, connected to 'soul'.
And finally 'pride', which is achieved only through a combination of having all three (so, a living being... and perhaps a lich).
Not sure what that does game-wise, but it gives some motivation behind each undead type.
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"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Wrigley
Senior Scribe
Czech Republic
605 Posts |
Posted - 22 Sep 2016 : 13:54:17
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I have used creature that dominates it's target physicaly replaces it's shadow and can be identified by noticing different movements of shadow over the person itself. They mainly dwell in Shadowplane so it is not so easy there...
Shadow (undead) is for me a form of ghost that is created when mortal die in Shadowplane. |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36779 Posts |
Posted - 22 Sep 2016 : 15:12:26
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I seem to recall reading somewhere about a magical trap based on shadows... I want to say it was in a long-ago issue of the print version of Dragon, but I can't recall anything more specific.
The basic trap was some sort of stone in the floor that would trap any shadow that touched it. If your shadow fell on this stone, you'd be unable to move away from it. |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
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Diffan
Great Reader
USA
4429 Posts |
Posted - 22 Sep 2016 : 16:17:23
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| There were quite a few Shadow powers and even a whole school devoted to shadows in 4e called Nethermancy. Some powers allowed you to steal someone's shadow and use it for blocking teleportation and even teleporting into someone else's shadow. |
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RavenShadow
Acolyte
USA
16 Posts |
Posted - 24 Sep 2016 : 01:49:45
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Wooly Rupert, there is a spell in Dragon #261 called "Shadow Trap", from an article by Spike Jones titled "Conjuring in the Half-Dark". Is this the one you were thinking of?
Shadow Trap
(alteration/shadow) *I added the shadow notation
Level: 7
Range: Touch
Duration: Permanent
Area of Effect: One person
Components: V,S,M
Casting Time: 7
Saving Throw: Negates
The somatic component of this spell is a shove by the caster, pushing the victim toward his or her own shadow. If the spell is successfully cast (requiring both a successful attack roll by the caster and a failed saving throw on the part of the victim), the intended victim is immediately sucked into his or her own shadow.
The victim no longer exists except as a shadow moving along surfaces. The victim can still sense the outside world; however, he or she cannot communicate with anyone or directly affect the surroundings while in shadow form. The victim cannot cast spells, attack, or move anywhere that a shadow would not normally be able to go, such as across a flat, shadeless desert.
The shadow is also incapable of moving into a "dead magic" zone or an area protected by a globe of invulnerability or anti-magic shell.
Normal light sources directed at the shadow cause it to dim appropriately, but inflict no harm to the victim. Magical light causes 1d4 points of damage per round. Only a true seeing or divination spell reveals the victim's true fate. Remove curse, dispel magic, and limited wish can free a shadow-trapped victim. Using magical light to reduce the victim to zero hit points also causes the spell to be broken, although this method causes the dead body to fall out of the now-normal shadow.
Victims of a shadow trap can fight shadows, slow shadows, or anyone under the effect of the shadow warrior spell as if they were shadow warriors, but victims are not able to effect the shadows of normal, corporeal creatures.
There's lots of wicked shadow spells in that issue - it's arguably my favorite all-time issue of Dragon. I think it, along with the info on shadow mages in Player's Option Spells and Magic laid some very cool groundwork for the shadow mage; it probably was the seed that grew into the powers and Nethermancy school mentioned above.
______________________________________________________________________
Shadow magic is wicked bad. Since I've started playing again, I've begun to compile info to ret-con some later edition ideas (shadow powers, shadow weave, etc) into my second edition game. There is also a good 3rd party d20 book I found about familiars, that allows a mage to have his own shadow as a familiar, which is interesting in and of itself.
Back in the day, I had two characters linked from parallel worlds, wherein one of the two could manifest physically in the reality of the other via the other's shadow. I have to admit, I came up with the idea from a combo of Peter Pan and Stephen King's The Dark Half, with a little bit of Dreamscape (the movie) and A Nightmare on Elm Street thrown in. My friends and I were running parallel universe type campaigns back in the late 80s/early 90s, mostly by accident. ;) We had recurring characters that basically we'd recreate every time we started a new campaign (we played kind of start/stop), so I took that idea and morphed it into alternate universe/planes of existence deal. We had fun, but only played a year or so after that. I wish that I could go back, knowing what I know now, and really craft something more cohesive from the get. Take a little of Eric S Nylund's "Pawn's Dream", add a bit of "Sliding Doors", a pinch of Jet Li's "The One", stuff like that, then twist it.
I have a lot of fun playing with the group I'm in now, but I sure do miss playing with my childhood friends. |
Fate whispers to the warrior, "You cannot withstand this storm." The warrior whispers back, "I am the storm." |
Edited by - RavenShadow on 24 Sep 2016 02:17:52 |
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Fellfire
Master of Realmslore
1965 Posts |
Posted - 24 Sep 2016 : 02:14:19
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quote:
Originally posted by Diffan
There were quite a few Shadow powers and even a whole school devoted to shadows in 4e called Nethermancy. Some powers allowed you to steal someone's shadow and use it for blocking teleportation and even teleporting into someone else's shadow.
I found Sever Shadow, of all places under Bladesinger, but all it does is necro dmg and knock you prone. Lame. |
Misanthorpe
Love is a lie. Only hate endures. Light is blinding. Only in darkness do we see clearly.
"Oh, you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but.. blinding. The shadows betray you because they belong to me." - Bane The Dark Knight Rises
Green Dragonscale Dice Bag by Crystalsidyll - check it out
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RavenShadow
Acolyte
USA
16 Posts |
Posted - 24 Sep 2016 : 02:22:30
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| Fellfire, check out the spell Shadowtheft from Dragon #261. It has a bit more bite. You steal the target's shadow, they lose half of their constitution, and it allows you to create a shadow double of the victim that has half of the levels and hit dice, along with any non-spell casting abilities possessed by the victim. The duration is 1 day/level. |
Fate whispers to the warrior, "You cannot withstand this storm." The warrior whispers back, "I am the storm." |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36779 Posts |
Posted - 24 Sep 2016 : 03:58:36
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quote:
Originally posted by RavenShadow
Wooly Rupert, there is a spell in Dragon #261 called "Shadow Trap", from an article by Spike Jones titled "Conjuring in the Half-Dark". Is this the one you were thinking of?
That does not ring a bell. I specifically recall something that trapped a person's shadow, and by extension, that person.
It was something more like this:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/shadow-anchor |
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Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
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I am the Giant Space Hamster of Ill Omen! |
Edited by - Wooly Rupert on 24 Sep 2016 04:01:28 |
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Fellfire
Master of Realmslore
1965 Posts |
Posted - 24 Sep 2016 : 07:07:44
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| Will do, RavenShadow. Thanks. |
Misanthorpe
Love is a lie. Only hate endures. Light is blinding. Only in darkness do we see clearly.
"Oh, you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but.. blinding. The shadows betray you because they belong to me." - Bane The Dark Knight Rises
Green Dragonscale Dice Bag by Crystalsidyll - check it out
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RavenShadow
Acolyte
USA
16 Posts |
Posted - 05 Oct 2016 : 04:17:05
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quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
quote:
Originally posted by RavenShadow
Wooly Rupert, there is a spell in Dragon #261 called "Shadow Trap", from an article by Spike Jones titled "Conjuring in the Half-Dark". Is this the one you were thinking of?
That does not ring a bell. I specifically recall something that trapped a person's shadow, and by extension, that person.
It was something more like this:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/shadow-anchor
I apologize for not responding earlier. I've been off of the grid since my last post. I'll take another look at all of the shadow spells I know of. What you're describing sounds familiar, but since I retired my shadow mage, I've stayed away from that school, so my memory is a little shadowy... sorry. I couldn't help myself... lol |
Fate whispers to the warrior, "You cannot withstand this storm." The warrior whispers back, "I am the storm." |
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RavenShadow
Acolyte
USA
16 Posts |
Posted - 14 Oct 2016 : 02:15:23
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| Wooly Rupert. No luck. None of the spells in Dragon #261 quite do what you're looking for. Other than the spells in Player's Option, Spells and Magic, that issue is the primary source of spells for the school of Shadow in 2nd edition. I'll look in the Wizard's Spell Compendium this weekend, and give it one more try to track the spell down. |
Fate whispers to the warrior, "You cannot withstand this storm." The warrior whispers back, "I am the storm." |
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George Krashos
Master of Realmslore
Australia
6646 Posts |
Posted - 14 Oct 2016 : 07:14:10
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quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
I seem to recall reading somewhere about a magical trap based on shadows... I want to say it was in a long-ago issue of the print version of Dragon, but I can't recall anything more specific.
The basic trap was some sort of stone in the floor that would trap any shadow that touched it. If your shadow fell on this stone, you'd be unable to move away from it.
Maybe it's the shadow pin magic item from Dragon #261 (p.56) that you are referring to.
-- George Krashos |
"Because only we, contrary to the barbarians, never count the enemy in battle." -- Aeschylus |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11695 Posts |
Posted - 14 Oct 2016 : 14:29:08
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Just a note, I saw this in Leonaru's new DM's Guild ravenloft bestiary in the Arak/shadow fey section, and it definitely fits this conversation. It matches up to what's in the old 2e shadow rift supplement which involved the shadow fey and changelings, and it was something I had forgotten about because I never used it at them time... but it is something I'm really liking now that I reread it.
Changelings. The shadow fey have the uncanny ability to sever the shadow of a person and take it to the Shadow Rift. This is usually done after the victim has been put to sleep with a special kind of food, the fairy cake. The shadow, now a changeling, is robbed of all its imagination and individuality, living only for its work. Human consider this a curse, but the arak claim that this is a reward. The creature (almost always a human) whose shadow was stolen is turned into a hollow shell of their former self, emotionless and with the gaze of a sleepwalker.
Creating a Changeling
A shadow turned into a changeling is identical to the being it was stolen from, but have the following trait:
Shadowtouched. The changeling is immune to becoming charmed,
frightened, or paralysed.
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Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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RavenShadow
Acolyte
USA
16 Posts |
Posted - 16 Oct 2016 : 19:31:02
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quote:
Originally posted by George Krashos
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
I seem to recall reading somewhere about a magical trap based on shadows... I want to say it was in a long-ago issue of the print version of Dragon, but I can't recall anything more specific.
The basic trap was some sort of stone in the floor that would trap any shadow that touched it. If your shadow fell on this stone, you'd be unable to move away from it.
Maybe it's the shadow pin magic item from Dragon #261 (p.56) that you are referring to.
-- George Krashos
George, that's the best that I can come up with too. I looked at all of the spells in Dragon #261; all of the spells in Wizard's Spell Compendium, Volume 3 that had shadow in the title; and through the list of school of shadow spells in Vol 4. No luck. I think that the shadow pin must be it. |
Fate whispers to the warrior, "You cannot withstand this storm." The warrior whispers back, "I am the storm." |
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RavenShadow
Acolyte
USA
16 Posts |
Posted - 16 Oct 2016 : 19:35:28
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quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
Just a note, I saw this in Leonaru's new DM's Guild ravenloft bestiary in the Arak/shadow fey section, and it definitely fits this conversation. It matches up to what's in the old 2e shadow rift supplement which involved the shadow fey and changelings, and it was something I had forgotten about because I never used it at them time... but it is something I'm really liking now that I reread it.
Changelings. The shadow fey have the uncanny ability to sever the shadow of a person and take it to the Shadow Rift. This is usually done after the victim has been put to sleep with a special kind of food, the fairy cake. The shadow, now a changeling, is robbed of all its imagination and individuality, living only for its work. Human consider this a curse, but the arak claim that this is a reward. The creature (almost always a human) whose shadow was stolen is turned into a hollow shell of their former self, emotionless and with the gaze of a sleepwalker.
Creating a Changeling
A shadow turned into a changeling is identical to the being it was stolen from, but have the following trait:
Shadowtouched. The changeling is immune to becoming charmed,
frightened, or paralysed.
That's some great info; thank you for posting! I never have gotten to play Ravenloft, so I've never read that supplement. It's now on my list of books to pick up!
I'll add it to The Nightmare Lands, and Van Richten's Guide to Ghosts, in my small Ravenloft collection. |
Fate whispers to the warrior, "You cannot withstand this storm." The warrior whispers back, "I am the storm." |
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My Shadow and Me
