Shadows in the Shadows

Most of the iconic undead monsters are present in the fourth edition Monster Manual, but there’s one that’s conspicuous by its absence:  the shadow.  This low-Hit Die creature with its weakening touch was a staple of the low levels of many of my early campaigns — I just loved the imagery, I think.  Shadows creeping across the floor or wall to reach you and suck the warmth and strength from your body…

(Shadows didn’t move like that, necessarily.  But in my campaigns, you bet they did…)

With that in mind, and vague thoughts about testing the monster-adaptation process tumbling around, I present:  the 4e shadow (following the jump).

(Hm, tables look a little ugly… I’ll have to see what I can do about that.  Meanwhile, here’s a downloadable shadow statblock.)

The flavor?  Glad you asked.

A shadow is a malevolent undead creature, the remnant of a living being who died of deprivation (asphyxiation, hunger, exposure, etc.).  The desperation and hatred the creature felt survived the passing of its mortal shell, and this faded echo of the original creature now constantly seeks the warmth it lacked at the end of its life.  A shadow feeds on the warmth and the breath of living beings, in the process converting its victims to more creatures like itself.

In combat, shadows typically swarm the largest or warmest creature first, seeking to feed.  This is not a coordinated assault, by any means; individual shadows may even peel off to attack other available targets, since their appetite is insatiable and they are loath to share.  They are intelligent enough to shift their collective priority to dealing with any creature who wields fire or inflicts radiant damage, however, because they recognize these as significant threats.

Shadows use their Shadow Meld ability as a last resort; they are anything but altruistic, but they can recognize that joining with another shadow might allow a part of its being to survive where otherwise it would fall.

Design thoughts…

I suspect the reason the shadow wasn’t included is that, as it was in previous editions, it would have overlapped with the wraith.  Now that level draining and negative levels are out of the picture, the wraith is an insubstantial lurker creature whose touch causes weakness.  That means it would serve no real purpose for the shadow to be an insubstantial lurker creature whose touch causes weakness — a game master could just use a wraith.

So my shadow is a little different.  It’s still insubstantial; that’s key to my concept of the creature.  But instead of a lurker, it’s a skirmisher.  It moves more quickly than the wraith, but it lacks the wraith’s flanking bonus damage ability.  It’s not quite as stealthy, and its initiative is lower; on the other hand, it’s more durable.  Its weakening touch is more damaging than the wraith’s, but not at-will.

I gave it a bonus against opportunity attacks, since I picture it flitting all over the battlefield.  I gave it a bigger vulnerability to radiant damage, because, you know, it’s a shadow.  Then I decided to focus on the “cold” aspect, and give it vulnerability to fire and resistance to cold, along with switching its damage from necrotic to cold.

For its encounter power, I wanted something completely different, so I came up with Shadow Meld.  I rather like the image — a wounded shadow flowing into another, giving up what remains of its own essence while creating a larger, more violent combination shadow, which can then avenge it.

I imagine these guys suddenly boiling up from the dark corners of a room, rushing a party, then fighting a hit-and-run battle.  A couple of them in combination with a couple of wraiths could make for quite a challenging encounter, with the undead focusing on taking out the cleric or the party’s backline — they’re just smart enough for such rudimentary tactics.  Add in an evil priest or a more intelligent undead leader, and they could get pretty scary.

(Edit 9/09/08: statblock fix, downloadable version)

Related posts:

1. Fox Magic: Allies and Adversaries
2. Adapting the 4e Shadowdancer
3. Hunter of the Dead
4. I’m a Monster! Rawr!
5. Fox Magic: Arcane Feats