Shadow Sorcer (Improved)
The Shadow Magic sorcerous origin presented in Xanathar's Guide to Everything offers some interesting new choices for sorcerer characters. However, many players might benefit from having even more flexibility during the character building process. This version offers a few key choices that may allow players to create more versatile and interesting characters.
Acknowledgements: Options here are drawn primarily from the shadow sorcerer in Xanathar's and the Living Shadow dark gift from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. Additional options from the gloom stalker ranger (Xanathar's), and eldritch invocations from the warlock class (Player's Handbook).
Shadow Magic
You are a creature of shadow, for your innate magic comes from the Shadowfell itself. You might trace your lineage to an entity from that place, or perhaps you were exposed to its fell energy and transformed by it.
The power of shadow magic casts a strange pall over your physical presence. The shadows of your hat or cowl are deeper than they should be, even in bright sunlight, and darkness seems to cling to your body. At your option, you can pick from or roll on the Shadow Sorcerer Quirks table to create a quirk for your character.
Shadow Sorcerer Quirks
| d10 | Quirk |
|---|---|
| 1 | You are always icy cold to the touch. |
| 2 | When you are asleep, you don't appear to breathe (though you must still breathe to survive). |
| 3 | Your heart beats once per minute. This event sometimes surprises you. |
| 4 | You have trouble remembering that living creatures and corpses should be treated differently. |
| 5 | You blinked. Once. Last week. |
| 6 | Your shadow often holds weapons or bears wounds that don't exist. |
| 7 | When you're distracted, your shadow panics and tries to get other people's attention, as if it's desperate to escape you. |
| 8 | When it's not being watched, your shadow makes threatening gestures or creeps toward people. |
| 9 | Your shadow's movements mirror yours incorrectly—when you raise your left hand, your shadow moves its right. |
| 10 | There's a slight but noticeable delay between your movements and those of your shadow. |
Shadow Magic Features
| Sorcerer Level | Feature |
|---|---|
| 1st | Shadow Vision, Shadow Nature |
| 6th | Eldritch Darkness |
| 14th | Shadow Walk |
| 18th | Umbral Form |
Shadow Vision
At 1st level, choose one of the following features. Once chosen, it cannot be changed.
Eyes of the Dark
You have darkvision with a range of 120 feet.
When you reach 3rd level in this class, you learn the darkness spell, which doesn't count against your number of sorcerer spells known. In addition, you can cast it by spending 2 sorcery points or by expending a spell slot. If you cast it with sorcery points, you can see through the darkness created by the spell.
Umbral Sight
You gain darkvision out to a range of 60 feet. If you already have darkvision from your race, its range increases by 30 feet.
You are also adept at evading creatures that rely on darkvision. While in darkness, you are invisible to any creature that relies on darkvision to see you in that darkness.
Shadow Nature
Also at 1st level, choose one of the following features. Once chosen, it cannot be changed.
Strength of the Grave
Your existence in a twilight state between life and death makes you difficult to defeat. When damage reduces you to 0 hit points, you can make a Charisma saving throw (DC 5 + the damage taken). On a success, you instead drop to 1 hit point. You can't use this feature if you are reduced to 0 hit points by radiant damage or by a critical hit.
After the saving throw succeeds, you can't use this feature again until you finish a long rest.
Grasping Shadow
You learn the mage hand cantrip if you don't already know it, and require no components to cast it. The hand created by the spell is shadowy but is not bound to your actual shadow.
Shadow Strike
When you make a melee attack roll, you can increase your reach for that attack by 10 feet. Your shadow stretches and delivers the attack as if it were you. After you use this feature, you can't use it again until you complete a short or long rest.
Eldritch Darkness
At 6th level, choose one of the following features. Once chosen, it cannot be changed.
Devil's Sight and Armor of Shadows
You can see normally in darkness, both magical and nonmagical, to a distance of 120 feet. You can also cast mage armor on yourself at will, without expending a spell slot or material components.
Shadow Familiar
You learn the find familiar spell and can cast it as a ritual. The spell doesn't count against your number of spells known.
Your familiar can use its action to magically transform itself into a shadowy form. In this form, it has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks and resistance to all damage except force and radiant damage, and it can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. While in this form, it cannot attack or affect items, but it can deliver touch spells.
Your familiar remains in this form until it uses its action to return to its normal, corporeal form.
Hound of Ill Omen
You gain the ability to call forth a howling creature of darkness to harass your foes. As a bonus action, you can spend 3 sorcery points to magically summon a hound of ill omen to target one creature you can see within 120 feet of you.
The hound uses the dire wolf's statistics (see the Monster Manual or appendix C in the Player's Handbook), with the following changes:
- The hound is size Medium, not Large, and it counts as a monstrosity, not a beast.
- It appears with a number of temporary hit points equal to half your sorcerer level.
- It can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. The hound takes 5 force damage if it ends its turn inside an object.
- At the start of its turn, the hound automatically knows its target's location. If the target was hidden, it is no longer hidden from the hound.
The hound appears in an unoccupied space of your choice within 30 feet of the target. Roll initiative for the hound. On its turn, it can move only toward its target by the most direct route, and it can use its action only to attack its target. The hound can make opportunity attacks, but only against its target. Additionally, while the hound is within 5 feet of the target, the target has disadvantage on saving throws against any spell you cast. The hound disappears if it is reduced to 0 hit points, if its target is reduced to 0 hit points, or after 5 minutes.
Shadow Walk
At 14th level, you gain the ability to step from one shadow into another. When you are in dim light or darkness, as a bonus action, you can magically teleport up to 120 feet to an unoccupied space you can see that is also in dim light or darkness.
Umbral Form
Starting at 18th level, you can spend 6 sorcery points as a bonus action to magically transform yourself into a shadowy form. In this form, you have resistance to all damage except force and radiant damage, and you can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. You take 5 force damage if you end your turn inside an object.
You remain in this form for 1 minute. It ends early if you are incapacitated, if you die, or if you dismiss it as a bonus action.
