Shadow Magic (5.5e)

Your innate magic is touched by the Shadowfell, the bleak realm where light weakens, color dies, and every living thing casts a longer shadow than it should. Perhaps your bloodline was marked by a being from that plane, or perhaps you were exposed to its fell power and survived, changed by darkness that should have consumed you.

Shadow magic does not merely grant power. It leaves signs. Your presence may feel cold even in warm rooms. Candles may dim when you pass. Animals may watch you too closely, and mirrors may show you standing a heartbeat later than you should. The spark of life within you still burns, but it burns low, muffled beneath the weight of the darkness woven into your soul.

Some Shadow Sorcerers seem half alive, their breath faint and their pulse slow. Others are eerily beautiful, like figures seen through black glass. Some carry the gloom like a curse, while others embrace it as a hidden crown.

At your option, you can choose or roll on the Shadow Sorcerer Quirks table to give your character a strange mark of the Shadowfell.

 

Shadow Sorcerer Quirks

 

Eyes of the Dark

Starting at 3rd level, you have darkvision with a range of 120 feet.

When this darkvision is used together with light or another sense that lets you see normally, its range can begin from the outer edge of that sight. For example, if a torch lets you see out to 40 feet, this darkvision can extend your sight in darkness out to 160 feet.

Example:
0-20 ft. Bright Light from torch, normal color vision.
21-40 ft. Dim Light from torch, but Darkvision treats it as Bright Light. Still color, because there is actual light.
41-160 ft. Darkness seen by Darkvision, so Dim Light quality only, shades of gray. 

If another source gives you darkvision, add that darkvision range to this feature's darkvision range, rather than using only the longest range.

When you reach 3rd level in this class, you learn the Darkness spell, which doesn't count against the number of Sorcerer spells you can prepare. 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.

Starting at 13th level, when you cast Darkness by spending Sorcery Points, the spell doesn't require Concentration for you.

Shadow Spells

When you reach a Sorcerer level specified in the Shadow Spells table, you thereafter always have the listed spells prepared. These spells do not count against the number of Sorcerer spells you can prepare.

Shadow Spells

Sorcerer Level	Spells
3	Disguise Self, Illusory Script, Invisibility, See Invisibility
5	Bestow Curse, Pass without Trace
7	Dimension Door, Greater Invisibility
9	Mislead, Scrying

Hound of Ill Omen

At 6th level, you gain the ability to call forth a 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 stat block below.

The hound appears silently in an unoccupied space of your choice within 30 feet of the target. Roll Initiative for it. 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. It is not required to attack. The hound can make Opportunity Attacks, but only against its target.

If mentally commanded, the hound can utter a terrible howl on its turn, no action required. The howl is unnerving and supernatural, but has no mechanical effect.

The hound disappears if it is reduced to 0 Hit Points, if its target is reduced to 0 Hit Points, or after 5 minutes.

Orb of Ill Will

Starting at 14th level, when you summon your Hound of Ill Omen, you can choose for it to appear as an Orb of Ill Will instead. The orb uses the Hound of Ill Omen stat block, except it has Blindsight with a range of 120 feet, a Fly Speed of 60 feet with Hover, has no Bite action, and does not have Pack Tactics or Howl.

The orb retains Bane of Ill Omen, Ghostly Form, and Relentless Pursuit. It appears as a silent sphere of living shadow, hatred, and ill fortune, surrounded by thin writhing tentacles.

On its turn, the orb can move only toward its target by the most direct route, or remain near its target if it is already within 5 feet of it. It can take only the Dash or Dodge action. The orb can’t make attacks, including Opportunity Attacks.

Shadow Parry. When a creature the orb can see hits it with a melee attack roll, the orb can take a Reaction to lash out with its shadowy tentacles, adding your Proficiency Bonus to its AC against that attack and potentially causing it to miss. The orb retains this bonus to its AC until the start of its next turn.

The Hound 

Shadow Walk

At 14th level, you gain the ability to step from one shadow into another. When you are in Dim Light or Darkness, you can take a Bonus Action to slip into shadow and emerge in an unoccupied space you can see that is also in Dim Light or Darkness. The distance you can travel this way equals the total range of your Eyes of the Dark, to a maximum of 240 feet.

If you have Blindsight, you can instead emerge in an unoccupied space you can perceive with that sense that is also in Dim Light or Darkness. When you do so, the distance you can travel can’t exceed the range of your Blindsight.

This movement is not a spell, requires no components, and does not provoke Opportunity Attacks. It can’t be Counterspelled or Dispelled, and you can use it while Grappled or Restrained, provided you can take a Bonus Action and can perceive your destination.

Umbral Form

Starting at 18th level, you can spend 6 Sorcery Points as a Bonus Action to transform yourself into a living shadow for 1 minute, obscuring your identity and your usual features. This transformation is not a spell and requires no components.

While in this form, your Speed becomes 60 feet unless it is already higher. You gain a Climb Speed equal to your Speed, and you can move up, down, and across vertical surfaces and along ceilings while leaving your hands free. 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.

While in this form, your own space counts as Dim Light or Darkness for the purpose of your Shadow Magic subclass features only.

In addition, shadowy tendrils writhe around you and guard your body. When a creature you can see hits you with a melee attack roll, you can take a Reaction to add your Proficiency Bonus to your AC against that attack, potentially causing it to miss. You retain this bonus to your AC until the start of your next turn.

This form ends early if you have the Incapacitated condition, if you die, or if you dismiss it as a Bonus Action.