Armor Class
12
Hit Points
16
(3d8 + 3)
Speed
40 ft.
STR
6
(-2)
DEX
14
(+2)
CON
13
(+1)
INT
6
(-2)
WIS
10
(+0)
CHA
8
(-1)
Skills
Stealth +4
Damage Vulnerabilities
Radiant
Damage Resistances
Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Thunder; Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks
Damage Immunities
Necrotic, Poison
Condition Immunities
Exhaustion, Frightened, Grappled, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned, Prone, Restrained
Senses
Darkvision 60 ft., Passive Perception 10
Languages
--
Challenge
1/2 (100 XP)
Proficiency Bonus
+2
Amorphous. The shadow can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.
Shadow Stealth. While in dim light or darkness, the shadow can take the Hide action as a bonus action.
Sunlight Weakness. While in sunlight, the shadow has disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws.
Actions
Strength Drain. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) necrotic damage, and the target's Strength score is reduced by 1d4. The target dies if this reduces its Strength to 0. Otherwise, the reduction lasts until the target finishes a short or long rest.
If a non-evil humanoid dies from this attack, a new shadow rises from the corpse 1d4 hours later.
Shillelagh... Lv 1 druid.
Hexblade warlocks.
Any paladin or cleric can cast radiant, so can celestial warlocks.
That said, my players are going to realize the city they live in is infested with these things today, and they're level 5... They've seen them before, they just don't realize it because they've been mistaking the strange moving shadows as one of my gods spying on them.
Anyone else think this is a big hard-core for a CR 1/2 creature???
It seems a bit OP that a CR 1/2 monster can drain strength with the victim getting NO save. There's a save on pretty much any spell a PC can throw.
This a great monster - hard for low level - and in numbers hard for high levels - I see complaints about Strength Drain - but this is what makes this something to actually scare the PC's...
You don't need to burn it, the light the fire makes is enough to drive it away- or, in this case, harm it. Same with lightning IMO.
The reason is that most high level players could one shot it. On a bonus action.
like you said, its challenge is 1/2, meaning a high level player could just
"I hit with my magic sword. three times. cause i can do that on one turn."
DM: it dies to death.
yeah but a couple of them sure you can kill a couple but that optimized level 20 hexblade welp 5 shadows can destroy a level 20 pc and there cr 1/2 also they are cr 1/2 you suppose you could put three against a party of three level ones welp the wizard or anyone with low strength
Certainly a deadly monster and one of my favorite, gonna add one in my haunted mansion.
Resistant still means half damage, and it only has 16hp and 12ac, which means a melee character, even though their dmg might be halved, is still going to hit probably about half of the time(more if they are stated correctly to be a good tank/hitter). But also even a lvl 1 wizard can take this thing out at a distance, by casting magic missile twice. Also the vulnerability to radiant dmge means even a level 2 Paladin has a chance of taking them out in one hit. The Shadow is Undead, and has a +0 to Wis, so they can also be easily turned by a level 2 Cleric. 1/2 cr is still suppose to be a challenge for a low level group, not a push over for lvl 1-3.
nat 20s are rare...
The problem is that this monster is only easy for players that metagame.
This is why every party needs a paladin.
Ok I now physically NEED to make one of these my sidekick per the rules in Tasha's. Give it Warrior stats, since it doesn't have a language. (boo to that, it should be able to whisper creepily in any language that its "parent" had in life. )
Shadows are creations of light. Without light there is no shadow so they have immunity as in an essence they are apart of the light that creates them, i.e. fire
I don't think you can set fire to shadows
Its resistant to the physical damage types if they are from non-magical attacks while the other resistances are from all sources.
I nerfed it. I changed the ST penalty. I gave it a DC 15 Constitution save, and made the penalty 2 points (only 1 point if you make your save) With this little change, I was able to use 4 of them against 2x LV 4 players (I did run the Shadows with Max HP cause that's how I roll.) and actually had a pretty good mid-game combat that wasn't meant to kill the party off. The warlock got a little (so close to death) banged up, but the Barbarian tanked (Yea +2 Meat Tenderizer) and came out ok. Still a pretty beef monster for 1/2 CR with the nerf really... 2d6 +2 AND you are loosing ST points. These guys are a Fighters nightmare, as written, they can neutralize your Beef Boys. Great monster, just a little miscalculated. That's why DMs get to do whatever they feel like. Reminds me of some old school 1st Ed. seriousness. It used to be so hard to get a party past level 2 or 3 without a TPK unless you had 7 people in your party, and finding 7 people that could understand THAC0 ain't easy..
I have a group of 5 level 11’s and I was thinking of using this monster. I was going to buff it’s AC and health, but after reading the comments I’m just going to leave it as is. Hit them with 3 or 4 Shadows to soften them before I send in something more threatening
BLINDED BY THE LIGHT
So if a non-evil humanoid dies, they turn into another shadow. What happens to evil ones? Do they turn into Will-O-Wisps or something? Also worlds most uncomfortable mating ritual.