Quote from Hapycamper >>

Anyone else think this is a big hard-core for a CR 1/2 creature???

 

 

Beyond 20

 

 

 

 

 (I'm in a game where the DM came at us with 3 of them vs our party of five lvl 1 characters...)

That's "deadly" for even a less dangerous CR 1/2 monster...

 

 

Beyond 20

 

 

 

 

 

 Your DM made a risky and vicious call.

Quote from Avendesora0424 >>

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

 A magical shadow is a creature of tangible and self-contained darkness, not a byproduct of light. It would make sense if a magical light source impeded it in some way, including magical fire. I mean don't get me wrong, it still makes sense as it is but the logic of things is flexible when magic is involved.

I wonder if my Necromancy wizard could somehow turn his own shadow into one of these as his familiar. probably a bit strong for a familiar but familiars cant attack anyway...

"the creature that birthed the shadow no longer casts one until the monster is destroyed."

That sentence on it's own sounds a lot like a trait that a vampire would have.  And they are walking around unharmed in the daylight!  Oh how powerful a vampire they must be!  All hail our new lord, Bob the Daywalking Vampire, former minor NPC who died of a Shadow attack but was returned to life by a party of passing adventurers a short while later!  He who is obviously so powerful that none dare challenge him, despite the fact that no one has ever actually seen him do anything in the least bit impressive.  Also, as ordered by Lord Bob, leave his tightly sealed & reburied former coffin alone, & ignore the moaning and banging that comes from it occasionally, because there is absolutely no truth whatsoever to the rumor that the Shadow summoned at the time of his demise returned to slay him, and thru a series of highly unlikely (and even higherly comedic) events, Lord Bob trapped said Shadow in said coffin. 

Now get Lord Bob a cold drink, a hot meal, and well-versed minstrel, lest he smite you with his unholy vampiric fury!

Hey yeah! This needs Stealth and Undead Nature!

Quote from Wells1069 >>

my question is HOW IS THIS CHALLENGE RATING 1/2??!?!??!?!? It can kill high level players within a min 5-6 turns! And resistant to nonmagical weapons? i know it was meant to be a challenge but how and why are lvl 1-3 players going to have magical weapons?

 

 I mean, the barbarian got a +2 sword from the king at level 2 in my campaign.

Everyone plays different, I guess.

Quote from Blue64 >>

needs to mention the Bonus to Sneak that it talks about in the MM, as well as the Undead Nature

• Skills Stealth +4 (+6 in dim light or darkness)

• Undead Nature. A shadow doesn’t require air, food, drink, or sleep.

I have access to the MM, the Entry is listed here:

• https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/mm/monsters-s#Shadow

Comparison to this entry reveals a lack of information which should be in this entry, as this is otherwise a Different creature, and should be noted as such somewhere.

 Stealth in Dim/Dark light has +6. Undead Nature was added at the bottom.

I think they're referring to the heat of the fire when they say their resistant to fire damage, not the light it produces.

I think people believe this is more powerful than it actually is. After doing research that you can do yourself. The Shadow’s strength drain doesn’t stack with itself.

CR 1/2 in general is kinda odd, cuz it's also where you get the thug, who has multiattack and pack tactics. If they had a higher AC there'd be no way they wouldn't be somewhere closer to CR 3

Quote from Dreamurr >>

I think people believe this is more powerful than it actually is. After doing research that you can do yourself. The Shadow’s strength drain doesn’t stack with itself.

 Sage Advice states that Shadow's drain is actually an exception to the rule of same name stacking. It's meant to still stack and be capable of killing. "Since game features of the same name don’t stack, does that mean a target can’t be affected by a shadow’s Strength Drain more than once between rests? The intended function of Strength Drain is that it stacks with itself, as signaled by the fact that you die if your Strength is reduced to 0 by it."

Thanks to their stealthy nature, shadows can easily ambush the backline.  This allows them to reach the lower-Strength characters.  The Strength reduction involves no saving throw, and the shadow will have advantage on attack rolls fairly frequently due to it's ability to hide as a bonus action.  The Hide action also helps the shadow avoid retaliation from clerics that may have guiding bolt or sacred flame (those spells require you to see a target).  While it poses the greatest danger to spellcasters with low STR, frontline melee characters may be threatened too.  The culmulative STR reduction will sap their combat prowess, therefore making it easier for the shadow to finish them off.  Overall, a terrifying encounter for low-level parties.    

Quote from SnobgoblinEU >>

What happens to a shadow that gets hit by lightning? 

Not much... :) 

 You are correct.  It has almost no physical form.  It's simply a living shadow.    

Quote from Materofall >>

I know that they are weak to radiant but how is a "SHADOW" resistant to FIRE 

 They are pretty much incorpereal, just like ghosts.  That's why they have resistance to all elemental damage and nonmagical physical damage.  Barely any physical matter to be burned.          

Wow, my party of level two characters will face not only one but 5 of them when they get to the basement of Death House in CoS!!  They will surely get killed.

what happens if you cast heal on it or remove curse?

I think you could just debuff it for lower-level players. aka, remove the debuff.

Can these see in magical darkness?

I just watched one of these kill a level 20 wizard... 

A party of 5 1st level adventures will struggle  with this if they don’t expect it unless they have a damaged based cleric