This stat block seems to be missing the "Otherwise, the reduction lasts until the target finishes a short or long rest." for Draining Swipe's Strength score decrease.

Quote from I3enett >>

This stat block seems to be missing the "Otherwise, the reduction lasts until the target finishes a short or long rest." for Draining Swipe's Strength score decrease.

 In the new PHB, one of the benefits listed for a Long Rest is that your ability scores return to normal if they were reduced. They removed the notation in this stat block to avoid redundancy.

So let me get this straight, they rightfully nerf problem monsters like banshees and intellect devourers that weaken people terribly and could be super annoying even at high levels for people who dumped a particular stat or failed a particular saving throw. That's all well and good. However, they just decided to leave shadows as strength draining nightmares who destroy 50% of classes if they're in a group regardless of level or overall power since they just need to hit a few attacks to instantly kill the average wizard/druid/sorcerer/warlock/bard/artificer. A level 20 wizard who dumped strength and left it at 8, who mind you is capable of casting wish, could still be killed by 2 shadows in a single round assuming they hit the wizard's AC, that's insane. With 3 or more shadows, those odds get ridiculously high that the shadows who are meant to be CR 1/2 will still be a massive threat to most players even by level 20.

Quote from Brickhammer04 >>

So let me get this straight, they rightfully nerf problem monsters like banshees and intellect devourers that weaken people terribly and could be super annoying even at high levels for people who dumped a particular stat or failed a particular saving throw. That's all well and good. However, they just decided to leave shadows as strength draining nightmares who destroy 50% of classes if they're in a group regardless of level or overall power since they just need to hit a few attacks to instantly kill the average wizard/druid/sorcerer/warlock/bard/artificer. A level 20 wizard who dumped strength and left it at 8, who mind you is capable of casting wish, could still be killed by 2 shadows in a single round assuming they hit the wizard's AC, that's insane. With 3 or more shadows, those odds get ridiculously high that the shadows who are meant to be CR 1/2 will still be a massive threat to most players even by level 20.

 well, any character over level 5 needs to be at least dumb as fck (as the poets say) to die to shadows due to the toolkits they have. 1 torch (or a daylight spell if they want to go fancy) eliminates most of the threat, and a well placed fireball (especially if they have elemental adept) will deal with the rest (even if the team is standing all grouped up, they will just heal themselves back up). A level 20 wizard has the shield spell at will (if they don't, refer to first sentence), so can't really see how they will hit their (at the very least) AC18 with the +4. The cleric just stands there eating crisps and smoking with their Spirit guardians, and let the shadows kill themselves. 

Bygone are the days of Banshees and Intellect Devourers, the Shadows won, they are the only remaining noob DM-trap to kill even high level players.

Yeah, very surprising that these are even stronger than before. They even got more hp for losing their non-magical B/P/S resistance. You REALLY want to have Radiant damage to deal with these.

Quote from Gromald >>

 

Quote from Brickhammer04 >>

So let me get this straight, they rightfully nerf problem monsters like banshees and intellect devourers that weaken people terribly and could be super annoying even at high levels for people who dumped a particular stat or failed a particular saving throw. That's all well and good. However, they just decided to leave shadows as strength draining nightmares who destroy 50% of classes if they're in a group regardless of level or overall power since they just need to hit a few attacks to instantly kill the average wizard/druid/sorcerer/warlock/bard/artificer. A level 20 wizard who dumped strength and left it at 8, who mind you is capable of casting wish, could still be killed by 2 shadows in a single round assuming they hit the wizard's AC, that's insane. With 3 or more shadows, those odds get ridiculously high that the shadows who are meant to be CR 1/2 will still be a massive threat to most players even by level 20.

 well, any character over level 5 needs to be at least dumb as fck (as the poets say) to die to shadows due to the toolkits they have. 1 torch (or a daylight spell if they want to go fancy) eliminates most of the threat, and a well placed fireball (especially if they have elemental adept) will deal with the rest (even if the team is standing all grouped up, they will just heal themselves back up). A level 20 wizard has the shield spell at will (if they don't, refer to first sentence), so can't really see how they will hit their (at the very least) AC18 with the +4. The cleric just stands there eating crisps and smoking with their Spirit guardians, and let the shadows kill themselves. 

 Alas, level 20 Wizards cannot cast Shield at will because it is a reaction, and their mastery extends only to spells with a casting time of one action.

Regarding the DM-trap comment: DMs are fully capable of appreciating the dangers this monster provides. It's written in plain English! If you encounter these and are unable to overcome them, then take that up with your DM. Your DM chose this monster with their eyes wide open.

Quote from Gromald >>

 

Quote from Brickhammer04 >>

So let me get this straight, they rightfully nerf problem monsters like banshees and intellect devourers that weaken people terribly and could be super annoying even at high levels for people who dumped a particular stat or failed a particular saving throw. That's all well and good. However, they just decided to leave shadows as strength draining nightmares who destroy 50% of classes if they're in a group regardless of level or overall power since they just need to hit a few attacks to instantly kill the average wizard/druid/sorcerer/warlock/bard/artificer. A level 20 wizard who dumped strength and left it at 8, who mind you is capable of casting wish, could still be killed by 2 shadows in a single round assuming they hit the wizard's AC, that's insane. With 3 or more shadows, those odds get ridiculously high that the shadows who are meant to be CR 1/2 will still be a massive threat to most players even by level 20.

 well, any character over level 5 needs to be at least dumb as fck (as the poets say) to die to shadows due to the toolkits they have. 1 torch (or a daylight spell if they want to go fancy) eliminates most of the threat, and a well placed fireball (especially if they have elemental adept) will deal with the rest (even if the team is standing all grouped up, they will just heal themselves back up). A level 20 wizard has the shield spell at will (if they don't, refer to first sentence), so can't really see how they will hit their (at the very least) AC18 with the +4. The cleric just stands there eating crisps and smoking with their Spirit guardians, and let the shadows kill themselves. 

 Just a heads up, fireball doesn't mean shit to them anymore, they literally are resistant to fire.

Torches won’t do much since they only provide light, not sunlight🤷‍♂️.

Assuming average damage and that they fail the save, a Fireball on average would do 12 fire damage to shadows, which is less than half. Now if they succeed that is less. These are definently very strong for a 1/2 CR, though I could be talking about a CR 5 wizard for the purposes of this. Honestly if you are a near level 20 wizard who is mostly alone dealing with like 30 shadows, the smart move would probably be to use something like misty step or dimension door to get out. If you have a more reasonable amount of shadows and team mates, I'd say use magic missile or just let a cleric deal with this.

Want to throw a horde of shadows at higher level players without dooming them to death by strength drain? Replace the sentence about dropping to 0 Strength with this:

If the target's strength score would be reduced to 0, that score becomes 1 and the target takes 10 (3d6) Necrotic damage. The target dies if this damage reduces it to 0 Hit Points.

This alternative rule keeps being reduced to 0 Strength scary, as they'll take triple the damage from the attack and any future draining swipes - but reduces the threat of instant death.

This is not a CR 1/2, don't be fooled. This thing is at minima CR 2-3, necromancers rejoice your pokemons are just as strong as before if not more

Quote from Brinjal66 >>

Want to throw a horde of shadows at higher level players without dooming them to death by strength drain? Replace the sentence about dropping to 0 Strength with this:

If the target's strength score would be reduced to 0, that score becomes 1 and the target takes 10 (3d6) Necrotic damage. The target dies if this damage reduces it to 0 Hit Points.

 

This alternative rule keeps being reduced to 0 Strength scary, as they'll take triple the damage from the attack and any future draining swipes - but reduces the threat of instant death.

 I'm gonna use that variant on my Lvl1 PCs, because that lets them make death saves rather than just instakilling them.

If their was one creature that needed a debuff it was this one. So of course they buffed it.... i am tired comparing 2014 and 2024 statblocks to see which are worst, which are better (yeah, some are better) and which are neither.

Yeah its not a CR 20 creatures... But for those that think "Oh dont worry this is easy": this thing is supposed to be an ambusher, using surprise and number. And in those scenario, a character with dumped strength is likely to die, at any level.

And this is way to strong for a CR 1/2, if you use toolkit to balance encounters using CR, a balance encounter with this thing for low levels pc will be a death sentence, as simple as that, except if the party have a cleric that survive more than one turn (well, a lot of DND 2024 encounter would be death sentence for "balanced" fight, specially all those where they removed save on secondary effects of attacks) 

The 2025 Monster Manual still uses the CR rules from the 2014 DMG. The rating of 1/2 is accurate, but only by the assumptions under which CR is derived. CR assumes combat lasts 3 rounds. Average rolls are used. A special ability only factors if it can be abstracted into a modifier to the creature's hit points, AC, damage, or attack bonus/save DC.

A shadow's Strength drain steals 2.5 points per round on average, or 7 over 3 rounds. On average, characters don't have less than 8 Strength, so it isn't deadly. By these assumptions, the Strength drain is a nuisance to characters that use Strength-based attacks, and nothing more. The CR of 1/2 only factors the necrotic damage of the Draining Swipe. 

If these assumptions don't hold true for an encounter, then any CR might fall apart. If a shadow faces a party whose members can all inflict significant bludgeoning/piercing/slashing damage, then none of its resistances matter. Its CR drops to 1/4. If a party has characters with low AC and low Strength, and if the encounter is expected to last more than 3 rounds and leave those characters vulnerable to swarming by many shadows, then the listed CR is no longer accurate. As you've all noted, you can build a high-level party wipe encounter using CR 1/2 monsters.

This has always been a weakness of CR. Its calculus is much more subjective than most folks realize. The DM has to carefully consider the encounter relative to the party, down to the known/prepared spells at that time, to truly gauge its difficulty.