Quick Shadowdancer question.

[mabriss lethe]

Summon Shadow: Should your first 3 levels of Shadow dancer be added to calculate the Shadow's HD? Here's the relevant text.


Every third level gained by the shadowdancer adds +2 HD (and the requisite base attack and base save bonus increases) to her shadow companion.

Argument for the extra HD: Classes often use wording such as "for every X level beyond Y." That wording is absent here.

That would start the shadow at 5 HD and cap it off at 9 HD.

Argument against: Epic Shadowdancer (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/prestigeClassProgressions.htm#epicShadowdancer)exp licitly calls out the shadow's HD progression within the table. It gains its 9th HD at Level 12.

That would imply that shadow starts at 3 HD with the cap is at 7 HD within the PrC proper.

I'm sure the latter was the intent, but the wording is a bit unclear.

[Yorrin]

Yes, the first few levels count. This ruling is specifically based off the example they give where a 9th lvl Shadowdancer has a shadow companion with 6HD. The only way they could arrive at the number 6 here is if they are talking about bonus HD and not toal HD (since the Shadow starts with 3HD) and therefore 2HD*3 units of 3 levels (9lvls) = 6.

[mabriss lethe]

Excellent. That'll bring some fun things online a bit earlier than otherwise.

Edit: Scratch that. The math is just wrong for example in the DMG to match the text.

6 is an impossible result, given the wording of the ability.

1. At level 3 you summon a shadow and it explicitly states that you should see the MM entry for relevant stats: The base shadow is a 3 HD creature.

2. It then says ths shadow gains +2 HD for every 3 shadowdancer levels you gain, not that the shadow possesses 2 HD for every 3 shadowdancer levels.

3. The math doesn't add up with epic shadowdancer either. (even though I'm not sure the ELH is applicable.) ESD levels use the same progression as the standard PrC, and it specifically calls out that the shadow has 9 HD at level 12, which does not fit the math you presented, since it would always generate an even number of HD.

Given the text, the only possible results at level 9 are either 7 HD (3 for the base creature and 2 each for improvements at levels 6 and 9) or 9 HD (3 for the base creature and 2 each for improvements at levels 3, 6, and 9.)

Gah! (grumblegrumblemathhate)