Mark of Shadow & Shadow Sorcerer?

[Citadel97501]

Hello all, I was just wondering how you would optimize a shadow sorcerer with the Mark of Shadow from the Eberron book? I chose it as I thought it would be thematic and interesting, but I am concerned about spell choices for a low level game? Just so its clear we are using the Variant Class Features UA, and I had thought that meta magic wise Twin and the Elemental switching would be good but I am concerned that Quickened is still better?

[Lord Silver]

What sort of roles are your hoping your character fulfill. Are you looking for a Assassin type charater, a spy type, would you prefer a blaster support or a little bit of everything.

[Lord Silver]

For the elemental shift, is interesting as a way to get around pesky immunities and Resistances when they come up, blasting wise twined limits your selection in return for allowing you to save on your spell slots, if your planning on twining cantrips your definitely getting your money's worth in my opinion as long as you aren't planning on getting into warlock or picking up eldritch blast, once you hit level 3 you have basically the same blast from within your own darkness effect that many warlocks have, you can even do this right away by using silent image as a heavy fog it just won't be Mobile.

[Lord Silver]

Unfortunately for the purposes of spell choices there's a lot of overlap but thematically it dose fit well and that overlap won't hurt too bad. For the purpose of optimizing your spell choices as one what is effectively the class with the lowest amount of spell options, unfortunately there's not a lot of shadow themed spells,
Darkness
Invisibility/Greater Invisibility
Blur
Blink
Shadow Blade (Xanathar’s Guide to Everything)
Pass Without A Trace
Creation
Though you can thematically change quite a few spells to fit Mage armor becomes an armor of shadows
Mental effects are tendrils of shadow magic manipulating the minds of others, illusions are shadow energy warping their perception, ect you can even have your elemental spells take on shadowy properties a dark purple black fog fills the air for fog a dark wall of icey shade appears instead of a wall of ice, pitch black flames of shadow and night replacing your usual flame. Thus your only really as Limmited as the usual sorcerer for the most part.

[Citadel97501]

Thank you all, for your help. Oh and yes this is with a stealth playstyle so I will be doing some rogue like fighting.

I was wondering if Shadow Blade spell is actually better than Flame Blade though, as it seems that Flame Blade is actually a better spell until you get higher spell slots as that is where Flame Blade drops off? 3d6 spell attack (uses charisma) vs 2d8 finnesse? Now I currently have 16 in dexterity and charisma so the accuracy is the same for now but without a level 3 spell slot shadow blade seems weaker.

[JackPhoenix]

Thank you all, for your help. Oh and yes this is with a stealth playstyle so I will be doing some rogue like fighting.

I was wondering if Shadow Blade spell is actually better than Flame Blade though, as it seems that Flame Blade is actually a better spell until you get higher spell slots as that is where Flame Blade drops off? 3d6 spell attack (uses charisma) vs 2d8 finnesse? Now I currently have 16 in dexterity and charisma so the accuracy is the same for now but without a level 3 spell slot shadow blade seems weaker.

Shadow Blade has better damage (you don't add your ability modifier to Flame Blade's damage, as it's not a weapon attack, so it's 2d8+3 (12) vs 3d6 (10.5)), better damage type (psychic vs fire), it's much more versatile in terms of working with other abilities (it's finesse weapon, so it works with Sneak Attack, you can make OAs with it, works with BB/GFB, Extra Attack or similar abilities, can be used to make ranged attacks) and the automatic advantage in dim light is great (shadow sorcerer can see in his own Darkness, but this work without spending SPs in the right enviroment. It also doesn't glow, so it won't break stealth, though the shorter duration limits it to a single encounter per cast, while Flame Blade can potentially last for multiple encounters.

[Citadel97501]

Shadow Blade has better damage (you don't add your ability modifier to Flame Blade's damage, as it's not a weapon attack, so it's 2d8+3 (12) vs 3d6 (10.5)), better damage type (psychic vs fire), it's much more versatile in terms of working with other abilities (it's finesse weapon, so it works with Sneak Attack, you can make OAs with it, works with BB/GFB, Extra Attack or similar abilities, can be used to make ranged attacks) and the automatic advantage in dim light is great (shadow sorcerer can see in his own Darkness, but this work without spending SPs in the right enviroment. It also doesn't glow, so it won't break stealth, though the shorter duration limits it to a single encounter per cast, while Flame Blade can potentially last for multiple encounters.

Good catch on all of those, thank you.
-Since I will be switching out in favor of Shadow Blade, should I just drop the Elemental meta-magic and take the standard Quickness/Twin instead?

[JackPhoenix]

Good catch on all of those, thank you.
-Since I will be switching out in favor of Shadow Blade, should I just drop the Elemental meta-magic and take the standard Quickness/Twin instead?

If you want to be sneaky, Subtle may be good option. Depending on your spell selection, either Quickened or Twinned work.