Please help me create "Master of Shadow" character

[MizuDevil]

Hello.

I am asking you to help me create Master of Shadow (DnD 3.5e) character in DnD 5e.

Mainly it was a caster with spells with shadow theme, but plus for this he had shadow creature instead of a familiar (Small incorporeal flying creature, ready for battle, with small damage. He was getting stronger by level and you could take multiple of them with feats).

So I wanted to ask if there are ways to make something similar in DnD 5e? Closest what I found was Shadow Sorcerer. He has a similar theme. But maybe there is something more suitable? (In official books or may be in some 3rd party books). Maybe there are some ways for Shadow Sorcerers to get "Shadow familiar"?

Thank you.

[Emongnome777]

I don’t recall the class you’re referring to, but from your description, a pact of the chain warlock. Your familiar could be refluffed to be more like you describe. There are familiar-boosting invocations to make it better as well. It seems like the spell list would be favorable, but I haven’t looked closely at that.
I’m not sure which subclass would best fit the theme, though. Undead, hexblade, or fathomless have something that could relate, but I don’t think any are even close, to be honest.

[Mastikator]

Warlock has access to familiar with pact of the chain, they also have access to the spell Summon Shadowspawn (which benefits from upcasting and warlocks upcast automatically).
With devil's eyes they can use the darkness spell to great effect.

The genie (marid) patron gives resistance to cold damage at level 6, but it's not very shadow themed. On the flip side hexblade might be your best option here, not because of the hex warrior (though that is nice, for the armor, for you). At level 6 you get accursed specter, where you can raise specters under your control. If your patron is hexblade/raven queen then you have a connection to the shadowfel, very shadow themed.

That's how I'd do it. Hexblade with pact of the chain, grab summon shadowspawn asap, use the familiar + shadowspawn + specters as your shadow minions.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Flavor is Free (https://tabletopbuilds.com/flavor-is-free/), i.e. you can reflavor literally any spell/ability to be shadow-themed as long as it doesn't affect the game mechanics.

If you want to make a character that uses mechanics that are already shadow-themed, a Mark of Shadow Elf who takes Sorcerer with the Shadow Magic origin is probably the best you've got. Maybe include two levels of Hexblade Warlock since it's a pact with a Shadowfell being, for agonizing blast among other things.