Oooooh! I've always...wanted someone else to make a viable Homebrew fix for this.

I keep thinking that one of those dead levels (lvl 3 for instance) could be filled with a Shadow Familiar. Like old Dracula your shadow would be an independent shadow-creature bound to serve you. It'd basically just be like a normal Wizard familiar, only with a cool theme and the possibility to emulate the shadows of other creatures and thus borrow their abilities.

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