Descent of Shadows: Project Shadow Returns

[Realms of Chaos]

I did you one better. As listening to what people is saying is hardly an overpowered ability, all telepathic and magical messages within 100 feet are picked up. Also, you gain a hefty bonus to sense motive checks made to detect secret messages.

Moving on, I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about a very rare instance of 20/20 foresight on my part. I realized just yesterday that most of the links on the front page don't go anywhere, that the threads have been deleted.
My initial thoughts cannot be posted here as they'd just get censored anyways.
When I calmed down, I got a second idea. Maybe I had already copied and pasted them earlier; anticipating the danger, perhaps.
After a quick search, I found what I was looking for. In fact, I was apparently so forward thinking that I decided to quote the material rather than just copying and pasting, meaning that the creators still get credit and that much of the coding is still there. I'd like to take a moment to thank the me of two years prior for his amazing foresight and to give you guys a brief warning:
Although I intend to repost everything in the next couple of posts and will take care of any coding issues, I have not reread through everything prior to this reposting and their stuff will go up unedited (reading through the mess of code would make my eyes bleed). I linked to pretty much all shadow magic material that I could find at the time (which wasn't much, sadly) and though I remember thinking most of it was balanced, it is quite possible that I was blinded by raw fandom and didn't give it a critical look.
That said, I have no intention of violating the creator's creative rights by drastically altering (or fixing) their creations and calling it theirs (is there a word for reverse-plaigerism?). What I will do, however, is add my personal commentary and a few suggestions for easier use (if needed) at the end of each homebrew. I will also take responsibility for completing the Wildhaunt mystery list once the rest of this project is complete.
With all of that out of the way, let's start with the 100+ pages of material produced by other fans.

[Realms of Chaos]

Shadowcaster recharge magic, written by Xylem

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Recharge Magic for Shadowcasters

It is widely acknowledged that Shadowcasters are a weak class. Their mysteries (spells) are generally fairly good, but they get too few mysteries, and can use them too infrequently, and the way they get them is too difficult. But what if they could use their mysteries more frequently?

Enter Recharge Magic, an alternate magic system from Unearthed Arcana. To quote the section on www.d20srd.org:



Some spells have a fixed recharge time. Most depend on the level of the highest level spell you can cast. The table below gives the general recharge time for those spells:

Spell Level 			Bard,Sorcerer	     Other 
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Highest possible                1d4+1 rounds         1d6+1 rounds 
Second highest possible         1d4+1 rounds         1d6+1 rounds 
Third highest possible          1d4 rounds           1d4+1 rounds 
Fourth highest possible         1d4 rounds           1d4+1 rounds 
Fifth highest possible          1d3 rounds           1d4 rounds 
Sixth highest possible          1d3 rounds           1d4 rounds 
Seventh highest possible        1 round              1d3 rounds 
Eighth highest possible         1 round              1d3 rounds 
Ninth highest possible          0                    1 round 
Tenth highest possible          0                    1 round

"Recharging doesn’t require any actions and doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity. As long as a spellcaster is alive, he naturally recharges his energy." For more details, see the entire entry at Recharge Magic.

Shadowcasters would use the Bard/Sorcerer column for recharge times. This system would replace the 3/day uses for supernatural powers, 2/day for spell-like powers and 1/day for spells of the current system. It would naturally cause fundamentals to become unlimited use without a special rule (although not until they could cast a 8th level mystery). You would calculate the highest possible "spell level" for a shadowcaster by maximum level mystery they could cast if they always selected the highest level mystery they could -- they would not be required to actually select mysteries in such a manner in order to get quicker recharge times.

The Favored Mystery feat makes a mystery cast as a spell into a spell-like ability, a mystery used as a spell-like ability into a supernatural ability, and a gives a mystery used as a supernatural ability an extra use per day. The change in type works the same in this system, but the additional time per day for mysteries used as supernatural abilites instead makes such mysteries using general recharge time determine their recharge time as if they were two levels lower (that is, uses a column two steps further down the table), to a minimum recharge time of 0 rounds.

Recharge Magic makes spellcasters more powerful, which is why you don't see people generally using it for normal D&D spellcasting classes. But in the case of the Shadowcaster, it would simply raise the class to the level of power of other arcane spellcasters, as well as keeping their flavor as being different than other casters intact.

Recharge Times for Shadowcaster Mysteries

Afraid of the Dark: General
Army of Shadow: 10 minutes
Arrow of Dusk: General
Aura of Shade: General

Bend Perspective: General
Black Candle: General
Black Fire: General
Black Labyrinth: 24 hours *
Bolster: 1 hour

Carpet of Shadow: 5 minutes
Caul of Shadows: 5 minutes
Clinging Darkness: 5 minutes
Congress of Shadows: General
Consume Essence: General
Curtain of Shadows: General

Dancing Shadows: General
Dark Air or Water: 2 hours
Dark Soul: General
Deadly Shade: General *
Dusk and Dawn: 1 hour

Echo Spell: General
Ephemeral Image: General
Ephemeral Storm: General

Far Sight: 6 hours
Fearful Gloom: General *
Feign Life: General
Flesh Fails: General
Flesh Fails, Greater: General
Flicker: General
Flood of Shadows: General

Grasping Shadows: General *

Killing Shadows: General

Languor: General
Life Fades: General
Life Fades, Greater: General
Liquid Night: 30 minutes

Menagerie of Darkness: 1 hour *
Mesmerizing Shade: General
Mystic Reflections: General

Pass into Shadow: General
Piercing Sight: 30 minutes
Prison of Night: General

Quicker than the Eye: 5 minutes *

Reflections of Things to Come: 1 hour

Shadow Evocation: General
Shadow Evocation, Greater: General
Shadow Hood: General
Shadow Investiture: General
Shadow Plague: General
Shadow Skin: General
Shadow Storm: General
Shadow Surge: General
Shadow Time: 4 hours
Shadow Vision: General
Shadows Fade: General
Shadows Fade, Greater: General
Sharp Shadows: 5 minutes
Sickening Shadow: General *
Sight Eclipsed: General
Sight Obscured: General
Steel Shadows: 30 minutes
Soul Puppet: 12 hours
Step into Shadow: General
Summon Umbral Servant: General

Thoughts of Shadow: 5 minutes
Tomb of Night: General
Trail of Haze: 30 minutes *
Truth Revealed: General

Umbral Body: General
Umbral Fist: General *
Umbral Hand: General
Umbral Touch: General
Unravel Dweomer: General
Unveil: General

Voice of Shadow: General
Voyage into Shadow: 24 hours

Warp Spell: General
Widened Eyes: General

* = Mystery from the Cityscape web enhancement.

Commentary and Recommendations:
As much as I have strived to prove that shadowcasters don't need "fixing", I do admit that this is probably the simplest fix that I have ever seen and the one that I'd be most likely to use.
It makes shadowcasting different and more powerful. The only hard part about using it in combination with Descent of Shadows would be creating recharge times for each mystery, a task that I'd rather not undertake myself. *shudders*

Tainted Shadowcaster alternate class feature, written by LordArchaon

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Here is a revised version of my attempt at fixing the shadowcaster without really adding something to it.
Someone noted that this brings evil flavor to the class, but I don't agree. I think it adds a creepy and "cursed" flavor, instead!

Expanded Shadowcaster

- Cednouss Rifdalh, a tainted shadowcaster, casting a debilitating Umbral Hand.

Not all shadowcasters rely on the same powers.
The nature of shadows is a dangerously diverse one.
Some shadowcasters choose to unlock more power from their connection to the Plane of Shadows at the cost of their own sanity, since the thicker shadows that grow in their minds are just too alien and negative for these shadowcasters to use them without risk.

Tainted Shadowcaster
You know how to use your mysteries beyond normal limits at the cost of allowing the shadows to taint your mind.
Besides, the difficulty of this approach to mysteries makes you less focused on learning ways to improve them.
Level: 2nd.
Replaces: Bonus feats.
Benefit: You can cast any mystery beyond the normal per-day limits at the cost of gaining a depravity (only depravity) taint score of 3 per spell-level of the mystery.
You suffer the random depravity effects described in the Table 4-1 of Heroes of Horror as normal, depending on your Wisdom score.
Reaching moderate and severe depravity grants feats as normal, but these can't be chosen and are the following:

• Moderate Depravity: Surge of Malevolence.
• Severe Depravity: Debilitating Spell

If the depravity score exceeds the severe taint threshold, the rules presented in Heroes of Horror apply normally (permanent insanity, the player looses control of the character).
Cleansing the taint requires an entire night of meditation (which could eventually leave you fatigued, since you can't sleep) during which you must have casted all your available mysteries. After this period you will also regain your used mysteries.
No other conventional cleansing will work, since only you know the obscure links to the Plane of Shadow that you have made to channel such a deadly amount of shadow, and only you can undo the process.
You can always choose to rest as normal in order not to pass the night without mysteries available, but the taint will not be cleansed.
When the taint goes away, the feats you eventually gained disappear as well.
Changes of alignment due to any evil act you may have performed under the effect of depravity remain, but you don't automatically become evil by reaching severe depravity.

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I think the wording is ok...
The bad thing is that only who actually has access to Heroes of Horror can give some feedback!

But come on, this could be a really balanced and not-so-house-ruling way to "retool" the shadowcaster!

Keep in mind that a shadowcaster already needs high Intelligence and Charisma and to use this variant class feature effectively, she needs a decent Wisdom score too.

Adjustments to official taint rules:

1. Taint can be cleansed by the means of pure meditation (and, in this case, by nothing else).
2. The feats gained with moderate and severe depravity are restricted to specific taint feats.
3. You don't automatically become evil by reaching severe depravity.

"Pros" of this variant class ability:

1. A dynamic amount of extra mystery uses per day, which can result in many extra uses for low level mysteries or really few extra uses for high level mysteries.
2. The two tainted feats gained and in particular the second one, Debilitating Spell, are flavorful and handy.

"Cons" of this variant class ability:

1. From one to three random ill effects, which are increasingly baneful depending on how much you want to use the ability.
2. A strong need of Wisdom if you want to get the most out of the ability.
3. The loss of the Bonus Feats class ability.
4. The risk of permanently loosing control of your character to the DM.
5. The need of an entire night of meditation while not having any mysteries available to cast (leaving you very vulnerable) in order to re-use the ability.
6. Good luck if you get a phobia about darkness..! :D

Commentary and Recommendations:
Reminiscing:

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Ahh, LordArchaon. Back when I was working on the wizards boards, LordArchaon and I were the most proactive producers of shadow magic materia and I really respected his work. Good times, good times.

This ability is a nice one, putting a darker spin on the shadowcaster (or perhaps only some of them, as this is an alternate class feature). It's pretty balanced as more powerful mysteries make you go crazy faster. At first glance, I was tempted to say that recovering all of your taint in one night was too powerful. Then I realized what this ability is really doing and I was enlightened. This ability provides shadowcasters with the bonus mysteries per day for a high ability score that they've always wanted. That this ability gives you more MAD, steals a couple potential metashadow feats, and makes you crazy may actually make this ability a bit underpowered.
Still, I think that it is perfectly playable as is, although only playtesting will tell.

[Realms of Chaos]

The Shadow Nefarite PrC by Lord Archaon

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SHADOW NEFARITE

"We are students of ancient and noble arts. Sightings of demons and scary shadows don't bother us and we don't know anything about these shadow nefarites. Go away and leave us alone."

- Kyaus Nakane "Smoking Glare", shadow nefarite of the Hidden Moon sect.

Shadow nefarites may be very different from each other and may come from very different backgrounds.
What they have in common is that they are mysteriously touched by demonic energies (or have become so during their advancement), they study the gloomy ways of Shadow Magic and they are capable stalkers, spies, assassins or generally speaking "rogues", who take advantage from their supernatural powers to accomplish their secretive deeds.
They nearly always work alone and are very individualistic, but nevertheless belong to sects or "dojos" (if you play in an oriental-style setting, from which the original version of this converted and modified PrC is, see the "Way of the Ninja" book and look for the "Shosuro Tejina" PrC).
These sects may have dark and evil purposes or maybe even constitute a rare group of secret vigilantes that use their dark powers for good causes. In general, the first purpose of every sect is to teach the ways of Shadow Magic and the various secrets of the shadow nefarites to the most promising and willing adepts.
All in all, shadow nefarites are scary and even if sometimes they may even be heroes, they more often act like the dark demons that inhabit their souls.

BECOMING A SHADOW NEFARITE

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BECOMING A SHADOW NEFARITE
Shadow nefarites are a diversified lot. Their chaotic nature makes them receive different benefits depending on what they were before becoming shadow nefarites.
In particular, there are four known "ways" that the shadow nefarite's powers offer and they are the Stalker's Way that is accessible if the shadow nefarite had level in the ninja class, the Ascetic Way available to the ones who had levels in the monk class, the Rogue's Way available to anyone who had enough rogue levels or has the ability to deal considerable damage with a sneak attack and finally the Warrior's Way which is exclusive to martial characters who had some experience with the Shadow Hand discipline, which is remarkably tied to shadow magic.
Another peculiarity of the shadow nefarite's powers is the way they learn shadow magic. If they didn't have experience in shadowcasting before entering the prestige class, they still learn shadow magic, but will rely upon different abilities to cast their mysteries and while they will never learn the most powerful mysteries (shadow magic spells), they will be eventually able to cast them more times. On the other hand, if the shadow nefarite previously had some shadowcasting experience, which means levels in the shadowcaster or shadow warrior classes, she will be able to learn the most powerful mysteries available to shadow nefarites.
It is important to note that most shadow nefarites that didn't have shadowcasting experience still had some eldritch ties to magic by the means of the Abyssal Heritor feat named Keeper of Forbidden Knowledge. This strange feat could represent an inborn peculiarity of the character or the touch of demonic knowledge acquired while studying the ancient tomes that describe the ways of shadow nefarites.
Monks who become shadow nefarites often take the Ordered Chaos feat in order to stay of lawful alignment in spite of the chaotic influences of the abyssal heritor feats gained during the advancement in the shadow nefarite prestige class. These individuals often have levels of shadowcaster and usually become the grand masters of the sects, due to their lawful alignment and their superior focus and motivation.
In conclusion, shadow nefarites may be ninjas, monks, rogues or even swordsages with the Keeper of Forbidden Knowledge feat, or some levels of shadowcaster or simply be shadow warriors, which is the most simple and balanced way to become shadow nefarites. Less common background include some levels in the lurk or spellthief classes or even stranger combinations. Consider that having levels in more than one class that give access to different shadow nefarite's ways may slow the advancement, but could also make for a very flexible and unique character, since it is possible to take different shadow nefarite's ways during the advancement.

Entry Requirements:

Alignment: Not Lawful Good, not Neutral Good.
Base Attack Bonus: +4.
Skills: Hide 9 ranks, Move Silently 9 ranks.
Feats: any Abyssal Heritor feat. (Keeper of Forbidden Lore may help satisfy other requirements).

The two different choices below may lead to different spellcasting progressions and caster level acquirement or advancement.

Shadowcasting: Ability to cast 1st level mysteries, OR
Skills: Knowledge(the planes) 6 ranks, Spellcraft 6 ranks.

Depending on which or how many of the following requirements are fulfilled, you may choose different class features.

STALKER'S WAY - Special: Ghost Step class feature, AND/OR
ASCETIC WAY - Feats: Ordered Chaos and Stunning Fist, AND/OR
ROGUE WAY - Special: +3d6 Sneak Attack, AND/OR
ARTIST'S WAY- Feats: Chord of Distraction and Subsonics, AND/OR
LURK'S WAY - Special: Lurk Augment (Deceptive Strike), AND/OR
MARTIAL WAY - Martial Maneuvers: Must know the Assassin's Stance and two Shadow Hand maneuvers of at least 2nd level, AND/OR...
Optional: entry requirement for custom classes

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SAMURAI'S WAY - Special: Path of the Samurai (Wind) class feature, AND/OR
ASSASSIN'S WAY - Special: Throw Dagger (Standard) class feature, AND/OR
ENGETSU WAY - Special: Lunar Strike +2d6 class feature.

CLASS FEATURES
The class may give different class features depending on your previous classes, eventually leading to choices among different features. It also give random feats that at some point may change the alignment of the character, making it chaotic. Read carefully.

Table 1: The Shadow Nefarite                           Hit Die: 1d6

 Lv    BAB    Fort.  Ref. Will    Special                                      
1st     +0     +0    +2    +2    Abyssal Ways (Twilight), SA/SS +1d6
2nd     +1     +0    +3    +3    Black Code
3rd     +2     +1    +3    +3    Shadow Demon Skin 1/day
4th     +3     +1    +4    +4    SA/SS +2d6
5th     +3     +1    +4    +4    Chaotic Spell Recall, Abyssal Ways (Darkness)
6th     +4     +2    +5    +5    Shadows and Air
7th     +5     +2    +5    +5    SA/SS +3d6
8th     +6     +2    +6    +6    Shadow Demon Skin 3/day
9th     +6     +3    +6    +6    Abyssal Heritor feat
10th    +7     +3    +7    +7    SA/SS +4d6, Abyssal Ways (Shadow)

Table 2: Mysteries known.

 Lv    Mysteries known and type of casting                                      
1st     3 Fundamentals
2nd     +1 level of shadowcaster
3rd     +1 level of shadowcaster
4th     +1 level of shadowcaster
5th     +1 level of shadowcaster
6th     +1 level of shadowcaster
7th     +1 level of shadowcaster
8th     +1 level of shadowcaster
9th     +1 level of shadowcaster
10th    +1 level of shadowcaster

Class Skills (4+int modifier per level): Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Disable Device, Disguise, Escape Artist, Gather Information, Hide, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Open Lock, Perform (Kuji-Kiri), Profession, Search, Spellcraft, Spot, Tumble, Use Rope.

Weapons and Armor Proficiencies: You gain no new weapon, armor or shield proficencies.

Mysteries and Paths: You do not cast spells as other classes do, but instead invoke mystical secrets called mysteries.
If you didn't have levels in other mystery-using (shadowcasting) classes before, you gain access to the shadow nefarite list (table 3, below), each class level counts as caster level, and you learn mysteries and fundamentals at the same rate a shadowcaster does (excluding the first 3 Fundamentals, that you gain separately at first level), but may choose them only from the shadow nefarite list.
Instead, if you had levels in other shadowcasting classes, the first level of shadow neafrite doesn't count as caster level; you maintain access to the mysteries of those classes, but will have to follow the rules described in the Black Code (see above).
For the reasons explained in the Tome of Magic book, if you haven't access to other mystery lists, at 9th and 10th level you will only be able to re-learn other mysteries, gaining more uses, because you will not have enough 4th level mysteries to learn one of the next level and so on.

In order to cast a mystery from the Shadow Nefarite's list you must have a Wisdom (or Intelligence if you had levels in the shadowcaster class) score of 10+the mystery's level. The save DC for your mysteries equals 10+the mystery's level+your Cha modifier.

Table 3: The Shadow Nefarite's mysteries and paths

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Table 3: The Shadow Nefarite's mysteries and paths

Full List

FUNDAMENTAL MYSTERIES:

Dark Sleep: A limited Sleep with potentially bad drawbacks for the caster.

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Dark Sleep
Transmutation (Shadow)
SAVE: Fortitude. (Just to make it different... And less powerful against warrior-types)
RANGE: Close
TARGET: One creature (creatures immune to magical sleep are not immune to Dark Sleep)
DURATION: 1 round/level

Shadows infiltrate the creature's brain, making them sleep briefly or for a longer time, depending on their strength.

As Sleep with the above and following exceptions:
Affected creature HDs are 1 per caster level (up to 10).
A successful save makes the creature "sleep awake" for 1 round: the creature will attack you with the best attack options available (spell-users may try to blast you with attack spells), pinpointing you even if you were hidden, since its hyper-conscious level lets it locate the origin of the strange power that affected its mind. After that round the creature will act normally and will have a chance to learn your position with a +5 bonus to the related skill check.
A failed save makes the creature sleep as normal for the spell, with the exception of the limited duration of the effect.
Note that creatures with more HDs than the limit are completely unaffected, they don't even "sleep awake" for 1 round if they succeed or fail the save.

Kuji-Kiri: A difficult but efficient magical hypnosis technique.

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Kuji-Kiri
Enchantment (Compulsion) [Mind-affecting]
CASTING TIME: 1 swift action
DURATION: Concentration + 1 round/half caster levels (see text)
RANGE: Close
TARGET: One humanoid or animal.
SAVE: Will
SR: No

Your glare and movements feed a hypnotic shadow in your target's mind so that it could spend hours just looking at you.

You must concentrate on this fundamental with a full-round action, using a special Perform (Kuji-Kiri) check instead of the Concentration check. During this performance you are only able to make a 5 ft. (1,5 m) step each round, as normal.
Note that the magical art of Kuji-Kiri is very difficult and just to keep active the "concentration", you must succeed a DC 20 Perform (Kuji-Kiri) check. Every concentration-related check to mantain concentration in adverse conditions has its DC higher by 5 points.
If the target fails the save against this fundamental, it can't perform any action for the duration, and it doesn't have a second chance of saving against the effect untill some loud noise disturbs the area, in which case the target is allowed a second saving throw. If someone breaks up the caster's concentration, the caster goes out of range, or the target gets any damage, the effect ends immediately.
Note that after you end your concentration, the creature you had targeted will be able to act normally, but will not remember anything of what happenned for a number of rounds equal to half your caster level.

Reflection of Memory: A limited Disguise Self affecting only one target.

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Reflection of Memory
Illusion (Glamer)
DURATION: 10 minutes
RANGE: Personal
TARGET: You

You may let someone perceive you as another person, as your connection to shadows makes you appear different.

As Disguise Self, but affects only one target at a time.

Silent Soul: You make another mystery more powerful against flat-footed enemies.

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Silent Soul
Transmutation
CASTING TIME: 1 swift action
DURATION: 1 round
RANGE: Personal
SAVE: Will (harmless)
SR: Yes (harmless)

A chaotic conduit between you and the shadows comes into being into your soul, making your mysteries more deadly when you cast them to opponents that you could easily back-stab.

You cast this fundamental with a swift action. The next mystery you cast in that round has its DC raised by 1 plus 1 every 5 caster levels (maximum of 3 at caster level 10) if the target is flat-footed or unaware that it is the target of the mystery.
Silent Soul can only enhance mysteries of one spell level (beginning from level 0) for every two caster levels, up to a maximum of seventh level mysteries at caster level 15.

Silent Sound: The touched object becomes completely silent.

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Silent Sound
Transmutation (Shadow)
DURATION: 10 minutes/level
RANGE: Touch
SAVE: Fortitude (object, harmless)
SR: Yes (harmless)

You cover the object in a thin layer of shadows, making it completely noiseless.

The touched objects will emit no sound for the duration of the mystery (spell). Not even if it collides with other non-enchanted objects.
If you cast this fundamental on your boots, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus on move silently.

APPRENTICE PATH MYSTERIES:

Rushing Eclipse

1 - Whispers of Nothingness: Easily hide and move silently even while moving.

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Whispers of Nothingness
Illusion (Glamer)
DURATION: 1 minute/level
RANGE: Personal

When you move, the shadows around you seem to flow following your movements, allowing you to become even less noticeable.

You can move up to normal speed with no penalties to Hide and Move Silently checks. You can run or charge with only a -10 penalty to Hide and Move Silently checks, instead of -20.
In addition, this mystery increases your base land speed by 10 ft. (treated as an enhancement bonus).

2 - Jealous Fury of Ededei: Dazzle with flash, then blind with darkness.

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Jealous Fury of Ededei (Blinding Darkness)
Evocation [Light, Darkness] (Shadow)
DURATION: 1 round/level (up to 10)
RANGE: Medium
AREA: 9m(30ft) radius emanation
SAVE: Reflexes, see text

You control the light and shadows of the area making it very bright for an instant and very dark an instant later

A bright flash makes all creatures in the area Dazzled for 1 round. Then the area is obscured, reducing any vision by 75%. Creatures that fail the save are treated as Blinded for the duration of the effect, excluding the first round in which they were Dazzled.
The mystery doesn't function if a light spell of 2nd level or higher is active in the area.

3 - Shadow Twin: Create an illusory twin to confuse opponents.

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Shadow Twin
Illusion (Phantasm)
DURATION: 1 minute/level
RANGE: 1,5m(5ft)
EFFECT: One shadow double

You create a perfect double of yourself with shadows. While it's only an image, your opponents cannot know who of the two is the real one.

Your first attack each round gains a circumstance bonus equal to 1 + 1 every 5 caster levels (up to 3 without Shadowcaster levels or 5 at 20th level, with Shadowcaster levels and Practiced Spellcaster) as your opponents try to defend themselves from both you and your double.
All attacks directed on you the round you cast the mystery are made as if you had total concealment (50% miss chance). The round after, your opponents know which of the two is the real one and can attack you without penalties.
You can swap your position with that of the Shadow Twin once per caster level with an immediate action. This allows you to to do an additional 1,5m step even out of your turn (since you and the Shadow Twin are always at that distance one from the other) and also reactivates total concealment for that round. Additionaly, if engaged in melee combat, the 1,5m step may take you out of range and effectively negate all the attacks.
When you swapped position with your Shadow Twin all the available times, the mystery ends.

Dim Edges

1 - Darken The Veil of Sleep: Infuse a deeper state of sleeping.

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Darken The Veil of Sleep
Transmutation (Shadow)
DURATION: 10 minutes/level (originally 1 hour)
RANGE: Touch
SAVE: Fortitude, see text
SR: Yes

By evoking a small portion of shadow inside the brain of a sleeping creature, you make its sleep nearly-comatose for some time.

If the touched creature failed the saving throw, it's not going to wake up, regardless of noise for the duration of the mystery (spell). Any damage will wake up the creature.
Note that the mystery also affects creatures that are "sleeping awake" because of a Dark Sleep effect.
A successful saving throw makes the creature wake up the next round, regardless of any previous sleep effect, or before if the previous sleep effect had already finished.

2 - Fierce Shuriken: Greatly enhance a few projectile or thrown weapons.

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Fierce Shuriken
Transmutation (Shadow)
DURATION: 1 minute/level
TARGET: Up to 1 thrown or proyectile weapon per 2 caster levels (minimum of 1)

You infuse your shurikens or similar weapons with the power of Shadow.

The affected thrown weapons are treated as being made of Shadowstriking metal (they automatically pass any damage reduction) for the duration of the spell. Additionally, sneak attacks or any other precision damage inflicted with these weapons, applies even beyond 9 meters (30 feet).

3 - Edge of Nothing: Make a weapon supernaturally sharp.

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Edge of Nothing (or Edge of Pure Shadow)
Transmutation (Shadow)
DURATION: 1 round/half caster level (minimum of 1)
TARGET: A weapon

You perfect your weapon, by converting all the flawed parts of it to pure shadows, rendering its edges incredibly sharp.

The critical range of the weapon is increased by 1 point + 1 every 10 caster levels (up to 2 with no Shadowcaster levels or 3 at 20th level, with Shadowcaster levels and Practiced Spellcaster). This effects stacks with any other feat or magical weapon that increases critical range.
Additionally, if rolling to confirm a critical hit you roll another critical, your critical multiplier is increased by one.

INITIATE PATH MYSTERIES:

Shadow Dragon

4 - Shadow Brother: Create a quasi-real double of yourself.

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Shadow Brother
Conjuration (Shadow)
DURATION: 1 round/level
RANGE: Up to 15m (50ft)

You conjure a real double of yourself: a true brother of shadows.

As Shadow Twin with the above and following exceptions:
Your double is now more than an image and has half your hit points, half your skill ranks, your AC, your BAB with a -5 penalty, but cannot cast any spells, powers or mysteries you know. Its equipment is the same of yours, but magical weapons loose any enhancement (although are still considered magical in order to bypass any damage reduction) and magical objects that produce any spell effect, (such as scrolls, wands, rings and others) can't be used by the Shadow Brother at all.
You can control it with a free action for as long as it remains within range.

5 - Goju's Embrace: Empower your ties to the abyss and receive new abilities.

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Goju's Embrace
Conjuration
DURATION: 1 minute/level
RANGE: Personal

You create a shadowy conduit between you and the powers of dark creatures of the abyss.

The bonuses granted by your Abyssal Heritor feats, and every class feature that depends on the number of Abyssal Heritor feats you have, are calculated as if you had an additional number of them equal to half your caster level.
Note that in the case of the Chaotic Spell Recall feat, to avoid loopholes, the extra spell recalls gained by the menas of Goju's Embrace can't be used to cast Goju's Embrace again.
Additionally, you gain Fast Healing 1 in shadowy areas, and your Darkvision (if you have it) can now pierce magical darkness.

6 - Shroud of The Shadow Dragon: Unleash the ultimate power of shadow.

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Shroud of The Shadow Dragon
Transmutation (Shadow)
DURATION: Permanent
RANGE: Touch or Personal
TARGET: One creature touched or You
SAVE: Will negates, See text

You can unleash the power of the mythical Shadow Dragon. You can use it to condemn your foes to live in a form of shadow or to disappear completely when the secrets you carry or your own life are in extreme danger.

If the touched creature fails the save it permanently becomes a Shadow Elemental of its size and will never harm (nor help) the caster. Only Wish, Miracle or Shroud of the Shadow Dragon casted again by the same caster can restore it to its original form.
If the character uses this mystery on itself it has a special effect. He temporary stops to exist by "de-materializing" and becoming an indistinct part of the Shadow Plane. In this case, a Will save allows the effect, and the character fades to an indistinct shadow and then to nothing, reappearing in the same place after a chosen amount of time, from a minimum of 1 hour up to a number of days equal to her caster level. If the character fails the save, he will be permanently polymorphed (see the polymorph subschool description) into a Shadow Elemental of its size. In this case, only Wish, Miracle or Shroud of the Shadow Dragon casted by another Shadow Demon may restore the caster's original form.

The Black Code: Those who enter the order of the Shadow Nefarites already knowing the ways of shadow magic must learn at least one mystery every two levels from the Shadow Nefarite list below (table 3, above).
Those who don't respect this rule instantly become Ex Shadow Nefarites (see below).

Abyssal Ways: Shadow nefarites develop a strong link with the abyssal plane and mysterious shadow entities that dwell there. This link gifts the character with different powers depending on what previous training or trainings he/she had.
If the character qualifies for more than one Abyssal Way, he must choose which way to follow at first (to determine if he/she gets Sneak Attack, Sudden Strike or other class features in place of them) but may choose a different benefit at 5th and 10th level (a benefit from a different "way").

STALKER'S WAY

Very defensive, with empowered Ki dodge, and extra spellcasting.

Twilight: Your levels in shadow nefarite stack with your ninja levels for the purpose of calculating your total amount of level-based Ki points, and the level you get new usages for your Ghost Step class feature.
From now on you get Sudden Strike.
Darkness: You gain the Ki Dodge class feature as a ninja of 6th level, but the amount of miss chance is equal to 10% for every Abyssal Heritor feat you have.
Shadow: You can now use your Ki points to gain extra uses of mysteries, expending 1 Ki point for every level of the mystery you want to use beyond daily limits. For example, you could spend 3 Ki points to gain 3 new uses for a 1st level mystery or 1 new use for a 3rd level mystery. Note that you can use this technique only to recover mysteries exclusive to this class, not mysteries from other shadowcaster's paths, for example.
The number of Ki points you can expend, and so the maximum level mystery you can reuse is equal to your Charisma modifier.

ASCETIC WAY

Focus on special attacks, with empowered Quivering Palm as final ability.

Twilight: Your levels in shadow nefarite stack with your monk levels for the purpose of determining your unarmored speed bonus, Ki Strike class feature, and the number of daily attempts of your Stunning Fist feat. Note that instead of eventually gaining Ki Strike (lawful), at the appropriate level you gain a special Ki Strike (chaotic) feature.
From now on you get Sudden Strike.
Darkness: You gain the Slow Fall class feature, but the distance you can fall without taking damage is equal to 20 ft. for every Abyssal Heritor feat you have. You also add ½ the number of Abyssal Heritor feats you have as a profane bonus to your Stunning Fist DC.
Shadow: You gain the Quivering Palm class feature as a monk of 15th level, with the exception that you use your Charisma modifier, may use it a number of times per week equal to your Charisma modifier, and your shadow nefarite levels stack with the monk ones in order to calculate the DC. You also add ½ the number of Abyssal Heritor feats you have as a profane bonus to your Quivering Palm DC.

ROGUE WAY

Focus on Skill Tricks, progression of Uncanny Dodge, and extra goodies for true rogues.

Twilight: Your levels in shadow nefarite count as rogue levels for the purpose of gaining or advancing the benefits of the Uncanny Dodge class feature.
From now on you get Sneak Attack.
Darkness: You acquire a number of Skill Tricks equal to ½ the number of Abyssal Heritor feats you have, and each day you can select different ones, but you must always meet the requirements of every Skill Trick you learn. You also gain an extra +1d6 of Sneak Attack or, optionally, a rogue's Special Ability if you have rogue levels.
Shadow: You gain extra usages per encounter for your skill tricks equal to your Charisma modifier. You can use all your extra usages on one trick or distribute them between more tricks freely. You also gain an extra +1d6 of Sneak Attack or, optionally, a rogue's Special Ability if you have rogue levels.

MARTIAL WAY

Mixes swordsage and warblade features and allows multiple stances as a peak ability.

Twilight: Your add your full shadow nefarite level to your initiator level to determine your total initiator level and your highest-level maneuvers known.
Instead of Sneak Attack or Sudden Strike you gain one extra maneuver readied, and two new maneuvers known or one new stance known, alternatively (look at Table 4 below for sample progession).
Darkness: You gain both the Insightful Strike and Battle Ardor class features but instead of adding Wisdom or Intelligence modifier, you add the number of Abyssal Heritor feats you have.
Shadow: You can benefit from multiple Shadow Hand stances at the same time for a limited number of times per day equal to your Charisma modifier, and for a fixed number of rounds each time equal to ½ the number of Abyssal Heritor feats you have. The number of simultaneous stances is equal to ½ the number of Abyssal Heritor feats you have.

LURK'S WAY

Mixes psionics with shadowcasting, and reaches high prowess in the end.

Twilight: Your shadow nefarite levels stack with your lurk levels for the purpose of determining Lurk Augment usage and selection.
Instead of Sneak Attack or Sudden Strike, you gain Psionic Talent as a bonus feat.
Darkness: You can cast your mysteries beyond their daily limits by expending a number of power points equal to the standard cost of a psionic power of a level one higher than the mystery's level. Mysteries casted in this fashion always count as supernatural abilities.
Shadow: A number of times per day equal to your Charisma modifier, you can use a number of Augments at once equal to ½ the number of Abyssal Heritor feats you have.

ARTIST'S WAY

Transforms previous spellcasting and specializes in distracting enemies and general versatility.

Twilight: Your shadow nefarite levels stack with your bard levels for the purpose of determining your bardic music daily attempts.
Instead of Sneak Attack or Sudden Strike, you gain an additional +1 level of shadowcaster by sacrificing two levels of arcane spellcasting given by the bard class.
You are also able to select shadowcaster mysteries in lieu of shadow nefarite mysteries, and you cast all mysteries as a shadowcaster (using Intelligence instead of Wisdom), but must follow the rules of the Black Code while doing so.
If at one moment you gain this feature but don't have two bard spellcasting levels left, you don't gain the benefit until you gain a sufficient bard level.
Darkness: You can use Chord of Distraction for for free a number of times per day equal to your Charisma modifier. Additionally, you can designate yourself in place of an ally as the beneficiary of the effect, the target will remain flat-footed for a number of rounds equal to ½ the number of Abyssal Heritor feats you have, and you gain a profane bonus to your Perform check equal to the number of Abyssal Heritor feats you have.
You also gain a free bonus feat.
Shadow: You become a master of the Kuji-Kiri fundamental. You concentrate on it with a move action, you gain a profane bonus on its save DC equal to the number of Abyssal Heritor feats you have, you can target a number of enemies equal to the number of Abyssal Heritor feats you have, and you can use it as a sonic effect, not depending on line of sight, and usable in conjunction with the Subsonics feat.
You also gain a free bonus feat.

ABYSSAL WAYS FOR CUSTOM CLASSES

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SAMURAI'S WAY

Focus on damage, tracking of prey and extra spellcasting on slaying.

Twilight: Instead of Sneak Attack or Sudden Strike, you gain an additional +1d6 to your Mark (Cut Once) class feature.
Darkness: You gain the Greater Path of the Samurai (Wind) class feature with the exception that you gain blindsense equal to 10 ft. for every Abyssal Heritor feat you have. You also gain Track as a bonus feat.
Shadow: You gain the Mark (Pass Through) class feature with the difference that the immediate movement is equal to 5 ft. for every Abyssal Heritor feat you have.
A number of times per day equal to your Charisma modifier, during the immediate movement, you can also cast a mystery during the same action and beyond daily limits, but the mystery's level must not be greater than ½ the number of Abyssal Heritor feats you have.

ASSASSIN'S WAY

Complete focus on ranged attacks. Empowered cloaking/camouflage as capstone.

Twilight: Your levels in shadow nefarite count as rogue levels for the purpose of gaining or advancing the benefits of the Uncanny Dodge class feature.
Instead of Sneak Attack or Sudden Strike, you gain an additional +1 dodge bonus to your AC.
Darkness: You gain Improved Combat Style (critical hits) and Shadow Mastery, both with the exception of being applicable to all light weapons with range increment, but only to them. This overrides the restriction to Shadow Hand weapons of the Shadow Mastery class feature.
Plus, instead of adding +1d6 damage with your Shadow Mastery, you add damage equal to the number of Abyssal Heritor feats you have.
Note that your shadow nefarite levels count as initiator levels for the purpose of learning the new Shadow Hand stance given by the Combat Style class feature.
Shadow: You gain the Throw Dagger (Swift) class feature. A number of times per day equal to your Charisma modifier, you can also cast a mystery during the same action, and imbue the throwing weapon with it, but the mystery's level must not be greater than ½ the number of Abyssal Heritor feats you have.
You also improve your Cloaking class feature, gaining camouflage in every area and with a distance from features equal to 5ft. for every two Abyssal Heritor feats you have.

ENGETSU WAY

Transforms previous spellcasting and gain empowered vision or SR. Surprise capstone.

Twilight: If you have the Implement Focus or Implement Extension feats, you can use them as Metashadow feats, once per day, on your mysteries.
Instead of Sneak Attack or Sudden Strike, you gain an additional +1 level of shadowcaster by sacrificing two levels of arcane spellcasting given by the Engetsu shinobi class.
You are also able to select shadowcaster mysteries in lieu of shadow nefarite mysteries, and you cast all mysteries as a shadowcaster (using Intelligence instead of Wisdom), but must follow the rules of the Black Code while doing so.
If at one moment you gain this feature but don't have two Engetsu shinobi spellcasting levels left, you don't gain the benefit until you gain a sufficient Engetsu Shinobi level.
Darkness: You gain the Lunar Vision feat with the exception of having darkvision equal to 10 ft. + 10 ft. for every Abyssal Heritor feats you have, or you gain the Lunar Mantle feat with the exception of having your shadow nefarite levels stack with Engetsu shinobi levels, and an extra profane bonus to the resulting SR equal to the number of Abyssal Heritor feats you have.
Shadow: You gain the Lunar Sight feat with the exception of having blindsight (instead of blindsense) equal to 5 ft. for every Abyssal Heritor feats you have, or you gain the Lunar Mantle, Penultimate feat with the exception of having your shadow nefarite levels stack with Engetsu shinobi levels, using your Charisma modifier instead of Intelligence modifier, and an extra profane bonus to the resulting SR equal to the number of Abyssal Heritor feats you have.
You also gain the Ki Clout feat as a bonus feat and may treat your unarmed strikes as made of Shadowstriking metal for a limited number of times per day equal to your Charisma modifier, and for a fixed number of rounds each time equal to ½ the number of Abyssal Heritor feats you have.

Table 4: Martial Way: example of typical maneuvers progression.

 lv      Maneuvers Known      Maneuvers Readied        Stances Known
1st      2                     1                       0
2nd      0                     0                       0  
3rd      0                     0                       0 
4th      1                     1                       1  
5th      0                     0                       0    
6th      0                     0                       0     
7th      2                     1                       0    
8th      0                     0                       0     
9th      0                     0                       0   
10th     1                     1                       1

Shadow Demon Skin (Su): The Shadow Demon Skin is identical to the Shadow Skin mystery but is cast with a bonus on your caster level equal to the number of Abyssal Heritor feats you have and replaces Silver with Cold Iron, since the nature of this power is tied to the Abyss. The shadow nefarite can use it as a supernatural ability 1 time per day, expending the use of one Apprentice mystery.
At 8th level the Shadow Demon may use it 3 times per day, always expending the use of any one Apprentice mystery each time.
Starting from 5th level, this ability can be recovered by the means of the Chaotic Spell Recall feat, as all the other mysteries from the shadow nefarite list.
Additionally, a shadow nefarite who reaches the Stalker's Way to Shadow is able to get an extra use for this mystery expending 2 Ki points, and a shadow nefarite who reaches the Lurk's Way to Darkness is able to get an extra use for it expending 5 power points.

Chaotic Spell Recall: At 5th level, all your mysteries and fundamentals from the shadow nefarite list gain the Chaotic descriptor and are recoverable by the means of the Chaotic Spell Recall feat (see Fiendish Codex I) that you gain even if you don't meet the prerequisites.

Shadows and Air (Su): The ever-growing chaotic and shadowy presence in your soul has now extended to your body. Your movements become supernaturally fluid and unpredictable, and you almost seem to flicker just a moment before being hit, dodging even apparently sure hits.
From now on, you always add your Charisma modifier as a bonus to your AC.
Being this a supernatural effect, it doesn't function in areas where magic is not possible such as an antimagic field.

Abyssal Heritor Feat: You gain an Abyssal Heritor feat (see "Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss") that can be randomly determined to add some chaotic flavor to the character or optionally chosen normally.

EX Shadow Nefarites
A shadow nefarite who breaks the Black Code, becomes of prohibited alignment or breaks whatever extra rule his sect might have (maybe just by failing a mission given by the grand master of the sect) cannot take any other level in the prestige class and looses all the benefits derived from Silent Soul, Shadows and Air and the use of the Shadow Demon Skin mystery/class feature. The only way to regain the power is by defeating the grand master of his sect.

"Our sect has grown strong, but we payed a price for it: there are few of us now like me, who can be seen by normal people without provoking a visceral horror."

- Jhunal Na-taki "Red Moon", a shadow nefarite in her everyday outfit.

New Abyssal Heritor feats

ABYSSAL MARKINGS
Glowing markings of demonic symbols appear on your body, augmenting your power at a painful cost.
Prerequisite: Any three other Abyssal Heritor feats
Benefit: You add a +1 profane bonus to your Charisma score for every two Abyssal Heritor feats you possess.
Special: You suffer a permanent drain of 2 points of Constitution.

GRASP OF THE GLABREZU
Your nearly demonic hands give you strength and a powerful grasp, allowing you to wield large weapons, but making it more difficult to wield smaller ones.
Prerequisite: Claws of the Beast
Benefit: You reduce the measure of the effort it takes to wield an oversized weapon by one step. The penalty for using bigger weapons decreases by 1 for every four Abyssal Heritor feats you possess, but the penalty can never be a negative value (you will never gain a bonus for wielding oversized weapons).
Special: You suffer a permanent -2 penalty on attack rolls made with all light and ranged weapons.

New feats

ALLURING BLADEWHIRL

Prerequisite: Snowflake Wardance, Perform (Kuji-Kiri) 12 ranks, Artist's Ways (Darkness) class feature.
Benefit: When initiating a Snowflake Wardance, you can instead choose to initiate an Alluring Bladewhirl expending one additional bardic music use.
The effect is the same of a Snowflake Wardance, but you gain 1d6 of Sudden Strike, plus an additional +1d6 for every 4 Abyssal Heritor feats you have.
The duration of the Alluring Bladewhirl is equal to your Perform (Kuji-Kiri) ranks, instead of Perform (dance) ranks.

PLAYING A SHADOW NEFARITE

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PLAYING A SHADOW NEFARITE
You have delved deep into "forbidden" lores and finally discovered what are arguably the most efficient powers to be stealthy, difficult to hit in combat and generally very difficult to stop from your intents.
You are a loner and at the same time you depend from a sect and especially from its grand master, the person that gave you the possibility to access all these new powers.
Depending on the nature of your sect, and on the nature of yourself, you could have nearly no interaction with the sect, a very easy and good relationship or a dangerous and painful life with it.
All in all, you are a person who has, explicitly or implicitly, a strong thirst of power. And even more than that, a predilection for easy ways to get this power. Chances are that you are a charismatic and smart person, one who could have a bright and easy future, but some bad experiences or delusions in your life made you think that "the outside world", society, politics, law and order are just against you. Even magical studies were just too boringly legislated for your likings. Then, by traveling around or by studying alone, you discovered (or you were discovered by) a shadow nefarite master and your life changed.
Now you can do what you want... Or maybe what your master or some hidden and dark part of your soul wants, but chances are that you will never know it. Or that you will discover the truth when it will be a little late to change it.

COMBAT

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COMBAT
You combine very subtle powers with fast and deadly attacks. You could run parallel to a line-up of shooting archers without being hit or you could receive a deadly blow just to let your foe breathless when he discovers that the weapon didn't even scar your skin. You excel at dealing with single opponents, but if you get surrounded, you would better try to run away or do hara-kiri if the secrets you carry would bring you more pain than death, if discovered.
At higher levels, you have the power to let your foes think that you're dead, by letting them kill the perfect decoy that the double of yourself created by the Shadow Brother mystery is, or if you have a monastic and shadowcasting training, you could just slay everyone with the claws that you probably had grown by the means of your abyssal heritage, having them enhanced by the fearful Edge of Nothing mystery and helped by the dark powers of the Goju's Embrace mystery.
If you will become a true master among shadow nefarites, you could eventually learn the ultimate mystery: the Shroud of the Shadow Dragon. With it you could easily kill even powerful foes, if you manage to use it in conjunction with the Silent Soul class feature, or you can really and completely disappear, giving you a happier alternative to suicide in the worst situations...
Your options in combat are just as many as the damned souls that inhabit the foul plane that gives you some of your powers.

ADVANCEMENT

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ADVANCEMENT
If you had levels in the monk, shadow warrior, shadowcaster or more than one of these classes, you should consider taking some levels into them during your advacement, since you would probably rely on some of their class features and/or superior spellcasting ability.
Being a shadow nefarite means also confronting with the need of more and more abyssal heritor feats, to take advantage and use at best the two free ones that the clas gives you. This is especially so if you were a shadow warrior or shadowcaster and at high levels learn the Goju's Embrace mystery. With it you can double the effectiveness of your Abyssal Heritor feats and this would probably mean better combat prowess and who know how much else.

Other feats that you must consider if you also have access to other shadow magic paths are the few Reserve feats (see "Complete Mage") for which you could qualify, especially those that enhance movement like Borne Aloft or Dimensional Jaunt.
One Reserve feat that you may and should really take even without having more shadowcasting ability is the Face-Changer feat, available since you take the Shadow Brother mystery (which is both a shadow illusion since it creates something that is nearly real and a glamer illusion needed to qualify for the feat since it makes the shadow look like a vivid and real copy of yourself).
With the Face-Changer feat you can avoid other people seeing your probably evident demonic features.
Other always helpful feats may be Metashadow feats, other feats presented in the Shadow Magic chapter of Tome of Magic like the ones that let you avoid attacks of opportunity while casting a mystery, and finally some combat-oriented feat, like Improved Critical which stacks with the bonus granted by Edge of Nothing.
Also consider that if at a certain point you find that you need more shadow magic prowess, you can always take a level of shadowcaster after entering the shadow nefarite class and the only changes you will undergo will be that you will now have to follow the "Black Code" and that if you had already reached 4th level, so gaining the "Chaotic Transformation" class feature, only the mysteries that you learned before gaining the shadowcaster level will qualify for the use of Chaotic Spell Recall. Apart from that, the change will be good since you will start your shadowcaster career already knowing some shadowcasting and your levels in shadowcaster and shadow nefarite will stack for the purpose of determining caster level and mystery learning. Of course the previous mysteries won't count for the purpose of determining Bonus Feats.
Speaking of advancement in your "career", consider at a certain point that if your grand master becomes an obstacle, you can always defeat him and maybe take his place or definitely become a real lone wolf or maybe even create your own sect.

RESOURCES

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RESOURCES
Even if your sect could represent a resource in the case of an organized sect, there are also many sects which don't represent a true resource to its adepts, and these sects are the ones that permit the higher degree of autonomy. So a resourceful sect is also a demanding sect.
However, the nature of shadow nefarites makes them resourceful of their own, so apart from some good magic item you may want in order to make your life and fights easier, you don't need much at all.
For evil shadow nefarites, a good resource may be what many would consider an immense threat: the demons themselves. Taking a feat like Evil Brand could make you look at least like a possible and temporary ally to the eyes of some demons. In this case, being friend to (or kidnapping) someone that deals with planar bindings or portals could help you in your foul quests...

CONTINUES IN THE NEXT POST!

[Realms of Chaos]

The Shadow Nefarite PrC, written by LordArchaon: Part 2

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SHADOW NEFARITES IN THE WORLD

"Shadows and chaos can be the best tools to fight injustice. But these great powers should never be used for one's greed, or they will take even the purest souls to dark paths."

- Katahshken "White Lotus": master of the Cloaked Stargazers, on his way to voluntary poverty.

The shadow nefarites could represent the biggest threat to society as well as the last standing against evil, depending on the type of sects that are introduced to the campaign world.
An epic conclave of spellcasting-focused shadow nefarites could very well and ironically be the "shadow government" of a metropolis, while individual and not organized shadow nefarites could represent mysterious and evil villains as well as unseen protectors.
The connection between the abyss and the shadow plane could be a secret that the most powerful shadow nefarites keep for themselves, and the fate of the world could depend on the knowledge of that secret. In this case, life could be difficult for shadow nefarites, because many powers would like to defeat them to unlock their forbidden lore.
All in all, the importance, position, and situation of the shadow nefarites in a campaign world could vary like individual shadow nefarites do.

ORGANIZATION

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ORGANIZATION
As it is clear to shadow nefarites themselves, the term "shadow nefarite" is just a generalization that groups together not only different type of warriors and rogues, but also different types of sects, some of them very focused and composed by more or less the same type of members, much like monasteries, others more varied, with complex hierarchies and very independent components. This facts make the organization of shadow nefarites only a matter of choice for the Game Master. The whole idea of organization could be thrashed for a different concept, maybe tied to physical demonic influences or true bloodline heritages.
Just remember that even if shadow nefarites are much more chaotic than lawful, some particular and not so hard combinations could make for solid lawful shadow nefarites. The management and interactions of these two "factions" are left to your imagination.

NPC REACTION

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NPC REACTION
Seeing a shadow nefarite is very difficult. But even more difficult is to remain calm and cold-blooded if you manage to see one. Simple folk may even believe that they are true demons, while experienced adventurers could just be puzzled by their strange cocktail of abilities and maybe make bad mistakes when trying to confront with them.
Nevertheless, a disguised or just not-on-duty shadow nefarite could appear as a normal person. It depends much on what kind of (and how many) Abyssal Heritor feat he/she acquired. The ones with wings will obviously have a much harder time trying to pass for something "normal" than their "cousins" with just some hallucinatory visions in their minds.

SHADOW NEFARITES LORE

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SHADOW NEFARITES LORE
Characters with ranks in Knowledge (local) can discover the presence of shadow nefarites in a given region or city, but only charcaters with Knowledge (the plans) can understand the secrets beneath the surface.
Knowledge (local)
DC 10: The biggest robberies or more impressive murders of the area are said to be made by "shadow demons" of sorts.
DC 15: Some say that these "shadow demons" are not demons, but humans with demon blood or who made pacts with abyssal powers in order to become powerful like them.
DC 20: These eerie criminals seem to act without clear schemes and seem to make use of a particular form of magic named shadow magic.
DC 25: The name with which these mysterious rogues are known to the most informed authorities is "shadow nefarites", but who they really are and where do they hide is never known for sure.
DC 30: The shadow nefarites work alone but are organized into secret sects that disguise themselves as monasteries, guilds or schools of magic. Sometimes a sect of shadow nefarite is just hidden into a normal organization. What they always need is access to ancient tomes about the abyss and the plane of shadows.
Knowledge (the planes)
DC 15: The plane of shadow is the source of shadow magic and is also connected to many other planes.
DC 20: It i said that some strong connection exists somewhere between the plane of shadow and the abyss.
DC 25: Some evil and secretive shadowcasters (masters of shadow magic) discovered ways to enhance their magic by letting their bodies and souls be influenced by abyssal energies. Someone calls them "shadow nefarites".
DC 30: Even if shadow nefarites deal with the powers of the abyss, this fact doesn't alone make them evil, but much more than so makes them chaotic. There is no reason to think that the magic of shadow nefarites is evil in nature, but for sure it may be chaotic.

SHADOW NEFARITES IN THE GAME

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SHADOW NEFARITES IN THE GAME
Due to their nature, Shadow Nefarites can be easily introduced to any campaign world. They best fit into big cities with some inter-cultural exchanges and some schools of magic.
Shadow magic will be inevitable for the introduction of shadow nefarites, but it would not be a bad idea to make them the first pioneers of this magic.
Making their sect hidden into already consolidated shadow magic schools is equally simple and valid.
All the PCs in the party with the right roguish abilties could be attracted by the class powers, and even more fighter-oriented characters could benefit from its special abilities and magic, so the party, or part of it, could very easily become involved into the strange plots of some shadow nefarite sect, or maybe just become autodidact shadow nefarite, without giving much importance to the sources of their power or to other implications.

ADAPTION

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Adaption
This prestige class started out as a conversion of a ninja prestige class taken by the "Way of the Ninja" book, which was tied to the Legend of the 5 Rings and consequently to the Rokugan campaign setting. The oriental feeling can still be felt by looking at the names of the mysteries or at the name of some class features. Changing these names could already represent amore solid adaption to a classic gaming world, while making this class a peculiarity of a distant oriental land such as Kara-Tur in the Forgotten Realms setting could explain its strangeness and aliment the interest towards it.
In the Eberron world they could just be a new and wary sect born in Sharn itself, maybe around the Morgrave University entourage, or they could be an ancient group tied to the Lords of Dust, their power coming from the great imprisoned rakshasa rajas.
Other adaption options could very well be focusing the requirements, by making the class more specific or on the other hand adding even more "Ways", such as one especially for bards (not a bad idea), one for scouts, one for lurks, one for rangers and so on. So you can cut away Ways in order to make the class simpler, add other Ways to make it even more flexible or just replace them with others to change the feeling. For example, the urban feeling could be easily changed to a more savage feeling by thinking out a Way of the Rager (for barbarians), a Way of the Skirmisher (for scouts) and a Way of the Hunter (for rangers) and replacing the original ways with the new ones.
You could even convert the mysteries to spells (they are already spells converted to mysteries, so the process is easy) and give the class a more conventional feeling, with spells known and spell-slots tables.

Sample Encounter
A Shadow Nefarite can well be a central character of a storyline: a mysterious and elusive figure that may endanger or help the party depending on the situation.
The PCs may want to befriend this dark warrior in order to be initiated to the secrets of his magic or they may want to capture him just because of the bounty on his head.
EL 18: Katahshken is a living example of how the powers of shadow and of the abyss may change a life forever. but not necessarily in a bad way, at all.
He was once one of the most respected warriors of his fighting school, known for his exotic beauty and elegance. Sometimes, though some accidents put him in difficult situations: companions reported to the masters that sometimes his face changed into a demonic visage.The masters never believed this and thought that the rumors could be envy. Katahshken though, knew that he had some sort of intimidating and innate power, and he realized that he had a connection with a different plane of existence and started studying ancient tomes about demons and the planes. He had already chose his path in one of the biggest ceremonies of his school when his new masters noticed that he suddenly changed his fighting and learning style, modifying the ancient katas and combat maneuvers, claiming that he had discovered easier or more efficient ways. They even noticed, in specific training in the darkness, that his eyes had an eerie glow. After some time, he was banned for rebellious behavior and even his family stopped to support him because of this dishonoring fact. Katahshken, aware of what was the cause of everything, started delving even deeper into his dark studies, discovering that there was no evil in his nature, only chaos. However, worried for his own morality, he approached a sanctuary of a good deity and started a spiritual path towards voluntary poverty, in order to keep his soul pure. At the same time, he founded his own school of combat, in which only pious and stealthy warriors could be trained. He and his school are now a potent force of good and allies of the church that inspired Katahshken. They specialize into punishing corrupted politicians and defeating evil magic users.

Katahshken, founder and master of the Cloaked Stargazers CR 18

Male human *samurai 11/shadow nefarite 7
CG Medium humanoid
Init +4; Senses Listen +9, Spot +27; darkvision 60 ft., blindsense 30ft.
Languages Common, Abyssal, Celestial
________________________________________

AC 42, touch 30, flat-footed 38
(+0 size, +4 Dex, +5 Wis, +2 bonus, +6 Cha, +10 exalted, +2 natural, +3 deflection)
hp 69 (18 HD); DR 5/evil
Immune none
Resist acid 5, cold 5, fire 5, electricity 5, sonic 5; SR none
Fort +14 (+11 base), Ref +15, Will +16 (+4 against disease and death effects)
________________________________________

Speed 30 ft. (6 squares)
Melee Dagger +27 (1d4+11) or
Dagger +27/+22/+17/+12 (1d4+11)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Base Atk +16; Grp +21
Atk Options Mark (2 foes): crit. range 17-20/x2 with dagger, Cut-Once +6d6 (+6d6 damage with firs successful attack each round against mark); Mark (Look Twice): +5 (Wis) to attack and damage with attacks of opportunity against mark; +2d6 against lawful opponents (Primordial Scion); 1d4+1 temporary Str damage (Fort save DC 25 negates) on successful critical hit against evil foes.
Special Actions 4/day Otherworldly Countenance (sickens, DC 25)
Spell-like Abilities 1/day Shadow Demon Skin (CL 10th)
Mysteries Known (CL 7th):
Apprentice Paths
3rd--Shadow Twin (spell, 1/day), Edge of Nothing (spell, 1/day).
2nd--Fierce Shuriken (spell, 1/day), Jealous Fury of Ededei (spell, 1/day, DC 18).
1st--Darken the Veil of Sleep (spell, 1/day, DC 17), Whispers of Nothingness.
Fundamentals
0--Dark Sleep (superantural, 3/day, DC 16), Kuji-Kiri (supernatural, 3/day, DC 16), Reflection of Memory (supernatural, 3/day, DC 16), Silent Soul (supernatural, 3/day).
________________________________________

Abilities Str 20 (originally 16), Dex 18, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 20 (originally 18), Cha 22 (originally 16)
SQ Camouflage (Ex), swift tracker (Ex), Mind Shielding (Ex), Greater Sustenance (Ex), Freedom of Movement (Ex), Regeneration (Ex), True Seeing (Su), Endure Elements (Ex), AC Bonus (Su), Exalted Strike (Su), Deflection (Su), Natural Armor (Ex), Resistance (Ex), Ability Score Enhancement (Ex).
Feats Defensive Mobility, Otherworldly Countenance (hideous), Weapon Focus (Dagger) (B), Power Attack, Resounding Blow, Greater Weapon Focus (Dagger) (B), Eyes of the Abyss, Sacred Vow (Exalted), Vow of Poverty (Exalted), Chaotic Spell Recall (B), Track (B), Quell the Profane (Exalted) (B), Primordial Scion, Vow of Purity (Exalted) (B)
Skills Spellcraft 6 (+8), Knowledge (the planes) 6 (+8), Sense Motive 4 (+9), Balance 5 (+9), Diplomacy 2 (+8), Hide 16 (+25), Move Silently 16 (+25), Intimidate 18 (+28), Perform (Kuji-Kiri) 12 (+18), Tumble 5 (+9), Spot 18 (+27), Listen 4 (+9), Open Lock 6 (+10), Concentration 10 (+10)
Skill Tricks Spot the Weak Point, Never Outnumbered
Possessions: Dagger, darts, Clothes
________________________________________

*The Samurai class used for this NPC is the one by Kanachi, take a look here for the class features.

Books used: Complete Scoundrel, Book of Exalted Deeds, Fiendish Codex I


P.S. Just remember to post your adaption ideas in this thread!

Commentary and Recommendations:
This class is certainly big, isn't it. It uses an interesting bit of flavor by relating shadow magic to the abyss rather than too the plane of shadows. Whether or not you like that is a matter of taste, I suppose.
Unfortunately, many classes that no longer exist anywhere are mentioned, making it look a bit more useful than it is (note that the art of the assassin is still usable as that link still works).
The mysteries are pretty much par for the course and could be introduced without the PrC without much trouble (except for maybe one or two of the fundametals).
As a side-note, the abyssal markings feat is pretty darn broken. I would not allow it as a DM and I recommend against it for other DMs.

[CaBaaL]

i have played a lot with taint to say that "tainted shadowcaster variant" is really balanced. (i would go to the point to say a bit underpowered cause most of the ppl that play with taint, are undeads or demons to have imune to the negative effects :P)

[CaBaaL]

as promised after a 3hrs session i have conclutions:
the party had:
shadowcaster/shadow necromancer/taint scolar (he was the save-or-die)
shadowcaster/psyon/cerebrus (he abused desires manifest by dominating commoners with mind switch power)
shadowcaster/sorceror/nocturalmancer (i was the controler by counterspeling, slowing enemies and force ppl losing actions)
shadowcaster/warlock/abyss (she was our balster)

what we understanded:
-shadowcasters do not need so many +DC feats cause most of the save-or-die are high lvl
-missing a piercing cold ecuivelant forcing our blaster spamming killing shadows
-players can abuse anything
-u only need CL to counterspell other ppl, shadowcasters do not need it for SR
-our necromanster found the shadow necromaster really dark-themed and fun to play. he suggested lowering the duration of dead walks (1day/lvl) to hours/lvl cause u can not heal it anyway so u have to reaplace your spawn each day
-our blaster kept whining cause everything we encountered had either resistance or imunity (no only to cold but every element) (i really saw that comming from the start, cause all spellcaster-enemies where casting "friendly fire" and most mobs had huge deflection/insight AC, (and bosses had huge reff and imp evetion)
-i uses peacenlove paths for untimagic and dispell and gg

- may i suggest a feat that (maybe path mastery for shadowstorm): Improved Conduction: You cast a cold spell followed by an
electricity spell. The lingering cold more effectively conducts
the electricity, temporarily fatiguing creatures. Living creatures
damaged by both spells are slowed for 1 round (as the
slow spell). Creatures that make successful Fortitude saves
(DC based on the second spell) are fatigued for 1 round.
(ENERGY GESTALT [TACTICAL] from complete mage)

[Realms of Chaos]

as promised after a 3hrs session i have conclutions:
the party had:
shadowcaster/shadow necromancer/taint scolar (he was the save-or-die)
shadowcaster/psyon/cerebrus (he abused desires manifest by dominating commoners with mind switch power)
shadowcaster/sorceror/nocturalmancer (i was the controler by counterspeling, slowing enemies and force ppl losing actions)
shadowcaster/warlock/abyss (she was our balster)

A very good mix to go with. Nice.

what we understanded:
-shadowcasters do not need so many +DC feats cause most of the save-or-die are high lvl
-missing a piercing cold ecuivelant forcing our blaster spamming killing shadows
-players can abuse anything
-u only need CL to counterspell other ppl, shadowcasters do not need it for SR
-our necromanster found the shadow necromaster really dark-themed and fun to play. he suggested lowering the duration of dead walks (1day/lvl) to hours/lvl cause u can not heal it anyway so u have to reaplace your spawn each day
-our blaster kept whining cause everything we encountered had either resistance or imunity (no only to cold but every element) (i really saw that comming from the start, cause all spellcaster-enemies where casting "friendly fire" and most mobs had huge deflection/insight AC, (and bosses had huge reff and imp evetion)
-i uses peacenlove paths for untimagic and dispell and gg

Okay, let's address this more or less in order.
Points 1 and 6. Traditionally, I do agree that save DC boosters are best used for save-or-die effects. However, there are a vast number of effects that allow saving throws but don't end the game immediately. If your opponent keeps succeeding, you aren't doing your best.
As an example, look at your blaster character. If the blaster had found a way to work in some DC boosting feats in amongst the metashadow feats, high reflex saves and improved evasion wouldn't have hurt quite as much.
Also, even if the number of such feats are simply rediculous, having more than one option to achieve the same end gives you more versatility in building characters.

Point 2. Here is a piercing-cold-equivalent feat to remedy the problem, except that it works with all elements (once again, really helping that blaster).

Deepshade Mystery [Metashadow]
You can replace the elemental damage of your attack with pure shadowstuff.
Prerequisites: Subduing Mystery
Benefits: Once per day, you may apply the effect of Deepshade Mystery to any mystery you cast that deals energy damage. Half of all elemental damage that the mystery would otherwise deal ignores all energy resistances and immunities.
Furthermore, if the affected mystery would normally allow for a reflex save, you may choose to replace it with a Will save.
Casting a Deepshade Mystery is a full-round action.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times.


Point 3: Yes they can. They've been doing so for years and they'll keep on doing it.

Point 4: don't forget that most mysteries get better in some way as your CL goes up. Unless you are using a touch or personal spell with a level-capped effect, increased CL will do something, even if it's only increasing the range of your mysteries.

Point 5: I'm not sure that I understand what is wrong with the Walking Dead mystery. You have no maximum number of undead so keeping damaged ones with you doesn't hold you back in any way that I can see. Furthermore, don't forget that you can gather undead for 10 days or so and then march in with a large(r) army, something that couldn't happen if the duration was reduced.

Point 7: I would also use Peacenlove's mysteries for that purpose.

- may i suggest a feat that (maybe path mastery for shadowstorm): Improved Conduction: You cast a cold spell followed by an
electricity spell. The lingering cold more effectively conducts
the electricity, temporarily fatiguing creatures. Living creatures
damaged by both spells are slowed for 1 round (as the
slow spell). Creatures that make successful Fortitude saves
(DC based on the second spell) are fatigued for 1 round.
(ENERGY GESTALT [TACTICAL] from complete mage)

So your asking me to make a feat that grants you a single benefit of a single tactical feat that maybe only one build of shadowcaster would ever, ever use... Seems a bit too situational. How about the following?

Unifying Theories
Your mysteries can be made to act as spells in certain situations.
Prerequisites: Arcane Acknowledgement or Divine Acknowledgement
Benefits: Any feat, ability, or effect that normally targets or functions on spells or spell-like abilities of a specific subschool or descriptor now function on all mysteries with such descriptors.

Now you can take Arcane Acknowledgement followed by Unifying Theories followed by the actual Energy Gestalt.

[Realms of Chaos]

Metashadow Feats and Mysteries by Phalse One

Spoiler

Show

First off, there is no forum for Tome of Magic, so this seemed most appropriate.

Here are some feats, fundamentals, and paths for shadowcasters that I have designed for my campaign. Though I would get some feedback before I made them official.

And before anyone complains, I have no idea on how to format it any better than this.

Concepts I used for balancing:
Mysteries are meant to be slightly more powerful than equivalent spells, this is to counteract the fact that mystery users have only a few mysteries, and can use their better mysteries only once per day.

Shadow magic is less than optimal at some effects (such as acid or fire damage) and as such any mystery that allows these effects should be less powerful than an equivalent spell.


Metashadow Feats

Chain Mystery [Metashadow]
You can cast mysteries that arc to secondary targets.
Prerequisite: Any three metashadow feats.

Benefit: Once per day, you may alter a mystery with a ray effect or single target with a range of greater than touch.

Provided you hit your primary target, secondary rays arc from the primary target to hit a number of secondary targets. You may generate a maximum number of secondary targets equal to your caster level. You make a ranged touch attack as normal for each secondary target. You may choose which secondary targets you select but they must all be within 30 ft of the primary target. While you may choose to target multiple secondary bolts at the same target, there is no extra effect for being hit by multiple rays. You need not assign your maximum number of secondary rays.

The primary target is affected as normal, but secondary targets half the damage (or effect) from the spell and can attempt a Reflex save to cut their damage in half again (whether or not the mystery allows a save). If the mystery causes an effect other than damage, the secondary target’s save DC to resist is lowered by 4.

Casting a chained mystery is a full-round action.

Special: You can take this feat up to three times. To take it a second time, you must have seven metashadow feats. To take it a third time, you must have eleven metashadow feats.

Heighten Mystery [Metashadow]
Mysteries you cast are harder to resist.
Prerequisite: Any metashadow feat.

Benefit: Once per day, you can heighten a mystery. A heightened mystery functions as a mystery two levels higher, including having a higher save DC. The specific effects of the mystery (range, area of effect, damage, etc.) remain unchanged.

Casting a heightened mystery is a full-round action.

Special: You can take this feat multiple times.

Repeat Mystery [Metashadow]
You can cast a mystery that repeats the following round.
Prerequisite: Any three metahadow feats.

Benefit: Once per day, you can make one of your mysteries repeat on the round after you cast it. A repeated mystery is automatically cast again at the beginning of your next turn. No matter where you are, the second mystery originates from the same location and affects the same area as the original spell. You cannot use this feat on mysteries with a range of touch. If the original mystery designates a target, the repeated spell affects the same target if it is within 30 feet of its original position; otherwise the second mystery fails.

Casting a repeated mystery is a full-round action.

Special: You can take this feat up to three times. To take it a s
second time, you must have seven metashadow feats. To take it a third time, you must have eleven metashadow feats.


Widen Mystery [Metashadow]
You can increase the area of your mysteries.
Prerequisite: Any metashadow feat.

Benefit: Once per day, you can apply the effects of Widen Mystery to any mystery you cast. A widened burst, emanation, or spread mystery has its radius increased by 100%. Mysteries that do not have an area of one of these three sorts are not affected by this feat.

Casting a widened mystery is a full-round action.

Special: You can take this feat multiple times.

Mysteries

Fundamentals

	Caress of Shadow              touch deals 1d3 cold and 1d3 electricity damage
	Dark Sanctuary                 foes have trouble attacking you while in warded area if you do not attack
	Dark Secrets                    +10 Search checks made to locate doors/compartments in shadows
	Shades of Meaning            for 1 min your speech can be understood by any creature with a language
	Shadows of Life                know whether creatures within 60' are alive, dead, undead, or not alive
	Shadowfall		+20 on Tumble checks made to reduce falling damage, land immediately

Apprentice Path Mysteries

Children of Night
1	Fangs of Night                summon dark wolf to serve you
2	Midnight’s Venom            summon dark Medium viper to serve you
3	Claws of Darkness           summon dark lion to serve you

Ruins of Night
1	Embers and Ashes           affected terrain causes fire damage and sickens
2	Pillars of Umbra               pillars that provide cover and immobilize creatures that approach
3	Forgotten Ruins               create walls, stairs, pillars and other constructed terrain elements

Walk in Shadows
1	Shadow Stride                ignore difficult terrain, movement does not provoke attack of opportunity
2	After Image                    leave illusory image behind you, acts as temporary shadow elemental
3	As the Shadows              become invisible and able to squeeze through very small spaces

Initiate Path Mysteries

Penumbral Enery
4	Shadow Burst                  all in 20' radius take 1d6/lv damage (Max 12d6), half cold/half electricity
5	Dissolving Darkness           subject is blinded, gains concealment, and takes 3d6 acid per round
6	Ebon Conflagration           10' area shadowy light, creatures take 3d6 fire/round, immobilized

Umbral Ward
4	Energy Echo                    gain resistance 20 (or more) against next energy type you are damaged by
5	Shadow Guard                 two Medium shadow elementals remain adjacent, shield other effect
6	Dark Ward                       gain evasion and mettle abilities, gain +5 bonus on saves for 1 minute

After Image
Apprentice, Walk in Shadows
Level/School: 2nd/Illusion (Shadow)
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round/level

For the duration of the spell, each time you take a move action to move at least 10 feet you leave a grey image of yourself in the square you started your movement in. This image is a semi-transparent perfect copy of you in the pose that you occupied immediately before leaving that space.

These images are partially real. They are treated as incorporeal constructs with AC 10 and 1 HP per caster level, they can be targeted by nay spell or effect that can target an object and automatically fail all saving throws. As incorporeal objects, they are immune to nonmagical attacks, and magical attacks have a 50% chance of affecting them (except force effects, and ghost touch weapons, etc.). They take no action, except to make attacks of opportunity (they threaten all adjacent squares as a Medium creature, regardless of your actual size). They can make one attack of opportunity per round, and attack using an incorporeal touch with an attack bonus of +4, dealing 1d6 points of damage plus 1d6 points of cold damage. They do not provide cover or aid in flanking, and creatures and objects can pass through them (creatures provoke attacks of opportunity for moving out of threatened squares normally.

At the beginning of your turn each round, any existing images disappear. If use a move action for something other than movement, or if you end your movement less than 10 feet from where you started, no image is formed.

As the Shadows
Apprentice, Walk in Shadows
Level/School: 3rd/Transmutation
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 minute (D)

You become invisible. In addition, you can squeeze through any space of at least 6" in diameter that you can reach without slowing your movement (you cannot end your turn in an area too small to hold you, although you can take two move actions to reach the other side). If you are attempting to be quiet, you gain a +5 bonus on your Move Silently check and can move at normal speed without penalty. You cannot run or charge while using this mystery. If you take any actions besides move actions, the effect immediately ends as if dismissed.

For example, a human shadowcaster with a base movement of 30 feet can take a single move action to move 5 feet to the end of a 1' diameter drainage pipe, move 20 feet through the drainage pipe, and still have 5 feet left over to step to the square on the other side of the pipe.

Caress of Shadow
Fundamental
Level/School: 1st/Evocation [Cold, Electricity]
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Saving Throw: No
Spell Resistance: Yes

The subject takes 1d3 cold and 1d3 electricity damage.

Claws of Darkness
Apprentice, Children of Night
Level/School: 3rd/Conjuration (Summoning)
Range: Close (25 feet + 5 feet/2 levels)
Effect: One dark lion
Duration: 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

This mystery functions like summon monster I, except as noted here. You can summon one dark lion (an average lion with the dark template).

Dark Sanctuary
Fundamental
Level/School: 1st/Abjuration
Range: 10 feet
Area: 10-foot radius centred on you
Duration: 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw: Will negates
Spell Resistance: No

You are surrounded by a 10-foot radius area of shadowy illumination, and this area is stationary once created. Creatures attempting to attack you, even with a targeted spell, must first succeed on a Will save to do so. If the save fails, the opponent can’t follow through with the attack, that part of its action is lost, and it can’t directly attack you for the duration of the mystery. You can be attacked with area or effect spells however.

If you leave the area of the mystery or make any attack, dark sanctuary ends, as if dismissed. You can take other actions, however, such as casting a non-attack mystery, or drinking a potion.

Dark Secrets
Fundamental
Level/School: 1st/Divination
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 minute (D)

You can only cast this mystery in an area of shadowy illumination or darkness. If you enter an area of bright light (or the illumination surrounding you increases to bright light), this mystery ends as if dismissed.

For the duration, you gain a +10 bonus on Search checks made to locate secret or concealed doors and secret or concealed compartments.

Dark Ward
Initiate, Umbral Ward
Level/School: 6th/Abjuration
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 minute (D)

You gain a +5 resistance bonus on all your saving throws. In addition you gain the evasion and mettle abilities. If you make a successful save against an attack that normally would have a lesser effect (partial or half) on a successful save, you instead completely negates the effect.

You still gain the benefits of this mystery when unconscious or helpless.

Dissolving Darkness
Initiate, Penumbral Energy
Level/School: 5th/Evocation [Acid, Darkness]
Range: Close (25 feet + 5 feet/2 levels)
Target: One creature
Duration: 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw: Fortitude partial, and Fortitude halves; see text
Spell Resistance: Yes

If the initial Fortitude save is successful, the subject takes 3d6 points of acid damage and the mystery ends.

If the subject fails its initial saving throw the subject is covered in a thin layer of magical darkness. This grants the foe concealment (20% miss chance) but also totally blinds that creature if it cannot see in magical darkness. The subject takes 3d6 points of acid damage immediately (no save).

At the beginning of its turn each round, the subject takes 3d6 points of acid damage, with a saving throw allowed to halve the damage.

Ebon Conflagration
Initiate, Penumbral Energy
Level/School: 6th/Evocation [Darkness, Fire]
Range: Medium (100 feet + 10 feet/level)
Area: 10-foot radius area, up to 10' high
Duration: 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw: Will partial
Spell Resistance: Yes

You fill the area of effect with black and grey flickering flames to a height of 10 feet (or the ceiling if lower). They fill the area with shadowy illumination (overriding any existing illumination, including magical effect of 5th level or less).

Any creature in the area when the spell is cast must immediately make a Will save or be immobilized until the beginning of its next turn. Each time a creature begins its turn in the area it must make a Will save or become immobilized until the beginning of its next turn. A creature who enters the area must immediately make a Will save or end its movement and become immobilized until the beginning of its next turn.

At the start of your turn, any creatures in the area of ebon conflagration take 3d6 fire damage (no save). You cannot be immobilized by your own ebon conflagration, but can still take damage if you are in its area at the start of your turn.

The first time a creature with spell resistance would be forced to save against ebon conflagration, you make a caster level check to penetrate its spell resistance. If you succeed the creature cannot resist the effects of the mystery, and you do no need to make any more caster level checks against that particular creature. If you fail to penetrate its spell resistance, it is immune to the effects of the spell (except for the shadowy illumination).

Embers and Ashes
Apprentice, Ruins of Night
Level/School: 1st/Transmutation [Fire]
Range: Close (25 feet + 5 feet/2 levels)
Area: One 5-foot square/level (S)
Duration: 1 minute/level (D)
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates
Spell Resistance: No

You cover the ground in the area with a thick carpet of ash speckled with glowing embers. Any creature who passes through the affected terrain (including flying creatures passing no more than 10 feet above), stir up clouds of burning embers and chocking ash.

Affected creatures must make a successful Fortitude save at the end of any turn they pass through the affected terrain or take 1d4 points of fire damage and become sickened for 1 round. The effects of passing through multiple affected squares are not cumulative.

Energy Echo
Initiate, Umbral Ward
Level/School: 4th/Abjuration
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 10 minutes/level (D)

The first time that you take damage from an energy type during this mystery’s duration, you gain resistance 20 against that same sort of energy. If the attack deals more than one type of energy damage, you can choose which sort to gain the energy resistance against. This energy resistance does not apply to the attack that triggered it, but the energy resistance remains in effect for the duration.

If your caster level is at least 11th level, you gain resistance 30 instead, and if your caster level is at least 15th, you gain resistance 40.

Fangs of Night
Apprentice, Children of Night
Level/School: 1st/Conjuration (Summoning)
Range: Close (25 feet + 5 feet/2 levels)
Effect: One dark wolf
Duration: 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

This mystery functions like summon monster I, except as noted here. You can summon one dark wolf (an average wolf with the dark template).

Forgotten Ruins
Apprentice, Ruins of Night
Level/School: 3rd/Conjuration (Creation)
Range: Medium (100 feet + 10 feet/level)
Effect: One object of shadowstuff/level
Duration: 1 minute/level
Saving Throw: None or Reflex negates; see text
Spell Resistance: No or Yes; see text

You can create one object of shadowstuff per caster level. These objects need not be continuous, but must be within range and you must have both line of effect and line of sight to where you wish to place the object. The objects do not need to be supported, and can be placed in mid-air without falling. Any similar objects placed near each other appear as a single larger object (a larger wall or long staircase, or a bridge over a chasm). Objects can support any amount of weight, although sufficient force can destroy them.

You need not place all objects when you cast this mystery, but placing an object after the mystery is cast takes a full-round action for each object. Any objects not placed are lost when the duration expires.

The objects you create appear much like stone, and each have AC 5, hardness 20, and 20 HP. They can be dispelled as normal for ongoing magical effects.
You can create any combination of the following objects:
-A 5'x5' vertical wall 1 foot thick
-A 5'x5' horizontal ‘floor’ or ‘ceiling’ 1 foot thick
-A set of stairs 5' long and 5' high (at a 45 degree angle)
-A ramp 5' long and 5' high (at a 45 degree angle)
-A 5'x5'x5' cube of stone
-A 5' radius pillar up to 10' high.

In addition, you can trap any of these objects, as pillars of umbra, but such as object counts as five objects towards your limit of one object per level. You cannot place any trapped object within 10' of another trapped object.

At the end of the duration all objects disappear, even if you only recently created them. Creatures supported on an object risk falling when the duration ends.

Midnight’s Venom
Apprentice, Children of Night
Level/School: 2nd/Conjuration (Summoning)
Range: Close (25 feet + 5 feet/2 levels)
Effect: One Medium dark viper
Duration: 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

This mystery functions like summon monster I, except as noted here. You can summon one Medium dark viper (a Medium viper with the dark template).

Pillars of Umbra
Apprentice, Ruins of Night
Level/School: 2nd/Conjuration (Creation)
Range: Close (25 feet + 5 feet/2 levels)
Effect: Up to one conjured pillar/level
Duration: 1 minute/level
Saving Throw: Reflex negates; see text
Spell Resistance: Yes

You create one or more pillars of pure shadow stuff. You can create up to one pillar per caster level, although you need not place the maximum number of pillars you are allowed. Each pillar appears in an unoccupied space, and cannot appear adjacent to a creature or within 10 feet of any other pillar. Each pillar is up to 20' tall or the height of the ceiling or other overhead obstruction.

Once placed, the pillars completely occupy their space, and block line of sight and line of effect as normal for stone pillars. They each have AC 5, hardness 10 and 100 HP.

If a living creature enters a square adjacent to one of these pillars, the pillar immediately explodes into a burst of shadowstuff, covering its square and all adjacent squares (a 15' by 15' square). Any creature in that area (including the creature that triggered the detonation) must make a Reflex save or become immobilized until the end of its next turn. This detonation destroys that particular pillar.

The first time a creature with spell resistance would be forced to save against pillars of umbra, you make a caster level check to penetrate its spell resistance. If you succeed the creature cannot resist the effects of the mystery, and you do no need to make any more caster level checks against that particular creature. If you fail to penetrate its spell resistance, it is immune to the effects of the spell (although the pillars still block line of sight and effect).

Shades of Meaning
Fundamental
Level/School: 1st/Enchantment
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 minute (D)

When you speak, you words are accompanied by a choir of voices speaking every language that is, was, or will be. Each listener hears one single voice most loudly, that voice speaks in the language it is most familiar with, with a perfect accent and regional dialect, as if the voice grew up next door. Listeners also hear the other voices, but they are more quiet.

You are understood by any creature that understands at least one spoken language. The creature must still be able to hear you.

Shadow Burst
Initiate, Penumbral Energy
Level/School: 4th/Evocation [Cold, Electricity]
Range: Medium (100 feet +10 feet/level)
Area: 20-foot radius spread
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Reflex half
Spell Resistance: Yes

The area briefly explodes in a burst of darkness. All creatures and unattended objects in the area take 1d6 points of damage per caster level (Max 12d6) half of which is cold and half of which is electricity.

Shadow Guard
Initiate, Umbral Ward
Level/School: 5th/Conjuration (Summoning)
Range: 5 feet
Effect: Two Medium shadow elementals
Duration: 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

This mystery functions like summon monster I, except as noted here. You conjure two Medium shadow elementals that must appear in squares adjacent to your own. They have all the normal statistics of Medium shadow elementals.

They must remain adjacent to you at all times, and cannot move (they can otherwise attack normally). When you move (through a move action, 5-foot step, or any mystery or ability that changes your position) you can position your shadow guard in any unoccupied adjacent square.

Once per round, as a free action, you can reposition your shadow guard.

Your shadow guard also have an effect similar to shield other. Any damage you suffered is divided in half, with each shadow guard taking half of that damage. If only one of your shadow guards remains in effect, you take half the damage, and the remaining shadow guard take the other half. If an area effect deals enough damage to destroy one or both of your shadow guards and also damages you, your damage is still redirected to the shadow guards before it is destroyed. Damage redirected in this manner is not subject to the normal miss chance from being incorporeal.

Shadow Stride
Apprentice, Walk in Shadows
Level/School: 1st/Transmutation
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Until end of current turn and 1 minute; see text

Until the end of your current turn, your movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity. In addition, you can pass through squares occupied by foes (as if you had succeeded on a Tumble check to do so) and can ignore the movement cost associated with difficult terrain. You cannot pass through impassible terrain, and still suffer any harmful effects of terrain unrelated to movement costs (such as entangling terrain or walking through a campfire). All of these benefits last only until the end of your current turn.

For 1 minute after you cast this mystery, you also move with a very light step, gaining a +5 circumstance bonus on all Move Silently checks.

Shadows of Life
Fundamental
Level/School: 1st/Necromancy
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

For the duration, you can take a move action to assess the status of a creature (or a potential creature) that you have line of sight and effect to and that is within 60 feet.

You gain one-word description of the creature (or object’s) living state; “alive”, “dead” (a formerly living creature that is no longer alive and not undead, or an object made from dead plant or animal material), “undead”, or “not alive” (a creature or object that has never been alive, such as a bronze statue or a stone golem).

Shadowfall
Fundamental
Level/School: 1st/Transmutation
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 minute/level (D)

For the duration, whenever you fall, you gain a +20 bonus on your Tumble check to reduce the damage of the fall so long as you are not helpless.

In addition, you land instantly (you fall like a shadow, at the speed of light) and always land on your feet. This allows you to take a move action to walk off a cliff, and continue your move at the foot of the cliff. The distance fallen does not count towards your movement.

Commentary and Recommendations:
Yeah, it was reading this stuff that inspired me to start homebrewing and I still feel that it is awesome. The metashadow feats seem pretty good and many of the mysteries are awesome (at least in my opionion).
The Forgotten Ruins mystery is my favorite one of all time, even now. It just captures the ancient and wierd feel of shadow magic just right and...no, RoC, this is not the time to start ranting.
You should be able to run these in most campaigns without much problems, but there may be certain situations in which one or two becomes horribly overpowered (chain mystery, perhaps?) when things are taken to extreme lengths. I really can't tell at the moment but I'll take a closer look later on.

[Realms of Chaos]

Shadow Savant Base Class by Eldritch_Lord

Spoiler

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I've always been a fan of both alternate magic systems and theurgic classes that combine more than one system. This class is an attempt to combine the original "alternate magic" system, psionics, with an underappreciated system, shadow magic. It's my first attempt at making a new base class from scratch, so please, be nice.:gah: Without further ado, I give you the Shadow Savant:

Shadow Savant

"Yes, I do use my mental talents, yes, I manipulate the power of shadow, no, I do not use that crutch commonly called arcane magic; congratulations, you have discovered the arts of the shadow savant. I must tell you, though, that my talents are not for the faint of heart. If you object to the manipulation of shadow, I suggest you remove any critical thoughts from your mind before I remove them for you."

—Davrais of the Black Mind, shadow savant extraordinaire

There are three things that mostly everyone believes to hold true concerning psionics and magic—psionicists must use focus and discipline to manifest powers, powers draw on the Astral Plane and the Astral Plane only, and manipulating shadow is only done by arcane casters. Well, the first assumption is broken by wilders, the second by any psion with plane shift, and the third by many non-arcane classes, but only the shadow savant flies in the face of all three—a psionic class that draws on instinct, emotion, and shadow to power its abilities. The source of power for shadow savants is the id, the subconscious realm of instinct, emotion, and all of the basest urges of the psyche. Where psions keep a tight rein on their minds to manifest powers and the wilder channels his emotions, the shadow savant gives in completely to the maelstrom of unconscious desires that is the id to gain power.

However, this does not come without a price—the darker nature of this part of the mind links a shadow savant to the Plane of Shadow where any other manifester uses the Astral Plane. From the first time a shadow savant manifests a shadow power, the raging chaos of the mind combined with the insidious power of shadow works a slow transformation on him—a portion of his mind, that portion that deals with emotion, empathy, and everything that makes him able to interact with others, splits off into a dark reflection of his own mind, and as this dark self sucks his humanity into itself, the shadow savant gradually takes on the traits of shadow creature until the subconscious is independent and the shadow savant is a cold, analytical shell of his former self.

Making a Shadow Savant
Shadow savants aren’t made, but rather born. It is not well understood how one becomes a shadow savant—there is simply some “mis-wiring” in a prospective psionic character and the soon-to-be shadow savant connects with the deeper recesses of his mind. The first time he manifests a power, he connects with the Plane of Shadow, and the rest is inevitable. Shadow savants have more versatility than power, as they have the traditional telepathic and transportive powers of a psion combined with the more subtle arts of the shadowcaster, with a few stranger abilities mixed in.

A shadow savant doesn’t have the firepower to blast through waves of enemies, but his familiarity and facility with shadow gives him an uncanny insight into the minds of others; he specializes in manipulation and subtlety rather than displays of power. Like a shadowcaster, a shadow savant works best in a support role, but his array of psionic powers gives him some staying power.

Abilities: Wisdom is the most important ability score for a shadow savant, as it determines the Difficulty Class for any saving throw of one of his powers. Constitution is also important, both for the extra hit points and the fact that many class abilities depend on gaining and holding a psionic focus and Concentration’s key ability is Constitution.

Races: Surprisingly, none of the psionic races have a tendency to become shadow savants; perhaps their natural psionic talent insulates them from the power of shadow and channels them onto the normal psionic path. Of the common races, no one race favors shadow savants over any other, though many subterranean versions of them embrace shadow savants.

Alignment: Shadow savants come in two types—those who start out chaotic, having given into their primal instincts to gain power and later encountering shadow, and those who have already become emotionless and shade-like who draw on their id only unconsciously. Regardless of his ethical bent, a shadow savant is focused on himself too much to be good and altruistic, although if he already had good tendencies he might be able to resist becoming evil.

Starting Gold: 5d4 x 10 (125 gp).

Starting Age: As sorcerer

Alignment
Any nongood

Hit Die
d4

Level	BAB	  F/R/W		Special					PP/Day 		# Powers	Max Power Level
1st	+0	+0/+0/+2	Link to Shadows,			2		1			1st
2nd	+1	+0/+0/+3	Shadow Consciousness			6		1			1st
3rd	+1	+1/+1/+3	Mysteries of the Mind (apprentice)	10		2			2nd
4th	+2	+1/+1/+4	Influence of the Id (dark senses)	15		3			2nd
5th	+2	+1/+1/+4	Shadow Servant				21		4			3rd
6th	+3	+2/+2/+5	Mysteries of the Mind (apprentice)	29		5			3rd
7th	+3	+2/+2/+5	Mysteries of the Mind (augment)		38		5			3rd
8th	+4	+2/+2/+6	Mental Shroud				47		6			4th
9th	+4	+3/+3/+6	Influence of the Id (id insinuation)	57		7			4th
10th	+5	+3/+3/+7	Mysteries of the Mind (initiate)	68		8			5th
11th	+5	+3/+3/+7	Creeping Darkness			82		9			5th
12th	+6/+1	+4/+4/+8	Mental Shroud (improved)		97		10			6th
13th	+6/+1	+4/+4/+8	Embrace the Darkness			112		11			6th
14th	+7/+2	+4/+4/+9	Influence of the Id (shadow conduit)	128		11			6th
15th	+7/+2	+5/+5/+9	Mysteries of the Mind (master)		143		12			7th
16th	+8/+3	+5/+5/+10	Shadow Affinity				166		13			7th
17th	+8/+3	+5/+5/+10	Perfect Darkness			188		14			8th
18th	+9/+4	+6/+6/+11	Dissociative Identity			210		15			8th
19th	+9/+4	+6/+6/+11	Influence of the Id (autonomy)		238		16			9th
20th	+10/+5	+6/+6/+12	Apotheosis				255		17			9th

Class Skills
The shadow savant’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Autohypnosis (Wis), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Disguise (Cha), Disable Device (Dex), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (psionics, arcane, the planes) (Int), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), and Psicraft (Int).

Skill Points at 1st Level
(4 + Int modifier) ×4

Skill Points at Each Additional Level
4 + Int modifier.

Class Features
All the following are class features of the shadow savant

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Shadow savants are proficient with all simple weapons. They are not proficient with any type of armor or shield. Armor does not, however, interfere with the manifestation of powers.

Power Points/Day
A shadow savant’s ability to manifest powers is limited by the power points he has available. His base daily allotment of power points is given on Table: The Shadow Savant. In addition, he receives bonus power points per day if he has a high Wisdom score.


Powers Known
A shadow savant begins play knowing one power of your choice. Each time he achieves a new level, he unlocks the knowledge of new powers. Powers known must be chosen from the Clairsentience, Psychoportation, or Telepathy discipline, and may be drawn from the psion/wilder power list, the Clairsentience, Psychoportation, and Telepathy discipline lists, or psionic mantles. (Exception: The Expanded Knowledge feat does allow a shadow savant to learn powers from the lists of other disciplines, but not the discipline lists or mantle-only powers unless they have the [darkness] or [shadow] descriptor; any energy powers leaarned must use cold energy.) A shadow savant can manifest any power that has a power point cost equal to or lower than his manifester level; the number of times a shadow savant can manifest powers in a day is limited only by his daily power points.

The Difficulty Class for saving throws against shadow savant powers is 10 + the power’s level + the shadow savant’s Wisdom modifier. A shadow savant begins play with the ability to learn 1st-level powers; as he attains higher levels, he may gain the ability to master more complex powers. To learn or manifest a power, a shadow savant must have a Wisdom score of at least 10 + the power’s level.

Link to Shadows (Ps)
While psions and wilders draw ectoplasm from the Astral Plane, the shadow savant’s subconscious connection to the Plane of Shadow fuels his powers; any psionic effect that would normally draw on the Astral Plane instead draws on the Plane of Shadow for a shadow savant, from teleportation to creating “astral” constructs. Shadow savant powers have different displays than a psion’s powers do; these are described below. In addition, the different qualities of a shadow savant’s powers make them more difficult to identify: the DC of Psicraft checks made to identify powers (or the results of powers) manifested by shadow savants increases by 5, and the DC of Psicraft checks to identify a shadow savant’s power by its display increases by 10.

Auditory
A discordant, minor-key chord just above the threshold of hearing issues from the shadow savant’s vicinity or in the vicinity of the power’s subject (shadow savant’s choice). The sound is slightly piercing, becoming more and more discordant and irritating until everyone within 100 feet can feel their skulls aching from the noise. At the shadow savant’s option, the sound can be limited so that it can be heard only within 15 feet with a successful DC 10 Listen check. Some powers describe unique auditory displays.

Material
The subject or the area is briefly coved by ephemeral, shadowy tendrils—if someone stares at the tendrils for a few moments, they seem to twist and shimmer as if alive. The shadows fade away and disappear after 1 round, regardless of the power’s duration, though during the power’s duration any colors on the target seem dimmer and flatter. Characters with the Psicraft skill can recognize the shadows as being a result of a shadow savant’s power with a DC 10 Psicraft check.

Mental
The minds of creatures within 15 feet of either the shadow savant or the subject (at the shadow savant’s option) become clouded for an instant, causing their senses to be numbed and giving them a momentary headache; neither effect is severe enough to cause any mechanical penalties. At the shadow savant’s option, the effects can persist during the power’s duration as long as the affected creatures are in an area of bright light. Some powers describe unique mental displays.

Olfactory
The pungent, cloying scent of ether causes creatures within 20 feet of the shadow savant to feel drowsy. The odor originates from the shadow savant and spreads to a distance of 20 feet, then fades in less than a second; however, the source of the scent is difficult to pin down, and affected creatures feel slightly colder for the power’s duration.

Visual
The shadow savant’s eyes fade to complete blackness while the power remains in effect. As the power is manifested, the surrounding light within a 5-foot radius dims slightly, suddenly becoming utter darkness the instant the power takes effect and then returning to normal light levels, unless a unique visual display is described.

Mysteries of the Mind (Ps)
At 1st level, the shadow savant learns to tap into his instinctual subconscious, the “id.” The shadow savant uses this connection to manifest his powers; where psions, and to a lesser extent wilders, draw on the ego and superego to control their manifesting, a shadow savant bypasses even the limited control a wilder has to channel the raw power of emotion and instinct through shadow. The trademark ability of the shadow savant is his ability to duplicate the abilities of shadowcasters in drawing energies from the Plane of Shadows—a shadow savant learns a limited number of mysteries that he may manifest as powers.

At first level, a shadow savant’s connection with shadow is tenuous at best. A 1st-level shadow savant knows a number of fundamental shadow mysteries equal to twice his Wisdom bonus; as he levels, he learns more fundamental mysteries if his Wisdom improves but does not lose mysteries if his wisdom drops below its original score.

Later on, when his connection with shadow and his hold on his subconscious are both refined, a shadow savant gains the ability to manifest more powerful mysteries as powers. At 3rd, 6th, 10th, and 15th level, a shadow savant chooses one school of apprentice, apprentice, initiate, and master mysteries, respectively, to learn their mysteries as powers. The shadow savant learns all three mysteries of a given school as powers upon choosing the school, though he might not be able to manifest a given mystery if its level is too high, so by 20th level he will have learned 6 apprentice, 3 initiate, and 3 master mysteries as powers. Mysteries learned do not count against the shadow savant’s maximum number of powers known.

Apprentice, initiate, and master mysteries are manifested as normal powers, paying power point costs appropriate to the level of the mystery. Fundamental mysteries manifested as powers gain a mental display, apprentice powers gain both a mental and an audible display, initiate powers gain mental, audible, and visual displays, and master powers gain mental, audible, visual, and material displays.

Fundamental mysteries are a special case: instead of paying power points, the shadow savant manifests fundamentals by making a DC 14 Concentration check (the shadow savant may not take 10 on this check). If the Concentration check succeeds, the shadow savant may expend his psionic focus to manifest the fundamental; if the check fails, the fundamental fails to manifest but the shadow savant need not expend his psionic focus.

At 7th level, the shadow savant gains the ability to augment his mysteries by paying additional power points:
• For every 2 additional power points the shadow savant pays, the mystery’s save DC (if any) increases by 1.
• If the shadow savant spends an additional 3 points, the mystery is manifested as if it were affected by the Line of Shadow feat. The shadow savant need not know the Line of Shadow feat, but must expend his psionic focus as normal for a metapsionic feat.
• If the shadow savant spends an additional 6 points, the mystery is manifested as if it were affected by the Shadow Cast feat. The shadow savant need not know the Shadow Cast feat, but must expend his psionic focus as normal for a metapsionic feat.
• If the shadow savant spends an additional 10 points, the mystery is manifested as if it were affected by the Burrowing Power feat. The shadow savant need not know the Burrowing Power feat, but must expend his psionic focus as normal for a metapsionic feat.
• If the shadow savant has enough power points to use more than one of the Line of Shadow, Shadow Cast, and Burrowing Power augmentations, he only needs to expend one psionic focus to gain the benefits of all those he paid for.

Shadow Consciousness (Su)
By 2nd level, a shadow savant’s connection with the Plane of Shadow has warped his emotions and subconscious enough to create an alternate consciousness inside him. Although most alternate minds, such as those of the synads or schismed minds, are wholly separate, this shadow consciousness is initially still in contact with and dependant upon the shadow savant’s own mind. As such, the shadow mind cannot act independently but can only act in concert with the shadow savant.

The shadow savant gains several effects from the shadow consciousness:
• The shadow savant may maintain two psionic foci at one time. For the shadow savant, the psionic focus does not represent intense concentration but rather a link with his shadow consciousness; as such, both the shadow savant himself and his shadow mind may each draw benefits from psionic foci. The shadow savant may use his focus and his shadow mind’s focus interchangeably. (The shadow savant expends his own focus first rather than his shadow mind’s focus by default.) The psionic focus of the shadow consciousness is hereafter referred to simply as the shadow savant’s “shadow focus” and the psionic focus of the shadow savant himself as his “psionic focus.”
• Because all of the shadow savant’s emotions and instincts are concentrated in his shadow focus, the shadow savant’s shadow focus is more powerful than a regular psionic focus and so he gains more benefits when expending this focus. When expending his shadow focus, the shadow savant may “take 15” on a Concentration, Psicraft, Move Silently, or Hide check instead of just on a Concentration check. In addition, if the shadow savant expends his shadow focus instead of his psionic focus, he may automatically manifest a fundamental without making the Concentration check.
• The shadow savant must either maintain or expend his shadow focus rather than his psionic focus to gain the benefits of some of his class features; those features requiring the shadow focus are so noted in their descriptions. The shadow savant may not expend his shadow focus to power metapsionic feats, but he may expend it to augment his mysteries as described above under Mysteries of the Mind.

Influence of the Id (Ps or Ex)
The shadow savant can draw additional power from his subconscious while maintaining his shadow focus. At 4th level, as long as a shadow savant maintains his shadow focus, he gains darkvision out to 60 ft. or his existing darkvision range is increased by 60 ft. With this darkvision, the shadow savant may even see through magical darkness. He also gains low-light vision at all times whether he maintains his shadow focus or not. This is an extraordinary ability.

At 9th level, the shadow savant learns to influence the id of others by affecting them with his own. By expending his shadow focus, a shadow savant may manifest a specially augmented id insinuation as a swift action. The power is treated as if augmented by the Unconditional Power, Enlarge Power, and Quicken Power feats even if the shadow savant does not have those feats and even though id insinuation is normally not a valid target for the Unconditional Power feat. The shadow savant must still pay power points to manifest the power, but only needs to pay power points equal to the shadow savant’s manifester level rather than the cost of an enlarged, quickened, unconditional id insinuation (17 PP) while his manifester level is below 17. A shadow savant may not augment this power to increase the number of targets affected, but may augment it to increase the save DC. This ability may be used a number of times per day equal to 2 + the shadow savant’s Wisdom bonus.

At 14th level, the shadow savant gains the ability to draw power from the Plane of Shadow to duplicate powers in the same way arcane casters may use the shadow conjuration and shadow evocation line of spells. As a standard action, the shadow savant may expend his shadow focus and attempt to manifest a power (or manifest a mystery he does not know as a power) that is not one of his powers known. The shadow savant must pay the normal power point cost for the power, but like shadow conjuration and shadow evocation, there is a chance that the powers will not manifest because they are only figments drawn from the shadow savant’s subconscious. Powers manifested through this ability have a base percentage chance to manifest of 20%, with a 5% increase in the chance to manifest per 2 extra power points spent on the power beyond its base cost.

For example, if a shadow savant pays 19 points to try to manifest a 1st level power, it has a 65% chance of working (20 + 5*((19-1)/2)) whereas if he tries to manifest a 9th level power by paying 19 power points, it will have only a 30% chance of working (10 + 5*((19-17)/2). If the power in question has any numeric effects, those effects are reduced to the appropriate percentage of the total; if it has any all-or-nothing effects, they have the appropriate percentage chance to take effect. Whether or not the power manifests successfully, the shadow focus is expended, and the target(s) have a save as normal against the power manifested. Any energy power manifested with this ability must use cold energy. This ability may be used a number of times per day equal to 2 + the shadow savant’s Wisdom bonus.

At 19th level, the shadow consciousness has gained a measure of freedom and separation from the shadow savant’s own mind, and so may draw on the shadow savant’s id independently to enhance the shadow savant’s reflexes and instincts better than the shadow savant’s conscious mind could. As long as he maintains his shadow focus, the shadow savant gains the ability to manifest hypercognition, catfall, schism, synesthete, sustenance, and psychofeedback each once per day on himself as psi-like abilities.

Shadow Servant (Ps)
A 5th-level shadow savant gains the ability to form a twisted version of an astral construct from shadow: a shadow servant. The shadow savant adds astral construct to his list of powers as normal, with a few changes. First, the shadow savant never gains the ability to create 9th-level astral constructs. Second, this ability does not count as astral construct for the purposes of any power, feat, or ability that would enhance an astral construct. Third, instead of gaining an ability from Menu C, a 7th-level shadow servant gains the dark template from Tome of Magic and an 8th-level shadow servant gains the shadow creature template from Manual of the Planes.

Mental Shroud (Ps)
An 8th-level shadow savant gains the ability to protect his conscious mind with his subconscious mind to prevent hostile effects from affecting him. As long as he maintains his shadow focus, the shadow savant may expend his psionic focus to gain an extra save against any mind-affecting effect of 3rd level or lower targeting him, taking the better of the two results. At 12th level, as long as he maintains his shadow focus a shadow savant may expend his psionic focus to gain an extra save against any mind-affecting effect of 6th level or lower. This ability may be used once per day per 2 points of the shadow savant’s Wisdom bonus.

Creeping Darkness (Ex)
As the shadow savant taps more deeply and more frequently into his subconscious and into shadow, he becomes more like a being of shadow as more and more of his emotions are focused in his shadow consciousness rather than in his own. An 11th level shadow savant takes a -4 penalty on all Charisma-related skills and Charisma checks, but gains resistance to fire 10 and resistance to cold 10, as well as DR 5/magic.

Embrace the Darkness (Ex)
The shadow savant loses more of his humanity (or dragon-ness, or outsider-ness, or whatever) as he takes on more shadow characteristics. A 13th level shadow savant takes a further -4 penalty on all Charisma-related skills and Charisma checks (for a total of -8), but no longer needs to sleep, eat, drink, or breathe and takes only half damage (rounded up) from energy drain, ability damage, and ability drain effects.

Shadow Affinity (Ex)
As time progresses, a shadow savant becomes better able to manipulate shadow to his will. In an area of shadowy illumination, a 16th-level shadow savant gains three benefits. First, he gains the ability to Hide in Plain Sight like a rogue. Second, he gains a +3 deflection bonus to AC and a +3 morale bonus to attack and damage rolls and rolls to confirm a critical threat. Third, he gains a +2 morale bonus on all saves except those against abilities with the light descriptor, against which he takes a -2 morale penalty.

Perfect Darkness (Ex)
At last the shadow savant becomes one with shadow, losing all vestiges of emotion and empathy as his id becomes an entirely independent mind within him. A 17th level shadow savant takes a further -4 penalty on all Charisma-related skills and Charisma checks, for a final total of -12, but automatically makes his save against Illusion spells and spell-like abilities, takes only half damage from abilities with the [shadow] or [darkness] descriptors, and gains immunity to flanking.

Dissociative Identity (Su)
When a shadow savant reaches 18th level, his subconscious id has grown into a full-fledged independent personality. As 2 consecutive full-round actions, a shadow savant may separate his shadow consciousness from himself to form an independent being. The shadow savant must expend his shadow focus to do so and may not recover it while the shadow consciousness is separated from him. The shadow consciousness has the stats of an undead greater shadow, with the following changes: it lacks undead traits, the create spawn ability, and the strength damage ability; it has neutral alignment; it has id insinuation, thought shield, and telekinetic thrust as at-will psi-like abilities; it is continuously sense linked to the shadow savant (vision and hearing); and it may not attack physically. If the shadow consciousness is destroyed while it is outside the shadow savant, the shadow savant takes 4 points each of Wisdom and Charisma damage and he may not regain his shadow focus or use this ability for 1 hour; otherwise, the shadow savant may use another 2 consecutive full-round actions to recall the shadow consciousness to him as long as they are within 1 mile of each other. There is no duration limit for this ability, but for every hour they are separated, the shadow savant takes 2 points of Wisdom damage and his shadow consciousness takes 2d6 damage; as long as they can continue healing this damage, they can stay separated. After the shadow savant reincorporates his shadow mind, he may not use this ability for 5 minutes per hour (or fraction thereof) that they remained separated.

Apotheosis (Su)
While the shadow savant had already become like a denizen of shadow, at 20th level he literally becomes a shadow creature. A 20th-level shadow savant gains the outsider (native) type, immunity to any effect targeting emotions, and elemental immunities, though he may still be resurrected as a creature of his previous type. In addition, a shadow savant radiates shadowy illumination in a 5-ft radius around himself in any conditions brighter than torchlight, and when he is in shadow his square is treated as being in an area of magical darkness for purposes or determining whether darkvision can detect him.


Playing a Shadow Savant
Shadow savants are driven to move, to fight, to conquer, to explore, all because of the insidious shadow-self that their powers create. The internal conflict between the chaotic emotional storm and the oppressive, cloying numbness of shadow warring inside them leaves them restless and wanting to keep active

Religion: Religion is the last thing on a shadow savant’s mind (no pun intended). Like shadowcasters, their powers tap into an impersonal power source that does not want, need, or acknowledge worship; like psions, their attention is mostly focused inwards.

Other Classes: Shadow savants get along very well with manifesters and mystery users, as well as any arcane or divine casters who can cast shadow spells—this doesn’t mean, however, that the feeling is mutual. Shadowcasters and those like them just don’t “get” shadow savants, because shadow seems to use them rather than the other way around. Manifesters look down on them with sympathy, not understanding that their shadow connection is a symptom of, rather than a crutch for, their powers. Arcane casters don’t care either way, and divine casters all too often assume shadow savants are irredeemably evil because of their personality and abilities, not realizing that shadow magic isn’t inherently evil. Other classes are fine with shadow savants as long as they’re allies rather than enemies.

Combat: Although you don't cast mysteries as well as a shadowcaster or manifest powers as well as a psion, you have the ability to do both. In terms of combat, you probably work like a rogue, manifesting opportunistically from the shadows while tanks and casters stand out in the open. You have many options other than direct attack: Your mind-affecting abilities are formidable, and you have many esoteric abilities no one would think to counter.

Advancement: Continuing development isn’t so much a function of improving your abilities as one of your abilities improving you—your shadow mind is constantly growing, expanding, granting new abilities and spurring you on to new heights, and you just have to survive the journey.

Shadow Savants in the World
"I tell you, I once ran into one of those shadow psionicists. Now I know what I’m doing, usually; I make a career of taking down rogue magic-users and psionicists. I figured, well, he looks like a shadowcaster, he acts like a shadowcaster, his powers work like a shadowcaster’s, he must be a shadowcaster. This was all very well and good, until I tried to read his thoughts—I looked in there and just had a chance to see that this one was like no other caster-type I’d seen before he whipped around, smashed me into a wall with his mind, and almost froze me to death. If you’ve got any sense at all, you won’t mess with them either."

—Assassin wishing to remain anonymous

Daily Life: The life of a shadow savant is unpredictable at best. Shadow savants have to deal both with their shadow mind’s insistent urges to do or find something and the fact that as their personalities change they become more alien and their priorities change. No two shadow savants are alike.

Notables: Because shadow savants have the traits of both shadowcasters and psions, it is rare for a given shadow savant to be recognized as such unless a witness is very familiar with either class and realizes that the shadow savant doesn’t quite match up to expectations. Having said that, some famous shadowcasters and psions were actually shadow savants trying to blend in.

Organizations: Shadow savants have no organization of their own, instead joining shadow organizations. Because a shadow savant of a given level only knows the mysteries of a shadowcaster of much lower level, they are frequently underestimated by other mystery users, which helps immensely when climbing up the ranks.

NPC Reactions: There is no common opinion about shadow savants, as there are no common shadow savants. NPCs are likely to simply mistake a shadow savant for either a shadowcaster or a wilder and treat him accordingly.

Shadow Savant Lore
Characters with ranks in Knowledge (psionics), Knowledge (the planes), or Knowledge (arcane) may research shadow savants to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including the information from lower DCs. Bardic Knowledge checks reveal the same information.

DC 10: Shadow savants are a strange type of psion, drawing on the Plane of Shadow rather than the Astral Plane. Their displays are different from those of a normal psion.

DC 15: Shadow savants have the ability to use shadow mysteries like shadowcasters, although they manifest them as powers.

DC 20: Shadow savants connect to the Plane of Shadow using their subconscious or “id”, which eventually splits off into a separate personality.

DC 30: Because a shadow savant’s id splits off from his own mind, he gains benefits from the emotional, instinctual portion of his mind while becoming more cold and analytical due to the influence of shadow, eventually taking on the traits of a shadow creature.

Shadow Savants in the Game
Shadow savants are reclusive and secretive, as they are frequently misunderstood and their unique talents tend to create loners anyways. Because of this, shadow savants are simple to bring into your game as long as you already have psionics or shadow magic; you can retrofit psions or shadowcasters to be shadow savants, and even a wizard who tends toward Illusion(shadow) spells could have been a shadow savant.


What do you think? Any and all feedback is appreciated, particularly from a balance standpoint.

Commentary and Recommendations:
Not much to say. This class works and I would love the chance to play as one some day. There are a couple of nit-picks, of course, but nothing that isn't quickly solved with common sense or a quick talk with the DM (such as how you are granted entire paths of mysteries even though it is not stated as such or how embrace the darkness should not reduce the wisdom damage you take from Dissociative Personality)

[CaBaaL]

Phalse One's work is really really great. everything is really cool and looks balanced (even chain i will test it on next session). my only question is Dark ward.. evation is not that much (there is ring for it ) but mettle? the only way that i would find this logical was as imed action and for 1r(maybe cause its highlvl usable on others too). we should not make the mistake the original shadowcaster had (1 trick pony) by giving him every ability any class could have (the only class feature i have not seen on a feat is rage)

[Realms of Chaos]

Actually, I don't see mettle as "granting every possible ability". It actually seems quite fitting for the class. The shadowcaster has both good Fort and Will saves, uses a greatly different brand of magic, and fortifies their body using their magic. Mettle is a means of using their magic to fortify their body against most magical effects, something that works really well.
As far as a crunch perspective, I once again understand that mettle becomes seriously powerful at epic levels. Even so, consider the fact that this ability scales in absolutely no other way. I find it nice that this ability becomes more useful as time goes on without increasing its bonuses in any way. Besides, without the immediate-action activation you suggest, this guy is still pretty vulnerable to ambushes (as the duration can only be raised to a max of 2 minutes through extend mystery).

On an interesting side-note, there is indeed a feat that grants the rage class feature, albeit under certain conditions. Check Savage Species to see what I'm talking about.

Anyways...

Umbral Stalker monster by LivingShadow

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Umbral Stalker

Medium Elemental (Incorpreal)
Hit Dice: 10d8+10 (55 hp)
Initiative: +5
Speed: fly 40ft (good)
AC 17 (+5 Dex, +2 deflection), touch 17, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +7/+10
Attack: slam +12 melee
Full Attack: 4 slams +12 melee
Damage: slam (1d6+3+silence+imp grab)
Space/Reach: 5ft/5ft
Special Attacks: Imp Grab, Silence, Absorb, solid attack
Special Qualities: Blindsight 60ft
Saves Fort +8, Ref +12, Will +9
Abilities Str -, Dex 20, Con 12, Int 11, Wis 14, Cha 15
Skills: Disguise +18, Hide +18 (+26 in shadows)
Feats: weapon finnesse, Dodge Mobility, Skill Focus (Disguise)
Environment: Plane of Shadow
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 7
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 11-20 HD (medium)
Level Adjustment: --

Your ally's shadow sprouted tenticles and grabbed his neck, arms, and waist. Then it silently pulled him into itself.

Umbral stalkers are ambush predators of the Plane of Shadow. Typically used by their summoners as either assassins or kidnapers. They possess cunning and intelegence but can't speak as they are totally silent.

Combat: Before combat an Umbral Stalker attempts to disguise itself as its opponents shadows. If it has a specific target it tries to pretend to be that creatures shadow. It then follows its victim until it finds an opprotune moment to strike. When an Umbral Stalker attacks it attempts to absorb its victim without drawing the notice of the victims comrads. After it gets what it came for it leaves as silently as it came.

Solid attack: Even though the Umbral Stalker is incorpreal its attacks are not. It attacks as if it was solid and had a strenght score of 16.

Improved Grab (Ex): When It hits with a slam attack an Umbral Stalker may attempt to grapple the target as a free action with a grapple modifier of +10 (as if it had a strength score of 16). For each additional slam it hits with it gains a +2 cumulative bonus to grapple checks on that creature.

Silence (Su): Any creature hit with the Umbral stalker's slam attack is rendered unable to produce any noise (as if under the effect of the silence spell).

Absorb (Su): When an Umbral stalker grapples a creature it may attempt to absorb them on its next turn with another grapple check as a standard action. An absorbed creature is transfered to an extra-dimensional pocket which serves at the Umbral stalkers stomach. This pocket may only hold one creature at a time no matter what size they are. When is has absorbed a creature the Umbral Stalker may choose to apply 1 negitive level per round. a creature that has been absorbed may attempt to break out of the pocket by attacking it with a light weapon. The pocket has an AC of 10 and 10 hp. When the pocket is broken the creature previously absorbed appears next to the Umbral Stalker. When the pocket has been ruptured it automaticly repairs itself by the next round.

Commentary and Recommendations:
Despite this creature's extreme similarity with the ephemeral hangman in the Tome of Magic, I believe that this creature has its uses, perhaps to be used alongside the aforementioned creature in a shadow-themed dungeon (throw in some shadow mastiffs, some shadow elementals, a shadow or two, and an ancient evil [a nightwalker] to accidentally set free at the end and you're set).
I'd suggest two small differences when running this creature. First of all, as it doesn't state how long the creature remains silenced, I'd set it for 5 rounds or so. Secondly, I would double the HP of the extradimensional pocket. Level 7 characters won't have much problem breaking out unless they don't have any light weaponry, in which case I'd allow characters to punch their way out with unarmed strikes, but that's just me.

[Realms of Chaos]

Umbral Edgemaster PrC by Sleepwalker

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Umbral Edgemaster

Entry Requirements

Skills:

Knolwedge Planes: 5 Ranks
Martial Lore: 5 Ranks

Feats:

Shadow Blade
Shadow Trickster

Mysteries:

Completed at least one Apprentice Path

Meneuvers and Stances:

4 Shadow Hand Maneuvers
2 Shadow Hand Stances

The Umbral Edgemaster is a martial adept that has learned shadow magic, most likly inspired by his shadowhand style to pursue higher magics. The Umbral Edgemaster walks both paths of shadow steel and sorcery.

Hit Dice: 1d8

Skills: 4+int

Class Skills: Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Hide, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge: Arcane, Knowledge: Planes, Martial Lore, Move Silently, Profession, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot, and Tumble.

Lv	B.A.B.	Fort	Refl	Will	Special
01)	+0	+2	+2	+2	Bonus Fundamental, Continued Discipline, Mysteries
02)	+1	+3	+3	+3	Discipline Focus (Insightful Strike)
03)	+2	+3	+3	+3	Quick to Act +1
04)	+3	+4	+4	+4	Bonus Fundamental, Initiate Mysteries
05)	+3	+4	+4	+4	Shadow Veil
06)	+4	+5	+5	+5	Quick To Act +2
07)	+5	+5	+5	+5	Bonus Fundamental
08)	+6/+1	+6	+6	+6	Discipline Focus (Defensive Strike)
09)	+6/+1	+6	+6	+6	Quick To Act +3, Master Mysteries
10)	+7/+2	+7	+7	+7	Bonus Fundamental, Fundamentals at Will

Bonus Fundamental: The Umbral Edgemaster selects an additional fundamental to add to his known list.

Continued Discipline: The Umbral Edgemaster continues to gain maneuvers known, maneuvers readied and stances known as though he gained a level of sword sage, however he may only select from the shadow hand and setting sun disciplines.

Mysteries: The Umbral Edgemaster continues to gain mysteries as though he gained a level of Shadowcaster, further he continues to gain bonus feats equal to half the number of paths he has access to too (or paths completed if using the shadow caster revision). As with the shadow caster Mysteries cast as spells can be used one time per day, Mysteries cast as Spell Like can be cast twice a day and Mysteries cast as Supernatural Abilities can be used three times a day.

Discipline Focus: The Umbral Edgemaster adds his wisdom modifier to his damage roles when using a shadowhand maneuver.

Quick To Act: The Umbral Edgemaster gains a +1 bonus to his initiative checks at levels 3, 6, and 9.

Initiate Mysteries: The Umbral Edgemaster may now select Initiate Mysteries, further his Apprentice Mysteries are now cast as spell like.

Shadow Veil: At will, as a standard action, the Umbral Edgemaster can draw forth a patch of shadowstuff and make a ranged touch attack up to 30 feet, if successful the shadow wraps around the targets eyes concealing their vision. All other creatures count as having concealment against this creature and he takes a -5 to spot check for the duration, the effect last for 1 round per highest level mystery you have known.

Master Mysteries: The Umbral Edgemaster may now select Master Mysteries, he now uses his Initiate Mysteries as Spell Like Abilities and Apprentice Mysteries ans Supernatural Abilities.

Fundamentals at Will: The Umbral Edgemaster may uses his known fundamentals at will.
------------------------------------

New Shadow Hand Stances

Umbral Shield
School: Shadow Hand (Stance)
Level: Swordsage 3
Prerequisite: 1 Shadow Hand Stance, 2 Shadow Hand Maneuvers
Initiation Action: 1 Swift Action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Stance (see below)

"You spin down into a defensive stance, your shadow splits around you covering you from every angel."

Use of this maneuver splits the initiators shadow into 8 separate shadows, whenever a melee attack (including melee maneuvers) would hit the initiator, one of the shadows immediately spins in the way and becomes substantial enough to stop the attack from hitting the initiator, but the shadow is destroyed. Once all 8 shadows have been destroyed the stance is abandoned. The stance cannot be initiated again until the initiator performs his 5 minute meditation to regain maneuvers.

Umbral Essence
School: Shadow Hand (Stance)
Level: Swordsage 2
Prerequisite: 1 Shadow Hand Stance
Initiation Action: 1 Swift Action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Stance

" Your shadow merges with your feet and begins crawling up your body, you feel your very being merging with the essence of shadow."

While in this stance you gain a 20% miss chance from physical attacks, however your physical attacks also have a 20% miss chance.

New Mystery Paths

Nocturnal Blade
1 Shadow Knife: Create a small dagger of shadow that can deal cold damage.
2 Umbral Blade: Calls a short sword of shadowstuff into being.
3 Obsidian Edge: Create an umbral bastard sword with potent abilities.

Obsidian Edge
Apprentice, Nocturnal Blade
Level/School: 3rd/Conjuration
Range: Personal
Effect: Personal
Duration: 1 round/ level.
Saving Throw: No
Spell Resistance: No

"The caster puts both her hands together as the shadows around pool to her hands, a large black blade extends from her hands."

This mystery creates a bastard sword of shadow, this functions as a +3 brilliant energy weapon of icy burst. The caster is considered proficient with this weapon.

Shadow Knife
Apprentice, Nocturnal Blade
Level/School: 1st/Conjuration
Range: Personal
Effect: Personal
Duration: 1 round per 2 levels maximum 5 rounds.
Saving Throw: No
Spell Resistance: Yes

"The Caster draws the surrounding shadows into her hand and a small black dagger forms into her palm."

This mystery creates a dagger of shadow, this functions as a +1 dagger and deals 1d4 physical damage and 1d4 cold damage. When attacking a creature the caster can make an attack at a -5 penalty to impale and lodge the dagger in place, if successful the dagger will continue to deal it's cold damage each round if it is lodged into a creature at he begging of the casters round. A caster must overcome a creatures spell resistance (if any) when attacking with this weapon, failure forces the blade back into the plane of shadow.

Umbral Blade
Apprentice, Nocturnal Blade
Level/School: 2nd/Conjuration
Range: Personal
Effect: Personal
Duration: 1 round per level maximum 10 rounds.
Saving Throw: No
Spell Resistance: No

" The caster holds up her hand and draws the surrounding darkness to her, a three foot bade of darkness extends from her palm."

This mystery creates a short sword of shadow, this functions as a +2 ghost touch weapon of frost.

Commentary and Recommendations:
This thing looks fairly balanced, if a bit bland. It's always nice to see support for a potential martial-shadowcaster, mind you, but it does come across as a bit bland. It only has one unique ability, one that strikes me as rather "meh". Even so, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the class itself (as far as I can see, anyway).
The maneuvers and mysteries, however, are another story. The umbral shield stance is very overpowered, nearly to the same level as ironheart surge. Instead of making 8 attacks miss, I would treat this effect as a mirror image spell with 8 duplicates made (or even better, 1 duplicate/2 initiator levels, maximum 8). Still plenty powerful but nothing broken.
The nocturnal blade path is an odd path. On the one hand, it is giving out free magical items (and very expensive ones, at that). On the other hand, the duration is short and very few shadowcasters stand a chance in close combat. I also note that the brilliant energy ability given to obsidian edge is an interesting twist, acknowledging how mysteries have a hard time harming undead but creating light (something that mysteries almost never do). as a consequence. I'd suggest adding a note that the brilliant energy quality provides only shadowy illumination in a 10-foot radius. Also to keep things from getting out of hand, I'd switch the durations of umbral blade and obsidian edge.
With that said and done, nocturnal blade makes a decent lesser version of the gish-based master path Peacenlove created.

[Realms of Chaos]

The Wildhaunt Base Class by LordArchaon

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WILDHAUNT

"In the wild, the night itself can become a feral nightmare. And I'm the worst part of it."
- Faneghad "The Harrower", a wildhaunt.

Shadow magic is often considered unnatural even by the few ones who really know it. But the wise ones know that the Plane of Shadow is a reflection, although twisted, of the material plane, natural life included. For every forest, marsh or any other natural place, a dark counterpart of it exists in the Plane of Shadow.
The divine energy connected with the wild, the source of all of the druid's powers, has its dark correspondent as well. And the Wildhaunt tap on it just as the Druids tap on the traditional one.
As a result, the wildhaunt takes on the fearfullest aspects of nature. She embodies the danger of the feral beasts, the vengeance of the wild against civilization, the worst and deepest fears of the once defenseless intelligent beings, the pitch black darkness in which anything could be lurking.
This dark side of nature is inherently frightening just as it is inherently nocturnal, and so are the wildhaunts: only at night, and only after entering a deep and fierce trance state, they can unchain their powerful potential.
This doesn't come without disadvantages, as when these trances end and the day comes, wildhaunts experiment confusional states and begin to fear the light like the most nocturnal representatives of the animal reign.

MAKING A WILDHAUNT
As barbarians augment their combat prowess with impulsive bursts of strength, so the wildhaunts become even more powerful magic users during self-inducted trance states. As a wildhaunt, you let the dark side of nature enter into your body and mind to gain terrorizing powers, like exuding mortal venoms, infesting nightmares of sleeping creatures, or shape-changing into unimaginable dark beasts. You become night-dependent and completely unable to live among other people, due to your predatory aura.
Due to their downsides, wildhaunts are never a totally good addition to a party, and are usually condemned to be loners; so the wildhaunt class is best suited for players that want to role-play a dark and conflictual character, capable of great power, but only in certain conditions.
Abilities: Your Charisma score is undoubtedly the most important resource, since practically all wildhaunt class features are charisma-dependent. But you learn and can cast your mysteries thanks to your Wisdom, and even if certain signature abilities of the class, like taking hybrid-animal form, require a low Will save, you will generally want a high Wisdom score, because the Nocturnal Trance that you need to enter to gain full power, negatively affects your Wisdom. In general finding the right equilibrium between Charisma and Wisdom is a problem wildhaunts have to deal with all the time. An Intelligence score of at least 12 is needed to learn the secret Burblack language without expending skill points. High Constitution and Dexterity help surviving combats, especially in the early levels, when you can't shape-change for real yet. Besides, given that you shapechange into animal-humanoid hybrids exactly like lycanthropes, a wildhaunt with a powerful build will become a powerful hybrid, while a weak one will maybe just manage to become an average warrior in strength.
Races: Wildhaunts are rare among every known race. Besides, the races that are more connected with law and civilization, like humans, dwarfs and most halflings practically can't give origin to wildhaunts in normal conditions. So among the civilized races, only elves and especially gnomes, who enjoy dealing with so a diverse and lunatic form of magic, sometimes enter the wildhaunt class. Half-orc wildhaunts are even more common, because of the ancestral affinity of orcs and natural beasts of prey. They are especially common among the ones bred by orcs or living in secluded communities. For the same reason, many other uncivilized races, gnolls and even intelligent undead in particular, feel some attraction for the wildhaunt life, and could research their powers if not naturally find them.
Alignment: While druids must represent the duality of nature retaining some neutrality in their alignment, wildhaunts represent one single aspect of it, which can only be chaotic in nature. For this reason, Wildhaunt can only be of chaotic alignment. And chaotic good wildhaunts are rare at best.
Starting Gold: As wizard.
Starting Age: As druid.
Hit die: d8.

CLASS FEATURES
As a wildhaunt, you have access to a relatively vast array of utility powers by the means of the little creatures called nightlings, but you will generally be able to exploit those advantages only outside combat or however with some preparation time before it.
During combat action, at first your best weapons will be your fear attacks like Shadowshape and Predatory aura, and the ability to instigate animals, while with advancement your role will be determined by the mysteries you select, that will become more usable and more powerful, and you'll be able to shape-change in order to become a fearsome opponent in melee.
In general, your mix of very good stealth capabilities and diverse powers, including healing, will make you useful in various situations, although never totally reliable because of both the risk of staying near you and the risk some of your abilities have to not function or function the wrong way.

Table 1: The Wildhaunt                           Hit Die: 1d8

 Lv    BAB    Fort.  Ref. Will    Special                                       
1st     +0     +2    +2    +0    Call Nightlings, Shadowshape, 
                                 Wild Instigation, Apprentice Mysteries
2nd     +1     +3    +3    +0    Woodland Stride, Trackless Step,
                                 Nocturnal Caster
3rd     +1     +3    +3    +1    Predatory Aura
4th     +2     +4    +4    +1    Wildhaunt
5th     +2     +4    +4    +1    Nocturnal Trance (1/night)
6th     +3     +5    +5    +2    Nocturnal Trance (Nightmare Aura),
                                 Nocturnal Master
7th     +3     +5    +5    +2    Nocturnal Trance (Entranced Mysteries),
                                 Initiate Mysteries
8th     +4     +6    +6    +2    Nocturnal Trance (2/night)
9th     +4     +6    +6    +3    Venom Immunity
10th    +5     +7    +7    +3    Nocturnal Trance (Wildhaunted Shape),
                                 A thousand faces
11th    +5     +7    +7    +3    Nocturnal Trance (3/night),
                                 Improved Nocturnal Trance
12th    +6     +8    +8    +4    
13th    +6     +8    +8    +4    Master Mysteries
14th    +7     +9    +9    +4    Nocturnal Trance (Irregular Shape) 
15th    +7     +9    +9    +5    Nocturnal Trance (4/night)
16th    +8     +10   +10   +5    Natural Shadows 
17th    +8     +10   +10   +5    Superior Nocturnal trance 
18th    +9     +11   +11   +6    Nocturnal Trance (Night Shape)
19th    +9     +11   +11   +6    Nocturnal Trance (5/night)
20th    +10    +12   +12   +6    Dark Fey

Class Skills (4+ Int modifier per level, x4 at 1st level): Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (nature) (Int), Knowledge (the planes) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex).

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Same as druid. Even if the powers of the wildhaunt are darker, they remain a reflection of the druid ones. And as such, require the same rules and sacrifices, like prohibited armors and weapons.

Bonus Languages: A wildhaunt's bonus language options include Burblack, the secret language of the natural creatures of the plane of shadow. This choice is in addition to the bonus languages available to the character because of her race.
Wildhaunts cannot teach this language to non-wildhaunts, because no one who is not a wildhaunt would be able to speak it, since it requires the particular link with the plane of shadows that only wildhaunts have in order to produce the spectral sounds it is made of. Burblack can't be written at all.
If you don't learn this language at first level as a bonus language, because you don't want to or don't have a sufficient Intelligence score, you can exceptionally learn it by the means of the Speak Language skill (which is a cross-class skill).
You need this language in order to interact with nightlings. See Call Nightlings, below.

Mysteries and Paths: Rather than casting spells as other do, you invoke the power of mysteries through your link with the natural force of the shadow plane. You know one mystery at 1st level, and one at each level afterwards. Each such mystery is usable once per day. Up to 6th level, you may only learn apprentice mysteries. Starting at 7th level, you may learn initiate or apprentice mysteries, and at 13th level you can finally learn Master mysteries.
A wildhaunt, by gaining their power through nature's worship (or worship of nature's dark reflection), skips much of the thought and effort that a shadowcaster needs to cast their mysteries. As a result, they need not learn paths in order, as long as they know at least two mysteries of a previous level. On the other hand, you can always select the first mystery in a path of a category you have access to, even if you didn’t complete the lower category paths.
Wildhaunts originally cast mysteries as divine spells. They have somatic components and are subject to interruption but do not have an armor-based spell-failure chance. Whenever a mystery is cast, their shadows are subtly altered, noticeable through a dc20 spot check.
Whenever a path is completed, however, all mysteries in that path become spell-like abilities and their daily use doubles.
Each mystery learned is a singular connection with the dark nature, and thus cannot be learned more than once at any time. However, at 12th level and every odd level afterwards, you may replace one mystery known with another mystery of the same or lower levels, so long as the sacrificed mystery was not used as the prerequisites for any feat, prestige class, or other mystery, although all prerequisites for the new mystery must be met.
Unlike spellcasters, you don’t get bonus mysteries for a high ability score. Although you do not prepare spells, you must rest for 8 hour and meditate for 15 minutes to regain your daily use of mysteries. The meditation can only be done during or after sunset.
Your mysteries are very tied to your Nocturnal Trance class feature. Depending on your level, the Nocturnal Trance state may give you the possibility to cast some mysteries extra times, or in a different way, like making them become supernatural abilities or even extraordinary abilities.
In order to cast a mystery, you must have a Wisdom score of at least 10 + the mystery’s level. The save DC for your mysteries equals 10 + mystery level + your Cha modifier.
You can choose mysteries from the wildhaunt's paths. You can also have access to one path per mystery tier chosen from the shadowcaster's paths, but you don't get extra uses upon completing the path, so generally wildhaunts only choose one or two mysteries per tier from the shadowcaster's paths.
Even though as a wildhaunt you do not “cast spells” in the traditional sense, your levels in this class count for the purpose of determining your overall caster level.
You gain one daily uses of any mystery cast as a divine spell or two daily uses of any mystery cast as a spell-like ability.

Call Nightlings (Su): With a brief wandering meditation in the wild, you can call fey-like entities called Nightlings, which are able to perform tasks for you depending on your level, and your skills, if you can effectively communicate with them.
After finishing a task, the nightling is dismissed and fades back to its original state of semi-unreality.
The tasks they may perform are in the Box 1 "Nightling Tasks", below.
For details, see the Nightlings section at the end of the page.

Box 1: NIGHTLING TASKS

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• Cast Fundamentals: To give this task to nightlings, you must have at least 4 ranks in the Spellcraft skill per nightling involved.
  Each nightling can cast one fundamental of shadow of your choice, chosen during the calling among the specific nightling fundamentals or the few shadowcaster's fundamentals available to them.
  They can cast it 1d4 times before considering their task completed.
  They can cast fundamentals with a range of Personal on you or an ally of yours, as they had a range of touch.
  The caster level is equal to 1/4 your class level.
• Messenger: To give this task to nightlings, you must have at least 6 ranks in the Survival skill.
  A nightling can travel 60 miles in 1 hour in the wild and can speak any language spoken by the nighthaunt who called it.
  If sending a nightling in civilized areas, it won't be able to trigger invisibility, but only to Hide and Move Silently with a modifier equal to your maximum skill rank plus your Cha modifier, and it will travel at a speed of 20 ft. per round.
• Search: To give this task to nightlings, you must have at least 4 ranks in the Search skill.
  Nightlings can search with a modifier equal to your maximum skill rank plus your Cha modifier and they always take 20, eventually returning with results after a number of minutes equal to 5 - the number of nightlings that were carrying on the task, with a minimum of 1 minute. The advantage of sending nightlings search for things is that they can travel at great speed and unseen in the wild. Thus, searches will be carried on in a radius of 1 mile per number of nightling involved.
  Nightlings will usually try to carry the object of the search back to the wildhaunt, but they can manipulate only tiny or smaller objects.
• Entice information: To give this task to nightlings, you must have at least 10 ranks in the Intimidate skill.
  A nightling who interacts with shaken, frightened or panicked subjects, has a strong influence on the target and can make a special Gather Information check with a full-round action in which the target must be able to see all the nightlings your Cha modifier plus the number of nightlings involved. If the target doesn't know anything about the requested information, no matter the result of the check, no information can be gathered.
• Track: To give this task to nightlings, you must have at least 12 ranks in the Survival skill.
  Nightlings may track as having the Track feat, with a modifier to the Survival skill equal to your maximum skill rank plus your Cha modifier plus the number of nightlings involved.
  Treat their base speed as 200 ft..
• Distract: To give this task to nightlings, you must have at least 14 ranks in the Tumble skill.
  When a nightling occupies the same square of another creature, the creature will be distracted, taking a penalty on Concentration checks equal to 2 times the number of nightlings in its square. Besides, the creature will not be able to make attacks of opportunity while being in the same square as the nightlings.
• Entice gift: To give this task to nightlings, you must have at least 16 ranks in the Intimidate skill.
  A nightling who interacts with shaken, frightened or panicked subjects, has a strong influence on the target and can make a special Intimidate check with a full-round action in which the target must be able to see all the nightlings involved. The check is made with a modifier equal to your maximum skill rank plus your Cha modifier plus the number of nightlings involved. If the target would be demoralized by the use of the Intimidate skill, it gives one object of choice to the nightlings. After 2d4 rounds, the subject will understand that it was tricked and will eventually want to take back the lost possession.
• Group Casting: To give this task to nightlings, you must have at least 18 ranks in the Spellcraft skill.
  This task is equal to the Cast Fundamental task with the difference that nigthlings can join their powers to cast a more powerful fundamental.
  As a full-round action, nightlings can combine their forces to cast one fundamental multiplying their caster level for the number of nightlings involved (up to a caster level of 20).
  This way, the save DCs of the fundamental is equal to 10 + the number of nightlings called + your Cha modifier.
  As normal, they can cast the fundamental 1d4 times before considering the task finished, but when Group Casting, if they get to have more uses of the fundamental, you can also make them change the fundamental to be casted.
• Cure: To give this task to nightlings, you must have at least 20 ranks in the Heal skill.
  If you are in a Nocturnal Trance and assign this task to nightlings, they will be able to cure your wounds channeling pure shadow essence into your shadow-dependent metabolism.
  This way, nightlings can cure a number of HPs equal to 1d4 times they're number.
  You can't receive more than one cure of this during the same Nocturnal Trance.
• Save Life: To give this task to nightlings, you must have at least 22 ranks in the Knowledge (the planes) skill.
  If you have nightlings at your service and find yourself disabled or with negative hit points, you may exceptionally order your nightlings to save your life by carrying you into the Plane of Shadows. There you will be healed as for the Cure task, and then carried back to a random calm spot in the wilderness in a radius of 1d4 miles from where you were dying.
  If for some reason (an insufficient amount of nightlings, leading to an insufficient quantity of healed hit points) you still have negative hit points, after reappearing in the random location, you'll continue to loose hit points as normal, eventually dying.

A wildhaunt made some nightlings summon Twilight Berries and bring them to him.

Shadowshape (Su): Instead of transforming into animals, you begin with the ability to look like an animal. You can use this ability at will. This is an illusion effect of the shadow sub-school. Interaction allows a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 your caster level + your Cha modifier) to recognize the illusion.
Being the illusion so close to natural forces, animals and plants are not allowed a save and will always treat you like an animal of the kind you chose, meaning that most of the times they'll have an Indifferent attitude towards you.
Other than to look like an animal, you can use this ability to scare any creature not immune to mind-affecting abilities. The save DC is the same but on failure the target will be shaken for a number of rounds equal to your caster level, or if already shaken from another effect, frightened for half that number of rounds (minimum 1).
The range of the fear effect is 5 ft. per class level.

Wild Instigation: Starting at 1st level, a wildhaunt gains an ability in all respects similar to the druid's Wild Empathy, but with a contrary effect. It will influence the animal's attitude negatively against everyone except for the wildhaunt.
The check is done normally, but for each positive attitude change you would have achieved, you achieve the equivalent negative change instead.
Given that wild animals usually begin with an already unfriendly attitude, it is easier to use this ability in comparison with Wild Empathy.

Nocturnal Caster: You gain Nocturnal Caster as a bonus feat (ToM, page 137). You can apply it to a wildhaunt's path of mysteries only.

Woodland Stride: Starting at 2nd level a wildhaunt gains the Woodland Stride ability (see the druid ability, PhB page 36)

Trackless Step: Starting at 2nd level a wildhaunt leaves no trail in natural surroundings and cannot be tracked. Sha may choose to leave a trail if so desired.

Predatory Aura (Su): Your presence is felt like dangerous by any humanoid creature with fewer Hit Dice than your Caster Level.
No willing humanoid will approach at more than 30 ft., and those who do must succeed a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 your Caster Level + your Cha modifier) or be shaken for as long as they stay within 30 ft. from you, plus one round after.

Wildhaunt (Su): The ability that gave wildhaunts their name is similar to a cleric's turn/rebuke undead.
Any wildhaunt has the power to influence animals and plants (even not animated ones) by channeling the chaotic side of wildlife that permeates nature in the Plane of Shadows.
A number of times per day equal to 3 + your Cha modifier, you may make a turning attempt against plants (even inanimate ones, see below) or animals as if a cleric of the same level. If you would deal enough damage to turn or rebuke the target, plant creatures and animals gain the Ferocity and Rage abilities (as a Boar and a Wolverine respectively, see their entries in the Monster Manual for details), the latter being instantly activated; while plants may attempt to immobilize the nearest creatures (Reflexes save, DC 10 + your Caster Level + your Cha modifier) if vines or undergrowth, or be animated if trees, counting as objects of their size. Both effects last 1 round/level + your Cha modifier. If you would deal enough damage to destroy or control the target, the durations of these abilities are doubled, animals, plant creatures and animated trees gain the Dark template and vines and undergrowth may paralyze instead of immobilize, if in sufficient quantity. Uses of Wildhaunt do not count as uses of Turn/Rebuke undead for the purposes of divine feats and all other feats associated with the turning/rebuking of undead.
For the purpose of influencing inanimate plants, use the following table for the most common cases.

 Plant type                                              Equivalent HD          
 Undergrowth or vines (immobilize 1 medium creature)      2
 Undergrowth or vines (paralyze 1 medium creature)        6
 Undergrowth or vines (affect larger creature)            + 2
 Undergrowth or vines (affect N creatures)                x N
 Medium tree                                              8
 Large tree                                               12
 Huge tree                                                16
 Gargantuan tree                                          20
 Colossal tree                                            24

Nocturnal Trance (Su): The only way for a wildhaunt to have full power is by evoking a fragment of a natural spirit of the Plane of Shadow inside her mind and body. This causes what wildhaunts call the Nocturnal Trance, or simply "trance".
Nocturnal Trance can only be activated after sunset and before dawn. It doesn't depend on light but on the true hour of the day.
Activating it is a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity.
During a Nocturnal Trance, you gain the Dark template, and a +4 enhancement bonus to your Charisma score, but you suffer a -2 penalty to your Wisdom score and Initiative.
The trance lasts 1 hour for every 3 class levels.
During the trance you can channel any mystery through a wildhaunted animal or plant (treating the animal or plant as the point of origin for the mystery) a number of times per trance equal to 1 for every 3 class levels. Besides, you get an extra daily use of every Apprentice mystery you know, until the trance ends.
When a Nocturnal trance ends, you are confused for 1 minute, and you become Light-blind (like a Drow elf), for the next 12 hours. In addition, you cannot sleep while in a nocturnal trance, meaning that you may be fatigued for the next 12 hours (unless you choose to sleep during the day).
You can end a trance before it ends (usually to regain some benefits) with a free action, but the confusion effect may not allow you to take the standard action required to enter another Nocturnal Trance in the same round.

Advancing in the Wildhaunt class will give you more abilities usable during Nocturnal Trance, as explained below.

• Nightmarish Aura (Su): At 6th level, during a Nocturnal Trance you become attuned with the majority of the forces involved in the presence of nightmares in all the sleeping minds of the Material Plane.
  While in a nocturnal trance, you radiate an aura out to 10 feet that only affects sleeping creatures. All such sleeping creatures that come within the aura must make a will save (DC 10 + 1/2 Caster Level + Cha modifier) or suffer the effects of a nightmare spell, using your Caster Level to determine the effects.
  In addition, if any affected creature is awakened, it cannot see or hear you for 1 round/2 caster levels (if you are close enough to see or hear), since you still belong to the creature's nightmare demiplane for that limited amount of time. Any interaction with such an awakened creature allows for additional saves.
  Any creature who resists is immune to your aura of nightmares for 24 hours.
• Entranced mysteries (Ex): Starting at 7th level, the mysteries you cast while in a trance come more naturally to you, allowing you to alter the nature of up to 1 mystery per trance for every 3 class levels. You can alter any mystery at the moment you cast it. Multiple application of the ability on single mysteries count as multiple uses.
  At 7th level, you can alter any mystery cast as a spell to become a spell-like ability, and any apprentice mystery cast as a spell-like ability to become a supernatural ability.
  Starting at 13th level, you can alter any initiate mystery cast as a spell-like ability to become a supernatural ability.
  Starting at 19th level, you can alter any apprentice mystery cast as a supernatural ability to become an extraordinary ability.
• Wildhaunted Shape (Su): Starting at 10th level, while in a Nocturnal Trance, you may take on the shape of any Small, Medium, or Large animal, much as a druid. Unlike the druid, you become a hybrid of your race and that creature, much like the hybrid form of a lycanthrope. You retain your Dark template, and basically gain the Lycanthrope template using the selected creature as base animal with the hybrid form being the only usable one, and with the exception that you don't gain Damage Reduction, and that if the creature to be hybridized possesses a movement speed that you do not, you gain the same movement speed at half that creature's normal rate (minimum 5 ft.) and lose one degree of maneuverability if you gain flying in this way. Because you remain more or less humanoid in shape, you can still wield weaponry, manipulate objects, talk, and use mysteries.
  There are a couple of restrictions on what shape you can take the form of. First of all, you must be familiar with the animal with which you wish to hybridize. Second of all, you can not hybridize with an animal whose hit dice exceed your class level.
  This ability may be used at will while in a nocturnal trance. Activating it is a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity and dismissing it is a swift action (no attacks of opportunity). Wildhaunted Shape has no maximum duration except for that of the nocturnal trance.
  You gain the ability to hybridize with any creature type and size a druid of your same level would be able to wildshape into, with the exception of elementals. Any feat that would allow a druid to wildshape into creatures of different types or sizes also applies to Wildhaunted Shape, and you count as having Wild Shape as a druid of your level for the purpose of entering related prestige classes.
  However, wildhaunt-shaping does not come without risk. Whenever you assume a Wildhaunted Shape, make a will save against the DC of your Shadowshape ability. If you fail, shadows actually influence yourself successfully, and you use your Wildhaunted Shape ability as normal. If you succeed, the link with the plane of shadows does not influence you properly, and you appear to take on the desired shape but it is just an illusion (as Shadowshape ability), and you won't know it until you first use some of your (false) new abilities unsuccessfully. In addition, if you fail taking Wildhaunted Shape (that is, if you succeed the save), you may not attempt a Wildhaunted Shape for 1 minute and take a stacking -2 penalty on all further will saves made to assume Wildhaunted Shape that night.
• Irregular Shape: Starting at 14th level, you attune with the same forces that originated most of the strangely hybridized creatures of the material plane, like griffons and pegasi. This means you can add a number of animal features to your Wildhaunted Form.
  You can add one feature for every 6 caster levels.
  Adding a feature counts as taking a new Wildhaunted form, and the same risks apply.
  These are the available features:
  
  • Natural Attack: You gain a new natural attack, like gore or tail slap, at the standard damage category for your size, or you improve an existing natural attack or a newly gained one by one damage category.
  • Wings: You gain wings, gaining a flight speed of 20 ft. with Poor maneuverability, or you improve your existing flight speed or your newly gained one by 20 ft. and one category of maneuverability
  • Fins and Gills: You grow fins, gaining a swim speed of 20 ft. and the ability to breath water for 1 hour, or you improve your existing swim speed or your newly gained one by 20 ft, augmenting the time you can breath water by 1 hour.
  • Poison: One of your natural weapons becomes poisonous, dealing 1d4 damage (Fortitude save negates, DC 10 + 1/2 your Caster Level + your Cha modifier) to any chosen ability other than Constitution, or you improve the damage of the poison gained this way by an additional 1d4. Alternatively, you can have another poisonous natural weapon, with damage starting from 1d4.
    In any single Nocturnal Trance, you can deal poison damage a number of times per natural weapon equal to your new Con modifier.
  • Burrowing Body: You develop shape and limbs that allow you to gain a burrow speed of 5 ft. or you improve your burrow speed by 5 ft.
  
  If your Caster Level for this ability reaches 24 by the means of a dedicated Nocturnal Caster feat and the Nocturnal Master class feature, you have mastered the final secret of the Irregular Shape ability and at the cost of 3 Irregular Shape features (including 3 subsequent failed saves against the DC of your Shadowshape ability), you can gain the Tauric template (3.5up. Page 36), with the exception of not gaining the BAB of a monstruous humanoid.
• Night Shape: Starting at 16th level, you can infuse yourself with the essence of a shadow elemental (even in addition to Wildhaunted or Irregular Shape). If you do, the area within a 20-foot radius of yourself is filled with shadowy illumination and remains that way for 1 round/Caster Level. In addition, as a swift action, you can become incorporeal until you take another action to become corporeal once more. While incorporeal, you gain a touch attack that deals damage as an appropriately sized shadow elemental.
  No matter how many times you infuse your shadowshapes with shadow elemental essence, however, you can only remain incorporeal for a maximum of 1 round/Caster Level each Nocturnal Trance, although this may be broken up over several uses. For each Night Shape you attempt, you must roll a save like for the Wildhaunted Shape feature, with the same penalties. In addition, on a failure you become blind for 1 minute.

A wildhaunt's feral power is not always recognizable, especially during their trances, in which their charm grows naturally and unnaturaly at the same time.

Nocturnal Master: At 5th level, the bonus granted by your Nocturnal Caster feat (or feats) increases by 1 for every 6 class levels (becoming +2 at 6th level, +3 at 12th, and so on).
Besides, you can tie one class feature or group of class features of choice to one of your Nocturnal Caster feats.
While in a Nocturnal Trance, this chosen features gain the same bonus on Caster Level that the feat grants.
You can choose among Wildhaunt, Predatory Aura and Nightmare Aura, Shadowshape and Wildhaunted Shape, or Deviated Shape and Night Shape.
Whenever you gain another Nocturnal Caster feat, you can tie it to a different feature or group of features.

Venom Immunity: At 9th level, a Wildhaunt gains immunity to all poisons.

A Thousand Faces: At 10th level, a Wildhaunt gains the ability to change her appearance at will, as if using the alter self spell.

Improved Nocturnal Trance: At 11th level, the Charisma bonus granted by Nocturnal Trance becomes +6, but your penalties to Wisdom and Initiative become -4.
In addition you get 1 additional use for Initiate mysteries, the same way you had 1 additional use for Apprentice mysteries before.

Natural Shadows: At 16th level, the bond between a Wildhaunt and the powers of the Plane of Shadow becomes part of the Wildhaunt natural metabolism. All your supernatural class features, including Nocturnal Trance and all the abilities connected with it, become extraordinary abilities, and so are usable even when magic doesn't function, like inside an Antimagic Field.

Superior Nocturnal Trance: At 17th level, the Charisma bonus granted by Nocturnal Trance becomes +8, your penalties to Wisdom and Initiative become -6, but you no longer become confused after the trance, and time passed in trance counts as resting (but you still need to meditate 15 minutes after sunset of the next day to regain mysteries).
In addition, you get 1 additional use for Master mysteries, the same way you had 1 additional use for Apprentice and Initiate mysteries before.

Dark Fey: At 20th level the natural powers of the Plane of Shadow have influenced you so much that you undergo an internal transformation, which gives you the traits of the fey beings of the Plane of Shadow.
Your type becomes Fey, and you gain the Chaotic subtype. You become immune to mind-affecting effects and cold damage, but you suffer from Iron Vulnerability (Ex). Besides, during the night you gain a dodge bonus to your AC equal to your Charisma bonus, while during the day you constantly radiate a 10 ft. aura of shadowy illumination and you suffer the same penalties of being Shaken, even if you are immune to fear, being immune to mind-affecting effects.


NIGHTLINGS
Nightlings are fey creatures that have the peculiarity of depending on the powers of Wildhaunts to actually exist. They are completely tied to the wildhaunt who call them, and their existence and nature are mysterious at best. Proof of their being on the limit of two planes and on the brink of unreality is the fact that even if incorporeal, they can interact with material objects.
Their appearance may vary, but they usually manifest as pitch black, very small humanoids (not surprisingly, they are playful and collective just like children), surrounded by glittering motes of feeble light, the color of the sunset. Depending on the task, they like to assume other forms, like the form of pet hounds when they search or track, the form of birds when they carry a message and so on.
Even if they may look cute at a first glance, their presence is felt as disturbing by any humanoid creature other than the wildhaunt, and any humanoid who sees them will always start with an Unfriendly attitude towards them, and possibly towards you if you are seen interacting with them. Nightlings radiate a strong aura of chaos (see the detect chaos spell).
Nightlings basics: The statistics below can be used for independent nightlings, which may be encountered in extremely rare occasions. Nightlings called by a wildhaunt use those statistics with the following changes:
Hit Dice: Instead of having actual hit dice, ordinary nightlings have HPs equal to 2 times their caller's wildhaunt class level.
Saves: They use the wildhaunt saves and modifiers, but not any other bonuses, like those given by magical items.
AC: They add their caller wildhaunt's Charisma bonus to their AC, with a maximum bonus based on the wildhaunt's class level, as shown on "Table 2: Nightlings Features", below.
Skills: They don't use skills if not for performing tasks, see "Table 2: Nightlings Features", below, and the "Call Nightlings" section of the Wildhaunt's class feature list, above, for details.
Special Qualities: Called nightlings have access to their natural special qualities limited by the caller wildhaunt's class level, as shown on "Table 2: Nightlings Features", below.
Special Attacks: The only way to attack for a nightling is by the means of Fundamentals of Shadow, which are available to called nightlings only if the caller chooses so.
Calling nightlings: Calling nightlings can be done in two different ways:
Ritual calling: With a wandering meditation in the wild, you can call one nightling for every minute spent this way, up to a maximum of 1 nightling for every 2 wildhaunt class levels.
Quick calling: You can call one nightling as a full-round action, but you will have a 50% failure chance, and in this way you can never have more than one at a time.

Table 2: Nightlings Features

Wildhaunt   Max AC
level       Bonus     Tasks                  Special                            
1st-2nd     +1        Cast Fundamentals      Tasks, Shadow Presence: Dimmed
3rd-4th     +2        Messenger              Evasion
5th-6th     +2        Search
7th-8th     +3        Entice Information     Shadow Presence: Darkened
9th-10th    +3        Track
11th-12th   +4        Distract               Infuse fundamental casting ability
13th-14th   +4        Entice Gift            Shadow Presence: Obscured
15th-16th   +5        Group Casting          Improved Infusion of fundamentals
17th-18th   +5        Cure
19th-20th   +6        Save Life

Tasks (Ex): You become able to give more complex tasks with level advancement, but each task requires a minimum rank of a certain skill, so you may not be able to give a certain task at the level indicated in the table.
To give a task to one or more nightlings, you have to communicate with them in Burblack, the secret language of the natural creatures of the plane of shadow. Doing so is a swift action, since Burblack can only be spoken very rapidly.

Evasion (Ex): From 3rd level, called nightlings gain the Evasion class feature as a rogue.

Shadow Presence: The ability of nightlings to manifest in all places, at all times and with maximum stealthiness is granted by the strength of the wildhaunt's link with the Plane of Shadow, and therefor by her level.
Dimmed: At 1st level, the nightlings can only be called in wilderness areas, and only during or after sunset. Plus, they can't take advantage of their natural invisibility and they can't manipulate material objects.
Darkened: Starting from 7th level, the nightlings can take advantage of their natural invisibility as long as they're in wilderness areas, and they can manipulate material objects as long as they're not larger than tiny.
Obscured: Starting from 13th level, nightlings can be called at any time and in any place, and may stay invisible even in civilized areas, as long as the task they're performing doesn't specify the contrary.

Infuse shadowcasting ability (Su): Starting from 11th level, with a minute of interaction, a minimum of 2 nightlings can infuse the wildhaunt with the ability to cast a Fundamental of Shadow of choice. The wildhaunt becomes able to cast it as a supernatural ability 3 times, after which the ability expires. The wildhaunt may only have one fundamental at a time, and changing it requires another minute of interaction with at least 2 nightlings.

Improved infusion of fundamentals (Su): Starting at 15th level, a fundamental infused by nightling on the wildhaunt has its save DC improved as if the Group Casting task was used, see the description of the task in the "Box 1: Nightling Tasks" for details.

Nightling
Tiny Fey (Chaotic, Extraplanar, Incorporeal)

PLAYING A WILDHAUNT
You, as druids, are a worshiper and protector of nature. Unlike druids though, you worship and protect the "shadow of nature", the aspect of nature connected with the night and all the concepts associated with it, like the danger of predators, the fear that humanoid beings, once defenseless against predators, felt when the sun set and the forests started to resound of deep and ferocious calls. The whole nature becomes more hideous in the Plane of Shadow, and more subtle. While a druid may invoke powerful blasts of fire or lightning, your link with the Plane of Shadow may grant you the power to invoke alluring clouds of narcotic gases or sharp and deadly blades of black ice.
While a druid may calm animals and save his friends from their attack, you may inspire rage in animals, making them dangerous to everyone but you.
Your chaotic alignment is connected with the side of nature that you express: the most chaotic one. And as most of the predators that lurk in shadows to catch their prey, you are an inherently and totally selfish being.
You are never alone in the wild though, being able to call the little beings called nightlings, creepy fey-like creatures that scare nearly everybody but you.
You may also have been taught your powers by a master, and in this case, chances are that you also form part of a small covenant of wildhaunts or a more extended alliance. But most wildhaunts develop and discover their powers alone in the wild, and in this case you may not encounter someone like you for the rest of your life.
Common people gave you the name of "wild-haunt", and so believes that you are in some way possessed by vengeful and dark spirits, and that all the wild near you becomes haunted and dangerous. You can't blame them. Thanks to the subtlety of your powers though, you are usually able to conceal them where it wouldn't be convenient to show them. In the case you care about it.
You engaged in adventures all your early life thanks to, and for the purpose of, the development of your powers, and becoming a properly called wildhaunt doesn't stop you from continuing that life, on the contrary, to make your powers grow you need biggest challenges and you may even start considering the idea of joining a party, if you find one that is open-minded enough to accept you. The patience and nerves needed to positively cooperate with you will be eventually repaid by the unique and useful powers that only a wildhaunt like you can give.

RELIGION
You worship the natural force of the Plane of Shadow, and your mysteries are divine in nature. This link might be the work of one or more gods of darkness, and some wildhaunt claim that they discovered which deity is responsible of this and start to worship that particular deity with great devotion. The fact that they don't loose their power doing so may mean that they're right. In fact, if you start to worship a deity that has nothing to do with your powers, you may not be able to advance further into the wildhaunt class.

OTHER CLASSES
You surely work well with strong fighters, especially because early on you need them for protection. You may discover that the best candidates to the role of bodyguard are those fighters with strong will, in order to resist to your Predatory Aura. Monks and Swordsages for example, but good monks may clash with you about morals too much. Fighters with low wisdom and will in your party may start hating you for exposing their weak side to derision of others, or simply for hindering their abilities, so they may want to stay far from you. In this case, archers may prove to be the best companions. Rangers in particular may find your company interesting and paradoxically "illuminating". Barbarians may like your company too, especially when they are raging and you may prove to be a vital support. Besides, the savage barbarians and in particular those with animal totems, may even pick you as their spiritual guide. Druids on the contrary, may prove to be your worst enemies, as may interpret your abilities as a corruption of the typical druidic ones. Only between evil druids and evil wildhaunts may exist some sort of cooperation, even if exceptions may always exist. Clerics may have different views about you depending on their deity. Clerics of sun deities may zealously hunt you to death, while clerics of darkness deities may even think you are a prophet or emissary of their god. Bards have a particular sympathy towards you, not always corresponded, and find that you are an inspiration for all sorts of dark and gothic ballads and stories. Wizards, and other arcane spellcasters may be envious of your abilities and at the same time you might be envious of theirs, so it won't always be easy to befriend them. Warlocks are an exception, because you mutually respect the discriminated life you both live, and your tendency to Chaos. Last but not least, all other practitioners of shadow magic, like shadowcasters or cultists see you as very interesting, and you may see them as masters or colleagues, so that with them life is easy although a party composed of shadow magic users only might prove to be weak in certain situations.

COMBAT
You start your adventuring life with little combat potential, being your fear effects and Wild Instigation your only useful powers. However, you will eventually be more resistant than the typical wizard, and so you'll be able to survive the first encounters, also thanks to the support of nightlings.
Soon in your power advancement path, you become even more scary than your dark little friends, and few normal people will resist your presence at close distances, feeling an innate sense of danger. In combat, you combine your Predatory aura with the fear effect of your Shadowshape ability to frighten your foes.
Your Wildhaunt ability makes you very powerful where plants and animals are near, but it's not always a reliable way to solve your fights.
What characterizes you the most in combat though, is your personal selection of mysteries, which will differentiate you by nearly any other wildhaunt. Depending on the mysteries you choose you may become a dangerous melee opponent, a battlefield controller who literally shapes its surroundings to its advantage, or an aid for your companions, with the power to render your foes weak, and maybe mend the wounds of your friends by the means of exotic magical fruits and fungi.
You may even become a specialist in mobility and stealth tactics to ambush and capture enemies, or a long range threat, with the ability to sense at great distances and use animals and plants to hinder the still unaware foes.
Your signature ability, to shape-change into animal-hybrid creatures, not only changes you from a weak combatant to a moderately strong one, but it doesn't prevent you from using your mysteries, that thanks to your Nocturnal Trance become extremely difficult to resist, a fact that compensates the lack of spectacular blasting spells like those of the sorcerers.
You are even able to specialize in one or more paths of mysteries, and you must be careful about that choice, since the extra power given by the specialization is much, and so it must be applied to the mysteries you use the most, that will become your terrible signature ability.

[Realms of Chaos]

Commentary and Recommendations:
Ah, the Wildhaunt. I helped LordArchaon form this class back in the day and I'll tell you the same thing now that I told him back then (if a bit more bluntly). Cheese Ahoy!
Seriously, you get 2 (stacking) fear effects, a supply of super-versatile minions, and the ability to animate plants... in just the first 4 levels, not including mysteries and fluff features.
When you get to Nocturnal trance, things get really, really crazy. Dark Template, +4 charisma, channel mysteries through other sources for tactical advantage and range enhancement, and you get extra mysteries. As you level up, the charisma bonus increases, you get even more extra mysteries, you gain a nightmare aura, you improved your mysteries, you assume lycanthropic forms, gain extra movement and even gain the tauric template (with a downside easily overcome by a twinked out Will save), and you can become incorporeal. Considering that this guy can eventually make its mysteries extraordinary (and thus usable in any circumstance), I'm inclined to say that this is overpowered to the umpteenth degree.
First of all, I suggest that you allow the trance to last 10 minute/3 levels during the night or 1 round/3 levels during the day so that a)the wildhaunt isn't worthless during the daytime and so b)the wildhaunt might need more than 2 trances. During the day, prevent all enhancements to the nocturnal trance other than improved nocturnal trance and superior nocturnal trance from functioning.
Next, tone down the nocturnal wildshape to only last a number of rounds equal to your charisma modifier per use (at least causing frequent saving throws), make the aberrant features only last a number of minutes equal to your charisma modifier (same reason), and limit the form of night to 1 round/level of use each day rather than each trance.
Lastly, make it so that nocturnal trance (and its enhancements) to not grant bonus mysteries and so that you gain perpetual light blindness at all times starting at 5th level (as 12 hours after each use means always being light blind during the day, which is pretty much the only time you'd deal with that anyway). That should be sufficient to keep the ability roughly balanced.

As for additional changes, I'd move a thousand faces to level 12 (if just to put something in the dead level), move trackless step to 3rd level (to prevent the current front-loading of abilities), and specifically rule that any mystery or supernatural class feature made extraordinary in some way continues to function on incorporeal creatures as if still supernatural.


Wildhaunt Mystery List, by LordArchaon

Spoiler

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MYSTERIES AND PATHS


NIGHTLING FUNDAMENTALS
[THESE FUNDAMENTAL MYSTERIES CAN BE CASTED BY NIGHTLINGS ONLY]

• Twilight Berries: Hard to find berries cure minor wounds.
• Black Cherry: Big and beautiful cherry distracts and attracts looker.
• Ebony Root: Hard to find root can be made into a poison.
• Ephemeral Cubbyhole: Open a temporary portal to a shadow demi-plane
• Nepenthean Mushroom: Hard to find mushroom is a magical drug.
• Wildhaunt Motes: Faintly luminous motes can reveal hidden creatures and provide some light.
• Wily Cider: Turn water into unnoticeable but powerful alcoholic drink.

FUNDAMENTAL MYSTERIES
[WILDHAUNTS CAN USE THEM ONLY THROUGH NIGHTLINGS]

• Arrow of Dusk: Ray deals 2d4 nonlethal, x3 crit.
• Mystic Reflections: As the spell detect magic.
• Umbral Hand: As the spell mage hand but can affect heavier objects and magic items.
• Trick of the Light: Perform a minor, shadowy illusion.

APPRENTICE PATH MYSTERIES


DARKNESS STRIDES

• 1 Dusk Breeze: You and allies move at greater speed and are difficult to track and recognize.
• 2 Nebulous Beast: You or an animal become strong, agile and difficult to see while moving.
• 3 Canopy Predator: You can move very fast in the canopy and dive/charge from above.

TENEBROUS GROVES

• 1 Black Thorns: Foes moving in the area could be poisoned.
• 2 Gloomy Weald: Area may influence morale in various ways.
• 3 Darkwood Trammels: Immobilize foes or create small but strong barriers.

BAFFLING BERRIES

• 1 Inksmoke Drupelets: Infused little berries explode in inky cloud.
• 2 Nightripe Berries: Infused berries cure and alleviate at night, may cause sickness next day.
• 3 Wobblemurk Pome: Strange pome explodes for half-acid, half-untyped damage, confusing targets.

BEWITCHING EFFLORESCENCES

• 1 Balmy Patch: Zone of calm emotions and lowered senses, may aid or hinder.
• 2 Narcotic Flowerings: May render others suggestionable or randomly boost your abilities.
• 3 Mauve Effluvium: Alluring gas cloud is a mortal trap.

MURKY WATERS

• 1 Muggy Brume: Fog provides concealment and quietly damage others.
• 2 Deadfall Puddle: Water quick-sands may swallow foes.
• 3 Deep Dweller: Breath under water and limitedly control water.

INITIATE PATH MYSTERIES


PRIMAL FEARS

• 4 Lethal Remembrance: Kill a frightened creature.
• 5 Night of Fear: Long range fear effect.
• 6 Doomed Prey: Subject is cursed to attract ferocious predators and become paranoid.

DARK METAMORPHOSES

• 4 Underworld Crawlers: Transform vermin into killing machines, or create swarms.
• 5 Murderous Awakening: Awaken an animal and curse it with a killing duty.
• 6 Dark Speciation: Create new hybrid and dangerous species.

TIDES OF DARKNESS

• 4 Night Whispers: See and hear through plants and animals in dark places or at night, at long distances.
• 5 Netherly Plague: Spread dangerous rabidisms for animals or illnesses for humanoids.
• 6 Haunted Wild: Permanently tie a wilderness area to the Plane of Shadow.

ALGID AGONIES

• 4 Black-Ice Razors: Weapon, claws or vegetation deal cold damage and open wounds.
• 5 Glacial Prison: Paralyze and deal continuous cold damage
• 6 Nightmarish Blizzard : Call a powerful and unnatural storm.

FUNGAL CREEP

• 4 Plum Amanita : Mushroom explodes in poisonous gas if walked upon, or cures if licked.
• 5 Moss Swarm: Calls a dangerous swarm of tiny fungal creatures.
• 6 Infesting Fungus: Spores infest the targets eventually transforming them in mushroom creatures at your command.

Commentary and Recommendations:
Not much to comment on or recommend, here. It's an incomplete list of the wildhaunt's "mystery list". None of these mysteries were even created, although I once again vow to make them myself once this project is complete.

A Couple Wildhaunt Master Paths, Written by, well, Me...

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Hopelessly Lost
Master, Dark Wanderings
Level/School: 7th/Necromancy
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes

Muttering a few dark curses, you render the target’s mind anathema to all reason and direction.

The touched creature automatically fails all survival checks, regardless of simplicity. This means that the target cannot find their way out of a closet without assistance. They are still able to be led by others or to follow objects they can see, however.
In addition, the target takes a –10 penalty on all listen, spot, and search checks.

Ebon Trail
Master, Dark Wanderings
Level/School: 8th/Conjuration (teleportation)
Range: Long (400 ft. + 40 ft./level)
Effect: one temporary portal/round
Duration: 1 round/level

As you riddle shadowstuff about the area, you attach the area together in ways that geometry would normally deny.

While this mystery is active, once per round as a swift action, you may dictate one 5-foot square within range to be the entrance to a portal and another 5-foot square within to be the exit of that portal. The portal is invisible, although it can be detected by appropriate magic.
The exit square need be on the ground but the ground need not be sturdy (it is possible to place an exit square over quicksand, for instance). One square may serve as multiple exits but no more than one entrance.
All portals last until the end of this mystery’s duration.

Journey to Nowhere
Master, Dark Wanderings
Level/School: 9th/Abjuration
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Saving throw: Reflex negates
Spell Resistance: No

You open a small pocket into shadows at the feet of your foe, trapping them within their own shadow for all time.

This mystery functions as the imprisonment spell, with the above exceptions. When a target is trapped by this ability, their shadow remains, marking the precise spot where someone could cast freedom to save them.

Release Nature's Ire
Master, Angered Wild
Level/School: 7th/Transmutation
Range: touch
Area: 100 ft./level radius
Duration: One round/level and one day/level
Saving Throw: Will partial
Spell Resistance: Yes

Reaching deep into the depths of natural shadow, you find a well of hatred and fury left from times untold. Allowing some of this power to seep out, you seize control of it.

All tiny or larger animals within the area of this mystery must make a will save or increase in size, as per the enlarge animal spell for 1 round/level. In addition, all other living creatures except yourself and up to one selected individual/level must make will saves or become confused for 1 round/level. Even upon a success, they are dazed for 1 round.
In addition, the casting of this mystery lets loose some of nature's ire into the world. All animals within the area gain a +4 bonus to their Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity scores for as long as they remain in the area. Any other creature other than fey who enters the area becomes fatigued for as long as they remain. In addition, each night of this mystery's duration, for so long as they remain within the area, all animals are treated as being hostile and all other creatures are treated as unfriendly towards all creatures other than animals and fey. Even allies or relatives may be divided by this effect.

Rebellious Growth
Master, Angered Wild
Level/School: 8th/Transmutation
Range: Touch
Area: 100 ft./level radius
Duration: One day/level
Saving Throw: Fortitude partial; Reflex partial
Spell Resistance: No

Forcing yourself deep into the recesses of nature, you find a potential for untamed and unruly growth in all plants around you. You simply help the plant find this potential.

All inanimate plants within range become thick and overgrown as if by the overgrowth function of the plant growth spell. In addition, all of these plants of small size grow light undergrowth out to 5 feet, all plants of medium size grow dense undergrowth out to 5 feet, and all larger plants grow dense udnergrowth out another 5 feet per size category larger than medium.
In addition, all small or larger inanimate plants start bearing miscolored fruit. This fruit has an unbearable scent, causing everyone within the area of this mystery to make fortitude saves when entering this area and every 10 minutes thereafter to avoid becoming sickened for as long as they remain in the area. This scent cannot be detected by animals. The fruit, if eaten, provides no nourishment.
In addition, each minute that an individual spends in the area of this mystery, they must make a reflex save or accidentally puncture themselves upon a poisonous thorn or briar or otherwise brush against some poisonous surface (contact poison, fortitude DC=mystery DC, initial damage 2d6 Con, secondary damage 2d6 Con). Those hustling, charging, or running through the area are not allowed saving throws.
This mystery possesses no ability to create or alter plants where there are none.

Forest of Night
Master, Angered Wild
Level/School: 9th/Conjuration (creation)
Range: Touch
Area: 1-mile radius
Duration: One day/level
Saving Throw: Fortitude partial; Reflex Partial

Having reached the heart of nature's true potential, you see a blackened forest of deepest shadows. You grab this image and drag it back with you, forcing it into reality.

By means of this mystery, you create a dense forest within the area, creating trees and undergrowth where needed. This rearrangement of the geography requires everyone within the area to make a reflex save or fall prone. Particularly stable creatures such as dwarves and quadrapeds gain a +4 bonus on this save. In addition, this sudden creation of new plants damages structures, dealing each one 10d6 damage, ignoring hardness.
This forest possesses several interesting properties. Within it, the range of all light sources are halved and all attacks suffer from a 20% miss chance. During the night, things become more treacherous. First of all, all survival checks made within the forest during the night take a penalty equal to your caster level. Secondly, every 10 minutes that someone wanders through the forest, they must make a fortitude save or become immobilized for 10 minutes. If someone fails three consecutive fortitude saves, they disappear, never to be seen again. Only true resurrection, wish, or miracle can return them back to life. If an immobilized target is removed from the forest, they remain immobilized until the end of that 10 minute period.
You are immune to the forest's nocturnal effects and are not at risk of falling prone when you cast this mystery but you are subject to the forest's constant effects as normal.

Commentary and Recommendations:
As I said earlier, I played a part in helping to shape the wildhaunt into what it was (even though LordArchaon wanted to purposefully overpower it to make it the druid of shadow magic users). Creating these mysteries was just one way in which I helped. They were appraised by LordArchaon when I created them and I don't have much else to say.

Shadow Abyss Wildhaunt Master Path, by LordArchaon

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BLACK SKY OCEAN
Master, Shadow Abyss
Level/School: 7th/Conjuration
Range: Long.
Area: 1 mile radius.
Duration: 10 minute/level.
Saving Throw: Reflex partial (see text)
Spell Resistance: No

The sky turns black from a certain altitude, and to an accurate eye, strange ripples too similar to the ocean waves swirl on the indistinct black surface.

You conjure a portion of the Shadow Abyss into a region of sky. the surface must be located at an altitude of at least 1000 ft. over the highest surface in a 1 mile radius.
For the duration of the mystery, all the lands beneath the surface of the Black Sky Ocean are covered in shadowy illumination, and every creature with an intelligence of 3 or more suffers a -4 penalty on saves against fear effects, due to the continuous sense of danger imposed by the phenomenon.
At night, the sky is so black in the area that flying creatures can't see the black surface. If they come into contact with it, they suffer 10d6 damage due to the water pressure and immediately start to drown. The next round they must succeed a Reflex save or be stunned and trapped into the ocean, continuing to drown. Each round thereafter they are allowed another save to escape from the ocean's grasp.

BALEFUL RAIN
Master, Shadow Abyss
Level/School: 8th/Conjuration
Range: Long.
Area: 100 ft./level radius
Duration: 1 minute/level.
Saving Throw: Fortitude partial, Reflexes partial.
Spell Resistance: No

You summon unnaturally dense black rain which violently and suddenly starts to come down.

The rain in the area causes all surfaces to be slippery, and all attacks to have a 20% miss chance.
Being the rain made of very salt water, every creature in the area must succeed a Reflexes save every round or have its vision reduced to a radius of 20 ft.
If you cast this mystery under a Black Sky Ocean, every creature failing a Fortitude save at the start of the rain has 50% chance of being Dazed each round for the duration of the mystery.




WORM OF THE SHADOW ABYSS
Master, Shadow Abyss
Level/School: 9th/Conjuration
Range: Long
Area: 30-ft/level-radius cylinder, 1000 ft. tall.
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: Reflex partial, Will partial (see text)
Spell Resistance: No

On the surface of the Black Sky Ocean, you partially bring to the material plane one of the most fearsome beasts of the deepest oceans of the plane of shadow, an immense predator worm.

The creature you try to conjure is so big that you couldn't do it entirely. Instead, you create a zone in which the creature can manifest through brief invisible portals, usually targeting anything that moves.
You can't control the mindless fury of the worm, but if you unleash its power, chances are that you don't care about it.
Once per round of the mystery's duration, by concentrating on the mystery, you allow the worm to sprout out of the Black Sky Ocean surface you conjured before. When you do, every intelligent creature seeing the worm, except you, is frightened upon succeeding a Will save or cowering upon failing it. The worm attacks any random Huge or larger moving object or creature or any group of moving adjacent creatures big enough to occupy the same space of a Huge creature. Those who succeed the Reflex save, and structures, suffer 10d6 damage from the impact with the creature, while those who fail are swallowed. A swallowed creature suffers 20d6 per round and before the end of the mystery is allowed another save each round with a cumulative -2 penalty to be expelled. If at the end of the mystery the target didn't manage to get out, the magical forces connected with the worm's departure paralyze it for 1 round/level, usually making it fall from the altitude of the Black Sky Ocean, which takes 2 full rounds.

You can also cast this mystery without Black Sky Ocean, but the duration is limited to 1 round.


_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/

What about all of this? :) We have some real dragon slaying power!

Commentary and Recommendations:
Wow...big worm.
Um... All that I can really say is that I'd consider having the black sky ocean force a creature coming into contact with it to hold their breath or immediately start drowning, instead of just plain drowning.

[Owrtho]

Something I noticed. In the shadowgaunt fluff you mentioned that they can't see in colour, but make no mention of it in their racial traits. You also mention under Low-light Vision that they retain the ability to distinguish colour.

Owrtho

[Realms of Chaos]

Stalker Base Class, Written by bkdubs123

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Expanding Shadow Magic

Shadow magic taps into the mysterious, sprawling dark of the Elemental Plane of Shadow. Twisted reflections of material realities, and even more strange and grotesque spectres from across the multiverse can be found there. Even an entirely dark mirror of the normal magical weave stretching across the multiverse worms its way through the Plane of Shadow filled with a cold, chaotic and veiled energy all its own. This Shadow Weave produces not spells exactly, but mysteries, and Shadowcasters draw upon it for arcane power, much like Spellcasters do from the standard magical Weave. But the power of shadows is not limited to arcane secrets or the realm of Shadowcasters. In fact the time when it was thought that only a Wizard can wield magical power is past. So is it now past that the power of shadow magic only be in the grasp of these mystery casters.

The Stalker is a skillful hunter, graceful combatant, and lurker in the deepest shadow. If a Stalker does not wish to be seen, you'd best not waste time looking for her. Using her own wits and mastery over shadow she will scout into the darkest depths, become privy to the darkest secrets, and subject foes to the darkest of fates.

The Shineguard sounds immediately an antithesis to Shadowmagic, and in some ways it is, but I urge you not to underestimate their power over the mysteries of the Shadow Weave. The eldest tomes speak of a light, hidden within the endless darkness of the Plane of Shadow. The Shining Citadel. None who venture out in search of this light return. The Shineguard keeps its secret veiled in darkness and assaults any who seek the secrets of the light with a combined mastery over light and shadow.

The Stalker Class Description

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The Stalker



"Boo," - Liandra, a Stalker

Alignment: Any Non-Lawful

Class Skills
The Class Name's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Diplomacy, Disable Device, Forgery, Hide, Jump, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (the planes), Listen, Move Silently, Open Lock, Profession, Search, Sleight of Hand, Spellcraft, and Tumble
Skills Per Day at 1st Level : (6 + int)x4
Skills Per Day at Each Additional Level : 6 + int

Hit Dice: d6

Base Attack     Fort    Ref    Will  Abilities
1. +0            +0     +2     +2    Fundamentals of Shadow, Apprentice Mysteries, Trapfinding, Umbral Sight (Darkvision 30ft)
2. +1            +0     +3     +3    Uncanny Dodge
3. +2            +1     +3     +3    Shadowstrike +1d6
4. +3            +1     +4     +4    Evasion, Shadow Familiar
5. +3            +1     +4     +4    Improved Uncanny Dodge
6. +4            +2     +5     +5    Shadowstrike +2d6
7. +5            +2     +5     +5    Umbral Sight (Darkvision 60 ft)
8. +6/+1         +2     +6     +6    Apprentice Mysteries (spell-like), Initiate Mysteries
9. +6/+1         +3     +6     +6    Shadowstrike +3d6
10.+7/+2         +3     +7     +7    Blind Strike
11.+8/+3         +3     +7     +7    Umbral Sight (See in darkness as if it were light)
12.+9/+4         +4     +8     +8    Shadowstrike +4d6
13.+9/+4         +4     +8     +8    Shadow Self
14.+10/+5        +4     +9     +9    Improved Evasion
15.+11/+6/+1     +5     +9     +9    Shadowstrike +5d6
16.+12/+7/+2     +5     +10    +10   Apprentice Mysteries (supernatural), Initiate Mysteries (spell-like)
17.+12/+7/+2     +5     +10    +10   Shadow Walk
18.+13/+8/+3     +6     +11    +11   Shadowstrike +6d6
19.+14/+9/+3     +6     +11    +11   Binding Strike
20.+15/+10/+5    +6     +12    +12   Shadeform

Weapon Proficiencies: A Stalker is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, and with light armor, but no shields.

Fundamentals of Shadow: As a Stalker, you must master certain basic powers before proceeding to deeper secrets of shadow. These powers, known as fundamentals, function as supernatural abilities usable three times per day. You begin play with two fundamentals and learn an additional one at 5th level and every five levels thereafter. You can, when gaining a new level, choose a new fundamental in place of learning a mystery. When choosing a fundamental, you can "relearn" an already known fundamental, thus gaining three additional uses of that fundamental per day. The save DC of any fundamental is equal to 10 + your Dex modifier.

Mysteries and Paths: You do not cast spells as other classes, but instead invoke mystical secrets gleaned from your knowledge of the Plane of Shadow. These secrets are called mysteries. You know one mystery at 1st level and learn a new one at every class level. Up to 7th level you can only learn apprentice mysteries. At 8th level you gain access to initiate mysteries. You can choose your new mystery from any category you have access to (including fundamentals).

Shadow magic progresses in very specific stages. You may not "jump ahead" in a path, although you need not complete a path if you do not wish to. Within a category (apprentice, or initiate), you can only learn mysteries of a new level if you have learned at least two mysteries within a path to select a mystery from that path. For example, you cannot learn congress of shadows (the second mystery of the Ebon Whispers path) until you know at least two 1st-level mysteries, one of which must be voice of shadow (the first mystery of that path). However, you can always select the first mystery in a path of category you have access to, even if you didn't complete the lower category paths. For example, you could learn the shadow vision mystery, the first one (4th level) in the Initiate Veil of Shadows path, even if you know no 3rd level mysteries. When choosing her mysteries, a Stalker can only choose apprentice mysteries from the Cloak of Shadows, Ebon Whispers, and Shutters and Clouds paths and can only choose initiate mysteries from the Body and Soul, Ebon Roads, and Veil of Shadows paths.

Mysteries represent thought patterns and formulae so alien that other spells seem simple in comparison. As you progress, however, your connection to the Plane of Shadow grows stronger, and your mysteries become ingrained in your essence. When you are capable of casting only apprentice mysteries, you cast them as though they were arcane spells. They all have somatic components, armor-based spell failure chance, and are subject to interruption (but they do not require material components, foci, or verbal components). Whenever you cast a mystery as an arcane spell, observers can make a DC 15 spot check to note that your shadow is making different gestures from the ones you make when you cast the mystery (unless of course your shadow is obscured in darkness).

At 8th level, when you become capable of casting initiate mysteries, when you become capable of casting initiate mysteries (whether or not you choose to learn any), your apprentice mysteries become so much a part of you that they now function as spell-like abilities, and they no longer require somatic components. Your new initiate mysteries (when you learn them) function as arcane spells exactly as your apprentice mysteries had done.

You can learn a mystery more than once. Each time you "relearn" a mystery, you gain another use per day, just like you would from relearning a fundamental.

You can use each mystery you know a certain number of times per day depending on whether it is cast as a spell (once), a spell-like ability (two times), or a supernatural ability (three times). The allotments per level are given on Table 1-2, but only apply if you are able to cast mysteries of the level but only apply if you are able to cast mysteries of the level indicated. Like spellcasters you gain bonus mysteries as a result of having a high ability score. Although you do not prepare spells, you must rest for 8 hours and meditate for 15 minutes each day to regain your use of mysteries just as a sorcerer or bard must rest and meditate to regain use of spell slots.

In order to cast a mystery you must have an Intelligence score of at least 10 + the mystery's level. The save DC for your mysteries equals 10 + mystery level + your Dex modifier. Even though as a Stalker you do not "cast spells" in the traditional sense, your levels in this class count for the purpose of determining your overall caster level.

Table 1-2: Uses per Mystery per Day

Class     ---------Mystery Level----------
Level     1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th
1st        1     -     -     -     -     -
2nd        1     -     -     -     -     -
3rd        1     -     -     -     -     -
4th        1     1     -     -     -     -
5th        1     1     -     -     -     -
6th        1     1     -     -     -     -
7th        1     1     1     -     -     -
8th        2     2     2     -     -     -
9th        2     2     2     -     -     -
10th       2     2     2     1     -     -
11th       2     2     2     1     -     -
12th       2     2     2     1     -     -
13th       2     2     2     1     1     -
14th       2     2     2     1     1     -
15th       2     2     2     1     1     -
16th       3     3     3     2     2     2
17th       3     3     3     2     2     2
18th       3     3     3     2     2     2
19th       3     3     3     2     2     2
20th       3     3     3     2     2     2

Trapfinding: As the Rogue class feature.

Umbral Sight: At 1st level you learn to extend your vision into the Plane of Shadow. You gain darkvision out to 30 feet. If you already have darkvision, or gain it from another source, the effective distance of that vision is increased by 30 ft. At 7th level, this darkvision extends by a further 30 ft. At 11th level you become able to see perfectly in complete darkness, even magical darkness, as easily as you would see in daylight.

Uncanny Dodge: As the Barbarian class feature. At 5th level this ability improves to Improved Uncanny Dodge.

Shadowstrike: So long as the Stalker is hidden in the shadows, OR has an active mystery cast on himself, he can deliver devastating strikes against flat-footed opponents. At 3rd level as long as he meets the above requirements and attacks a flat-footed opponent he deals an extra 1d6 damage. If the Stalker meets both prerequisites (if he is hidden in the shadows, AND has an active mystery cast on himself) all extra damage dice derived from Shadowstrike is doubled. Every three levels after 3rd Shadowstrike gets an additional damage dice. At 10th level a Stalker, when she gains the Blinding Strike class feature, that delivers a Shadowstrike can blind his opponents. Any foe struck by a Stalker's Shadowstrike must make a Fort save DC 10 +1/2 Stalker level + the Stalker's Dex modifier or become blinded. At 19th level, with the Binding Strike feature, a foe struck by a Stalker's Shadowstrike must succeed on a Will save DC 10 +1/2 Stalker level + the Stalker's Dex modifier or become paralyzed. The save against the Blinding Strike effect changes at this level as well, becoming 15 + 1/2 Stalker level + the Stalker's Int modifier.

Evasion: As the Rogue class feature.

Shadow Familiar: At 4th level and higher, a Stalker can perform a day long ritual that releases his own shadow to serve as a familiar for her. This shadow has the usual statistics and abilities of a sorcerer or wizard familiar, but it is incorporeal, but not undead. It cannot be turned, or rebuked, or commanded by a third party. It can be cured with normal curative magic. It resembles a flat, flickering shadow, and remains invisible among other shadows. The shadow familiar can move under doors and through other tiny openings and can hide itself by posing as its master's shadow.

The Stalker can communicate with her shadow familiar normally at 4th level, rather than at 5th level as most wizards and sorcerers do. All other abilities are exactly as the wizard's or sorcerer's familiar.

If her shadow familiar is killed, a Stalker no longer casts a shadow in lit areas. She may only summon a new shadow familiar after somehow regaining her normal shadow. Any spell that restores ability damage can accomplish this.

Shadowself: At 13th level can call up and control a single copy of himself made of shadow. This shadow self, unlike normal shadows, is corporeal and subject to critical hits. It appears as a duplicate of the Stalker, even wearing and carrying duplicates of the Stalker's gear (except that the shadow self's gear is always nonmagical). A Stalker can direct this Shadow Self to go places she couldn't safely go herself, and can see and hear everything that the Shadow Self can. A Shadow Self can be easily mistaken for its master as its gait, features, even mannerisms are identical. The Shadow Self can receive and use additional gear of any kind, up to 40 lbs, even magical items.

The Shadowself has all of the Stalker's characteristics, except having half its master's hit points, a Dexterity score 4 points higher, a Strength score 4 points lower, and a +2 natural armor bonus. The Shadow Self's base attack bonus is half that of its master's, and uses its own Strength and Dexterity modifiers to determine attacks and Armor Class.

A Shadow Self is dispersed instantly by exposure to full sunlight, to a daylight spell, or the equivalent (any effect that produces bright illumination out to 60 feet or more), or by a dispel magic spell. Like her Shadow Familiar, a Stalker's Shadow Self is uneffected by turn undead attempts.

The Shadow Self can move any distance from the Stalker, but has a limited life span, slowly unravelling in areas of shadowy illumination or full darkness. In shadowy illumination a Stalker's Shadow Self lasts for 1 hour per level. In total darkness it lasts 3 hours per level.

A Stalker whose Shadow Self has been killed or dispersed must wait 24 hours before calling a new one.

Shadow Walk: At 17th level, a Stalker can shadow walk as the spell 3 times per day + an additional time per point of Intelligence bonus.

Shadeform: Upon reaching 20th level, a Stalker can transform herself into a Greater Shadow at will, as if using the spell shapechange. Changing form (into a shadow or back again) is a move action. Unlike the spell you retain all of your Stalker abilities while in Shadeform and may make use of them as normal. You can perform a Shadowstrike in Shadeform, but when striking a corporeal target you must use a corporeal weapon - the opposite is also true against incorporeal foes. Shadeform does not count as a mystery for the purposes of dealing extra Shadowstrike damage.

Commentary and Recommendations:
This is one of the more balanced and streamlined classes that I've seen for shadow magic. It fits the role of a "rogue" perfectly and does so without becoming too weak or too powerful. I like this class and see nothing wrong with it. The one concession that I will make, however, is that this class, being so balanced, is probably very difficult to abuse or break. As such, it would feel underpowered in a campaign like the one CaBaal is running.
I'm sorry for not posting up the shineguard class that is mentioned in the introduction but I do believe that it was never actually completed.

Factotum Alternate Class Feature, Written by SilchasRuin

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I was brainstorming for additional alternate class features that included Shadow Magic and came up with the following for the Factotum. I think it provides them with an equal power to spells and they also gain the ability to change their mysteries around at will.

Ebon Practitioner (Sp) At 2nd level, you acquire a tiny spark of the art of Shadow Magic. You know that by lurking in the darkness and achieving a certain mindset you can will a bit of the shadow in you to do your bidding. By spending 1 inspiration point you can mimic a mystery as a spell-like ability.
At the start of each day choose a number of mysteries from the shadowcaster list based on your factotum level. You can choose a number of fundamental shadow mysteries equal to your Int mod at 2nd level. You may use these for free for a combined amount equal to your Cha mod. After this point you must pay 1 inspiration point to cast them, just like all other mysteries. The maximum level of the mystery you can use is one mystery at 4th level, two at 6th level, three at 9th, four at 11th, five at 14th, six at 16th, seven at 18th and eight at 20th level.
You can select any mystery up to that level, but you can only prepare one of your maximum level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against your spells is 10 + the mystery level + your Int modifier.
Once you have used a mystery, you cannot use it again until you have rested for 8 hours. After resting for this time, you can choose new mysteries and lose any unused ones from the previous days. You cannot prepare the same mystery multiple time to use it more than once during the same day.
This ability replaces the Arcane Dilettante feature of the ordinary Factotum.

Really awesome work with the Tome of Shadows. I have been using parts of it in my online games and it has been a big hit.

Commentary and Recommendations:
This thing works quite well. That it gives you some fundamentals for free sweetens the deal but taking advanage of this requires adding to MAD to the otherwise Intelligence-based Factotum.
Although it is balanced, however, I do worry about it granting access to different master mysteries each day, something that no other shadow magic class can do so far. As such, I would be tempted to limit the maximum spell level to 1/4 class levels, grant the factotum 1 mystery/2 levels, and maybe requiring 2 mysteries of one level before you could select mysteries of the next. When dealing with shadow magic, removing all restrictions makes something a far superior option.

[Realms of Chaos]

Well, I think that I have finally caught up with everything that was preventing me from moving forward.

A bunch of fixes taken care of? Check

Add information previously held in links to now-defunct threads? Check

Alter and augment links (including a new link to that harbinger class I was looking for earlier)? Check

Add some more material that was submitted to me via PM? Check.

Add a couple names to the special thanks post? Double-check.

Okay, time to move onwards, then.

Edit: Fix the shadowgaunt? check

[Realms of Chaos]

Luckily, it seems that I forgot one more thing that I had saved, something that I may have even forgotten to link to in the first place. Either way, enjoy this large batch of mysteries:

A whole bunch of Mysteries, by TheAnthroDM, Dracomortis, and Talisman

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Some shadowcaster mysteries I've thown together. Please help me fill in the gaps!
Apprentice Path Mysteries

Glittering Twilights
1	Shadows Part: Negate concealment.
2	Shimmering Shadows: Gray sparkles blind, reveal invisibile creatures
3	Sparkle and Shade: Cone of sparkling energy deals cold damage, dazzles foes.

Mysteries

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Shadows Part
Apprentice, Glittering Twilights
Level/School: 1st/Transmutation
Range: Medium
Area: 5'-radius burst
Duration: 1 minute/level (D)
Saving Throw: None
SR: Yes

At a wave of your hand the shadows peel back, revealing your foes.

You cause the cloaking shadows to withdraw fron an area, negating concealment.

Shimmering Shadows
Apprentice, Glittering Twlights
Level/School: 2nd/Conjuration (Creation)
Range: Close
Area: 10'-radius spread
Duration: 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw: Will negates (blinding only)
SR: No

The light shrinks into tiny pinpoints, leaving the remainder of the area cloaked in inky blackness.

This mystery functions as the spell glitterdust, except as described above. Targets in a brightly-lit area have a +2 bonus on their Will saves, but those in shadow or darkness suffer a -2 penalty.

Sparkle and Shade
Apprentice, Glittering Twilights
Level/School: 3rd/Evocation [Cold]
Range: Close
Area: Cone-shaped burst
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Fortitude half
SR: Yes

A wave of blackness, punctuated by tiny, silver, starlike points of light, erupts from your hand.

You spray forth a cone of black energy shot through with tiny motes of glittering light. Affected creatures take 1d6 points of cold damage per 2 caster levels (max. 10d6) and are dazzled for 1 round/level; on a successful Fortitude save, affected creatures take half damage and are not dazzled.

Reflections of Iron
1: Dark Blade: Weapon gains +2 enhancement bonus in shadowy areas.
2: Shadow Iron: Weapon deals +1d6 cold damage; armor provides cold resistance 10
3: Cloak of Chains: Aura of black chains protects you

Mysteries

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Cloak of Chains
Apprentice, Reflections of Iron
Level/School: 3rd/Conjuration (Creation)
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: None
SR: Yes (see text)

You conjure up ghostly chains composed of semitransparent shadow, which surround you like a cloak. These chains do not inhibit sight or provide you with concealment, but they are quasi-real and grant you a +4 armor bonus to AC.
More impressively, the chains can lash out at your enemies, as though they were a melee weapon with a reach of 10'. You cannot make normal attack with the chains, but you can make attacks of opportunity with them. Your attack bonus is equal to your caster level + Intelligence modifier, and you can make a number of such attacks in a round equal to 1 + your Intelligence modifier (instead of your normal number of attacks of opportunity), even if you do not possess the Combat Reflexes feat.
An attack by a cloak of chains deals damage as a spiked chain of your size (2d4 for Medium) plus your Intelligence modifier. It cannot be used to trip or disarm as a normal spiked chain can, but it is considered a magical attack for purposes of damage reduction and hitting incorporeal creatures.
If you attack a creature with spell resistance with your cloak of chains, check against SR for the first attack only. If you penetrate the creature's SR, all attacks from this particular cloak of chains will penetrate it automatically; if you fail, you cannot harm this creature with this particular cloak of chains.

Dark Blade
Apprentice, Reflections of Iron
Level/School: 1st/Transmutation
Range: Touch
Target: Metal weapon touched
Duration: 1 min./level
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless, object)
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless, object)

Wavering darkness covers your hand and spreads over the touched weapon, enveloping it in shadows. Dark blade gives a weapon a +2 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls while in an area of shadowy illumination or total darkness. The affected weapon bypasses damage reduction as a magic weapon.This mystery affects only metal weapons, so it cannot be used, for example, on a longbow or a club.

Shadow Iron
Apprentice, Reflections of Iron
Level/School: 2nd/Transmutation
Range: Touch
Target: Metal weapon, armor or shield touched
Duration: 1 minute/level
Saving Throw: None (object)
SR: Yes (harmless, object)

You imbue a single weapon, shield, or suit of armor with the essence of shadow, causing it to turn dark and unreflective. This mystery affects only metal, and cannot be used, for example on a wooden shield or a longbow. Shadow iron affects weapons differently than armor or shields.
An affected weapon penetrates damage reduction as a cold iron weapon and deals +1d6 points of cold damage. This mystery does not stack with the powers of frost or icy burst weapons.
An affected shield or suit of armor grants its wearer cold resistance 10 and negates the armor check penalty on Hide and Move Silently checks (only).

Pale Shadows
1: Wandering Shade: Your shadow animates as a creature
2: Danse Macabre: You animate a single skeleton or zombie.
3: Deathless Vigor: You enhance a living or undead creature.

Mysteries

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Danse Macabre
Apprentice, Pale Shadows
Level/School: 2nd/Necromancy
Range: Touch
Effect: Animates one skeleton or zombie
Duration: 1 hour/level
Saving Throw: None
SR: No

You animate a single skeleton or zombie, as if with the spell animate dead. The undead cannot be larger than Medium, and you must obey the usual limits on the number of HD of undead you can command.

Deathless Vigor
Apprentice, Pale Shadows
Level/School: 3rd/Necromancy
Range: Touch
Target: One creature, living or undead
Duration: 1 minute/level (D)
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
SR: Yes (harmless)

You infuse a creature, living or undead, with the essence of darkness and death, protecting and empowering them. The target creature gains different benefits depending on whether it is living or undead.
Living creatures are treated as undead for the duration of the mystery, gaining all undead traits, but also all undead vulnerabilities (such as to turning or rebuking). However, living creatures acquire one negative level when this mystery ends. This negative level persists for 24 hours unless removed, but never results in actual level loss.
Undead creatures gain a +4 enhancement bonus to Strength and Charisma, turn resistance +4, and DR 5/magic. If the undead already possesses DR/magic, it is increased by +5.

Wandering Shade
Apprentice, Pale Shadows
Level/School: 1st/Conjuration
Range: Medium
Effect: Creates temporary servant
Duration: 1 hour/level (D)
Saving Throw: None
SR: No

You animate your own shadow as a temporary, magical servant-creature. This wandering shade appears similar to an undead shadow, but has the physical abilities of an unseen servant with a Strength of 4.
For the duration of this mystery, you have no shadow. If the wandering shade is somehow destroyed, you take 1d4 points of damage.

Shadowed Leaves
1	Umbral Thorns: Plants animate and attack creatures.
2	Twining Roots: Black roots erupt from the ground and entangle creatures.
3	Forest of Night: Shadowy trees provide cover, concealment

Mysteries

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Forest of Night
Apprentice, Shadowed Leaves
Level/School: 3rd/Illusion (Shadow)
Range: Close
Effect: Create 1 quasi-real tree +1 per 3 levels.
Duration: 10 minutes/level
Saving Throw: None
SR: No

With a wave of your hand, a grove of black, leafless trees grow from the ground, casting darkness like some sort of reversed lantern.

You create a number of tree-like objects composed of quasi-real shadowstuff. Each of these shadow trees occupies a single 5' square; the tree is only partially solid, causing the square to be treated as difficult terrain. However, the tree does block line of sight and line of effect, and anyone occupying the tree's square is effectively blind and invisible. As the "trees" are magical constructs, they cannot be physically damaged but can be dispelled.
In addition, the trees generate darkness. The trees shed darkness in a 5' radius, granting concealmet to anyone there, and shadowy illumination in a 10' radius.
You can create a maximum of one shadow tree, plus one for every three caster levels (max. 7). No two trees can be within 10' of each other.

Twining Roots
Apprentice, Shadowed Leaves
Level/School: 2nd/Conjuration (Creation)
Range: Medium
Area: 40'-radus spread
Duration: 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw: Reflex negates
SR: Yes

Black, clawlike roots erupt from the earth, grappling your foes and holding them helpless.

You cause a number of black, rootlike objects to sprout from the ground and entangle your enemies. This mystery functions like the spell entangle except as noted here. You can choose which creatures in the area are affected, and there do not need to be any plants present for this mystery to be effective. However, the twining roots do not attempt to entangle creatures that escape them on subsequent rounds.
For every round a creature remains entangled by the twining roots, it takes 1d4 points of cold damage as the roots leech out its body heat.

Umbral Thorns
Apprentice, Shadowed Leaves
Level/School: 1st/Transmutation
Range: Close
Effect: One or more animated plant creatures
Duration: Concentration + 1 round
Saving Throw: None
SR: No

At your gesture, a shadowed bush shakes and stirs, then lurches forward to assault your foes.

You cause a single plant to animate and obey your mental commands. Treat it as a Small animated object.
At 8th level you can aninimate 2 Small plants or one Medium plant.

Tainted Twilight
1: Touch of the Grave: Your touch is harmful
2: Tainted Blast: Ranged touch attack deals damage and stuns.
3: Grim Pall of Night: Area of darkness deals damage to non-evil creatures.

Mysteries

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Grim Pall of Night
Apprentice, Tainted Twilight
Level/School: 3rd/Evocation [Darkness, Evil]
Range: Close
Area: 20'-radius emanation
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: Fortitude half
SR: Yes

You create an area of darkness infused with malign, evil energies. This mystery functions as the spell damning darkness except as noted above.

Tainted Blast
Apprentice, Tainted Twilight
Level/School: 2nd/Evocation [Evil]
Range: Close
Target: One creature
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Fortitude partial
SR: Yes

You fire a ray of silent black flames composed of equal parts cold and darkness. This mystery functions as the spell darkbolt.

Touch of the Grave
Apprentice, Tainted Twilight
Level/School: 1st/Necromancy
Range: Touch
Target: Creatures touched (up to 1/level)
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Fortitude partial or Will negates; see text
SR: Yes

Your hand is engulfed in cold black flames, granting you a dangerous touch attack. This mystery functions as the spell chill touch.

Initiate Path Mysteries

Colorless Dreams
4: Dreaming Body: Grants temporary hit points
5: Dreaming Mind: Grants resistance to mental effects
6: Dreaming Soul: Grants immunity to alignment-based effects

Mysteries

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Dreaming Body
Initiate, Colorless Dreams
Level/School: 4th/Necromancy [Mind-affecting]
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: 1 minute/level
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
SR: Yes (harmless)

With a touch, you invest a creature's body with shadow energy, granting it the ability to absorb far more damage than usual. The subject gains 1d4 temporary hit points per shadowcaster level (max. 15d4).
For as long as this mystery is in effect, the subject appears wan and faded, almost colorless.

Dreaming Mind
Initiate, Colorless Dreams
Level/School: 5th/Enchantment [Mind-affecting]
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: 1 minute/level
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
SR: Yes (harmless)

You place the subject of this mystery in a state of waking dream, rendering them more resistant to mental attacks. The subject becomes immune to confusion, insanity, and similar effects. Against all other mind-affecting effects, the subject gains spell resistance equal to your level +12.
For as long as this mystery is in effect, the subject appears wan and faded, almost colorless.

Dreaming Soul
Initiate, Colorless Dreams
Level/School: 6th/Abjuration [Mind-affecting]
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: 1 minute/level
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
SR: Yes (harmless)

You shroud the subject's very soul in shadowstuff, cloaking his true soul behind a facade of shadows. The subject becomes immune to alignment-based effects, such as a chaos hammer spell, a paladin's smite evil, or the extra damage of an unholy weapon. Note that this includes positive effects as well. For the duration of this mystery, no alignment-detecting magic will reveal the subject, and effects that target alignment will have absolutely no effect upon him.
For as long as this mystery is in effect, the subject appears wan and faded, almost colorless.
This mystery has no effect on creatures with an alignment subtype.

Ebon Wings
4: Night Wind: As gust of wind, plus cold damage
5: Intangible Wings: You can fly on wings of shadow
6: Dark Angel's Embrace: Gain black-feathered wings and celestial resistances.

Mysteries

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Dark Angel's Embrace
Initiate, Ebon Wings
Level/School: 6th/Transmutation
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 minute/level

You infuse yourself with shadow energy, altering your very nature to mimic that of an angelic being. You grow large, black, feathery wings composed of shadowstuff, granting you a fly speed of 30' (good maneuverability). In addition, you gain resistance to cold 20, electricity 10, and fire 10, and DR 5/magic. Finally, for the duration of the mystery, you are treated as an outsider (native) for purposes of special effects.

Intangible Wings
Initiate, Ebon Wings
Level/School: 5th/Conjuration
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 10 minutes/level

You sprout great, insubstantial wings composed of shadowstuff. These wings grant you a fly speed of 40' with good maneuverability; in addition, the shadows that compose your wings grant you a 20% miss chance as if from concealment (although you cannot use this to hide).
If your intangible wings are dispelled, or if the mystery ends while you are still aloft, you float slowly to the ground as if under the effects of a feather fall effect.

Night Wind
Initiate, Ebon Wings
Level/School: 4th/Evocation
Range: 60'
Area: 60' line
Duration: 1 round and instantaneous; see text
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates and Fortitude half; see text
SR: Yes

This mystery functions as the spell gust of wind, save that it also deals 1d6 points of cold damage to all in the area (max. 10d6). A successful Fortitude save is required to resist the severe wind; a second Fortitude save halves the cold damage.
The cold damage affects only those creatures in the area when the mystery was cast, but the wind remains for 1 full round.

Nightmare Lullabies
4 Sleepless Dread: You inflict waking nightmares
5 Lamentation: Your song invokes fear or despair, or fascinates undead.
6 Dread Keening: Your voice slays living/destroys undead creatures.

Mysteries

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Dread Keening
Initiate, Nightmare Lullabies
Level/School: 6th/Necromancy [Death, Sonic]/[Sonic]
Range: Medium
Targets: Living or undead creatures within a 40'-radius burst
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates/Will negates
SR: Yes

You unleash a chilling scream, and the undead flesh falls from the tainted bones of your enemies, leaving only a few lumps of putrescence.

You utter a single, haunting scream that sears your enemies' very souls. This mystery functions as either circle of death or undeath to death, your choice. This decision is made at the time of casting.

Lamentation
Initiate, Nightmare Lullabies
Level/School: 5th/Enchantment
Range: 60'
Area: All enemies, all allies, or all undead in a 60'-radius emanation centered on you.
Duration: Concentration + 1 round/2 levels.
Saving Throw: None or Will partial (see text)
SR: Yes

You sing a wordless song of melancholy, mingled hope and despair, and the potent emotional effect holds all those who hear you breathless.

You sing a song that affects your enemies or your allies, or all undead in the area, whether they are friend or foe. Lamentation has three versions; you must choose which to use at the time of casting.

• Hope: Your song evokes melancholy, but also reminds your allies of why they fight and encourages them to go down fighting. This effect is identical to a good hope spell.
• Despair: Your singing invokes hopelessness and despair, crushing the spirits of your enemies as they realize that the conflict is hopeless. This effect is identical to a crushing despair spell.
• Dirge: You sing of life and its wonders, which are lost to death, and your song entrances undead. All undead in the area become fascinated, as per the spell rainbow pattern.

Sleepless Dread
Initiate, Nightmare Lullabies
Level/School: 4th/Enchantment
Range: Close
Target: One living creature
Duration: Instanntaneous
Saving Throw: Will negates
SR: Yes

You gesture, and a foe screams in terror as nightmares fill his mind.

You cause a target's nightmares to fill his waking thoughts. The victim of this attack takes 1d10 points of damage and is stunned for 1 round; thereafter, they are fatigued. On a successful Will save, the victim avoids the damage and fatigue, and is dazed for 1 round instead of being stunned.

Shades of Existance
4: Shroud of Twilight: Grants 50% miss chance, bonuses
5: Betrayal of Flesh: Imposes 50% miss chance on subject's attacks
6: Shroud of Midnight: Grants 50% miss chance, greater bonuses

Mysteries

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Betrayal of Flesh
Initiate, Shades of Existance
Level/School: 5th/Transmutation
Range: Close
Target: One creature, or up to 4 creatures, all within 20' of each other
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: Will negates
SR: Yes

You force a target creature into a shadowy half-existance, causing it to flicker randomly between a normal state of being and an insubstantial shadow. All of the creature's physical attacks suffer a 50% miss chance, as do any physical actions it attempts other than movement. This is not concealment, and must be checked separately from any defensive effects such as blur or shroud of twilight.
Magic is affected slightly differently by this mystery. Any magical attacks generated by the subject, including spells and mysteries, suffers a 20% miss chance even if an area-effect.

Shroud of Midnight
Initiate, Shades of Existance
Level/School: 6th/Transmutation (Shadow)
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round/level (D)

You infuse your body with shadow, simultaneously shunting part of your physical self out of this plane of existance. This grants you the following abilities:

• 50% miss chance;
• +6 bonus on Hide and move Silently checks;
• +4 bonus on Reflex saves;
• As a full-round action you can move up to half your speed through a solid barrier. If you end your movement inside a solid object, you are shunted out the nearest surface, taking 1d6 points of damage per 10' traveled.

Shroud of Twilight
Initiate, Shades of Existance
Level/School: 4th/Illusion (Shadow)
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
SR: Yes (harmless)

You cloak a creature in shadows, preventing others from discerning their exact location. This grants the subject a 50% miss chance, a +4 bonus on Hide checks, and a +2 bonus on Reflex saves.

Umbral Fangs
4 Moonlit Fangs: As greater magic fang; target animal deals cold damage.
5 Fur of Midnight: Target animal gains the dark template.
6 Primal Dark: Animal becomes larger, more fearsome

Mysteries

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Fur of Midnight
Initiate, Umbral Fangs
Level/School: 5th/Transmutation
Range: Close
Target: One animal
Duration: 1 hour/level (D)
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
SR: Yes (harmless)

The wolf's fur ripples and darkens to black, and its eyes acquire an eerie, silver gleam.

You grants a target animal the dark template. For the duration of this mystery, the target animal is treated as a magical beast (augmented animal) for purposes of special effects, although you are still able to affect it with harmless, animal-specific mysteries.

Moonlit Fangs
Initiate, Umbral Fangs
Level/School: 4th/Transmutation [Cold]
Range: Close
Target: One living creature
Duration: 1 hour/level
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
SR: Yes (harmless)

The wolf's fangs seem to grow longer and acquire an eerie silver glow. Ice crystals form on them as the wolf pants.

This mystery functions as the spell greater magic fang ezcept as noted here. If you choose to enhance a single natural weapon, it deals extra cold damage equal to +1d6 per 4 caster levels (max. +5d6). If you choose to enhance multiple natural weapons, each deals +1d4 points of cold damage, regardless of level, to a maximum of 5 affected natural weapons.

Primal Dark
Initiate, Umbral Fangs
Level/School: Transmutation/6th
Range: Close
Target: One animal
Duration: 1 minute/level
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
SR: Yes (harmless)

Shadows enfold the wolf and it seems to expand, swelling into a dark and terrifying avatar of primodial times.

You infuse a single animal with shadowstuff, enhancing its abilities and rendering it more fearsome. Thet target animal gains the following benefits:

• Size increases by one category, to a maximum of Colossal;
• Speed increases by +10';
• +6 size bonus to Strength;
• +4 enhancement bonus to Dexterity;
• +4 size bonus to Constitution;
• Natural armor bonus increases by +4;
• Fast healing 1;
• Frightful presesence (Will DC = 10 + 1/2 your caster level + your Intelligence modifier)
• Cold resistance 30
• Immunity to non-harmless mind-affecting effects;
• Spell resistance equal to 11 + your caster level

Master Path Mysteries

Moonless Sky
7: Rain of Ashes: Black ashes cause cold damage and concealment
8: Shadow Cloud: As solid fog, plus cold and negative energy damage
9: Dark Stars: As meteor swarm, but cold and negative energy damage.

Mysteries

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Dark Stars
Master, Moonless Sky
Level/School: 9th/Evocation
Range: Long
Area: Four 40'-radius spreads
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None or Reflex half; see text
SR: Yes

Four 2'-diameter spheres of utter blackness streak forth from your hands, leaving a trail of black ashes. This mystery is identical in most respects to the spell meteor swarm, save that each sphere deals 2d6 points of negative energy damage on impact and explodes for 6d6 points of cold damage.

Rain of Ashes
Master, Moonless Sky
Level/School: 7th/Conjuration
Range: Medium
Area: Cylinder 40'-radius, 20' high
Duration: 1 round/level
Saving Throw: None and Fortitude half; see text
SR: No

You create a gently falling "snowstorm" of black ashes which cover a large area. This rain of ashes affects vision as a fog cloud spell; in addition, all creatures within the rain of ashes take 3d6 points of cold damage each round and are slowed. A successful Fortitude save halves the cold damage and negates the slow effect, but a new save must be made each round a creature remains in the fog. Once slowed, a creature remains so for the full duration, regardless of subsequent saves.

Shadow Cloud
Master, Moonless Sky
Level/School: 8th/Conjuration
Range: Medium
Effect: Black fog spreads in 30' radius, 20' high
Duration: 10 minutes/level (D)
Saving Throw: None
SR: No

You create an area of chilling, shadowy fog that is far more solid than fog has a right to be. This mystery functions as solid fog, save that shadow cloud inflicts 2d6 points each of cold and negative energy damage on all within it, each round.

New paths in blue.

Here's another apprentice path.

Servants of Darkness
1 Dark Messenger: As the spell unseen servant, but can also deliver a short message.
2 Black Stallion: Calls forth a dark mount.
3 Shadowed Warrior: Summon a shadow elemental to fight for you.

Mysteries

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Black Stallion
Apprentice, Servants of Darkness
Level/School: 2nd/Conjuration (Summoning)
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels); see text
Effect: One mount
Duration: 2 hours/level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

A faint whinnying noise can be heard as a shadowy, horse-like form coalesces in front of you.

This mystery functions like the spell mount, except as noted here. You can summon a dark heavy horse or a dark warpony.


Dark Messenger
Apprentice, Servants of Darkness
Level/School: 1st/Conjuration (Creation)
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels); see text
Effect: One shadowy, mindless, shapeless servant
Duration: 1 hour/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

Nearby shadows seem to collect in an inky pool on the floor. From the darkness, an amorphous, barely visible form rises and awaits your commands.

This mystery functions like the spell unseen servant, except as noted here. Once during the duration of the mystery, the dark messenger can travel outside the mystery’s area, to a maximum of 100 ft. plus 10 ft. per caster level, to deliver a message to a target you designate. This use of the mystery functions like the spell message, except that the communication is one way only; the target cannot send a response back. Once the message has been delivered, the mystery’s duration automatically ends.


Shadowed Warrior
Apprentice, Servants of Darkness
Level/School: 3rd/Conjuration (Summoning)
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels); see text
Effect: One summoned creature
Duration: 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

A small tear seems to open in the air, creating a shadowy void. From within it, a shadow elemental steps forth to serve you.

This mystery functions like the spell summon monster I, except as noted here. You can summon one Small shadow elemental.

Here's some more paths I came up with last night.

Apprentice Paths

Forbidden Secrets
1 Tread the Dark Path: As the spell detect secret doors, but can also open/close doors.
2 Know the Shadows: As the spell darkvision, but pierces magical darkness.
3 Sense the Darkness: As the spell clairaudience/clairvoyance, but allows some extraordinary senses to work through it.

Mysteries

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Know the Shadows
Apprentice, Forbidden Secrets
Level/School: 2nd/Transmutation
Range: Touch
Targets: Creature touched
Duration: 1 hour/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)

Your eyes grow dark and clouded, allowing you to see as clearly in darkness as you do in the brightest light.

This mystery functions like the spell darkvision, except as noted here. Know the shadows can penetrate magical darkness created by any mystery or spell of 2nd level or lower, but only to a range of 10 feet.

Sense the Darkness
Apprentice, Forbidden Secrets
Level/School: 3rd/Divination (Scrying)
Range: Touch
Targets: Creature touched
Duration: 1 hour/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)

You cast your senses through the shadows, allowing you to see or hear as if you were in another place.

This mystery functions like the spell clairaudience/clairvoyance, except as noted here. If you have the mysteries know the shadows or piercing sight active when you cast this mystery, you may use the senses granted by those mysteries through sense the darkness.


Tread the Dark Path
Apprentice, Forbidden Secrets
Level/School: 1st/Divination or Transmutation; see text
Range: 60 ft.
Area: Cone-shaped emanation
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 min./level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

Shadows that once concealed hidden portals now part to reveal their secrets to you.

This mystery functions like the spell detect secret doors.

A second function is a transmutation effect. This use of the mystery can either open or close (your choice) all objects or portals of which you are aware of within range, as the spell open/close.

You can only use one version of this mystery in a single casting.

Initiate Paths

Voice of the Night
4 Lunar Cry: Blinds all within cone and deals 5d6 cold damage.
5 Midnight Hound: Shadowy hound wards area, attacks intruders.
6 Whispers in the Night: As the spell mass suggestion, but more effective in shadows.

Mysteries

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Lunar Cry
Initiate, Voice of the Night
Level/School: 4th/Evocation
Range: 30 ft.
Area: Cone-shaped burst
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Fortitude partial; see text
Spell Resistance: No

A cone of chilling darkness spreads forth from your hand, wrapping everything in freezing shadows.

Any creature within the area is blinded for 2d6 rounds and takes 5d6 points of cold damage. A successful save negates the blindness and reduces the damage by half.


Midnight Hound
Initiate, Voice of the Night
Level/School: 5th/Conjuration (Creation)
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Effect: Shadowy watchdog
Duration: 1 hour/level or until discharged, then 1 round/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

A vaguely dog-shaped form steps forth from the darkness. It assumes a defensive stance, ready to guard the area.

This mystery functions like the spell Mordenkainen’s faithful hound, except as noted here. The hound does not react to shadow illusions, but it does react to figments.

Whispers in the Night
Initiate, Voice of the Night
Level/School: 6th/Enchantment (Compulsion) [Language-Dependent, Mind-Affecting]
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Targets: One creature/level, no two of which can be more than 30 ft. apart
Duration: 1 hour/level or until completed
Saving Throw: Will negates
Spell Resistance: Yes

Near-invisible tendrils of shadow travel towards the targets, whispering your desires into their ears.

This mystery functions like the spell mass suggestion, except as noted here. A reasonable suggestion does not cause the save to be made at a penalty. However, creatures in shadowy illumination take a –1 penalty on their saving throw, while those in complete darkness take a –2 penalty.

Master Paths

Demise Unseen
7 Shadowself: As the spell simulacrum, but the copy is formed of shadowstuff.
8 Darkness Falls: Creates an area of total darkness.
9 Midnight Shadows: Deadly shadows kill creatures in 40-foot radius spread.

Mysteries

Spoiler

Show

Darkness Falls
Master, Demise Unseen
Level/School: 8th/Evocation [Darkness]
Range: Touch
Target: Object or creature touched
Duration: One day/level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes; see text

Your touch casts the area into utter darkness, blanketing everything in shadow.

This mystery causes an object or creature to radiate complete darkness out to a 60-foot radius. All creatures in the area gain total concealment (50% miss chance). Even creatures that can normally see in such conditions (such as with darkvision) have the miss chance in an area affected by darkness falls. Normal lights (torches, candles, lanterns, and so forth) are incapable of brightening the area, as are light spells and mysteries of lower level (such as daylight or black candle). Higher-level light spells and mysteries are not affected by darkness falls. Darkness falls counters or dispels any light spell or mystery of equal or lower spell level.
If darkness falls is cast on a creature, you must succeed on a melee touch attack in order to affect the target, and spell resistance applies. When used to target an object, it requires no touch attack and ignores spell resistance.


Midnight Shadows
Master, Demise Unseen
Level/School: 9th/Necromancy [Death]
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Area: One living creature/level within a 40-ft. radius spread
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates
Spell Resistance: Yes

A swirling mass of shadows erupts from the air, flailing through the air and killing all in their path.

This mystery functions as the spell wail of the banshee, except as noted here. The mystery is not a sonic effect and does not require creatures to hear it to be affected. However, creatures in an area of bright light (such as direct sunlight or the area of a daylight spell) receive a +4 bonus on their saving throw.


Shadowself
Master, Demise Unseen
Level/School: 7th/Illusion (Shadow)
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

Your own shadow wavers for a moment and then seems to grow longer. It begins to take form and solidifies into a perfect duplicate of you.

This mystery functions like the spell simulacrum, except as noted here. The created duplicate is formed of raw shadowstuff, rather than snow or ice, and can only be created as a duplicate of you. However, the duplicate looks perfectly like you and requires no Disguise check on your part; Spot checks made to detect the shadowself for what it is automatically fail, although a creature can still attempt a Sense Motive check to recognize it as a duplicate if they interact with it. This mystery does not cost any experience points to use, but you can control only one shadowself at a time. Any attempt to create a second shadowself while the first one is still in existence automatically fails.

Ill Winds
7 Travel the Night Air: You and your allies become living shadows.
8 Shadow Vortex: Swirling darkness deals damage and can pick up creatures.
9 Umbral Storm: Storm rains hail, lightning, and darkness.

Mysteries

Spoiler

Show

Shadow Vortex
Master, Ill Winds
Level/School: 8th/Evocation [Air, Darkness]
Range: Long (400 ft. + 40 ft./level)
Effect: Vortex 10 ft. wide at base, 30 ft. wide at top, and 30 ft. tall
Duration: 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw: Reflex negates
Spell Resistance: Yes

A cold wind suddenly picks up. Without warning, a massive swirling vortex of darkness forms.

This mystery functions like the spell whirlwind, except as noted here. If shadow vortex is cast in an area of shadowy illumination or total darkness, victims receive a –2 penalty on all saves made against the vortex.


Travel the Night Air
Master, Ill Winds
Level/School: 7th/Transmutation
Range: Touch
Target: You and one touched creature per three levels
Duration: 1 hour/level (D)
Saving Throw: No and Will negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: No and Yes (harmless)

Darkness covers your body and spreads over each creature you touch, granting you shadowy forms that feel as light as air.

This mystery functions like the spell wind walk, except as noted here.


Umbral Storm
Master, Ill Winds
Level/School: 9th/Conjuration (Summoning)
Range: Long (400 ft. + 40 ft./level)
Effect: 360-ft.-radius storm cloud
Duration: Concentration, maximum 10 rounds (D)
Saving Throw: See text
Spell Resistance: Yes

The sky darkens and the shadows all around seem to grow darker. The very air thickens into a congealed mass of blackness.

This mystery creates an enormous black storm cloud. Purple lightning appears within the storm, although even the flashes of light do not seem to penetrate its awesome gloom. Each creature beneath the cloud must succeed on a Fortitude save or be blinded for 1d4x10 minutes as the shadow-like rain falls down. If you do not maintain concentration on the mystery after casting, the mystery ends. If you continue to concentrate, the mystery generates additional effects in each following round, as noted below. Each effect occurs during your turn.

2nd Round: Freezing rain falls down in the area, dealing 1d6 points of cold damage (no save).

3rd Round: You call six bolts of purple lightning down from the cloud. You decide where the bolts strike, but no two bolts may be directed at the same target. Each bolt deals 10d6 points of electricity damage. A creature struck can attempt a Reflex save for half damage.

4th Round: Hailstones rain down in the area, dealing 5d6 points of bludgeoning damage (no save).

5th through 10th Rounds: Thick clouds of magical darkness reduce visibility. The clouds obscure all sight, including darkvision, beyond 5 feet. A creature 5 feet away has concealment (20% miss chance). Creatures farther away have total concealment (50% miss chance, and the attacker cannot use sight to locate the target). Speed is reduced by three-quarters. Spells cast within the area are disrupted unless the caster succeeds on a Concentration check against a DC equal to the umbral storm’s save DC + the level of the spell the caster is trying to cast.

Initiate Path Mysteries

Ripples of the Dark Water
4: The Deep Calls: Deals 10d6 damage to a target over 5 rounds.
5: Swim the Dark Seas: Move through the shadowy waters.
6: Drown in Darkness: Causes target to drown.

Mysteries

Spoiler

Show

Drown in Darkness
Initiate, Ripples of the Dark Water
Level/School: 6th/Conjuration (Creation)
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One living creature
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates
Spell Resistance: Yes

The target’s shadow climbs up its body and seems to enter their mouth. Almost immediately, the target begins coughing and choking.

You conjure shadows to suffocate the target, affecting it much as if it were drowning and had failed to continue holding its breath (Dungeon Master’s Guide page 304). The subject’s hit points immediately drop to 0 and it falls unconscious. In the next round, it loses another hit point and is dying. In the following round, it dies.

Coughing and other attempts by the subject to physically expel the shadow from its lungs are useless. However, another creature can stabilize the subject by exposing him to bright light before he dies, such as direct sunlight or the area of a daylight spell.

Undead, constructs, and creatures that do not need to breathe are unaffected by this spell.

Swim the Dark Seas
Initiate, Ripples of the Dark Water
Level/School: 5th/Conjuration (Teleportation)
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 hour/level or until expended; see text
Saving Throw: Fortitude negates
Spell Resistance: Yes

As you step into the cold water, shadow envelopes your body and pulls you in. With the blink of an eye, you emerge from the water—at another location.

You gain the ability to enter bodies of water and move from one to another. The first body you enter and all others you enter must be of the same illumination (see below) and must be large enough to contain you. By moving into a body of water in shadowy illumination, for example, you instantly know the location of all bodies of shadowy illumination within transport range (see below) and may choose whether you want to pass into one or simply step back out of the body you moved into

You may move into a body of water up to one time per caster level (passing from one body of water to another counts only as moving into one body). The spell lasts until the duration expires or you exit a body of water. Each transport is a full-round action.

Type of Illumination	Transport Range
Total darkness		1,500 feet
Shadowy illumination	1,000 feet
Bright illumination	500 feet

The Deep Calls
Initiate, Ripples of the Dark Water
Level/School: 4th/Transmutation [Darkness, Mind-affecting, Water]
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5ft./2 levels)
Target: One creature that cannot breath in water.
Duration: 5 rounds; See text
Saving Throw: Will negates
SR: No

With a wave of your hand you cause the shadows to befuddle a creatures senses, whenever within an area of shadowy illumination or less the creatures mind responds as if the creature was drowning in icy cold water, dealing it 10d6 cold damage over the course of 5 rounds(see the following table) as long as it remains within shadowy illumination or less.

Round   Damage
1       1d6
2       2d6
3       4d6
4       2d6
5       1d6

Here's a few more mysteries - one of which branched out to using psionic powers for inspiration. We now have six fundamentals, six apprentice paths, six initiate paths, and three master paths, if my count is correct - we've almost matched Tome of Magic

Fundamental Mysteries

Clouded Eyes: Target’s sight is blinded for 1 round.
Meddling Darkness: As the power distract.
Sight Unseeing: New sense of sight grants +5 bonus on Search and Spot checks.

Mysteries

Spoiler

Show

Clouded Eyes
Fundamental
Level/School: 1st/Evocation [Darkness]
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One creature
Duration: 1 round
Saving Throw: Will negates
Spell Resistance: Yes

A deep blackness suddenly fills the target’s eyes, concealing the world from their view.

If the target fails their Will save, they are blinded for 1 round. Nonvisual senses, such as hearing and scent, are unaffected.


Meddling Darkness
Fundamental
Level/School: 1st/Enchantment [Mind-Affecting]
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target: One creature
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 min./level (D)
Saving Throw: Will negates
Spell Resistance: Yes

A cloud of darkness, noticeable only to you, engulfs the target. It subtly alters the target’s perception, blinding him of the truth.

This mystery functions like the power distract, except as noted above.


Sight Unseeing
Fundamental
Level/School: 1st/Evocation [Darkness]
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: 1 round/level (D)
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)

Casting their sight into the shadows, the target can see a thousand different images at once without truly looking.

This mystery grants a +5 circumstance bonus on Search checks, Spot checks, and any other checks that involve sight.

Comments and Recommendations:
Some of you out there may note that there have always been certain spell effects that I was never really willing to put into the form of mysteries. The reason for this was because I didn't want to plaigurize (well, not much, anyways).
In any case, I love almost all of these mysteries, all 54 of them. Inside the spoilers you will find goodies such as an apprentice "necromancer" path, proper replacements for simulacrum and meteor swarm, and many other goodies besides.

Important Note:
I just did a tabulation and with all of the mysteries listed in or linked to with this thread (plus those in the Tome of Magic), there is a grand total of about 378 mysteries/fundamentals in existance (more if Peacenlove provides a link to his celestial mysteries).
To give an idea of just how many that is, the player's handbook has about 371 spells for the Wizard (if you use the full SRD, you also get genesis and a couple spells from the psionic handbook). In otherwords, adding this thread and the Tome of Magic to an otherwise SRD game means that both the wizard and the shadowcaster have about an equally-sized spell-list.

This requires a celebration. Who brought the champaign?

[Owrtho]

Stalker Base Class, Written by bkdubs123

Wow, thanks for putting that where I could find it. That pretty much perfectly combines the shadowsworn (from the Book of Roguish Luck) and shadow caster (something I'd been looking for awhile back).
Also seems like that was the intent given the abilities (shadow familiar, shadow self, and shade form seem to be almost the same as the shadowsworn, while blind strike looks to be an adapted version of the blind class ability).
Quite nice overall, as I'd considered the main flaw of the shadowsworn to be that it just used a shadow themed spell list rather than shadow magic.

Also, just thought I'd point out there seems to be a typo in the description of the Shadowstrike ability when it first mentions blind strike.
And I forgot to mention it before, but what is a Shadowgaunt's type?

And as a side thought, I noticed you reserved a post for a third race in case you thought of one, and figured I might suggest the idea of a race that has an affinity for shadow magic not due to being shadowy itself, but by producing a light or some such that manages to enhance enhance the clarity of shadows (due to shadows being sharper the closer they are to the object and bigger the closer the object is to the light source). Thus making shadow magic stronger around them, but less effective when used on them.

Owrtho

[CaBaaL]

just finished a session (i am so danm sleepy now..) every path i used seemed balansed(nice for a lyric-song) nothing i casted seem too powerfull or dominated the game (we have a tainted dread necromaster for that). also we had 2 new guys with as the 1st has access only on core books+some "complete" ones and the 2nd had a guy named "thedude" (1 word) psyon/monk/half golem that he attacked with +96 and 99999 items on him (he actually held 3 weapons and 2 shields to give him bonuses) and permanet starmantle(book of exalted deeds)+evation to have imune vs melee attacks. our dm killed him 3 times (1 by an epic dragon,2 times in the same ecounter by a balor with caster lvls)
anyhow comparing with the warmage of our team (she never abuses her chars) shadowcaster was doing fine (i used chain metashadow as it is and gave my DM no problems, the enemies have a chance to cut the damage to 1/4, but the best use i got it was with shadows fade gr)

PS:if u want to die really fast just make an abused char and go in front of the dm and say: "u do not know how to play d&d! i will solo what ever u bring on the table!"

[peacenlove]

Here you go. A toast to Darkness!!
I uploaded the most recent versions of my celestial mysteries and monsters to this thread. I waited for them to be playtested but it seems that i won't gather a party soon enough so i present them as they are
WARNING! i will return to format them in a more appropriate form when i have time.
Soon i will link the Dark store and various other feats and subtitution levels residing in my various notebooks in separate threads

EDIT: Are you planning to brew path masteries for the paths created by those that you list above? Because i could handle it i believe, i have some ideas in my notebooks and i will post them soon (but most probably i will PM you).

[Realms of Chaos]

I can probably handle making the path mastery feats but it'll take a day or three to work through all of them.

I just figured out the optimal build for the Midnight Seer class. As it can change its mystery access on a daily basis, you take shadowcraft feats to make "scrolls" or "potions" of items before switching your mysteries the next day. For even more fun, wait until you get the contingent mystery feat, letting you use your Shadow Cascade and contingent mysteries to get a butload of mysteries cast in a single round at pre-epic levels.

[CaBaaL]

:O omg thats a lot of mysteries i have not seen everything yet but, and i am saying this to everyone, becarefull not to make shadowcaster a generalist wizard that everything he does looks shadowy it will ruin the flavor of the char

the darkness is wise and protects everyone who love it

I am making a 50lvl char for the session later (the last boss most probably has divine rank) i will check the epic feats/seeds

[Realms of Chaos]

Actually, we should consider refraining ourselves from making too many more mysteries for the precise reason.
We have a good supply. You can make just about any spellcaster with the supply of mysteries out there but there are some things wizards do that you don't (and visa-versa).

[peacenlove]

:O omg thats a lot of mysteries i have not seen everything yet but, and i am saying this to everyone, becarefull not to make shadowcaster a generalist wizard that everything he does looks shadowy it will ruin the flavor of the char

the darkness is wise and protects everyone who love it

I am making a 50lvl char for the session later (the last boss most probably has divine rank) i will check the epic feats/seeds

While your concern is valid and all boils down to personal opinion, i envision the shadowcaster as a specialist. If he wants to specialize in something let him do it, the small number of mysteries (20 or 30 if you use my variant, less or more than half of what a sorcerer can get with no means of learning more, except by using some feats above) will do more than prevent the "generalist wizard" problem. After all shadow energy is just an alternate form of magic. However i agree that extra care should be taken not to make the mysteries be like "as the spell xyz" but make it with unique and more important balanced effects. After all the biggest balance problem for the wizard its his spell list something that the shadowcaster doesn't have.

Edit: 50 lvl? there is no balance there my friend >.> Have fun though

[CaBaaL]

50 lvl session is fun to play u die every round, u kill atleast everything 2-3 times, keep epic spells for the big guys (most probably it 1shot) and hope u have good rolls
by the temp "Generalist wizard" i ment that shadowcaster is a focused caster. when u see a warmage u expect him to cast a fireball(or something like that) and top dps meters, when u see a necromancer u expect him a slay living spell and to have undead with him. So by that, personaly, when i see a shadowcaster i expect him to cast darkness-spells, illutions, and other stuff to hinder the enemies, as for damage he will not be last but neither the 1st in dps meter.

PS: i play a lot of wow dps meter=all the damage u done in the session counted by round to round bases
when we play test we keep track how much damage(healing/Croud controls/game changing points) we did and we call it "dps meter" as a left-over when we played wow sorry for the confution

EDIT: invisible pyre has no max cl (i am guessing 10d6)
EDIT: typo on Shadow Vivisection u say stun and then u say dazed
EDIT: Scholarly Shadowcaster should not benefit from enchantment bonuses on int

[Owrtho]

PS: i play a lot of wow dps meter=all the damage u done in the session counted by round to round bases

DPS is actually damage per second, and refers to the average amount of damage that something can deal within a second, usually by taking the amount dealt over a few seconds and averaging it since certain moves, abilities, attacks, etc. in games take multiple seconds to complete.
It is also often given in a range, by giving the minimum amount of damage per second and the maximum.
In DnD it would likely be simplified to rounds rather than seconds, though one could still find the DPS as a round is defined as lasting 6 seconds in DnD.

And I apologize for the off topic post.

Owrtho

[CaBaaL]

just finished a 20lvl session. i will say my conclutions tomorow. and i really look forword for the new path-mastery feats. btw i talk to a friend and he said that he uses this fix
http://www.myth-weavers.com/showthread.php?t=26711
what do u think of these stuff? 10 mysteries at 20 lvl are enough to throw shadowcaster of balance? (the rest suggestions not that much)

[Realms of Chaos]

Okay, this is a tricky one. As I have already said, I generally don't like the idea of "fixes" because there are so many of them and they are often mutually exclusive/overpowered when put together. One big purpose of this thread was to show that a shadowcaster could be playable without a fix.

That said, how good is this fix?
1. Extra skill points don't seem uneccessary as this class definitely does need Intelligence, if not as much as a wizard.
2. More BAB is interesting. There aren't too many ray or touch mysteries but this makes them better, not to mention allowing you to attack with a crossbow if/when out of mysteries. On the fence here.
3. This is the most important fix, I see. Let's look at this from a tier perspective. The shadowcaster, before adding supplementary material, is a tier 4 class (or was it a low tier 3?). With more mysteries to choose from and feats/alternate features that allow more mystery access (some stuff posted in this thread), this thing is pushed well into tier 3 territory.
With 10 more mysteries, the question becomes... what happens? You get mysteries per day about on par with an optomized wizard without a specialization but you are still below the wizard's baseline (without scroll/spellbook cheese) spell acquisition rate.
Tier 2 is reserved for classes that can perform astoundingly in certain circumstances but not in others. Tier 1 is reserved for classes that either break the game in some way or that can deal with any problem equally well. As neither of these describe the altered shadowcaster, it must be assumed that the shadowcaster becomes a high tier 3 class.
We get a problem, however, when we combine the fix with stuff from this megapost. If shadowcasters get accelerated mystery access, what would you do if players wanted to try a cultist, hallow, eventide magus, midnight seer, or a stalker (a remote chance, but still worth asking). Also, if you pair the fix with the shadow tome feat, you end up with a shadowcaster on par with a sorcerer, suddenly boosting the class to tier 2.

Long answer short. The fix itself is good if you can convince your DM but it becomes pretty broken when combined with some stuff posted here.

I'll start posting up the path mastery feats shortly.

[peacenlove]

just finished a 20lvl session. i will say my conclutions tomorow. and i really look forword for the new path-mastery feats. btw i talk to a friend and he said that he uses this fix
http://www.myth-weavers.com/showthread.php?t=26711
what do u think of these stuff? 10 mysteries at 20 lvl are enough to throw shadowcaster of balance? (the rest suggestions not that much)

I based my shadowcaster revision on that post (but made significant alterations, namely he gains a feat every 3 paths started not 2, else you gain too many feats). Since the basis is the same i can safely say that (at least at levels 6 to 15 where my campaigns have taken place) its power and endurance is equal to the sorcerer (however the shadowcaster still is not nearly as versatile with his mystery uses). Also you need to ban many feats from Descent of shadows (namely shadow tome and many others that recharge mysteries faster)