Shadow Magic: Shadow Disciple

“Born during a moonless, starless night, you were bestowed with the power of the Shadow Weave, a dark imitation of Mystra’s Art created by Shar, the Nightsinger. Though you know not why you were granted it, your power has earned you the scrutiny of Candlekeep’s scholars and mages–and the discomfort of many others–for as long as you can remember. At an early age, your guardians attempted to instigate the teaching of the Weave into you, hoping to divert you from using magic you were born with. Despite this, however, you have continued to nurture the spark of darkness within you, taking advantage of your natural talent and the tutelage of Gorion and your other tutors to become a capable practitioner of the Shadow Art.”

– biography of a shadow disciple Bhaalspawn

SHADOW DISCIPLE: Shadow disciples are born with the innate ability to wield magic of the Shadow Weave, usually granted as a blessing from Shar, the Nightsinger. Like their equivalent, the sorcerer, they wield the power of their native magic, the Shadow Weave, with a level of skill that other spellcasters would envy.

Advantages:
– Hit Die: d6
– May use Shadow Magic.

SHADOW MAGIC: Spells of the Shadow Weave are usually more powerful than regular magic, but drains the caster’s life force. When a spell is cast, the shadow adept must make a Save vs. Death at a modifier equal to the spell level (e.g. -1 for 1st level, -9 for 9th level) or temporarily lose Constitution equal to the level of the spell cast for 3 rounds. If the shadow adept’s Constitution reaches zero, is killed instantly.

The Shadow Weave is a mysterious and dark entity, far more alien and harder to control than that of Mystra’s equivalent. As such, a great amount of mental acuity is required in order to master shadow magic. High intelligence, wisdom and charisma benefits those who choose to stray into Shar’s domain.

– Gains the Darkvision innate ability.

DARKVISION: The shadow disciple is gifted with the ability to see in the dark even better than in light. permanently gains infravision and immunity to blindness.

– +2 bonus to saving throws against spells of the Enchantment, Illusion and Necromancy schools.
– 4th level: May use the Shield of Shadows ability once per day.

SHIELD OF SHADOWS: The shadow disciple surrounds self with a barrier of purpleblack force. This shield of shadows functions like a shield spell, setting armor class to 4 (2 against ranged weapons) and absorbing magic missiles cast at him for 1 hour per 2 levels to a maximum of 9 hours.

From 8th level onwards, the shield of shadows also grants +4 to saving throws vs. death and +1 to all other saving throws.

– 5th level: May use Shadowstep once per day. Gains one use every 5 levels thereafter.

SHADOWSTEP: Step into the Shadow Plane and move for 7 seconds while others are frozen in time. The shadow disciple cannot attack or use spells while in the Shadow Plane.

– 14th level: May use the Shadow Double ability once per day.

SHADOW DOUBLE: The shadow disciple creates a copy of self out of shadowstuff. The copy is at 60% of the caster’s level and has all the spells and abilities that the caster would have at that level.

Disadvantages:
– -2 penalty to saving throws against spells of the Invocation and Alteration schools.
– May not learn or use spells from the Weave. (Spells chosen on level-up will be erased)
– Alignment restricted to non-good.