Shadow Magic

Shadow Magic, also known as Nethermancy, is a form of magic that combines elements of both Illusion magic and darkness elementalism, allowing for its practitioners to cloud, envelop and shroud their foes both literally and metaphorically.

Nethermancy is uncommon in /tg/ circles, as it does not directly stem from Classical Elementalism, and it is seen by many as being more of a video-game phenomena than a tabletop game one. Still, there are some examples.

Nethermancy (D&D)

In Dungeons & Dragons, shadow magic has made sporadic appearances throughout the editions. It's traditionally been a kind of wizard, or at least a wizard variant, but equivalents have appeared for other arcane classes over the editions. In particular, Warlocks gained the Dark Pact in 4th edition, which is associated heavily with the Underdark and the Shadowfell whilst revolving heavily around the creation and manipulation of shadow-matter, whilst in 5th edition, Sorcerers have the Shadow subclass, which revolves thematically around an innate ability to manipulate darkness.

In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, the Player's Option: Spells & Magic sourcebook featured, amongst other kits like the Elementalist, Dimensionalist, Alchemist, Artificer and Wild Mage, the Shadow Mage. This philosophical specialist wizard combines elements of necromancy, illusion, and conjuration, drawing its power from then-theoretical Plane of Shadow to produce eerie phantasms and shadow-stuff constructs. Whilst lacking in direct confrontational firepower, they excel at infiltration and spy-work. This kit, restricted to human wizards only, required Intelligence 15 and Wisdom 16 to enter. Its Opposition Schools are Evocation and Abjuration.

A shadow mage gains most of the standard boons of a specialist wizard:

• May memorize one additional spell of their specialty school per level.
• +15% bonus to learning checks for spells of their speciality school.
• -15% penalty to learning checks for spells from any other school.
• Gain an automatic spell of their speciality school whenever they gain a level.
• When inventing spells, if the spell belongs to their specialty school, it is treated as one level lower.

Unlike a standard specialist, though, shadow mages have no resistance to spells of their specialty school. Additionally, the penalty their shadow magic spells inflict to their targets' saving throws depends on the ambient lighting; +2 for bright daylight or a continual light spell; no penalty for weak daylight, dusk or a light spell; -1 for twilight, moonlight or lantern light; -2 weak moonlight or torchlight; -3 for candlelight or starlight; and finally a whopping -4 penalty for total darkness.

Shadow mages do gain one unique ability; an increased nightvision. At 4th level, they can see with total clarity by moonlight, reducing darkness-related combat penalties by 1 point. At 7th level, they can see by starlight, reducing the penalties by 2 points. Finally, at 10th level, they can see in total darkness, negating all combat penalties. This only works on low light; magical blindness, fog, etcetera can still blind them.

Kits for AD&D shadow mages appear in issue #261 of Dragon Magazine; the three consist of the Shadow Caller, a conjurer variant specialized in summoning monsters from the Plane of Shadow, the Shadow Seeker, who pursues immortality through transformation into an undead shadow, and the Shadow Hunter, who combines magical and practical stealth to become a masterful wizard/rogue hybrid.

In Dark Sun, Shadow Wizards were introduced in the splatbook "Defilers & Preservers" as an alternative type of wizard that, unlike the titular variants, has learned to fuel their magic by drawing on the power of the Plane of Shadow, known on Athas as "The Black", instead of on the lifeforce of Athas. Mechanically, it was handled as a kit, and thus they still had the normal abilities of a Defiler or Preserver. The rules went like this:

Race Restriction: Human, Elf, Half-Elf

Stat Requirements: Wisdom 16, Constitution 15

Alignment Restriction: Must be Neutral

Nonweapon Proficiencies:

Bonus: Planes Lore

Recommended: Astrology, Direction Sense, Fire Building, Meditation, Mental Armor, Reading/Writing, Spellcraft

Special Benefits:

Shadow Transmutation: At 5th level, a hand-sized portion of the shadow wizard's body turns into living shadow. At each level, an equivalent amount transmutes, until 50% of the shadow wizard is pure shadow. The shadow wizard can also cast Chill Touch 1/level each day by touching others with their shadow-flesh.

Shadow Tongue: At 7th level, the shadow wizard gains the ability to communicate with all shadow creatures.

Numb to the Void: At 9th level, the shadow wizard becomes immune to the cold-based attacks of undead creatures, shadows, and the Black itself.

Special Hindrances:

Fickle Power Supply: An Athasian Shadow Wizard must make a Power Gathering Check, like a Defiler. Due to the extraplanar nature of their power source, they roll a D10 to determine the "terrain type" portion of that table; 1 = barren, 2-4 = infertile, 5-7 = fertile, 8-9 = abundant, 10 = lush.

Disturbing: A shadow wizard suffers a -1 reaction penalty that increases to -2 at 5th level, -3 at 8th level, and -4 at 11th level. If other characters see the shadow stain gained at 5th level, they must save vs. petrification or flee in terror.

Shadow Fueled: If the shadow wizard has no access to shadows, such as due to being enveloped in total darkness, they must make a Constitution check at -2 or suffer 1d4 damage. They must also cast spells through the standard method of being either a preserver or defiler, depending on their base class, until they regain access to shadows.

Spiritual Strain: A shadow wizard must make a Constituion check whenever they gather power to fuel their spells; if they fail the check, they take 1d2 damage (if the "in play" power gathering method is used) or 1d6+1 (if the "off-stage/when memorizing" method is used). In the latter case, the shadow wizard fails to memorize their spells unless they repeat the process, which requires a second Constitution check; if this fails, then the shadow wizard cannot attempt to memorize spells for a 24 hour period. Once the shadow wizard reaches 9th level, this hindrance is removed.

In 3rd edition, the Tome of Magic sourcebook brought back the idea of Shadow Magic, featuring new classes and prestige classes based around its use. The most iconic of these, the heir to the obscure Shadow Mage of AD&D, is the Shadowcaster.

In the Forgotten Realms, the Goddess of Darkness Shar created shadow magic through her own dark mirror of the Weave, as part of a plan to usurp the power of her hated foe Mystra. This wasn't a new class, but a feat found in the main campaign setting book. In exchange for being unable to cast spells with the light descriptor, and a -2 penalty to CL and save dcs for to evocation and transmustation spells, they get an equal bonus on enchantment, illusion and necromancy. This sounds lame, but it has the secret (only mentioned in later descriptions of the Weave, not the feat itself) advantage that you are not effected by dead magic or wild magic areas, which is big. The costs for this feat are somewhat steep, but doable, requiring 13 Wisdom or Shar as a patron, and you lose two wisdom that can't be restored except by getting an Atonement spell from a priest of Shar. In effect, this means only Shar worshipers, worshipers of Shar's allies, and crazy people use the Shadow Weave. Notably, the penalties are nearly non-existent for a Beguiler. There's also a prestige class only obtainable by Shadow Weave users.

In 4th edition, Nethermancy appeared alongside Necromancy as one of the possible Schools that can be selected by the Mage, an Essentials variant of the Wizard. Being a Nethermancer was handled as a set of three features gained by choosing that specific magical school, and which were acquired at levels 1, 5 and 10. A Mage could also dabble in Nethermancy by taking the 1st and 5th level Nethermancy school benefits at levels 4 and 8.

• Nethermancy Apprentice: Creatures hit by your arcane nethermancy attack powers treat enemies more than 2 squares away from them as having partial concealment until the end of your next turn.
• Nethermancy Expert: You gain a +2 bonus to Intimidate checks and Stealth checks.
• Nethermancy Master: While you have any concealment against a creature, you have combat advantage against it.

Nethermancy has yet to officially appear in 5th edition. An unofficial version can be found in Ulraunt's Guide to the Planes as a Wizard subclass with the following powers:

2nd Level - Nether Orbs: Many of your class features key off of the ability to summon orbs of raw shadowstuff, which you do as part of completing a long rest. You can initially have 2 nether orbs available at a time, which increases to 3 at 6th level, 4 at 10th level, 5 at 14th level, and 6 at 21st level.i

2nd Level - Nether Aura: Whilst you have Nether Orbs present, you have an aura of 10 feet per Nether Orb. In this aura, you can see through both magical and mundane darkness, and you can cause creatures of your choice to suffer the following effects: light is diminished in brightness by 1 step, color vision doesn't work, and sight & hearing are restricted to 300 feet.

6th Level - Nethermancy: You learn the Darkness spell, and always count as having it prepared without it using up a slot. When cast on points rather than objects, you can move your Darkness spells 15 feet as a bonus action. Additionally, you can expend a Nether Orb to create a 5ft sphere of magical darkness that lasts 1 minute. You also gain the ability to ignore magical darkness created by your spells or Nether Orbs at all times.

10th level - Dark Passage: When you can see two patches of magical darkness, you can expend a Nether Orb to magically link them together. Whilst both areas remain active, if you are in one of the linked areas, you can teleport to the other as a bonus action.

14th level - Caliginous Senses: When a creatrue ends its turn in an area affected by your Darkness spell, you can expend a Nether Orb as a reaction to force that creature to save vs. spell or be blinded and deafened.

21st Level - Ebony Deflection: Whilst in areas of magical darkness, you can spend a Nether Orb as a reaction to add your Intelligence modifier to a saving throw, and when hit by an attack, you can roll a d6 as a reaction; on a 4+, the attack misses, and you can also expend Nether Orbs to decrease the target number (3+, 2+, 1+) by 1 per expended Orb.

25th Level - Become Shadow: You can expend a Nether Orb as a bonus action to assume a shadow form until the start of your next turn. In this state, you are invisible whilst in darkness, immune to necrotic and poison damage, vulnerable to radiant damage, can't be grappled or restrained, and can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.

28th Level: Expert Nethermancy: You regain expended nether orbs with a short rest instead of just on a long rest.

Obtenebration (WoD)

In the World of Darkness Vampire games, Obtenebration (a.k.a Abyss Mysticism, a.k.a Oblivion) is the shadow magick by which vampires utilize various properties of the shadowy Abyss, such as drawing forth a black ectoplasmic substance from the Abyss to create various types of tentacles, and disintegrating targets with raw Oblivionic energy. The Azaneali, Hecata, and Lasombra vampires are the ones who wield this Discipline of Obtenebration in the Vampire: The Masquerade game, and the Khaibit vampires are the ones who wield it in the Vampire: The Requiem game.

Lore of Shadow (Warhammer Fantasy)

The Lore of Shadow is the magical art revolving around the channeling of the Grey Wind of Ulgu, which is associated in the aethyr with secrets and confusion. In laymans terms, it's illusion magic. Despite this, it's surprisingly powerful offensively, with many spells like Okkam's Mindrazor or the Penumbral Pendulum summoning illusions so realistic those struck by them die because they believe they're dead.