Author Topic: The middle child, trying to help the shadowcaster.  (Read 2426 times)

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the_shadowmind

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The middle child, trying to help the shadowcaster.
« on: July 26, 2010, 10:21:32 PM »
From the three classes in the Tome of magic the other two get all of the attention. From the big football combat star Binder class, to the weak willed short bus ridding Truenamer class that everyone tries to fix, the shadowcaster is forgotten class that gets mentioned but rarely get any help. The little Dark templated sheep of the family.

The unofficial unofficial errata by the designer post here help to make the class actually playable, if still quite underpowered.

They can get a Dark templated familiar though Shadow familiar feat, so Prime32's mount handbook should help in that regards. Even more so for the Master of Shadow's shadow servant.

With the way the shadow caster casts the their mysteries as SLA's at certain levels, the spellthieves steal SLA could be put to use.
You can flicker in response to someone getting in melee attack range, making a lot of melee attacks miss. You can Bolster to get an actually useful about of temp HP.

With early entry for the Noctumancer, then Mystic Theurge you can get 19th shadow casting, and 17 wizard casting, but this only means wizards make everything better.

You any tricks you can find to help out this mediocre class?

gorfnad

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Re: The middle child, trying to help the shadowcaster.
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2010, 03:55:15 AM »
Over on the GitP boards they have this nice thread dedicated to shadowcaster homebrew: Descent of Shadows: Project Shadow Returns

Other tricks.

Rogue (with Craven feat) 1/ Shadowcaster X is nice for skills and for sneak attack damage which can be added to mysteries like Umbral Touch and Arrow of Dusk.

If you have a lenient DM you could take Shadow Familiar and Improved Familiar to possibly have a small Shadow Elemental as your familiar which actually from previous experience works out both mechanical and flavor-wise. 

Whisper Gnomes (RoS) make awesome Shadowcasters. A first level Whisper Gnome Shadowcaster with the Magic in the Blood feat (PGtF) has 12 Racial SLAs, 9 SUs (Fundamentals), and 1 Spell (Mystery) per day making them fairly versatile.

Whisper Gnome Rogue 1/ Shadowcaster 1 with the feats Magic in the Blood, Craven, and Silencing Strike with the Arrow of Dusk Fundamental can silently take out low level casters/characters/npcs, take hostages, or perform kidnappings without being seen or heard.

the_shadowmind

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Re: The middle child, trying to help the shadowcaster.
« Reply #2 on: July 27, 2010, 06:11:30 PM »
Over on the GitP boards they have this nice thread dedicated to shadowcaster homebrew: Descent of Shadows: Project Shadow Returns
If you have a lenient DM you could take Shadow Familiar and Improved Familiar to possibly have a small Shadow Elemental as your familiar which actually from previous experience works out both mechanical and flavor-wise. 

Wouldn't it be better to take the one caster level hit, and enter the Master of Shadow PrC, to get  medium shadow elemental animal companion shadow servant that advances in HD as you advance in Master of Shadow, dipping back into shadowcaster whenever you would complete a path? The shadow elemental wouldn't be as smart as a familiar one, but you end up with a 13 HD large shadow elemental with a DEX of 18 which has several more feats and skill points to use. Which since you summon a new one, and it is not a familiar you don't take an exp hit from it dieing and the new one could have a different feat/skill set. When you can replace it in 10 minutes this becomes more useful.

fuinjutsu

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Re: The middle child, trying to help the shadowcaster.
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2010, 12:16:08 AM »
If you can find ways too boost your CL check, Warp Spell can be very mean.

Bard ally + practiced spellcastor, cleric dip or planar touchstone for Inquisition domain, Krau Sigil?

I'm sure there's more.  Take warp spell multiple times for more uses (is that legal?  I think it is....)
Eh, the wizard have more money than them combined, he could in theory just use all his money on a fleet of trained attack mules, but then we aren't playing 3.5 but zergling rushing in Starcraft instead.

the_shadowmind

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Re: The middle child, trying to help the shadowcaster.
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2010, 01:56:04 AM »

I'm sure there's more.  Take warp spell multiple times for more uses (is that legal?  I think it is....)
Yup, taking a mystery more than one time is allowed. There is also echo spell to which might be able to copy a DMM persistent spell an ally cast on himself. Depending if like normal includes metamagic that is attached to the spell.

gorfnad

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Re: The middle child, trying to help the shadowcaster.
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2010, 03:43:16 AM »
Over on the GitP boards they have this nice thread dedicated to shadowcaster homebrew: Descent of Shadows: Project Shadow Returns
If you have a lenient DM you could take Shadow Familiar and Improved Familiar to possibly have a small Shadow Elemental as your familiar which actually from previous experience works out both mechanical and flavor-wise. 

Wouldn't it be better to take the one caster level hit, and enter the Master of Shadow PrC, to get  medium shadow elemental animal companion shadow servant that advances in HD as you advance in Master of Shadow, dipping back into shadowcaster whenever you would complete a path? The shadow elemental wouldn't be as smart as a familiar one, but you end up with a 13 HD large shadow elemental with a DEX of 18 which has several more feats and skill points to use. Which since you summon a new one, and it is not a familiar you don't take an exp hit from it dieing and the new one could have a different feat/skill set. When you can replace it in 10 minutes this becomes more useful.
Depends on the campaign I guess. Do you want a beat stick or a scout? Do you want to waste your actions commanding it or have it potentially act on its own?

JaronK

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Re: The middle child, trying to help the shadowcaster.
« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2010, 07:10:38 AM »
I think the biggest problem with the Shadowcaster is that it doesn't really offer anything.  There's no new character concepts to be had here... the system is too close to arcane magic anyway, so a Sorcerer/Shadowcraft Mage pretty much already does all of this.  There's nothing particularly powerful either.  Really, the question is why bother?  At least the Truenamer has a distinct and interesting feel (shame about the mechanics though).

JaronK

Littha

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Re: The middle child, trying to help the shadowcaster.
« Reply #7 on: July 28, 2010, 07:29:12 AM »
The one good thing about shadowcaster seems to be the ability to use shadow evocation to copy higher level spells (level 5 spells from a level 4 slot i think...) still 2/day is going to suck no matter what.

fuinjutsu

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Re: The middle child, trying to help the shadowcaster.
« Reply #8 on: July 28, 2010, 09:57:27 PM »
trunamer/shadowcaster have a few schticks, they just suck to much to make them worthwhile.

Echo spell/Warp Spell = countering casters

Spell Rebirth/Echo Spell = supporting allied casters
Eh, the wizard have more money than them combined, he could in theory just use all his money on a fleet of trained attack mules, but then we aren't playing 3.5 but zergling rushing in Starcraft instead.