101 Shadow and Darkness Spells (PFRPG) PDF

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You’ll never see it coming,
So fear your own shadow.

101 Shadow and Darkness Spells gives spellcasters new options to utilize the cover of darkness and the concealment of shadows to cast spells in new and exciting ways. Whether you're playing an illusionist tapping the Shadow Plane, a diviner seeking to scry on others through their shadows, or an enchanter willing to curse others to walk forever under the cover of darkness, opportunities abound to take advantage of darkness and shadows as never before.

Sometimes light and darkness combine and play tricks on the eyes. Even under entirely mundane circumstances, shadows sometimes seem to move on their own, seem to come to life. Sometimes that's because, whether illusory, demonic or undead, that shadow really does have power and you really are wise to fear it. What happens when illusionists, conjurers and necromancers learn to control these energies and forces?

Entirely compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, 101 Shadow and Darkness Spells expands the spell lists of casters in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook, Advanced Class Guide, Advanced Player’s Guide and Ultimate Magic.

Author: Dave Paul
Cover Artist: Taregh D. Saber
Pages: 42

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An Endzeitgeist.com review

5/5

The fourth installment of Dave Paul's thematic spell-collections clocks in at 47 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 2 pages of advertisement, leaving us with 42 pages of content, so let's take a look!

This pdf was moved forward in my review-queue as a prioritized review at the request of my patreons.

We begin this supplement with a piece of information that makes you appreciate the things to come - namely, a list of diverse lighting conditions - 8, to be precise. Does this terminology seem overly complicated to you? It's actually not - it simply codifies what's already out there in proper terms. The darkness you can only see through with magical aid? Jep, that one has no its own concise terminology. Spells affecting the shadows of targets also offer an issue - where is the shadow? How long is it? An easy default-ruling plus GM-empowerment-statement result in a basic framework that is more solid than what I expected going into this book.

After the massive array of spell-lists (including, obviously, the ACG-classes), we dive into the respective spells - and fret not, there are quite a few spells and effects herein that deal with light as well: E.g. better sight in good light conditions that can be expended for a bonus to saves vs. blindness etc. Taking a cue from the Dark Souls-game-series, Cloud of Fire and Shadow (erroneously called Cloud of Shadow and Flame below the gorgeous artwork depicting it) provides a nasty, powerful terrain control that not only sets up shadowy terrain, it also can deal negative levels and fire damage and even move the cloud around - OUCH. Absolutely awesome - contrast orbs that allow you to modify lightning condition, move it around and utilize the orb to generate contrasts to the lightning conditions caused. It also provides a significant array of catch-terminology for all kind of movement and cases that would have generated gaping rules-holes in the hands of a less capable designer.

It should be noted that this attention to detail, which ultimately renders the spells very precise and versatile, also extends to the spells utilized to creating light and shadows. Want your own shadow plane pocket dimension? The spell is in this book. Want to go nova and blast foes with dazzling rays emitting from your body? There's a spell for that - one that may be chosen as a sun domain spell. Want to condemn a target to emit supernatural darkness, which not even darkvision can penetrate? Yes, the spell is in this pdf. Speaking of curses: Cursed to Walk in Shadow is narrative platinum, nay, mithril. You curse a target- whenever the creature walks in bright light for too long, there is a chance the creature slips into an eerie duplicate of the surroundings, shifting to the shadow plane. If you need any guidance why that's creepy, may I point towards the Silent Hill games...only the duration is shorter for each trip. Still, this spell is incredibly awesome and could carry a whole campaign. Absolutely glorious and perhaps one of the most intriguing spells from a narrative point of view.

Of course, more combat-relevant spells for quicker movement in shadows (can I get a "Nice!" from the Dishonored-fans out there?) to magic-impeding darkness, these spells offer a vast array of tactical and narrative options.

What about the long overdue darkness-based mirror of daylight powerlessness? Indeed, the spell is in this book and the quality it bestows should be scavenged for monster-creation rules...and it should have been part of the base rules from the get-go. Granted, though - not all spells reach this abject level of awesomeness - there are some variants like shadow-centric dispels I consider to be slightly less compelling and more like variants. Immediate action steps into the shadow plane for 1 round can also be considered rather intriguing, opening a new array of tactical options for the characters employing these spells. Want to glamer your shadow or assume the form of a darkmantle? There are spells for this around here...

Among the most powerful spells herein - what about making a target carry, literally a piece of the night sky with him alongside the darkness - which makes this both a curse and a blessing, the latter primarily for the undead... Supernaturally clear sight is powerful - but at higher level, it gets awesome: What about a spell that conceivably allows you to grant such a power to vast amounts of allies, allowing e.g. armies to combat invisible foes? Communal spells and a shadow-based blinking effects (with unique rules), shadow or light-based force-explosions or stripping a target of its shadow provide unique benefits that resonate well with the tropes we all know and love. What about gazing to the stars to detect creatures, as the lines between stars, silvery and shining, guide your intuition? Fantastic visuals.

Speaking of which: If your shadow touches a creature, you can switch places with it via shadow transposition...and if you can't see the vast tactical potential here, I can't help you. Speaking of which - there is a high-level spell to pit a vast area into perpetual darkness...which is an apt and awesome final spell for this book.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no glitches of significance. Layout adheres to Rite Publishing's classic full-color 2-column standard with a purple-ish tint and the book comes fully bookmarked for your convenience. the book sports numerous gorgeous full-color artworks.

This book is more than a return to form for author Dave Paul...though that may be the wrong way to put it. Basically, the first two books are pretty much my reference-level of what an awesome spell-book should be. The third fell slightly short of this echelon-level of awesomeness. This one, quite frankly, surpasses them. Yes, there are some minor hiccups here. Yes, some of the variants are not that awesome.

But I am not engaging in hyperbole when I'm saying that no other spell-book has inspired me to the extent this pdf managed. There are spells herein that not only will be a vast boon to each light/darkness-themed character, the book also sports concise terminology and several spells that conspire to allow you to create effects for campaigns: Whether you want a vampiric domain of eternal dark, a narrative of Silent hill-style cursed characters, Plane of Shadows-related awesomeness - this pdf delivers.

To an extent, where I actually think it transcends the limitations of its own focus, of its genre. This book can conceivably be read not only as a cool expansion to e.g. the arsenal of Ascension Games' "Path of Shadows" or as a mechanical scavenging ground to get inspiration for more material for Interjection Games' Antipodism-designs; this book actually could conceivably be considered a selection of spells that allow you to depict creatures of shadow, whether they be shadow fey, dark creepers or shadar-kain, as thoroughly unique. Beyond even that, I maintain that the spells herein can carry whole modules, perhaps even whole campaigns. This is one of the few spell-books out there that can be considered to be so inspired it may be worth the effort to change modules and perhaps even plotlines to utilize it - it's that good. This is the most inspiring spell-book I've laid my eyes on in quite a while - and well worth a final verdict of 5 stars + seal of approval. It is also a candidate for my Top Ten of 2015. If you like the theme in any shape, way or form, then this is a must-have, inspired book.

Endzeitgeist out.


Not a new concept, but well done. Great to plug & play with existing casters.

5/5

Why did I buy this? What did I actually get?
At this point, I own a couple PDFs from Rite Publishing's new 101 Spells series, and have dug the terrain focus. Though this is not aimed at terrain, I still felt confident it would be a cool product, despite numerous takes on shadow magic already existing.

Have I used this, or will I use this?
These have not yet seen use in my game, but for every one of this, I'm sure I will have occasion for it - very cool & thematic curses are my jam, and there are plenty within.

How is the fluff?
Fluff is tied to the mechanics in a PDF like this, and this does it well. As I mentioned about, cool curses exists, and others: Heavy Shadows uses your enemies shadows to entangle them - provided you succeed at the ranged touch attack to throw a lead pebble into their shadow. Rules are included to calculate the touch AC of someone's shadow. Another one is Twilight Ghosts - an illusionary ghosts appearing in rays of light fascinate creatures, convincing them they are seeing visions of their own death. There are also spells that work on the dark-cold interaction, polymorph spells, shadow manipulation spells, and divinations about reading the stars. To make it even tastier, many spells become more powerful if cast under the right conditions, as seen with the others in the 101 Terrain Spells.

How are the mechanics?
Extremely thorough. The PDF opens up with a discussion of light and darkness, including new categories of light to mirror the dark - utter brightness and supernatural brightness, which are blinding in their own way. This becomes important, as I'd say 50% of the spells are complicated enough in their interactions where the above summary becomes quite helpful. There are also neat places where spells interact: the obvious places is spells that attack or grant movement through shadows, and others that manipulate shadows. Another is Shadow Conduit, which makes shadow conjuration/evocations whose effects begin within a bubble around the caster slightly more real! I'd find a lot of these spells overpowered, except that the author Dave Paul did a good job of including effective protection spells that can reduce or negate the otherwise more-problematic spells. I don't necessarily have a great eye for what's appropriate on different spell lists at this point, so I won't comment much on that, but it seemed to be on the level.

Hows the artwork?
It's fairly sparse but professional quality. My complaint with the artwork in this PDF is that of the twelve distinct pieces I found, about three of them depict shadowy, dark figures - considering how cool some of the other pieces in the PDF are, it would have been nice to see a little more variety. It perhaps grinds me more than it otherwise would because those pieces show up consecutively as the last 3 pieces in the book.

How’s readability?
Good - there's a couple points where I see spotted editing errors - the spell Cloud of Fire and Shadow is called Cloud of Shadow and Flame underneath the artwork that appears on the same page. A little worse than this, Sunrise Aura specifies that if it is cast during twilight hours around sunrise, living creatures gain 1 hp/caster level when first exposed to the aura - not 'heal', not 'gain temp hp.' Now this isn't troublesome because the next spell, the counterpart Sunset Aura, does specify the similar effect for undead grants temp HP; if it hadn't been there though, we might have been a little worse off.

Was the price fair?
At $5.99, we're at a more-than-fair price. I feel Rite Publishing always asks the right amount for their general above-average quality products.

Favorite part?
I love curses, and Seeing is Believing is a great one. The victim loses the ability to believe anything but what he sees - gaining amnesia about anything they're not currently looking at - and they cannot be convinced otherwise. They also gain a phobia of the darkness - if exposed to complete darkness or blinded, they must save again or they gain schizophrenia as their mind cracks.

Least favorite part?
Even at 1st level, Alert to the Unnatural seems to be a mostly-useless spell: you gain the ability to detect Frightful Presence, Fear Aura, or Unnatural Aura within 30 ft. - but don't most of these have a range of at least 30 ft. anyway? I understand that this would detect it when you can't see it, such as a mummy hiding in a sarcophagus, but Detect Undead is 1st level and has double the range, even if limited to a cone and one creature type. Also, it seems that the spell omits a "Target: You" line.

As an aside, shadow magic has been done in 3PP Pathfinder a few times, and pretty well in most of those cases. There is some overlap between this PDF and things you find in Deep Magic, Ultimate Antipodism, and Path of Shadows - however, this is a very complete resource of shadow magic for DESIGNED for existing Paizo casters. Shadow magic is but a small part of Deep Magic, and Ultimate Antipodism brings new classes and systems to the table. Path of Shadows is a bit better than this, but it still definitely encourages you to play the accompanying class. So if you're looking to add shadow magic to your campaign starting TODAY, this would be the PDF for it.


Community Manager

Now available!


Thanks Liz!


Just got it, looks good at first glance. I will review it over the weekend.


Saint Bernard wrote:
Just got it, looks good at first glance. I will review it over the weekend.

I look forward to the review!


Reviewed first on endzeitgeist.com, then submitted to Nerdtrek and GMS magazine and posted here, on OBS and d20pfsrd.com's shop.

Cheers!


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber

I haven't completely delved into the PDF, but I really like what I see so far.

I have always been a huge fan of shadow magic, so this scratches that itch very nicely.

The only thing missing is what spells could be taken by Non-Paizo character classes. For example, I am a big fan of Wolfgang Baur's Shadowsworn class and the School of Illumination (really big emphasis on shadow magic and big association with the Free City of Zobreck in the Midgard setting).

It is too easy to say everything is available for classes like the Shadowsworn from this wonderful book. Please consider if there is ever a second printing, to include spell list for classes like the Shadowsworn.

Otherwise. Simply outstanding! Thank you so much for doing this one. You have hit it out of the park, IMO.


@Black Moria: Kobold Press' Shadowsworn is closed IP. Rite Publishing cannot provide material directly for the class without infringing on the IP.


Black Moria wrote:

I haven't completely delved into the PDF, but I really like what I see so far.

I have always been a huge fan of shadow magic, so this scratches that itch very nicely.

Frankly, I'd like to do more. I really, really like this stuff. I started on the Shadow book before I even completed 101 Swamp Spells; I've been working at this one for a long, long time. It took--by far--the longest to edit.

Quote:

The only thing missing is what spells could be taken by Non-Paizo character classes. For example, I am a big fan of Wolfgang Baur's Shadowsworn class and the School of Illumination (really big emphasis on shadow magic and big association with the Free City of Zobreck in the Midgard setting).

It is too easy to say everything is available for classes like the Shadowsworn from this wonderful book. Please consider if there is ever a second printing, to include spell list for classes like the Shadowsworn.

Perhaps I need to learn more systems so that I can produce more content. :)
Quote:
Otherwise. Simply outstanding! Thank you so much for doing this one. You have hit it out of the park, IMO.

Thank you!


I am enjoying reading this series of spells. These are some of the best spells I have ever seen. Can't wait until you do mountains, plains, and aquatic. Are you planning on a final compilation of these spells similar to 1001 Spells with Hero Lab support?


Saint Bernard wrote:
I am enjoying reading this series of spells. These are some of the best spells I have ever seen. Can't wait until you do mountains, plains, and aquatic. Are you planning on a final compilation of these spells similar to 1001 Spells with Hero Lab support?

Only if we can find a new hero lab coder to do it, we have about broken Andrew.

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