Arim Shadeborn's page

I would argue that Arcane Sight would reveal the magic aura of someone who is invisible so you would know what square they are in, but invisible character would still benefit from a 50% miss chance when attacked, similar to how blindsense works.

The Magic Aura spells explicitly deceive detect magic, so they would do the same for Arcane Sight.

I've found that a properly built shadowcaster wizard can be extremely powerful and versatile. With the 7 shadow school spells prepared, you have access to over 500 spells..

Of course everyone is worried about opponents getting two saves, but you can make those save DCs pretty insane. With Spell Focus (Illusion) and greater, racial DC bonuses to shadow or illusion spells (Wayang, Fetchling, Gnome, maybe others), and Tenebrous spell, that is an easy +4 to all your DCs.

The real magic happens once you take the Resilient Illusions arcane discovery. That discovery allows you to roll a caster level check any time a monster tries to disbelieve one of your illusions and use that roll in place of the spell's DC. And if you've boosted your caster level, which you should, you can get some high DCs. To look at some numbers, my 11th level Wizard has can cast Tenebrous Shadow Evocation with a 25 DC save and a caster level of 14. If I roll better than 11 (45% chance) on my Resilient Illusions CL check I'm boosting my DCs, possibly up to 34. And this is only going to get better as I level (and as I pick up an orange prism ioun stone). And as a nice side effect of the CL boosting my spells get stronger, and SR is easier to beat. CR 11 monsters have an average will save bonus of +9, so they would have to roll at least a 16 to disbelieve my spell with its normal save, and even if they do there is a 40% or 80% chance the spell still works as normal (depending on the spell).

Also many of these spells are utility spells, Phantom Steed or Create Demiplane, so you don't even have to worry about saves since you can voluntarily fail them.

Later on you'll want to take Spell Perfection on one of your shadow spells. You'll probably want Shadow Conjuration or Shadow Evocation, since they of a low enough level to use a free Quicken Spell. Spell perfection will double all your DC and CL bonuses and let you use a metamagic feat without increasing the spell level.

Some other nice things about the shadows spells: they always cost a standard action to cast, so you can summon as a standard action or create a demiplane as a standard action; they have no material components so you can cast spells like Sepia Snake Sigil without paying for the expensive materials and you can cast them if you've lost your component pouch.

Also check out these two guides if you're interested in more theory-crafting

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5kvBvq2DEHjTVF4NEY4SXpSTUU/edit?pli=1

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5kvBvq2DEHjR1dOeEVkRUU4WlU/edit?pli=1

If you're going down the shadowcasting path, check out this spreadsheet I made of spells that can be emulated by the Shadow school spells.

A big point in favor of playing a wizard shadow specialist is that they have access to the Resilient Illusions arcane discovery. This allows you to roll a caster level check for each creature that tries to disbelieve your illusions if the check is higher than the DC of the spell then you can use that instead. If you play a character that has been boosting his caster level (which a shadow specialist ought to do to beat SR), you can get some crazy DCs with this ability.

Another benefit to playing a wizard is you can always prepare your shadow spells with Tenebrous Spell cast them as a standard action unlike spontaneous casters who have to spend a full round for metamagic.

I made a spreadsheet with all the valid spells you can emulate via Shadow school spells.

You can find it here.

The spells in red on the Shades page probably aren't legal RAI, but I included them anyway.

The Varisian Tattoo feat gives a +1 CL boost and a cantrip for one spell school.

Tenebrous spell metamagic will boost spell DC and CL in darkness or dim light, and it doesn't increase the spell level on spells with the darkness or shadow descriptors or shadow subschool.

The karma prayer bead will give a +4(!) CL boost for 10 minutes.

Spell Perfection will double all numerical bonuses to CL and DC on one spell.

Various races have DC boosts to different types of magic as race traits.

As for getting extra known spells, there are Pages of Spell Knowledge.

Several races get favored class bonuses to know extra spells, notably humans who can learn any spell at one level below their max spell level. Other races have more restrictive FCBs.

Naderi's obedience gives you a bonus to Charisma skills and Kurgess gives you a bonus to Stength skills. There are some others in ISF that give bonuses to fewer skills or bonuses in specific circumstances.

Arim Shadeborn wrote:

It is too bad Deadman's Contingency can't be used to cast (Greater) Create Undead on yourself. That seems like it would work well for this sort of scenario. Have the Boss turn into some undead monstrosity (with class levels?) once you strike him down. That seems kind of cool.

Can't you just use vanilla Contingency for that?

Yeah I suppose you can actually, at least with regular Create Undead. I've just had the new spells from UI on my mind lately.

It is too bad Deadman's Contingency can't be used to cast (Greater) Create Undead on yourself. That seems like it would work well for this sort of scenario. Have the Boss turn into some undead monstrosity (with class levels?) once you strike him down. That seems kind of cool.

There is the Veiled Illusionist PrC is an option for wizards (or others) specializing in illusion magic. The Diabolist/Demoniac/Souleater are kind of like Conjurations (Summoning) specialist PrCs. Soul Warden is another PrC option for Necromancers who want to fight undead.

Would it be horribly broken if higher level martials could make two attacks as a standard action instead of just one? I'm just spitballing here. I've not played a martial character at a high level before.

which feat are you referring to Arim?

I meant Eclipsed Spell would work great with Shadow Grasp if the rules were a little different. I've found it difficult to come up with good spells to use Shadow Grasp on since it almost requires using Umbral Spell to give spells a darkness descriptor.

It would be really great if you could use this metamagic to get more spells to qualify for Shadow Grasp. It seems RAW that it doesn't work that way, however.

wow, its almost an illusionist blaster caster unlock with shadow evocation

I will definitely be taking Spell Perfection on Shadow Evocation and Intensified spell. I might also grab Maximized Spell (or at least a rod).

It's also nice that I don't just have to be a blaster. (Greater) Shadow Enchantment with super high DCs is very powerful as well, and it gives me access to some psychic spells.

Awesome! I feel kind of bad for my DM using this. I've just been rolling once per spell. I might continue doing that.

So let's say you're an illusionist wizard who is specializing in shadow magic, especially the spells that emulate other spell schools (Shadow Conjuration, Evocation, and Enchantment). And let's say you've been buffing up your caster level via Tenebrous Spell, Varisian Tattoo, Shadowcaster trait etc. Is taking the Resilient Illusions arcane discovery as good as I think it is?

To look at some numbers, my 11th level Wizard has can cast Shadow Evocation with a 25 DC save and a caster level of 14. If I roll better than 11 (45% chance) on my Resilient Illusions CL check I'm boosting my DCs, possibly up to 34. And this is only going to get better as I level (and as I pick up an orange prism ioun stone). And as a nice side effect of the CL boosting my spells get stronger, and SR is easier to beat. I just want to make sure this is all legit rules-wise. Am I missing something?

Also, the text for Resilient Illusions states:

"Anytime a creature tries to disbelieve one of your illusion effects, make a caster level check." Does this mean I can roll a CL check for each creature affected by my spells since they all have to roll to disbelieve?

Being PFS, it's likely I'll run into things that are essentially immune to the Shadow spells

What enemies are immune to shadow spells? Obviously the mind effecting stuff from Shadow Evocation won't work on a lot of things, but Shadow Evocation and Conjurations should work against almost everything.

Illusion has some great CC spells like color spray, silent image, and phantasmal web, and it gives you access to tons of conjuration, evocations, and enchantment spells through the shadow school spell lines.

It is worth noting that there seem to be fewer ways to boost your CLs than your DCs and bonuses to CL will help overcome spell resistance. All of the shadow school spells (evocation, conjuration, and enchantment) check spell resistance. I'd probably still go with the DC boost since it will always apply when you cast them, but it might be worth reviewing the average monster stats table and gaming out how your character would fare vs. monsters at different levels.

For sorcerers, it means you know all of the spells you just listed with a single spell slot. And a bunch of those spells (like fins to feat and animal aspect) don't really care if your enemies disbelieve the spell or not. Same is true of wizards, except one prepared spell to have an incredibly flexible spell slot.

I am coming at this as a wizard, so I am not really limited by spells known, so I can see how it would be more appealing to a sorcerer. Though I am still not sure a sorcerer would want to spend a 6th level slot on Long Arm. Compare Shadow Transmutation to Greater Shadow Enchantment (also a 6th level spell) which gets you ALL 5th level and below enchantments from Wiz/Sorc and Psychic lists, and it feels kind of weak.

I am a little disappointed in the Shadow Transmutation spell. I say this as a huge fan of the other Shadow school spells, but it offers so little flexibility that it seems kind of useless. I'm not going to burn a 6th level spell to emulate the first levels and give extra will saves to enemies. Animal growth and anthropomorphic animal both require having friendly animals on hand. Fins to feet is extremely situational. Polymorph is a cool spell, but I'd rather spend a 5th level slot for it instead of a 6th level for a weakened version.

Someone please sell me on this spell.

Also, don't forget the recently added Shadow Enchantment and Greater Shadow Enchantment spells if you're going with this build. There is a ton of versatility built into these.

You really want a build that can boost the DCs of these spells. Wayangs and Fetchlings are thematically appropriate races who get DC boosts to shadow spells. Gnomes get a DC boost to all illusion spells, so they are worth checking out also. Additionally you'll want to take Spell Focus Illusion and Greater Spell Focus. Tenebrous Spell Metamagic provides a +1 CL and DC boost at no level increase for shadow spells.

You'll also eventually want to get Spell Perfection on one of the Shadow spells.

If you go with a wizard, check out the Resilient Illusions arcane discovery. It lets you roll a caster level check each time you cast an illusion spell. If the check is higher than your DC, you use that instead. If you start stacking on the CLs you can get some insane DCs with that discovery.

one thing im going to use it for is a permanent entanglement aura that doesnt affect my character.

I have been making good use of Umbral Arcane mark for keeping my Fetchling wizard in dim light for Shadow Blending. I've also considered making a bunch of stones with both metamagics applied to them to hand out to party members, but I still feel like there should be more to do with these two feats besides the Arcane Mark trick.

*Bump*

I'm still looking for some advice on this.

What are some good spells to use with the Tenebrous Spell, Umbral Spell, Shadow Grasp line of metamagic feats? I have a Shadowcaster wizard and I want to make the best use of these feats, but I am having a hard time finding useful spells to apply them to. Specifically since Shadow Grasp only applies to spells with the darkness descriptor you pretty much have to combine it with Umbral Spell to use it and Umbral spell has this language that seems to rule out a lot of potential spells "You cannot use this feat on a spell with an instantaneous duration or a spell that does not target a creature or object.". I guess I originally thought I'd be combining them with the X Image spells or cloud spells, but that doesn't seem possible. So what are some non-instantaneous spells that target enemy creatures or objects?