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Something I've always loved the flavor of since seeing it back in D&D 3.5 and pathfinder 1.0 was the specific sort of shadow magic that was introduced through things like shadow evocation and shadow conjuration. The spells themselves weren't generally great on their own, but the idea behind them really inspired my imagination for them. All the more with some of the Prestige Classes in 3.5, and the handful of feats and class features tied to the ideas in Pathfinder 1.0.
Illusions made to affect the world through shadows woven into them. Taking the uncertainty of what might or might not exist in the darkness, and using that to trick reality itself into believing your illusions are real. Versatile abilities that combine trickery with actual utility and combat options. Or even just one last surprise out of an illusion that enemies have already "figured out" and think is safe to ignore, even for the members who don't have the will save to properly disbelieve it.
Pathfinder 2nd edition... honestly didn't bring in all that much of that old shadow magic. It brought in a mix of spells and focus abilities that were meant to give a nod to that alongside ones actually focused on darkness... but more than a few felt unfinished, like the "shadow illusion" focus spell. Or just heavily underpowered like with the Shadow Blast spell. And a lot of options just felt like they were missing all together.
The remaster hasn't even touched nearly anything on this except the Shadow Blast spell, which was given an extra d8 base damage and otherwise left alone, so I figured I'd see about making something for it myself.
Of course, there's more than a few ways to handle giving out the abilities through an archetype: It could work primarily through Focus spells alongside some feats to give boosts for low light levels, or it could work mostly through taking spellshape feats to modify existing illusions to do new things. Or it could work through unique actions that could use existing illusions and spells with the shadow trait.
And alongside picking out how to primarily work them in, there's balancing something where I am aware I'll have a bias towards it, and thus be at risk of either over-tuning the options or overcompensating for my bias and under-powering them, or even a mix.
So, I figured I'd see what people on the forums here thought and see if I could get some help fine-tuning and making decisions on things.
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Option 1 - Focus spells.
Working through focus spells is honestly probably one of the simplest ways to handle this. Each specific feat and focus spell can have another option that isn't covered, it's easy to add onto with more later, it uses an already existing system that has a good few related feats...
Of course, this also ends up having the weaknesses of the focus point system, and it separates the abilities from a lot of other spell casting abilities or features.
I'd probably be thinking between 3-5 focus spells, alongside any other feats. Something for a shadow version of illusory creature / summon spells, something similar to the Ephemeral Hazards focus spell from the premaster, something for partially real structures and walls that could be selectively moved through... and possibly something for tools or equipment pulled out of shadows to suit a situation. Maybe a weaker but more general focus cantrip that could do a weaker, smaller, more limited version of any of the above as well.
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Option 2 - Spellshape feat(s).
Actively taking existing illusion spells and letting them do new things, changing how they work, and using them to mimic slightly weaker versions of spells that just might not be on the caster's spell list. It's more in line with some of the original inspirations, like the 3.5 Shadowcraft mage, and could have some interesting options.
Most of the spells that would be used with this are gotten from low levels, like illusory disguise, illusory object, and illusory creature. Including extra upcasting bonuses in the spellshape's damage / HP and hardness all being based on the rank of the spell it's used with would stretch those already fairly good spells to having reasons to upcast them at just about nearly any level, in the right circumstances. And it could still work with other illusion spells that met some simple requirement of creating the illusion of a visual effect that isn't fully mental, and could reasonably mimic objects, creatures, or damaging effects.
Of course, that is both an advantage and disadvantage, because that means there's a lot more room for arguing on if a given illusion not explicitly called out works with the given spellshape feat or not, and the risk of unintended interactions with new illusions that haven't been released yet. It shouldn't be too hard to do some future proofing, but it is one extra variable to consider if going this route.
Like... what if phantom crowd is remastered, or a player takes it in a game that's allowing premaster spells still, and argues that it should be able to make an entire swarm of creatures that each have HP and take up space with the same spellshape feat that would normally let you give an illusory creature some HP and remove its 'all nonlethal mental damage' restriction? Should it work? Should the crowd of creatures be unable to attack since the base spell doesn't let them attack? Obviously they shouldn't just all be able to act separately as they want, since otherwise it just becomes a much, much better version of illusory creature when both are affected by the spellshape. But it's something that has to be thought about and included in designing a spellshape option.
And would it make sense to make a single spellshape for weaving shadows into illusions, and then have the rest of the archetype be a mix of supporting abilities like dark vision / greater dark vision, abilities to strengthen the shadow spells when cast in areas of darkness and such? Or include just as many spellshape feats as it would have had focus spell feats if going with option 1?
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Option 3 - special actions.
Something of an in between option to the previous two, giving the archetype feats to grant actions that can be taken to do things with existing illusions that are already cast.
Shadow strike, to cause someone adjacent to an illusion to have a melee spell attack made on them from say... a brick falling off the illusionary brick wall. Or an extra attack made by the illusion of a creature, even if it's not normally a spell that could make an attack.
Solidify Shadows, to cause an illusion to Briefly gain hardness and HP for either 1 round or 1 minute or something, allowing that illusion of a bridge to work for your party, but not for a pursuing enemy group, for instance. Or turning your concealing illusion wall that you can walk through into hard total cover behind you after you ran through it. Or making it so that an illusory creature won't be instantly dispelled with a single hit.
Shadow Grasp/Grasping shadows, to cause a creature that's in the area of effect of an illusion or adjacent to one to suddenly get grabbed by the illusory creature, or snagged by a nail in the illusory object of a log cabin. Maybe even being able to grab and move someone, but when they break free and attempt to attack or destroy whatever grabbed them, it's all just smoke in the wind.
Shadow Burst, take an action to have an illusion that looks like it should be damaging, like spikes or a sea of fire... to actually deal damage to all creatures in its area of effect.
Probably each of the actions would be 1/round or have the flourish trait for some balance. The advantage for this setup is that, like with the focus spells, it's easy to add new actions, and since what you can do is a lot more spelled out and has an action cost to it, it's less likely for new spells to break the balance on them. Likewise though, you still interact with the spells, so having a bunch of permanent illusory objects around your base to create lava pits, fake spike traps in the walls, false walls you can retreat through and such... suddenly gives you a bunch of extra actions in your fortified lair / base camp. You can prepare a battlefield and such.
But, you don't have to worry about someone leaving behind those same things as actual real constantly harmful effects or something. Making the illusion act like something other than an illusion requires the caster to be actively spending actions and be present.
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For the spellshape options, there'd probably need to be some balancing addition of bright light making counteract attempts on them, where a torch wouldn't do much but say... the actual sun shining right on them might counteract the shadow magic, and same for a high level light spell. Possibly the same with the focus spell options, or could just have the focus spells need to target an initial area that is dimly lit or dark.
General balancing I'm thinking so far for numbers is mostly thrown together after a bit of looking at existing spells, and aiming for a bit weaker than any specialized fully real options - use the caster's spell attack / save DCs for attack bonuses, skill check bonuses for things like grab/trip/shove, and AC. Then have objects get hardness = spell rank x2 and HP = spell rank x8 per 10 foot long x 10 foot high x 5 foot wide section of structures, or halved for something that only takes up a 5 foot square like a door made with figment. Creatures getting 5+10/rank HP (or 5/rank for cantrip version with figment that has to stay within 30 feet of the caster at all times). And damage numbers based on illusory creature for creatures (1d4+1d4/rank, or just 1d4/rank + spell casting modifier), while area damage effects would be 1d6/rank for a 1/round effect such as a trap or using the special action for a shadow damage burst, or 1d6 per two ranks for hazardous terrain that deals damage for moving through it or starting a turn in it, potentially multiple times in a round. Probably with everything targeting will saves / will defense instead of the "higher of two defenses" that shadow blast has, since already having lower general stats for spell rank than an actual damage spell or summon / wall spell is already a balance, plus I have thoughts for "disbelieving" options and the option of light spells allowing counteracting on focus spells or spellshaped shadow illusions.
So, thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas for something I haven't considered?
TL;DR: Old shadow illusion spells and features were neat. Where they at? Should an archetype use Focus spells, special actions, or metamagic/spellshape feats to do them? What other abilities should a shadow mage archetype that's focused on making semi-real illusions have?