So last week in my campaign our CG gnome cleric (who worships the CN spirit of Fire and Trickery) stood up to a powerful shadow demon and managed to impress it with his bravery/stupidity. This meant that the party didn't have to sacrifice the evil wizard to the demon to suffer about an eternity of suffering.
I want to give the character something interesting in response to this act. An ability he can use every now and then, or something along those lines, that suggests that this powerful outsider left some sort of mark on the character. One of my ideas was giving him darkvision, but that seems a little boring. Does anyone here have any ideas that might be more interesting?
Thanks!
Oh! Right! That would be important wouldn't it? :P
They just got to level 5.
Edit: So Shadow Conjuration would be a little too powerful, but I could see it happening once they get 4th level spells.
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Maybe his shadow could animate as a summoned shadow or shadow version of a summoned monster for 1 rnd/lvl each day? You could have the minion's strength related to the PC's level, and then adjust it up or down depending on how powerful it is in play. If the minion gets destroyed, the PC loses his shadow for the rest of the day.
Alternatively, his shadow becomes animated all or much of the time, acting as an unseen servant spell under the PC's control.
Whatever you do, this seems like giving him a magic item that can't be taken away. It can be a cool reward, but I'd suggest pricing the ability using the wondrous item rules and making sure it isn't too powerful relative to the rest of the party.
If you have the Tome of Magic available to you, there are lots of cool shadow abilities under the shadow caster.
My personal favorite is flicker. It's a 3rd level mystery (spell) that lets you teleport 5 feet per 2 levels as an IMMEDIATE action, once a round for 1 round per level, and if it is done in response to an attack, there is a 50% chance that attack misses. So it's a nice little "lasts most of the encounter" power.
But EZ's idea about pricing it like a magic item to make sure it's balanced for that level and with the rest of the party is a great idea!
Demon? A demon's mark on a PC? Why dont you check the half-fiend template (it is exactly a demon's mark on a otherwise normal being) and take a couple things from there?
So last week in my campaign our CG gnome cleric (who worships the CN spirit of Fire and Trickery) stood up to a powerful shadow demon and managed to impress it with his bravery/stupidity. This meant that the party didn't have to sacrifice the evil wizard to the demon to suffer about an eternity of suffering.
I want to give the character something interesting in response to this act. An ability he can use every now and then, or something along those lines, that suggests that this powerful outsider left some sort of mark on the character. One of my ideas was giving him darkvision, but that seems a little boring. Does anyone here have any ideas that might be more interesting?
Thanks!
Allow him to use gaseous form once per day, but rather than being gaseous make it a shadow form, roughly resembling the shadow demon (wings, horns red glowing eyes).
Just off the top of my head, He's a cleric of fire correct? then why not have a shadowy little implike creature around, cast in the shadows of whatever fire he makes? Use the stats for a Quasit, make it CN, and treat it like a Wizard's familiar of the same level. Make this Quasit pretend to be a faithful servent to the cleric, even as it spies for the shadow demon. Great plot potential there.
They just got to level 5.
That wouldn't be too far from where a Shadowdancer gets Hide in Plain Sight. Might be a nice, simple ability with both in- and out-of-combat uses.
Give him the supernatural ability to be invisible in darkness.
Think about it.
Maybe give him the ability to summon a shadow (like the shadowdancer feature) once per day. Or the ability to ride someone's mind once per day--like a super-limited version of the shadow demon's magic jar/possession ability, only allowing perceptions or maybe mind-reading instead of full possession.
I also really like gaseous form and quasit familiar ideas above.
Whatever it is, I would try to make sure it felt demon-y: something that was creepy or used to create strife and pain.
Let his shadow animate as a standard undead shadow under his control when he wants it to, with the drawback that it always has the body language and posture that indicates all his dark desires despite being CG. In otherwords, it's a servant, but a mocking annoying servant.
If the shadow is destroyed by any means, including turning, it's gone for a day and the character casts no shadow. He should also take damage as if a spectral hand spell he cast were destroyed. When he's rested, he gets his shadow back.