The APG presented the Shadow Projection spell; an intriguing bit of necromancy which allows the caster to separate and project his incorporeal psyche away from his body. So how might having two separate bodies/forms in two locales that are irrevocably linked affect magical effects affecting one or the other? I hope that last bit made sense to you all. ;)
So, for instance, how might magical items worn on the corporeal body affect the incorporeal body if at all? Would a mental ability score enhancing headband or physical ability score enhancing belt worn on the corporeal body continue providing their augmentations to the projected psyche? How about a cloak of resistance or a ring of projection offering their bonuses to the errant psyche? And what about cast spells? Would the psyche benefit from a mage armor spell cast on the body? Conversely would the body benefit from the same spell cast on the psyche after separation? What happens to enduring spell effects cast on one or the other once the psyche and body are reunited?
A related question is, can a shadow projection use magic items? Say, for instance, that the projection has an active mage hand spell could it pick up and use a wand, scroll or wondrous items? In lieu of any sort of telekinetic affect, might the projection be able to activate items held by allies if it enshrouded it within its shadowy form? Might the Use Magic Device skill somehow come into play in such an attempt?
Thoughts? Opinions?
shadow, giving it independent life and movement as if it were
an undead shadow. Your physical body lies comatose while you
are projecting your shadow, and your body has no shadow or
reflection while the spell is in effect.
While projecting your shadow, you gain a shadow's darkvision,
defensive abilities, fly speed, racial stealth modifier, and
strength damage attack. You do not gain the creature's create
spawn ability, nor its skill ranks or Hit Dice.
Your shadow has Hit Dice and hit points equal to your own.
Your shadow projection has the undead type and may be turned
or affected as undead.
If your shadow projection is slain, you return to your physical
body and are immediately reduced to -1 hit points. Your condition
becomes dying, and you must begin making Constitution checks to
stabilize.
Bump?
"giving it independent life and movement as if it were an undead shadow"
as I get it, it's just a shadow under your control - if slain, you are at -1 HP.
That's all. No items or spellcasting.
The fact that the spell is 4th level is somewhat a support to my reading I guess.
So, is it your belief that you'd use an undead shadow's ability scores rather than your own? Aside from the hassle of having to recalculate all of your skill modifiers, it'd certainly seem weird to suddenly have to contend with having one's Intelligence lowered to 6.
Even if your interpretation is correct, I'm unaware of anything that'd prevent a shadow from casting spells, aside from possibly the difficulty in manipulating material components. And even then, their are ways around that.
I would just modify your own statistics as written:
"While projecting your shadow, you gain a shadow's darkvision,
defensive abilities, fly speed, racial stealth modifier, and
strength damage attack. You do not gain the creature's create
spawn ability, nor its skill ranks or Hit Dice."
EDIT: I would remove bonusses added from magic items which are on your comatose body.
So, is it your belief that you'd use an undead shadow's ability scores rather than your own? Aside from the hassle of having to recalculate all of your skill modifiers, it'd certainly seem weird to suddenly have to contend with having one's Intelligence lowered to 6.
Even if your interpretation is correct, I'm unaware of anything that'd prevent a shadow from casting spells, aside from possibly the difficulty in manipulating material components. And even then, their are ways around that.
You are right about the intelligentce, but it is after all a 4th level spell. It just animates you own shadow as an undead.
I don't think you can cast spell - you just move your shadow and use it as a standard monster.
Please note is how I rule it - I am not sure is the correct answer. You are right about intelligence, but this is not after all a polymorph effect.
When it says you project your consciousness into the shadow, that tells me that, essentially, you're driving it. Think of it as a robot you are controlling with incredibly good controls. You obviously use your wisdom and intelligence since you are still you. Charisma is a little bit of a funny question since it's not entirely internal.
Basically, your body is the control room while the shadow is a robot (actually undead) over which you take direct control. Anything affecting your mental state works. Anything not with the shadow can't have any effect unless that effect is internal to you. You get the benefit of your +int item but not of your +dex item since the latter is affecting your body while the former is affecting your mind.
Basically this should follow the same rules as magic jar, as it seems VERY related.
Kudos. It seems to me that using an existing spell with a similar effect is the simplest and best way to adjudicate this spell; at least until something official is put forth. So, looking at the relevant parts from magic jar:
You keep your Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, level, class, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, alignment, and mental abilities. The body retains its Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, hit points, natural abilities, and automatic abilities. You can't choose to activate the body's extraordinary or supernatural abilities. The creature's spells and spell-like abilities do not stay with the body.
So the main difference from magic jar would be that you keep your own hit points. You'd lose your effective Str and Con (since shadows have neither), though you'd gain the shadow's 14 Dex. You'd seem to keep your skills, feats and class abilities as long as they aren't tied specifically to your corporeal body.
As for magic effects, my initial assumption was much the same as Berinor's:
Anything affecting your mental state works. Anything not with the shadow can't have any effect unless that effect is internal to you. You get the benefit of your +int item but not of your +dex item since the latter is affecting your body while the former is affecting your mind.
I'm hoping others have insight or opinions on the matter.
Bump...arise dead thread!
any more insight? any dev insight???
I'd like to show my dm a fuller concensus from the boards
Casts Animate Dead on thread-
The problem with this spell is that it isn't said anywhere that shadows can speak, and since they're incorporeal they definitely can't manipulate spell components, so in order for the shadow to cast spells it would need to have Eschew Components and possibly Silent Spell. As to stats, mental stats would probably stay the same and include bonuses while physical stats would become those of a shadow.
Whoa. Funny seeing this thread ironically back from the dead.
The problem with this spell is that it isn't said anywhere that shadows can speak
James Jacobs posted that, in his opinion, shadows are supposed to speak common and that that omission from their stat block was merely an error. The online SRD's entry on shadows reflects this semi-official errata.
is my shadow enough of "me" to make the spell end?
GM call. Part of you leaves, part of you stays.