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So I've got a player who's a fighter/shadow dancer. All the abilities of the Shadowdancer are fine...except the shadow. This thing is stealing the show in my Kingmaker game, because 90% of the creatures they are encountering have no way to deal with this thing. They fought a Froghemoth in the Hook Tongue Slough section....and the shadow ended up draining the monster of str COMPELETLY. They are a Level 9, and the Frog is a CR 13 and the shadow just totally gimped it. This happens in most encounters with BBEG's. You cant even really destroy it with its good hp and taking 1/2 damage from everything.I've thought about how it heals, and it seems it would be able to ehal itself with its own touch (Just as the lich in Varhold is noted as being able to do). It would also be rather obvious if I went out of the way to put this thing in check.
Animals are not good for fighting incorporeal things, and neither are magical beast. You will have to make some changes to enemies so they have a chance to challenge the party.
Constructs and elementals.
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Eat the Fighter, shadow go bye bye
Not quite. In short order the Frog's str was such that the fighter could best its CMD. And it's fairly shadowy inside a Frog's throat, so an easy shadow jump out...By round 3, the Frog had a str 0f 5....The point is, I don't want to add non-drainable monsters to every other encounter. I have to wonder who play-tests these classes. One attack a round might be fine, but TWO? Or maybe a limited amount of time each day a shadow can be summoned....but that's not the case as written.
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If they're level 9, you should be able to give everything magical attacks. The shadow will take half damage from attacks with magical weapons (including magic natural weapons) and most spells, and full damage from force spells (like Magic Missile).
Just give people magical attacks/spells and throw in a few force spells and maybe somebody with a Ghost Touch weapon - that'll scare your fighter a bit. Remember, the shadow only has half the HP of the fighter.
Also, while shadows can ignore armor bonuses, they have a fairly low to-hit; dex-dependent enemies can pretty much ignore them.
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Alter some monsters chosen feats to include Eldritch Fang (all natural attacks count as magical and silver) and replace something useless like skill focus stealth, full attack the shadow once and its goodbye for it as it wont last against things with magical natural attacks, (limit Eldritch fang to magical beasts, aberations and other creatures one would expect to have magical natural attacks).
Hur was unaware of this feat. Thanks.
One attack a round might be fine, but TWO? Or maybe a limited amount of time each day a shadow can be summoned....but that's not the case as written.
Where did he get second attack? Haste? Because, while the shadow uses his master's BAB, the incorporeal touch does not get iterative attacks at BAB +6 or more as a natural attack (compare greater shadows that has exactly BAB +6 and does not get second attack).
I've thought about how it heals, and it seems it would be able to heal itself with its own touch (Just as the lich in Varhold is noted as being able to do).
This is wrong.
The description of the lich states:
"A lich's touch attack uses negative energy to deal 1d8 points of damage to living creatures + 1 point of damage per 2 Hit Dice possessed by the lich. As negative energy, this damage can be used to heal undead creatures. A lich can take a full-round action to infuse itself with this energy, healing damage as if it had used its touch attack against itself."
There is no equivelent in the description of a shadow. All it states is "A shadow's touch deals 1d6 points of Strength damage to a living creature. This is a negative energy effect. A creature dies if this Strength damage equals or exceeds its actual Strength score."
The shadow should not be able to heal itself via its own touch.
Unless the group uses negative energy damage dealing spells or effects (inflict wound spells, negative energy channelling clerics, antipaladin touch of corruption and the like) it will not be instantly healed after every encounter.
As stated by Drejk, though not stated in the description of a shadowdancer it seems likely that the rules as intended do not expect the shadow companion to have iteritive attacks. None of the powerful incorpreal undead have more than one attack despite having a base attack bonus that would normally allow this (e.g. both a wraith and a greater shadow have a bascis attack bonus of +6, yet both only have one attack).
I think if you stop the free healing and limit the shadow companion to one attack per round unless magically hatsed or similar you will find it much more manageable.