How does a Shade stay adjacent to a Shadow Caller?

[Tom McTrouble]

Hoping I'm not missing something obvious here. The way the spiritualist archetype is written seems to mean that a Shadow Caller's shade would have to move at the exact same time as the spiritualist. Otherwise it either would constantly get banished to the shadow plane or the Shadow Caller will be provoking attacks of opportunity while they focus, and I can't imagine that was the intention. Has a precedent for simultaneous movement ever been set before?

[Adam Mulder-1]

I would also like to get some clarification on this as the adjacent restriction without any action economy changes makes this archetype very cumbersome in combat.

[Shadowlords]

A shadow caller's shade remains stable while adjacent to the shadow caller, or while up to 5 feet away from the shadow caller for every 5 levels the shadow caller possesses. (so this means at level 20 the shade can be 20ft away without issue) If the shade moves beyond this distance, it is automatically dismissed back to the Shadow Plane (preventing the shade from being summoned back for 24 hours) unless the shadow caller concentrates as per the etheric tether ability. However, if both the shadow caller and shade are in areas of total darkness, the shade can move any distance from the shadow caller. If the shade is beyond its maximum distance and enters an area of dim or brighter illumination, it immediately returns to the Shadow Plane and cannot be summoned for 24 hours.

This ability replaces etheric tether.

So you have to make sure you and the shade close by depending on your level, adjecnt for the first 4 levels then within 1 square for level 5-9 then 2 squares levels 10-14 etc, unless you spend a full round action concentrating. so wile spending that full round action you are allowed a 5 ft step. and the first few levels you have to stagger your movements so you are just 5 foot stepping as well.

I cannot remember if you can ready an action to do a full movement or not so you can remain adjacent.

As a Dm i would consider allowing simultaneous movement just for ease of use, but i do not believe there is anything wrong with how it is now, it restricts how far and fast you can move per round while having your shade out which i think is a feature not a bug in the system, even if i would house rule simultaneous movement. again
this has never came up and i would have to see it in action myself.

[Adam Mulder-1]

I'm actually fine with it needing to be close, but I really wish there was a way to move more than a few squares each round while the Shade is out. Even some feat help to increase the range or some action economy changes for manifesting the shade would have been nice.

[Squiggit]

Yeah, some sort of language that gives the shade a round of leniency (if the shade is beyond that distance at the start of its turn, it must move back within that range or dissipate) or allowing you to move the shade with you(whenever you move on your own, such as a five foot step, move action, charge and so on, you may move your shade the same distance in the same direction you moved) would be nice and I don't think overpowering.

As it stands a level 2 shadow caller loses its shade if it takes any kind of movement and that is really clunky.

[Dave Justus]

I am not sure if this was intended or not, but the language in Shadow Bound is quite different from that of Etheric Tether, which seems to solve some of these issue.

Etheric tether mentions 'remaining within 50' and 'ever more than 100 feet away'. Shadow Bound talks about 'if the shade moves beyond this distance.' It seems to me that while Etheric Tether takes into account either party moving, Shadow bound only has an effect when the Shade moves, not when the Spiritualist does. AS I said, I'm unsure if this was intended, and I would probably rule personally that the shade and spiritualist need to end their turns within the threshold to avoid problems, but at the very least I would let the spiritualist move and then the shade move after to 'catch up'.

[Shadowlords]

Squiggit wrote:

Yeah, some sort of language that gives the shade a round of leniency (if the shade is beyond that distance at the start of its turn, it must move back within that range or dissipate) or allowing you to move the shade with you(whenever you move on your own, such as a five foot step, move action, charge and so on, you may move your shade the same distance in the same direction you moved) would be nice and I don't think overpowering.

As it stands a level 2 shadow caller loses its shade if it takes any kind of movement and that is really clunky.

You can still take movements.

If your shade is in the square directly north of you you can move 10ft north and still have the shade adjacent to you. You basically have to hop scotch with your shade to move and you are restricted to 10ft movements a round until you reach higher levels.

[Pizza Lord]

I would have to fall back onto the 'combat turns are an abstraction of time' method. Obviously if you're out of combat and walking down a road, you and your shade can just be moving along next to each other.

It is possible for one of them to Ready an action to move when the other does, that still limits them to one movement speed of distance per round.

If I had to rule in this case, I would allow the caller and the shadow to function normally as long as they both moved on the same initiative count and one right after the other (barring special occurrences that might split them, like an opponent Readying an action to go as the 2nd of the pair moved, and thus be in between them). They must both be within range at the end of that initiative count. This method should basically work out fair enough and it means that at worst, the faster moving (initiative-wise) of the pair will just have to Hold saying they will move when the other does. They'd then be moved to just behind the other one in initiative, unless they Readied, in which cast they'd be just before the other (but at risk of being outpaced since a Ready only allows one action of movement and if the other guy doesn't know they may end up double moving.)

Even though I know that isn't mechanically how the turn system works, it is clearly noted as being an abstraction, so such rulings are fair. As long as the pair of them ended adjacent to each other (or within the acceptable range) I would say they were moving together.

[claudekennilol]

My plan is to simply just never materialize my shadow..