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I'm currently running a campaign where the PC's play as monstrous races. One of said PC's is playing a shadow. Having the ability to unlimited cohorts feels like it would cause problems rather quickly, so im looking or ideas to balance it.
For starters, I could require the Shadow to follow the same rules as a necromancer and have the spawn roll to break free at will. That or put a limit on the number of shadows the PC can keep in sway.
I do not want to remove the ability entirely, as the point of the game is to have fun, but I need to balance it.
Any suggestions would be welcome.
You could run it like Leadership or even vile leadership. The PC gets a leadership score which gets compared to the chart. But they don't get a cohort and followers. Instead you just add up the numbers and divide by 3 (rounding down) to determine how many HD worth of shadows they can control.
so, at a leadership score of:
10 they can control 4 shadows (8+5x1)
15 they can control 12 shadows (10+20x1+2x2+1x3)
It might be a bit excessive at higher levels but at 10th level (the 15 score), how useful are 12 3HD shadows really?
You could rule that any that get created beyond the limit aren't under their control or perhaps they simply can't create more than their limit allows. In any case the shadows the PC creates should probably not be able to create spawn themselves or if they can those spawn count against the PC's limit, otherwise this can get out of hand really quick.
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You could run it like Leadership or even vile leadership. The PC gets a leadership score which gets compared to the chart. But they don't get a cohort and followers. Instead you just add up the numbers and divide by 3 (rounding down) to determine how many HD worth of shadows they can control.
so, at a leadership score of:
10 they can control 4 shadows (8+5x1)
15 they can control 12 shadows (10+20x1+2x2+1x3)It might be a bit excessive at higher levels but at 10th level (the 15 score), how useful are 12 3HD shadows really?
You could rule that any that get created beyond the limit aren't under their control or perhaps they simply can't create more than their limit allows. In any case the shadows the PC creates should probably not be able to create spawn themselves or if they can those spawn count against the PC's limit, otherwise this can get out of hand really quick.
I like your suggestion. I think ill go with that. Ill allow the Shadow to create spawn even if they do not have enough leadership points. Those created in excess are just free to do their own bidding. I'm flavoring the newly created shadows as still retaining some of their memories at first, but they are quickly losing them like a dream. If the aren't controlled, then they would probably panic and flee immediately.
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Traditionally Shadows are dumb undead that are only driven by hatred and hunger and are restricted to a specific spot. Just fluff it that being a free thinking Shadow means that they can only have X amount because they need to assert control or the Shadow will just go off and do whats in its nature.
It might be a bit excessive at higher levels but at 10th level (the 15 score), how useful are 12 3HD shadows really?Frighteningly effective in a lot of encounters. That's 12 incorporeals going in making +6 touch attacks that do 1d6 strength damage.
You need to remember this isn't just some group of shadows waiting for the PC's, this is a shadow army that can be backed by PC hijinx.
You could carry them around in a bag of holding. That's actually a good idea for a trap, shadows in a bag of holding.
That is a great idea, I hope my party members don't frequent this board. That would really screw with some peasants.
You've basically created a recipe for disaster here. Shadows are wicked powerful for their CR. And even if the number is spawn created is capped, they're still an incorporeal creature with a ton of resistances (undead), a touch attack with ability damage, and insanely good stealth.
Assuming you allow them class levels on top of this, you solve their two weaknesses- low HP and low accuracy.
But if you're running a monster campaign you're probably already dealing with all kinds of shenanigans.
So good luck I guess.
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You've basically created a recipe for disaster here. Shadows are wicked powerful for their CR. And even if the number is spawn created is capped, they're still an incorporeal creature with a ton of resistances (undead), a touch attack with ability damage, and insanely good stealth.
Assuming you allow them class levels on top of this, you solve their two weaknesses- low HP and low accuracy.
But if you're running a monster campaign you're probably already dealing with all kinds of shenanigans.
So good luck I guess.
So far we have a Mimic, two wyrmlings, and a shadow. The whole game is intentionally a farce. The last session the party spent 30 min trying to figure out how to move overland distances efficiently since the largest creature in the group is the mimic with a land speed of 10ft. They ended up turning the mimic into a giant gerbil wheel and rolling around with the dragons running inside.
Great fun overall. Not planning on too much balancing, but an army of shadows is not something i can allow.
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Ended up capping the Shadows innate ability to only one controlled at a time. He can still create more, but they aren't under his direct control and are liable to attack the party. He was also given the ability to create a basic zombie instead of a shadow at his discretion. He has gained class levels in Oracle that allows him to control a number of undead as well. Any undead he creates with his ability can be controlled as long as it doesn't exceed this number. Its working well so far.
On the Incorporeal part, the party has found a magical dungeon and have discovered that the individual floors are actually separate extra dimensional spaces. When the shadow tries to go through a border, they find its springy like a bubble and have been too nervous to push through yet. He can still pass through material objects within the environment (I.E. chairs, doors, walls,) but the outer limits are barriers of sorts.
Last session he had created a shadow within the dungeon which immediately turned against the party as he exceeded his limit. He commanded it using command undead to flee down through the floor. The shadow hit the barrier and continued until it eventually poked a hole through the wall and out of the extra dimensional space. Now im trying to think of possible "glitches" to impose if the party returns there. I'm thinking a shadow that's partially constantly in flux. So shadow with blur effect.