Shade
| Statistic | Value |
|---|---|
| Frequency | blessedly rare |
| # Appearing | 1 (if more, leave town) |
| % in Lair | planned - Shades live like everyone else |
| Treasure Type | varies with individual |
| Alignment | Evil |
| Climate/Terrain | any |
| HD | determined by class and level |
| Size | M |
| AC | 0 (they are HARD to hurt - not counting armor) |
| Magic Resistance | 20% |
| No. Attacks | by class and level |
| Attack Damage | by weapon used |
| Move | as per original race (usually human - 12") |
| Special Defenses | any damage done by nonmagical weapons is healed the very next round, and magical damage is recovered at a rate of 1 hp per round. Plus see Note 1. |
| Special Attacks | Draining ability, see below |
Description
Note that this is NOT the Shade found in Monster Manual II.
Shades are normal people who followed the Path of evil far enough and well enough to be granted the powers of a Shade. In return, they lost their soul, though some managed to regain their souls at some point. These are the most dangerous.
Shades live in the most competitive world possible - that of other shades, all competing for victims and more power from the Path. They tend, therefore, to be exceptionally intelligent, perceptive, and magnetic (Int 15+, Wis & Chr 13+). In addition, it is not possible to become a Shade below a high level (most campaigns, this is 12th+), so a Shade will be at least that level in one or more classes.
In addition to the normal abilities and whatnot, Shades have the ability to feed on the soul of those they encounter, and it is this ability which makes them so fearsome and defines their evil. Those upon whose soul a Shade has fed cannot be ressurected, restored, or brought back to life by any other means (up to and including wish). The soul is GONE. Kaput.
This ability drains d10 hit points, 1 Int, 1 Wis, 1 Chr, and 1 Con per each usage, and can be used once per round. If the Shade does not succeed in entirely killing someone by this means, then the person will gradually recover these stats, at a rate of one point in each attribute per year, and the hit points will be recovered normally. If hit points, or any single attribute is brought below zero, the victim is dead. Kaput. See Note 2 for some additional information on this power.
Finally, it is to be noted that Shades gain only marginal benefits from feeding on a soul - a number of hit points equal to the victims level is recovered if any were lost, and for every d10+10 souls fed upon the Shade can choose one of the powers under Note 1 to roll for again. The primary reason that a Shade feeds is because she must. Once every month, the Shade must feed or be consumed himself by the Path. This is where the Shades who have recovered their souls are particularly dangerous. Other Shades must reveal themselves eventually by feeding. Those with a soul can hold off on it, feeding bits of their soul at a time to stave off the hunger of the Path. They lose Int, Wis, Chr, Con, and hit points just as victims do, at a rate of 1 per 2 days and 5 per day, that they do not feed. By this means they can hold off for longer periods of time, throwing suspicions off the Shade race. For every soul fed upon after that, a like amount is recovered (1 Int, Wis, Chr, Con, and d5 hit points).
Note 1
A Shade often has abilities beyond the base abilities. These are the chances of having each major type (feel free to make new ones up):
| Ability | Chance |
|---|---|
| Flight (3d12" Maneuverabiity Class B) | 20% |
| Walk on any sufficient surface, regardless of angle | 5% |
| Immunity to fire | 5% |
| Immunity to lightning | 5% |
| Immunity to cold | 5% |
| Immunity to chromatics | 5% |
| No need to sleep, eat, excrete, or breathe | 15% |
| Empathy (the ability to feel other's emotions) | 25% |
| Telepathy (the ability to read other's surface thoughts) (Telepathy acts as ESP, essentially) | 10% |
| Polymorph Self at Will (humanoids only) | 15% |
| Polymorph Self at Will (animal grouping, such as felines) | 5% |
| Polymorph Self 3 times per day (animals) | 1% |
| Induce Emotions (as Emotion spell) | 5% |
| Clairvoyance & Clairaudience | 10% |
| Infravision (or Ultravision if already possessed) | 5% |
| Invisibility three times a day | 2% |
| Ability to Animate Dead once per week | 2% |
| Telekinisis (as spell) | 10% |
| Incredible strength (+d4 Str, minimum 18/50) | 15% |
| Paralyzation (by gaze - one person at a time. when gaze is broken, able to move) | 5% |
| Finger of Death once a week | 1% |
Note 2
The Shade's ability to feed upon souls is not without its limitations. However, these limitations are no more than a bargain with the Path which allowed them to have the ability at all. Thusly, the particular limitations VARY from Shade to Shade! This can get very annoying to characters who think they've got a handle on how to handle Shades (gee, Bob, keeping the Shade from touching us worked before...) The following limitations should give you an idea of the level of limitations:
- Requires contact (flesh on flesh) and extreme emotions. These emotions are generally strong fear (knowing there's a Shade chasing you will do that), love or lust (some Shades seduce their victims), or even extreme pain, for the Shade who captures and tortures until he can feast. Some Shades, like the infamous Jason DarKheist (an NPC) will even use the hatred of those who would try to kill them.
- Requires extreme emotions, but not contact. This is more powerful in some ways, depending on the range (usually no more than 1"), but isn't very much so. Sometimes this limitation will have an additional stipulation that contact actually disrupts the process! (party meets Jason, then meets this Shade.. or vice versa).
- Requires painful, fearful death. This can be a pain to achieve, but is not impossible. One party member dies and the Shade's fed.
- Cannot feed on a certain type of being, such as Paladins and Clerics of Lawful Good, or such as non-humans.
In addition to these limitations, often times a Shade will gain compensatory abilities - with the first one, for example, Jason DarKheist could also attack the soul at a long distance as long as the victim was feeling strong emotions, but this attack was not a true feeding, and the effect wore off after a few hours. But it was an excellent method for slowing prey down.
Note 3
Just as a side note, I did weaken Shades tremendously for AD&D. In the system previous, they fed on souls in a matter of seconds, not minutes, for example, and the powers that they had were a bit more inclusive (these are weakened more by the AD&D system than by me, however).