General Prestige Class : Shadowdancer
Operating in the border between light and darkness, shadowdancers are nimble artists of deception. They are mysterious and unknown, never completely trusted but always inducing wonder when met.
Rogues, bards, and monks make excellent shadowdancers, but fighters, barbarians, rangers, and paladins also find shadowdancer abilities allow them to strike at their opponents with surprise and skill. Wizard, sorcerer, cleric, and druid shadowdancers employ the defensive capabilities inherent in the prestige class to allow them to cast their spells from safety and move away quickly. Despite their link with shadows and trickery shadowdancers are as often good as evil. They may use their incredible abilities as they wish.
Shadowdancers often work in troupes, never staying in one place too long. Some use their abilities to entertain. Others operate as thieves, using their abilities to infiltrate past defenses and dupe others. All shadowdancer troupes maintain an aura of mystery among the populace, who never know whether to think well or ill of them.
Requirements
To qualify to become a Shadowdancer, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:
- Skills: Move Silently 8 ranks, Hide 10 ranks, Perform 5 ranks.
- Feats: Dodge, Mobility, Combat Reflexes.
Class Skills
The shadowdancer's class skills are Balance, Bluff, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Disguise, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Perform, Profession, Search, Sleight of Hand, Spot, Tumble, and Use Rope.
Skill Points at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier.
Class Features
All of the following are features of the shadowdancer prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Shadowdancers are proficient with the club, crossbow (hand, light, or heavy), dagger (any type), dart, mace, morningstar, quarterstaff, rapier, sap, shortbow (normal and composite), and short sword. Shadowdancers are proficient with light armor but not with shields. Note that armor check penalties for armor heavier than leather apply to the skills Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Move Silently, Pick Pocket, and Tumble.
Hide in Plain Sight: Shadowdancers can use the Hide skill even while being observed. As long as they are within 10 feet of some sort of shadow, shadowdancers can hide themselves from view in the open without anything to actually hide behind. They, cannot, however, hide in their own shadows. Hide in plain sight is a supernatural ability.
Evasion: At 2nd level, a shadowdancer gains evasion. If exposed to any effect that normally allows her to attempt a Reflex saving, throw for half damage (such as a fireball), she takes no damage with a successful saving throw. The evasion ability can only be used if the shadowdancer is wearing light armor or no armor.
Darkvision: At 2nd level, a shadowdancer can see in the dark as though she were permanently under the affect of a darkvision spell. This is a supernatural ability.
Uncanny Dodge: Starting at 2nd level, the shadowdancer gains the extraordinary ability to react to danger before her senses would normally allow her to even be aware of it. At 2nd level and above, she retains her Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) regardless of being caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. (She still loses any Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized.)
At 5th level, the shadowdancer can no longer be flanked, since she can react to opponents on opposite sides of her as easily as she can react to a single attacker. This defense denies rogues the ability to use flank attacks to sneak attack the shadowdancer. The exception to this defense is that a rogue at least 4 levels higher than the shadowdancer can flank her (and thus sneak attack her).
At 10th level, the shadowdancer gains an intuitive sense that alerts her to danger from traps, giving her a +1 bonus to Reflex saves made to avoid traps.
If the shadowdancer has another class that grants the uncanny dodge ability, add together all the class levels of the classes that grant the ability and determine the character's uncanny dodge ability on that basis.
Shadow Illusion: When a shadowdancer reaches 3rd level, she can create visual illusions from surrounding shadows. This spell-like ability is identical to the arcane spell silent image and may be employed once per day
Summon Shadow: At 3rd level, a shadowdancer can summon a shadow, an undead shade. (See the Monster Manual for the shadow's statistics.) Unlike a normal shadow, this shadow's alignment matches that of the shadowdancer. The summoned shadow cannot be turned, rebuked, or commanded by any third party. This shadow serves as a companion to the shadowdancer and can communicate intelligibly with the shadowdancer. Every third level gained by the shadowdancer allows her to summon an additional shadow and adds +2 HD (and the requisite base attack and base save bonus increases) to all her shadow companions. For example, a 9th-level shadowdancer can have three shadow companions, each with 6 HD.
If a shadow companion is destroyed, or the shadowdancer chooses to dismiss it, the shadowdancer must attempt a Fortitude saving throw (DC 15). If the saving throw fails, the shadowdancer loses 200 experience points per shadowdancer level. A successful saving throw reduces the loss by half, to 100 XP per prestige class level. The shadowdancer's experience can never go below 0 as the result of a shadow's dismissal or destruction. A destroyed or dismissed shadow companion cannot be replaced for a year and a day.
Shadow Jump: At 4th level, the shadowdancer gains the ability to travel between shadows as if by means of a dimension door spell. The limitation is that the magical transport must begin and end in an area with at least some shadow. The shadowdancer can jump up to a total of 20 feet each day in this way, although this may be a single jump of 20 feet or two jumps of 10 feet each. Every two levels thereafter, the distance a shadowdancer can jump each day doubles (40 feet at 6th level, 80 feet at 8th level; and 160 feet at 10th level). This amount can be split up among many jumps, but each jump, no matter how small, counts as a 10-foot increment. (For instance, a 6th-level shadowdancer who jumps 32 feet cannot jump again until the next day.)
Defensive Roll: Starting at 5th level, the shadowdancer can roll with a potentially lethal blow to take less damage from it. Once per day, when a shadowdancer would be reduced to 0 hit points or less by damage in combat (from a weapon or other blow, not a spell or special ability), the shadowdancer can attempt to roll with the damage. She makes a Reflex saving throw (DC damage dealt) and, if successful, takes only half damage from the blow. She must be aware of the attack and able to react to it in order to execute her defensive roll. If she is in a situation that would deny her any Dexterity bonus to AC, she can't attempt the defensive roll.
Slippery Mind: This extraordinary ability, gained at 7th level, represents the shadowdancer's ability to wriggle free from magical effects that would otherwise control or compel her. If the shadowdancer is affected by an enchantment and fails her saving throw, 1 round later she can attempt her saving throw again. She only gets this one extra chance to succeed at her saving throw. If it fails as well, the spell's effects proceed normally
Improved Evasion: This extraordinary ability, gained at 10th level, works like evasion (see above). The shadowdancer takes no damage at all on successful saving throws against attacks that allow a Reflex saving throw for half damage (breath weapon, fireball, and so on). What's more, she takes only half damage even if she fails her saving throw, since the shadowdancer's reflexes allow her to get out of harm's way with incredible speed.
| Shadowdancer | Hit Die: d8 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special |
| 1st | +0 | +0 | +2 | +0 | Hide in plain sight |
| 2nd | +1 | +0 | +3 | +0 | Evasion, darkvision, uncanny dodge (Dex bonus to AC) |
| 3rd | +2 | +1 | +3 | +1 | Shadow illusion, summon shadow |
| 4th | +3 | +1 | +4 | +1 | Shadow jump (20 ft.) |
| 5th | +3 | +1 | +4 | +1 | Defensive roll, uncanny dodge (can't be flanked) |
| 6th | +4 | +2 | +5 | +2 | Shadow jump (40 ft.), summon shadow |
| 7th | +5 | +2 | +5 | +2 | Slippery mind |
| 8th | +6 | +2 | +6 | +2 | Shadow jump (80 ft). |
| 9th | +6 | +3 | +6 | +3 | Summon shadow |
| 10th | +7 | +3 | +7 | +3 | Shadow jump (160 ft.), improved evasion, uncanny dodge (+1 vs. traps) |
Source: Dungeon Master's Guide v.3.5