Shadowers- Shape-Stealing Sorcerous Skulkers for XXR and Other Cowboycrawls
Characters must have Intellect 9 and Wisdom 9 to be a Shadower.
They use 1d6 for their Hit Die.
Their Defensive Number is 13.
When in human form they exclusively use knives, machetes, and staffs, all Minor weapons.
They may not use Firearms.
They speak Lawful and any languages granted by their Intellect
bonus.
A Shadower at first level has learned how to remove her shadow and swap it out with another. The body reflects the darkness; in this way a Shadower can become like another person, or else they may become another creature. A Shadower can cut the shadow free from any being they have personally killed but they may only take the form of creatures or persons with fewer Hit Dice than the Shadower. A Shadower grows in skill as she advances and may keep a number of shadows equal to her level. When not in use a Shadower has a Black Sack in which she stores the carefully folded shadows. Dressing in a new shadow takes three minutes. Shadows only confer the physical properties their shapes suggest; becoming a Coyote grants you their strength and claws but not the ability to create other Coyotes, for example.
When wearing a strange shadow a Shadower must make a Tricky Save (plus their Wisdom bonus) or believe themselves to be the person or creature they pretend to be; Shadowers failing this save take 1 Shock. The Shadower will behave accordingly until they are first wounded or until they are further Shocked. Additionally, if a Shadower stays in a strange shadow from nightfall to sunrise then they become trapped in that shape and gain 1 Shock. Finally, if a Shadower's own shadow is ever lost or destroyed they lose the ability to Shadowcraft and suffer Shock equal to the HD of the creature whose shadow they currently wear. They cease advancing.
At level 4, they may use their Shadowcraft ability in combat, but
it takes five rounds. They may hasten this process down to 1 round but,
for each round they reduce their transformation by, they take a penalty
to their Tricky Save to avoid self-deception.
At level 7, they may change their shadow shape in 1 round without penalty.
At level 9, they may become living shadows: intangible, free moving, utterly silent, and with a bonus to their Hit Points and Damage for every light source within 60'. As with other shadows it is possible to get stuck in this form, preventing further advancement.
At level 13, Shadowers may gain access to any special abilities (petrifying vision, breath weapons, etc) normally possessed by the beings they become. If a shape would normally have spells associated with it the Shadower may only use this ability to cast Light/Darkness and Minor Illusion (focused on the flickering shadows of firelight).
