At LV18, you have 18 sorcery points. -6 leaves 12. So unless you blow it twice prior, this is not that bad. And 6 points is a LV4 spell slot. You could burn a LV4 spell slot to get this to activate. This is better than using Stoneskin (LV4) and Gaseous Form(LV3) combined. That is the equivalent to using 11 sorcery points or both a LV4 and LV3 spell slots and two actions, instead of 6 points/one LV4 slot and one bonus action.
I know this might be asking alot but... the Sea sorcerer really needs a video I call it Tide Sorcerer by the way... It gets overlooked cause of the name.... Everybody that plays a sorcerer goes auto shadow every time..
Sort of, but not exactly. I made a good-hearted, but half-crazy Shadow Sorcerer with connections to both the Shadowfell and aberrations. He's really kind and cheerful, but some of the things he says and the morbid look in his eyes make people afraid of him. "Do you know what's going on in the cold shadows within my skull? ...Do you want to find out?"😜. He's weird, creepy, mysterious, and a heck of a lot of fun to RP, especially since he's good-aligned in spite of his quirks.
I immediately thought of making a charismatic but slightly creep/untrustworthy character like a combination of Ardin(FFXV) and Mat Cauthon (Wheel of Time). Someone shady but charming, but the longer you talk to them, the more duplicitous or wrong they felt. Especially if you give them the character quirk where they forget living bodies/dead bodies should be treated differently. Like he admires a dead person's looks or style of clothing, or pickpockets living people because he forgets they're not dead, thus still needing their worldly possessions.
Oh big same. The table of quirks actually made me laugh out loud; I mean, forgetting to blink, treating corpses like they’re alive, and being surprised by your own heartbeat has the makings of comedy gold. I’m currently playing a shadow sorcerer who tries very hard to be personable and friendly, but his heavy eye contact makes him seem a little grim and intense, or even threatening. :”) Not to mention his team mates constantly thinking he’s dead every time he’s asleep. I like to think there are a lot of comedic applications for those quirks, and the spells that come with them! Imagine all the pranks that teleporting into shadows can lend!
I hope that if he becomes a player on some other campaign, he might make a BILLY MAYS character. A bard, a bardbarian ('cause beard), a cleric or paladin a deity of money/greed - the possibilities are great!
One thing I disagree with is not taking Hold Person/Monster. Usually the spell is meh, since an enemy will get to save against it every round, but given that Hound of ill omen gives disadvantage against the saves of your spells while it is next to a target, you can really have that spell stick around for longer than it otherwise would. Plus it means that your Hound is critting on each of its attacks as well, and the big bad dude next to it isn't killing it.
@@maid_of_heart3261 and? The idea isn't to use this strategy on standard thugs but to lock down the bbeg(s), giving yourself and your allies the leg up on destroying them is totally worth the price tag of SP and ending encounters much faster/safer.
@@dr9705 that’s really good, but I feel like blindness deafness is better. More versatile, and can hit non humanoids. Your allies won’t be Criting but with the hound it still can completely shut down any enemy
8 Int & Wis Shadow Sorcerer's origin: "once I was walking home, I turned a wrong corner & ended up in the Shadowfell. Fortunately I was able to leave that place as fast as I could! after that I started experiencing these things like casting spells. isn't it totally rad?"
Subtle Spell + Friends seems like a good combo for a character with a high Charisma. This is especially true is you take Disguise Self and the Actor feat. Multiclassing into Warlock two levels for the Mask of Many Faces Eldritch Invocation might even be worth it to completely abuse these combos.
Was thinking of something similar for RP. The RP I would do a Shadow Sorcerer who has a Shadow Fiend living in his shadow and after discovery makes his shadow his Patron Fiend that he can then Summon to fight along side him. Although I admit that it would probably be terrible to do since you'd delay getting Hound (Patron) for a few levels but I would think it would be great for RP.
I'm new to the sorcerer scene, however like most of my characters, they need a dark touch. My shadow sorcerer's name is Runa, a far traveller from Sossal. Her reason for leaving: to track down the white dragon that killed her parents and left her village in ruin. After a strange visit into the shadowfell, where she saw echoes of her village ruins and met one of the Raven Queen's Ravens, she returned with new and growing shadow magic due to her exposure. What I love the most is that I gave her a nordic theme. She has hair as black as the shadows, eyes of icy blue frost, and skin as cold as the dead. Her black attire is a sort of nordic goth. It's a work in progress, but I love the idea it follows.
Very detailed, very comprehensive introduction of shadow sorcerer! Everything is covered and explained just as always, I really like your videos guys, fantastic work, you are the best!
Hound of Ill Omen is also great when you have a GM that likes to have their big bad Misty Step away or otherwise try to flee if they are losing. Even if they don't catch up to them, knowing *roughly* where they went by following the dog is great.
Shadow magic and necromancy are universally my favorite types of magic (especially combined), so the Shadow Sorcerer is one of those perfect fits for me. When I hear "shadow magic" though, the first thing that comes to mind is firing shadow bolts, or creating tantacles of physical shadows that grab or slash my foes, and the Shadow Sorcerer doesn't seem to have anyting like that, nor does there seem to be any spells like that. I suppose some spells can be flavored to be more like that though.
Might want to check out Kobold Press's Deep Magic, that book has a whole section filled with shadow magic spells that pretty much fit that description.
I know I'm very late to the party but there are spells like Shadow Blade (which can be thrown) and the various Hadar/Tentacle spells that kinda fit that theme. I'd say Eldritch Blast could mimic the Shadow Bolts pretty well since 'Force' isn't really described visually. But to make the most out of EB you would want to be a warlock rather than a sorcerer.
Finally! Where warlock is my favorite class, Shadow Sorcery is my favorite subclass! It's so dark and mysterious and I turned that into my favorite character I ever played. I made a backstory where my character spent a year in the Shadowfell and instead of going mad or being overwhelmed by the darkness, he embraced it and became a shadow sorcerer. Such a fun subclass overall, I love it!
My husband and I play a drinking game to your (super great) videos: we drink every time you say "variant human" and "archetype". We love it, and your content! Tonight, we emptied our glasses when you said that variant human wasn't the preferred race. *raises cup* Here's to you!
I’m a huge fan of the Hexblade, pact of the Blade 3/ Shadow sorcerer + for a dark gish type character. Thematically, summoning your weapons from shadow, and using devils sight and silent image invocations. Always able to see through darkness and really mold the shadows with silent image. Then pumping all that with the powers of a shadow sorcerer. Though I haven’t made this character myself, it is on my “to be played” list.
I’ve also been thinking about a Shadow Sorcerer/Hexblade build. Seems very thematic and, honestly, pretty easy to optimize. Sorlocks are amazing and I’d be excited to figure out exactly how to play this one.
Amazing set boys! Love how you captured the 70s basement in a middle class Ontario neighborhood. Wood paneling, ping pong table and old book shelves. Makes me feel like a kid again - well done!
I've just started a new campaign where I'm playing a Yuan-Ti Pureblood Shadow Sorceress starting at L6. Watching this video gave me some great insights into how to RP her. Cheers DDs! 😎
Love this! Also want to point out, personally when I read the table for shadow sorcerer quirks it made me laugh out loud and envision a Wednesday Adams like character. Edgy and brooding is fun, but never underestimate the subclass’s potential for a comically macabre character as well, like Henry from Fire Emblem: Awakening, who makes crow and corpse puns and doesnt take his own safety or impending death seriously! I myself have a young shadow sorcerer who forgets to blink, and his distressing heavy eye contact often causes him to accidentally intimidate people he is trying to charm! 😄
My Shadow sorcerer is Shadow Nine, a warforged who was a military scout. Buried in a cave in, he's freed decades later radically different in both appearance and class. He gained2 crystals,1 of which is a arcane focus, the other holds a trapped entity who seems to be the source of SN's abilities...
Another excellent benefit of the hound of ill omen is that it frees up a meta magic slot, since you are limited in the number of meta magic options that you can grab and heightened is almost a required choice for most sorcerers. This means that excellent thematic options like twin spell or subtle spell are kept available to you.
My shadow sorcerer eventually found some spectacles of devils sight You wouldn’t believe how well a sorcerer that gets see-through darkness so cheaply can work
so ideally you'd want to play a half elf shadow sorcerer with a 17 in charisma and upon reaching 4th level pick up the elven accuracy feat using it to increase your charisma to 1 then get 20 charisma at level 8 and then the rest can be left mostly to feats or if you want to increase you skills
Dudes, just rewatch your older episodes, you really up your energy:) Amazing content, my top dnd stream and info dumps. Dimension 20 has amazing Dm as well, nice to see you guys connecting.
Thank you for the Elven Accuracy tip and flavored spell choices. Shadow Sorcerer is my back up character and this video was very helpful in inspiring my character creation. Love your videos
Elven Accuracy is also amazing for a wild magic sorcerer because you can simply declare advantage on every attack. If you're into the chaos of wild magic it's really worth it
Dimension 20 is awesome! The first season, Fantasy High (a play on "high fantasy"), the characters were teenagers in an adventuring academy high school. Dimension 20 also does a podcast with tips and advice, called Adventuring Academy.
I was reading thru feat and found Svirfneblin Magic and instantly wanted to play Shadow Sorc with Deep Gnome. Really really strong feat for stealthy spell caster
Hey Dungeon Dudes; long time fan here, with a question: You guys have demonstrated a very deep understanding of the 5E mechanics and you've made a LOT of valid and logical criticisms of the system's classes/spells. Can we ever hope to see you publish some lightly tweaked "Dungeon Dudes Approved" updated versions of Fifth Edition's more erroneous classes and spells? A lot of fans would pay money for those PDF's! Personally, I'd print them out and stick them right over their respective pages in my PHB.
Absolutely love hearing your picks for spells and reasonings, both role-play and practical. This is super helpful as the Sorceror is such a pain to narrow down due to their limited spell choices. Hope you guys go the opposite way and give us a Divine Soul Sorceror video soon! Curious to see how you'd spec them, as a backup healer or as a divine blaster 😁.
I’ve made a shadow sorcerer named Corvus who is a Dark elf and he’s like a member of the Addams family in the sense that he’s a really nice person but is considered creepy or weird because he finds delight in things that are morbid or usually considered depressing, like he loves bad weather and rotting old mansions and is fascinated by horrible monsters
Awesome video guys. Your points about having a limited spell selection really hit home with me as I am playing a divine soul and I've found myself really struggling to pick spells due to having so much choice with 2 lists. Hopefully this might ease off a little with my 3 level dip into hexblade... But we'll wait and see. So if you guys ever decide to do a video on Sorlocks or Divine Soul Sorcerers count me in!
Hey there, I just started playing D&D 5E and my character happens to be a Shadow Sorcerer. Inspired by the first episode of Dungeons of Drakkenheim and being a long time Vampire Player and Storyteller I wanted to play a Warlock, but there already was one on the party. Then I found that a Shadow Sorcerer was even better fitting my desire to play an eloquent and ambivalent negotiator with a lot of depth but being a force to reckon with on the battlefield. Sebastian Crowe was kind of an inspiration for me in the first place. But then there was the table of oddities of the shadowmagic. It was pure fun! Now Daeithron is a pale and cold Half-Elf with long jet-black hair, the fine features of his father's noble race paired with deep amethyst eyes and the inner thrive and cold fire his mother gifted him with as he seemed to be a stillbirth. She called to all forces to save her son. The shadows answered and infused the boy who now seems to be dead if he's sleeping. I like being a deceiver, explorer and dark hero that scares the shit out of my fellow partymembers as well as out of the unfortunate creatures that happen to interfere with my endeavours. Coolest thing is the roleplay dynamics with the human Celestial Warlock on the party, who is fascinated but also irritated by him. He is great fun to play! If you like to take a look: www.dndbeyond.com/characters/74838697 And I know that it would have been more effective to take Con over Dex, but for him being heavily influenced by his elven heritage and having suffered from illness in his early years it seemed more fitting his story and concept to take Dex over Con.
Winter Eladrin Shadow Sorcerer who is a descendant of the Queen of Air and Darkness. One day he will contact her and multiclass into warlock of the archfey. The fey theme matches the illusion magic and charm of a shadow sorcerer pretty well imo.
I use a book called dark arts players companion with my shadow sorcerer. That book has a lot of shadow spells and can help make a very dark spell caster.
15:54 to 16:00. Because there is very little limitation on the Shadow Walk ability at Level 14 (only in dim light or darkness to a point you can see), other than it's also a per bonus action ability and its max distance is 120 ft., a ShadowSorc. PC at night could effectively teleport/travel at will almost anywhere in a given game world. That's tentatively 240 ft. of movement per round (action + bonus action), not counting PC movement. That's 2400 ft. worth of sustained movement speed, per minute, at night (or about 27 miles per hour), which is just over 200 miles worth of movement at night per 8 hour period. A person can do a lot with that.
Ah, my favorite Sorcerer origin. Shadow Hound on a boss for the saving throw disadvantage, and then Polymorphing it into a harmless little creature for fun.
Yeah, polymorph is really bad as an offensive spell. Like, I'm amazed people still suggest it. You do realize that the enemy gets all of their original hitpoints back once you kill their polymorphed form, right?
best way to use it offensively is to polymorph them into something like a rabbit and then drop them from 1000ft up. They take all the fall damage except 1.
Perfect video and long overdue. I don't necessarily agree with your opinions but shadow sorcerers have so many things going on that the more you talk about them the more insight you get in their abilities.
I’ve definitely overplayed this archetype. You can easily make minor changes like an high-elf given dark powers by Lolth the Spider Queen, slowly corrupting the High Elf into a drow.
I just rolled up a Shadow Sorcerer for a campaign I joined on Saturday. As the daughter of a merchant, starting off with a +8 to Persuasion is pretty good (+3 CHA, +4 from Expertise in Persuasion, +1 from Luck Stone). Female Variant Human, Prodigy Feat, Noble background. For my two spells I chose Catapult so I could use any old object nearby as ammunition, and Chaos Bolt for diversity in damage types. Only hit I've landed so far was blindfiring a crossbow vertically into the forest canopy above when we were being followed by an enemy scout with disadvantage and only +2 to hit.
Just now seeing this video, I rolled stats for my first ever D&D game. I got 7 str, 15 Dex, 16 Con, 16 Int, 10 wis, and 18 charisma. I'm a changeling. Been having a lot of fun with this chr. And our DM is great at helping new people like me. Just got to level 4. On a mission to hunt down Cryovane. Probably not how his name is spelled.
Great analysis of a Shadow Magic Sorcerer. You sold me with the “no embarrassing deaths” argument. If I am going to die. I want to die in glory not embarrassment.
My Shadow Sorcerer concept is this: Jade Bloodmoon, a Fallen Aasimar who's also pretty good at necromancy. She's Neutral Good- she loves children, and will put her life on the line to help them or save them from certain doom. She's really kind and comforting, too. She is known for enabling people to speak with their lost loved ones, and she will go out of her way to protect her allies. She's basically a cross between Raven from Teen Titans, Bayonetta, and Nyx- the goddess of the night in Greek mythology. She's the ultimate goth girl.
One of my favourite races for the Shadow Sorcerer is the Fallen Aasimar, which fits so well the edgy theme and the mechanics. I'm kinda disappointed that you didn't talk about it
Man. Awesome topic. Before you guys mentioned it, I was on the idea of Dex and Cha from race. Drow ftw. Weapons proficiencies with Green-Flame Blade and advantage in the dark. Elven Accuracy is a good suggestion. Honestly, Spell Sniper and Whips, War Caster and Polearm Master. Whip main handed, staff off-hand to Polearm Master in War Caster for GF Blade on your whip. The range of the whip is fully utilized in this way due to Spell Sniper. Totally go Quickened and Subtle, then grab Twinned later Could multiclass into Arcane Trickster.
I play a shadow sorcerer Tabaxi in one of our games! He is so much fun! It has so many battle/control mage opportunities! (I play him like a shadow kitty ninja!) Edit: I debated on subtle spell for a long time but my first two metamagic choices were heightened spell and twinned spell! I have no regrets so far, and twinned spell is great and cheap for doubling up 1st level spells (as long as you stay within the parameters of twinned). Heightened is the really expensive one, but for those times you just really want them to fail your saving throw it's always good to have! Combine darkness with shadow blade and you become quite an adversary!
Dipping into Hexblade works very well with the Shadow Sorcerer. Or you can go with an Old God pact and become more of a battlefield controller. Take intimidation and use the hound to herd an enemy that's fleeing back to the fight so they cannot leave. Then use some of the warlock controls spells from Old God to mess with their minds.
@@theonlymatthew.l The SorLock build is a really good one. Just happens that Hexblade being all kinds of shadowy power goes really well with Shadow Sorcerer. If you get to the point your hex raises a shadow from a fallen enemy, and combine it with the shadow hound, makes you feel like you're raising a small shadow army.
I played a Shadow sorcerer for a bit that dipped into warlock for 3 levels going pact of the celestial. Backstory wise they were supposed to be a sacrifice but the ritual went wrong and they got infused with shadow magic. while traveling they met an angel that saw the good in them and helped offset the darkness in them while reassuring them they were a good person. Best moment was by far while the party was fighting in an arena and I used my darkness on my wand to provide mobile cover running around and picking up downed teammates with the bonus action heal or cure wounds, while tossing out eldritch blast at the enemies we fought. The dm was impressed and really liked the character
So I'm about to view "The Battle of Temple Gate" and I'm super excited......still lovin the Campaign and all your vids.....kudos on the subclass guides....not sure it's been done before on RUclips
i just started playing dnd my first char ever (liking it alot atm) and i took a fallen aasimar shadow sorcerer .. i just loved the necrotic shroud part
Shadow Blade as a T1 BA. Action attack (with Adv in Low Light) T2 Action attack. BA Quicken a spell. So many different paths possible with this subclass.
About the sorcery points, we homebrewed a little with my DM, allowing me to get my charisma modifier worth of sorcery points once per day on a short rest. Very usefull at lower levels and still helpfull on higher level ;) (specially with a +5 CHA modifier) oh and if you're looking for a race to play the Shadow sorcerer, the Yuan -ti's adavtage on spell saving throws and immunity to poison is sweeeeeeeet!
There are a couple things you probably could do with the last 3 abilities of the subclass: -Enlarge your hound of ill omen and grapple onto it, allowing you to cover a lot of ground and catch up to your target "on foot" -Use shadow walk to teleport through keyholes. -Use umbral form to potentially interact with the environment like a ghost. I would prefer getting wish the moment I unlock 9th lvl spells, use wish to give myself permanent resistance to radiant and/or force dmg, or get some extra feats or ability scores for the party. Or... be able to cast time stop without the concentration requirement. Then I'll switch out wish for time stop, since ~I can't switch out my spell anymore after lvl 20, and there is a chance I could never cast wish again.
If I was going for a Shadow Sorcerer, my inspiration would be Jackie from The Darkness comic series. I would lean more heavily on the Shadowfell theme. Animating shadows, summoning, controlling and banishing shadowfell creatures. Making weapons and armor out of shadowstuff. And also spells such as Fear, Emotion: Hopelessness and Sadness. And look at 3rd party sources for Shadow themed spells.
My shadow sorcerer was a half-elf Named Venvaris Othronus. He got pulled into the shadowfell when he was a teenager, and he escaped there after a year of being trapped. In the normal world however something close to a century had passed, and He began his journey on finding out how and why this happened to him. Due to being in shadowfell for so long, he had changed somewhat. Like usually it looks like he isn't breathing, and he barely blinks. And whenever he casts magic, shadows close to him stretch and connect to him and then he casts magic. Also if he stays in combat for 3 rounds or more his skin gradually get more grey and this blackish ichor starts to spill out of his eyes, ears, nose and mouth.
I have use mold earth to great success in campaigns by using it to create full cover, and to dig up valuable materials in conjunction with the locate object spell to fund the party with literally thousands of gold and the GM hates me for it doing this is also good for obtaining certain spell components that get consumed because often times diamonds are a consumed material components and why pay for diamonds when you can dig them up out of the ground
Been having fun with this subclass. Combined it with Rogue Inquisitve to make a superior Arcane Trickster. Straight up monster to deal with when you combine Rogue avoidance and spell blasting Sorcerer.
Changeling shadow sorcerer is what I’m currently playing and they’re a fun time to play. I built my character to be a blaster and a utility caster which at times can be a strain on the ol spell slots but I’m getting better at knowing when I should use supportive spells to mess with the enemies or focus on killing them. Either way twinned haste let’s me do both.
I can see a case for a non-edgy Shadow Sorcerer - it could either be someone who takes comfort in the shadows because shadow/shade is cool and relaxing, unlike the harsh, burning light (maybe they grew up in a desert or other really hot environment) and doesn't hurt their eyes OR it could be someone who plays up the dreams and illusionary aspect. Someone who likes to play with possibilities or is something of a performer with their magic. They could be really chill or, going against the grain, really cheery and pleasant... unless it's too bright out, then they retreat into their hoods and grumble about how it's too darn bright and spend a lot of their time squinting or maybe wearing a shroud or sheer mask. Given that sorcerers often don't get their powers by choice, there's nothing about the origin that says the character has to be this really dark, edgy person. The power sought them out and they don't have to let it define who they are as a person.
I actually made a pretty blasty shadow sorcerer by using a red dragonborn, and making a backstory similar to how shadow true dragons are made. I flavored all of my fire spells to be black flame, and I used the darkness and Scorching Ray as my pretty much go to. It was fun, even if it might not have been the most mechanically effective. :)
As regarding my previous post. You should also consider Sorcerers with a close tie to either Shar, Raven Queen or other deity or powerful entity. Even bloodlines tied to the Domains of Dread. Maybe even a Crow inspired Sorcerer or Warlock. Focusing on the Goth and EMO aspect does limit you.
One thing i would like to point out about the Umbral Form is the fact that when you end your turn inside of an object, you take 5 force damage. This seems counter-intuitive at first, but if you end your turn underground, you take 5 damage for that round. 5 hp at late levels is a easy trade off for not being able to be targeted by attacks or spells.
An asimier shadow sorc who has a happy disposition on life and is actually scared of the dark. She doesn't know how or why she was cursed with this shadow magic and is reluctant to use it but will in stressful situations
Been playing a Shadow Sorcerer for our Avernus game. I went with Halfling, since it was very sneaky, and I used the optional Faceless background from Avernus, which let me create an alter ego. So while the public might know the cherubic, smiling face of my alter ego, I operate in missions as my darker sorcerer. The downside of the campaign has been that the Darkness ability from Eyes of the Grave has been underwhelming, since Avernus means fighting devils and their damnable Devil's Sight ability to see through magical darkness. As for build, I think lots of people sleep on Shadow Blade as a second level spell. As a concentration, it does consistent psychic damage, which is one of the least resisted types. You can throw it and return it as a bonus action, which is fun if you take the Skulker feat. When you attack, you gain advantage if the target is in dim-light or darkness, which can be deadly if you multi-class into Rogue (2d8+Sneak Attack psychic damage!). As a Sorcerer, you can Twin the spell, letting you dual-wield as the blade counts as a light, finesse weapon. You can also use it with the Booming Blade or Green Flame Blade cantrips, and just for imagery, it's so cool to cut down foes with a green-flamed shadow blade of solid shadows. Using the Shadow Blade has required me to focus a lot more on DEX, since the attacks are finesse weapon and not spell attacks, and I have invested in more defensive spells (Mage Armor, Shield, Absorb Elements, Counterspell) to round-out my spell list
I have a Shadow Sorcerer character who is a scholar, and fits to be the face and thinker of the group, because he accquired his powers from his mother drowning to death before he couls be pulled out of her alive, and he grew up to study what happened to his mother and why he survived that and gained the power.
Thanks for the the video guys! I'm going into a new campaign as an Aasimar Shadow Sorc. and this has given me a lot of great ideas on what I'll be able to do.
I have a 1/2 elf Shadow Sorcerer, who portrays himself as "Undead" (background: Bounty hunter that got caught in a bog that was covering a portal to the shadowfae which corrupted his body and after pulling himself out looked "undead") He uses "Mold Earth" to make a grave, climb in and cover himself for long rests near the Inn that the rest of the party sleeps in (saves on money) Also his mode in combat is he uses "Twin" and spells like Chaos Bolt or Ice Knife that while target a single creature (and then twinned to second target) also deal radius damage or jump (like chain lightning) doing additional damage. add in "Empowered" to beef the damage... is pretty cool. Using the "Str of the grave" has been useful in the deception of portraying an Undead by "popping back up" when you go to 0 hp. Been VERY fun RPing. Even had a Cleric try to turn me... didn't work. (Also thought of converting to a 1/2 Orc to get a 2nd 0 hp pop up ability... ) Also using Infestation or Frostbite (also twinned)
I know this is late from when you wrote this, but you cannot twin chaos bolt or Ice knife. Jeremy Crawford has been out and stated "You cannot twin a spell that can IN ANY WAY target more than one target" meaning any spell that jumps like chaos bolt or have an AoE, like Ice Knife cannot be twinned :( Your DM might allow this, but that is how the metamagic works.
I always get tempted to play a shadow sorcerer multiclassed with hexblade warlock (pact of the blade). Up cast sorcerer spells from warlock slots (as of invocations, thirsting blade, improved pact weapon, life drinker devils sight) and metamagic from sorcerer (quickened or subtle spell) and feats war caster and resilient only
I play a half shadow elf shadow sorcerer, criminal background. He’s a joker. He’s not edgy or brooding at all. He wears a top hat, a Prince blouse and jacket, carries a lantern (staff as his spell focus) does card tricks (minor illusion cantrips), and he also carries around and lights candles everywhere to memorialize the slain. He was a mob assassin because he was sneaky and shadowblades don’t leave evidence. You can’t cast shadows without light, so he has an affinity for fire spells as well. I’m only level 6 but the bread and butter spells are Chill Touch and quickened chaos bolt and fireball. He’ll also cast blindness because it doesn’t use a concentration slot and it’s thematic. I had shadow blade, and used it a lot early levels, but I got rid of it because ultimately, I have no place in melee, even though it works well with shadow puppy and booming blade. High dex and charisma work pretty well, so being able to talk my way into/out of things as well as do some light breaking and entering - very fun.
My shadow sorcerer is only level 8 right now even split between sorcerer and swashbuckler rouge I'm a drow Urchin background My feats are Eldritch adept: devil sight Eleven accuracy (charisma) I started sorcerer and took rouge at 2nd level through 5th then doubled back and got 3 levels of sorcerer. As a drow I can cast darkness without using a spell slot then I can use sorcery points for extra castings. Devil sight means I can see in all darkness and can set myself up for lots of advantage sneak attacks Elven accuracy give me constant Super advantage so I roll a least one crit hit a session
I am imagining a fun gestalt character: a shadow sorcerer assassin rogue combo. Full manipulation of shadows just meshes well with sneaking into an encampment to assassinate the enemy leader. I like the idea of running them as a variant human with Prodigy as the starting feat; but a halfling could be fun, too. Avoiding "edgelord" territory would make them an unsuspecting villian for the DM.
my best friend loves playing edgy stuff (he’s writing a shadow sorc right now lol)and putting his own lighthearted twist on it. he’s just that type of guy
i mean this'll also work with a blind character, I'm playing a blind druid, (dm said that bc I'm also a half elf and that i have darkvision, my character can sense things within 60) and it helps with roleplaying as well bc things aren't explained in sight, they're described as sounds or senses
Here are our sample characters:
ddb.ac/characters/4017550/uMeqTr
ddb.ac/characters/14738638/TYb6X3
At LV18, you have 18 sorcery points.
-6 leaves 12. So unless you blow it twice prior, this is not that bad.
And 6 points is a LV4 spell slot. You could burn a LV4 spell slot to get this to activate.
This is better than using Stoneskin (LV4) and Gaseous Form(LV3) combined.
That is the equivalent to using 11 sorcery points or both a LV4 and LV3 spell slots and two actions, instead of 6 points/one LV4 slot and one bonus action.
I know this might be asking alot but... the Sea sorcerer really needs a video I call it Tide Sorcerer by the way... It gets overlooked cause of the name.... Everybody that plays a sorcerer goes auto shadow every time..
@@LxLore-j5b do you mean 'Storm Sorcerer'?
Because Sea is still in UA.
@@dragonmaster613 Sea, my understanding was it was finished and good to go...
@@LxLore-j5b what book?
You merely adopted the darkness. I was born in it. Molded by it. I didn't see daylight until I was already a man.
The darkness betrays you because it belongs to me
The only appropriate response when an enemy warlock casts darkness
@@JohnSmith-xm4dk 😂
Now I just want to make a hp tank shadow sorcerer and play him as bane, punching people to death as much if not more than using magic
@@Dancan799 Bane casts fist?
Who else heard the roleplaying section and immediately went, "I want to make the brightest, sunniest, friendliest shadow sorcerer possible"?
Sort of, but not exactly. I made a good-hearted, but half-crazy Shadow Sorcerer with connections to both the Shadowfell and aberrations. He's really kind and cheerful, but some of the things he says and the morbid look in his eyes make people afraid of him.
"Do you know what's going on in the cold shadows within my skull? ...Do you want to find out?"😜. He's weird, creepy, mysterious, and a heck of a lot of fun to RP, especially since he's good-aligned in spite of his quirks.
I immediately thought of making a charismatic but slightly creep/untrustworthy character like a combination of Ardin(FFXV) and Mat Cauthon (Wheel of Time).
Someone shady but charming, but the longer you talk to them, the more duplicitous or wrong they felt. Especially if you give them the character quirk where they forget living bodies/dead bodies should be treated differently. Like he admires a dead person's looks or style of clothing, or pickpockets living people because he forgets they're not dead, thus still needing their worldly possessions.
Oh big same. The table of quirks actually made me laugh out loud; I mean, forgetting to blink, treating corpses like they’re alive, and being surprised by your own heartbeat has the makings of comedy gold.
I’m currently playing a shadow sorcerer who tries very hard to be personable and friendly, but his heavy eye contact makes him seem a little grim and intense, or even threatening. :”) Not to mention his team mates constantly thinking he’s dead every time he’s asleep.
I like to think there are a lot of comedic applications for those quirks, and the spells that come with them! Imagine all the pranks that teleporting into shadows can lend!
Oh hell yes, I'm up
Me working on a molymock esk tiefling but sad background and forced to be a chrimanal
Monty should start saying, “Billy Mays here and I’ve got a great new subclass for you!”
I don't see the resemblance ;)
I hope that if he becomes a player on some other campaign, he might make a BILLY MAYS character. A bard, a bardbarian ('cause beard), a cleric or paladin a deity of money/greed - the possibilities are great!
He looks like one of my buddies from high school. Who was often mistaken for Billy Mays.
One thing I disagree with is not taking Hold Person/Monster.
Usually the spell is meh, since an enemy will get to save against it every round, but given that Hound of ill omen gives disadvantage against the saves of your spells while it is next to a target, you can really have that spell stick around for longer than it otherwise would.
Plus it means that your Hound is critting on each of its attacks as well, and the big bad dude next to it isn't killing it.
Especially if you take twin spell you can hit 2 at once and technically you can have 2 hounds at once if you have SP
@@Jdvalentine13 That's 8-11 sorcery points spent just on paralizing two targets
@@maid_of_heart3261 and? The idea isn't to use this strategy on standard thugs but to lock down the bbeg(s), giving yourself and your allies the leg up on destroying them is totally worth the price tag of SP and ending encounters much faster/safer.
@@dr9705 that’s really good, but I feel like blindness deafness is better. More versatile, and can hit non humanoids. Your allies won’t be Criting but with the hound it still can completely shut down any enemy
Oh I prefer Earthen Grasp. I reflavored it as a skeletal rotting hand coming out of the ground to grab someone. It was actually pretty awesome.
8 Int & Wis Shadow Sorcerer's origin:
"once I was walking home, I turned a wrong corner & ended up in the Shadowfell. Fortunately I was able to leave that place as fast as I could! after that I started experiencing these things like casting spells. isn't it totally rad?"
_Duuuude!_ BD
It was a bogus journey.
Exactly what I play right now, she joined the circus post-Shadowfell trip and knows literally nothing else. What a time to be alive.
(Wizard who spent 5 years in Evocation College)
*Loads Wand of Fireballs with malicious intent*
@@gamecavalier3230 probably
"A Teifling or Dark Elf Shadow Sorsorer would be really edgy."
My Attention whore Shadow Sorsorer Teifling: Look at my BEAUTIFUL Dancing Lights!
Subtle Spell + Friends seems like a good combo for a character with a high Charisma. This is especially true is you take Disguise Self and the Actor feat. Multiclassing into Warlock two levels for the Mask of Many Faces Eldritch Invocation might even be worth it to completely abuse these combos.
Was thinking of something similar for RP. The RP I would do a Shadow Sorcerer who has a Shadow Fiend living in his shadow and after discovery makes his shadow his Patron Fiend that he can then Summon to fight along side him. Although I admit that it would probably be terrible to do since you'd delay getting Hound (Patron) for a few levels but I would think it would be great for RP.
I have a character that does this. Can confirm. It’s fucking awesome.
I'm new to the sorcerer scene, however like most of my characters, they need a dark touch. My shadow sorcerer's name is Runa, a far traveller from Sossal. Her reason for leaving: to track down the white dragon that killed her parents and left her village in ruin. After a strange visit into the shadowfell, where she saw echoes of her village ruins and met one of the Raven Queen's Ravens, she returned with new and growing shadow magic due to her exposure. What I love the most is that I gave her a nordic theme. She has hair as black as the shadows, eyes of icy blue frost, and skin as cold as the dead. Her black attire is a sort of nordic goth. It's a work in progress, but I love the idea it follows.
Very detailed, very comprehensive introduction of shadow sorcerer! Everything is covered and explained just as always, I really like your videos guys, fantastic work, you are the best!
Hound of Ill Omen is also great when you have a GM that likes to have their big bad Misty Step away or otherwise try to flee if they are losing. Even if they don't catch up to them, knowing *roughly* where they went by following the dog is great.
Shadow magic and necromancy are universally my favorite types of magic (especially combined), so the Shadow Sorcerer is one of those perfect fits for me.
When I hear "shadow magic" though, the first thing that comes to mind is firing shadow bolts, or creating tantacles of physical shadows that grab or slash my foes, and the Shadow Sorcerer doesn't seem to have anyting like that, nor does there seem to be any spells like that. I suppose some spells can be flavored to be more like that though.
You looked at the Aberrant Mind Sorcerer? That's got a lot of that stuff.
Might want to check out Kobold Press's Deep Magic, that book has a whole section filled with shadow magic spells that pretty much fit that description.
I know I'm very late to the party but there are spells like Shadow Blade (which can be thrown) and the various Hadar/Tentacle spells that kinda fit that theme.
I'd say Eldritch Blast could mimic the Shadow Bolts pretty well since 'Force' isn't really described visually. But to make the most out of EB you would want to be a warlock rather than a sorcerer.
@@witcher_helms5144 or get Magic Initiate to get the EB spell as well as some extra spells to go with your list
Finally! Where warlock is my favorite class, Shadow Sorcery is my favorite subclass! It's so dark and mysterious and I turned that into my favorite character I ever played. I made a backstory where my character spent a year in the Shadowfell and instead of going mad or being overwhelmed by the darkness, he embraced it and became a shadow sorcerer. Such a fun subclass overall, I love it!
My husband and I play a drinking game to your (super great) videos: we drink every time you say "variant human" and "archetype". We love it, and your content! Tonight, we emptied our glasses when you said that variant human wasn't the preferred race. *raises cup* Here's to you!
I took a drink every time they said "shadow", and now I'm under the table.
I’m a huge fan of the Hexblade, pact of the Blade 3/ Shadow sorcerer + for a dark gish type character. Thematically, summoning your weapons from shadow, and using devils sight and silent image invocations. Always able to see through darkness and really mold the shadows with silent image. Then pumping all that with the powers of a shadow sorcerer. Though I haven’t made this character myself, it is on my “to be played” list.
I like using pact of the chain and having an invisible imp gathering all kinds of information for me.
Ja .Woods , i have a Dragonborn with a similar build
I’ve also been thinking about a Shadow Sorcerer/Hexblade build. Seems very thematic and, honestly, pretty easy to optimize. Sorlocks are amazing and I’d be excited to figure out exactly how to play this one.
Amazing set boys! Love how you captured the 70s basement in a middle class Ontario neighborhood. Wood paneling, ping pong table and old book shelves. Makes me feel like a kid again - well done!
I've just started a new campaign where I'm playing a Yuan-Ti Pureblood Shadow Sorceress starting at L6. Watching this video gave me some great insights into how to RP her. Cheers DDs! 😎
I was sure he was going to say as a strategy " I web them and then Veo kills the enamy while Pluto and I drink some health potions."
Very accurate XD
Love this! Also want to point out, personally when I read the table for shadow sorcerer quirks it made me laugh out loud and envision a Wednesday Adams like character.
Edgy and brooding is fun, but never underestimate the subclass’s potential for a comically macabre character as well, like Henry from Fire Emblem: Awakening, who makes crow and corpse puns and doesnt take his own safety or impending death seriously!
I myself have a young shadow sorcerer who forgets to blink, and his distressing heavy eye contact often causes him to accidentally intimidate people he is trying to charm! 😄
My Shadow sorcerer is Shadow Nine, a warforged who was a military scout. Buried in a cave in, he's freed decades later radically different in both appearance and class. He gained2 crystals,1 of which is a arcane focus, the other holds a trapped entity who seems to be the source of SN's abilities...
Shadow sorcerer and twilight domain cleric. An amazing pair thematically, roleplay wise, and mechanically.
Really digging these new subclass vids. Looking forward to revisiting Drakkenheim next tuesday!
Another excellent benefit of the hound of ill omen is that it frees up a meta magic slot, since you are limited in the number of meta magic options that you can grab and heightened is almost a required choice for most sorcerers. This means that excellent thematic options like twin spell or subtle spell are kept available to you.
My shadow sorcerer eventually found some spectacles of devils sight
You wouldn’t believe how well a sorcerer that gets see-through darkness so cheaply can work
That has to be a homebrew item?
I think so, mine was a rare wondrous item
@@spagandhi I just did not see it in the DMG so was curious
Here for the best Sebastian boi and his beautiful DM
Is it just me, or would a drow shadow sorcerer make an excellent Harper agent?
Nobody expects the Drow Harper Agent!
Or a zenterum
Yes, as would a Favored Soul of Ellistrae. Subtle- and Twinned-Spell Metamagic are my favorites.
Followed by Quicken Spell at higher levels..
so ideally you'd want to play a half elf shadow sorcerer with a 17 in charisma and upon reaching 4th level pick up the elven accuracy feat using it to increase your charisma to 1 then get 20 charisma at level 8 and then the rest can be left mostly to feats or if you want to increase you skills
Dudes, just rewatch your older episodes, you really up your energy:) Amazing content, my top dnd stream and info dumps. Dimension 20 has amazing Dm as well, nice to see you guys connecting.
Thank you for the Elven Accuracy tip and flavored spell choices. Shadow Sorcerer is my back up character and this video was very helpful in inspiring my character creation. Love your videos
Elven Accuracy is also amazing for a wild magic sorcerer because you can simply declare advantage on every attack. If you're into the chaos of wild magic it's really worth it
Dimension 20 is awesome! The first season, Fantasy High (a play on "high fantasy"), the characters were teenagers in an adventuring academy high school. Dimension 20 also does a podcast with tips and advice, called Adventuring Academy.
I was reading thru feat and found Svirfneblin Magic and instantly wanted to play Shadow Sorc with Deep Gnome.
Really really strong feat for stealthy spell caster
Hey Dungeon Dudes; long time fan here, with a question:
You guys have demonstrated a very deep understanding of the 5E mechanics and you've made a LOT of valid and logical criticisms of the system's classes/spells. Can we ever hope to see you publish some lightly tweaked "Dungeon Dudes Approved" updated versions of Fifth Edition's more erroneous classes and spells? A lot of fans would pay money for those PDF's! Personally, I'd print them out and stick them right over their respective pages in my PHB.
39:20
Love ya’ Joe, but damn ya’ll we’re so close to the greatest squad of assassins in all of Drakkenhiem.
Thanks for your nice, easy-understandable speech. Even for non-English viewer it's easy to understand you. It helps me to play better.
Absolutely love hearing your picks for spells and reasonings, both role-play and practical. This is super helpful as the Sorceror is such a pain to narrow down due to their limited spell choices. Hope you guys go the opposite way and give us a Divine Soul Sorceror video soon! Curious to see how you'd spec them, as a backup healer or as a divine blaster 😁.
“This ability saves you from embarrassing deaths.” What?! Rewinds quickly. That must be why this video was recommended for me.
I’ve made a shadow sorcerer named Corvus who is a Dark elf and he’s like a member of the Addams family in the sense that he’s a really nice person but is considered creepy or weird because he finds delight in things that are morbid or usually considered depressing, like he loves bad weather and rotting old mansions and is fascinated by horrible monsters
Awesome video guys. Your points about having a limited spell selection really hit home with me as I am playing a divine soul and I've found myself really struggling to pick spells due to having so much choice with 2 lists. Hopefully this might ease off a little with my 3 level dip into hexblade... But we'll wait and see.
So if you guys ever decide to do a video on Sorlocks or Divine Soul Sorcerers count me in!
Hey there, I just started playing D&D 5E and my character happens to be a Shadow Sorcerer.
Inspired by the first episode of Dungeons of Drakkenheim and being a long time Vampire Player and Storyteller I wanted to play a Warlock, but there already was one on the party. Then I found that a Shadow Sorcerer was even better fitting my desire to play an eloquent and ambivalent negotiator with a lot of depth but being a force to reckon with on the battlefield.
Sebastian Crowe was kind of an inspiration for me in the first place.
But then there was the table of oddities of the shadowmagic. It was pure fun!
Now Daeithron is a pale and cold Half-Elf with long jet-black hair, the fine features of his father's noble race paired with deep amethyst eyes and the inner thrive and cold fire his mother gifted him with as he seemed to be a stillbirth. She called to all forces to save her son. The shadows answered and infused the boy who now seems to be dead if he's sleeping.
I like being a deceiver, explorer and dark hero that scares the shit out of my fellow partymembers as well as out of the unfortunate creatures that happen to interfere with my endeavours.
Coolest thing is the roleplay dynamics with the human Celestial Warlock on the party, who is fascinated but also irritated by him.
He is great fun to play!
If you like to take a look:
www.dndbeyond.com/characters/74838697
And I know that it would have been more effective to take Con over Dex, but for him being heavily influenced by his elven heritage and having suffered from illness in his early years it seemed more fitting his story and concept to take Dex over Con.
Winter Eladrin Shadow Sorcerer who is a descendant of the Queen of Air and Darkness. One day he will contact her and multiclass into warlock of the archfey. The fey theme matches the illusion magic and charm of a shadow sorcerer pretty well imo.
I use a book called dark arts players companion with my shadow sorcerer. That book has a lot of shadow spells and can help make a very dark spell caster.
Where did you find that book?
@@nightflame69 Somewhere on the Internet. Dont remember the site. But you can try googling Dark art players companion.
15:54 to 16:00.
Because there is very little limitation on the Shadow Walk ability at Level 14 (only in dim light or darkness to a point you can see), other than it's also a per bonus action ability and its max distance is 120 ft., a ShadowSorc. PC at night could effectively teleport/travel at will almost anywhere in a given game world.
That's tentatively 240 ft. of movement per round (action + bonus action), not counting PC movement.
That's 2400 ft. worth of sustained movement speed, per minute, at night (or about 27 miles per hour), which is just over 200 miles worth of movement at night per 8 hour period.
A person can do a lot with that.
Urchin/Criminal/Urban Bounty Hunter is basically my goto background for any character.
Stealth and Thieves Tools are always useful skills to have.
Ah, my favorite Sorcerer origin. Shadow Hound on a boss for the saving throw disadvantage, and then Polymorphing it into a harmless little creature for fun.
Yeah, polymorph is really bad as an offensive spell. Like, I'm amazed people still suggest it. You do realize that the enemy gets all of their original hitpoints back once you kill their polymorphed form, right?
best way to use it offensively is to polymorph them into something like a rabbit and then drop them from 1000ft up. They take all the fall damage except 1.
Into a hamster 🐹? So adorable and harmless. T
Perfect video and long overdue. I don't necessarily agree with your opinions but shadow sorcerers have so many things going on that the more you talk about them the more insight you get in their abilities.
I’ve definitely overplayed this archetype. You can easily make minor changes like an high-elf given dark powers by Lolth the Spider Queen, slowly corrupting the High Elf into a drow.
Monty throwing out some Billy Mays vibes in the beginning promo.
I was waiting for the end of the intro to end with "I am Sebastian Crowe and I just killed you."
SO WAS I
I just rolled up a Shadow Sorcerer for a campaign I joined on Saturday. As the daughter of a merchant, starting off with a +8 to Persuasion is pretty good (+3 CHA, +4 from Expertise in Persuasion, +1 from Luck Stone). Female Variant Human, Prodigy Feat, Noble background. For my two spells I chose Catapult so I could use any old object nearby as ammunition, and Chaos Bolt for diversity in damage types. Only hit I've landed so far was blindfiring a crossbow vertically into the forest canopy above when we were being followed by an enemy scout with disadvantage and only +2 to hit.
My favorite Sorceror subclass. So much synergy in multiclassing!
Love that my favourite RUclips channel is sponsored by my other favourite RUclips channel.
I recently started playing a Shadow Sorcerer in HotDQ at an AL table. These were some great pointers!
Just now seeing this video, I rolled stats for my first ever D&D game. I got 7 str, 15 Dex, 16 Con, 16 Int, 10 wis, and 18 charisma. I'm a changeling. Been having a lot of fun with this chr. And our DM is great at helping new people like me. Just got to level 4. On a mission to hunt down Cryovane. Probably not how his name is spelled.
Great analysis of a Shadow Magic Sorcerer. You sold me with the “no embarrassing deaths” argument. If I am going to die. I want to die in glory not embarrassment.
My Shadow Sorcerer concept is this:
Jade Bloodmoon, a Fallen Aasimar who's also pretty good at necromancy. She's Neutral Good- she loves children, and will put her life on the line to help them or save them from certain doom. She's really kind and comforting, too. She is known for enabling people to speak with their lost loved ones, and she will go out of her way to protect her allies. She's basically a cross between Raven from Teen Titans, Bayonetta, and Nyx- the goddess of the night in Greek mythology. She's the ultimate goth girl.
Dr. Falicer aka shadowman, from the princess & the frog is a great example. But I feel like he also had bard traits too.
He is warlock. He got"friends from the other side".
Shadow Sorcerer multiclass with Gloom Stalker... Fun!!!!
Is he a fallen asimar or a drow?
VR Human
Hexblade Dip, even more fun 😁
Now you've put this into my head and I'm imagining Sebastian and Veo having a child and that being the result.
One of my favourite races for the Shadow Sorcerer is the Fallen Aasimar, which fits so well the edgy theme and the mechanics. I'm kinda disappointed that you didn't talk about it
That was a great episode. So interesting to hear theory crafting (not a pejorative) combined with practical experience.
Celestial Warlock Guide would be cool, as would an Oath of Conquest Paladin guide!
Any in depth subclass guide would be cool, I love those
Voting for Conquest, I just happen to have two very solid character concepts for shadow/conquest that I'm looking to give just a bit more polish to.
I've been subscribed to dropout from the beginning. But I am glad you guys were able to connect with them in some way
Man. Awesome topic. Before you guys mentioned it, I was on the idea of Dex and Cha from race. Drow ftw. Weapons proficiencies with Green-Flame Blade and advantage in the dark. Elven Accuracy is a good suggestion. Honestly, Spell Sniper and Whips, War Caster and Polearm Master. Whip main handed, staff off-hand to Polearm Master in War Caster for GF Blade on your whip. The range of the whip is fully utilized in this way due to Spell Sniper. Totally go Quickened and Subtle, then grab Twinned later
Could multiclass into Arcane Trickster.
I play a shadow sorcerer Tabaxi in one of our games! He is so much fun! It has so many battle/control mage opportunities! (I play him like a shadow kitty ninja!)
Edit: I debated on subtle spell for a long time but my first two metamagic choices were heightened spell and twinned spell! I have no regrets so far, and twinned spell is great and cheap for doubling up 1st level spells (as long as you stay within the parameters of twinned). Heightened is the really expensive one, but for those times you just really want them to fail your saving throw it's always good to have! Combine darkness with shadow blade and you become quite an adversary!
Dipping into Hexblade works very well with the Shadow Sorcerer. Or you can go with an Old God pact and become more of a battlefield controller. Take intimidation and use the hound to herd an enemy that's fleeing back to the fight so they cannot leave. Then use some of the warlock controls spells from Old God to mess with their minds.
I like taking at least two levels of Hexblade, sometimes 3. It's worth it for the Armor and Shield proficiency and Eldritch Blast alone
@@theonlymatthew.l The SorLock build is a really good one. Just happens that Hexblade being all kinds of shadowy power goes really well with Shadow Sorcerer. If you get to the point your hex raises a shadow from a fallen enemy, and combine it with the shadow hound, makes you feel like you're raising a small shadow army.
Seeing this after making a changeling whisper bard/shadow sorcerer multiclass makes me super excited to play them in my upcoming campaign
I love that Psychic Scream specifies that being killed by it explodes your head!
I played a Shadow sorcerer for a bit that dipped into warlock for 3 levels going pact of the celestial. Backstory wise they were supposed to be a sacrifice but the ritual went wrong and they got infused with shadow magic. while traveling they met an angel that saw the good in them and helped offset the darkness in them while reassuring them they were a good person.
Best moment was by far while the party was fighting in an arena and I used my darkness on my wand to provide mobile cover running around and picking up downed teammates with the bonus action heal or cure wounds, while tossing out eldritch blast at the enemies we fought. The dm was impressed and really liked the character
So I'm about to view "The Battle of Temple Gate" and I'm super excited......still lovin the Campaign and all your vids.....kudos on the subclass guides....not sure it's been done before on RUclips
i just started playing dnd my first char ever (liking it alot atm) and i took a fallen aasimar shadow sorcerer .. i just loved the necrotic shroud part
Shadow Blade as a T1 BA. Action attack (with Adv in Low Light)
T2 Action attack. BA Quicken a spell.
So many different paths possible with this subclass.
About the sorcery points, we homebrewed a little with my DM, allowing me to get my charisma modifier worth of sorcery points once per day on a short rest. Very usefull at lower levels and still helpfull on higher level ;) (specially with a +5 CHA modifier) oh and if you're looking for a race to play the Shadow sorcerer, the Yuan -ti's adavtage on spell saving throws and immunity to poison is sweeeeeeeet!
Yo, so... I accidently went to full screen and both your guys' eyes are gleaming in this video... it's beautiful
also great use of smorgesbord
There are a couple things you probably could do with the last 3 abilities of the subclass:
-Enlarge your hound of ill omen and grapple onto it, allowing you to cover a lot of ground and catch up to your target "on foot"
-Use shadow walk to teleport through keyholes.
-Use umbral form to potentially interact with the environment like a ghost.
I would prefer getting wish the moment I unlock 9th lvl spells, use wish to give myself permanent resistance to radiant and/or force dmg, or get some extra feats or ability scores for the party. Or... be able to cast time stop without the concentration requirement.
Then I'll switch out wish for time stop, since ~I can't switch out my spell anymore after lvl 20, and there is a chance I could never cast wish again.
Great episode. I just rolled a water genasi tempest cleric for a new campaign. Would love to hear your guys in depth thoughts on the sub class.
If I was going for a Shadow Sorcerer, my inspiration would be Jackie from The Darkness comic series. I would lean more heavily on the Shadowfell theme. Animating shadows, summoning, controlling and banishing shadowfell creatures. Making weapons and armor out of shadowstuff. And also spells such as Fear, Emotion: Hopelessness and Sadness. And look at 3rd party sources for Shadow themed spells.
My shadow sorcerer was a half-elf Named Venvaris Othronus.
He got pulled into the shadowfell when he was a teenager, and he escaped there after a year of being trapped. In the normal world however something close to a century had passed, and He began his journey on finding out how and why this happened to him.
Due to being in shadowfell for so long, he had changed somewhat. Like usually it looks like he isn't breathing, and he barely blinks.
And whenever he casts magic, shadows close to him stretch and connect to him and then he casts magic. Also if he stays in combat for 3 rounds or more his skin gradually get more grey and this blackish ichor starts to spill out of his eyes, ears, nose and mouth.
I have use mold earth to great success in campaigns by using it to create full cover, and to dig up valuable materials in conjunction with the locate object spell to fund the party with literally thousands of gold and the GM hates me for it doing this is also good for obtaining certain spell components that get consumed because often times diamonds are a consumed material components and why pay for diamonds when you can dig them up out of the ground
Been having fun with this subclass. Combined it with Rogue Inquisitve to make a superior Arcane Trickster. Straight up monster to deal with when you combine Rogue avoidance and spell blasting Sorcerer.
Changeling shadow sorcerer is what I’m currently playing and they’re a fun time to play. I built my character to be a blaster and a utility caster which at times can be a strain on the ol spell slots but I’m getting better at knowing when I should use supportive spells to mess with the enemies or focus on killing them. Either way twinned haste let’s me do both.
It takes a certain dude to play shadow sorcerer
An emophiliac.
Would love to see even a mini series of the original three!
I can see a case for a non-edgy Shadow Sorcerer - it could either be someone who takes comfort in the shadows because shadow/shade is cool and relaxing, unlike the harsh, burning light (maybe they grew up in a desert or other really hot environment) and doesn't hurt their eyes OR it could be someone who plays up the dreams and illusionary aspect. Someone who likes to play with possibilities or is something of a performer with their magic. They could be really chill or, going against the grain, really cheery and pleasant... unless it's too bright out, then they retreat into their hoods and grumble about how it's too darn bright and spend a lot of their time squinting or maybe wearing a shroud or sheer mask.
Given that sorcerers often don't get their powers by choice, there's nothing about the origin that says the character has to be this really dark, edgy person. The power sought them out and they don't have to let it define who they are as a person.
Beautiful timing, I'm starting to play as a shadow sorcerer tomorrow :)
I actually made a pretty blasty shadow sorcerer by using a red dragonborn, and making a backstory similar to how shadow true dragons are made. I flavored all of my fire spells to be black flame, and I used the darkness and Scorching Ray as my pretty much go to. It was fun, even if it might not have been the most mechanically effective. :)
As regarding my previous post. You should also consider Sorcerers with a close tie to either Shar, Raven Queen or other deity or powerful entity. Even bloodlines tied to the Domains of Dread. Maybe even a Crow inspired Sorcerer or Warlock. Focusing on the Goth and EMO aspect does limit you.
One thing i would like to point out about the Umbral Form is the fact that when you end your turn inside of an object, you take 5 force damage. This seems counter-intuitive at first, but if you end your turn underground, you take 5 damage for that round. 5 hp at late levels is a easy trade off for not being able to be targeted by attacks or spells.
An asimier shadow sorc who has a happy disposition on life and is actually scared of the dark.
She doesn't know how or why she was cursed with this shadow magic and is reluctant to use it but will in stressful situations
Been playing a Shadow Sorcerer for our Avernus game. I went with Halfling, since it was very sneaky, and I used the optional Faceless background from Avernus, which let me create an alter ego. So while the public might know the cherubic, smiling face of my alter ego, I operate in missions as my darker sorcerer. The downside of the campaign has been that the Darkness ability from Eyes of the Grave has been underwhelming, since Avernus means fighting devils and their damnable Devil's Sight ability to see through magical darkness.
As for build, I think lots of people sleep on Shadow Blade as a second level spell. As a concentration, it does consistent psychic damage, which is one of the least resisted types. You can throw it and return it as a bonus action, which is fun if you take the Skulker feat. When you attack, you gain advantage if the target is in dim-light or darkness, which can be deadly if you multi-class into Rogue (2d8+Sneak Attack psychic damage!). As a Sorcerer, you can Twin the spell, letting you dual-wield as the blade counts as a light, finesse weapon. You can also use it with the Booming Blade or Green Flame Blade cantrips, and just for imagery, it's so cool to cut down foes with a green-flamed shadow blade of solid shadows. Using the Shadow Blade has required me to focus a lot more on DEX, since the attacks are finesse weapon and not spell attacks, and I have invested in more defensive spells (Mage Armor, Shield, Absorb Elements, Counterspell) to round-out my spell list
I have a Shadow Sorcerer character who is a scholar, and fits to be the face and thinker of the group, because he accquired his powers from his mother drowning to death before he couls be pulled out of her alive, and he grew up to study what happened to his mother and why he survived that and gained the power.
Thanks for the the video guys! I'm going into a new campaign as an Aasimar Shadow Sorc. and this has given me a lot of great ideas on what I'll be able to do.
I have a 1/2 elf Shadow Sorcerer, who portrays himself as "Undead" (background: Bounty hunter that got caught in a bog that was covering a portal to the shadowfae which corrupted his body and after pulling himself out looked "undead") He uses "Mold Earth" to make a grave, climb in and cover himself for long rests near the Inn that the rest of the party sleeps in (saves on money) Also his mode in combat is he uses "Twin" and spells like Chaos Bolt or Ice Knife that while target a single creature (and then twinned to second target) also deal radius damage or jump (like chain lightning) doing additional damage. add in "Empowered" to beef the damage... is pretty cool. Using the "Str of the grave" has been useful in the deception of portraying an Undead by "popping back up" when you go to 0 hp. Been VERY fun RPing. Even had a Cleric try to turn me... didn't work. (Also thought of converting to a 1/2 Orc to get a 2nd 0 hp pop up ability... ) Also using Infestation or Frostbite (also twinned)
I know this is late from when you wrote this, but you cannot twin chaos bolt or Ice knife. Jeremy Crawford has been out and stated "You cannot twin a spell that can IN ANY WAY target more than one target" meaning any spell that jumps like chaos bolt or have an AoE, like Ice Knife cannot be twinned :( Your DM might allow this, but that is how the metamagic works.
@@martinfriis4613 Thanks for the clarification. Will adjust accordingly
I always get tempted to play a shadow sorcerer multiclassed with hexblade warlock (pact of the blade). Up cast sorcerer spells from warlock slots (as of invocations, thirsting blade, improved pact weapon, life drinker devils sight) and metamagic from sorcerer (quickened or subtle spell) and feats war caster and resilient only
I play a half shadow elf shadow sorcerer, criminal background. He’s a joker. He’s not edgy or brooding at all. He wears a top hat, a Prince blouse and jacket, carries a lantern (staff as his spell focus) does card tricks (minor illusion cantrips), and he also carries around and lights candles everywhere to memorialize the slain. He was a mob assassin because he was sneaky and shadowblades don’t leave evidence. You can’t cast shadows without light, so he has an affinity for fire spells as well. I’m only level 6 but the bread and butter spells are Chill Touch and quickened chaos bolt and fireball. He’ll also cast blindness because it doesn’t use a concentration slot and it’s thematic. I had shadow blade, and used it a lot early levels, but I got rid of it because ultimately, I have no place in melee, even though it works well with shadow puppy and booming blade. High dex and charisma work pretty well, so being able to talk my way into/out of things as well as do some light breaking and entering - very fun.
I love this show never stop!!!
How to use the darkness: get away from your party and cast it on yourself. That way no one can see you, but your allies are not hindered
My shadow sorcerer is only level 8 right now even split between sorcerer and swashbuckler rouge
I'm a drow
Urchin background
My feats are
Eldritch adept: devil sight
Eleven accuracy (charisma)
I started sorcerer and took rouge at 2nd level through 5th then doubled back and got 3 levels of sorcerer.
As a drow I can cast darkness without using a spell slot then I can use sorcery points for extra castings.
Devil sight means I can see in all darkness and can set myself up for lots of advantage sneak attacks
Elven accuracy give me constant Super advantage so I roll a least one crit hit a session
I am imagining a fun gestalt character: a shadow sorcerer assassin rogue combo. Full manipulation of shadows just meshes well with sneaking into an encampment to assassinate the enemy leader.
I like the idea of running them as a variant human with Prodigy as the starting feat; but a halfling could be fun, too. Avoiding "edgelord" territory would make them an unsuspecting villian for the DM.
my best friend loves playing edgy stuff (he’s writing a shadow sorc right now lol)and putting his own lighthearted twist on it. he’s just that type of guy
1/2 elf Shadow Sorcerer/Rogue multiclass (I went to 6 rogue after 8 in sorcerer before our group fell apart)
I would like a video from you dudes about sidekicks!
i mean this'll also work with a blind character, I'm playing a blind druid, (dm said that bc I'm also a half elf and that i have darkvision, my character can sense things within 60) and it helps with roleplaying as well bc things aren't explained in sight, they're described as sounds or senses