Shadow Dragon
HD:d12| Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Feature |
| 1 | +1 | +2 | +0 | +2 | Shadow Dragon body, Smoky Breath, +1 Cha |
| 2 | +2 | +3 | +0 | +3 | Keen senses, Arcane Blood |
| 3 | +3 | +3 | +1 | +3 | Blindsense 60 feets, Billowing Breath, Lesser Shadow Magic, +1 Str |
| 4 | +4 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Wings |
| 5 | +5 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Shadow Blend, +1 Con |
| 6 | +6 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Shadow Misdirection, Rapacious |
| 7 | +7 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Domain, +1 Cha |
| 8 | +8 | +6 | +2 | +5 | Draining Breath, Rapacious |
| 9 | +9 | +6 | +3 | +6 | Shadow Magic, +1 Str |
| 10 | +10 | +7 | +3 | +7 | Shadow Lord, Rapacious |
| 11 | +11 | +7 | +3 | +7 | Arcane Skin |
| 12 | +12 | +8 | +4 | +8 | Iron Scales, +1 Con |
| 13 | +13 | +8 | +4 | +8 | Tail slap, Growth, +1 Cha |
| 14 | +14 | +9 | +4 | +9 | Meld Into the Shadows, +1 Str |
| 15 | +15 | +9 | +5 | +9 | Greater Shadow Magic, Rapacious, +1 Con |
| 16 | +16 | +10 | +5 | +10 | Domain, +1 Str, +1 Cha |
| 17 | +17 | +10 | +5 | +10 | Consuming Shadows, +1 Con, +1 Cha |
| 18 | +18 | +11 | +6 | +11 | Frightfull presence, Growth, Crush, +1 Str, +1 Con |
| 19 | +19 | +11 | +6 | +11 | Darkness Seal, +1 Str, +1 Cha |
| 20 | +20 | +12 | +6 | +12 | Create Shadows, +1 Str, +1 Con, +1 Cha |
4 Skill points+int per level, quadruple at 1st level. Class skills: Apraise, Bluff, Concentration, Climb, Jump, Hide, Intimidate, Listen, Knowledge(any), Move Silently, Search, Spot, Spellcraft.
Proficiencies: a Shadow dragon isn't proficient with any armor or weapons, besides his own natural weapons.
Features:Shadow Dragon Body: The Shadow dragon loses all other racial bonuses, and gains Dragon traits(60ft Darkvision, low light vision, and immunity to sleep and paralysis), bite 1d8 damage, 2 claws attack for 1d6 damage each and 40 base speed, medium size. The Shadow Dragon has wings, but they're too weak to do anything for now. His claws are capable of fine manipulation and can be used for somatic components of spellcasting or anything else a human hand could do.
The Shadow dragon is immune to Energy Drain, and also gets a natural armor bonus equal to his Con modifier. Whenever the Shadow dragon grows one size category, his natural armor increases by a further 1.
Smoky Breath:Cone of shadows with 30 feet inflicting a -1 penalty on attack rolls, saves, skill checks, ability checks, and effective level for 1 minute, useable every 1d4 turns. A Reflex save with DC 10+1/2 HD+Con modifier negates this effect, and resistance/immunity to energy drain works against it. Multiple failed saves stack and renews the duration. Cone increases by 5 feet with each extra HD the player takes from here.
Ability score increase: The Shadow dragon ability scores increase by the shown amount.
| Level | Bonus gained |
| 1 | +1 Cha |
| 3 | +1 Str |
| 5 | +1 Con |
| 7 | +1 Cha |
| 9 | +1 Str |
| 12 | +1 Con |
| 13 | +1 Cha |
| 14 | +1 Str |
| 15 | +1 Con |
| 16 | +1 Str, +1 Cha |
| 17 | +1 Con, +1 Cha |
| 18 | +1 Str, +1 Con |
| 19 | +1 Str, +1 Cha |
| 20 | +1 Str, +1 Con, +1 Cha |
For a total of +7 Str, +6 Con, +7 Cha at 20th level.
Arcane Blood:A Shadow dragon receives spells known and spells per day as a sorceror of 2/3 his level, but he has CL equal to his HD. He may also choose to pick spells known from the Cleric spell list instead of the sorceror/wizard list, but this choice must be made at first level and cannot be changed later.
If he multiclasses as a sorceror, the casting stacks. If he chose to pick spells from the Cleric list, he'll keep picking them from that list.
| Dragon level | Sorceror casting |
| 1 | - |
| 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 2 |
| 4 | 2 |
| 5 | 3 |
| 6 | 4 |
| 7 | 4 |
| 8 | 5 |
| 9 | 6 |
| 10 | 6 |
| 11 | 7 |
| 12 | 8 |
| 13 | 8 |
| 14 | 9 |
| 15 | 10 |
| 16 | 10 |
| 17 | 11 |
| 18 | 12 |
| 19 | 12 |
| 20 | 13 |
If a dragon takes a casting prc, it may choose to advance his casting as that of a sorceror. So a dragon 10/loremaster 10 would cast as a 16th level sorceror.
Keen senses:The Shadow dragon sees four times as well as a human in shadowy illumination and twice as well in normal light. It also has darkvision out to 120 feet.
Blindsense:As the normal ability, range 60 feets.
Billowing Breath:At 3rd level, when using his Smoky Breath ability, the Shadow Dragon may choose to inflict one negative level on the targets instead of the original effect. A sucessful reflex save still negates it.
Lesser Shadow magic:At 3rd level the Shadow dragon can use Mirror Image and Nondetection as SLAs each 1/day for every 3 HD he has.
Wings:The Shadow dragon becomes able to fly at the speed of 10 feets per HD, with poor maneuverability. The maneuverability doesn't increase naturaly, but players can take the Improved Flight feat, found in Complete Adventurer and Races of the Wild, which increases maneuverability by one step. Each wing can also be now used to deliver a natural atack dealing 1d4 damage.
Shadow Blend:In any condition of illumination other than full daylight, a shadow dragon of 5th level or higher can disappear into the shadows, giving it total concealment. Artificial illumination, even a light or continual flame spell, does not negate this ability. A daylight spell, however, does.
Shadow Misdirection:Shadow Dragons are sly and devious creatures. At 6th levels they can Feint any creature inside their blindsight range whitout giving away their position if they're hiding or needing to be in melee range, and neither do they take penalties on feinting against other types of creatures, even those of animal Inelligence.
In addition, creatures Feinted by the Shadow Dragon take a -1 penalty to AC and saves for 1 minute, as they grow paranoid every shadow is out to get them.
Rapacious: Shadow dragons are incredibly quick on the ground. At 6th level they gain +10 feet to their base speed. At 8th, 10th and 15th level they gain an extra +10 feet to their base speed.
Domain: At levels 7 and 16 the Shadow dragon can add the spells from one domain to his spells known list. The choices are Chaos, Evil, and Trickery.
Draining Breath:At 8th level, the Shadow Dragon's Smoky Breath inflicts two negative levels, and a sucesful save only halves the effect, doesn't negate it. At 13, 16 and 18 HD the amount of inflicted negative levels increases by 1.
Shadow Magic:At 9th level the Shadow dragon can use Dimension Door as a SLA 1/day per 4 HD. If the starting and ending locations are inside shadows, he can use it as a move action. The Shadow Dragon also gains
Dimensional Agility as a bonus feat.
Shadow Lord: At 10th level, the Shadow Dragon casts Illusion spells at +2 Caster level and anti-illusion effects like True Seeing, See Invisibility, Invisibility Purge, etc, only work against his illusions if the source is whitin 10 feet of the illusion itself.
Arcane skin:At 11th level the Shadow dragon gains SR equal to his HD+11. It may raise or lower it at any time as a free action.
Iron Scales:At 12th level the Shadow dragon gains DR/magic equal to half his HD.
Growth:At 13th level the Shadow dragon grows to large size.
At 18th level the Shadow dragon grows to huge size.
His AC, bonus to hit, base damage, grapple and skills change acordingly, but he doesn't get any ability score bonus or penalties.
Tail slap:The Shadow dragon can now make a tail slap attack dealing 1d8 damage(already taking in acount large size).
Meld into the Shadows:Shadow Dragons have translucent scales and dark bodies, giving them an indistinct appearance. From a distance, they seem to be nothing but a forebonding mass of shadows. At 14th level in any condition of illumination other than full daylight the Shadow Dragon can ignore size penalty to AC, hide checks and attack rolls. Artificial illumination won't work against this, but a Daylight spell will.
Greater Shadow Magic:At 15th level the Shadow Dragon can use Shadow Walk as a SLA 1/day for every 6 HD he has. If you're in an area of complete darkness, you may use it as an Immediate action.
Consuming Shadows: Even the foulest creatures can find themselves lost in the darkness. At 17th level, as a swift action a number of times per day equal to his Cha mod, the Shadow Dragon may boost his next Draining Breath so that it inflicts one extra negative level, and even affects creatures immune to energy drain can be affected, altough those only get half the negative levels (or a quarter in a sucesful save).
Crush: At 18th level the dragon can make a crush attack dealing 2d8 damage base, already taking in acount huge size
This special attack allows a flying or jumping dragon of at least Huge size to land on opponents as a standard action, using its whole body to crush them. Crush attacks are effective only against opponents three or more size categories smaller than the dragon (though it can attempt normal overrun or grapple attacks against larger opponents).
A crush attack affects as many creatures as can fit under the dragon’s body. Creatures in the affected area must succeed on a Reflex save (DC equal to that of the dragon’s breath weapon) or be pinned, automatically taking bludgeoning damage during the next round unless the dragon moves off them. If the dragon chooses to maintain the pin, treat it as a normal grapple attack. Pinned opponents take damage from the crush each round if they don’t escape.
A crush attack deals the indicated damage plus 1½ times the dragon’s Strength bonus (round down).
Frightfull presence:At 18th level this ability takes effect automatically whenever the dragon attacks, charges, or flies overhead. Enemies within a radius of 30 feet × half the dragon's level are subject to the effect if they have fewer HD than the dragon. A potentially affected enemy that succeeds on a Will save (DC 10 + ½ dragon’s HD + dragon’s Cha modifier) remains immune to that dragon’s frightful presence for 24 hours. On a failure, enemies with 4 or less HD become panicked for 4d6 rounds and those with 5 or more HD become shaken for 4d6 rounds. Dragons ignore the frightful presence of other dragons.
Darkness Seal: At 19th level if the Shadow Dragon would be killed/disabled/locked, it may choose to seal itself. It will reform itself in a random shadow whitin a radius of 100 yards in the form of a young or child humanoid . It'll have the stats of a 5th-level character with a single base class of its choice (with its original ability scores) and holds no memory of its previous existence (except a natural love for the night and shadows), but retains its Darkness Seal ability, which it will automatically use if it feels again endangered. If left undisturbed for 1d10 days, it turns back into its original form, ready to reap revenge on the world!
The only known way to stop this is finding the Shadow Dragon on its sealed form (it has no special defenses against divination) and puting a colourful ribbon on its head (Knowledge Arcana DC 37). While it's on, the Shadow Dragon won't return to normal, neither can he willingly take any action to remove the ribbon or ask for help doing so. However the sealed shadow dragon will retain its original lifespan, and if anyone else removes the ribbon, he instantly returns to normal! She can't gain exp tough.
Create Shadows:At 20th level three times per day as a fullround action, a shadow dragon can conjure a mass of leaping shadows with a radius of 100 yards and a duration of 1 hour (this is a creation effect). All normal and magical light sources are negated within this radius. All characters and creatures gain a +4 bonus on their Hide checks within the shadows, and can hide even if directly observed. Shadow dragons and other creatures with direct ties to the Plane of Shadow gain total concealment within the shadows, though they can move and attack normally. Their attacks gain a +2 bonus and deny their opponents any Dexterity bonus to AC, because they are considered invisible. Darkvision, even that of devils, is useless against this, unless it's from a creature with direct ties to the Shadow plane
Comments:
Weee one more dragon! Just 1 875 more left to convert!
The Shadow Dragon is a nasty bastard with his Energy Drain breath raining area negative levels, and later you're taking some even if you save. So the first thing was dividing the breath weapon along several stages during the class.
Next things progressed rather quickly. Some illusions tricks here, shadow blend there, it grows a little slower than your average dragon, more shadow stuff. The original monster even provided me a ready-to-use "ultimate", but I found myself blocked trying to scrounge up something for 19th level. Darkness Seal was the answer that came to me from heavens gaming experience. It may not be the sanest ability out there, or close to that, but screw that, sealed super-evils are a fantasy staple!
So if you feel like knocking out that silly ribbon from that girl, the shadow dragon may jump on you!
