Rogue Shadow Bound

A rogue is at home in the shadows, slipping into the darkness to evade their enemies, strike down an unsuspecting foe, or carry off a great treasure. Some rogues feel a strange presence when they slip into the darkness. They hear whispers at the edge of their hearing and catch sight of flickering movement in the dark.

These rogues hear the call of the shadow, and they are fated to become shadow bound. The darkness sometimes senses a void in living creature’s heart, a yearning that can never be filled. Or perhaps it can. A strange figure that dwells in the space between the shadows reaches out with a simple offer. Yield something of your past and open a path to a future where your heart’s empty void will be filled. Those who hear this offer are doomed to accept it, and in doing so they are doomed to regret it. Yet the shadow chooses its partners carefully, knowing that those marked for its bargain cannot resist its urge.

Despite the dark ends that the shadow bound inevitably come to, the shadow freely offers an array of deadly abilities. The shadow bound can sunder their own shadows, turning them into helpful creatures that aid them in battle. The mightiest shadow bound can call forth an inky duplicate of themselves, a dark reflection of their future that aids them in the present.

Shadowed Past

A shadow stalker must give up something to lend a shard of their identity to the void. While that element of your identity is gone and forgotten, the hole it left behind pulls at the edge of your mind. You know you are missing something. At times, you feel as if you are about to remember it, but aside from a few brief visions and a feeling of déjà vu, it remains beyond your recollection.

D6 Roll or Choose

Shadowed Past

1: You have a dim memory of happy times, a warm home, and a sense of security. Funny, you’ve never experienced those things in your life.

2: Sometimes, you wake up with an overwhelming sense of dread. You don’t remember, but you know that she remembers you and the debt you owe her. But who or what is she, and why hasn’t she tracked you down?

3: You sleep soundly at night and have a clear conscience. Considering your line of work and the talents you developed, you must have forgotten something truly terrible.

4: Once an old man cornered you in an alley and babbled to you in a language you never heard before. He became incredibly agitated, before toppling over, dead. When you touched his body, it disappeared in a flash of flame.

5: During the ritual in which you were supposed to give up part of your identity, something bizarre happened. Rather than take part of your identity, the shadows gifted you a memory. When you close your eyes, you are someone else, someone buried in an unmarked grave who slowly claws at a sealed, steel coffin lid above them. You know that they must not escape, but you have a strange desire to find and help them.

6: Your mind is filled with memories of your life before, but you have never met or found any of your friends and family. Except once. You were sure the women you spotted was your sister, but when she saw you she shrieked in terror and fled.

Shadowed Future

The shadow claimed some of your past, but in so doing it set you on a path to your destined future, the one you were meant to fulfill. It’s yours to claim, if you can survive the challenges ahead. Unfortunately, the shadow’s promises always come with a twist.

D6 Roll or Choose

Shadowed Future

1: You were promised a throne and a realm to rule, until you would one day be betrayed by someone you never trusted. That should be an easy fate to avoid, right?

2: You have been promised a long, peaceful life. But to claim it, you must commit a terrible deed that requires others to make a great sacrifice.

3: You have been promised immortality, but at the cost of your freedom. You would rather die than live in chains.

4: The shadows looked into your heart and saw a fate so terrible that even their power could do nothing to bend it. It recoiled in horror and marked you as anathema.

5: One day you will have everything you now desire, but the shadows told you that what you desire today is not what you will desire tomorrow. What could change your heart?

6: The shadows laughed when you struck your bargain with them. You already have your destiny in the palm of your hand, they said, but you are blind to it.

Archetype Features

Sundered Shadow

At 3rd level, you gain the ability to expel your shadow from your side and command its actions. You can cast find familiar as an action without expending a spell slot. When you cast it in this manner, the familiar you summon is a shadowy reflection of yourself. While it is summoned, you do not cast a shadow. It uses the statistics of a beast as per the spell, with the following additions.

Merge with Darkness. When you fight in concert with your shadowy reflection, it swirls around your opponent and darkens its senses. In your foe’s mind, you fade into darkness. When you apply your sneak attack damage to a target within 5 feet of your shadowy reflection, you can treat it as necrotic damage. If you do so, the target must make a Wisdom save (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Dexterity modifier). On a failed save, you become invisible to the target until the end of your next turn.

Lurking Presence. Your shadowy reflection uses the higher of its or your bonus when making Dexterity (Stealth) checks. It also gains the benefits of your Cunning Action class feature.

Quickened Summons. You can temporarily dismiss your shadowy reflection as a bonus action. While it is dismissed in this manner, you can cause it to reappear in an open space within 30 feet of you as a bonus action.

Umbral Magic

At 3rd level, you gain the ability to manipulate and control shadows. You gain a number of shadow motes equal to your rogue level. You regain expended motes when you finish a long rest.

Shadow Step. As a bonus action while your shadowy reflection is within 30 feet of you, you can expend a shadow mote and swap places with it. You teleport to its space and it teleports to your space.

Vexing Shadow. When you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can expend a shadow mote and dismiss your shadowy reflection. Your shadowy reflection infiltrates the target’s shadow, swirling around it to distract it. While it is dismissed in this manner, attacks against the target have advantage, you increase your sneak attack damage against it by 1d10, and it has disadvantage on all Wisdom (Perception) checks.

When you apply sneak attack damage to a creature while your shadow has infiltrated it, you can increase your sneak attack damage against it. When you hit the creature (including when you spend motes to infiltrate its shadow), you can increase the damage by 1d10 per mote spent and can expend motes up to your rogue level.

Umbral Escape. As a reaction when your shadowy reflection would take damage, you can expend a shadow mote and temporarily dismiss it as per find familiar. When dismissed in this way, it avoids taking damage or suffering any of the other effects of the source that triggered this feature. If the source of damage was an attack, the creature making that attack takes necrotic damage equal to your sneak attack damage.

Shadowed Succor

Starting at 9th level, your shadowy reflection can interpose itself between you and an attacker, harmlessly directing the blow into an empty void of shadow. When you use your Uncanny Dodge class feature, you can expend two shadow motes to reduce the damage to 0 rather than halving it.

Shadow Gate

Starting at 13th level, your shadowy reflection can create a pathway through shadows that you and your companions can use. As a bonus action while your shadowy reflection is within 5 feet of you, you can expend a shadowy mote and cast dimension door. Your reflection can travel through the spell without counting toward the limit of creatures and weight that can pass through it.

True Shadow

At 17th level, your shadowy reflection gains the ability to become a true duplicate of you. As a bonus action, your reflection becomes an exact duplicate of you. It uses all your game statistics, except half your maximum hit points, and has shadowy copies of one weapon you carry and the armor you wear. It retains this benefit for one minute. The copy of your weapon and armor cannot be used by creatures other than your shadowy reflection, and they disappear when this effect ends. Once you use this feature, you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.