A take on the Pathfinder Shadowcaster [P.E.A.C.H.]

[peacenlove]

Hallo all! My gaming group has for some time now converted to the Pathfinder rule system and i have found out that many classes, especially the spellcasting ones have acquired new sets of abilities. As i was playing a shadowcaster for a year now (and with the help of Realms of Chaos materials), it occured to me (and my DM helped a lot) to "update" the Shadowcaster class to Pathfinder rules. I also moved up and down some abilities (after some modifications) to avoid dead levels.
I would like to ask of you, is this "modified" shadowcaster up to par with the Pathfinder sorcerer? What changes would you propose? What should go away and what should be added?
I have to note that i have been influenced by Realms of Chaos material and this class shows it (Notables are the transformation of fundamentals to extraordinary abilities and the knowledge of all fundamentals, taken by the Shadow fundamentalist prestige class, and the Path Mastery abilities). However you do not need any knowledge of that material to comment on the class.

So i present you the...
PATHFINDER SHADOW CASTER
"What use is the light that casts not a shadow?"

Hit Die: d6

Shadow Caster
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|

+0

|

+2

|

+0

|

+2

|Apprentice Mysteries, Fundamentals of Shadow (At Will)

2nd|

+1

|

+3

|

+0

|

+3

|Discreet Casting, Bonus Feats; see text

3rd|

+1

|

+3

|

+1

|

+3

|Umbral Sight (Dark vision 30 ft)

4th|

+2

|

+4

|

+1

|

+4

|Bonus Fundamental, Shadow over Body

5th|

+2

|

+4

|

+1

|

+4

|Path Mastery (Apprentice)

6th|

+3

|

+5

|

+2

|

+5

|Sustaining Shadow (Sustenance)

7th|

+3

|

+5

|

+2

|

+5

|Apprentice Mysteries (Spell-Like), Initiate Mysteries

8th|

+4

|

+6

|

+2

|

+6

|Bonus Fundamental

9th|

+4

|

+6

|

+3

|

+6

|Fundamentals of Shadow (Extraordinary)

10th|

+5

|

+7

|

+3

|

+7

|Sustaining Shadow (no need to sleep)

11th|

+5

|

+7

|

+3

|

+7

|Umbral Sight (See in Darkness 60 ft),Path Mastery (Initiate)

12th|

+6 / +1

|

+8

|

+4

|

+8

|Bonus Fundamental

13th|

+6 / +1

|

+8

|

+4

|

+8

|Apprentice Mysteries (Supernatural), Initiate Mysteries (Spell-Like), Master Mysteries

14th|

+7 / +2

|

+9

|

+4

|

+9

|Fundamentals of Shadow (Mastery)

15th|

+7 / +2

|

+9

|

+5

|

+9

|Sustaining Shadow (Immune to poison / disease)

16th|

+8 / +3

|

+10

|

+5

|

+10

|All Fundamentals Known

17th|

+8 / +3

|

+10

|

+5

|

+10

|Path Mastery (Master)

18th|

+9 / +4

|

+11

|

+6

|

+11

|Sustaining Shadow (no need to breathe)

19th|

+9 / +4

|

+11

|

+6

|

+11

|Umbral Sight (See in Darkness perfectly)

20th|

+10 / +5

|

+12

|

+6

|

+12

|Sustaining Shadow (Perfect Shadow)[/table]

Class Skills:
The shadow caster's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Craft (any) (Int), Fly (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (the planes) (Int), Perception (Wis), Profession (any) (Wis), Spell craft (Int), Stealth (Dex), Use Magic Device (Cha)

Skill Points at Each Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the shadow caster class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The shadow caster is proficient with all simple weapons. He is not proficient with any type of armor or shield. Armor of any type interferes with your gestures, which can cause your mysteries to fail when they function as spells.

Fundamentals of Shadow (Su or Ex): As a shadow caster, you must master certain basic powers before proceeding to deeper secrets of shadow. These powers, known as fundamentals, function as supernatural abilities usable at will. You begin play with 3 fundamentals and gain an additional fundamental at 4th level and every 4 additional levels beyond 4th . The save DC of any fundamental is 10 + ½ Caster level + Charisma modifier.
At 16th level you gain knowledge of all fundamentals.

At 9th level you store a tiny portion of the Plane of Shadow in a dark corner of your mind. Whenever magical forces are absent, you call forth that portion's power, in order to use your powers unhindered. You can use a fundamental as an extraordinary ability but doing so takes a full round action and no Meta shadow feats can be used in conjunction with that fundamental.

At 14th level you achieve complete mastery over the basics of Shadow Magic. Whenever you cast a fundamental and modify it with one or more Meta shadow feats, no daily use of those meta shadow feats are expended, nor does its casting time increase. You can now use Meta shadow feats on fundamentals used as extraordinary abilities and such fundamentals are cast at their normal casting time. In order to apply a Meta shadow feat to a fundamental, however, it must still have a remaining use.

Mysteries and Paths: You invoke mystical secrets called mysteries. You gain one mystery at 1st level and every odd numbered level and two mysteries at 2nd level and every even class level. Up to 6th level you can learn only apprentice mysteries. At 7th level, you gain access to initiate mysteries and at 13th level you gain access to master mysteries. You can choose your new mystery from any category you have access to (including fundamentals).

Shadow Magic progresses in very specific stages. You may not “jump ahead” in a path, although you do not need to complete a path if you do not wish to. Within a category (apprentice, initiate, master), you can only learn mysteries of a new level if you have learned at least 3 mysteries of a previous level (it doesn't matter whether they are 3 different mysteries or 1 mystery selected 3 times, see below), and you must know all previous mysteries within a path to select a mystery from that path. However you can always select the first mystery in a path of a category you have access to, even if you didn't complete the lower category paths.

When you are capable of casting only apprentice mysteries, you cast them as though they were arcane spells. They do not require verbal or material components or foci, but follow all the normal rules for arcane spells. Observers can make a DC 15 Perception check to note that your shadow is making different gestures from the ones you make when you cast the mystery. At 7th level your apprentice mysteries function as spell-like abilities. Your new initiate mysteries function as arcane spells and follow the rules above. Finally at 13th level your apprentice mysteries function as supernatural abilities, your initiate mysteries function as spell-like abilities and your new master mysteries function as arcane spells and follow the rules above.

You can learn a mystery more than once. Each time you relearn a mystery you gain another set of uses of that mystery per day. If you learn all the mysteries of a path twice, you gain an extra use of each mystery on that path, as well as the Path Focus feat for that path. If you learn them thrice, you gain 1 more use of each mystery on that path, stacking with the previous bonus, and the Greater Path Focus feat for that path. These are passive, extraordinary effects.

You can use each mystery you know once per day if it is cast as an arcane spell, twice per day if cast as a spell-like ability or thrice per day if cast as a supernatural ability. You must rest for 8 hours and meditate for 15 minutes each day to regain your use of mysteries (however at 10th level the rest time is reduced to 2 hours).

In order to cast a mystery, you must have an Intelligence score of at least 10 + the mystery's level. The save DC for your mysteries equals 10 + mystery level + your Charisma modifier for mysteries cast as arcane spells and spell-like abilities and 10 + ½ Caster level + Charisma modifier for mysteries cast as supernatural abilities. Your levels in this class count for the purpose of determining your overall caster level.

Bonus Feats: Beginning at 2nd level you gain bonus feats equal to 1/3 the total number of paths that you have access to. Fundamentals do not apply for the purpose of bonus feats. You must meet the prerequisite (if any) in order to select a feat as a bonus feat. The list of feats you can select includes Favored Mystery, Greater Path Focus, Greater Sustaining Shadow, Greater Umbral Sight, Nocturnal Caster, Path Focus, Shadow Vision, and any Meta Shadow feat.

Umbral Sight (Su): When you reach 3rd level, your vision extends slightly into the Plane of Shadow. You gain dark vision out to 30 feet that stacks with any existing dark vision.

At 11th level you become able to see in any darkness even that created by magical means, out to 60 feet stacking with any similar ability.

Finally at 19th level you can see in darkness out to the radius of your Umbral sight as easy as in bright light, even discerning colours.
The range of your Umbral Sight ability becomes equal to the range of your darkvision.
For example a drow with 120 ft darkvision now gains the benefits of Umbral sight out to 120 ft, rather than 60 ft

Sustaining Shadow (Ex): Beginning at 6th level, your bond to the Plane of Shadows allows you to absorb dark energies, mitigating certain biological needs. You don't need to eat or drink to maintain health.

At 10th level you don't need to sleep, and are immune to non-magical sleep effects. You also gain the benefits of a ring of sustenance.

At 15th level you gain immunity to non-magical diseases and poisons.

At 18th level you don't need to breathe.

At 20th level you gain the Perfect Shadow ability presented below.
Perfect Shadow: A Shadowcaster's body and magic undergoes significant changes through the heavy use of Shadow Magic.
He becomes a Native Outsider rather than his previous creature type, and also stops aging altogether and has no maximum age.
Furthermore he becomes immune to all poison and diseases, magical aging effects, as well as sleep effects, even magical and supernatural ones.
Finally he can change his active path masteries at will, with only 5 minutes of concentration.

Discreet Casting (Su): At 2nd level your obfuscation skills have altered the subtle movements of your shadow. The perception check to note that your shadow is making different gestures from the ones you make when you cast a mystery as an arcane spell rises to DC 15 + your ranks in your Stealth skill if you so choose.

Shadow over Body (Ex): You gain either 2 bonus hit points or a +2 bonus to stealth and perception for every metashadow feat you have selected or will select in the future. These bonuses stack and you choose which bonus to gain individually for each feat. Once selected these bonuses cannot change.

Path Mastery (Su or Ex): Beginning at 5th level you gain a special ability for each completed path. The ability you gain depends on the completed path (see below for a detailed table). If you ever unlearn a mystery from a previously completed path you also lose its associated power.
No matter the number of paths you possess, you can only have active a limited number of Path Mastery abilities of the corresponding grade. However should a Path Mastery ability grant an extraordinary ability, it is always active and you do not need to select it to gain it. However you need to prepare it to gain any other supernatural abilities it might grant, and if you somehow uncomplete a path, you also lose the matching extraordinary ability.

At 5th level you can have only one Apprentice Path Mastery ability active. At 11th level and every 6 levels thereafter you can activate an additional Apprentice Path Mastery ability.
At 11th level in addition to any Apprentice Path Mastery abilities, you can have one Initiate Path Mastery ability active. At 17th level and every 6 levels thereafter you can activate an additional Initiate Path Mastery ability.
At 17th level in addition to any Apprentice and Initiate Path Mastery abilities, you can have one Master Path Mastery ability active. At 23th level and every 6 levels thereafter you can activate an additional Master Path Mastery ability.

You can change your activated Path Mastery abilities once per day, while you reclaim your mysteries, until you reach 20th level where you can change them at will with a 5 minute concentration.

Note: Path Masteries first appeared in the Descent of Shadows project made by Realms Of Chaos. They are reprinted here for easy access (a few have some changes). Only those who refer to the Tome of Magic and the Cityscape web enchantment mysteries are presented.

Path Mastery Abilities

Spoiler

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Arcane Veil (Initiate)
You are protected from magical energies
Prerequisites: ability to caste the Greater Shadows Fade mystery.
Benefit: you gain Spell Resistance 11 + Shadow caster level.

Astray in the Dark (Apprentice)
You can fight from further away than other suspect.
Prerequisites: ability to cast the Umbral Fist mystery.
Benefit: on the first round of combat the range of your mysteries and your natural reach are both doubled. This only functions in areas no brighter than shadowy illumination.

Blur of Shadows (Apprentice)
You cause the very ground to buckle and ripple.
Prerequisites: ability to cast the Clinging Darkness mystery.
Benefit: As a move action, you may cause the world around you to distort, turning all adjacent squares into difficult terrain (this does not stack with preexisting difficult terrain) for 1 round.

Cloak and Dagger (Apprentice)
Your mastery of defense and retaliation has been honed.
Prerequisites: ability to cast the Sharp Shadows mystery.
Benefit: While wearing no armor, you gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC.
While unarmed, any foe striking you with a non-reach melee weapon takes 1 point of magic piercing damage.

Curtain of Shadow (Initiate)
You are protected by a veil of shadows.
Prerequisites: ability to cast the Unveil mystery.
Benefit: You gain concealment in all light conditions other than bright daylight.

Dark Concealment (Initiate)
You can hide in the shadows you create.
Prerequisites: ability to cast the Deadly Shade mystery.
Benefit: while in an area of magical darkness, you become invisible at the beginning of your every turn.

Dark Puppeteer (Master)
You have a knack for controlling others
Prerequisites: ability to cast the Shadow Surge mystery.
Benefit: When attacked, you may forgo the use of one of your attacks of opportunity for this round to make a caster level check against the DC of their attack roll. If you succeed, you change the target of the attack to anyone else within reach or simply stop the attack. The Combat Reflexes feat applies to this ability.

Dark Trekker (Initiate)
You can move in shadow without leaving openings.
Prerequisites: ability to cast the Voyage into Shadow mystery.
Benefit: While in shadowy illumination or lower light level, you provoke no attacks of opportunity for movement.

Ebon Form (Master)
Your form is heavily reinforced by shadow.
Prerequisites: able to cast the Shadow Time mystery.
Benefit: In addition, under any light level other than direct sunlight, you gain fast healing 5 and you heal one point of ability damage per round (of your choice should multiple scores be damaged).

Ebon Hand (Apprentice)
You have learned how to channel shadow through your hands.
Prerequisites: ability to cast the Umbral Touch mystery.
Benefit: When making touch attacks, your reach increases by 5 feet.
In addition, each successful touch attack you make deals 1 nonlethal damage to its target, in addition to any other effects delivered by touch.

Escaping Shade (Master)
You can escape from the toughest of situations.
Prerequisites: ability to cast the Black Labyrinth mystery.
Benefit: as a swift action, you can enter a state that helps you escape. First of all, each of your speeds are doubled.
In addition, animals and vermin cannot attack you.
Lastly, you can move through crowds without any penalty.
This ability deals you 2 nonlethal damage each round until you either fall unconscious or end the effect with another swift action.

Esoteric Knowledge (Apprentice)
Your have learned much from your time in the shadows.
Prerequisites: ability to cast the Afraid of the Dark mystery.
Benefit: You gain all knowledge skills as class skills (this is an extraordinary ability).
In addition, a number of times per day equal to your Intelligence bonus (if any), you may re-roll a knowledge check. You must stay with the result of the re-roll, even if it is worse than the original.

Eyes of Twilight (Master)
You see everything around you.
Prerequisites: ability to cast the Reflections of Things to Come mystery.
Benefit: you gain blind sight out to 60 feet.

Grasp of Shadow (Master)
Shadow holds others who neglect to move around you soon find themselves trapped.
Prerequisites: ability to cast the Consume Essence mystery.
Benefit: As a swift action, you can cause shadows to entrap those within 10 feet / class level of you.
If such a foe neglects to move at least 5 feet in one or more rounds, they find it a harder task later, needing a strength check (DC 15 + 1 / round not spent moving).
When you use another swift action to end the ability or move out of range, targets are automatically freed.
This is the equivalent of a 6th level spell but if it is dispelled, it can be reactivated on the next round as a swift action.

Night's Guard (Apprentice)
Within the Shadow, none can harm you.
Prerequisites: ability to cast the Dancing Shadows mystery.
Benefit: While in shadowy illumination, you gain a +2 bonus on initiative checks and a +4 dodge bonus to AC.

Phantom Assault (Master)
Shadows seem to surround your foes, leaving them vulnerable.
Prerequisites: ability to cast the Army of Shadow mystery.
Benefit: all adjacent foes are considered flanked.
In addition, casting mysteries defensively as spells does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
Lastly, you may use the aid another action as a swift action.

Piercing Gaze (Apprentice)
You can see what others can’t.
Prerequisites: ability to cast the Killing Shadows mystery.
Benefit: You gain dark vision out to 30 feet and can see through magical darkness out to that range.
In addition, you may make a perception check as a swift action (this is an extraordinary ability).

Pull of the Grave (Master)
You can pull others to their doom.
Prerequisites: able to cast the Ephemeral Storm mystery.
Benefit: A number of times per day equal to your charisma bonus (minimum once per day), you can place a curse upon a foe within close range as a standard action. The next time within the next hour that they make a fortitude save to avoid a mystery or take ability damage or ability drain from a mystery, they roll two saving throws and take the lower result or take twice as much ability damage or ability drain.
This is the equivalent of a 7th level spell.

Shadow Renewal (Initiate)
You have learned to sustain yourself with the power of shadow.
Prerequisites: ability to cast the Shadow Investiture mystery.
Benefit: Whenever you are knocked below 0 health, you may sacrifice a daily use of a 1st-level or higher mystery to heal twice as much health as the level of the mystery. If your health is still under 0 health, this healing stabilizes you.

Shadowy Imitator (Initiate)
You have learned the art of imitation from your command of shadows.
Prerequisites: ability to cast the Greater Shadow Evocation mystery.
Benefit: You may use Prestidigitation at will as a supernatural ability.
In addition, you may give up a daily use of any mystery to imitate the effect of any 0-level arcane spell.

Shady Magician (Initiate)
You have learned to harness both mysteries and magic.
Prerequisites: ability to cast the Flood of Shadows mystery.
Benefit: You gain use magic device as a class skill (this is an extraordinary ability).
In addition, you don't take a - 4 penalty when your mysteries interact with spells.

Subtle Voice (Apprentice)
You can communicate at a completely subconscious level.
Prerequisites: ability to cast the Flicker mystery.
Benefit: You gain telepathy at a range of 30 feet and gain the Skill Focus(Intimidate) feat.

Twilight Guard (Initiate)
Your power of shadow serves to protect you.
Prerequisites: ability to cast the Shadow Storm mystery.
Benefit: A number of times equal to your charisma modifier, as an immediate action, you can ignore 2 / class level points of elemental damage from any one attack or effect.

Here are also 4 feats that we use on our campaign. Any comments on those would be appreciated

Greater Umbral Sight
Nothing can hide in the dark and escape your gaze.
Prerequisites: Umbral Sight (See in Darkness 60 feet).
Benefit: Your Umbral Sight radius increases by 30 feet.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times. Its effect stack.
Note: This feat can be taken as a bonus shadow caster feat.

Greater Sustaining Shadow
From now on your shadow, not your body, supports your life.
Prerequisites: Sustaining Shadow (no need to breathe)
Benefit: If you lose a limb or body part, the lost portion regrows in 10 minutes. You can reattach the severed member instantly by holding it to the stump. The dismembered limb withers away into dust after 10 minutes and no hit points are recovered during this process.
In addition when you would be healed by any effect an amount of hit point or ability damage, multiply the amount by 1,5 (rounded down).
Note: This feat can be taken as a bonus shadow caster feat.

Dark Magic Scholar
You continue to unravel the hidden secrets of the shadows.
Prerequisites: Shadow caster level 19th.
Benefit: Your Master mysteries become Spell Like abilities, gaining extra uses per day and following all the normal rules for spell like abilities.

Master of Darkness
Your dark magic blinds even creatures who could normally see in it.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast any mystery with the darkness descriptor of 3rd level or higher.
Benefit: Whenever a mystery you cast would lower the light level by one step, it is instead lowered by 2 steps. Thus means that bright light becomes dim light and normal light becomes darkness. Areas of dim light and darkness become supernaturally dark. This functions like darkness, but even creatures with darkvision cannot see within the mystery's confines.
At 11th caster level the light level is instead lowered by 3 steps and at 17th caster level by 4 steps.

For those who use the alternative rules for racial favored classes in the APG (also found here)

Human Shadow Caster: Add one extra mystery use per day or one fundamental known from the shadowcaster fundamental list. If you added a mystery use it must be applied to a mystery at least one level below the highest mystery level you can cast.

Half-Elf Shadow Caster: The Half-Elf can prepare an additional 1/6 of a path mastery of any grade he could originally prepare (Apprentice, Initiate, Master)

Gnome Shadowcaster: The gnome gains +1/6 of a new shadowcaster bonus feat.

Finally updated the class after some testing and using the final pathfinder rules.
Big thanks to Cieyrin for his constructive comments!

[Cieyrin]

Wow, great job. I like a lot of what I see, as the Shadowcaster is definitely one of the better splat book core classes I've come across and you've definitely improved on the original. I do have some bones to pick with a couple of the path mastery abilities.

Dark Concealment honestly doesn't provide that much of an improvement except against creatures that can see in magical darkness, who're few and far between. Given most creatures are considered blind in magical darkness, anyways, everything is effectively invisible to them, making literally being invisible not that much better.

Dark Puppeteer needs some improvement, as you're not gonna be able to stop most attacks with a plain charisma ability check, given by 17th level nearly everybody likely to attack you has 3/4 BAB and other bonuses to easily defeat your paltry charisma bonus, regardless of how big it is by that time. I could conceivably see a character with a ability score in the low 30s by then, which is still only a +10. Maybe a caster level check would be better? There should also be some kinda limit on the usage per round, whether that be once per round or make it use an attack of opportunity.

I do have issues with how Ebon Form works, as what happens when you change which abilities to have up? You'd suddenly suffer physical ability penalties (if you're old enough) when it's not on but do you lose them when you use Ebon Form again or do you keep your penalties and just don't suffer newer ones (being venarable already would really suck if you dropped Ebon Form =[)?

Grasp of Shadows i'm not sure how exactly what to think, since you essentially force people to make at least a 5' step each round or make a Strength check to move at all but it covers such a huge range by that point (170' of you @_@) that it'd be a pain for both your allies (who're likely in that range) and your foes alike. Maybe it's okay as it is, as I suddenly had the thought of all those commoners in town quailing against the shadows grabbing at their ankles XD.

I must be missing the point of Subtle Voice, as I don't see how great it is to be able to mentally whisper to the guy next to you. But, given it's an Apprentice Mastery ability, scaring the bejesus with whispers directly to their mind probably has some perks. More of an RP type thing but whatevs, I guess that's fine in actuality.

Twilight Guard seems to harken back to 3.0 style energy resistance, which were honestly not all that effective, frankly. I'd suggest changing it up to a immediate action to activate for twice your level in energy resistance against the next energy attack or the end of your next turn, whichever comes first, activatable Charisma bonus times per day or maybe half Charisma bonus times per encounter.

Other than those points of contention, it looks pretty good. I applaud your work. Them's my 2 coppers. Take as you will.

[peacenlove]

Yeah some comments

Lets see...

Dark Concealment honestly doesn't provide that much of an improvement except against creatures that can see in magical darkness, who're few and far between. Given most creatures are considered blind in magical darkness, anyways, everything is effectively invisible to them, making literally being invisible not that much better.

In pathfinder normal darkvision specifically penetrates darkness and deeper darkness spells So thats a good counter defence especially since shadowcasters do not have special darkness effects that darkvision doesn't beat(see blacklight in spell compendium).

Dark Puppeteer needs some improvement, as you're not gonna be able to stop most attacks with a plain charisma ability check, given by 17th level nearly everybody likely to attack you has 3/4 BAB and other bonuses to easily defeat your paltry charisma bonus, regardless of how big it is by that time. I could conceivably see a character with a ability score in the low 30s by then, which is still only a +10. Maybe a caster level check would be better? There should also be some kinda limit on the usage per round, whether that be once per round or make it use an attack of opportunity.

I think it will be a caster level check versus the result of the attack usable at will every 5 rounds if successful, so you don't neutralise a lot of ray attacks per battle. Whether it would be no action or immediate action i have yet to decide. (BTW at my experience you are correct, at level 17 a dedicated shadowcaster will have 30 to 34 charisma depending on how much he spent on tomes of charisma, that will be useful below)

I do have issues with how Ebon Form works, as what happens when you change which abilities to have up? You'd suddenly suffer physical ability penalties (if you're old enough) when it's not on but do you lose them when you use Ebon Form again or do you keep your penalties and just don't suffer newer ones (being venarable already would really suck if you dropped Ebon Form =[)?

Good point. Had just a thought right now. Why don't we say that you stop aging naturally and you become immune to magical aging effects as long as you have the feat and start aging again when you switch masteries again? Or i could drop the idea all together and raise the fast healing to 3 or 4.

Grasp of Shadows i'm not sure how exactly what to think, since you essentially force people to make at least a 5' step each round or make a Strength check to move at all but it covers such a huge range by that point (170' of you @_@) that it'd be a pain for both your allies (who're likely in that range) and your foes alike. Maybe it's okay as it is, as I suddenly had the thought of all those commoners in town quailing against the shadows grabbing at their ankles XD.

Maybe it was because my campaign features classes that move all the time (warlock, warblade, scout and me :) ) but i guess it depends on each campaign. I guess some freedom of movement would work but it has a strong strategic importance. Now about the town thingy you brought a smile on my face. and many ideas when i take the mantle of DM again
Then again considering that mysteries such as black labyrinth exist its okay i guess...

I must be missing the point of Subtle Voice, as I don't see how great it is to be able to mentally whisper to the guy next to you. But, given it's an Apprentice Mastery ability, scaring the bejesus with whispers directly to their mind probably has some perks. More of an RP type thing but whatevs, I guess that's fine in actuality.

Well Its a +3 on intimidate also. other than that yeah mostly of RP value.

Twilight Guard seems to harken back to 3.0 style energy resistance, which were honestly not all that effective, frankly. I'd suggest changing it up to a immediate action to activate for twice your level in energy resistance against the next energy attack or the end of your next turn, whichever comes first, activatable Charisma bonus times per day or maybe half Charisma bonus times per encounter.

I like the Charisma bonus per day approach! Thanks!

Other than those points of contention, it looks pretty good. I applaud your work. Them's my 2 coppers. Take as you will.

Well as i said in note Path masteries were taken from realms of chaos work and i did nothing important. Just collected some ideas from the internet, added some mine and modeled the shadowcaster kinda after the pathfinder sorcerer. Thanks though!

Now a question: how much the power level would increase if i added this feat?
Dark Magic Scholar
You continue to unravel the hidden secrets of the shadows.
Prerequisites: Shadow caster level 19th.
Benefit: Your Master mysteries become Spell Like abilities, gaining extra uses per day and following all the normal rules for spell like abilities.

I specifically made it a feat so prestige classes won't have free access and made some notes. At level 20 a shadowcaster with this feat would cast a 9th level spell more than a sorcerer with 34 charisma but without the spell casting prodigy (sorcerer) feat. If the sorcerer too took that feat then they have fairly equal casting slots. However does my version NEED it? Or it is good to go without it?

EDIT: Also shall i write a clause stating that Path mastery abilities cannot be used for qualification for Prestige classes or that goes without saying?

[Cieyrin]

Alrights, I didn't know they'd changed up how darkvision and magical darkness effects interact (much like getting blindsided by the feat acquisition rate increase from every 3 + 1st to every odd level), so good call on that part.

Dark Puppeteer is indeed improved via caster level check but I kinda lean towards making it an attack of opportunity type action, which limits it to once per round, unless they grab Combat Reflexes, which makes it possible to do multiple controllings and also do it while flat-footed, which I see as a nice buff to the mastery. I don't see that as overly broken, really, but hey, your improvement, your rules.

For Ebon Form, maybe the best solution for it is to allow you to keep Timeless body, regardless if it's on or off, as the ability has always been more of a flavor style ability then anything else, given campaigns don't generally keep going long enough for it to come into effect. It's an ability that falls into the province of NPCs and retired PCs for the most part, so letting 'em have it regardless isn't that out of the question. You may want to increase the Fast Healing to 4 when it is on, though, as well, as it's currently not as powerful as Phantom Assault or Grasp of the Grave are. The same sort of thing could also be applied to Esoteric Knowledge and Shady Magician, as having skills switch from being class to non-class when you switch the ability is kinda odd. I know there isn't that much of a difference in Pathfinder between the 2 but I don't see it as that big of a difference to always have it the class skills on and then be able to choose when to have rerolls available and the penalty removal or not. Call them Latent Masteries or some such.

Finally, as for Dark Magic Scholar, I don't see it as too out of scope in power, given Shadowcasters don't get bonus slots for high ability scores. Shadowcasters are also more limited in their spell selection than even sorcerers are, as mystery acquisition effectively ties up both spells known and spells available. Sure, with the feat you can cast 8 9th level mysteries at 19th but the Sorcerer also knows 4 9th level spells and can spam 4 or 5 meteor swarms, as opposed to just 2 of each. The sorcerer has a little more flexibility with how they cast their spells. Sure, the Shadowcaster could master a path by that time as well and have one mystery they could cast 6 times a day but they're still fixed to that one mystery, where the sorcerer could choose to do almost the same amount of times over those 4 spell choices.

For the matter of Masteries meeting PRC requirements, having a look through them, I don't see any that would actually matter on that front other than Esoteric Knowledge and Shady Magician granting class skills, which, as I commented earlier, should probably a constant effect anyways, since the character went to the trouble to learn how to do 'em anyways. Having requirements met via Masteries is fine in my book, provided you keep the requirements met on those while you're using them. Just like how Ranger Combat Styles only work while lightly armored, the same should apply to Masteries.

My only other point I can think of is that I notice that Shadowcasters don't have a good capstone ability like the other Pathfinder core classes. Sure, they now know all Fundamentals and can cast them as they wish but that doesn't hold a candle to the final Bloodline ability of a sorcerer or School Mastery of a wizard or domain power of a cleric. They need something up there worth working towards, as getting the rest of the fundamentals that you don't already know and probably didn't care to learn earlier isn't nearly as pretty as cherry picking a PRC for their first level benefit at that level, after picking up Black Magic Scholar at 19th. Something like the monk's Perfect Self, though more shadow-themed, could be in order. Giving them the Dark template might be a little much but drawing from it probably wouldn't be out of line.

Them's my 2 coppers. Take as you will.

[peacenlove]

Thanks again for the comments You have been really helpful!

Dark Puppeteer is indeed improved via caster level check but I kinda lean towards making it an attack of opportunity type action, which limits it to once per round, unless they grab Combat Reflexes, which makes it possible to do multiple controllings and also do it while flat-footed, which I see as a nice buff to the mastery. I don't see that as overly broken, really, but hey, your improvement, your rules.

Well my DM warned me also that this ability was extremely weak too. All right i will take your suggestion and make it based on attacks of opportunity.

For Ebon Form, maybe the best solution for it is to allow you to keep Timeless body, regardless if it's on or off, as the ability has always been more of a flavor style ability then anything else, given campaigns don't generally keep going long enough for it to come into effect. It's an ability that falls into the province of NPCs and retired PCs for the most part, so letting 'em have it regardless isn't that out of the question. You may want to increase the Fast Healing to 4 when it is on, though, as well, as it's currently not as powerful as Phantom Assault or Grasp of the Grave are. The same sort of thing could also be applied to Esoteric Knowledge and Shady Magician, as having skills switch from being class to non-class when you switch the ability is kinda odd. I know there isn't that much of a difference in Pathfinder between the 2 but I don't see it as that big of a difference to always have it the class skills on and then be able to choose when to have rerolls available and the penalty removal or not. Call them Latent Masteries or some such.

Timeless Body will be moved to capstone ability.
Ebon form will also heal 1 ability damage per round and 1 ability drain per 10 minutes. Also upped fast healing to a hefty 5.
I will make a special clause in path masteries stating that any extraordinary ability granted through them is permanent and needs not be prepared before hand. That would solve problems such as sudden dissapeareances of class skills.

Finally, as for Dark Magic Scholar, I don't see it as too out of scope in power, given Shadowcasters don't get bonus slots for high ability scores. Shadowcasters are also more limited in their spell selection than even sorcerers are, as mystery acquisition effectively ties up both spells known and spells available. Sure, with the feat you can cast 8 9th level mysteries at 19th but the Sorcerer also knows 4 9th level spells and can spam 4 or 5 meteor swarms, as opposed to just 2 of each. The sorcerer has a little more flexibility with how they cast their spells. Sure, the Shadowcaster could master a path by that time as well and have one mystery they could cast 6 times a day but they're still fixed to that one mystery, where the sorcerer could choose to do almost the same amount of times over those 4 spell choices.

Thats what i thought. You trade raw power with versality. Ok then it stays in i guess.

My only other point I can think of is that I notice that Shadowcasters don't have a good capstone ability like the other Pathfinder core classes. Sure, they now know all Fundamentals and can cast them as they wish but that doesn't hold a candle to the final Bloodline ability of a sorcerer or School Mastery of a wizard or domain power of a cleric. They need something up there worth working towards, as getting the rest of the fundamentals that you don't already know and probably didn't care to learn earlier isn't nearly as pretty as cherry picking a PRC for their first level benefit at that level, after picking up Black Magic Scholar at 19th. Something like the monk's Perfect Self, though more shadow-themed, could be in order. Giving them the Dark template might be a little much but drawing from it probably wouldn't be out of line.

Heres a sample capstone ability:
Perfect Shadow(Ex): At 20th level a Shadowcaster's body and magic undergoes significant changes through the heavy use of Shadow Magic. He becomes a Native Outsider rather than his previous creature type, gaining resistance to cold equal to his class level. He also gains a +3 to Intimidate and Stealth checks and the Timeless Body class feature. In fact he stops aging alltogether and has no maximum age. Lastly mysteries modified with his metashadow feats are cast at the mystery's normal time, rather as a full round action.
I hope it isn't underwhelming though if it needs a boost upgrade resistance to cold 20 to cold immunity. I dont want to give him Damage reduction since unlike a monk he is not a frontliner and DR x/magic is craptacular

[Cieyrin]

For Ebon Form, Ability Drain Regeneration may be a bit much, I'd say; Ability Drain isn't something that simply grows back with time, it takes powerful magic to undo that type of damage (which is why Allips are freakin' broken; no CR 3 creature should be doing Ability Drain of any type >=( ). Other than that, it looks pretty good.

I think if you're going to give Timeless Body to all Shadowcasters, it's probably better to move it up with it's own description. 16th Level looks like a good spot for it, as a Bonus Fundamental barely keeps it from being a dead level as is.

As for Perfect Shadow, it's plenty powerful. Being able to modify your mysteries at no cost in time is nothing to sneeze at. Sorcerers and other spontaneous casters can get a similar ability via a feat (from Complete Mage, I think) but they still have to spend higher slots to do so, making this ability pretty damn awesome, even if just for that. Resist to cold and skill bonuses are just gravy between that and Outsiderhood. An Empowered Greater Life Fades followed up by a Quickened Killing Shadows before Flickering away and running off into the darkness cackling is definitely all the sweeter when you still have that move action available for getting out of sight to ambush those foolish enough to follow you.

Them's my 2 coppers. Take as you will.

[peacenlove]

For Ebon Form, Ability Drain Regeneration may be a bit much, I'd say; Ability Drain isn't something that simply grows back with time, it takes powerful magic to undo that type of damage (which is why Allips are freakin' broken; no CR 3 creature should be doing Ability Drain of any type >=( ). Other than that, it looks pretty good.

I think if you're going to give Timeless Body to all Shadowcasters, it's probably better to move it up with it's own description. 16th Level looks like a good spot for it, as a Bonus Fundamental barely keeps it from being a dead level as is.

As for Perfect Shadow, it's plenty powerful. Being able to modify your mysteries at no cost in time is nothing to sneeze at. Sorcerers and other spontaneous casters can get a similar ability via a feat (from Complete Mage, I think) but they still have to spend higher slots to do so, making this ability pretty damn awesome, even if just for that. Resist to cold and skill bonuses are just gravy between that and Outsiderhood. An Empowered Greater Life Fades followed up by a Quickened Killing Shadows before Flickering away and running off into the darkness cackling is definitely all the sweeter when you still have that move action available for getting out of sight to ambush those foolish enough to follow you.

Them's my 2 coppers. Take as you will.

Your comments are well appreciated as always. Deleted the ability drain recovery of Ebon Form and the metamagic clause from the capstone as well as the skill bonuses. I deleted the resistance to cold. The "no maximum age" should be reason enough to stay at 20th level
As for the Timeless Body class feature, if you see the description its a powered up version because you cannot die due to age (as a normal outsider would). Then again i could move it to 16th level and grant the immortality at 20th level or not at all if it sounds too much. Moved it to 18th level and made both Perfect shadow and Timeless body a part of the sustaining shadow line. Moved the no need to breathe ability to 16th level since it is given by an ioun stone of around 18.000 value.
The class is ready to play now

[peacenlove]

Since the official Pathfinder rules got out i was working on my Shadowcaster remake (which was based solely on beta rules). I made some adjustment to keep it within pathfinder sorcerer power and rebalanced/moved/clarified some of his abilities.
Also provided support for the Pathfinder Advanced Players Handbook.

So i bump my class, please tell me what you think.

Also a new feat to follow with the changes in the darkness spell in pathfinder.

Master of Darkness
Your dark magic blinds even creatures who could normally see in it.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast any mystery with the darkness descriptor of 3rd level or higher.
Benefit: Whenever a mystery you cast would lower the light level by one step, it is instead lowered by 2 steps. Thus means that bright light becomes dim light and normal light becomes darkness. Areas of dim light and darkness become supernaturally dark. This functions like darkness, but even creatures with darkvision cannot see within the mystery's confines.
At 11th caster level the light level is instead lowered by 3 steps and at 17th caster level by 4 steps.

[Cieyrin]

Not sure what you've changed between versions but the 2 things that stick out to me is that you learn 2 mysteries at each level, when it seems like it should be alternating between gaining 2 and 1, given the advancement to the next mystery level every 3 mysteries learned.

The other is its not mentioned prior to Perfect Shadow how long it takes to change Masteries.

Can't really comment on the racial alternatives, as I haven't read the Advanced Players Handbook yet. Still looking pretty neat.

[peacenlove]

Not sure what you've changed between versions

Shuffled some of the class abilities, gave immunities to magical poisons/diseases/sleep as a capstone (he was immune to nonmagical ones so its a slight boost),
integrated the pathfinder version of ring of sustenance into his class abilities (yay for 2 hour preparation time of spells/powers/mysteries for 2500 gp and a ring slot!),
introduced Shadow over body to give the shadowcaster bonus hit points since he was at a hit die higher than the sorcerer at 3.5, however in pathfinder a d8 hit die means medium attack bonus and i don't want to make a bizarre exception to this rule. More risk taking casters can choose skill bonuses instead so as to assign their skill points into different areas (what with the 2 skill points per level).
Also bolstered a wee bit the Arcane Veil path mastery (in beta the spell resistance was 10+ level, now it is 11+level)

but the 2 things that stick out to me is that you learn 2 mysteries at each level, when it seems like it should be alternating between gaining 2 and 1, given the advancement to the next mystery level every 3 mysteries learned.

Oops fixing, a typo i assure you. And fixed.

The other is its not mentioned prior to Perfect Shadow how long it takes to change Masteries.

Hopefully clarified at the Path Mastery section.

Can't really comment on the racial alternatives, as I haven't read the Advanced Players Handbook yet. Still looking pretty neat.

They are at the Pathfinder SRD also, at the link i provided.

Also i intentionally left out fly from the class skills list since the shadowcaster (without Realms of Chaos material) has only 2 ways to fly (Shadow evocation -> Greater floating disk from Spell compendium, and Umbral Body).

However he is still a full spellcaster, shall i grant it to him?

Lastly Use Magic device as class skill. yay or nay? discussing it with my gaming group, but we have little to no experience with this skill.

EDIT: also whenever i check this i find a typo or two. Sorry

[Cieyrin]

Shuffled some of the class abilities, gave immunities to magical poisons/diseases/sleep as a capstone (he was immune to nonmagical ones so its a slight boost),
integrated the pathfinder version of ring of sustenance into his class abilities (yay for 2 hour preparation time of spells/powers/mysteries for 2500 gp and a ring slot!),
introduced Shadow over body to give the shadowcaster bonus hit points since he was at a hit die higher than the sorcerer at 3.5, however in pathfinder a d8 hit die means medium attack bonus and i don't want to make a bizarre exception to this rule. More risk taking casters can choose skill bonuses instead so as to assign their skill points into different areas (what with the 2 skill points per level).
Also bolstered a wee bit the Arcane Veil path mastery (in beta the spell resistance was 10+ level, now it is 11+level)

Oh, neatos. I like built in Psionic Body via shadows, as the feat is otherwise a waste in comparison to Improved Toughness, usually (or Toughness in Pathfinder, if it stayed the same from Beta. Don't recall, haven't been able to play much Pathfinder ~_~).

Hopefully clarified at the Path Mastery section.

Crystal.

They are at the Pathfinder SRD also, at the link i provided.

Also i intentionally left out fly from the class skills list since the shadowcaster (without Realms of Chaos material) has only 2 ways to fly (Shadow evocation -> Greater floating disk from Spell compendium, and Umbral Body).

However he is still a full spellcaster, shall i grant it to him?

Lastly Use Magic device as class skill. yay or nay? discussing it with my gaming group, but we have little to no experience with this skill.

EDIT: also whenever i check this i find a typo or two. Sorry

Looking over the link, it seems alright to me, the Favored Class Alternate Bonii.

I wouldn't worry about adding Fly, it doesn't seem like something likely to happen often enough to worry about. Should it matter, it's not like cross-class skills are that painful to up in PF, anyways.

UMD is probably a fine addition to the Shadowcaster list, as they're spontaneous casters of sorts and have the force of personality to pull it off and also provide alternate firepower when they're low on mysteries.

[peacenlove]

Added Use Magic Device and Fly as class skills then.
Also I forgot to mention that (at 19th level) your Umbral Sight radius extends to your normal darkvision radius.
Lastly clarified some Path masteries with Pathfinder terminology (mostly the addition of light levels as described in the darkness spell), and buffed Subtle Voice to be in line with that presented in the Descent of Shadows project.