Shadowbound Roguelock (5e Subclass)
The Shadowbound Rogue[edit]
Rogue Subclass
The Shadowbound are few and far between. They have gone through the Ritual of Shadow Binding and in so doing, traded away a portion of their very soul, replacing it with a living link to the Plane of Shadow – not, in this case, another name for the Shadowfell.
For there exists apart from (and unrelated to) the Shadowfell a neutral plane from where all true shadows emanate. Neither negative nor positive, it is a place where form is suggested but never manifest. Some call this state of being and plane of existence Dusk, or Twilight, but it equally represents the Predawn, or First Light.
The Shadow, as the plane is also known, is not an entity as such, for it has no animating spirit or consciousness. Nevertheless, our engagement with it gives it a sort of reflected intelligence, the same way one can find shapes in the clouds or amongst the constellations of the stars. And like a cosmic Rorschach inkblot, what it has to show is usually ourselves, often the parts we don’t tend to easily acknowledge.
Some Rogues who have both the nerve and the knowledge of the necessary ritual choose to bind themselves to the Shadow, creating a Hollow in their very soul for a piece of the Shadow to live. Once this bond it made, it can never be broken.
And why would a rogue do such a thing? Why, to reach abilities that would shake even the Arcane Trickster – invocations, certain spells, even some natural shadowpower. But this comes not without its costs.
One cost is the price of passion. A Shadowbound Rogue isn’t quite capable of the same heights of ardor and fervor as their untouched brethren. And while the Rogue’s cunning and stealthiness remains or even increases, the emotive focus required for the sneak attack is lost.
Design Goals[edit]
The Shadowbound Rogue is intended to be a Rogue with a Warlock twist. While losing the Rogue’s signature Sneak Attack, they gain mystical shadow abilities to make up for it, creating a hybridization of both. However, this is conceived as still fundamentally a rogue due to the reliance on the rest of the rogue feature set sans the sneak attack. Similarly, this subclass only gains access to a thematically appropriate subset of warlock spells, not all. And of course, unlike the Warlock, there is no patron, and the spellcasting ability is Dexterity due to the Rogue channeling shadow powers physically. Thus the character remains essentially a rogue with some serious Warlock special sauce.
It should be further noted that the Ritual of Shadow Binding is very hard to find, and very few even know of its existence. Those that partake of it do not group up or even interact with each other, being a Shadowbound Rogue is usually a somewhat solitary path. To become such a rogue one must somehow run across this ritual in the first place. While certain ascetic sects do know the ritual and pass it down through the generations, it is but one of many secrets they guard but never cast, thus members of such sects rarely if ever become shadowbound themselves (and those that do always abandon their sect right after). More often, one that becomes shadowbound simply finds the ritual by happenstance, perhaps in their master’s collection of scrolls, or perhaps as treasure looted from delving a ruin or robbing a mark. Circumstance, more than any other factor, (and fate, of course) puts the ritual in the path of the future Shadowbound.
Finding the ritual is only the first requirement; then you actually have to have the nerve and the resolve to actually want to cast it. This ritual is solemn business, more than most; it requires a permanent sacrifice of part of your very soul and stitches a piece of the Plane of Shadow into your soul in its place, an act that cannot be undone. To actively choose such a thing requires serious need of some kind, such as losing the love of one’s life, being trapped in a deadly no-win situation, or simply being far more audacious than prudent. Whatever brings a person to actually perform the ritual, there is no going back, what’s done is done.
One immediate and fairly obvious change occurs in the caster’s nature. However emotive and passionate they were before, replacing a piece of their soul with stuff from the plane of Shadow cools them off to a certain degree. Not completely, they still possess a full range of emotions, but the volume of their emotions drops a notch or two. They become more “even-tempered” and less excitable by nature – not to the point that it influences them mechanically, it’s a more pervasive change of personality than that. They suddenly just become a fair bit more “chill”.
As to the mechanical effects, those kick in as per normal at Rogue levels 3, 9, 13 and 17. First at level 3 the Binding is performed granting Shadow Points, Warlock Invocations, and some thematically appropriate Warlock Spells, but removing the Rogue’s trademark Sneak Attack – a significant alteration, just as the Binding is.
At level 9, the Shadowbound leans into their nature to hide and stealth more effectively. At level 13, the Shadowbound begins to open up their connection to the plane of Shadow for teleportation purposes, including global and dimensional travel. And at level 17 they become living shadow itself, half alive, half something else.
Here are the details.
Level 3ː The Binding - Shadow points, Invocations, and Spells[edit]
At Level 3, you have voluntarily performed the Ritual of Shadow Binding, which immediately confers on you this subclass and the following costs and benefits:
Shadow Points
You lose all access to Sneak Dice and cannot gain any. In their place you gain an equivalent number of Shadow points, beginning at 2 at third level and gaining one more at every odd level, up to a maximum of 10 Shadow points at level 19. You can regain all your spent Shadow points after a long rest. You can spend Hit Dice to regain Shadow points (instead of hit points) after a short rest. Hit Dice spent this way generate 1 Shadow point each, plus 1 more for each of these Hit Die that rolled a 6 or higher. Some Shadow points are noted as “recoverable” when spent; after spending one of these, roll a d8: on a 1-3 nothing happens, on a 4-7 you gain the Shadow point back, on an 8 you gain two total Shadow points from your brief contact with the Plane of Shadow.
Shadow Sight/Step
You gain the Shadow Sight ability: you can spend one Shadow point to activate (costs no actions), and it lasts for ten minutes or until you Shadow Step, whichever comes first. While it is active, when you are in dim light or darkness, you can extend your senses to any space within 60 feet that is also in dim light or darkness. Using a Bonus Action, you can use Shadow Step to teleport there. Once you do you may roll to recover your Shadow point using the standard 1d8 method – gain one back if you roll 4-7, gain two if you roll an 8.
Shadowcasting
You also gain a limited spellcasting feature now called Shadowcasting. You gain the cantrips Eldritch Blast, Mage Hand and Prestidigitation which you can cast at will and without cost. Furthermore you can cast spells of a level listed on the subclass chart below, spending a Shadow point to create a usable spell slot of up to your max cast level. When your Spells Known increases (including at level 3) you may choose one Warlock spell from the limited list below, of a level up to your Max Spell Level. And whenever this feature lets you choose a new spell, you can also swap out one of your existing (non-cantrip) spells for any other that you would normally be allowed to currently take from the approved list.
Approved Warlock Spells:
1st level: Armor of Agathys, Detect Magic, Expeditious Retreat, Unseen Servant
2nd level: Darkness, Hold Person, Ray of Enfeeblement, Warp Sense
3rd level: Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Hunger of Hadar, Remove Curse, Vampiric Touch
4th level: Banishment, Dimension Door, Gate Seal
5th level: Enervation, Hold Monster, Scatter*, Scrying, Teleportation Circle, True Seeing*
* Scatter and True Seeing count as fifth level spells for you.
Your Spellcasting Ability is Dexterity due to your unusual and physical connection to the Plane of Shadow, thus your Spell Save DC is 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Dexterity Modifier, and your Spell Attack Modifier is your proficiency bonus + your Dexterity Modifier.
When you do cast spells (or cantrips), you do not need to concentrate even if the spell says you do, and you do not use any Verbal, Somatic, or Material Components.
Invocations
You also gain access to Eldritch Invocations. Whenever your Total Invocations goes up (including this level) you can select any eldritch invocation for which you otherwise meet the requirements. Any reference to Charisma modifiers instead uses Dexterity modifiers. If an Invocation requires the expenditure of a spell slot, you must generate a spell slot by spending a Shadow point. Otherwise, no Shadow points are required to use invocations. And like spells, concentration and components are unnecessary for you to use Invocations.
Also like spells, any time you gain a new invocation, you can swap out a known invocation for any other one you could take. If doing this makes any of your current invocations no longer meet their prerequisites, you lose those invocations as well and must replace them also.
Level 9ː Shadow Weft - Stealth, Shadow, and Invisibility[edit]
At level 9 you gain these stealth abilities from your link to the Plane of Shadow:
Eclipse
You have learned to become one with the shadows. When you are in an area of dim light or darkness, you can use a bonus action to become invisible. You remain invisible until you make an attack, cast a spell, or are in an area of bright light. If you spend a recoverable Shadow point, you can cast one spell without breaking invisibility. You can spend Shadow points this way multiple times.
Shadowcloaking
Due to the Shadows you wrap around yourself (as a Bonus Action), all uses of Stealth gain +5 even when in bright light, as wrapping yourself in emanations from the plane of Shadow makes you fade and quiet rather than making you dark.
Level 13ː Shadow Warp - Unfettered Travel[edit]
At level 13 you gain the following new or improved abilities:
Improved Shadowcloaking
You can now wrap shadows around a number of others equal to twice your proficiency bonus at will (using a Bonus Action) causing them to fade, thus gaining the same +5 Stealth bonus you have. All those so faded can see and hear each other fine. You can remove this at will using a Bonus Action too.
Improved Shadow Sight/Step
You can now use Shadow Sight/Shadow Step at will without spending Shadow points. You also can use the Plane of Shadow to teleport long distances or even to other dimensions or planes of existence, using the following powers:
Far Step
You can use an Action and step into any shadow and step out of any shadow anywhere on the current plane of existence, so long as you have some idea of where you want to go. The DM may roll an accuracy check to see exactly where you arrive if you do not have a specific location in mind, but if you have been there before or seen it, or heard it accurately described in detail, no accuracy check needs to be made. You can bring others with you, willing or not (if grappled or restrained), by spending one recoverable Shadow point each.
Deep Step
You can travel instead (using an Action) into the border Ethereal, or (bodily) into the Astral, or to any close or neighboring dimensions or planes. You must still travel shadow to shadow, and you must spend one recoverable Shadow point both for yourself and anyone you wish to take with you.
Shadow Gate
You can open a Shadow Gate (as an Action) temporarily linking any two places (even if without a shadow) in the multiverse – where you are now, and where you choose. The cost is two nonrecoverable Shadow points, and it stays open for ten minutes or until you wish it to close. It can be as big or small as you want (within reason – armies can use it if desired), but once created its size cannot be changed. While it is open, the end of the gate you are not at can be moved at will to any imagined place for the duration.
Level 17ː One with Shadow - A Living Shadow[edit]
At level 17 the essence of the Plane of Shadow has now permanently infused the totality of your being and you are made of the stuff. This confers the following abilities:
Intangibility
You can become fully incorporeal as an at-will standard Action, unable to affect or be affected by much of anything. (You can still use abilities on yourself that do not alter your state, such as travel.) This can be done at will, but you need to spend a Shadow point as another Action to return to corporeality. As usual, after spending a point this way, roll a recovery d8: on a 1-3 nothing happens, on a 4-7 you gain a Shadow point back, on an 8 you gain two Shadow points from your contact with the Plane of Shadow.
While Intangible you are also utterly invisible and inaudible and all magic fails to detect you, though you see and hear as normal. You fly with a 120’ fly speed. While Intangible you also cannot alter your current condition, meaning that you cannot heal but neither can you get any worse. You can of course move through any objects or barriers freely with this ability, including magical ones.
Remaining in this state for too long (more than an hour) returns you to the Plane of Shadow itself unless you spend a recoverable Shadow point to gain another hour. Once deposited this way into the Plane of Shadow, you must succeed at an Intelligence Save (limited to one check per day) to find the will to leave it again.
Any attacks made by a Shadowbound dropping this state gain surprise and +5 to initiative.
Faded
Due to your now extremely faded base nature, even when tangible, you are resistant to all damage. This resistance cannot be removed or countered. You may also spend a single Shadow point (not recoverable) to shrug off all damage from a single source for one turn. This effect also cannot be countered or removed. Finally, the following conditions no longer apply to you under any conditions: blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, and stunned.
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