Shadow

Shadow
Depiction of shadows swarming an adventurer, by Michael Broussard from Monster Manual (2025), p. 272.
Biological Information
Type	Undead
Alignment	Chaotic Evil
Vision	Darkvision 60 ft.
Movement	40 ft.
Abilities	Amorphous Shadow Stealth Strength Drain/Draining Swipe
Physical Characteristics
Size	Medium
Sociocultural Information
Planes	Material Plane (Aramán and Exandria) Tenebral Reaches
Locations	Aramán: Summoned to Dol-Makjar Exandria: Umbra Hills
Environment	Planar (Shadowfell), Underdark, Urban

Shadows are incorporeal undead that feed on life.

Description

Shadows have misty faces with smoky mouths and dark, empty eye sockets.

Abilities

Depiction of a shadow claiming a victim, by Justin Sweet from Monster Manual (2014), p. 269.

Two slightly different versions of this creature have been featured in Critical Role media. An adventure hook in the original Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting involves shadows using the statblock from the 2014 Monster Manual, page 269, and its abilities are as follows:

• Skill proficiency: Stealth
• Damage vulnerability: Radiant
• Damage resistances: Acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder, bludgeoning/piercing/slashing from nonmagical attacks
• Damage immunities: Necrotic, poison
• Condition immunities: Exhaustion, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained
• Amorphous: Can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch without squeezing
• Shadow Stealth: While in darkness or dim light, can Hide as a bonus action, and gains a bonus to Stealth
• Sunlight Weakness: While in sunlight, has disadvantage on saving throws, ability checks, and attack rolls
• Actions
  • Strength Drain: Melee attack, deals necrotic damage and reduces Strength until the creature finishes a rest; if the target's Strength drops to zero, it dies; if a non-evil humanoid dies in this way, a new shadow rises from the corpse within hours.

More shadows have appeared in Campaign Four, which uses the 2024 Dungeons & Dragons rules. The main differences are that a shadow in the 2025 Monster Manual (page 272) has more hit points, is not resistant to damage from nonmagical attacks, and cannot be rendered unconscious; also, new shadows can rise from the corpses of evil humanoids.

History

Aramán

Campaign Four Arc 1

On Aramán there had always been restless spirits of the dead who sought to reclaim their life, walking for centuries or millennia, trading away memories or a name, until they had traded away the last parts of themselves for the purpose that kept them clinging to life, and these souls became shadows. After the Shapers were slain, denying a great many souls a path to the afterlife, such lost souls began to rapidly accumulate in the Tenebral Reaches, the underworld.

Seventy years after the Shapers were slain, House Tachonis, which was deeply involved in necromancy, launched a surprise attack on House Royce and its vassals in Dol-Makjar. As part of the attack, Primus Tachonis used a powerful dark candle as the material component of a necromantic spell to shred the local barrier between the Tenebral Reaches and the mortal world, and used an onyx ring to summon several shadows into the estate of House Davinos. The shadows had trouble attacking Vaelus because, as an elf, she had an eternal life that could not be drained, and the shadows' faces were twisted with an ambiguous expression of torment when they touched her. By contrast, when the shadows surrounded Julien Davinos, they smiled as they seemed to recognize a soul as lost as theirs, and prepared to invite him to their ranks.

Exandria

In an adventure hook in the original Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, a famous gnome archaeologist named Wilmet Wizcrack is found dead—without wounds, but with atrophied muscles and taut skin—at an inn in the Umbra Hills, and in his possessions is a magic longsword which has the name "Trist Drassig" inscribed on its blade. One day later, his corpse turns into a shadow. Anyone who carries the blade is attacked one week later by a small number of shadows.

References

Art: