Talk:Shadow Knight (5e Class)

• Black Jack. How is this activated? How often can I use it? How about a duration of 1 minute per duration standards in the PHB?
• Inner Madness. This assumes what kind of creature the target is. Would it work on a skeleton? A black pudding? An insect swarm? Please change round-counting for a saving throw made each turn. What is the damage type? Does this take an action? How often can I use this?
• Phantasmal Killer, Cloud Kill, etc. These are copies of the spells in the PHB. Please remove this text (as it is under copyright) and simply say they can cast that spell. You also need to say how often they can cast them. The thing is, there is a spellcasting feature at 1st level (although undescribed), and a spells column, so why not just add these spells to their spell list?
• Suicidal Thoughts. Ridiculous. No restrictions, saving throw, seemingly at-will, no action. You may as well just say "you can kill any creature you come across."
• Death's Hug. Equally daft.
• Shadow Blade, Crypt Keeper With no frequency given, this is a permanent benefit.
• Absolute Silence. No frequency given. There's also a spell for this, unsurprisingly called silence.
• Black Depths. Which enemies? What's the DC? How deep is the pit? Is it permanent? What's the frequency of this feature? Does it use an action?
• Death's Wings. What do you mean "uncontrollably grows"? Do they get bigger and bigger? What is the fly speed?
• Enemy of my Enemy. Does this take an action? Do they get a saving throw? This is another "instant-win-encounter" feature.
• Jaws of Darkness. Does this use an action? What is the saving throw? What is the damage type? What's the frequency?
• Shadow Hallway. I can't even. Can't go on. Marasmusine (talk) 00:42, 4 February 2016 (MST)

There is No Subclass or Archetypes

This is a central concept on 5ed. EVERY CLASS has at least 2 subclasses in the PHB (the Sorcerer, Barbarian and Bard are the ones with the fewest options, every other class has at least 3 and even up to 9), and they got expanded on splats like Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. Please, if you are going to throw a class online, at least be familiar with the rules. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 181.29.41.161 (talk • contribs) . Please sign your posts.

Really? You thought that was so important that the title needed to be caps locked and made triple the normal font size? That would be my last complaint for any homebrew class. If it's usable and balanced (which this one arguably isn't for other reasons), it's better than probably 90% of the homebrew classes I've seen. - Guy (talk) 11:47, 29 April 2017 (UTC)

Attempted Fix of The Shadow Knight

I went back and addressed almost every balance issue I could see by essentially scrapping the class and building it from the ground up. I used 5e_Mysteries for spells and configured the class as a sort of anti-paladin. Also used a lot of modified Paladin class features, as well as some modified features from Xoia_Nightwalker's Shadowcaster_(5e_Class) Attempted to add a little bit of story and flavor to the class, but it certainly still needs work. I'm sure there are still tons of typos and problems that I will try and fix if anyone cares to point them out. One major thing I can't figure out is in the class table, the Ability Score Improvement lines always double for some odd reason. AldoTheApache

Only had time for a speed-read, but a few things stick out:

• Spell names are in lower case italics
• "advantage on any roll that has to do with strength" - clarify exactly which rolls. Ability checks, OK. Saving throws, OK... but attack rolls? Would not want them to have advantage on every weapon attack roll on potentially several encounters after a rest.
• I'm not sure how well they will fare in an adventure where the the monsters are mostly undead. Marasmusine (talk) 03:55, 23 March 2016 (MDT)

• • Thanks a lot for the input! MY DM and I have done some tweaking on my personal Shadow Knight, so we'll see how he does and then I'll try and fix from there AldoTheApache

• Please remove the verbose list of spells if they are already at 5e Mysteries and elsewhere. You only need to print a spell list and wikilink to the spell's own wiki page.
• I've removed two images that were uploaded to the wiki, as they were under copyright.
• I don't understand why they are only proficient in swords.
• Is the 1d8 damage from improved shadow smite in addition to the 1d6 damage from shadow weapon? (e.g. my shadow longsword deals an awkward 1d10 + 1d8 + 1d6?) Then I add it again with a smite, so a 1st level slot smite deals 1d10 + 1d8 + 1d6 + 2d8 + 1d8? That's a bit ugly.
• Death's wings says "During the day, you may fly to half of your speed" (emphasis mine)
• Crypt Keeper
  • "successfully completed a long or short rest" - you can remove the word "successfully" - you either complete a rest or you don't.
  • "Strength based Ability Checks" - that would be "Strength checks" then.
• Shadow Body - 5e doesn't have a "move action".
  • Not entirely clear how this works. The shadows have to be the same size, I take this to mean that the objects casting them have the same category of size (Medium, Large, etc).
• Is it deliberate that there are no customization options such as archetypes? Marasmusine (talk) 08:35, 4 April 2016 (MDT)

Aside from the points already mentioned, I really need to point out Shadow Suffocate, which is gained at 3rd level.

• The term "grapple" is used, even though this doesn't seem to follow conventional rules for grappling attacks, nor even special features that inflict the grappled condition.
• The target needs to succeed on a very high saving Strength throw for the level (10 + str mod + cha mod, ignoring proficiency bonus for some reason) or take an immense amount of damage for the level (30 force damage). If that wasn't enough, it also forces the target to be effectively incapacitated. It also automatically kills anything that fails the (high) saving throw thrice. The only saving grace is that this can only be used once a day, but I'm not sure if that's enough considering at 3rd level it will likely obliterate the big bad of the day if it doesn't have exceptional strength.
• "If they escape, they may take a bonus action." This doesn't seem to make any sense. No special bonus action is defined, so why wouldn't they be able to take a bonus action?

So, that should be adjusted somehow—I'm just not sure what would be most appropriate. At the very least I think the saving throw be standard (8 + proficiency mod + ability mod), and inflict damage that either is lower or scales with level instead of being a flat 30. - Guy (talk) 22:30, 6 May 2017 (UTC)

Shadow Sense

Should Shadow Sense be with Charisma modifier instead Dexterity modifier?

Will work on balancing.

I'm currently working on the Fey knight which seemed to copy and paste a bit from here. I'll work on adjusting this as well since it is abandoned. --Kermon (talk)20:54, 9 April 2020 (MDT)