Shadowkin

You are a creature born in the realms of shadows, or that was brought to these dark realms when you were still a little baby. In either case, while growing up in these lands, shadows infused within both your body and soul, granting you special powers and twisting your physical appearance.

Parents in Shadow

On rare occasions, mortals have the ability to make extraordinary decisions. One could, for instance, decide to sacrifice their children to the shadows, or to live in the realm of shadows, or to mate with a denizen of shadows. And most of the time, there is a dark motive lurking behind these decisions. This could be a desire to please a dark deity, a will to build a temple for a forbidden power that is long forgotten, or a necessity to be hidden from forces of good.

On some other rare occasions, creatures of the shadows have been known to abduct children from the material plane, to use them as pawns in their dark and shadowy plans.

You are the product of such an occasion and your personality bears the characteristics of your parents as well as the shadows.

Shadows of the Past

Whatever your origins, you have witnessed, or even committed, many atrocities in the shadows: bloody sacrifices made in the dark, imprisoning lost souls in the shadows, unlucky creatures murdered by many types of undead, creation ceremonies of vampires, liches, mummies.

These memories never leave you even if you do leave the shadows. They always accompany you; wherever you go and whatever you do.

Shadowy Future

Whether a shadowkin chooses to embrace its cold, dark and deadly experiences or follow a different path, it is always hard for them to find peace because of the terrors lurking in their dark past. They are mischievous and treacherous in the eyes of many civilizations and societies. No matter what kind of path it chooses, a dark, surprising and twisted future is always what awaits a shadowkin.

Standard Traits

Your shadowkin character has certain traits it has acquired throughout its dark life in the shadows.

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2 and Charisma score increases by 1.

Age. Shadowkin mature at the same rate as humans but they live longer,averaging around 900 years.

Alignment. Shadowkin are known to be wild in their spirits, so it is a bit hard to generalize their alignments. Although it is known there are Shadowkin that serve both good and evil forces, they tend to gravitate towards evil as a result of the atrocities they have witnessed and the creatures of the shadows they have come across since their childhood. Like the shadows where they reside, they like to be free and neutral.

Darkvision. Your time spent in the realms of the shadows has granted you the ability to see in darkness. You have darkvision out to a range of 60 feet.

Size. Shadowkins weigh the same as humans. Your size is Medium.

Gift of Shadows. Your body is twisted by the shadows. You have shadowy claws. The claws deal 1d6 necrotic damage and do not grow in time.

Shadow Form. As a bonus action, you can transform into a shadow along with what you are wearing, whatever you are carrying, and gain the following traits:

• You gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks.
• You can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch without having to squeeze.
• You have advantage on your Stealth checks.
• You can make melee weapon attacks with your shadowy claws.

The shadow form remains until the end of your next turn. Once you use it, you have to finish a short rest to use it again.

Shadow Point. By performing a 1-hour ritual, you can choose the shadow of a nearby structure (a tree, a building, etc.) and form a connection with it. The chosen shadow becomes a shadow point. It is now a permanent and magical shadow that can be detected with a detect magic spell.It carries a conjuration aura and it can only be dispelled by a dispel magic spell that is cast by using a spell slot of 5th level or higher. Since it is magical, the shadow point remains even if the other shadows change as a result of a change in the lighting in the area. You can now teleport into this shadow. This teleportation does not work if you and the shadow are on different planes. You can change your designated shadow point by remaking the ritual and you can have only one shadow point at a time. Once you teleport using this feature, you must finish a long rest to use it again.

Shadowy Behavior. You can act as though you were a shadow; you can be frightening, persuasive or sneaky, depending on what you might need at a given occasion. You gain proficiency in one of the following skills: Intimidation, Persuasion, or Stealth.

Sunlight Sensitivity. While in the sunlight, you have disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language of your choice.