An endless source of shadows?

[HuManBing]

I was making notes for the Azalin fanfic and paging through my RL Core Rulebook when I noticed something interesting.

Shadow magic apparently has a percentage chance of creating real Shadow undead creatures when the spell terminates. The Shadows are free willed but can be controlled with other normal spells or items, etc.

Azalin being Azalin, could he just immediately grab control of them using his Darklord powers?

Of course, you'd have to wonder why he's even casting any Shadow evocation to begin with... and especially if he wants a Shadow or other undead, he could presumably use magic more directly tuned to creating them...

But this just struck me as a neat little side effect of using a spell and possibly gaining an undead servant.

[Spiteful Crow]

Why not just crack open the deathstone?

[HuManBing]

I'm not sure what the Deathstone is... what book was that in?

[Spiteful Crow]

Legacies of the Blood. It's a gigantic black stone kept somewhere in Misericordia. Ivana uses it as an ingredient in creating the ermordenungs (sp?) and makes daggers out of it which capture people's souls. The stone is covered in hieroglyphics, but the only one that matches Akiri is the symbol for death. Apparently, the deathstone is meant for storing undead spirits, but because of Ivana's constant use of it, it's beginning to reach its limit.

[HuManBing]

I see. Azalin could conceivably steal it, so yes that's definitely a possibility. I'm sure there are other more powerful animate dead spells he can use too.

But back to my original question... i.e. when Shadow magic wears off and the Shadow monsters remain, so Azalin gains a few new servitors by a stroke of luck... does that sound feasible to you?

[Spiteful Crow]

Yes, but does he have any shadow spells?

[HuManBing]

GM's discretion, as I believe the GazII makes very clear in a sidebar. Or he could cast Wish, to imitate a Shadow spell, to imitate another spell. Or he could teach a vassalich to cast it and create loads of shadows that way.

Hopefully, that's gotten all other tangential issues out of the way and we can actually look at the initial question asked...

[Spiteful Crow]

I got the impression that shadows created by those spells were pure elemental shadows, as opposed to undead.

Anywho, if that plan would work and he had an endless source of shadows, why would he want to? He has no interests in conquering neighboring domains, and his border-closing ability is sufficient as a defending army. For anything that involves intra-domain problems, he already has the Kargat. I don't think the shadow effect would be much more than a toy for him, and another way to study how the planar fabric affect magic.

[HuManBing]

I think you're right about the whole "interesting toy" thing. I made it pretty clear that this is literally just a weird little bonus effect.

Of course, if anybody else in Darkon casts those spells, Azalin may end up with a few unexpected servants...

I ask this just because Azalin can control any undead in Darkon, but can only create skeletons and zombies using his DL powers. (Of course, through other spells he can create more powerful undead.)

[Spiteful Crow]

Of course, if anybody else in Darkon casts those spells, Azalin may end up with a few unexpected servants...

Wizard: "Oh no! It's a lich! SHADOW EVOCATION!"
Azalin: "Why, thank you for the new pet. Now die!"
Wizard: "AAAAAAAHHHHHH!" * killed by shadow *

[HuManBing]

Hey, you got a crow avatar! Neat!

[Spiteful Crow]

I stole Rotipher's pre-Fratmember avatar.

[HuManBing]

A late bump. I was doing an analysis of Azalin's spell tactics.

It seems that he knows both the spells Shadow Evocation and Shadow Conjuration.

These spells are immensely useful to him, as they allow him to mimic any Evocation or Conjuration spell below a certain level, even if he doesn't know it. (All other wizards can do this too - it's just more useful for him because he can't learn anything new.)

So Azalin would likely be using those spells to mimic basic spells that most wizards know but he doesn't. Mage Armor is an immediate candidate, as is Phantom Steed. Both have durations and when they expire, Azalin can easily choose to fail his Will save willingly so it becomes a Shadow monster, and then seize control of the Shadow monster to serve him.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

True, those Shadow __________ are very useful spells for Azalin, just as they are for sorcerers who haven't got many spells to choose from. An additional benefit is that they let him keep his lack of flexibility -- one of his greatest weaknesses -- concealed, if he fakes the use of low-level magics he's seen other wizards employ.

OTOH, the fact that the Greater Shadow __________ spells aren't on his GazII spell list, even though they're surely rooted in similar arcane principles, is telling. While adding spells from new game supplements to his repretoire is endorsed by the "No New Magic?" sidebar, the fact he doesn't have the Greater Shadow spells (or all the Summon Monster spells, etc) on his roster is a reasonable clue that he shouldn't be given access to new spells, merely because they build upon effects he is familiar with: if you add to his list, it should always be something he'd learned on Oerth.

I can easily picture Azalin kicking himself over never having bothered to learn the advanced Shadow spells -- spells, which likely seemed redundant and weak, compared to other high-level magics he could be pursuing -- back on his homeworld. Belated regret, thy name is "darklord".

[HuManBing]

Rotipher makes a reasonable point. What are the negative implications of what the designers left out of Azalin's spellbook, and how does that fit with the "No New Spells?" sidebar, which seems to make his curse a mere nullity at best.

All this is somewhat academic because Azalin does know Wish, so he could (at horrendously inefficient effort-to-result ratios) expend that to get whatever spell effect he wanted. Just some food for thought.