Shadow Lich

The shadow lich is a rare variant lich with little coverage or backstory. There have been four instances of this monster throughout D&D.

The first shadow lich is in Dragon Magazine #261| Conjuring in the half-dark |July 1999.. The means to become a shadow lich are found in shadowbooks- named thus as they don't open in lighted conditions, and are to be read with darkvision. The details of becoming the creature are omitted by the publisher, a 'long-gone' illusionist by the name of Heriabgher, the 'Midnight-Mage'. Heriabhgher metions thusly before the ommitted content: "What follows is the formula for the transformation of an archmage into a shadow-lich.". The shadowbooks contain new spells, many of which are incredibly useful and indicative of the research Heriabhger undertook to become famous, as well as common ones found in splatbooks. New spells include:

• Hide shadow, allowing a caster to roll up their shadow to store and avoid effects that target it(or play vampire).
  • Shadow weave, allowing temporary creation of semi-solid shapes from shadows, ropes,(4ftxCL) ladders,(8ftxCL) nets & blankets as big as the shadow used to make them trap a whole room why don't you? Trick someone to thinking a darkmantle is attacking! Concealling cloaks, and containers.

To note, one could use the rope to garrote, blankets to smother(possibly make a new variation of a sheet phantom in the process) and containers to quickly hide objects.

• Shadow warrior, a spell that allows the casters shadow to attack a target's shadow to inflict harm, avoiding all but natural AC.
• Shadow replay, a spell that is Jojo's Moody blues, but with shadows- past events of up to 2 hours ago by level 20.
• Death shade, a spell that extends a mile per caster level, dealing 1 point of damage to anything humanoid including giants, caught in the darkness that cannot be restored without the spell heal or restoration. Death Shade, theoretically could be stacked with other effects to make it more deadly it could be used to soften up a large enemy force with multiple castings.
• Shadow trap shoves a person inside their own shadow, trapping them inside as a moving shadow stuck to whatever darkness inhbits a room, and magical light harms them until death, in which they fall out of their own shadow, dead. victims cannot communicate or cast spells in the trap, but can fight shadows or 'slow shadows' as the spell- shadow warrior, and casters using the shadow warrior spell; they cannot interact with other shadows outside these conditions. True seeing and divination reveals the nature of a victim and dispel magic, remove curse and limited wish can save them.

The article is published alongside Me & My Shadow and 'Wizards of Dusk & Gloom - Shadow Mages, all in DMG261 both are tied to the Shadow Mage from 2e's Player's Option: Spells and Magic, offering new kits and spells to this type of spellcaster. For more on 'slow shadows' see Me & my Shadow.' All three articles are intended for use toghether.

The second instance of the shadow-lich is in October 31st 2000's Ravenloft netbook: 'Book of shadows', and is by far the most substantial of the sources, providing a means of creation, powers, and an archtypical villian to suitor such a being and it's motivations. Umbran, the shadow lich. The story goes that Marcus Shadowmehr, a rich kid, blows his money on magic research into shadow magic as a shadow mage, and one day, when turning himself into a shade in his workshop wine cellar with an "instant spooky" alchemical version of 9th level spell to become a shade, (how that got into the demiplane of dread is another story entirely) accidentally snags an unwelcome surprise for his spell components- an undead shadow infected with the shadow virus. This infects him, causing his shadow to shatter and he to start fading away. Desperate, Marcus quaffs his would-be shade potion, which, had an adverse effect on him due to his being infected with the undead contagion, turning him into a shadow lich, now going by Umbran. A shadow lich appears as one would expect a typical shade to appear, bar the exception that the eyes of the creature are nothing but black pits, this is quite the boon, a it allows the creature to pass off as living far more than any other version of a lich. Umbran has a fear aura like other liches- but the aura has the additional ability of being tied in with a shade's natural ability to dim light sources, material & magical, which allows the user to cast shadow-magic more effectively in any given location, including direct sunlight. The touch of a shado lich is no longer a paralytic touch of death, but is the same as an undead shadows strength drain- though it does not produce spawn. What's more notable is that in addition to the default resistances a lich benefits from as undead, shadow liches are not affected by illusions of any kind. Due to having a trio-planr link, shadow lichs like umbran are turned as 'special' undead. If tht wasn't enough, next to the obscurity of such a creature granting it probable impossiblle means to scry or learn anything about it to slay, the rejuvanation method differs entirely from the traditional means a lich recovers from defeat, and is so obscure, that it is extremly unlikely anyone could vanquish it- here is the means in which the shadow-lich retores it's broken form- it's a treat.

"Destroying Umbran is a bit more involved than destroying other liches. Umbran keeps his life in his shadow, which remains intangible and unable to be affected on the Prime. The process of transformation caused the lich’s flesh to be replaced with shadowstuff, so when enough damage is inflicted on the lich to “kill it, the shadowstuff around his bones dissipates, causing his skeleton to fall to the ground. His shadow remains unaffected and hides under the bones. When the lich’s life is totally in his shadow, he is said to be in shadowform. While he is in shadowform, he is mobile and should be treated much as a standard shadow, save with its original lich aura and damage capability and greater immaterialness (still takes +1 to hit). After 1d3 days, Umbran manages to accumulate enough shadowstuff to wrap around his bones and reanimate them. If his skeleton is destroyed as well, (Truly destroyed, such as by a disintegrate or wish spell, not simply chopping up the bones—if the bones are simply broken up, the lich can “glue” them back together with shadowstuff) the lich’s shadowform retreats to his lair or some other place of darkness, away from the adventurers that damaged him so. After 1d3 weeks, he regenerates enough of this shadowstuff substance to return to the Prime. There he will search for a new set of bones to wrap his shadowstuff around and reanimate over 1d3 days. The only way to destroy him is to trap his shadowform in an area he cannot slip out of, and use a combination of continual light, bless, and dispel evil to completely dissipate his spirit.

The third instance is in the Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Undrentide campaign, where the player encounters a shadow lich, an archmage who, due to overexposure to the plane of shadow, became such a creature. It uses the same model as an undead shadow, and is described as having the traditonal lich glowing red-eye sockets and is fought alongside it's shadowvar students. It is unknown if the creature was a lich, then became a shadow lich, or was human before. It wears the robe of vecna, which may be chalked up to the encounter being a side-mission before the final encounter- this is also plausible, as in realmslore, the extended mutliverse is accessible through some means found only in the plane of shadow as some deities of the realms ae found in other campaign settings- this may also be related to bioware's hand in NWN, as Baldur's gate featured the robes of Vecna. Other extraplanar items are lootable as well, leaning towards this possibility. The other intrigues of this shadow lich, is that it came about through means of decay- and it holds similarities with the process that the older 1e-2e versons of the demilich possessed when matters of it's astral self or spirit came into play- it is perhaps likely that this shadow lich is what happens if a lich decays annd trasitions into a demi-lich in the plane of shadow- but this is debatable, as the Kharlat Jhareg quest in Neverwinter indicated that lichdom was following the procedures detiled in the 3e savage progression Lich & weretiger web article, with the half-lich state. It also hold links with the rules for Umbran's shadowform.

The fourth and final instance of a shadow lich is in 3.5s Tome of magic- though said lich is most likely a lich shadowcaster using the shadow-weave. He lives in a tower, researching the sphere of annihilation as some perfect idealized darkness, like a villain from Kingdom Hearts. Darkity darkity darkness.