Shadow Slip (3.5e Invocation)
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Low - Moderate - | Umbral Warlock Greater; 6th |
This invocation is somewhat of a lesser version of the Shadow Walk spell, shifting your body only partially onto the border of the plane of shadow. This state allows you to move much faster; In normal light, when you take a move action to move your land speed, you can choose to Shadow Slip, being wreathed in purple-black shadow flames as you move. Doing so allows you to treat each 5 feet of your movement as 10 feet (Thus if you move 30 feet while in this state, you can instead choose to move 60 feet by Shadow Slipping). If you are capable of using Greater invocations, each 5 feet is instead treated as 15 feet, and if you can cast Dark invocations, every 5 feet you move is treated as 20 feet. This also functions when taking a 5-foot step, allowing you to move farther than 5 feet by using a 5-foot step; This extra movement doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity any more than taking a 5-foot step does. When you move, your form seems to flicker out of existence for a brief moment as the aura of shadow flames races toward your destination; As you reach your landing point, you fade back into view. But, the shadow flames outline you, negating the effects of any sort of concealment as if Faerie Fire had been cast upon you. This does not, however, affect the effects of your partial incorporeality (See below), nor does it provide enough light to brighten the area around you, unlike Faerie Fire.
While using the above mode of travel, you float 1 foot above the ground, allowing you to ignore most difficult terrain (As per the Scorn Earth ability of the Elocater. You can push yourself higher (Up to 10 feet above the ground), but at any height above 1 foot, you cannot move more than 10 feet per round, movement which isn't affected by your Shadow Slip; And at such heights, you also take penalties to attack rolls as if under the effects of the Levitate spell.
In area of darkness or shadowy illumination, you can instead elect to teleport to another area of shadow as a move action; However, the other area of shadow cannot be any farther away than the distance you could move using the above movement function - Twice your land speed, or thrice your land speed if you can cast Greater invocations, or four times your land speed if you can cast Dark invocations. Thus an Elven Warlock (Base speed of 30ft) who can cast Dark invocations could teleport up to 120 feet in this manner, so long as the square he's teleporting to and the square he's teleporting from are both either completely dark or in areas of shadowy illumination. You can teleport only yourself and what you are wearing and carrying; You cannot bring another along unless it is your familiar, animal companion, or similarly bonded creature.
In either case, while you are under the effects of Shadow Slip, you are granted a miss chance; Nonmagical attacks pass right through you, and most magical attacks miss you 10% of the time; This is partial incorporeality, so [Force] effects and Ghost Touch weapons (Along with Extradimensional spells) affect you normally. In areas of darkness or shadowy illumination, this miss chance increases to 20%. If you are capable of casting Greater invocations, these values increase to 15% in normal illumination and to 35% in areas of darkness or shadowy illumination. Finally, if you are capable of casting Dark invocations, these values further increase to 20% in normal lighting, and to 50% in darkness and areas of shadowy illumination.
This ability, being a form of partial teleportation, will not function if you are under the effects of a Dimensional Anchor spell or similar. This is also treated as a [Darkness] effect of 4th level (6th if you can cast Greater invocations, 8th if you can cast Dark invocations) for the purposes of interacting with [Light] effects. [Light] effects also hamper the movement of this invocation in the same manner as a Dimensional Anchor effect, unless it is of a low enough level for Shadow Slip to counter it.
Once cast (A standard action, just like other invocations), Shadow Slip lasts for 1 round for caster level before it runs out. Once it ends, you take 1d4 untyped damage that bypasses all forms of damage reduction, resistance and immunity as your body shifts fully back to the material, and the invocation cannot be cast again for a number of rounds equal to the damage you just took.
Finally, while under the effects of this invocation, you:
- Suffer 50% reduction in healing from any source (Except invocations that heal you, such as the vampiric blast function of the Dark Spiral Aura invocation);
- Suffer Light Blindness (Being blinded for one round upon abrupt exposure to bright light, and remaining dazzled for as long as you remain within that light);
- Can see up to 60 feet in any form of darkness, including magical darkness effects of 4th level and lower;
- And any spells that have special effects on light-sensitive undead (Such as Searing Light ) treat you as if you were a light-sensitive undead creature as long as you remain under the effects of this invocation.
Note: At the DM's option, creatures from the Shadow Plane may attack you, seeing your somewhat ghostly, black-flame-outlined form moving though part of their plane; However, your partial incorporeality applies against attacks made by creatures on that plane as well. However, you have no way of fighting back by means of this invocation alone (Though Shadow Walk, Plane Shift or similar may allow you to travel there, defeat the pesky creature, and travel back), so if your DM rules that Shadow creatures can attack you via random encounter, things could get quite hairy indeed. If you have the Path of Shadow invocation, or can cast any other effect that duplicates the Shadow Walk spell (Including the spell itself) the DM may rule that if you are under the effects of Shadow Slip at the same time as you cast the Shadow Walk effect, you can have greater control over your travel in relation to the material, ending up closer to your intended destination.
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