Shadow Dancer Class?

#1

Has anyone done a shadow dancer class?

How would one go about it? I am still working on the balance of ICRPG

#2

I have never done one, and I am uncertain what defines the class. But if I were to design one for ICRPG, my thoughts would be: What makes a Shadow Dancer fun to play? What makes it unique? What abilities define it? Then, I would design ICRPG loot (and associated mechanics) that make those abilities happen.

As for balance, there is none in ICRPG. The word “balance” is a bit of a dirty word around here. Lol. The better inquiry is the first one, “What makes this class fun to play,” and then go from there.

#3

Alright, good to know about balance. So, let’s see what I can do here…

Where a common thief uses the darkness and night to aid in their illicit acts, you have fully embraced it, truly making it your ally. You have some strange ability to merge with the shadows, becoming completely invisible in them, and even travel through them to another location!

You are the ultimate assassin, able to kill your prey, and then move yourself from harm before the alarm is even sounded. You are highly sought after in the underworld, and you smirk at the various rumors that fools speak about you in hushed tones. You laugh gleefully when you see a mark huddled in their room, surrounded by torches, as if the light would keep them safe from your blade. The fools! Never realizing that eventually the darkness will come… and with it death.

Recommended Gear: Greedy Gloves, Weapons Kit, Trapper Gear, Pouch of Coin

Starter Reward: Cloak of Darkness (allows the shadow dancer to hide in plain sight as long as there is a dimly lit area or an object casting a shadow)

Milestone Rewards:

Thieves Boots (when rolling stealth, only fail on a result of 1)

Belt of Jaunting (able to step through a shadow and appear out of a different shadow within “far” range)

Amulet of Protection (wrap shadow around your granting +2 armor)

Night Googles (allows perfect vision in darkness, even magical darkness)

Blind Man’s Ring (is able to cast the spell Darkness, which creates magical darkness in a 60 ft area. Everyone inside is considered blind)

Honed Blade (attacks with this blade ignore armor)

#4

I would try to make it more mechanical than descriptive. For example:
+10 to hide/sneak as long as area has shadows or low light.

Or
hide/sneak always easy regardless of being in plain sight. As long as there are shadows. (There are almost always shadows)

Again ICRPG is a slightly different game from other D20s, target numbers is a success! Not a contested roll per say, but that depends how you run your game.

If you play it that way.

Horned blade does not work for ICRPG. Enemies do not have a distinction between armor or dex or other way to differ different armor class.

So you need to think about things differently.
I would look at the ghost class in warp shell classes. And shadow class for Alfheim classes.
And all the other classes for that matter.
Converting straight up is odd. Understand the play style of the one class.
And recreate it in the new game, but in this case I would probably make the ghost class, more fantasy vs sci-fi.

#5

As a GM you can always run with the option of having an armored opponent being HARD to hit. The Horned Blade can negate this.

#6

Yes, as a GM you can modify the game in any way you wish. In fact you are encouraged to. Thanks GMagnus for making that clear. For many people, keeping that in mind is difficult, for others it now seems like that’s the way it should be, and I forget to mention it…everything is a suggestion, how I might do it, not a how it should be done, that’s up to you.

But in keeping things as generic as possible, AC in ICRPG as written does not differentiate magic, hard skin, dimensional displacement, armor or the billions of other ways you can have for making it hard to score a hit on an enemy.
You could say,
Horned blade is always easy vs heavy armor or something…just as a reminder for the GM when it comes up in 15 sessions after you created it.

#7

Thank you for all the feedback. I need a lot more time at the table with ICRPG to become more familiar with how everything works in regards to creating new content.

So, lets take another whack at it.

Recommended Gear: Greedy Gloves, Weapons Kit, Trapper Gear, Pouch of Coin

Starter Reward: Cloak of Darkness (all stealth/sneak rolls are easy - even in plain sight, as long as their is some form of dim light/shadow present. )

Milestone Rewards:

Thieves Boots (when rolling stealth, only fail on a result of 1)

Belt of Jaunting (able to step through a shadow and appear out of a different shadow within “far” range)

Amulet of Protection (wrap shadows around you as armor, add your DeX to AC)

Night Googles (allows perfect vision in darkness, even magical darkness)

Blind Man’s Ring (is able to cast the spell Darkness, which creates magical darkness in far area. Everyone inside is considered blind)

Honed Blade (against armored opponents, attacks are easy)

#8

Could be far, instead of 60 feet for the ring. But if you already have gridded maps…not a big deal.

#9

Awesome. Made the change.

I rarely use minis

#10

I would do this…
Thieves Boots: All Stealth rolls are EASY