Manual of the Planes

describes some typical abilities and vulnerabilities thataffect long-term residents of the Plane of Shadow.Vision on the Plane of Shadow is like vision on a moonlessnight on the Material Plane. Most of the terrain isdark, interrupted only by the occasional pale beacon of aportal or a traveler’s campfire. Darkvision is unaffectedby the plane, but every torch, lantern, and light-emittingspell (such as continual flame and daylight) has its radius ofillumination halved. A daylight spell provides normallight in a 30-foot radius, for example, while a bullseyelantern shines in a cone 30 feet long and 10 feet wide atthe end.Bright lights tend to attract other travelers andnatives from the Plane of Shadow, so the likelihood ofencounters is doubled for a group of travelers bearing alight source.Travelers from the Material Plane find the Plane ofShadow to be cool, but not cold. The Plane of Shadowmutes the heat from normal fires slightly. Fire dealsnormal damage on the plane, but an ordinary campfiresomehow seems to provide less warmth than on theMaterial Plane.Dark MiragesOne of the most distressing features of the Plane ofShadow is that it is a warped reflection of the MaterialPlane. A shadow traveler who enters the Plane of Shadowfrom her hometown may find herself in a dark, abandonedversion of that town. The parallels are not exact, soher home may be on a different street, be built in a differentstyle, or (most likely) lie in ruins.Other mirages are equally troubling, such as a hugedark castle where none exists on the Material Plane, or anancient battlefield where a dungeon should be. Mosttroubling of all are the shadowy echoes of people the travelerknows, shadow creatures with the twisted but stillrecognizable features of loved ones. These shadow duplicateshave no special abilities, but the effect is disconcertingnonetheless.Shadow travelers in a place particularly familiar ormeaningful to them must make a Will saving throw (DC15) to ignore such dark mirages. Those who fail arehaunted and rattled by the similarities, suffering a –2morale penalty on attacks and saving throws as long asthey remain in a location familiar to them. Travelers whomake their saves are unaffected by the dark mirages forthe duration of their trip to the Plane of Shadow.Dark mirages occur because the Plane of Shadow is soclose to the Material Plane. The echo of an alternateMaterial Plane can also bleed through onto the Plane ofShadow, making the dark mirages more unsettling. Oraclesand soothsayers sometimes journey onto the Plane ofShadow looking for enlightenment among the darkness,attempting to discover if such dark mirages are harbingersof the future.DarklandsOn the Plane of Shadow, patches of darkness exist that areeven darker than the shadows themselves. Negativeenergy infuses these places. Whether the negative energyis bleeding over from the Negative Energy Plane or it’ssimply a byproduct of the high concentration of undeadshadows and other life-draining undead is unknown.Darklands regions have the minor negative-dominanttrait. Living creatures that enter the darklands take 1d6points of damage per round from negative energy andcrumble into ash if they reach 0 hit points or less. Spellsand magic items that protect against negative energyfunction normally within the darklands.Travelers to the Plane of Shadow can identify darklandseasily. They are more desolate and bleak than thesurrounding areas (which are themselves pretty bleak onthis plane). Plants are dead and desiccated from the longtermeffects of the negative energy.Natural vortices from other planes do not open intodarklands regions, and spells or spell-like abilities openinga portal from the Material Plane warn the traveler(usually with a cold shiver down the spine) that a darklandsregion lies ahead. Darklands often correspond tohaunted battlefields, unconsecrated graveyards, and lairsof powerful necromancers on the Material Plane, as wellas any location dominated by undead.Astral PortalsThe Astral Plane is coterminous to the Plane of Shadow,so magic portals can create conduits through the AstralCHAPTER 5:THE TRANSITIVEPLANESpqqqqrsOPTION: SHADOWS OF OTHER PLANESIn the D&D cosmology, the Plane of Shadow is coexistent withthe Material Plane and can be used to reach alternate MaterialPlanes. Travelers can reach other planes through the AstralPlane, which connects to other planes on the Great Wheel thatare otherwise separate from the Plane of Shadow. But if you’rebuilding your own cosmology, you can attach the Plane ofShadow to as many or as few planes as you desire, whetherInner Planes, Outer Planes, or alternate Material Planes. Theshadow walk spell becomes a more versatile way to get fromplane to plane.As the Plane of Shadow nears other planes, it tends to gain thesame traits as those planes. Where the Plane of Shadowapproaches Mechanus, for example, it gains the mildly law-alignedtrait, and shadow travelers moving toward the Elemental Plane ofWater notice that the Plane of Shadow gains the water-dominanttrait near the end of their journey. Unless otherwise changed byproximity to the other plane, the traits of the Plane of Shadowremain. In both of the above cases, the border zones retain theenhanced magic and impeded magic traits of the rest of the Planeof Shadow, because neither Mechanus nor the Elemental Plane ofWater have magic traits that would “overwrite” them.pqqqqrs63