Best nethermancy/shadow magic in RPG's

[Cryomancer]

Yes, another thread to sperg about a particular type of magic. This time, with shadow magic or nethermancy. I know that IRL, darkness is merely the lack of light. But in fantasy, is the opposite force to the light. Just like cold IRL is just the lack of heat, but in video games, is a force. That said, some games with good dark/shadow magic in RPG's :

• Baldur's Gate 1/2(EE) + Shadow magic mod

The Shadow magic mod is a quite interesting mod. Adds a lot of new spells and is not very lore friendly with either editions of shadow magic, in 2e or 3e but is pretty cool. And adds some unique drawbacks and hindrances like casting speed and casting level penalties while exposed to sunlight.

• VtMB + Antitribu mod

I even posted lots of screenshots of this mod in screenshot thread, screenshots bellow. In nutshell, the mod makes the game much harder and brings lots of new clans into the game, including Lasombra, which comes with the Obtenebration discipline. which is essentially shadow magic

screenshots

The first and second dots of the discipline only offers stealth bonuses. The 3rd dot allows the caster to summon a tentacle of pure shadow(In P&P, it has the same STR of the wielder Dots in the discipline), the 4th dot to summon an armor of pure darkness with tentacles that strike the enemy at CQB and the 5th dot allows the caster to become shadow and soak almost everything, except fire and sunlight and move very fast.

• Dark Souls (mainly 2)

In the DLC of DS1, Dark Sorceries got introduced but it only become a fully fledged option in DS2. From the slow moving high tracking cheap Dark Orb to the extremely expensive Climax which destroys the player soul memory and consume all souls, every dark spell is very cool. The unique drawback of Hexes in the game is that you need two catalysts to cast both the Dark Sorceries and Dark Miracles. Till you get the black witch staff which is pretty hard to drop.

PvP Hexer - Youtube

• WoW (till WotLK) Affliction Warlock

Warlock despite I having criticized a lot cuz I only saw people talkingabout the endless gear farming, cooldown managing which is WoW end game. However, Warlock and the class quests in WoW are quite good and well designed. To get a succubus for example, you need to travel to another continent, get the Heartswood, an tree which feed from the blood of lovers which fell in battle, use it in a specific sigil to summon her and defeating her in battle to enslave the succubus. This type of quest in WoW is pretty good and interesting. Sadly Blizzard removed this in Cataclysm cuz "wow is only about raids and gear farming, cooldown managing!!!".

That said, Affliction warlock countrary to destruction ones which focus on hellfire magic, focus on dark spells, mostly DoT(Damage over time) and shadow bolt, a Dark Bolt of entropic energy, in vanilla wow, at mid levels, a lv 34 warlock can start the fight and have 3 powerful insta cast spells. Curse of Agony dealing about 350 damage + Corruption dealing about 325 damage and Siphon life which not only deals 150 damage but also heals the caster in 150 points, the unique downside is that few fights last this long to use all damage from DoTs but Warlocks also can sacrifice his own blood to heal his demons among other things.

In WotLK, they can send a ghost to haunt and steal enemy lifeforce and can cast even more powerful DoTs like unstable affliction.

My affliction WLK. I personally consider WoW Warlock a much better class over 5E Warlock.

• DDO - PALE MASTER WIZARD

In Dungeons and Dragons Online, Pale Masters are quite good. They can using unholy avatar break the healing from negative energy from undead and have a lot of powerful spells, so far the progression in DDO Pale Master is :

• Lv 1 - You fell worthless, is best to use the Archmage SLA evocation
• Lv 3 - Necrotic bolt - A amazing and cheap offensive SLA. SLA can be maximized and empowered for free
• Lv 7 - You start to get cool stuff like negative energy burst and death aura to have a bit of AoE damage and self heal at the same time
• Lv 11 - You start to get cool offensive stuff like necrotic ray which dishes a lot of damage and inflict a negative level if the enemy fail his fort save
• Lv 12 - Necrotic Blast. A AoE version of Necrotic Bolt.
• Lv 13 - Finger of death. OHK.
• Lv 17 - Spells like wail of the banshee, rend the soul and meteor swarm for enemies immune to negative energy.
• Lv 20 - Greater death aura.
• Lv 21+ - The new magus of the eclipse tree is incredible and offers a lot of epic stuff, like stop time + has powerful cold SLA. You need a secondary element against constructs

Here is a mid level Pale Master doing a much higher level quest

lv 14 doing tavern brawn at elite difficulty

 

[Dadd]

Not sure what exactly counts as "nethermancy" or shadow magic. Does any "evil" magic or necromancy count? Cool thread idea.

 

[Cryomancer]

Thanks for reviving a thread started dead.

I would say that "shadow elementalism", necromancy there is a thread about it.

The new shadowcaster(wiz) from PF:WoTR is an example of using the plane of shadow to and shadows to do N interesting stuff.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

So no shadow beasts and Demi-shadow beast conjuration? Shadow magic borders on illusion magic no?

 

[Cryomancer]

o no shadow beasts and Demi-shadow beast conjuration

Shadow magic borders necromancy, illusion and conjuration.

From Player's Option - Spells & Magic - Page 33

From Defilers and Preservers - The wizards of Athas - page 60