Subclass Sorcerer Shadow Magic

What Is the Shadow Magic?

The Shadow Magic Sorcerer is a darkness-themed Sorcerer subclass. Shadow Spells at Level 3 provides a dark-themed spell list including Bane, Darkness, and Hunger of Hadar. Power of Shadow grants Eyes of the Dark (120ft Darkvision + a Sorcery-Point-cost Darkness cast) and Strength of the Grave (survive lethal hits with a Charisma save). At Level 6 you gain the Hound of Ill Omen, a Bonus Action summon that costs 3 Sorcery Points.

Class Features

Progression Overview

LEVEL	FEATURE
3	Shadow Spells, Power of Shadow
6	Hound of Ill Omen

Level 3

Shadow Spells

When you reach certain Sorcerer levels, you always have the listed spells prepared.

LEVEL	SPELLS ADDED
3	Bane, Darkness, Inflict Wounds, Pass Without Trace
5	Hunger of Hadar, Fear
7	Greater Invisibility, Phantasmal Killer
9	Contagion, Cloudkill

Power of Shadow

You gain the following two abilities:

Eyes of the Dark — You have Darkvision with a range of 120 feet. You can also cast Darkness by spending Sorcery Points instead of a spell slot.

Strength of the Grave — When damage reduces you to 0 Hit Points, you can make a Charisma saving throw (DC 5 + the damage taken). On a success, you instead drop to 1 Hit Point. You can't use this feature if you are reduced to 0 Hit Points by Radiant damage or by a Critical Hit. Once this feature is used successfully, you can't use it again until you finish a Long Rest.

Level 6

Hound of Ill Omen A Bonus Action costing 3 Sorcery Points that summons a shadow hound to fight for you. It is always prepared and needs no spell slot.

Playstyle Notes

The Shadow Magic Sorcerer is built around survivability and stealth utility, with the Hound of Ill Omen at Level 6 turning spare Sorcery Points into a body on the field.

Strength of the Grave provides a functional "second life" once per Long Rest — making the Shadow Sorcerer harder to kill outright than a Sorcerer without it. The Charisma save (your primary stat) makes success likely except on very high damage spikes.

Eyes of the Dark's Sorcery-Point Darkness spell creates obscured zones that the Shadow Sorcerer (with Darkvision 120ft) can operate inside freely, while other creatures without Devil's Sight-style vision are Blinded within it.

Shadow Spells List

SPELL	DESCRIPTION
Bane	Reduces enemy saves and attack rolls for your whole party's targets.
Hunger of Hadar	Darkness area dealing 2d6 Cold + 2d6 Acid damage per turn.
Fear	Wisdom save or Frightened, causing the target to flee.
Greater Invisibility	Advantage on all your attacks + Disadvantage on attacks against you, for 1 minute, without needing to break it by attacking.
Cloudkill	5d8 Poison damage per turn in an area.