Shades

From HGWiki

Spell

Caster Level: Bard 6; Wizard/Sorcerer 6

School: Illusion

Component(s): V, S

Range: Short

Save: Special

Spell Resistance: Yes

Area of Effect/Target: Special

Duration: Special

Description: The caster conjures a shadow variant of one of the following spells: Cone of Cold, Fireball, Stoneskin, Wall of Fire, or Summon Shadow. The creatures summoned by the Shades/Greater/Shadow Conjuration line of spells scale up in power as the caster gains levels and illusion foci, varying slightly in power from casting to casting. At level 40 and beyond, the Shades/Greater/Shadow Conjuration line of spells summons a variety of powerful shades. The power of the creatures depends on caster level, spell level (4-6), illusion foci, and random chance. More powerful creatures are summoned as these factors increase and they continue to scale in response to those factors.

Notes

One advantage of this spell is having five spells combined into one. For Sorcerers and Bards, this effectively increases the number of spells known. For Wizards, this provides the ability to select which spell to cast at the time of casting.
An advantage for Wizards who specialized is access to select spells from their prohibited school(s). All spells cast using shades also use the base spell's school. Hence illusion focus will not improve the DC unless the sub spell is of the illusion school.
The Stoneskin subspell does not remove earlier castings of itself (but will remove an earlier casting of regular Stoneskin), so it is possible to have multiple castings of this subspell operate concurrently on a target. (The damage reduction does not stack, and only one instance of the spell will be depleted with each hit.)
Shades is a Bard spell with Hg enhanced enabled.