The Shadowless Codex
A shadowless, unnaturally cold tome preserves the work of a necromancer who steals life from foes, slips between spaces, and teaches darkness to obey.
Spellbook · Wizard, School of Necromancy · Level 5
The Shadowless Codex
A shadowless, unnaturally cold tome preserves the work of a necromancer who steals life from foes, slips between spaces, and teaches darkness to obey.
Ex librisMara VeyWizardry, School of Necromancy
At a glance
Level
5
Wizard, School of Necromancy
Spells
12
2 cantrips, 4 signature
Spell slots
1st level
2nd level
3rd level
At the table
A margin note
Plot hook
Spells
12 spellsCantrips
2- Create a spectral skeletal hand beside a creature in range and make a ranged spell attack. On a hit, it takes necrotic damage; the hand clings to it briefly.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- One creature
- Components
- V, S
- Save or attack
- Ranged spell attack
- Damage
- necrotic
- Higher levels
- Damage increases by at character levels 5, 11, and 17.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2014)
- A bell-like toll sounds around one creature you can see. It takes necrotic damage on a failed save, with greater damage if it is missing any hit points.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- One creature you can see
- Components
- V, S
- Save or attack
- Wisdom saving throw
- Damage
- necrotic
- Higher levels
- Damage increases at character levels 5, 11, and 17; a wounded target takes d12s instead of d8s.
- Source
- Xanathar's Guide to Everything
1st level
3- Bolster yourself with a necromantic facsimile of life, gaining temporary hit points.
- Duration
- 1 hour
- Target
- Self
- Components
- V, S, M (a drop of alcohol or distilled spirits)
- Higher levels
- When cast with a slot of 2nd level or higher, gain 5 additional temporary hit points for each slot level above 1st.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2014)
- Alter your appearance, including clothing and equipment, within the spell's limits. The illusion does not change your body or hold up to physical inspection.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
- Target
- Self
- Components
- V, S, M (a small piece of fleece)
- Higher levels
- No additional effect when cast with a higher-level slot.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2014)
- Creatures in a 20-foot-radius sphere fall unconscious in order of their current hit points until the spell's hit-point total is used up. The spell has no effect on undead or creatures immune to being charmed.
- Duration
- 1 minute
- Target
- Creatures in a 20-foot-radius sphere
- Components
- V, S, M (a pinch of fine sand, rose petals, or a cricket)
- Save or attack
- None; creatures are affected by current hit points
- Higher levels
- Roll an additional for each slot level above 1st.
- Conditions
- Incapacitated
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2014)
2nd level
4- Briefly surrounded by silvery mist, teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- Self
- Components
- V
- Higher levels
- No additional effect when cast with a higher-level slot.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2014)
- Magical darkness spreads from a point you choose, filling a 15-foot-radius sphere. A light spell of 2nd level or lower cannot illuminate it; covering the source with an opaque object blocks the darkness.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 10 minutes
- Target
- A point in space or an object
- Components
- V, S, M (bat fur and a drop of pitch or a piece of coal)
- Higher levels
- No additional effect when cast with a higher-level slot.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2014)
- Create a mass of sticky webs in a 20-foot cube. The webs make the area difficult terrain and can restrain creatures that fail their saves.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 hour
- Target
- A point within range; webs fill a 20-foot cube
- Components
- V, S, M (a bit of spiderweb)
- Save or attack
- Dexterity saving throw when a creature starts its turn in the webs or enters them during its turn
- Higher levels
- No additional effect when cast with a higher-level slot.
- Conditions
- Restrained
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2014)
- Weave a blade of solidified shadow into your hand. It is a simple melee weapon with which you are proficient, dealing psychic damage on a hit and having the finesse, light, and thrown properties.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
- Target
- Self; conjures a shadow blade
- Components
- V, S
- Save or attack
- Melee weapon attack using the spellcasting ability; ranged weapon attack if thrown
- Damage
- psychic
- Higher levels
- Damage increases to with a 3rd- or 4th-level slot, with a 5th- or 6th-level slot, and with a 7th-level or higher slot.
- Source
- Xanathar's Guide to Everything
3rd level
3- Your shadow-wreathed hand drains life from a creature you hit, dealing necrotic damage and restoring hit points equal to half the damage dealt. You can make the attack again on later turns while the spell lasts.
- Duration
- Concentration, up to 1 minute
- Target
- One creature within reach
- Components
- V, S
- Save or attack
- Melee spell attack against one creature within reach
- Damage
- necrotic
- Higher levels
- Damage increases by for each slot level above 3rd.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2014)
- Create a skeleton or zombie from a pile of bones or corpse, or reassert control over undead you created with this spell. The spell's exact options depend on the remains available.
- Duration
- Instantaneous
- Target
- A pile of bones or corpse of a Medium or Small humanoid, or undead created by this spell
- Components
- V, S, M (a drop of blood, a piece of flesh, and a pinch of bone dust)
- Higher levels
- When cast with a 4th-level or higher slot, you can animate or reassert control over two additional undead for each slot level above 3rd.
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2014)
- Project a phantasmal image of a creature's worst fears in a 30-foot cone. Creatures that fail their saves drop what they are holding and become frightened, fleeing while they can see you.
- Duration
- 1 minute
- Target
- Each creature in a 30-foot cone
- Components
- V, S, M (a bit of gauze and a wisp of smoke)
- Save or attack
- Wisdom saving throw
- Higher levels
- No additional effect when cast with a higher-level slot.
- Conditions
- Blinded
- Source
- Player's Handbook (2014)
In the margins
4 notes
DiaryThe blade is not made of night. It is the moment the lamp fails, given an edge.
WarningMisty Step leaves the body behind for only an instant. Do not mistake the place you arrive for a place that welcomes you.
Diagram[A diagram of a humanoid silhouette with a second, offset outline; arrows point from the heart to the shadow.]
FormulaA shadow cannot be pinned down by a nail. I have tested this. The floorboards still remember.
The book itself
Its shadowless cover seems to drink in nearby light.
The chill deepens near places where someone has recently died.
A few pages show diagrams of doors drawn inside silhouettes.
The caster
Wizardry, School of NecromancyMara Vey
Studies: Necromancy, with a secondary focus on shadow magic and short-range spatial displacementManner: Soft-spoken and attentive, with the measured patience of someone listening for a heartbeat in a silent room.Focus: A black iron ring worn on the index finger, used to trace sigils in the air and guide shadow-blades.Quirk: She checks the direction of her shadow before entering a room, even when there is no visible light source.Wants: Find the vanished mentor and discover why the codex's shadows sometimes move independently of its pages.Mara Vey was once an assistant to a physician who secretly studied the instant between life and death. After her mentor disappeared, she kept the cold, shadowless spellbook and learned to use its lessons to protect herself and uncover what happened.
The book
A pitch-black, leather-bound codex that casts no shadow of its own and chills the hands that hold it. Its pages are dark vellum, inked in silver-gray script that shifts like smoke; the book feels unnaturally cold even beside a fire.
Its wards · GM only
About the book
FormatBound spellbook codex
ThemeShadow
Written by aWizard, School of Necromancy
Caster level5
SystemDungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (2014 rules)
Plot hooks
1A village's shadows have begun to detach at sunset. The codex's pages darken whenever its owner approaches the abandoned chapel at the village's edge.
2A former mentor claims that one page contains the true name of a lich who has been hunting the spellbook for decades.
3The codex's former owner vanished during a failed experiment in spatial displacement. On moonless nights, a second set of handwriting appears in the margins, asking to be let out.
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