Shadow Killer
TR 4Humanoid · Medium·Recommended levels: 6-12
Abilities
Saves
- DEX +8
- WIS +7
Skills
- Stealth +12
- Acrobatics +8
- Perception +7
- Use the Force +7
Languages
- Paecian
- Galactic Basic
Equipment
Traits
While in dim light or darkness, the Shadow Killer can take the Hide action as a Bonus Action. Once on each of her turns she can also become Invisible until she makes an attack or until the end of her next turn.
Once per turn, the Shadow Killer deals an extra 10 (3d6) damage to a target she has Advantage against, or to a target within 5 ft of one of her allies when she does not have Disadvantage.
The Shadow Killer is a trained witch (the Dathomir Witchcraft trait). She knows the Nightsister Magick powers listed below and casts them with a save DC of 15 (Use the Force +7).
The Shadow Killer has Advantage on attack rolls against any creature that has not yet taken a turn in combat, and any hit she lands against a Surprised creature is a critical hit.
When the Shadow Killer is subjected to an effect that allows a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, she instead takes no damage on a success and only half on a failure (the Evasion trait).
Force Powers
The Shadow Killer steps through the spirit-shadows, teleporting up to 30 ft between two points she can see that are in dim light or darkness.
The Shadow Killer wreathes herself in dark-side mist and becomes Invisible until the start of her next turn or until she attacks or targets a creature with a power.
The Shadow Killer floods her blades with ichor; the next hit she lands before the end of her next turn deals an extra 4 (1d8) energy damage.
Actions
The Shadow Killer makes two Ichor-Envenomed Dagger attacks.
Lore
The Shadow Killer is one of the three classic Nightsister specializations, alongside the Hunter and the Warrior. Cloaked in ichor-mist that lets her slip between the physical and spirit realms, she carries poisoned daggers and darts and is sent when a target must simply disappear. Mother Talzin's finest — among them Naa'leth and Karis — were dispatched as Shadow Killers against Count Dooku himself, made invisible by Talzin's potions to walk unseen into his fortress.
A Shadow Killer is a glass-cannon striker: deadly burst, fragile if cornered. She opens from invisibility, lands a Sneak Strike for huge front-loaded damage, then vanishes again before the party can retaliate. Left unchecked she will delete a squishy PC in a round or two; pinned down, she folds quickly. The whole encounter is a game of revealing her.
In Play
The Shadow Killer never starts a fight in the open. She opens invisible, targets the party's healer or caster, and burns Sneak Strike on the first hit. Then she uses Ichor-Mist Cloak and Spirit Step to relocate and re-hide every round — frustrate the party until they invest in area effects, passive Perception, or readied actions. Run her as a recurring assassin across a few sessions rather than a stand-up fight: she retreats at half HP and returns later, having learned the party's defenses.
Adventure Hooks
- The Unseen Contract — Someone the party is protecting keeps nearly dying to wounds no one sees coming. A Shadow Killer has the contract, and she will keep coming until the party either catches her or discovers — and resolves — why the coven wants their charge dead.
- Walk Into the Fortress — The party needs into a heavily guarded compound, and a Shadow Killer is the only one who knows the unseen way in (she used it last week). She'll trade the route for a favor — usually a corpse, a relic, or a death the coven wants done.
- The Poisoner's Trail — A string of impossible assassinations — locked rooms, no wounds but a faint green residue — leads the party to a Shadow Killer, and to the uncomfortable question of who in the local government hired a Nightsister to do their killing.