Players Option: Heroes of Shadow (4e)
The Shadowfell is a cold¸ grim place through which the spirits of the dead must pass on their way to... wherever. Dark¸ evil things live there¸ suffused with the power of shadow. Some mortals in the natural world learn how to tap into this source. Assassins. Necromancers. Hexblades. By all accounts¸ a ruthless lot. However¸ not all beings that draw strength from the Shadowfell are vile¸ blackhearted fiends. A few even dare to call themselves heroes¸ using the power of darkness to fight darkness. Are they evil? No. Deeply disturbed and hounded by their own dark demons? You bet. Player's Options Heroes of Shadow focusses on characters that fight evil in ways that make others cringe. In addition to exploring the nature of the shadow power source¸ this book presents races¸ classes¸ feats¸ powers¸ and other options aimed at players hungry to play the archetypical antihero with a dark edge. Product History Heroes of Shadow (2011)¸ by Mike Mearls with Eytan Bernstein¸ Claudio Pozas¸ Robert J. Schwalb¸ Matt Sernett¸ Chris Sims¸ and Rodney Thompson was the first Player's Option for D&D 4e. It was released in April 2011. The Beginning of the End for 4e. Heroes of Shadow was initially announced in June 2010. At the time¸ it was listed as a 320-page digest-sized book¸ following the format of Essentials line (September-December 2010). It was also intended to link to the Essentials line. Wizards' Spring 2011 preview catalog said: "Player's Option books are aimed at players who are ready to move beyond the Player Essentials books¸ Heroes of the Fallen Lands and Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms." Even early on¸ however¸ Wizards sent confusing messages over what the book was supposed to be: at the D&D Product Preview Seminar at Gen Con Indy 2010¸ Bill Slavicsek said that Heroes of Shadow was actually intended for "core" players¸ not Essentials fans. Much as with the release of Essentials itself¸ players would have to wait and see what Heroes of Shadows really was. Meanwhile¸ other books from Wizards' 2011 schedule were disappearing. Two books¸ "Gazetteer: The Nentir Vale" and "Player's Handbook: Champions of the Heroic Tier"¸ quietly disappeared in late 2010 with no announcement. Then on January 12¸ 2011¸ Bill Slavicsek announced more wide-spread damage. Three additional books had been cut from the schedule: February's "Class Compendium: Heroes of Sword and Spell"¸ April's "Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium"¸ and Summer's "Hero Builder's Handbook". Slavicsek also revealed that Heroes of Shadow had been changed from a digest to a hardcover book¸ and pushed to April to accommodate that. As a result of all this chaos¸ four months from December 2010 to March 2011 went by with no D&D fantasy roleplaying releases other than accessories like dungeon tiles¸ collectible Fortune Cards¸ and a new DM's screen. Heroes of Shadow finally appeared some five months after the last roleplaying books in the Essentials line. Though 2007-2008 had seen a similar hiatus in RPG production¸ this was the largest gap in D&D production during the middle of an edition's run since TSR's shutdown of 1997. Unfortunately¸ it was a sign of things to come. Wizards would only produce 8 roleplaying books for sale over the course of the entire year. A Different Sort of Splatbook. The name Heroes of Shadow calls back to the two Players Essentials books that Wizards had released the previous year: Heroes of the Fallen Lands (2010) and Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms (2010). However¸ those were general rulebooks¸ while Heroes of Shadow is something else: a splatbook. It focuses on the shadows - covering shadow magic¸ shadow classes¸ shadow races¸ shadow paragon paths¸ and shadow epic destinies. Obviously¸ this made it somewhat similarly to