Dreamshadow

A dreamshadow is a figure conjured out of a sleeper's memory, a flawless copy of anyone or anything that the dreamer, or anybody sharing the dream, has ever met. It might be a beast like a whisper spider, an elf, drakeborn or other thinking folk, or the dreamer himself. It borrows the alignment and temperament of its model too, so an ogre copy is dull and hostile while a copy of an honor-bound knight is grave and upright. A character facing his own double finds the same gear, clothes and features, though not necessarily the same knowledge.

The one telltale flaw is that every dreamshadow thinks with the dreamer's intelligence. A hen that writes words in the dust or a brutish ogre speaking like a polished scholar gives the game away.

A dreamshadow fights with its original's weapons, tactics, powers and temper, but its blows are mostly imaginary: each 4 points of illusionary damage inflict only 1 real hit point, so 12 points cost the victim 3. Dreamers believe every wound, and one who thinks he has taken a lethal amount collapses as though dead. Only when companions end the dream, or it is dispelled, does the truth show. Its spells work as real ones within the dream: a dreamshadow dragon's fireball deals equal illusionary damage, and a dreamshadow gorgon leaves its victim stone until the dream ends.

Disbelief cannot destroy a dreamshadow. Disbelieving it before its first attack on you spares you its illusionary damage, but once it has hurt you, you can no longer disbelieve it (see the Dreamwraith entry). Real weapons and spells hurt it normally, and it is destroyed at 0 hit points. Its magic resistance grows with depth: none in a mindspin dream's outer layer, 10% in the middle layer, 20% at the core.

Most dreamshadows spring from the mindspin spell described under Dreamwraith. They exist only within the dreamer's experience, so even a survivor simply ends with the dream. Their hoards are illusions too, worthless in waking life and impossible to carry out.

Dreamshadows treat each other as their models would: a dream farmer tends dream sheep while dream hunters stalk a dream ice bear. Their eating, drinking and sleeping are pure pantomime.