Shadow dragon Shadow dragons were evil true dragons that were either native to the Shadowfell , or transformed by years spent there . Description . Physically seeming insubstantial , shadow dragons had dark and translucent scales which helped them camouflage into the darkness around them . Shadow dragons were often mistaken for black dragon s , but their horns pointed backwards . A long fringe of spines emerged from the back of a dragon ' s neck and its powerful tail featured a swimming fin . An average shadow dragon was 20 ft - 30 ft ( 6 . 1 m - 9 . 1 m ) in length . Combat . Senses . Like any other true dragon , shadow dragons had sharp hearing and sight , which was capable of low - light vision and darkvision . They also had blindsense . Combat techniques . A shadow dragon would stalk its prey from the shadows . They had the frightful presence like other dragons and a number of abilities that allowed them to be stealthy and also to move fast . Starting with a predisposition towards mundane hiding , sneaking and jumping . They weren ' t exactly fast flyers but could move unusually fast on feet for dragons . they learnt an increasing number of magical abilities to hide from enemies and movement . A shadow dragon could hide away into shadows and learnt over its ages to cast " mirror image " , " dimension door " ; " nondetection " and " shadow walk " . Once at great wyrm stage , they could fill a large area with darkness . Once this ability was used , a battle was in danger of becoming a one sided matter in favour of the shadow dragon . The darkness was impossible to disperse , at least with light , magical or not and creature who didn ' t have some kind of ties to the Plane of Shadow , were at a severe disadvantage to those who did have such ties , because they got added abilities in stealth and retained perfect vision , while those without connection were practically blind as long as they remained in the area that encompassed a radius of 100 yards ( 91 , 44 m ) . This ability was usable multiple times . Breath weapon . A shadow dragon ' s breath weapon was cone of shadows . Creatures caught in it lost parts of their vitality , skills and spells , possibly permanently , all while temporarily empowering themselves . They could train their breath weapon to turn those they killed with it into spectral creatures who were then permanently enslaved by the shadow dragon . Physical and mental capabilities . A shadow dragon had standard physical attacks for a true dragon , biting , clawing , bludgeoning with its wings and / or its tail , crushing on an enemy and sweeping with its tail . But while a shadow dragon could use the standard physical attack forms , a shadow dragon was physically weak compared to other dragons . For example even at great wyrm stage shadow dragons were , in regards of raw physical strength , below a white dragon , the weakest of the chromatic dragons , at the same stage . In regards of mental capabilities , they eclipsed even red dragons and were on par with gold dragons , the smartest of the metallic dragons . Defensive abilities . A shadow dragon had very strong spell resistances and very hard scales . As it grew , it gained an increasingly stronger resistance against spells and non magical physical attacks . Their scales were hard even among dragons and grew only harder with age . All shadow dragons owned an outright immunity against life sapping effects . Magic . Like many other true dragons , they developed sorcerer abilities with at least the potential to learn spells usually only open to divine casters as well as from the chaos , evil and trickery domain . A sorcerer could form a dragonpact with a shadow dragon . The pact was called Elusive Disciple of Dusk and gave the sorcerer abilities to flee safely . Ecology . Many shadow dragons inhabited the dark places of Faerûn , such as ruins or abandoned keeps . These dragons from the Plane of Shadow were seen in the Frost Hills and the Thunder Peaks . They were found in the Underdark , particularly in the Middledark and Lowerdark . History . Around 1372 DR , a number of shadow dragons joined forces with the Cult of the Dragon and there were a number of known shadow dracoliches associated with the cult . Related races . Shadow dragons were related to three drow offshots . A special form of half - shadow dragon , " zekyl " , shadow draconic drow , " zar ' ithra " , and the " draa ' zekyl " or drow - dragon .