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Shadow Classes
Shadow classes were introduced in the "Heroes of Shadow" rulebook, and in general are not an immediately playable class type of the game. Rather, it's a class type of enemies in the game, and only a part of player mechanics if they die. The only exception is the necromancer, Death Knight, and existing shadow classes. If you die, you have a chance to be reanimated by the Lich King, to serve in his armed forces. A ruler of the undead, he puts a great prize on fallen warriors, and will obtain their fallen bodies from which to reanimate them with. If you survive the brutal and grueling training program, and defeat other combatants in a gladiatorial arena, the Lich King will bestow upon you mercy for your fighting skills, and in exchange for serving in his army, will grant you limited controls over your own will, and will keep you from becoming just another mindless zombie drone in his forces. Rewarding skill and loyalty with greater will and power, the Lich King will afford you back your own power so long as he believes you are dedicated to him, as well as control over yourself. Even the Lich King, with his might army, only can extend so much control over zombies, and largely relies on their own autonomous functions, which are realistically non-complex. Thus, he delegates out leadership responsibilities to field commanders with greater control over their own faculties, if they can demonstrate enough power to deserve dominion over other zombies, and enough loyalty to be trusted to operate on their own. Because these individuals have higher flexibility, they have higher autonomous will, which makes them potentially dangerous to the Lich King, which in large part is why he reserves giving judgment on individuals until they have proved themselves to him. The Lich King is less about granting powers and more about retaining the power of individuals, capable of deciding their fate via reanimation and making them mindless zombies, or granting them more of their own free will, if it coincides with his own desires.
Shadow classes nonetheless have a few small changes to them. They can use necrotic or cold for damage, instead of their class abilities, indicating their magic origin. The other primary difference is gaining the ability "Death's touch" and "Death's Embrace", which allows them to do damage in exchange for healing surges or steal healing surges. They also lose 1 healing surge, permanently.
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