The character creates a shadow duplicate of him or herself; it looks, sounds, and smells like the character but is intangible. The shadow mimics the character's actions (including speech) unless the character concentrate on making it act differently. The character can see through its eyes and hear through its ears as if the character were standing where it is, and during the character's turn in a round the character can switch from seeing through its eyes to seeing normally, or back again. If the character desires, any spell the character casts whose range is touch or greater can originate from the shadow instead of from the character. (The shadow is quasi-real, just real enough to cast spells that the character originates.) The shadow can cast spells on itself only if those spells affect shadows.

The character must maintain line of effect to the shadow at all times. If the character's line of effect is obstructed, the spell ends. If the character use dimension door, teleport, plane shift, or a similar spell that breaks the character's line of effect, even momentarily, the spell ends.