Is there a mistake in the shadow illusions example?

Question

The prestige class shadowcraft mage (Races of Stone 120–2) at level 3 gains the supernatural ability shadow illusion that says that the creature can

infuse [its silent image, minor image, major image, persistent image, and programmed image spells]… with material from the Plane of Shadow, making them partially real. The subschool of these spells changes from figment to shadow. A shadowcraft mage can use the altered spell to mimic any sorcerer or wizard conjuration (summoning), conjuration (creation), or evocation spell at least one level lower than the illusion spell. The altered spell functions identically to the shadow conjuration or shadow evocation spell, except that the spell’s strength equals 10% per level of the figment spell used. (122)

(Emphasis mine.) This is followed by two examples:

• "[A] shadowcraft mage who uses silent image to create an acid splash would deal 10% of the normal damage to a creature that succeeds on its Will save to disbelieve the shadow.
• "If [a shadowcraft mage] used programmed image to mimic summon monster V, the creature would have 60% of the hit points of a normal creature of its kind, and its damage would be 60% normal against a creature that succeeds on its Will save to disbelieve." (ibid.)

I'm struggling with the second example. Despite the description of the supernatural ability shadow illusion saying that "the altered spell [can] mimic [a] spell at least one level lower than the [altered] illusion spell," the "altered spell functions identically to the shadow conjuration or shadow evocation spell." However, the second example's shadowcraft mage uses the 6th-level Sor/Wiz spell programmed image [illus] (Player's Handbook 265) to mimic the 5th-level Sor/Wiz spell summon monster V [conj] (PH 286, 287), which should be impossible: the 4th-level Sor/Wiz spell shadow conjuration [illus] (PH 276) says that it "can mimic any sorcerer or wizard conjuration (summoning) or conjuration (creation) spell of 3rd level or lower," hence excluding the spell summon monster V.

That is, the description says both that the altered spell can mimic any Sor/Wiz conjuration (summoning), conjuration (creation), or evocation spell at least one level lower than the illusion spell and that the altered spell is identical to the spell shadow conjuration—therefore inheriting all that spell's limitations—or the 5th-level Sor/Wiz spell shadow evocation [illus] (PH 277) that has similar limitations. (Taken as whole, for example, a shadowcraft mage may still want to alter the spell programmed image to mimic the 4th-level Sor/Wiz spell wall of ice [evoc] (PH 299) so that the now-shadow wall of ice spell effect is 60% real if disbelieved.)

In short, according to the text, in the description of the supernatural ability shadow illusions is the second example mistaken?

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Note: I know I'm late to the party here. It's likely this topic was already discussed to death on the lost-and-lamented Wizards of the Coast forums, but those discussions are now difficult to reach. Discussion of the dangerous of effects of the ability shadow illusions not being limited by the shadow conjuration and shadow evocation spells is in this answer.

Answer 1

Both examples are correct from a RAW perspective.

The description attempts to use shadow conjuration and shadow evocation as a familiar base to describe the ability, unfortunately the way in which it does so is confusing. Perhaps a simpler way to look at it is that the ability allows a shadowcraft mage to use any of the listed illusion spells as if it were a modified version of a shadow conjuration or shadow evocation spell of the same level as the illusion spell being used to mimic it. The two changes cited in the text are used in order to easily scale the effect between illusion spells of various levels.

The first example purposefully uses the weakest spell in the list (silent image) as the example, while the second uses the strongest (programmed image) to showcase the spectrum of the ability's use.

Neither of the two examples the text gives are in error.

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If you are getting hung up on the "functions identically to..." phrase, consider it again with the following emphasis:

The altered spell functions identically to the shadow conjuration or shadow evocation spell

Note that the shadow evocation spell is a level 5 spell, and shadow conjuration is a level 4 spell. Focusing on what makes the two spells similar, we see that they both mimic another spell of at least 1 level lower than the spell actually being cast. The shadow illusion ability functions identically to both spells in that it also allows you to produce an effect that must be, at most, 1 spell level lower than the spell actually being cast.

A shadowcraft mage can use programmed image (a level 6 spell) to produce a shadow-version of Summon Monster V (a level 5 spell) because the desired effect is a conjuration (summoning) spell that is at least one level lower than the spell being used to imitate it via the shadow illusion ability. Therefore, it falls into the parameters described in the text of the ability.

This example is completely valid by RAW.

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In the comments it was brought up that mixing shadow illusions with heighten spell could prove problematic and cause this ability to be overpowered, so let's take a look at how heighten spell would work when casting an illusion spell, such as silent image:

A heightened spell has a higher spell level than normal (up to a maximum of 9th level). Unlike other metamagic feats, Heighten Spell actually increases the effective level of the spell that it modifies. All effects dependent on spell level (such as saving throw DCs and ability to penetrate a lesser globe of invulnerability) are calculated according to the heightened level. The heightened spell is as difficult to prepare and cast as a spell of its effective level.

If the part in italics makes you cringe, note the part in bold. Let's look at how this metamagic feat would apply if we used it on a normal casting of silent image. No matter what level you heightened your silent image spell to, it will never be able to produce sound; it is always outside the scope of the spell to produce. Your heightened spell will have a higher DC to disbelieve it and will be harder to dispel and similar things that rely on level, but the scope of effects you can produce with the spell do not change. This remains the case when shadow illusion is applied, no matter what level you cast silent illusion at, it cannot ever produce an effect beyond the scope of a cantrip (level 0) spell any more than it could produce sound. Because this is the case, the absolute level cap for a shadow illusion effect is to mimic a 5th level spell, and then only by casting programmed image (level 6), even if you apply heighten spell to it.

Taking this one step farther down the rabbit hole, I would even go as far as to argue that if you used heighten spell to cast a shadow illusion version of the fireball spell, the increased DC would apply only to the wisdom save to disbelieve the illusion, while the fireball effect would occur just as it normally would for a level 3 fireball spell. The heighten spell feat does not change the effect produced by an illusion spell.

Answer 2

No.

The Shadow Illusion ability (Races of Stone, p. 122) has two sentences that you appear to see as contradicting each other.

...A shadowcraft mage can use the altered spell to mimic any sorcerer or wizard conjuration (summoning), conjuration (creation), or evocation spell at least one level lower than the illusion spell. The altered spell functions identically to the shadow conjuration or shadow evocation spell, except that the spell's strength equals 10% per level of the figment spell used.

These do not, in fact, contradict each other. The first sentence presents the 'gateway' for eligibility of the spell to be mimicked (at least one level lower than the illusion spell used in casting).

The second sentence then mentions the 'altered spell'; the illusion spell altered by the ability. Its limitation on how to use the altered spell actually gives the rules for the mimicked spell once chosen, rather than restricting the choosing of the spell to be mimicked. Since it says 'the altered spell functions identically to shadow...' rather than 'using this ability functions identically to shadow...' you've already chosen the spell via the previous sentence, and it now follows all applicable rules within either shadow-conjuration or -evocation. The spell-level rule of the shadow-conjuration/evocation line is for choosing the spell, but that's already been done within the rules in the previous sentence.

So, mildly surprisingly, the examples presented in the ability are each correct.

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More!

Additionally, and rather tellingly, the wider text of the Shadow Illusion ability strongly, dare I say it, shadows the text of the shadow conjuration spell.

The beginning of the ability resembles the beginning of the spell, each giving the lore reasons why they are supposed to work. Compare

[...] a shadowcraft mage is able to infuse some of her figments [...] with material from the Plane of Shadow, making them partially real.

with

You use material from the Plane of Shadow to shape quasi-real illusions of one or more creatures, objects, or forces.

The second sentence of the spell and ability are near twins, with the level of the mimicked spell and the fact that the ability then mentions the Evocation school spells being notable differences. Compare

[...] A shadowcraft mage can use the altered spell to mimic any sorcerer or wizard conjuration (summoning), conjuration (creation), or evocation spell at least one level lower than the illusion spell.

to

Shadow conjuration can mimic any sorcerer or wizard conjuration (summoning) or conjuration (creation) spell of 3rd level or lower.

The next sentence of the ability, that you seem to feel contradicts the previous sentence, is simply shorthand for reprinting the entire text of those two, rather complexly worded, spells.

The altered spell functions identically to the shadow conjuration or shadow evocation spell, except that the spell's strength equals 10% per level of the figment spell used.

So the ability contains similar language to the first sentence, and identical language to the second sentence, of shadow conjuration, but altered to change the level of spell to be mimicked, and to include Evocation spells.

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And On Brokenation...

Regarding Shadow Illusions, Heighten Spell and Earth Spell (Races of Stone 138), a heightened spell has it's level altered for:

All effects dependent on spell level (such as [...]

That such as denotes a non-exclusive list, and the Shadow Illusion ability has two effects dependent upon spell level; eligible spells must be one level lower, and the quasi-reality percentage of the spells is 10% per spell level. Thus, a heightened silent image prepared in, or cast from, a 9th level slot could mimic trap the soul or telekinetic sphere, each being 8th level eligible spells, or several options for similar or lower level spells.

Earth Spell is a slightly trickier situation, as it does not explicitly specify an exception to Heighten spell's 9th level spell limitation. However, its benefit:

[...] If you cast a spell using a spell slot [a number of levels] higher than the spell’s actual level, the spell is treated as a spell of [that number of levels plus one] higher and your effective caster level is increased by [the first number of levels again]

is necessarily applied after Heighten's effect is chosen, since the benefit is applied during casting. The most natural reading of it is simply that if a [non-air, -fire, or -water] spell is heightened to a given level, and you're standing on earth or stone when you cast it, it simply gains one more effective level, and one or several caster levels. You can cast what is numerically a 10th level spell with Earth Spell. This is not a 10th level spell in the Epic sense, simply for level dependent effects. Thus, it does permit Shadow Illusion to mimic casting certain 9th level spells at 100% effect, if a figment is heightened to 9th level.

Is this extremely flexible? Yes. Is it overpowered? Likely. However, the abilities do what they say, not what we want them to say. If we dislike them, we can House Rule them.