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In pathfinder; a shadowdancer acquires the ability to hide while being observed.

A shadowdancer can use the Stealth skill even while being observed. As long as she is within 10 feet of an area of dim light, a shadowdancer can hide herself from view in the open without anything to actually hide behind. She cannot, however, hide in her own shadow.

I'm having some trouble how to apply this in some cases in a game.

First of all, the shadowdancer requires dim light nearby to hide.

  1. How does this work against creatures with darkvision considering they can see perfectly in dim light? Does it simply not matter because a shadowdancer's ability is supernatural that the shadowdancer simply uses a dim light to conceal herself magically or is it still limited by physical conditions?

  2. How should I handle the being 10 ft near dim light? Can a shadowdancer still use a nearby closed dark room to hide or does the shadowdancer need to be able to physically access the shadow?

  3. Finally the last sentence, Since it specifically mentions that a shadowdancer cannot use her own shadow, does this mean she can use someone else's shadow even though there is no dim light nearby? Or is it just a remnant from the 3.5 version (shadowdancer can hide when there is a shadow nearby not an area of dim light) ?
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1. How does this work against creatures with darkvision considering they can see perfectly in dim light?

It works exactly the same for several reasons. Firstly the Shadowdancer isn't even ~in~ the area of dim light, they're standing in plain sight so normally anyone could see them. Secondly the shadows aren't what are hiding the shadowdancer, the shadows are the required medium for them to use their (Su) - Supernatural ability; note the text:

As long as she is within 10 feet of an area of dim light, a shadowdancer can hide herself from view in the open without anything to actually hide behind.

The shadows aren't hiding the shadowdancer, they're just allowing the shadowdancer the chance to use their supernatural ability, the shadows are like a focus for a spell.

2. How should I handle the being 10 ft near dim light?

For any general ability and/or targeting of supernatural things the character needs to be able to see (ie have line of sight) to the target/object/etc in question. So that is how I would suggest running it. If the character is standing by a 20' wall and the shadow is on the other side of the wall, it wouldn't work. If however there is a window in the wall then it would.

3. Since it specifically mentions that a shadowdancer cannot use her own shadow, does this mean she can use someone else's shadow even though there is no dim light nearby?

Yes. A shadow is a shadow is a shadow; unless it's the shadowdancers. Since the ability states they can't hide in their own shadow it's a pretty safe conclusion then that every other shadow is fair game. Otherwise why on earth are they called shadowdancers?

The actual size of the shadow becomes important then (blades of grass was mentioned in another question for 3.5) and I'd require that the shadow be of at least one size category smaller than the character.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Worth noting: Pathfinder did change the rule from “within 10 feet of some sort of shadow” to “within 10 feet of an area of dim light,” which seems to have been an attempt to nullify the blade of grass argument. Still a poor one, since they don’t define “area” which leaves even minute areas (such as the area of a blade of grass’s shadow) conceivably qualifying. Again, I’d argue that the failure to use “a 5-ft. square” (the usual unit of area) may indicate that the intent is that smaller areas are acceptable, but that still doesn’t tell us how small. \$\endgroup\$ – KRyan Sep 16 '13 at 13:06
  • \$\begingroup\$ that change is the actual reason of my third question. Is someone's shadow considered an area of dim light? I doubt it, I believe they forgot to remove that line when they transferred from 3.5 \$\endgroup\$ – Can Canbek Sep 16 '13 at 13:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ It's an extremely woolly definition still, which mostly leaves it down to GM interpretation. \$\endgroup\$ – Rob Sep 16 '13 at 13:28
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    \$\begingroup\$ There's a bit of important irony (and appropriately so) here in the exact way they've worded this. Because it has to be "dim light", a shadowdancer cannot use this ability at all in total darkness. Which means in a pitch-black cave, a creature with darkvision can see you and there's nothing you can do about it. But at the entrance to the cave, where moonlight is shining down nearby, you could become completely invisible to that same creature. \$\endgroup\$ – Zibbobz Sep 18 '13 at 17:20
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    \$\begingroup\$ Zibbobz: Strike a match and disappear. \$\endgroup\$ – Perkins Aug 26 '14 at 20:11

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