darthauthor wrote:In combat, IF a shadow beast "disappears" into a shadow even though they can not be "seen" are they still there and can be harmed shooting in their direction or at the shadow on the ground or by using an area of effect weapon like a handgrenade or "Thunderclap (4)" or one of the various cloud spells.
Shooting a shadow on the ground or wall I don't think will work (equivalent to shooting wild under RUE-era rules, or the chance of hitting a bystander under the RMB-era machinegun rules) unless its AoE attack.
As for the rest... That depends on how you view their "disappearing into the shadows" to work:
-as a form of Shadow Meld spell (Level 4, RUE pg206) then "While hidden in shadow, the character is still susceptible to magic, psychic and physical attacks, although attackers are -5 strike... Area effect magic does not suffer any penalty."
-as a form of other magical camouflage (or psionic) they would still be present and can be harmed
-as some type of dimensional projection off this plane (like Material Plane Astral Projection or D-Phase power) then no (if it is something like Temporal Magic's D-Shift 2D then yes)
There is nothing in the text for the Shadow Beast to indicate they avoid damage by stepping into the shadows, so I would go with it being a form of Shadow Meld.
darthautor wrote:A mage casts the spell "Light Target ()" on a shadow beast. Can they still disappear into a shadow?
This is a difficult question. The spell doesn't consider what happens if a target turns invisible (which the SB is essentially doing). I see it working 3 ways with regard to Invisibility/Invisibility-like powers:
1. the ability RED/BLUE shifts the Light Target's light, so it is no longer in the visible light portion of the spectrum. Or put another way the ability just outright blocks it.
2. the ability works fine, but the light still remains visible creating a "bubble" outline
3. Light Target cancels the ability
Now there is a race in DB3 (Silhouette RCC) that has a specific ability to absorb up to 95% of the light, and likely enough to render Light Target useless (they also have Shadow Meld as natural ability)
darthauthor wrote:Does the spell Lifeblast (15) do anything against Shadow Beasts?
It can give hope/optimism (with bonuses), but if you are wondering if a Shadow Beast would fall under the alternative uses list I would say no.
darthauthor wrote:IF there is one shadow and it is the only shadow around can a player just unload their energy weapon on that shadow and count it as a hit? (Shadow beast is hiding in it)
No. There are rules for when auto-strikes can be done and are found in RCB1r pg22 #1 under Point-Black Damage (optional) Rules (you can likely find them elsewhere, the only other place I know off hand is in the old 1E RT REF Field Guide). And those conditions are not met.