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I am thinking shadowcaster archetype. I am looking to get to Level 9 spells. I am thinking I will have to take one level of ninja if not two to get the weapon proficiencies and a ninja trick. I also plan on going to the magic school of Magaambya. Anient Mwangi Magic (4pp) will let me learn druid spells as well. There are some that will aid my ninja feel. I will take the Tattoo magic feat at some point. Using "Flying Scrolls" and Tattoo Magic to help give him the ninja feel. If I can swing it feat wise I would like to Master a single Style feat. For flavor. I am thinking Snake style. I will use the spell Shadow weapon for most of the battles. I am going for a wizard or arcane caster that has the look and feel of a Ninja. I don't care if he sucks in combat. I want the feel of a Shinobi. One of my Tattoo will be beast form so I can make a run for it when shadow walk, or the like can't help. Would love to hear some ideas or point me in the direction of something like this. The only third part book a lot is Deep Magic. All other must be Pathfinder books.
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Sorcerer might be interesting for this. Aberrant bloodline give access to reach with touch attacks, and focus on touch spells and polymorph can make you effective in close range. Aberrant Bonus feats can be used for some ninja-like feats such as IUS and Maneuver Feats, which become more useable when polymorphed.
If you want an effective Caster / Ninja combo, then dip a level into Ninja and hit up Sleepless Detective at 6th before moving on to Arcane Trickster at 7th. This lets you keep 9th-level spells no matter what casting class you take (Sorcerer has good synergy with Ninja, but Wizards have more versatility) and gives you a few useful abilities. You'll have 7d6 Sneak Attack by the end of the game, for one, along with a stronger at-will Detect Magic. You also get to add your Intelligence mod to perception, sense motive, and some diplomacy checks.
My sample build would be Ninja 1 / Wizard 4 / Sleepless Detective 1 / AT 10 / Wizard 4, in that order, with the Magical Knack trait so you don't lose any caster levels. Good luck!
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Yes I mean Ninja the concept. But these are good Idea's to get me thinking. I will have to take at least one level of ninja as that will give me the weapons I want. Then I like the shadow weapon spells and other shadow spells. A single dip in assassin might be good for the death attack. but it would be a novelty not a go to ability. Most Ninja abilities can be copied with spells. To get around the limited spells per day I plan on lost of scrolls. I might dress as a monk, and use a quarter staff unless I am on a assassin/ninja mission or by myself. See if how long I can pass as a monk before they part catches on to the fact that I am a "Ninja/Shinobi" and how long I can hide I am a wizard. hehe
Is this for society play? That makes a difference (I only ask because you put in 4pp which I believe means prestige points). And if that is the case, no evil alignment for you! Organized play has more strict rules so you have to take them into consideration as well.
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No this is not organized play. it is prestige points we use them in our games. The 9th level spell are just cool no real reason to want them. Most the spell i plan on using are 3 level and below. Shadow weapon level 1, Blood Armor level 1 from deep magic. Phantom mount if needed. Feeble Mind level 5 sweet spell. I am still working on a more Ninja type spell list i plan to use. True strike is also a good one.
Right now i am thinking something like Ninja 2/Wizard4/Assassin1/Shadow Dancer 3/Arcane Trickster. But that doesn't get me level 9 spells. But I would get the Death blow, and the Shadow minion from the shadow dancer. And i would get hide in plansight. I could also take the feat Extra feat to get more ninja tricks if i wanted them but would likely just use Forgotten trick and limited ki points to make use of ninja tricks. The ninja levels would give me the Weapons i need. The arcane trickser is great because i get the caster levels but also get some backstab. Still need to find sleepless Detective.
Ninja ablitiy from legend, walk on water, scale walks, High jump and Fall from great hights. Turn invisable, blend into shadows. This is kind of what i am going for. The goal with the high caster level is for scrolls maybe potion making to over come the limited spells of the wizard per day. The death attack is mor of a flar type attack and not really needed but adds to the character.
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Did you ever look at the shadow bloodline for Sorcerers? It gets stealth for free, as well as all kinds of stealth-based abilities including a BETTER version of hide in plane sight. I think that a ninja 1/shadow bloodline sorc X would make a great "ninja" due to all the sneakieness it gets. Eschew materials(which sorcs get for free) also lets you hide your casty-ness better. However, if you want to go with a wizard yeah, the arcane trickster route would be best. Personally, your split seems pretty good, though I would not take 3 levels of shadowdancer. Also, depending on your race, you can take only 1 level of wizard and still qualify for Arcane Trickster. You see, races that get an SLA can use that SLA to meet spellcasting requirements for prestige classes, as can class features that grant SLAs.
So, if your character was, say, a tiefling, or one of the vairent aasimiar races, you could qualify for Arcane Trickster with only a single level of wizard. So what entry you choose depends on what you favor more, ninja skills or spellcasting. If you favor ninja skills, go with a tiefling or vairent aasimiar Ninja 3/Wizard 1/Arcane Trickster 10/Wizard 6. If you favor spellcasting more, go with a Ninja 1/Wizard 4/Assassin 1/Arcane Trickster 10/Wizard 4. Both of these builds eventually get 9th level spells, but the second, with magical knack, has a full CL of 20 while the other has a CL of 19. If you don't mind being race-locked, I'd go with the first as for a difference of 1CL and a few spells per-day you get better BAB and skills, as well as more nifty ninja-abilities. However, the "cast-y" build has the advantage of getting it's spells sooner and also being open to any race while the former pretty much requires you to be a tiefling or one of the vairent aasimiar.
Again, don't bother with Shadowdancer. Shadowdancer gets some fun stuff, but for a spellcasting build you lose far more then you gain. The reason for this? You lose THREE caster levels to gain a host of abilities that you can replicate completely with spells. Hide in plane sight? You can do basically the same thing with a LEVEL 1 spell(and ninja-trick) in vanish, and later on you have even better ways of doing it via Invisibility and it's improved cousins...all of which one could argue actually do it better then HIPS itself. All those dodge abilities? Mirror Image, Mage Armor, Displacement, Contingency, Emergency Force Sphere ect..as a caster, you have so many defenses you won't need those. Finally, that shadow you get? You get spells that can summon things, many of them being much, much scarier then the shadowdancer's pet. While shadowdancer is great for pure rogues/ninjas, for a caster the three CLs lost are NOT worth it when all the nice abilities you get from it can more or less be replicated by spells.
Thats my two copper. Hope it helped you some.
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You could also incorporate the Scrollmaster Wizard archetype which allows you to use scrolls as a short sword with an enhancement bonus of 1/2 the level of the spell on the scroll (0 and 1st level scrolls count as masterwork).
I really, really like this idea. I love the idea of playing a Naruto-style ninja in a PFS game (not a huge fan of the show, but I think the concept is fun for this type of game). Their "ninjas" dress in bright colors, seldom use weapons, cast flashy magic spells including the summoning of giant monsters and raising undead, and are loud and into showmanship rather than stealth.
Perfect. :P
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I have been eyeing the scroll Master being i plan on using a lot of scrolls to make up for lack of number of spells i get each day.
I love the concept of Naruto type ninja. That was some of the reason for this build. I will be using Hand signs called kuji-in for spell casting. I too like the idea of being able to summon a Large Toad, Snake, Slug. To fight with you. Or Breath fire, Hit people with Lighting. These are some of the reasons i like the spellcaster Ninja. I was also a huge fan of second edition D&D. In the Ninja hand book they had rules for Shinobi who where Wizards who could use the Ninji-too weapon. Most of the Ninja Mystical powers of legend can easyly be done with magic.
I have decide no to use the shadowdancer levels. I wish i could get Monastic Legacy feat without a 3 level dip in monk, but i will likely take improved unarmed combat to give it that feel. Also it will help me Hide that i am a ninja by pretending to be either a Monk or a Samurai that way i can carry the Katanna and wakizashi openly as my daishō.
Ninja 2/Wizard4/Assassin1/Arcane Trickster