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Full BaB, d10
Good Reflex Save
6 Skill Points per level
Ranger/Paladin Spell Progression
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Ninjas are proficient with the blowgun, club, dagger, dart, kama, katana, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shortspear, short sword, short bow, shuriken, siangham, sling, and spear.
1st 2nd 3rd 4th
1st AC Bonus, poison use - - - -
2nd Evasion - - - -
3rd Fast movement +10 - - - -
4th High jump 0 - - -
5th Hidden Weapons 1 - - -
6th Fast movement +20 1 - - -
7th Uncanny Dodge 1 0 - -
8th Enhanced mobility 1 1 - -
9th Fast Movement +30 2 1 - -
10th Improved evasion, Twin 2 1 0 -
11th Improved uncanny dodge 2 1 1 -
12th Fast Movement +40 2 2 1 -
13th Death Attack 3 2 1 -
14th A Thousand Faces 3 2 1 1
15th Fast Movement +50 3 2 2 1
16th True Death 3 3 2 1
17th Quiet Death 4 3 2 1
18th Fast Movement +60 4 3 2 2
19th Hide in Plain Sight 4 3 3 2
20th Divide 4 4 3 3
AC Bonus (Ex): When unarmored, and unencumbered, the Ninja adds his Wisdom bonus (if any) to his AC. This bonus to AC applies even against touch attacks or when the Ninja is flat-footed. He loses these bonuses when he is immobilized or helpless, when he wears any armor, when he carries a shield, or when he carries a medium or heavy load.
Poison Use: Ninjas are trained in the use of poison and cannot accidentally poison themselves when applying poison to a blade.
Evasion (Ex): At 2nd level or higher, a Ninja can avoid damage from many area-effect attacks. If a Ninja makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if a Ninja is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless Ninja does not gain the benefit of evasion.
Fast Movement (Ex): At 3rd level, a Ninja gains an enhancement bonus to his land speed, as shown on Table 3–10. A Ninja in armor or carrying a medium or heavy load loses this extra speed.
Hidden Weapons (Ex): At 4th level, a Ninja becomes a master at hiding weapons on his body. He adds his Ninja level to all Sleight of Hand skill checks made to prevent others from noticing them.
High Jump (Ex): At 5th level, a Ninja adds his level to all Acrobatics checks made to jump, both for vertical jumps and horizontal jumps. In addition, he always counts as having a running start when making jump checks using Acrobatics.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex):At 7nd level, a barbarian gains the ability to react to danger before her senses would normally allow her to do so. She cannot be caught f lat-footed, even if the attacker is invisible. She still loses her Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. A barbarian with this ability can still lose her Dexterity bonus to AC if an opponent successfully uses the feint action against her. If a barbarian already has uncanny dodge from a different class, she automatically gains improved uncanny
dodge (see below) instead.
Enhanced Mobility (Ex): Starting at 8rd level, when wearing light or no armor and not using a shield, a Ninja gains an additional +4 bonus to AC against attacks of opportunity
caused when she moves out of a threatened square.
Twin (Su): Starting at 10th level, once per day as a full round action a ninja may divide into two Ninjas, each having half of the original hit points and each having a base attack, saves, and abilities and skills equal to half of his total ninja levels, but unable to cast any Ninja spells until reunified. The second ninja will appear within 5 feet of the original ninja, dressed in similar non-magical clothing to the original, but without any gear or equipment. Gear can be given to the new character at the original ninja’s discretion.
For example a 10th level Ninja with 80 hit points could divide into two 5th level Ninjas, each having 40 hit points each, with base attack, saves and special abilities of a 6th level Ninjas. All skill checks would rolled at ½ of the original Ninja’s.
Recombining is a standard action that requires the two ninjas to be within 10 squares of one another. If either Ninja is reduced to 0 hit points, the remaining Ninja is restored to it’s full level, but without any additional hit points and with the staggered condition for a number of rounds equal to the level of the ninja that was slain. The Ninja may remain divided in this way for 1 hour per level. If he does not rejoin within this time, the twin is immediately reduced to zero hit points and the primary ninja suffers the staggered effect as a result.
Improved Evasion (Ex)
At 10th level, a Ninja’s evasion ability improves. He still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks, but henceforth he takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless Ninja does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.
Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex)
A Ninja of 11th level or higher can no longer be flanked.
This defense denies the ability to sneak attack the character by flanking her, unless the attacker has at least four more rogue levels than the target does.
If a character already has uncanny from another class, the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum rogue level required to flank the character.
Death Attack (Ex): At 16th level, If a Ninja studies his victim for 3 rounds and then makes a sneak attack with a melee weapon that successfully deals damage, the sneak attack has the additional effect of possibly either paralyzing or killing the target (Nijna’s choice). Studying the victim is a standard action. The death attack fails if the target detects the assassin or recognizes the assassin as an enemy (although the attack might still be a sneak attack if the target is denied his Dexterity bonus to his Armor Class or is flanked). If the victim of such a death attack fails a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 Ninja class level + the Ninja’s Int modifier) against the kill effect, she dies. If the saving throw fails against the paralysis effect, the victim is rendered helpless and unable to act for 1d6 rounds plus 1 round per level of the Ninja.
A Thousand Faces (Su)
At 14th level, a druid gains the ability to change her appearance at will, as if using the alter self spell.
True Death (Su): Starting at 4th level, anyone slain by an Ninja’s death attack becomes more difficult to bring back from the dead. Spellcasters attempting to bring a creature back from the dead using raise dead or similar magic must make a caster level check with a DC equal to 15 + ½ the Ninja’s level or the spell fails and the material component is wasted. Casting remove curse the round before attempting to bring the creature back from the dead negates this chance. The DC of the remove curse is 10 + ½ the Ninja’s level.
Quiet Death (Ex): At 6th level, whenever an assassin kills a creature using his death attack during a surprise round, he can also make a Stealth check, opposed by Perception checks of those in the vicinity to prevent them from identifying him as the assailant. If successful, those nearby might not even notice that the target is dead for a few moments, allowing the assassin to avoid detection.
Hide in Plain Sight (Su): At 8th level, an assassin can use the Stealth skill even while being observed. As long as he is within 10 feet of some sort of shadow, an assassin can hide himself from view in the open without having anything to actually hide behind. He
cannot, however, hide in his own shadow.
Divide (Su): Instead of onlu than being able to split into two equal beings, the ninja can split into several Ninjas of whichever levels the ninja chooses so long as the primary ninja’s level is greater than or equal to all others and so that the total levels of all ninjas is equal to the total ninja levels.
Hit points and skill points are equal to the fraction of the level of the character, rounded down. Only the primary ninja suffers the staggered effect following the death of any one of the other ninjas, and the duration remains the number of rounds equal to the level of the Ninja slain.
Spells
Beginning at 4th level, a Ninja gains the ability to cast a small number of spells, which are drawn from the Ninja spell list. A Ninja must choose and prepare his spells in advance.
To prepare or cast a spell, a ranger must have an Intellegence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a ranger's spell is 10 + the spell level + the ranger's Intellegence modifier.
Like other spellcasters, a ranger can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on Table: Ninja. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Intellegence score (see Table: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells). When Table: Ninja indicates that the ranger gets 0 spells per day of a given spell level, he gains only the bonus spells he would be entitled to based on his Intellegence score for that spell level.
A Ninja must spend 1 hour per day in quiet meditation to regain his daily allotment of spells. A Ninja may prepare and cast any spell on the ranger spell list, provided that he can cast spells of that level, but he must choose which spells to prepare during his daily meditation.
Through 3rd level, a ranger has no caster level. At 4th level and higher, his caster level is equal to his Ninja level – 3.
1- Endure Elements , Obscuring Mist , True Strike , Memory Lapse ,Disguise Self ,Vanish , Cause Fear , Animate Rope , Expeditious Retreat , Feather Fall , Jump , Stone Fist ,Magic Weapon, Summon Nature’s Ally I, Produce Flame.
2 - Protection from Arrows , Fog Cloud , Dust of Twilight , Detect Thoughts , See Invisibility ,Daze Monster , Darkness , Blur , Invisibility , Blindness/Deafness , False Life , Scare , Accelerate Poison , Alter Self ,Cat's Grace,Darkvision, Codespeak Glide , Knock , Levitate , Pyrotechnics ,Spider Climb, Summon Nature’s Ally II
3- Nondetection , Arcane Sight , Tongues , Heroism , Suggestion , Major Image , Blink , Gaseous Form , Fly , Haste , Keen Edge, Versatile Weapon.Water Breathing, Summon Nature’s Ally III
4 - Stoneskin , Dimension Door , Solid Fog , Detect Scrying , Locate Creature , Scrying , Aura of the Unremarkable, Invisibility, Greater , Shadow Projection , Summon Nature’s Ally IV
Very much a work in progress, hence submitting it for feedback.
A nice start. I will add my opinions. :)
-evasion- bump it to a higher level? 7ish, and 13 or so for greater
-skills- needs a skill list. I'd like to see disable on it, but no trapfinding. Leave that to the rogues.
-trap sense, I'd rather see this than uncanny dodge
-twin ability, tough mechanic. Wouldnt it be easier just to give shadow projection? (as a ki ability?)
-monk stuff, imo, downplay this a lot more, except for one thing. ki pool.
-ki pool, lots of cool stuff could be added this way, and replace some of the other abilities. Could even make more use of it than monks do.
-death attack stuff, drop it, leave it for the assassin
-sneak, imo add a mild sneak progression, maybe +1d6 per 4 levels starting at L4
-spells, I like mostly. I'm curious why the summons though.
-capstone, needs a capstone ability.
I put my comments in the other thread. But I just thought I would post a warning to you, hopeful OP. Ninja threads often degenerate into people pimping their own ninja classes. Do not feel bad when this happens. It is my opinion that ninja classes are like belly buttons, everyone has one and they are fascinated by it.
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I put my comments in the other thread. But I just thought I would post a warning to you, hopeful OP. Ninja threads often degenerate into people pimping their own ninja classes. Do not feel bad when this happens. It is my opinion that ninja classes are like belly buttons, everyone has one and they are fascinated by it.
Which is fine. Since I am in the pro-ninja camp, the more discussion and show of interest, the more likely an official one comes out.
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I put my comments in the other thread. But I just thought I would post a warning to you, hopeful OP. Ninja threads often degenerate into people pimping their own ninja classes. Do not feel bad when this happens. It is my opinion that ninja classes are like belly buttons, everyone has one and they are fascinated by it.
I knew I forgot something. Thanks,
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A nice start. I will add my opinions. :)
-evasion- bump it to a higher level? 7ish, and 13 or so for greater
-skills- needs a skill list. I'd like to see disable on it, but no trapfinding. Leave that to the rogues.
-trap sense, I'd rather see this than uncanny dodge
-twin ability, tough mechanic. Wouldnt it be easier just to give shadow projection? (as a ki ability?)
-monk stuff, imo, downplay this a lot more, except for one thing. ki pool.
-ki pool, lots of cool stuff could be added this way, and replace some of the other abilities. Could even make more use of it than monks do.
-death attack stuff, drop it, leave it for the assassin
-sneak, imo add a mild sneak progression, maybe +1d6 per 4 levels starting at L4
-spells, I like mostly. I'm curious why the summons though.
-capstone, needs a capstone ability.
1. I knew I forgot something:
Class Skills: The Ninjas's class skills are Acrobatics (Dex), , Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex),Knowledge (geography) (Int), Knowledge (nature) Intimidate (Cha), Linguistics (Int), Perception (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Stealth (Dex), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str).
2. I thought about the ki pool a lot, but I decided if I was going Ranger/Paladin type caster I needed to have one or the other.
3. Thought about shadow projection as well as Similacrum, but the Wikipedia and stories are all "Split". Plus, I think it's a fun and new concept, and every class needs something only they can do.
I think it can be written better, and if you don't include spells it actually breaks out pretty well for everything but feats. Feats I think can be done if you keep track of the order you got your feats, which since many have prerequisites most people do anyway. Could also do it by negative levels, but that may be overpowered.
4. Summons are from the wikipedia entry, under mystical abilities. I'm flexible on that.
5. I can see you on trap sense, but I also don't see Ninja's getting flanked and both is over powered and stealing Barbarian thunder. I already am worried it may need a mechanic to avoid to much one level dip for multiclass barbarians, as that doesn't fit the concept at all.
6. I want to leave sneak attack to the rogue. I think the death attack fits well, but I can see it as stealing thunder from the assassin.
7. I think being able to split into 20 Ninjas is a decent capstone, but fair enough.
Thanks for the feedback
This class has lots of defensive capabilities, but seems to lack an offensive power.
Barbarians get rage, Fighters get bonus feats galore and weapon training, Monks get improved unarmed strike, Paladins get smite evil, rangers get favored enemy, and rogues get sneak attack.
You might want to give it a scaling offensive power of some kind....
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This class has lots of defensive capabilities, but seems to lack an offensive power.
Barbarians get rage, Fighters get bonus feats galore and weapon training, Monks get improved unarmed strike, Paladins get smite evil, rangers get favored enemy, and rogues get sneak attack.
You might want to give it a scaling offensive power of some kind....
I think full BAB is enough when you consider it is getting access to arcane rather than divine spells. It shouldn't be able to out damage the other classes in straight up combat.
At least that is my opinion. Thanks for the feedback.
Even hexblades got the hexblade curse. Maybe poison use can be used as their main attack form?
Without a special offensive ability, the class seems like it might be a bit boring to play. It has lots of skills and defenses, so it can do a lot outside of combat and can react to a lot of different situations, but until 10th level when it gets twin, it doesn't have anything special it can actively use. Maybe Fast Movement. It's mostly reactive, and if the DM doesn't design situations where special attacks they react to are present, it's like they're not there.
I recently played a 1-shot adventure where I played a 10th level ranger, and I never got to use my favored enemy ability, and I felt a little blah about that. I didn't get to have my moment to shine. (I did get to make some spectacular fumbles, so that was fun and amusing!) At least I got 3 or 4 bonus feats I was able to use (I even got to use Endurance when holding my breath underwater).
Just my 2 cents.
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Even hexblades got the hexblade curse. Maybe poison use can be used as their main attack form?
Without a special offensive ability, the class seems like it might be a bit boring to play. It has lots of skills and defenses, so it can do a lot outside of combat and can react to a lot of different situations, but until 10th level when it gets twin, it doesn't have anything special it can actively use. Maybe Fast Movement. It's mostly reactive, and if the DM doesn't design situations where special attacks they react to are present, it's like they're not there.
I recently played a 1-shot adventure where I played a 10th level ranger, and I never got to use my favored enemy ability, and I felt a little blah about that. I didn't get to have my moment to shine. (I did get to make some spectacular fumbles, so that was fun and amusing!) At least I got 3 or 4 bonus feats I was able to use (I even got to use Endurance when holding my breath underwater).
Just my 2 cents.
Maybe I'll throw vanish in there starting at 2nd level as a 3X a day + Int modifier spell like ability. I don't think that would be too overpowered (at 2nd given the 1/2 caster level it's only one round)
That could give a flavor earlier, but not throw off balance too much.
I think that the Twin ability is really neat. Due to all the chatter on the boards, I've recently decided to brew my own ninja class, and this seems like the perfect thing for it. I very much agree that all classes need that one thing that only they can do.
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I think that the Twin ability is really neat. Due to all the chatter on the boards, I've recently decided to brew my own ninja class, and this seems like the perfect thing for it. I very much agree that all classes need that one thing that only they can do.
The key for it to work I think is to have the twins not have access to spells or equipment, and have all the skills cut in half. That way you can have it ready on the side like you would a summon, and not have to calculate what spells each one has, etc...
Feats could still be an issue, but I think if you keep track of what level you got what feat it works fine, and you'll just have to do that if you play a ninja like you have to keep track of your animal companion or eidelon for other classes.
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Katana on the weapons list? As a martial or an exotic weapon (2-hnd or 1-hnd)? Does the ninja need to use a weapon that is the symbol of the samurai?
It was flavor, and honestly I am seriously considering taking it off. In fact, consider it taken off. There is no need for a ninja to have it, and limiting the weapons is an important feature to justify the full BAB to me (very skilled, but only with specific weapons)
I agree with SmiloDan, it does seem to need a special offensive ability.
I'm not sure how powerfull Twin and Divide are, I mean are two fifth level characters better than on tenth level cahracter? Especially considering one of them doesn't have magical gear? It propably has a lot of uses in infiltration but in battle... Although the idea of a 20th level guy turning into 20 1st level guys makes me think of the law of inverse ninja strenght and that's gold.
Do the clones have the same ability modifiers as the original or only a fraction? How about feats? Do they keep all or lose some? Those two criteria could make each copy stronger than a character of the same level, so they would be more usefull in battle.
Also,
Ninja threads often degenerate into people pimping their own ninja classes. Do not feel bad when this happens.
I wasn't going to, but if you insist...
Martial Artist, Ninja and Samurai.
In a straight dungeon crawl/hack adventure, I could agree that the current incarnation of the Ninja might be short on offensive options. Poisons, hide in plain sight and the death attack give a few choices, though.
I've never been fond of the way Death Attack has been represented- I much preferred Green Ronin's method. The attacker was allowed to attempt a coup-de-gras on the victim as a standard action that doesn't provoke an attack of opportunity from the victim, but does from any of the victim's allies nearby.
The problem with this current incarnation of Death Attack is that right now, the Ninja has no Sneak Attack. Nothing happens if the target succeeds on their saving throw. Using the Coup-de-Gras method, they at least take a lot of damage, and there is still an incentive to keep a low profile when using it-avoiding attacks of opportunity.
You might want to change the "Hide in Plain Sight" from the nebulous "within 10 feet of a shadow" to "within 10 feet of dim light." Dim light is actually specified in the rulebook and can be controlled by the DM. Shadows, on the other hand, are cast by nearly everything in existence in all sorts of lighting conditions. Can a ninja hide in the shadow of a moth, for example?
Another thing I notice about this Ninja class is that there isn't a lot of varied options. While rogues have rogue talents, rangers have combat styles, fighters have bonus feats, clerics have domains, sorcerers have bloodlines, and so on, this Ninja gains a static list of abilities with no choice or customization involved. There doesn't have to be many options (heck, with the ranger it's archery or two-weapon fighting), but two or three different choices to make through the course of 20 levels would be nice.
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I agree with SmiloDan, it does seem to need a special offensive ability.
I'm not sure how powerfull Twin and Divide are, I mean are two fifth level characters better than on tenth level cahracter? Especially considering one of them doesn't have magical gear? It propably has a lot of uses in infiltration but in battle... Although the idea of a 20th level guy turning into 20 1st level guys makes me think of the law of inverse ninja strenght and that's gold.
Do the clones have the same ability modifiers as the original or only a fraction? How about feats? Do they keep all or lose some? Those two criteria could make each copy stronger than a character of the same level, so they would be more usefull in battle.Also,
Ninja threads often degenerate into people pimping their own ninja classes. Do not feel bad when this happens.I wasn't going to, but if you insist...
Martial Artist, Ninja and Samurai.
Good point, I mentioned above what I thought should be done with feats, but I didn't consider ability scores. I think it would fine leaving as is, minus equipment. I don't see that unbalancing.
I don't mind the two being weaker, it's more an option thing than a combat thing.
I like your Shuriken Mastery, I think I'm going to steal that. Maybe allow the ninja to run the Shuriken Mastery all the way up a fighter weapon progression.
I also like Speed of Darkness
I hear you about the offense, but keep in mind that full BAB is fairly powerful stuff. Particularly if I add the shuriken mastery, and if you consider poison use with that.
Great input, thank you. And thank you for posting yours. I may post a revision soon with the input.
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Another thing I notice about this Ninja class is that there isn't a lot of varied options. While rogues have rogue talents, rangers have combat styles, fighters have bonus feats, clerics have domains, sorcerers have bloodlines, and so on, this Ninja gains a static list of abilities with no choice or customization involved. There doesn't have to be many options (heck, with the ranger it's archery or two-weapon fighting), but two or three different choices to make through the course of 20 levels would be nice.
Fair point. I'm going to steal VM Mercenario's Shuriken Mastery idea, running it up the fighter progression. I could also make that an option between Shuriken and something else.
Any ideas what other weapon would be specifically ninja, but would be something limiting like the Shuriken so as not to steal the fighers thunder?
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ninja have regularly been portrayed using 2 main weapons
1) shuriken
2) ninjato - I would make this like a long sword with the ability to hide things in the hilt like blow gun darts - the sheath was able to be used as a blowpipe commonly
so those would be my ideas for weapon mastery - shuriken & ninjato plus maybe blowpipe
I would add a few other weapons for flavour like the monk ones & include hand crossbow plus allow racial weapons but after that prohibit use of any others to make them really limited & not take away from fighters etc
Fair point. I'm going to steal VM Mercenario's Shuriken Mastery idea, running it up the fighter progression. I could also make that an option between Shuriken and something else.Any ideas what other weapon would be specifically ninja, but would be something limiting like the Shuriken so as not to steal the fighers thunder?
I thought I remembered there being a specific type of sword that was shorter than its scabbard, so that victims would be caught by surprise when the sword cleared the neck sooner than expected and struck them.
I also remember the multipurpose kunai. While it's somewhat similar to the shuriken in that it can be thrown, it's also a decent stabbing weapon and climbing/smashing tool. Generic kunai descriptionThere's also the not very effective, but supposedly terror-inducing Flying Guillotine. Weapon Description. It's not a very practical weapon by any means, but if it's effectiveness is heightened for fantasy stories, it can be an excellent signature.
I would also think about including packages for poison and alchemical crafting, social infiltration, and potentially mystical combat (laying curses, fighting supernatural monsters). Personally, I would remove Disguise Self and Alter Self from the spell list, letting the Social Infiltration expert gain them back and letting the other Ninja use the Disguise skill.
I'll post later about some ideas for the other packages.
Maybe make the ninja be related to the alchemist? I always picture ninja using lots of interesting chemicals and gadgets to get the job done. Maybe replace the arcane spellcasting with 4 levels of infusions, and maybe give it some alchemist bomb progression? Like 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19? Or 1, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20?
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ninja have regularly been portrayed using 2 main weapons
1) shuriken
2) ninjato - I would make this like a long sword with the ability to hide things in the hilt like blow gun darts - the sheath was able to be used as a blowpipe commonlyso those would be my ideas for weapon mastery - shuriken & ninjato plus maybe blowpipe
I would add a few other weapons for flavour like the monk ones & include hand crossbow plus allow racial weapons but after that prohibit use of any others to make them really limited & not take away from fighters etc
At this point I'm thinking it will be a progression with a specific weapon ( Weapon focus (2nd), Weapon specialization(6th), Greater weapon focus(10th), greater weapon specialization(14th) so it follows slightly behind fighter progression for availability.
I'm thinking the choices will be Shuriken, Blowgun, Nunchaku, Sai, and dagger. I'm on the fence about short sword.
I think having longsword would make everything else suboptimal, and wouldn't fit with the hiding weapons angle.
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I would also think about including packages for poison and alchemical crafting, social infiltration, and potentially mystical combat (laying curses, fighting supernatural monsters). Personally, I would remove Disguise Self and Alter Self from the spell list, letting the Social Infiltration expert gain them back and letting the other Ninja use the Disguise skill.
I'll post later about some ideas for the other packages.
I'll leave it to developers to add more weapons later, I want to stick to what is out at this point, but I do like the flavor of your suggestions.
As to Alter/Disguise self, I'm kind of using the Wikipedia entry for Ninja as an outline, and the ability to change appearance is one of the supernatural abilities, so for my build that is going to stay in. I understand where you are coming from, but that one I'm not flexible on.
I do like where people are going with poisons, I may remove the death attack stuff and change it to some poison based skills and bonuses, particularly if I'm adding the specific weapon specializations. I think that is more in flavor with a ninja. Perhaps increasing the save DC for poisons, and giving specialized poisons, that kind of thing.
I'll work on it and maybe post a version 2.0 tonight. Keep the ideas coming.
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Maybe make the ninja be related to the alchemist? I always picture ninja using lots of interesting chemicals and gadgets to get the job done. Maybe replace the arcane spellcasting with 4 levels of infusions, and maybe give it some alchemist bomb progression? Like 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19? Or 1, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20?
I don't want to steal the Alchemists thunder, the bombing and infusions are his moves. I could see multi-classing the two, but that is a whole other thing.
You make a good point about looking to the alchemist for ideas, though, and I need to look at his potion craft as maybe a template for poison stuff. Like I said above, I think I'm going to lose some of the death attack stuff (leave that to pure assassins) and replace it with some poison bonuses and poison abilities instead.
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Take 2, revised with some of the suggestions above
Full BaB, d10
Good Reflex Save
6 Skill Points per level
Class Skills: The Ninja’s class skills are Acrobatics (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Knowledge (Geography), Knowledge (Nature), Intimidate (Cha), Linguistics (Int), Perception (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Stealth (Dex), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str)
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Ninjas are proficient with the blowgun, club, dagger, dart, kama, katana, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shortspear, short sword, short bow, shuriken, siangham, sling, and spear.
1st 2nd 3rd 4th
1st AC Bonus, Poison use - - - -
2nd Evasion, Ninja Weapon Focus - - - -
3rd Fast movement +10, Ninja Poison Skill - - - -
4th High jump, Swift Poisoning 0 - - -
5th Hidden Weapons, Ninja Weapon Specialization 1 - - -
6th Fast movement +20, Ninja Poison Skill 1 - - -
7th Uncanny Dodge 1 0 - -
8th Enhanced mobility 1 1 - -
9th Fast Movement +30, Ninja Poison Skill 2 1 - -
10th Improved evasion, Twin 2 1 0 -
11th Ninja Greater Weapon Focus 2 1 1 -
12th Fast Movement +40, Ninja Poison Skill 2 2 1 -
13th Improved uncanny dodge 3 2 1 -
14th A Thousand Faces 3 2 1 1
15th Fast Movement +50, Ninja Poison Skill 3 2 2 1
16th Ninja Greater Weapon Specialization 3 3 2 1
17th Hide in Plain Sight 4 3 2 1
18th Fast Movement +60, Ninja Poison Skill 4 3 2 2
19th Divide 4 3 3 2
20th Death Poison 4 4 3 3
AC Bonus (Ex): When unarmored, and unencumbered, the Ninja adds his Wisdom bonus (if any) to his AC. This bonus to AC applies even against touch attacks or when the Ninja is flat-footed. He loses these bonuses when he is immobilized or helpless, when he wears any armor, when he carries a shield, or when he carries a medium or heavy load.
Poison Use: Ninjas are trained in the use of poison and cannot accidentally poison themselves when applying poison to a blade.
Evasion (Ex): At 2nd level or higher, a Ninja can avoid damage from many area-effect attacks. If a Ninja makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if a Ninja is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless Ninja does not gain the benefit of evasion.
Ninja Weapon Focus: At 2nd Level, a Ninja may choose a specific weapon to focus on. He must choose one of the following weapons:Shuriken, Blowgun, Nunchaku, Sai, and dagger. At 2nd, 5th, 11th, and 16th level the ninja will gain additional skill with this specific weapon if he is able to meet the ability score based prerequisites associated with the feat.
Fast Movement (Ex): At 3rd level, a Ninja gains an enhancement bonus to his land speed, as shown on Table 3–10. A Ninja in armor or carrying a medium or heavy load loses this extra speed.
Ninja Poison (Ex): Ninja’s are able to make different poisons that cause different effects by infusing otherwise innocuous liquids with some of their arcane energy. A Ninja may a number of vials of poison equal to 3 + her Intellegence modifier if they take one hour to infuse vials of liquid while studying spells. This infusion lasts for 24 hours, at which time the liquid reverts back to it’s normal form. Only one type of poison can be added to any specific liquid, and the poisons made are subject to all of the standard poison rules.
Ninja Poison Skills (Su) :
At 3rd level and every 3 levels after a Ninja can learn a new poison skill.
Acid Poison*: This poison inflicts acid damage. Creatures that ingest or take a direct hit from a weapon coated with this poison take an additional 1d6 points of acid damage 1 round later.
Concentrate poison: The alchemist can combine two doses of the same poison to increase their effects. This requires two doses of the poison and 1 minute of concentration. When completed, the alchemist has one dose of poison. The poison’s frequency is extended by 50% and the save DC increases by +2. This poison must be used within 1 hour of its creation or it is ruined. This skill extends to both regular and Ninja poisons.
Bleeding Poison* (Ex): A Ninja can infuse a poison that can be put on a weapon causing living opponents to bleed by hitting them with a sneak attack. This attack causes the target to take 1 additional point of damage each round. Bleeding creatures take that amount of damage every round at the start of each of their turns. The bleeding can be stopped by a DC 15 Heal check or the application of any effect that heals hit point damage. Bleeding damage from this ability does not stack with itself. Bleeding damage bypasses any damage reduction the creature might possess. This skill can be taken multiple times, with the amount of bleed damage stacking within a single vial of poison.
Concentrate poison: The alchemist can combine two doses of the same poison to increase their effects. This requires two doses of the poison and 1 minute of concentration. When completed, the alchemist has one dose of poison. The poison’s frequency is extended by 50% and the save DC increases by +2. This poison must be used within 1 hour of its creation or it is ruined. This skill extends to both regular and Ninja poisons. If a Ninja poison is used, the new poison counts as two vials of poison.
Crippling Poison* (Ex): This poison weakens and hamper opponents. A creature takes 2
points of Strength damage unless they make a fortitude save equal to DC 10 + 1/2 the Ninja level + the Ninja’s Intelligence modifier. This skill can be taken multiple times, with it’s effect stacking.
Dispelling Poison* (Su): This poison acts as a dispel magic, targeting the lowest-level spell effect active on the target. The caster level for this ability is equal to the Ninja’s effective caster level. A ninja must be at least 8th level to learn this skill.
Fire Poison*: When the alchemist creates a bomb, he can choose to have it inflict 1d6 fire damage. This can be taken multiple times, with the amount of fire damage stacking within a single vial of poison.
Frost Poison*: When the alchemist creates a bomb, he can choose to have it inflict 1d6 cold damage. This can be taken multiple times, with the amount of frost damage stacking within a single vial of poison.
Hidden Weapons (Ex): At 4th level, a Ninja becomes a master at hiding weapons on his body. He adds his Ninja level to all Sleight of Hand skill checks made to prevent others from noticing them.
High Jump (Ex): At 5th level, a Ninja adds his level to all Acrobatics checks made to jump, both for vertical jumps and horizontal jumps. In addition, he always counts as having a running start when making jump checks using Acrobatics.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex):At 7nd level, a barbarian gains the ability to react to danger before her senses would normally allow her to do so. She cannot be caught f lat-footed, even if the attacker is invisible. She still loses her Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. A barbarian with this ability can still lose her Dexterity bonus to AC if an opponent successfully uses the feint action against her. If a barbarian already has uncanny dodge from a different class, she automatically gains improved uncanny
dodge (see below) instead.
Enhanced Mobility (Ex): Starting at 8rd level, when wearing light or no armor and not using a shield, a Ninja gains an additional +4 bonus to AC against attacks of opportunity
caused when she moves out of a threatened square.
Twin (Su): Starting at 10th level, once per day as a full round action a ninja may divide into two Ninjas, each having half of the original hit points and each having a base attack, saves, and abilities and skills equal to half of his total ninja levels, but unable to cast any Ninja spells until reunified. The second ninja will appear within 5 feet of the original ninja, dressed in similar non-magical clothing to the original, but without any gear or equipment. Gear can be given to the new character at the original ninja’s discretion.
For example a 10th level Ninja with 80 hit points could divide into two 5th level Ninjas, each having 40 hit points each, with base attack, saves and special abilities of a 6th level Ninjas. All skill checks would rolled at ½ of the original Ninja’s.
Recombining is a standard action that requires the two ninjas to be within 10 squares of one another. If either Ninja is reduced to 0 hit points, the remaining Ninja is restored to it’s full level, but without any additional hit points and with the staggered condition for a number of rounds equal to the level of the ninja that was slain. The Ninja may remain divided in this way for 1 hour per level. If he does not rejoin within this time, the twin is immediately reduced to zero hit points and the primary ninja suffers the staggered effect as a result.
Improved Evasion (Ex) :At 10th level, a Ninja’s evasion ability improves. He still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks, but henceforth he takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless Ninja does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.
Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex) : A Ninja of 11th level or higher can no longer be flanked. This defense denies the ability to sneak attack the character by flanking her, unless the attacker has at least four more rogue levels than the target does.
If a character already has uncanny from another class, the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum rogue level required to flank the character.
A Thousand Faces (Su): At 14th level, a druid gains the ability to change her appearance at will, as if using the alter self spell.
Hide in Plain Sight (Su): At 17th level, a Ninja can use the Stealth skill even while being observed. As long as he is within 10 feet of some sort of shadow, an assassin can hide himself from view in the open without having anything to actually hide behind. He
cannot, however, hide in his own shadow.
Divide (Su): Instead of only being able to split into two equal beings, the ninja can split into several Ninjas of whichever levels the ninja chooses so long as the primary ninja’s level is greater than or equal to all others and so that the total levels of all ninjas is equal to the total ninja levels.
Hit points and skill points are equal to the fraction of the level of the character, rounded down. Only the primary ninja suffers the staggered effect following the death of any one of the other ninjas, and the duration remains the number of rounds equal to the level of the Ninja slain.
Death Poison: A Ninja can infuse one of his daily poisons with a “Death” poison. Unless the target makes a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + 1/2 the Ninja level + the Ninja’s Intelligence modifier), it dies.
Spell List
1- Endure Elements , Obscuring Mist , True Strike , Memory Lapse ,Disguise Self ,Vanish , Cause Fear , Animate Rope , Expeditious Retreat , Feather Fall , Jump , Stone Fist ,Magic Weapon, Summon Nature’s Ally I, Produce Flame.
2 - Protection from Arrows , Fog Cloud , Dust of Twilight , Detect Thoughts , See Invisibility ,Daze Monster , Darkness , Blur , Invisibility , Blindness/Deafness , False Life , Scare , Accelerate Poison , Alter Self ,Cat's Grace,Darkvision, Codespeak Glide , Knock , Levitate , Pyrotechnics ,Spider Climb, Summon Nature’s Ally II
3- Nondetection , Arcane Sight , Tongues , Heroism , Suggestion , Major Image , Blink , Gaseous Form , Fly , Haste , Keen Edge, Versatile Weapon.Water Breathing, Summon Nature’s Ally III
4 - Stoneskin , Dimension Door , Solid Fog , Detect Scrying , Locate Creature , Scrying , Aura of the Unremarkable, Invisibility, Greater , Shadow Projection , Summon Nature’s Ally IV
Looking for new Ninja poison skill idea, I feel like I need more of them. Got rid of the death attacks and replaced them with the poison skills and weapon specializations that I feel are more appropriate
This looks a lot better!
Maybe call them Poison Talents instead of Poison Skills, since Skills are a totally different mechanic and term, and what you are doing is similar to the rogue's talents and alchemist's discoveries, so I would go with Talents or something like that.
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This looks a lot better!
Maybe call them Poison Talents instead of Poison Skills, since Skills are a totally different mechanic and term, and what you are doing is similar to the rogue's talents and alchemist's discoveries, so I would go with Talents or something like that.
You are right. I am not sure about talent, but it does need another name.
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Latest revision (close to final, but still open for input
Full BaB, d10
Good Reflex Save
4 Skill Points per level
Class Skills: The Ninja’s class skills are Acrobatics (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Knowledge (Geography), Knowledge (Nature), Intimidate (Cha), Linguistics (Int), Perception (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Stealth (Dex), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str)
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Ninjas are proficient with the blowgun, club, dagger, dart, kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shortspear, short sword, short bow, shuriken, siangham, sling, and spear.
1st 2nd 3rd 4th
1st AC Bonus, Poison use - - - -
2nd Evasion, Ninja Weapon Focus - - - -
3rd Fast movement +10, Ninja Poison Skill - - - -
4th High jump, Swift Poisoning 0 - - -
5th Hidden Weapons, Ninja Weapon Specialization 1 - - -
6th Fast movement +20, Ninja Poison Skill 1 - - -
7th Enhanced Mobility 1 0 - -
8th Uncanny Dodge 1 1 - -
9th Fast Movement +30, Ninja Poison Skill 2 1 - -
10th Improved evasion, Twin 2 1 0 -
11th Ninja Greater Weapon Focus 2 1 1 -
12th Fast Movement +40, Ninja Poison Skill 2 2 1 -
13th Improved uncanny dodge 3 2 1 -
14th A Thousand Faces 3 2 1 1
15th Fast Movement +50, Ninja Poison Skill 3 2 2 1
16th Ninja Greater Weapon Specialization 3 3 2 1
17th Hide in Plain Sight 4 3 2 1
18th Fast Movement +60, Ninja Poison Skill 4 3 2 2
19th Divide 4 3 3 2
20th Death Poison 4 4 3 3
AC Bonus (Ex): When unarmored, and unencumbered, the Ninja adds his Wisdom bonus (if any) to his AC. This bonus to AC applies even against touch attacks or when the Ninja is flat-footed. He loses these bonuses when he is immobilized or helpless, when he wears any armor, when he carries a shield, or when he carries a medium or heavy load.
Poison Use: Ninjas are trained in the use of poison and cannot accidentally poison themselves when applying poison to a blade.
Evasion (Ex): At 2nd level or higher, a Ninja can avoid damage from many area-effect attacks. If a Ninja makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if a Ninja is wearing no armor. A helpless Ninja does not gain the benefit of evasion.
Fast Movement (Ex): At 3rd level, a Ninja gains an enhancement bonus to his land speed, as shown on Table 3–10. A Ninja in armor or carrying a medium or heavy load loses this extra speed.
Ninja Poison (Ex): Ninja’s are able to make different poisons that cause different effects by infusing otherwise innocuous liquids with some of their arcane energy. A Ninja may a number of vials of poison equal to 3 + her Intellegence modifier if they take one hour to infuse vials of liquid while studying spells. This infusion lasts for 24 hours, at which time the liquid reverts back to it’s normal form. Only one type of poison can be added to any specific liquid, and the poisons made are subject to all of the standard poison rules.
Ninja Weapon Focus/Specialization (Su): At 2nd level a ninja selects one specific ninja weapon to specialize in. The Ninja must choose one of the following weapons: Shuriken, Blowgun, Nunchaku, Sai, or Dagger. At 2nd, 5th, 11th, and 16th level the ninja will gain additional skill with this specific weapon if he is also able to meet the ability score pre-requisites associated with the feat.
Ninja Poison Training (Su):
At 3rd level and every 3 levels after a Ninja can learn a new poison skill.
Acid Poison*: This poison inflicts acid damage. Creatures that ingest or take a direct hit from a weapon coated with this poison take an additional 1d6 points of acid damage 1 round later.
Concentrate poison: The Ninja can combine two doses of the same poison to increase their effects. This requires two doses of the poison and 1 minute of concentration. When completed, the Ninja has one dose of poison. The poison’s frequency is extended by 50% and the save DC increases by +2. This poison must be used within 1 hour of its creation or it is ruined. This skill extends to both regular and Ninja poisons.
Bleeding Poison* (Ex): A Ninja can infuse a poison that can be put on a weapon causing living opponents to bleed by hitting them with a sneak attack. This attack causes the target to take 1 additional point of damage each round. Bleeding creatures take that amount of damage every round at the start of each of their turns. The bleeding can be stopped by a DC 15 Heal check or the application of any effect that heals hit point damage. Bleeding damage from this ability does not stack with itself. Bleeding damage bypasses any damage reduction the creature might possess. This skill can be taken multiple times, with the amount of bleed damage stacking within a single vial of poison.
Concentrate poison: The Ninja can combine two doses of the same poison to increase their effects. This requires two doses of the poison and 1 minute of concentration. When completed, the Ninja has one dose of poison. The poison’s frequency is extended by 50% and the save DC increases by +2. This poison must be used within 1 hour of its creation or it is ruined. This skill extends to both regular and Ninja poisons. If a Ninja poison is used, the new poison counts as two vials of poison.
Crippling Poison* (Ex): This poison weakens and hamper opponents. A creature takes 2
points of Strength damage unless they make a fortitude save equal to DC 10 + 1/2 the Ninja level + the Ninja’s Intelligence modifier. This skill can be taken multiple times, with it’s effect stacking. A ninja must by at least 10th level to learn this skill.
Dispelling Poison* (Su): This poison acts as a dispel magic, targeting the lowest-level spell effect active on the target. The caster level for this ability is equal to the Ninja’s effective caster level. A ninja must be at least 8th level to learn this skill.
Fire Poison*: When the Ninja creates a poison, he can choose to have it inflict 1d6 fire damage. This can be taken multiple times, with the amount of fire damage stacking within a single vial of poison.
Frost Poison*: When the Ninja creates a poison, he can choose to have it inflict 1d6 cold damage. This can be taken multiple times, with the amount of frost damage stacking within a single vial of poison.
Hidden Weapons (Ex): At 4th level, a Ninja becomes a master at hiding weapons on his body. He adds his Ninja level to all Sleight of Hand skill checks made to prevent others from noticing them.
High Jump (Ex): At 5th level, a Ninja adds his level to all Acrobatics checks made to jump, both for vertical jumps and horizontal jumps. In addition, he always counts as having a running start when making jump checks using Acrobatics. A Ninja in armor or carrying a medium or heavy load loses this extra jumping ability
Enhanced Mobility (Ex): Starting at 7th level, when wearing light or no armor and not using a shield, a Ninja gains an additional +4 bonus to AC against attacks of opportunity
caused when she moves out of a threatened square.
Uncanny Dodge (Ex): At 8th level, a Ninja gains the ability to react to danger before her senses would normally allow her to do so. She cannot be caught f lat-footed, even if the attacker is invisible. She still loses her Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. A barbarian with this ability can still lose her Dexterity bonus to AC if an opponent successfully uses the feint action against her. If a Ninja already has uncanny dodge from a different class, she automatically gains improved uncanny dodge instead. A Ninja in armor or carrying a medium or heavy load loses this ability.
Twin (Su): Starting at 10th level, once per day as a full round action a ninja may divide into two Ninjas, each having half of the original hit points and each having a base attack, saves, and abilities and skills equal to a ninja of half of his total ninja levels. The ninja is unable to cast any Ninja spells while separated. The second ninja appears within 5 feet of the original ninja, dressed in similar non-magical clothing identical to the original, but without any gear or equipment. A ninja can remain separated for 1 hour per ninja level.
For example a 10th level Ninja with 80 hit points could divide into two 5th level Ninjas, each having 40 hit points each, with base attack, saves and special abilities of a 5th level Ninjas. All skill checks would rolled at ½ of the original Ninja’s skill level. Base Ability scores remain unchanged.
Recombining is a standard action that requires the two ninjas to be within 10 squares of one another. If either Ninja is reduced to 0 hit points, the remaining Ninja is restored to its full level, however any hit points lost while separated remain lost. Additional, the ninja receives the staggered condition for a number of rounds equal to the level of the twin ninja that was slain. If the ninja is unable or unwilling to reattach with his twin within the allowed timeframe of the division, the twin is immediately reduced to zero hit points as if slain and disappears in a cloud of smoke, leaving behind all equipment. If this occurs, the remaining Ninja suffers effects as if the twin was slain by any other means.
Improved Evasion (Ex): At 10th level, a Ninja’s evasion ability improves. He still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks, but henceforth he takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless Ninja does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.
Improved Uncanny Dodge (Ex): A Ninja of 11th level or higher can no longer be flanked. This defense denies the ability to sneak attack the character by flanking her, unless the attacker has at least four more rogue levels than the target does.
If a character already has uncanny from another class, the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum rogue level required to flank the character.
A Thousand Faces (Su): At 14th level, a druid gains the ability to change her appearance at will, as if using the alter self spell.
Hide in Plain Sight (Su): At 17th level, a Ninja can use the Stealth skill even while being observed. As long as he is within 10 feet of some sort of shadow, an assassin can hide himself from view in the open without having anything to actually hide behind. He
cannot, however, hide in his own shadow.
Divide (Su): Instead of only being able to split into two equal beings, the ninja can split into several Ninjas of whichever levels the ninja chooses so long as the primary ninja’s level is greater than or equal to all others and so that the total levels of all ninjas is equal to the total ninja levels.
Hit points and skill points are equal to the fraction of the level of the character, rounded down. Only the primary ninja suffers the staggered effect following the death of any one of the other ninjas, and the duration remains the number of rounds equal to the level of the Ninja slain.
Death Poison (Su): A Ninja can infuse one of his daily poisons with a “Death” poison. Unless the target makes a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + 1/2 the Ninja level + the Ninja’s Intelligence modifier), it dies.
Spells: Beginning at 4th level, a ranger gains the ability to cast a small number of divine spells, which are drawn from the ninja spell list presented in Chapter 10. A ninja must choose and prepare his spells in advance.
To prepare or cast a spell, a ninja must have a Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a ninja’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the ninja’s Intelligence modifier. Like other spellcasters, a ninja can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on Table 3–12. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Intelligence score (see Table 1–3). When Table 3–12 indicates that the ninja gets 0 spells per day of a given spell level, he gains only the bonus spells he would be entitled to based on his Intelligence score for that spell level.
A ninja must spend 1 hour per day in quiet meditation to regain his daily allotment of spells. A ninja may prepare and cast any spell on the ninja spell list, provided that he can cast spells of that level, but he must choose which spells to prepare during his daily meditation.
Through 3rd level, a ninja has no caster level. At 4th level and higher, his caster level is equal to his ninja level – 3.
Spell List
1- Endure Elements , Obscuring Mist , True Strike , Memory Lapse ,Disguise Self ,Vanish , Cause Fear , Animate Rope , Expeditious Retreat , Feather Fall , Jump , Stone Fist ,Magic Weapon, Summon Nature’s Ally I, Produce Flame.
2 - Protection from Arrows , Fog Cloud , Dust of Twilight , Detect Thoughts , See Invisibility ,Daze Monster , Darkness , Blur , Invisibility , Blindness/Deafness , False Life , Scare , Accelerate Poison , Alter Self ,Cat's Grace,Darkvision, Codespeak Glide , Knock , Levitate , Pyrotechnics ,Spider Climb, Summon Nature’s Ally II
3- Nondetection , Arcane Sight , Tongues , Heroism , Suggestion , Major Image , Blink , Gaseous Form , Fly , Haste , Keen Edge, Versatile Weapon.Water Breathing, Summon Nature’s Ally III
4 - Stoneskin , Dimension Door , Solid Fog , Detect Scrying , Locate Creature , Scrying , Aura of the Unremarkable, Invisibility, Greater , Shadow Projection , Summon Nature’s Ally IV
Mostly just clean up, but also some small changes. Small Things to note that I am doing for balance that you might not notice immediately.
Ninja has less armor than monk, as he receives no bonuses to armor as he goes up in level. Should keep you behind the other full BAB melee classes and encourage strategy over tanking.
Very small list of ninja weapons (all from monk weapon list), as opposed to martial weapon proficiency. Even smaller list of somewhat suboptimal specific use weapons for “focus” abilities.
Evasion and uncanny dodge only work unarmed.
Spell list has very little offense and runs on the ranger caster level standards. You’ll also note I didn’t say they could cast arcane ninja spells wearing armor.
Twins get no spells to avoid both tracking and doubling casts per round. Twin isn’t supposed to be a “powerful” ability as much as a “strategic” ability.
Reduced to 4 skill points because of number of intelligence based skills, which could lead to more skill points. Don’t want it to out skill a rogue, as should be closer to a Ranger or Bard in Skill points.
It is intentional that there is no real dump stat. I hope this will also help balance the Ninja with the other full BAB classes as a less than optimal front line fighter.
Looking a lot better!
If your ninja is going to rely on poisoning as his main special attack form, you might want to give him a way to make it himself, possibly like how an alchemist can make infusions.
I was also looking at a different ninja thread and came up with what might be an interesting mechanic for for twinning.
Twin (Su): You can use a full round action to split your body into two identical bodies. You can remain in this state for up to 1 hour per ninja level, and you must remain in your unified form for at least as long as you were twinned before using this power again. While twinned, your hit point total is divided equally between both bodies. Each body may draw upon a shared pool of equipment, feats, skills, special class abilities, spells, etc. Otherwise, each body is identical to your normal unified body. Each of your bodies is aware of what is happening to your other body. Each body gains two temporary negative levels; when a body dies or disappears (a free action), these negative levels disappear from the remaining body.
Also, there can then be a mechanic for creating multiple copies: each gets a fraction of the original ninja's hit points and a number of negative levels equal to the number of existing copies. Whenever one of the copies dies or disappears, each remaining ninja loses a negative level.
Maybe a feat...
Extra Twinja
You can create additional copies of yourself.
Requirements: Twin ability, Wis 17+.
Benefit: When using your Twin ability, you increase the number of bodies you can split into by one. Your hit point total is divided evenly among all your bodies. Each body may draw upon a shared pool of equipment, feats, skills, special class abilities, spells, etc. Each of your bodies is aware of what is happening to all your other bodies. Each body gains a number of temporary negative levels equal to the number of bodies you currently have; when a body dies or disappears (a free action), each remaining body loses a negative level.
Special: You may take this feat multiple times. Each time you take this feat, you increase the number of bodies you can split into by one. You can only split into a number of bodies equal to your Wisdom bonus.
** spoiler omitted **...
Google Documents is your FRIEND!
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** spoiler omitted **...Google Documents is your FRIEND!
Fair enough
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s1VqT4w4DyC0ZqiBb7SpH7p4bHYNkLKPnST5rDk mVj0/edit?hl=en