Is the Ninja's role in combat still just damage?
Is there a better role for a Ninja to fulfill?
Reconnaissance and ability damage are other good routes for the ninja.
For reconnaissance select from the Fast Stealth, Vanishing Trick, Sudden Disguise, and Wall Climber Ninja Tricks and the See the Unseen, Unbound Steps, Ghost Step, Invisible Blade, and Master of Disguises Master Tricks.
For ability damage select from the Pressure Points, Rogue Talent (Swift Poisoner), RT (Lasting Poison), RT (Iron Guts), Slow Metabolism, Smoke Bomb, and Poison Bomb NTs and the Advanced Talents (Deadly Cocktail), and AT (Crippling Strike) MTs.
Other good tricks to have are the Forgotten Trick NT and the Assassinate MT.
I'm sure there are other builds you could make based on traps, etc, but these are the two which really stand out to me, especially when you get the 20th lvl capstone (undetectable invisibility and the ability to sacrifice SA dmg dice to impose a [non-self-stacking] penalty to any ability score) You can essentially go anywhere without fear of detection (reconnaissance archetype) or can cripple you opponents very quickly (ability damage archetype: -13 Str, +3 str dmg/SA, +Str poison, or -10 any other stat, +stat poison). You can even combine them to a degree by switching out your NT and MT selections.
Great suggestions, it gives me a place to start.
Thanks
If you go the ability damage route it is important that you are able to purchase, find, or make your own poisons on a regular basis. You will likely spend a significant portion of your wealth on this. So talk to your dm about how such things would fit into the world and how your character might have access to them. Some worlds have an apothacary in every neighborhood where you can pick this stuff up, others have harsh punishment at even the mention of the word poison. So its a good idea to make sure you can get the supplies you need in the world before committing to the concept
If you go the ability damage route it is important that you are able to purchase, find, or make your own poisons on a regular basis. You will likely spend a significant portion of your wealth on this. So talk to your dm about how such things would fit into the world and how your character might have access to them. Some worlds have an apothacary in every neighborhood where you can pick this stuff up, others have harsh punishment at even the mention of the word poison. So its a good idea to make sure you can get the supplies you need in the world before committing to the concept
Couldn't I get a craft poison skill to circumvent this possibility?
I like the Pressure points ninja trick it makes me smile everytime I read it and think about my ninja who has a bluff of 12 and wave strike feat
Spend a Ki point attack twice and bam that is a neg -2 on strength or dex talk about debuffing
If you go the ability damage route it is important that you are able to purchase, find, or make your own poisons on a regular basis. You will likely spend a significant portion of your wealth on this. So talk to your dm about how such things would fit into the world and how your character might have access to them. Some worlds have an apothacary in every neighborhood where you can pick this stuff up, others have harsh punishment at even the mention of the word poison. So its a good idea to make sure you can get the supplies you need in the world before committing to the conceptCouldn't I get a craft poison skill to circumvent this possibility?
You can but again, talk to your dm, because the rules on where and how you get the materials ot make the poisons are fairly nebulous. Some dms are more particular about these sorts of things, and most will not let you simply turn gold into poison.
Best you craft he poison yourself.
You don´t really need particular ingredients unless your GM rules so.
Normally you just go buy ingredients somewhere, pharmacy, alchemist, blackmarket, worth half of the market price cost.
That´s already expensive over time.
However you can just use the craft rules on it like on any other stuff.
That´s really treated different by different GM´s though.
One way to do it is making a craft alchemy DC of the poison + likelyness of materials to be found where you are to find the stuff and then one to craft it. You can also gather ingredients extracted from monsters and the like or use survival to find ingredients.
Poison functions best if applied in many, many doses, therefore its great for ammunition. You can even apply it with slings, either use contact poison or special sling bullets. A halfling with a halfling slingstick and his reach of 80' sniping poisoned bullets is not to be tempered with. Or poisoned shurikens with flurry of stars.
If you apply it on onrmal weapons its best with TWF and some tricks like lasting poisons or applying to doses at once though.
Poison is always a game on numbers.
"Creating Poisons
Poisons can be made using Craft (alchemy). The DC to make a poison is equal to its Fortitude save DC. Rolling a natural 1 on a Craft skill check while making a poison exposes the crafter to the poison. Crafters with the poison use class feature do not risk poisoning themselves when using Craft to make poison."