Rogues, ninjas, samurais, and fighters: how to make them equal mechanically.

[fasthd97]

First point mechanically not flavorwise there isnt any reason to play a rogue when compared to a ninja.I was thinking of different ways to fix it.The huge dearth of eastern weapons ninjas get over rogues lackluster
selection bothers me.In addition the ki pool bothers me.I dont want to give rogues anything magical for flavour reasons but i do want them to be as viable as ninjas.My idea is to allow a trait that gains you some or all of the eastern weapons nijas get.Trait: Eastern Mentor: Your trainer was from Tian La and as such knew how to use a number of weapons most arent familiar with choose 2 from this list.Katana,Kama,Nunchaku,Sai,Siangham,Shuriken, and Wakizashi. For the fighter, I was thinking of allowing the 3.5 war college fighter to be used.I know the tactician and lore warden both are pretty close to this but force you to give up most of what makes you a fighter. If anyone has ideas on how to i8mprove thse two ideas or better ones feel free to post. On that note if you dont feel the two classes are imbalanced dont post here as in not interested in arguing with you.Thanks in advance.

[Lockgo]

ki pool isn't technically magical at all, it suppose to be something similar to an adrenaline rush, although it could also count as spirit energy to some people.

Evasion/Uncanny Dodge (Both improved and not improved) always seemed like pretty big hits to me. Maybe have Rogues get an extra Rogue Talent at 1st, 7th, 13th, 19th level, "Reason I started at level 1 is to make up for the lack of eastern weapons." Kind of like the human favorite class bonus.

If the player themselves picks ki pool talent themselves, which works different from the ninja's version, then it is all on the player.

[Deadmanwalking]

Easy Rogue/Ninja fix that I use:

The Ki Pool Rogue Talent grants a full, Ninja-sized, Ki Pool based off Charisma, that may be used exactly as a Ninja does.

To make up for this, Ninjas can take Evasion as a normal Ninja Trick, not an Advanced one.

Ninja Tricks and Rogue Talents (and the Advanced versions of both) are interchangeable, both being available to any Rogue or Ninja.

...

And Samurai is already balanced with Cavalier. No need to balance it with Fighter, since that's pretty much been done.

As for Fighters, Lore Warden actually doesn't give up that much (especially if you buy Medium Armor Proficiency...you can spare the Feat).

[Helaman]

*Improved Dirty Trick*
Rogues, Ninja's and Assassins gain this feat for free. If they already have Improved Dirty Trick, they gain Greater Dirty Trick (assuming they qualify for it) and use their level, and not BAB in calculating their CMB when attempting the Dirty Trick combat maneuver.

It makes them great debuffers. Additionally I use Cheapy's rule for making sneak attack more effective.

Note that Weapon Expertise and Power Attack are free feats in my game. It opens up access to more combat manuevers.

*Changes to Sneak Attacks*

One of the weaknesses of the rogue is that they can normally only Sneak Attack anytime the target would be denied a Dexterity bonus to AC (whether the target actually has a Dexterity bonus or not), or when the rogue flanks her target.

While sneak attack can do significant additional damage spikes (especially in lower level campaigns where hit points are lower) rogues generally need to an ally to be able to use that class feature.

Now rogues and others can do +2 damage for each D6 of sneak attack dice if unable to apply a sneak attack if the target is under the following negative conditions – entangled, sickened, shaken, frightened, panicked, cowering, deafened, blind, dazzled, stunned, staggered, nauseated, fatigued, exhausted, and prone.

If a target is flat footed, helpless, paralyzed, and pinned then normal sneak attack damage rules are applied.

Finally they can also +2 damage for each D6 of sneak attack dice they are able to use it on any critical attack damage after all damage has been calculated if sneak attack does not normally apply.

It boosts their critical hit damage and gives them added damage benefit when dealing with opponents who are at less than their best... conditions that can be imposed by dirty trick and extended to multiple rounds by greater dirty trick.

[Aelryinth]

Higher level ki effects are magical/supernatural in nature, and actually power spell like effects.

Ditto the rage pool.

While rage used to be an adrenalin rush, now it's firmly a magical power source, and Ki basically always has been.

The problem with eastern weapons isn't so much giving them the weapons, as that they are better weapons then can be found in the West.

Simply hand out the same martial weapons profs to any class with martial weapons, and you are good. Force the use of EWP to gain the benefits of a one-handed katana.

==Aelryinth