Hey guys im looking to play a ninja in an upcoming campaign and was just wondering how to optimize one. we are going to high levels but only core races and no 3rd party stuff. If theres a link or excepted guide please throw a link thanks
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Human high str and crane style using a katana. Pick up a wand of fire shurican in a spring loaded wrist sheath. (16 str and dex then pimp str, chr is your 3rd stat)
The invis trick and the rogue talent for offensive defence (might remember name wrong). Take no negatives except for fighting defensively.
The few archatypes available are all good
The ninja guide is here, though I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. While very extensive, I found a lot of the advice to be pretty questionable.
For the most part, being a Ninja is like being a Rogue with a few differences. You will probably want a Charisma score over 10, but you don't need to particularly push it. The Charisma based tricks aren't amazing, and unless you keep up a spellcaster level of Charisma the saves will become trivial quickly. Other than that Charisma is just more ki, which can be gained more effectively through the Extra Ki feat. I wouldn't personally put it above a 12 or 13.
The tricks that allow you to become invisible as a swift action are as close to mandatory as you can get. I couldn't imagine being a Ninja and not taking them.
For optimization, including four levels of Monk can be useful. Save boosts, use Wisdom for ki, lots of archetypes that let you switch flurry for something you can do in armor, feats, and other good stuff. It is a much more complicated build though, and not something I'd recommend if you aren't particularly familiar with the class yet.
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A friend of ours just joined our ninth-level game with a halfling ninja. He took the Gang Up series of feats, so that as long as two allies threaten an opponent, it's considered as if he's flanking it; then, he uses a ki point to flow a Flurry of Stars and get up to 5 attacks dealing 1 + 5d6 each. He also has great bluff and diplomacy skills, though anything immune to sneak attacks he's pretty useless against.
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High str and medium Cha goes well with Eldritch Heritage so maybe have a bit of the eldritch in our background. Otherwise, as was already mentioned by Mort, it's basically like building a rogue. Getting sneak attacks is easier, weapon proficiencies are great and your defenses are a bit better. Maybe consider starting with Half-Elf to get Dual-Minded, since Will save boni are worth their weight in precious metals.
It's a bit cheesy, but a dip in Oracle of Lore to get Sidestep Secret allows for a pretty single stat dependent character... I mean Str, of course, since you suddenly only need Cha for AC and Reflex saves. Goes well with Noble Scion(of War) as well.