OK, I've been debating this for awhile since my play group is playing the mod Jade regent. It's a 4 man party and we are level 5. We have got a Life Oracle (Gnome), Net n Trident Fighter (Half orc), Magus (Human), and my character which is a archer Ranger (also human and thinking of changing to a switch hitter). We are currently at brim wall castle getting the artifact sword and getting our guide who is "to be there".
At this point we have gotten a lot of ninja themed loot. and the GM actually does have a plan for me to switch to a ninja if I do. But I kinda like my ranger, but wanna be able to actually use some of the items that have been given out to it's full potential. Like a armor piece that does invisibility once a day, but if you know the vanishing trick and have a ki pool it's 2/day.
The only thing that has been able to save us from being ambushed from the ninjas from attacking us is the fact my ranger is just making survival checks of 30+ and getting the jump on the ambushes from perception checks also.
Here's my ranger:
STR: 14
DEX: 18
CON: 13
INT: 10
WIS: 14
CHA: 10
Weapons:
+1 Comp. Longbow (+2 for the STR mod)
Armor:
MW Chain shirt (Haven't replaced it to the named armor that does invisibility)
+1 Amulet of Natural armor
Arrows:
Cold Iron (20)
Animal Bane (5)
Native Outsider Bane (5)
(Have more arrows just can't remember what else I got at the top of my head)
Feats:
Point-Blank Shot
Precise Shot
Rapid Shot
Deadly Aim
Improved Intuitive
If I did the Ninja the WIS would switch with CHA, would lose a feat, and I would probably drop some stats to make my CHA higher to get more ki points with out having to lose out on a feat or change a feat. BUT I might do a switch hitter (Two-weapon) Ninja.
Ninja:
STR: 14
DEX: 18
CON: 13
INT: 10
WIS: 10
CHA: 14
Feats:
Weapon Finesse
Point-Blank Shot
Two-Weapon Fighting
Precise Shot
Any thoughts?
If you are going ninja, i would ditch the ranged fighting. Unfortunately, the ranged rogue doesnt work well at all. You'll have trouble hitting and wont be sneak attacking. I'd go with two weapon fighting alone and take feats that work with that.
That's not true, there are rogue talents (class acts) that let me use sneak attack on my full attack, BUT I lose out on stealth, but with the ninja I can just do the vanishing trick and repeat.
The ranged rogue can work if done right (which is hard to do). You Have to be the one that acts in the suprise round and be stealthing to get the sneak attack on the first hit. In all Honesty, I don't think it's that hard to get the sneak attack off from ranged attacks. My Crossblood sorc felt that in council of thieves.
why dont you just multi class into some ninja to create your switch hitter? Leave your character alone, just take a level of ninja or three.
Nothing wrong with a ranger/ninja.
you dont have to have a bonus to ki from cha to have an effective character.
plus as a ranger/ninja you will eventually have some spells to boot.
Several ninja tricks just require that you HAVe ki but dont burn it. Use those mostly.
Ninja tricks can equal feats too!
I would just multiclass some rather than a full on rebuild, seems kinda cheesy.
I think a bow-ninja would be cool.
actually working on a similar character for a buddies convention game.
Since we are looking at the full story and not strictly optimization, I know things could be better, but I figured I would share.
Level 8 Character
Ranger 1 (Guide) - Martial Weapons and Armor, and the Guide "Favored Enemy" works with the Ninja Assassin concept.
Ninja 5 - Sneak attack & Vanishing
Rogue 2 - Trapfinding so he can pass himself off as a rogue (ninja do not exist), and who doesn't like Evasion?
This is a shooter with the favored tactic of go invisible, then shoot with sneak attack.
Currently running jade regent and we are in the home stretch of finishing book 2.
group also consists of 4 PCs.
Tengu ranged ranger 5/ wizard 2(well due to story reasons and I won't spoil anything was reborn as a primalist wizard 7 at the end of the last session)
Human barbarian 7(now working to be a valkarie)
Horc blind stone oracle 7(totally not an earth bender)
Human* ninja 7(totally not a kitsune named the redfang that fights crime at night)
The ninja of the group I think is by far having the most fun with his character.
Especially with forgotten trick he is able to grab feats that are needed at the time.
Forgotten trick is amazing, and has saved the their party more than once.
the versatility of the ninja I'd say is worth it.
*Side note*
I'm guessing that the op didn't mean brinewall as that is the first book and I hope they wouldn't be reading ahead in the books to figure out loot.
Had a player do that once and it ruined the entire game since they always prepared for what was happening next.
Bump
Alrighty, been brain storming the minor changes that I was gonna do and have been given the ok to do so. But I'm thinking of ethier waiting till after the 2nd mod is finish, or just do it now and start multiclassing from here on out. Might even change to a Half-Elf because I picked the younger sibling trait to shalelu.
Stat changes and feat changes if still human:
STR: 12
Dex: 16
Con: 12
Int: 12 (11 but +1 for more skill points and bonus language)
WIS: 14
CHA: 14
Feats:
R 1st: Two-weapon fighting, (B Weapon finesse)
R 2nd: CS archery Precise Shot
R 3rd: Double Slice
R 4th: - +1 to Int (12)
R 5th: Two-weapon defense
N 6th: -
N 7th: Dodge
R 8th: CS archery Rapid Shot, +1 to dex (17)
N 9th: Mobility
N 10th: -
N 11th: Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
N 12th: -+1 to dex (18)
N 13th: Improved Initiative or Extra Ki
N 14th: -
N 15th: Quick Draw
N 16th: -+1 to dex (19)
This is the planned build. Plan to use the Forgotten trick (not sure if right) to pick the combat trick to boost my damage depending on the fight or to use some flavor in areas and what not.
Id dump the Int to at least a 10 and bump your Cha up. Rangers get +6 and Ninjas get +8 skill ranks per level plus if youre human thats another +1 and favoreed class could net you another +1. Thats a lot of skill points off the bat so no reason to add to it with Int. And Forgotten Trick is Ki cost heavy. Its 1 Ki plus whatever other Trick's Ki cost are. You'll need the extra Cha at this point.
actually working on a similar character for a buddies convention game.
Since we are looking at the full story and not strictly optimization, I know things could be better, but I figured I would share.
Level 8 Character
Ranger 1 (Guide) - Martial Weapons and Armor, and the Guide "Favored Enemy" works with the Ninja Assassin concept.
Ninja 5 - Sneak attack & Vanishing
Rogue 2 - Trapfinding so he can pass himself off as a rogue (ninja do not exist), and who doesn't like Evasion?This is a shooter with the favored tactic of go invisible, then shoot with sneak attack.
I dont think this can be done. Ninja is an Alternate class of Rogue. You cant take levels in both...unless you have a very lenient DM that is.
Exert from the SRD - Alternate classes are standalone classes whose basic ideas are very close to established base classes, yet whose required alterations would be too expansive for an archetype. An alternate class operates exactly as a base class, save that a character who takes a level in an alternate class can never take a level in its associated class—a samurai cannot also be a cavalier, and vice versa.
Id dump the Int to at least a 10 and bump your Cha up. Rangers get +6 and Ninjas get +8 skill ranks per level plus if youre human thats another +1 and favoreed class could net you another +1. Thats a lot of skill points off the bat so no reason to add to it with Int. And Forgotten Trick is Ki cost heavy. Its 1 Ki plus whatever other Trick's Ki cost are. You'll need the extra Cha at this point.
Or I can bump my CON or STR up to a 13 and make it a 14 at 4th level, we are currently 5th level. The reason why I can't bump up the CHA was that I was lacking points to make it higher., might just drop the int down to a 8 (DM wont alow anything below a 8 sadly). My Favored class would be to the +1 hit point in all honesty, cause I would already be making 8 skill points per level if I had a 12 int as a ranger, then be making 10 skill points per level as a ninja. If any of the knowledge checks I really need to worry about, they are Nature and Local. Been using our friendly NPCs for skill checks for awhile cause we lacked skills in some areas.
if I did dump int it would look like this:
STR: 12
Dex: 17 (might +1 at 4th since going Weapon Finesse)
CON: 12
INT: 8
WIS: 14
CHA: 15
Thanks Stiehl9s, I missed that. time to send him back to the character shop.