ToB Ninja, stereotypes and all!

Ok, I checked under spells, it says magical effects, not spells, so presumably stacking rules could be applied to Su abilities, but still not Ex. Guess my group has unwittingly been going on a houserule for years.

That said, I had an idea to alter how Harbinger of Death works, to make it more dependent on what you slay, as more fearsome foes being cut down makes for a greater impression. But I still want the Ninja's level to factor in, too. The simplest solution I've come up with is this:

Harbinger of Death (Ex): Whenever you drop a foe with Sudden Strike (reducing her to negative hit points or destroying her), all other foes within 30 ft must make a Will save, DC 10 + ½ Ninja level +Wisdom modifier. Creatures with HD equal to or less than the felled target become frightened on a failed save, shaken on a successful save, for one round per Ninja level in either case. Creatures with greater HD than the one you have slain must save or become shaken for one round per Ninja level, with no ill effect on a success.

How is this? It's more limited, can still be stacked, but it's harder, and the best usage comes from typically killing the creature that's hardest to kill. At the very least, much less worry of the BBEG fleeing when all his horses die (and really, who takes along mundane horses past level 5, anyway?).

Seems good. A lot less abuseable.

Had a new idea for a Ninutsu Focus. It has a bunch of stuff tacked together, because most of them are minor (IMHO) and sort of related. If it's too strong, things can just get cut.

Untraceable (Su)You are nigh impossible to track down by even the most exotic of methods. Add your Ninja level to the DC for any creature attempting to track you, and if you move at half speed, you can take the time to leave no tracks at all. Against any creature with the Scent ability that would smell your precense, you can make a Hide check at -5 opposed by that creature's Spot check. Against a creature with Tremorsense, you can attempt a Move Silently check at -5 opposed by that creature's Listen check to avoid being detected when you normally would be.

Do note, in the case of (nearly) all of these abilities, it's not automatically trumping the respective detection methods, merely giving a (good) chance of defeating them.

And now, I'll attempt to make a feat. It needs a name, for now it will be Master Shinobi. Still need to think of benefits for some of the focuses.

Master Shinobi
You have mastered one or more of your Ninjutsu Focus abilities.
Prerequisite: Ninja of the Sublime Way level 11th
Benefit:: based on the Ninjutsu Focus abilities you have, you gain one or more special benefits described below. You gain the benefits for all Ninjutsu Focuses you have, even ones gain after taking this feat.
Crippling Strike: As the benefit from Savvy Rogue.
Death Attack: You gain a +2 competence bonus on the Death Attack save DC.
Defensive Roll: As the benefit from Savvy Rogue.
Find Pressure Point: [Empty]
Harbinger of Death: You gain +1d6 to your Sudden Strike damage against any target that is suffering from fear (Shaken or worse), regardless of the source of fear.
Hide in Plain Sight: A number of times per day equal to your Wisdom modifier, after successfully hiding within a shadow, you can transfer to another shadow which you have line of effect to as a free action. The new location must be within 10 ft per Ninja level.
Opportunist: As the benefit from Savvy Rogue.
Running Climb: You can use Feather Fall as a spell-like ability a number of times per day equal to your Wisdom modifier, CL equal to your Ninja level.
Sniper's Eye: Once per day, you can reroll the attack roll of a ranged sneak attack that missed its target. You must take the result of the new roll, even if it is worse than the first one.
Springing Attack: You gain a +2 competence bonus on the attack roll when attacking with this ability.
Untraceable: A number of rounds per day equal to your Ninja level, you can benefit from Mind Blank as a supernatural ability. The benefit takes effect automatically when subjected to any spell or ability that it would protect against without the (harmless) descriptor. This takes place with no concious effort required on the character's part, and lasts until no longer needed, or until the rounds per day are used up. The benefit can be used several times, each expending at least one round from those remaining to use.

So, if anyone has ideas for the missing benefits or a better name, let me know. Thanks. I am kinda thinking of giving Find Pressure Point the benefit of "You can use an Ambush feat and sacrafice one less d6 of damage than normal," but it seems kinda lame to me.

EDIT: That's actually the only one without a benefit, it seems. Though, anything that is currently "+2 competence bonus to x" is me saying, "I couldn't think of anything more interesting, oh well."

StreamOfTheSky said:

Running Climb (Ex): Move up a wall as a move action at your full speed. If you do not reach a horizontal surface to stand on after this movement, you immediately fall, unless you catch yourself with the Climb skill. Falling in this way, you may not “jump off” to reduce falling damage, though you may tumble upon landing. One creative use for this could be to set up a falling attack for more damage, at great personal risk.

Click to expand...

PARKOUR! PARKOUR! PARKOUR!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksd04r6v6RE

Necromancy! Necromancy! Necromancy!

I'm fine with the necromancy.

In the time since creating this thread, I have 1) realized that I neglected to put Uncanny Dodge in at level 4 (but not Imp. Uncanny Dodge), though I had intended to; and 2) playtest the class in an actual game. Not the purest test, as it was gestalt (whisper gnome cloistered cleric / Shadowcraft Mage on one side, pure Ninja on the other; was an evil party, worshipped a god of shadows and creation that was homebrewed for the campaign's plot), and ended just before we hit 11th level, iirc, so no chance to test out the Ninjitsu Focus.

Class worked fine in play. The maneuvers and skills never seemed too weak/limited nor too powerful / overshadowing. Spent a fair amount of rounds withdrawing to recover maneuvers, occasionally had to run, but when you're squishy (albeit with high AC) dps AND the white mage...enemies tend to be quite willing to find you. Especially with the gestalt cleric casting and MIC items, tactical use of the speed burst added interesting decisions to combat, I pretty much always had many things vying for that swift action. Sure does help when the healing spells are touch ranged to have super high mobility, though. Only minor issue with the speed burst was the fact that it made it difficult for an enemy w/o teleportation to escape from combat if he wanted to flee. But...that'd be an issue with any PC with significantly higher than normal speed, such as any druid. And unless the foe is very easy to finish off, could easily lead to the pursuer being caught in an ambush separated from the party, so I don't think it was a huge concern.

I do also have to give special credit to the Improved Unarmed Strike. Even at only a d3 (in my case), when you have maneuvers, maybe some sudden strike, etc... adding to it, it's still significant. And as an evil party, it's surprising how often you want to take foes alive for various not so pleasant purposes. I must have utilized that IUS to get a foe into the unconscious threshold at least 1 out of every 3 fights, I did not expect the ability to dish out reliable nonlethal damage could be as handy as it was for us.

Wait, why was it only a d3 with IUS?

Oh, you're right. d2. Small race. Ninja gets IUS but no damage improvement. He was doing a base of 1d2 damage.