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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 5988434" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 289: November 2001part 3/7The history of the ninja: Curiously enough, OA didn't include a ninja core class, instead splitting the concept up over a whole bunch of different prestige classes, just as 1e ninja were a split class that combined with all sorts of other core classes. Not that this hurts their popularity. If anything, it makes them stand out as getting special treatment all the more. But anyway, it's time to do the historical accuracy thing before we bring in the fantastical elements. If ninjas appeared these days, they'd be called dangerous terrorists, and demonised in the media, as after all, they were formed by families of poor people who couldn't use conventional means to fight the rigid established order, so they had to be sneaky and dishonorable and use whatever tricks worked to succeed. They even involved women in their fighting and information gathering. (shock horror) That they managed to become cool and popular is a testament to the power of distance and public relations. (and also how obnoxious and stompy the samurai could be when dealing with peasants) Plus there's the fact that they were notoriously low on collateral damage in their strikes, which you certainly can't say for modern terrorists. So this makes it clear how they differ from simple rogues, with a strong emphasis on family loyalty, secrecy, and doing things to fulfil a bigger agenda that they may not know all the details of. Having them in a party and keeping the fact that you are one secret from the other players makes for interesting but ultimately unstable stories. It also has some information on the various skillsets they trained in, and what feats and skills you should concentrate on for each. After all, they didn't actually have superhuman abilities, even if it might have seemed like it from the outside. Overall, this is one of those articles that's decent, but not great, and feels very much like a warm-up for the rest of the features. I doubt anyone reading this doesn't know what ninja are, but they might have seen nothing but pop culture versions. That actually might need fixing, you never know. Silent warriors: Having got the historical stuff out the way, here's three more ninja prestige classes, concentrating on different areas of expertise. Maybe you'll get to epic levels and master all possible areas of expertise, but I doubt it. Plus they have mutually exclusive alignment requirements, which kinda puts a crimp in that plan. So let's see just how broad a church ninjing is, and what schisms are found within it's congregation. Poison Fists are pretty self-explanatory. Their monkly powers let them poison enemies with their unarmed strikes, resist poison from others, and shapeshift into a tiny venomous creature to get into places and deliver stealthy death. While not bad in a fight, they're obviously intended to be the type of adversaries who prefer to kill without ever giving you a chance to fight back, by poisoning your food, or maybe bedclothes, hat, sword hilt, whatever would be ironically appropriate and not immediately thought of by the detectives. Honor? What kind of chump do you take me for? We're in this to win. Ghost-faced Killers specialise in the invisibility, and eventually incorporeality business, allowing them to strike mysteriously anywhere, and also serve as a counter-squad for anyone dealing with actual ghosts and extraplanar creatures. They get full BAB, 1/3 sneak attack progression, and the full set of mundane stealth skills, which means they can also hit hard once they get wherever they're trying to sneak. Unless your place has extensive magical protections, you're probably in trouble. Weightless Feet are of course all about going wuxia on your ass. Up walls, across water, off cliffs, and eventually full-on flight at 10th level. They get full BAB too, and are relatively easy to get into, so they can still be full frontal combat characters. They're a good deal less stealthy than the other two, and also more slanted towards being good guys, so they seem like the one PC's will most want to take. All of these seem pretty solid though, neither too strong or too weak. Individuals may stray from the path, but the balance as a whole will remain. Levelled treasures: Bonded weapons which upgrade to keep pace with their owners aren't an exclusively oriental idea, but they have just been introduced to 3e in the OA book. Of course, the fact that unless the DM is being very stingy indeed with treasure, this actually results in Samurai being even weaker than a straight fighter of the same level is an issue. But they don't know that yet, and they have a cool idea to sell to us. So here's general mechanics for upgrading your magical weapons and armor, adding more plusses and powers at the cost of gold and xp. This means it's obviously aimed at fighty classes who couldn't make their own items anyway. And since they still won't have the same flexibility in choosing their powers, this throws into sharp relief one of the persistent balance problems in 3e, leaving me frustrated rather than excited. Definitely a case where more work is needed. Come back in a few years time, maybe, let's see how 3.5 treats you. Palladium make an appearance in the first time in several years. I guess they've decided to go back to advertising other RPG's rather than taking the computer game dollar the whole time. Lots of new books available from these guys.</blockquote>

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