Need help with PrC design

[Gez]

You don't need your opponent to be flanked or flat-footed, you can reliably use ranged weapons every round.

On the other hand, it's hard to use a full attack.

For example, you could keep circling around your target, jumping from place to place, hurling shurikens or whatnots at him. They would all get skirmish damage, but only the first (provided you caught your target flat-footed) would get sneak attack damage.

 

[Ferret]

Gez Ninja Monkey is awesome and it is yoinked.

 

[Gez]

Hopefully with a better name!

With regards to Arkhandus' takes on it, I liked that he expanded more on the Paired Weapon thing (with Flurry and Mastery) and on the throwing stuff things. However, turning "Ninja Sight" into a "once per day" ability is IMO a bad move. If it's not usable a nigh unlimited number of times per day, then it's not necessary to restrict it to just one minute per level... I preferred my approach because I purposefully tried to avoid making it look like a spell-like ability, more like a skill that gets trained and gradually improves. At least, give it a once per day and per level, and maybe remove the "see in magical darkness" bit.

 

[Arkhandus]

Yeah, I basically used Gez's cool little Ninja Monkey as the baseline for my variant Ninja Assassin. I tried to integrate more of what seemed Runesong's focus and abilities for the class, while trying to keep it reasonably balanced with a rogue, bard, or assassin (while keeping in mind that it's a fairly focused prestige class and thus deserves to be a bit more powerful in its focus).

As for some of the reasoning: I ditched Improved Evasion, Uncanny Dodge, Improved Uncanny Dodge, Mettle, and the full BAB progression for the simple reason that, as I saw it, the prestige class' focus was supposed to be a hit-and-run, get-in-and-hit-a-few-times-then-run-away-before-resistance-mounts kind of warrior. They're not supposed to stick around and slug it out with knights and samurai and bodyguards, not for more than a few rounds anyway, so they're not supposed to have solid defense, accuracy, or hitting power. They're supposed to use surprise, speed, and mobility to boost their accuracy and striking power for a few moments, then escape just as resistance is starting to build up, before their escape route is blocked or they get surrounded. They aren't supposed to stick around long enough to be dodging fireballs, suggestions, curses and such, and they aren't supposed to get surprised by attackers, they're supposed to do the surprising. That's what was in my mind when I threw together the class' stats. I kept the good Fortitude save to represent decent physical training and exercise, plus a degree of experience in resisting poisons and such.

I kept Ninja Sight toned down and short-lived for the sake of balance, but really, with access to bard spells they'll be able to cast Darkvision, See Invisible, and similar spells once they gain 2nd-level spells about halfway through the class progression. I figured they'd use Ninja Sight once they've made it close to the target and need to 'run the gauntlet' through the toughest area where they'll most need a clear sight of their surroundings and their target. Definitely it would be better to keep Gez's Nightprowler ability intact instead, but I just wasn't sure it would be as balanced given the various other abilities I gave them. I did forget that Runesong was looking for an Assassin progression for spellcasting ability, so by accident I just gave them straight-up bardic spellcasting progression; I'll fix that now. I may tweak a few other things in this quick check-over; I threw it together too quickly to check my books and remind myself how certain abilities work specifically, nor did I have the time to check it for balance at the time. I'm going to add Spot 8+ ranks as an extra prerequisite though, something I forgot before I hit "Submit Reply."

 

[Runesong42]

Arkhanus, I did have a question regarding your description of Power Throw:

Power Throw (Ex): A ninja assassin of 7th-level or higher has perfected their mighty throwing techniques. Increase the base damage of any material object the ninja assassin throws, by one step in damage dice. A base of 1 damage becomes 1d2, 1d2 becomes 1d3, 1d3 to 1d4, 1d4 to 1d6, 1d6 becomes 1d8, 1d8 becomes 1d10, 1d10 becomes 1d12, 1d12 shifts to 2d8, and 1d20 shifts to 2d12. If the base damage is multiple dice, increase each die one step along this progression. Also, the ninja assassin now adds their Strength modifier as an additional competence bonus on damage rolls with such weapons. These benefits even apply to shuriken. The ninja assassin now ignores half the normal penalty on attack rolls for throwing weapons beyond one range increment. Power Throw is an extraordinary ability.

Don't thrown weapons already get a STR modifier to damage? Or are you insinuationg that this ability essentially doubles the STR modifier to damage (adding it again as a competence bonus)?

Also, a bit of trivia: The paired weapons idea came from the d20 Modern Blood and Fists supplement. The feat/style of fighting is called kobujutsu, which functions exactly as I've described, minus the staff and 2-bladed sword, plus a few other martial-arty weapons (tonfa and a few others, I think).

 

[the Jester]

Don't thrown weapons already get a STR modifier to damage? Or are you insinuationg that this ability essentially doubles the STR modifier to damage (adding it again as a competence bonus)?

That's how I read it- double normal str bonus to damage.

 

[Arkhandus]

Aye, it essentially doubles the Strength bonus to damage with thrown weapons (or applies it once at least to thrown weapons that might not normally get a Strength bonus for whatever reason). That's why I worded it as "an additional competence bonus"; if I had merely said "double their Strength bonus to damage with throwing weapons" it wouldn't apply with weapons that don't normally add Str to damage, and it would stack with things like a bard's inspire courage or inspire greatness (I think one/both of those adds a competence bonus to damage, IIRC), amongst other things. You may just want to replace it with a straight-up +1 or +2 to throwing weapon damage if you prefer, but I'd still suggest it be a competence bonus.