New feat for Oriental Ninja

[wolfpunk]

This is a special ability I added to the ninja from the core class ninja out of the Rokugan book.



Void Power, Hundred Shuriken Throw:
At 5th level, a ninja with this ability is able to focus their Void energies into making lightning quick attacks with the shuriken. This power requires 2 Void points. The player declares that they are using this ability as a full round action. The character may then throw a number of shurikens equal to their level. The shurikens can be thrown in two differend ways; either all shurikens are thrown at one target, one dice roll at the ninja's highest BAB determines whether they hit or miss; or the ninja may split the number of shurikens thrown in half, and attempt to hit two targets that are adjacent to each other. Two attack rolls using the ninja's highest BAB with a -5 penalty are used to determine if the shurikens hit.

I have let several players use it, and so far I haven't felt it has been too powerful. Since shurikens do 1 point of damage, even a 20th level ninja would only do 20 points of damage. The real ability comes in if they are allowed to cast enchantments on the shurikens, or to use poison, etc. Now I find this to be completely allowable, and when used appropriately it makes the ninja a very efficient attacker.

Any thoughts?

 

[Crothian]

Well, at 20th level if the ninja has 20 shock shurkens +1, he's doing 40+20d6 damage. Don't forget point blank shot and sneak attack damage. The sage ruled that each of those is only applied once to a set of three. But your ability is a little different, but I'd encourage you to engforce the Sage's suggestion.

 

[wolfpunk]

Hmm good point. My question though is this, since it is limited to either one or two attacks would sneak damage actually apply to all 20 shurikens? I was under the impression that by making it one or two attacks that the sneak damage would either only be applied once to the attack of one target, or once to the two different targets. Is this a misunderstanding on my part?

I would also like to say, that in my opinion, a ninja is supposed to be as exactingly deadly as an assassin, one hit, one kill, that sort of thing. So I don't mind the incredibly high damage.

 

[Crothian]

Hmm good point. My question though is this, since it is limited to either one or two attacks would sneak damage actually apply to all 20 shurikens? I was under the impression that by making it one or two attacks that the sneak damage would either only be applied once to the attack of one target, or once to the two different targets. Is this a misunderstanding on my part?

I would also like to say, that in my opinion, a ninja is supposed to be as exactingly deadly as an assassin, one hit, one kill, that sort of thing. So I don't mind the incredibly high damage.

Sneak attack should apply once per attack, not once per shurken. That is correct. Point Blank shot works the same way (not that it is nearly as powerful). I was just pointing that out to use because this ability is a bit different then the normal applications of sneak attack to a one attack attack.

Having Ninja's powerful is okay. Getting hit with 5 posioned surkins in a single round will severely hinder most opponents. But if you have one player a sa Ninja and one as a Samurai (or something else) and the power level of the Ninja is so much greater as to totally outshine the other guy, you may have problems.

Is this ability meant to be afeat a Ninja can choose or a free special ability? I think it works better as a feat, that way there is a little cost budgeting for the character.

 

[drowdude]

Make it a feat with Ninja 5+, Point-Blank-Shot, Precise Shot and Void Use as prerequisites (maybe Rapid Shot too).

 

[wolfpunk]

I hadn't intended it as a feat, but I suppose it could be, I had actually intended to make a more mild version and make it a feat, that way other characters could have something like it, but the ninja version would be a more powerful version because it was class specific.

The requirements do make for an interesting idea. Does the ninja spend the feats necessary to use the ability or just pass it off for some other way of being a ninja.

 

[wolfpunk]

I also wanted to say, that I think it important to dm the use of this ability correctly. The cost of 20 shocking shurikens is at least 40,000 gold, and one of the things about being a ninja is being secretive about, not likely that you can go to your local good mage and say hey make me 20 shocking shurikens I just want to have them for tokens. As for poison, well if you are going to carry them around poisoned, be careful not to accidently cut yourself, and dont wait too long or it will dissipate off of the shuriken.

It is powerful, but only as powerful as some of the other perfectly legal munchkin things out there.

 

[drowdude]

Another point is that Void Use isnt necessarily a given for a Ninja character since it isnt given as a class ability.

If you want to base the power off the Void mechanics you are best served making it a feat.

The requirements make it reasonably balanced, and Void based feats are usually kinda kick @$$ anyways

 

[wolfpunk]

Ohh yeah, in my campaign everyone has void use sort of, you have a number of points equal to 3+wis modifier, of course if you have a negative wis mod then you might not have any void points.

That would probably help clear that up.

 

[Crothian]

That's a lot of Void points to start out with, but void points are cool and I can understand wanting to use them.