Monstrosity
First Post
I had been meaning to make a thread about ninja encounters, but this will do fine.
Forget about players wanting to be ninjas. Forget about players claiming that nothing can beat a ninja. Ninjas are the DM's sword, ready to strike whenever he pleases. You've all seen movies where armies of ninjas attack the protagonists, only to be soundly defeated. You've also all seen movies where a single ninja is more than a match for a protagonist. The fact remains that unless the protagonist happens to be a ninja himself, the ninjas always lose, and that's fine. Ninjas are supposed to lose. Their job is to lose in spectacular fashion and make the players feel awesome for fighting ninjas. Here's a couple reasons why ninjas make great enemies for the players:
As you can see, ninja encounters are pretty much mandatory.
Forget about players wanting to be ninjas. Forget about players claiming that nothing can beat a ninja. Ninjas are the DM's sword, ready to strike whenever he pleases. You've all seen movies where armies of ninjas attack the protagonists, only to be soundly defeated. You've also all seen movies where a single ninja is more than a match for a protagonist. The fact remains that unless the protagonist happens to be a ninja himself, the ninjas always lose, and that's fine. Ninjas are supposed to lose. Their job is to lose in spectacular fashion and make the players feel awesome for fighting ninjas. Here's a couple reasons why ninjas make great enemies for the players:
- They are easily recognizable. Players might encounter a half-gargoyle feral weregorgon and wonder what the fumble that creature is, but when they see a ninja, they know it's a ninja.
- They think windows are doors. If the PCs are all hidden in a two story house and there are 30 ninjas waiting outside, the ninjas can all get inside the house in a single round. This is great because players barricade doors but don't expect a horde of ninjas to come flying through the window.
- They can be anywhere. A ninja's preferred method of transportation when no one is looking at him is 'being a ninja' which allows him to teleport anywhere in the world as long as he appear out of sight of the players. On top of that, ninjas have the ability to hide pretty much anywhere. If the PCs are fighting orcs, the PCs will probably find it strange and unrealistic if one of the orc pops out of the cupboard. This is not the case with ninjas. In fact the PCs will probably want to make sure there was only one ninja in that cupboard.
- They can escape. Want to leave the players guessing and scared for their life? Have a horde of ninjas attack them out of nowhere and escape two rounds later.
- They can use anything as weapons. Ninjas don't have to fight with swords, they can just grab whatever is closest and fight with it. Ninjas will fight with swords, chairs, ladders, giant bones, farm equipment, etc. They will throw shuriken, books, horse shoes and any weapon they can get their hands on.
- They die spectacularly. An orc, when killed with a sword, will collapse to the floor and die with a grunt. A ninja however will backflip, landing on the table behind him and breaking it in the process. Fighting in a small room with ninjas does more structural damage than an empowered enlarged maximized fireball.
- They are just strong enough to be a challenge. If a character is attacked by a single ninja, he can expect to survive after a good battle. If he is attacked by an army of ninjas, the outcome is the same.
- They fight dirty. Ninjas have no qualms about setting stuff on fire, throwing sand in a PC's eyes, poisoning the characters with blowguns, etc. A ninja will trick you into getting close to a staircase and then push you down it.
- They have the advantage of surprise. If the players spot ninjas before initiative is rolled, they're not real ninjas, they're just decoys.
As you can see, ninja encounters are pretty much mandatory.
