D&D General The 5e Ninja, would it be a class or a subclass?

[Davy Greenwind]

Adventures in Rokugan 5e has a Shinobi class. Focuses on stealth and gadgets. It's pretty neat

 

[Sacrosanct]

Everyone talks about stealth and assassination, but often overlooked is disguise and improvised tools/weapons. That doesn't need a class for that. Make it a background, with a Shadowmonk, and you're good.

 

[Stormonu]

I'm going to be boring and say Ninja should be a background, with proficiency in Acrobatics, Stealth, the clan secret language/hand signals, and either Poisoners kit or Disguise kit. Maybe each clan could offer a different feat? Alert, Lucky and Skilled all fit, and Magic initiate goes a long way with minor illusion.

Between various monk and rogue subclasses I think the mechanical fantasy is actually pretty well covered. The assassin covered the murder ninja and the thief's fast hands covers the smokebomb tossing ninja that climbs around.

The background also allows for wizard ninjas, fighter ninjas, etc without making a subclass for each class.

My initial thought too was make it a subclass, but honestly having it as a background is probably the better way to go. Then depending on the ninja's specialty you can use various classes - Rogue (infiltration and assassination), Fighter (highwaymen, ambushers), Ranger (sniper assassin), Sorcerer (mystical ninja abilities), Monk (unarmed assassin) and so on. Could do an entire Ninja campaign that way and still have class variety.