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

[Benjamin Olson]

You could always just forbid ninjas in your game.

You could always just make a ninja class and institute it in your game. Why debate anything about how the game should be if we're going to pretend like shaping it to our whims requires no complication or social capital?

Default rules matter, because every deviation from them is a negotiation, even if your table indulges in fantasies of an autocratic DM. I'd like to avoid unnecessary complications to the defaults to support content I think will be underwhelming. Again a subclass really doesn't complicate things unless it has some wonky or confusing ability at levels people actually play. A new class does.

 

[Parmandur]

Background, taken by either an Assassin Rogue or Shadow Monk.

 

[Azzy]

The problem with making a ninja class or subclass is that ninja in pop media vary so much from character to character, so there's no single archetype that's one size fits all. Both the Shadow Monk and the Assassin Rogue make good traditional "ninja", but in some stories ninja wield magic while others are weapon masters. So, I agree with the other that the best method is making ninja a background.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The game wants for an assassin class tbh, and ninja would inform base class and multiple subclasses

 

[Silam]

Backgrounds, feats, spells and magic items would be perfect to enrich a ninja-themed campaign. I would say it should be a design goal to avoid at all costs adding classes or subclasses. Every single class can be a ninja.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

Well, for me, there would be an Assassin class, of which the Ninja is one subclass. Other subclasses could be Agent (think "fantasy James Bond"), Cleaner (brutal "kill all witnesses" type), Poisoner (pretty obvious...), and some kind of esoteric-mysticism option that provides partial spellcasting.

All Assassins CAN kill. Some are more eager to than others.