The proliferation of core and prestige classes

[wingsandsword]

Well, that's what you get for talking to teenage boys in a gaming store. They probably thought you were hitting on them.

I doubt it. People talking to people happens all the time in this FLGS. It really is a meeting place for local gamers, the staff knows the regulars, the regulars know each other, gamers strike up conversations with gamers, and any time you walk in there you're likely to walk into a conversation about something gaming related. Interjecting into a conversation that's happening right next to me isn't exactly out of the ordinary for my FLGS. I thought random discussions between patrons was typical of FLGS (part of the "F"), maybe I'm just lucky.

I would frame this slightly differently. I think there are two views of classes: "class-as-occupation" and "class-as-skill-package."

I'll definitely agree with that, and I think that core classes should be just skill packages, and that Prestige Classes could be either skill packages that you can branch into but not begin with or unique sets of abilities tied to a specific occupation. Then again, I also dropped alignment and multiclassing restrictions for monks (and let the Monk choose their alignment-based DR breaching instead of Lawful for their Ki Strike), and I would like to replace Paladins with the AE Champion but it would require too many changes to a campaign already in progress, but that's just me.

Also, I think what really gets me is the lack of imagination shown in what sparked my original post, the very idea of playing a ninja had never come up apparently because they hadn't seen a sign that said "ninja". I wonder if they had ever though of playing Knights before they saw one of the Knightly PrC's, or calling a spellcaster a "warlock" before Complete Arcane.

You could even play a member of several core classes as a "ninja" without any multiclassing and with a little roleplaying and creative character description nobody else would know.

Rogue: You're good at stealth and quickly eliminating the unwary. Maybe take Improved Unarmed Strike and Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Shuriken) if you really want to for all the cliche tricks.

Monk: Hide, Tumble and Move Silently are still Class Skills for you, you get martial arts, lots of unarmed attacks, and all those martial arts and stereotypically "ninja" weapons for free, and some strange mystic powers while you're at it too.

Ranger: Historically many (possibly most) ninja weren't shadowy figures who spent their entire lives on missions, they were samurai who occasionally engaged in missions of assassination and espionage that they were better trained for than most samurai. The ranger still gets the Hide/Move Silently combo and other good skills for the "ninja" archetype. Their favored enemy can be a recurring threat organization in the campaign (or if the DM doesn't allow, the race that their main enemy would tend to be). If they were an archery-based Ranger, hiding in trees and sniping with a bow would be very appropriate, all while being able to fight like a "normal" fighter on the battlefield, and maybe have some heavier armor proficiencies to look more conventional when neccesary.

Bard: You've got the whole stealth-skills thing, plus they are good at maintaining a "cover" occupation for their jobs as spies and infilitrators, and they've even got "ninja magic" that helps with stealth and incapactating their foes.

I wouldn't really mind a ninja prestige class to represent specially trained members of a clan or organization of ninja that had some unique or different way of operating (like infiltrating shapeshifters who become the target they kill, allowing them to slay and replace victims for example), or if a ninja organization was going to be a major element of a campaign and the DM wanted a way to make them stand out from other organizations, but since even the stereotypical movie/TV/video-game ninja is a stealthy assassin who has strange stealthy magic, might use poison, and can easily kill with one strike out of nowhere, the Assassin prestige class seems appropriate for most ninja.

Lastly, I do also find the "black pajama" stereotype of ninja amusing, especially since there is little in the way of historic evidence behind it. You look a little out of place as an infiltrator and spy wearing the an ominous black uniform that hides all but your eyes, it's kinda a giveaway. The "black ninja suit" largely dates to traditional Japanese theater where the stagehands who wore the all-black outfit to be low-profile as they moved scenery around and the suits indicated "ignore this person, they aren't there". Later, as ninja were popularized, some writers/producers siezed upon the "black suit = invisible & ignored" concept to depict ninja.

 

[Gentlegamer]

Apparently, the boys had no exposure to the AD&D Ninja, who had to have a primary, "public" class in addition to its "ninja" class.