What is most YOUR concept of the fantasy ninja?

[Keeper of Secrets]

If I am using ninjas in a spy game they are just really good fighters. If, however, I am using them in a supers game, I give them an excuse to have all kinds of magic powers such as invisibility, some mind powers (representing their domination of will, etc.)

I guess if I found the need to use them in a fantasy setting I would probably have a legend that circulates around the lead ninja but level constraints would kind of prevent me from having his underlings possess too many weird things. So I guess the rest of the clan would simply be clever rogues.

 

[Gez]

Historical ninjasies didn't wear black pajamas. The black pajama part is a convention from Japanese theater, to show the character is being sneaky without actually hiding him (the audience has to see him, after all).

It's like how traitors are often depicted holding a knife with the blade down -- an unefficient position since you don't have as much strength for lowering your arm than for raising it. Plus, in that awkward posture, if you miss your target, you may end up puncturing your own legs.

That said, I don't care enough about ninja to have a precise vision of them. In D&D, I'd lump them with the thug and the hashishins, as a mercenary death cult whose members learn supernatural stealth powers from their pact with an evil deity or fiend. There's a class for that, it's the assassin prestige class.

 

[Desdichado]

I think a combination of fighter and rogue aspects makes a good enough ninja for me. I actually quite like the Rokugan base class if I need one.

 

[Gentlegamer]

I model fantasy ninjas after the real ultimate ninjas:

1st level Commoner
hp 1
AC 7
Full attack -3 nerf katana (1 subdual damage)
Str 5
Dex 5
Con 5
Int 3
Wis 3
Cha 1

 

[Ibram]

Threads rising from the dead... I've seen worse...

Like Knight or Samurai there are lots of different ways to do a Ninja.

You can just have a rogue, or a completly new class.

We use the Ninja class from Rokugan in my Orental Campaign.

 

[Turanil]

- the real, historical ninja.
- the obligatory "other".

I much like the ninja published in Legends of the Samurai, which is available as a free download on their website.

 

[LoneWolf23]

Me, I favor a Monk/Rogue multiclass to represent Ninjas, with the Ninja-To sword as a Monk weapon. As for the magical abilities, I'd make Sorceror or Wizard an option at higher levels, or perhaps the Assassin Prestige Class...

 

[mhacdebhandia]

If you're after a fantasy ninja, then something very like the "ghostbusting" supernatural ninja from Complete Adventurer is most appropriate.

Historical ninja, and other tropes appropriate to a roleplaying game which is neither historical nor particularly fantastic (like the "assassin" ninja or the "martial arts master" ninja), can and should be done differently.

I'm not strongly convinced that a historical ninja should be anything other than a fighter with a specialised combat style and set of tactics - though it's probably true that the fighter class from core D&D isn't best suited to it.

 

[Nifft]

I'm not strongly convinced that a historical ninja should be anything other than a fighter with a specialised combat style and set of tactics - though it's probably true that the fighter class from core D&D isn't best suited to it.

Long ago, on another computer, perhaps even on a different forum, I made a Ranger variant that was quite Ninja like. No memory of what the specifics were, though.

-- N

 

[MrFilthyIke]

The purpose of the ninja is to flip out and kill people.