Which is the "Best" Ninja?

[Dareoon Dalandrove]

As far as I know there are currently 3 ninjas out. One in OA, which is a prestige class, one in Complete Adveturer and one in Rokugan. These three feature the name "ninja" that's why I've chosen them. I'm sure that there are other classes that could/do fill the "ninja" void and would like to here what your using to fill this roll, but which "ninja" is the most "ninja" like. The Iconic Ninja if you will.

 

[Crothian]

I personally Like the Rokugen one the best.

 

[Deset Gled]

I can't tell you which class best represents the Iconic Ninja, because I don't know what the Iconic Ninja is.

What do you think gives a ninja his powers? Is he a martial arts expert that performs impossible feats using only his great skill (Ex. abilities)? Or does his power come from magic and spells? Is it more important for his fighting skill to be infallible (high BAB), or to be able to destroy an opponent with one strike (sneak attack)? Is he impossible to hit (high AC), or just impossible to hurt because you can never find him (Hide in Plain Sight)?

I have yet to find a ninja archetype I couldn't model in D+D, but there's no one class that could model them all. Some of the best ninja builds don't even require any non-core materials. The rogue, monk, and assassin cover almost everything that I want a ninja to be. And if you're looking for more books, I can recommend Beyond Monks by Chainmail Bikini Games. It has a nice sample ninja build in it as well.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I have to say, I prefer the rokugani ninja, too.

Somehow I think a ninja should be a more effective warrior than a rogue, but the CAdv Ninja gets that tuned-down sneak attack that you often cannot use for more than one attack.

The rokugani ninja, on the other hand, has the real thing, and the big BAB (but therefore, less skills, and less armor possibilities. And still only d6. Glass cannon)

 

[MeiRen]

Historically, Ninja were ex-Samurai who turned to banditry after the government took away their livelihood. They probably laid traps, waved around their sword, scared the out of people, then ran for the woods when the po'lice came. So there, you're probably looking at a vanilla Fighter/Rogue. But that's no fun!

In terms of fiction....I'm not a huge fan of any of the three. I would go with whichever is most bad ass. That's a hard call, I guess probably the complete adventurer....even without a great BAB, he'sgot a ton of g ood abilities.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

I'd use an ex-monk 1/rogue x/maybe a few fighter levels, with the Ascetic Rogue feat from CV.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Historically, Ninja were ex-Samurai who turned to banditry after the government took away their livelihood. They probably laid traps, waved around their sword, scared the out of people, then ran for the woods when the po'lice came. So there, you're probably looking at a vanilla Fighter/Rogue. But that's no fun!

But even in history, they were the stuff of legend (IIRC). They were attributed feats like walking up walls, walking over water, and a lot of other things.

In terms of fiction....I'm not a huge fan of any of the three. I would go with whichever is most bad ass. That's a hard call, I guess probably the complete adventurer....even without a great BAB, he'sgot a ton of g ood abilities.

The rokugani ninja has some nice abilities, too...

 

[kenobi65]

They were attributed feats like walking up walls, walking over water, and a lot of other things.

Such as delivering burgers in 30 minutes or less ?

 

[Crothian]

We all know that the truely iconic ninja can not be done justice without an epic level prestige class, ninjas are just that cool

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Such as delivering burgers in 30 minutes or less ?

Or fighting ALL the time
Or flipping out and kill people
Or totally uppercutting a kid because the kid opened a window

Actually, all the ninja classes out there suck, because they should get REAL ULTIMATE POWER as first level ability.