I wanted to know what people think about one of the crapiest base classes of all time to be found on Kaedrin's package. The main reason to forward this topic is that I wish to actually play one if not taking levels in that class and I wanted to bring up the issues of it's viablity, not compared to different class types but mostly to the rogues or even scouts.
So here is our ugly class :
Class Features:
- Hit Die: d6 (Like rogues)
- Base Attack Bonus: Medium. (Like rogues)
- High Saves: Ref. (Like rogues)
- Weapon Proficiencies: Simple, Monk, and Rogue Weapons. (Like rogues)
- Armor Proficiencies: None. (It uses wisdom for armor so it's ok)
- Skill Points: 6 + Int modifier. (Could raise up to 8)
- Class Skills: Bluff, Craft Alchemy, Craft Armor, Craft Trap, Craft Weapon, Concentration, Diplomacy, Disable Device, Hide, Listen, Lore, Move Silently, Open Lock, Search, Set Trap, Sleight of Hand, Spot, and Tumble. (Mostly good, could perhaps get some UMD)
Class abilities :
- AC Bonus: Works exactly like monks, basicly free AC pts based on wisdom and every 5 levels, it won't stack with monk AC bonus of course.
- Sneak attack : Progresses like rogues wich is pretty decent and thier main damage dealing tool, but oh wait... Ninjas can't have the epic feat that allows sneak attacks be effective against immune to sneak attack targets, making them useless against 60% of the planar targets.
- Acrobatics: Starting at 6th level, a ninja gains a +2 bonus to Tumble checks. This bonus increases to +4 at 12th level, +6 at 18th level, +8 at 24th level, and +10 at 30th level. Mostly good if not annecdotic, I'm not sure it stacks for more AC.
- Ghost Sight: At 16th level and higher, a ninja can see invisible and ethereal creatures as easily as she sees material creatures and objects. This ability works like a permanent see invisibility, since etherals are visible anyway a lot of classes have means to use that too...
- Ki Power: Like monks, Ninjas uses Ki to use thier special abilites... which should be the abilites that SHOULD make this class decent, in theory.
- Ghost Step: Starting at 2nd level, a ninja can spend one daily use of her ki power to become invisible for 3 rounds. At 10th level, a ninja can become ethereal when using ghost step instead of becoming invisible. This is an instantly activated ability. This one is pretty neat and almost powerfull as hide in plain sight since you simply vanish and none can hurt you once you hit level 10.
- Ki Dodge & Greater Ki Dodge : At 6th level and higher, a ninja can spend one daily use of her ki power to cause an attack against her to miss when it might otherwise hit. When a ninja activates this ability, her outline shifts and wavers, granting her concealment (20% miss chance) against all attacks for 3 rounds. This is an instantly activated ability. Starting at 18th level, a ninja's ki dodge ability grants total concealment (50% miss chance). This one is nice on the paper but a rogue with a proper wand of displacment beat this easly, for a longer duration period without having 18 levels, making this ability quite weak.
- Ghost Strike: At 8th level and higher, a ninja can spend one daily use of her ki power to strike spirits as if they were corporeal (this ignores their concealment bonus like the Spirit Shaman's Ghost Warrior ability) for three rounds. This is an instantly activated ability. Very specific ability that last less that the spirit shaman counterpart a waste of Ki points.
- Ghost Walk: A 20th-level ninja can spend two daily uses of her ki power to enter the Ethereal Plane for an extended period of time. This ability functions as the ethereal jaunt spell with a caster level equal to the ninja's class level. This is an instantly activated ability. Mostly an "uber" version of the ghost step that lasts longer.
and...
Well that's actually all you have, so to make a summary comparing this class to the rogue :
- Less skill points, no acess to the very usefull skill UMD.
- No evasion nor improved evasion : Your ninja isn't able to dodge fireballs, that's not a ninja !
- No uncany dodge nor improved uncany dodge : A barbarian has better senses than a ninja to avoid surprises attacks... duh !
- No special abilities feats : So no slippery mind, no crippling strike a mandatory feat to get the Epic Precision feat that actually makes your sneak attack worth the bother.
It seems to me that the only major failing here is the inability to get Epic Precision, which could be solved by making the Epic Precision requirements Crippling Strike OR 21 levels of ninja (well, adding UMD to their list wouldn't be too bad either).
I guess you could argue that the special "ghost" abilities in the ninja aren't worth the loss of evasion and company, but they're the only thing that makes this class worth existing in the first place. If you think they're blah, then multiclassing monk and rogue seems like the way to go, and we can skip the ninja class entirely.
If that interest anyone besides me I made little changes for the Ninjas, but slightly less than what I asked. The class is now closer to its pathfinder model.
Skills changes : - Skill points switched from 6+ to 8+. - UMD is a class skill now.
I wouldn't say no to giving them more interesting Ki abilities... these ones look pretty lame compared to what you can get from wands and magic items. I'm also pretty sure the Tumble bonus is worth jack sh*t, since the game only checks your base score in the skill (aka the one you see on the level up screen without any added modifiers)
The power of the Ki abilities has a lot of pros and cons, having invisibility then etherealness in one click with no cast time, even if its for 3 rounds is quite powerful. Since you can basic fade out and sneak attack. Its quite a similar ability to hide in plain sight just with a different mechanic and X time par day uses.
