ideas/help Naruto ninja's

[theinnerdevil]

im trying to bring the players in my campain to a naruto like world but need help on how to make the ninjas.

any and all help would be appreaciated :redcloak:

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

There are a few ideas knocking around in my head when I look over the magic and apparent functionality of the setting. First though, I'd like to note that I'm certain there's a Naruto d20 system out there somewhere, but I don't know where to get it.
Also, from what I can tell, everyone who is a ninja in that setting is either a martial adept, arcane caster or both. A friend of mine once said "Just look at them, they're all just wizards with improved unarmed strike."

[Mulletmanalive]

http://www.narutod20.com/downloads-2/

That's the address for Naruto d20, but i warn you, it's not D&D compatable, being based on the d20 modern system and thoroughly changed at that. Oh, and a lot of what it says in various sections won't make ANY sense unless you're a Naruo-file who memorises all the Japanese names. It's a good effort but it's a difficult read.

Beyond that, most characters in the setting function as Wizards or Sorcerers with a free Energy Substitution feat from Complete Arcane and can't cast spells outside their element. You could probably allow extra energy types as either feats or class features.

It's difficult to say anything about the setting because except in the case of Sharingan characters, no-one ever seens to use the same techniques, though most are simply the same attack reskinned visually [Great Fireball and Water Dragon springing to mind here]

[Mulletmanalive]

On reflection, probably the simplest way to faithfully represent Naruto Ninja is the Factotum class from Dungeonscape.

It has a limited selection of spells and some points that allow it to pull surprising aptitude out of it's bum.

Works well because Naruto characters rarely pull more than a small handful of jutsu in any given fight and they tend to run out of awesome pretty quickly against a solid opponent [see Iron Country Samurai against anyone short of Sasuke]

[Aotrs Commander]

If you can find it, Disposable Hero did a Psionic Naruto Builds thrad on WotC's site. I don't know whether their archives are back up yet, though.

I've occasionally toyed with this idea. My preference, were I to run a Naruto-specific campaign (rather than weave it in to an existing world), would be to make everyone (anyone who's a shinobi, at any rate) gestalt psionic class/ something else (with a bias to martial adept classes); expanding on the aforementioned thread.

I also did a homebrew martial/psionic class based loosely around Naruto ninja; though it more focussed on the running around and thumping people than the heavy use of nin or genjutsu. The results were very comparable to the unarmed Swordsage; I had both play alongside each other during the classes' initial playtest.

I also had a great deal of success playing a character based around Naruto himself by reflavouring a bog-standard multiclass Cleric/Monk. (I replaced Turn Undead with Divine Counterspell, but that was about it). I just renamed all the cleric spells - and 'scrolls'and 'wands' to something else. It worked sufficiently well that the people who didn't know what character class I was had no idea I was actually a cleric! This approach has the advantage you can pretty much do it anywhere as it requires sod all mechanical modifications.

[theinnerdevil]

thanks, i'll check all of that stuff out

[SartheKobold]

I ran this over myself at one point, and I came to pretty much the same conclusion: Arcane Caster + Martial Class Gestalts... Or, if that's too powerful for you, have everyone take the Ninja class, but give them access to spells that fit their 'character'...

Shikamaru Spell List
0-Flare
1-Alarm, Identify, Ray of Enfeeblement
2-Ghoul Touch, Spider Climb
3-Explosive Runes, Daylight,
4-Dimension Door, Mage's Black Tentacles
5-Dominate Person, Hold Monster
6-Contingency
7-Mass Hold Person
8-?
9-?

Then just flavor them for Shikamaru... Flare and Daylight become different strength flashbombs, Explosive Runes are Explosive Tags, Ghoul-Touch and the Hold Monsters and Mage's Black Tentacles and Dominate Person are various Shadow Possessions. Everyone gets Spider Climb/Dimension Door...