translating ideas to DnD

[limejuicepowder]

Alright I know there are a bazillion threads asking essentially the same question, but I'm asking anyway:

1) How would one make a Zabuza-like character (from naruto). Obscuring Mist, Fog Cloud, and/or Solid Fog are obvious, along with a great sword, power attack, and cleave(?), but what classes? And how should he see through the fog? Blind-fight is a start, but what else? Originally I was thinking wizard gish, but straight cleric could probably be just as good, if not better. It would probably hurt the build overall, but a splash of rogue or ninja would be good too, for a little bit of sneak attack - or turning invisible for a round. Or assassin for death attack (I know it kind of sucks, but still the flavor fits). Also, if this could be done by level 9-12 (not 20!).

2) A nightcrawler character - or, more specifically, I want rules for a creature that incorperates teleporting in to their combat style, striking from different directions every round. Also, teleporting defensively. Combining Blink and Dimension Door would probably just about cover it, but I want the character to move around more then that - instead of just moving back and forth to the ethereal plane (but staying in the same "place"), I want actual movement to dodge attacks. Suggestions?

[MesiDoomstalker]

2) A nightcrawler character - or, more specifically, I want rules for a creature that incorperates teleporting in to their combat style, striking from different directions every round. Also, teleporting defensively. Combining Blink and Dimension Door would probably just about cover it, but I want the character to move around more then that - instead of just moving back and forth to the ethereal plane (but staying in the same "place"), I want actual movement to dodge attacks. Suggestions?

Blink Dogs. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/blinkDog.htm)

[TroubleBrewing]

2) A nightcrawler character - or, more specifically, I want rules for a creature that incorperates teleporting in to their combat style, striking from different directions every round. Also, teleporting defensively. Combining Blink and Dimension Door would probably just about cover it, but I want the character to move around more then that - instead of just moving back and forth to the ethereal plane (but staying in the same "place"), I want actual movement to dodge attacks. Suggestions?

For this one, google "Shadowpouncer build 3.5". The general idea behind the build is multiple full attacks a turn, all after jumping between shadows. Admittedly, Nightcrawler doesn't need shadows to do his thing, but this will definitely get the job done.

[noparlpf]

2) A nightcrawler character - or, more specifically, I want rules for a creature that incorperates teleporting in to their combat style, striking from different directions every round. Also, teleporting defensively. Combining Blink and Dimension Door would probably just about cover it, but I want the character to move around more then that - instead of just moving back and forth to the ethereal plane (but staying in the same "place"), I want actual movement to dodge attacks. Suggestions?

I don't remember how he did it, but a friend played a character who could not only take 10' steps but could make extras every round. He also teleported around and might have had silly flanking and/or reach capabilities, but I might be mixing that one up with another character he played who had 60' reach as a medium human.
If you want to dodge attacks, take Combat Reflexes, Evasive Reflexes (ToB?), Sidestep (Miniatures?), and get reach (I don't like spiked chains fluff-wise, so use a kusarigama or a meteor instead). I think that might be part of what he did. For 10' steps you would need a level of Monk and some item from somewhere.

[TroubleBrewing]

I don't remember how he did it, but a friend played a character who could not only take 10' steps but could make extras every round. He also teleported around and might have had silly flanking and/or reach capabilities...

Sounds like a Ruby Knight Windicator.

[noparlpf]

Sounds like a Ruby Knight Windicator.

I kind of doubt it. He dislikes Tome of Battle.

[TroubleBrewing]

I'm as-yet unaware of any easier way of gaining extra standard actions as a melee-type.I'm aware of the controversy.

[Curious]

The Dimensional Dervish line of feats from pathfinder can accommodate the nightcrawler build, although it demands spellcasting.

Edit: The Magus can cast a standard action spell when full attacking, so that kinda counts.

[noparlpf]

I think the extra 10'-step thing might have been an effect of Evasive Reflexes and Sidestep.

[Calanon]

Off topic: I still wanna see someone do an Archdemon from the DA series :smallamused:

[TroubleBrewing]

Standard Fiend of Possession works pretty well for Pride.

[Emperor Tippy]

Doing anything from Naruto is hard. I started to list out what you needed (figuring that a level 15+ Ninja is a Jounin) once and it created a clash that would crush everything short of tier 2 (and compete competitively against them).

Speed of a Monk, BAB of a Fighter, HD of a Barbarian, maneuvers of a ToB class, skills of a Factotum, a fair bit of spell casting, etc.

If everyone was playing with the Ninja class with different PrC's for things like sealmasters, unholy abominations, bloodlines, etc. then it could work and be fun. But dropped into vanilla D&D they will only work in a game where everything else short of the full casters are removed because they will crush any of the pre existing melee classes without breaking a sweat.

[TroubleBrewing]

Psychic Warrior gets a few Naruto-like things. You could probably finagle it from there.

Tippy's totally right, though. Full casters are the best way to model the complete scope of abilities from the source material in question.

[noparlpf]

Doing anything from Naruto is hard. I started to list out what you needed (figuring that a level 15+ Ninja is a Jounin) once and it created a clash that would crush everything short of tier 2 (and compete competitively against them).

Speed of a Monk, BAB of a Fighter, HD of a Barbarian, maneuvers of a ToB class, skills of a Factotum, a fair bit of spell casting, etc.

If everyone was playing with the Ninja class with different PrC's for things like sealmasters, unholy abominations, bloodlines, etc. then it could work and be fun. But dropped into vanilla D&D they will only work in a game where everything else short of the full casters are removed because they will crush any of the pre existing melee classes without breaking a sweat.

I feel like you could probably approximate a fair bit of it from ToB.

[limejuicepowder]

Doing anything from Naruto is hard. I started to list out what you needed (figuring that a level 15+ Ninja is a Jounin) once and it created a clash that would crush everything short of tier 2 (and compete competitively against them).

Speed of a Monk, BAB of a Fighter, HD of a Barbarian, maneuvers of a ToB class, skills of a Factotum, a fair bit of spell casting, etc.

If everyone was playing with the Ninja class with different PrC's for things like sealmasters, unholy abominations, bloodlines, etc. then it could work and be fun. But dropped into vanilla D&D they will only work in a game where everything else short of the full casters are removed because they will crush any of the pre existing melee classes without breaking a sweat.

I think it comes down to how much refluff of existing abilites is used. For example, I was thinking about how to make zabuza; the quick mock-up was cleric 8 ninja 3, with the travel and water domains. DMM persist divine power gives him 3 attacks per round and extroidinary strength. The water domain gives access to the fog spells, and blind-fight goes a long way towards letting him strike while in the fog. The ninja levels are there for skills; he needs a good listen check. Plus, it throws in fluff-gems like sudden strike, poison use, trapfinding, and ghost step. He even gets control water, longstrider, and dimension door on the domain lists.

It's not perfect, but it's pretty damn close. And I think this character would be quite fun to play - melee smashing goodness with a plethora of control spells, and some general utility on the side? Hells yes.

But I will also add that zabuza is probably the easiest naruto character to make; all he really does is summon fog and slash people up. Some of the other abilities would be harder - like the sharingan, for instance. Copying techniques? I don't know how to do that, but some of the other abilities would be easy: casting something as simple as divine favor (or anything with a bonus to attack rolls) could be called "sharingan" - I'm reading your moves, so I know where to strike!

[marcielle]

Sounds like a Factotums Cunning Defense/Insight turned up to 11. If you can get a stratospheric Int, you can get (a slightly nerfed version of) the base abilities of Sharingan no prob. The others are a bit of a mess though. Maybe some Beguiler for the Tsukoyomi. Actually, Factotum3/BeguilerX would work out pretty well. Throw everything into Int and Con. Get some blasty wands. Win.
No idea about Amaterasu though.