critical hit immunity, is there anything out there to do away with that?

[iZgor]

I am building a new ninja stealth build and am unnerved at the thought of doing very low damage to plants, oozes, constructs and the ever present D&D foe, the undead. I found the feat "enable criticals" for the fighter and was wondering if i have any options like that or maybe a weapon enchant, prestige class, or the like. As i said, this is a new character, so all doors are open to me at the moment. Any suggestions would be wonderful, even if they are ideas to deal with the lack of my characters ability to "sudden strike" his foes.

[hymer]

Truedeath Crystals out of the MIC (p. 66) are your friend against undead. If your DM doesn't block you, as the wording doesn't mention Sudden Strike.

[ChocoSuisse]

Also, Demolition cristals against constructs.

And Deathstrike Bracers, effective against everything. Only 3 charges per day, but you can buy multiple.

[iZgor]

Ahhh! the crystals are what I have been needing! BTW For the purpose of qualifying for feats, prestige classes, and similar options that require a minimum number of sneak attack extra damage dice, you may treat the ninja’s sudden strike ability as the equivalent of sneak attack. So this should go by the dm just fine!

[iZgor]

Deathstrike bracers will become accessible much sooner however and would be good to have in case of the oddball elemental or construct that i did not expect. I have come to the conclusion that I really need to read the entire MIC. Wonderful stuff as I was looking for the bracers and crystals. The game is nothing without goodies at the end of the fight!

[Fouredged Sword]

Complete scoundrel is clear that all precision damage is transparent for the prerequisites of feats. PRC's are less clear if I remember right, but I think they are also transparent. You can qualify for ambush feats with sudden strike or even skirmish.

[Red Fel]

Complete scoundrel is clear that all precision damage is transparent for the prerequisites of feats. PRC's are less clear if I remember right, but I think they are also transparent. You can qualify for ambush feats with sudden strike or even skirmish.

Speaking of Skirmish, let's not forget the Scout/Ranger powerhouse that emerges from the Swift Hunter feat. Basically, if you choose as a Ranger Favored Enemy a creature type normally immune to precision damage (e.g. undead, constructs, etc.), your Skirmish damage can hit them anyway. Can't crit them, but you can basically hand-pick entire groups thanks to Favored Enemy.

And Scout/Ranger isn't a terrible idea in a stealth-type build, either.

[Andezzar]

Expedition to Castle Ravenloft has the Lightbringer Penetrating Strike ACF for rogues. With it you deal half your sneak attack damage to any immune creature that you flank.

Dungeonscape has a similar but inferior ACF. While it deal numerically the same damage to imune creatures while flanking, it does not say that this extra damage is sneak attack damage, so anything that activates on a sneak attack (like Ambush Feats) would not work.

[jjcrpntr]

Speaking of Skirmish, let's not forget the Scout/Ranger powerhouse that emerges from the Swift Hunter feat. Basically, if you choose as a Ranger Favored Enemy a creature type normally immune to precision damage (e.g. undead, constructs, etc.), your Skirmish damage can hit them anyway. Can't crit them, but you can basically hand-pick entire groups thanks to Favored Enemy.

And Scout/Ranger isn't a terrible idea in a stealth-type build, either.

ya beat me to it. This is a nice way to get around that stuff.

[Chronos]

I found the feat "enable criticals" for the fighter...
For future reference, you should completely ignore everything that you ever find on dandwiki (I assume that's where you found that, as it's the first Google hit). Most of that site is homebrew, and most of that is really poorly designed. Worse, many things on that site have the same name as official material, but work completely differently, and so can get you in a lot of trouble if your DM is using the official rules.

Also, if such a feat did exist, it would be just as available to you as it is to a fighter. You don't have bonus feats to spend on it, but there would be nothing stopping you from just taking it with one of your every-three-levels feats.

[ImaDeadMan]

Grab some wands of Golemstrike, Gravestrike, and Vinestrike to overcome the SA immunities of plants, undead, and golems

[Andezzar]

Also, if such a feat did exist, it would be just as available to you as it is to a fighter. You don't have bonus feats to spend on it, but there would be nothing stopping you from just taking it with one of your every-three-levels feats.Unless the feat has a certain number of Fighter levels as prerequisite like Weapon Specialization.

[Graypairofsocks]

Not sure about Sneak attacks(or sudden strikes) with it, but the Mace of Ruin (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/magicItems/weapons.htm#maceofRuin) can crit against Constructs and objects, and it also ignores DR and Hardness.

The thing is it is an Epic magic Item so it probably won't be useful in most games.


Truedeath Crystals out of the MIC (p. 66) are your friend against undead. If your DM doesn't block you, as the wording doesn't mention Sudden Strike.

Note that there are 3 levels* of the Truedeath Crystal(I think with all weapon crystals infact), and only the highest grants sneak attack against undead.

*The levels are referred to as something like: Least, Lesser, and Greater.

[iZgor]

Expedition to Castle Ravenloft has the Lightbringer Penetrating Strike ACF for rogues. With it you deal half your sneak attack damage to any immune creature that you flank.

Dungeonscape has a similar but inferior ACF. While it deal numerically the same damage to imune creatures while flanking, it does not say that this extra damage is sneak attack damage, so anything that activates on a sneak attack (like Ambush Feats) would not work.

Unfortunately "sudden strike", unlike sneak attack, is only activated when your foe is flat footed. So that one is out, although interesting.

[iZgor]

For future reference, you should completely ignore everything that you ever find on dandwiki (I assume that's where you found that, as it's the first Google hit). Most of that site is homebrew, and most of that is really poorly designed. Worse, many things on that site have the same name as official material, but work completely differently, and so can get you in a lot of trouble if your DM is using the official rules.

Also, if such a feat did exist, it would be just as available to you as it is to a fighter. You don't have bonus feats to spend on it, but there would be nothing stopping you from just taking it with one of your every-three-levels feats.

You are absolutely correct lol. I never only go there and accept it as fact. if I find something there, I immediately find out it's source book..... but most of the time you don't find one because it is garbage. Unfortunate that a resource like that has been allowed to turn into a massive pile of useless information that cant held anyone.

[iZgor]

Grab some wands of Golemstrike, Gravestrike, and Vinestrike to overcome the SA immunities of plants, undead, and golems

Unfortunately ninjas don't have UMD as a class skill, so I'm not sure how much I can invest in that. Only explanation I have for that is game balance. Ninjas to me are device users as far as the historical ninja is concerned.

[Andezzar]

Are you already set on the ninja class? Sudden Strike is strictly inferior to sneak attack and the class does not grant UMD as a class skill. You can probably create the Ninja feel without using the class.

There are edit buttons and multi-quote buttons so you do not have to create multiple posts in a row.

[iZgor]

Yes I'm set. I've got a name (Jidan), personality (distant and fearful of rejection) , race(githzerai), and backstory. He was banished from his monastery (in limbo) as a child for not conforming to the life in chosen for him and unwittingly aiding in a githyanki raid which resulted in the death of his family. After being sent to the shadow plane, he managed to live long enough to establish contact with an assassin named Shadel, who was also sent to the shadow plane for failing in a contract. This unlikely meeting was looked on as mutually beneficial for both. For jidan to survive he would need the Shadel and Shadel, after being alone for a long time was glad of the company. Unable to return to his home, when jidan finds a way to escape the plane he goes to the prime material plane and there the adventure truly begins!

In other words yea lol. I got the feel of him. Numbers are secondary for me. Once I feel the character it's game time!

[HammeredWharf]

It's nice you have a backstory, but nothing about it makes the Ninja class a necessity. You can use Rogue/Swordsage/Assassin and get a very ninja-like character, except that character willl actually be able to pull off ninja tricks. It's like making a samurai. You can use the crappy Samurai class and suck at almost everything or you can make a Fighter/Warblade, call him a samurai and get a solid, capable character. Thankfully, Ninja isn't as awful as Samurai, but it's still a bad class.

Numbers aren't everything, but when I'm building a character, I want him to be as deadly and competent mechanically as he is fluff wise.

[Andezzar]

I totally agree with HammeredWharf.

[iZgor]

I do agree that the ninja is very situational, but IMO his lack luster qualities are evened out by the sheer number of obtuse options he has available to him. Options like striking from the ethereal plane or stealing the dragons treasure without being seen heard of smelled. Options like standing right in front of your foe, going invisible, and getting a full round attack of "sudden strike" damage and still being invisible for another round after that. Reasonably good skill points and my AC is 24 at lv10 with no armor or magic items. Many of the class skills are lack luster though, I do agree, as well as the BAB in my opinion. I would play this class for the moments he does shine....... but I don't have to! I got the almighty DM aproval to play a psychic ninja. Heavily based off of the psychic rogue. I guess I just like options..... maybe I will change his name to Jack lol. Do not think I have discounted your opinions, I agree with them wholeheartedly, but the worst that can happen is that he will die "IN THE NAME OF GRAND ADVENTURE!" (......which will undoubtedly happen eventually. Nat 1 sneak check..... oh crap.)

[Sorc]

Truedeath Crystals out of the MIC (p. 66) are your friend against undead. If your DM doesn't block you, as the wording doesn't mention Sudden Strike.

In some book it said something like: "sudden strike, skirmish, and sneak attack are considered the same in most cases" I think

[DarkSonic1337]

Yes I'm set. I've got a name (Jidan), personality (distant and fearful of rejection) , race(githzerai), and backstory. He was banished from his monastery (in limbo) as a child for not conforming to the life in chosen for him and unwittingly aiding in a githyanki raid which resulted in the death of his family. After being sent to the shadow plane, he managed to live long enough to establish contact with an assassin named Shadel, who was also sent to the shadow plane for failing in a contract. This unlikely meeting was looked on as mutually beneficial for both. For jidan to survive he would need the Shadel and Shadel, after being alone for a long time was glad of the company. Unable to return to his home, when jidan finds a way to escape the plane he goes to the prime material plane and there the adventure truly begins!

In other words yea lol. I got the feel of him. Numbers are secondary for me. Once I feel the character it's game time!

I'm going to second the sentiment that you should not play the ninja class, but rather play a class or combination of classes that plays like a Ninja. I've always felt that classes are an out of game construct (as in, people in the world don't know that you took levels in Ninja, they just know that you sneak around, turn invisible, and strike opponent's vulnerable areas when they're not paying attention). A swordsage feels a lot more like a ninja to me, doing things like short range teleports, turning ethereal, walking on the walls/water/lava (and eventually walking on air 0-O), cool stuff like Ghost Blade (http://dndtools.eu/spells/tome-of-battle-the-book-of-nine-swords--88/ghost-blade--3693/) or Shadow Blade Technique (http://dndtools.eu/spells/tome-of-battle-the-book-of-nine-swords--88/shadow-blade-technique--3698/), choking people with shadows, ect. Grab a level of assassin for death attack and poison use and have fun.

<3 Swordsages.