Awesome Ninja abilities

[Jazath]

In d&d, how would i decide new feats relating with ki for a ninja? Could some abilities from Naruto be converted into feats and epic feats? If so could i have some examples?

[liquidformat]

leveraging the pf ninja tricks might be a good place to start, if you are going to homebrew anyways maybe see if you can use that version of ninja instead of the Complete Adventurer... I remember there was a naruto in 3.5 thread awhile ago but don't have time for google fu to hunt for it...

[Doctor Despair]

For a traditional ninja, giving a monk the Dark template, maybe allow Darkstalker as a bonus feat choice, and add skill ranks (or give them enough point buy for an 18 in intelligence for bonus skills, because we know monks need the help).

You want it to use a Ki system and be like Naruto tho? I suppose you could refluff Essentia and Soulmelds to be Chakra and Jutsu. Psionics could also lend themselves to that (power points = chakra, powers = jutsu)

[PrismCat21]

Psionics could also lend themselves to that (power points = chakra, powers = jutsu)

And psionic feats for basic Naruto abilities like running on walls and water, or extra speed :)

[liquidformat]

Honestly I think you could make pretty good Naruto style ninjas using one of the monk hybrid PRCs (Sacred fist, Enlightened Fist, Psionic Fist). Those combinations of unarmed combat and magic do a pretty good representation of a lot of the Naruto Characters.

[DMVerdandi]

In d&d, how would i decide new feats relating with ki for a ninja? Could some abilities from Naruto be converted into feats and epic feats? If so could i have some examples?

In 3.5. Psionics is simply the expansion of KI.



It depends on what kind of ninja you want. If you want a 1980's cannon fodder ninja, then you can just use the regular class.


If you want a Better ninja, Pick either the Lurk, or the Psionic rogue.

If you want the BEST ninja

Pick the Erudite from DRAGON [Realmshelps has the whole thing ]
Pick the Convert Spell to Power ACF
Pick the Chameleon Crafter feat from dragon
Pick extend power and persistent power feats


That's it.

Divine power is like ramping up your ki/chakra
Heroics is taijutsu that you remember on the fly
Summon monster/Nature's ally is Kuchiyose no jutsu

Then take assassin spells like
shadow double for Bunshin no jutsu
Just grab whatever fancies you, but don't forget each spell is going to cost XP. Same with powers.

Join a ninja clan with spellcasters that you can learn spells from [or get leadership if DM wants.]



There are so many spells in 3.5, that you can literally recreate any character with the erudite with that setup.
It's actually the best in 3.5 that isn't like Punpun.



319 stp Erudite is the most flexible class in the game, but that doesn't mean you have to break it. In fact, don't.
Think of it as a weaker 5e wizard with all the lists. It's supreme sure, but for practicality's sake, you are essentially just able to use any 36 powers in your repetoir.



In reality, play very close to the hilt as far as your identity goes. Use lots of illusion spells and generally lame spells that you wouldn't usually kind of invest in, now you can. You can use spells that increase your jump, you can use a ton of beguiler spells, but have like swim or something.


You might be driven to pick the most efficient spell as a sorcerer, but with this, Go pay for Snakebite and snake darts from one of the rangers and wu jen in your clan.
Now you have sen'ei Jashu [shadow snake hands].


You don't have to do wish loops or gate spam.
You can just pick the fun stuff and actually create a theme around your character based on the powers, instead of being limited by a specific list.

Hell, there is actually a wu jen spell called lightning blade that discharges into a line of lightning after using it as a sword.[Hello Raikiri]





3.5 has all the spells and powers that you need to EASILY make that, but this set up is the only one that can easily capitalize on it and still be coherent.








I know all of this because I have been sitting on an Obito Uchiha build for some time now.

[Jervis]

\
If you want the BEST ninja

Pick the Erudite from DRAGON [Realmshelps has the whole thing ]
Pick the Convert Spell to Power ACF
Pick the Chameleon Crafter feat from dragon
Pick extend power and persistent power feats


That's it.

Divine power is like ramping up your ki/chakra
Heroics is taijutsu that you remember on the fly
Summon monster/Nature's ally is Kuchiyose no jutsu

Forgive my smooth brain but how are you getting Divine Power onto a Erudite? I know of the Wyrm Wizard trick but is there a way that doesn't rely on buying it from a character who went into a weird PrC?

[TalonOfAnathrax]

Naruto ninjas are basically all wizards, with some of them being Gishes. Think about it : most fights aren't decided by throwing knives or punches, but by who has the best special attack. Which is exactly how fights between wizards go!
They cast Spider Climb and Expeditious Retreat when they need to move around, and in combat they use a few touch spells, a few illusions for defense, and then they finish things with summoned creatures or AoE damage.
It's basically a fight between squishy inaccurate wizards, but they RP the low BaB as "ninjas can dodge almost anything" and the low damage on their low-level spells (especially when the target has temp HP or energy resistance) as "ninjas are really tough!"

More seriously, just play Swordsage or something. That's a better ninja than the actual Ninja class!

[Hunter Noventa]

Echoing the Swordsage sentiment, but you could also grab the Qigong Monk stuff from Pathfinder, which lets you cast spells with Ki.

[CharonsHelper]

If you want to be a Naruto style ninja in a d20 game, just go find Naruto D20! http://narutod20.com/

I only played a half dozen sessions more than a decade ago, but I remember it working surprisingly well, and it does a great job of getting the right vibe. And it has probably the best downtime training system that I've ever seen, and combat is surprisingly dynamic (lots of running around). It is, however, built on top of the D20 Modern system rather than D&D, but it should still be a good place to start. Basically every character is a gish, using a skill-based magic system.

And if you were planning to do an entire homebrew Naruto game, I'd just play Naruto d20 rather than starting from scratch. The only two definite fixes I remember needing (though again - it's been over a decade, so they may have been fixed) are more D20 Modern fixes.

1. Lower the Fast Hero's defense by 1 point. (Even with that, it's still arguably the best base class.)

2. Make evasion lower damage to 1/4, but not eliminate damage. This is a balance thing as a result of evasion not being that great in D20 Modern, but there being lots of reflex saves in Naruto D20.

[DMVerdandi]

Forgive my smooth brain but how are you getting Divine Power onto a Erudite? I know of the Wyrm Wizard trick but is there a way that doesn't rely on buying it from a character who went into a weird PrC?

Honestly, the easiest method is hiring a sorcerer, then using psychic reformation on them and then arcane disciple. Absorb it right out of their heads.
You can get all domain spells that way.

[Jazath]

Well, It seems i got my work cut out for me, thank you for this insight and advice.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

Legendary Games made a hybrid of the Kineticist and Ninja called Kinetic Shinobi that might be worth checking out for elemental "totally not spells" and actual ninja features. Library of Metzofitz has a page for it.