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View Full Version : The Sublime Shinobi Class[PEACH]



DeadPlatypus
2008-01-25, 04:55 PM
Adventures: Shinobi sometimes learn their art for a lord, and those that do often go on assassination missions for their lord. Others, such as mercenary shinobi, will adventure for nothing more than treasure and fame, while others will adventure for the greater good.

Alignment: Shinobi can be of any alignment, but their alignment often decide what kind of adventures they have. A lawful Shinobi could do their lord's bidding while a chaotic Shinobi might strike down important figures. Many Shinobi, however, follow their own beliefs rather than those of a lord they may have.

Religion: Shinobi don't worship deities more often than other classes, with some neutral Shinobi worshiping Olidammara, while evil Shinobi could worship Nerull. Which deity they worship, if any at all, is decided by the individual Shinobi themselves.

Races: Though any race can be a Shinobi, races that do not prefer all out fighting take this class more often that those that don't.

Role: Shinobi fight best when they can get in the first strike, or if their opponent does not know they're there. In a group, however, Shinobi often take the role of a secondary melee class.


Game Rule Information

Alignment: Any.
Hit Die: d8
Starting Gold: 4d4x10 gp

Class Skills
The Shinobi’s class skills are Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Disguise, Escape Artist, Gather Information, Hide, Jump, Knowledge (local), Listen, Martial Lore, Move Silently, Perform, Ride, Sense Motive, Spot, Survival, Swim, Tumble, Use Rope.

Skill Points at 1st Level: 6 + Int modifier x 4
Skill Points at each additional Level: 6 + Int modifier

Table 1: The Sublime Shinobi

Base Fort Ref Will Maneuvers Stances
Level Attack Bonus Save Save Save Special Known/Readied Known
1st +0 +0 +2 +2 Ki Power, Sudden Strike +1d6 5/4 1
2nd +1 +0 +3 +3 AC bonus, Quick to Act +1 5/4 1
3rd +2 +1 +3 +3 Ghost Step(Invisible) 6/4 1
4th +3 +1 +4 +4 Sudden Strike +2d6 7/5 2
5th +3 +1 +4 +4 -- 7/5 2
6th +4 +2 +5 +5 -- 8/5 2
7th +5 +2 +5 +5 Sudden Strike +3d6 9/6 3
8th +6/+1 +2 +6 +6 Quick to Act +2, Ki Dodge 9/6 3
9th +6/+1 +3 +6 +6 Evasion 10/6 3
10th +7/+2 +3 +7 +7 Sudden Strike +4d6 11/7 4
11th +8/+3 +3 +7 +7 -- 11/7 4
12th +9/+4 +4 +8 +8 Ghost Step(Ethereal) 12/7 4
13th +9/+4 +4 +8 +8 Sudden Strike +5d6 13/8 5
14th +10/+5 +4 +9 +9 Quick to Act +3 13/8 5
15th +11/+6/+1 +5 +9 +9 -- 14/8 5
16th +12/+7/+2 +5 +10 +10 Sudden Strike +6d6 15/9 6
17th +12/+7/+2 +5 +10 +10 Improved Evasion 15/9 6
18th +13/+8/+3 +6 +11 +11 -- 16/9 6
19th +14/+9/+4 +6 +11 +11 Sudden Strike +7d6 17/10 6
20th +15/+10/+5 +6 +12 +12 Quick to Act +4, Stance Mastery 17/10 7
Shinobi are not a combat class, preferring to sneak up on the enemy and finish them off quickly. If it comes to it, however, they can last long enough in combat to finish the opponent off.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: As a Shinobi, you are proficient with all simple weapons, as well as the rapier, short sword, shortbow, and kata (monk weapons). You are also proficient with light armor, but not with shields.

Maneuvers: You begin your career with knowledge of five martial maneuvers. The disciplines available to you are Diamond Mind, Setting Sun, and Shadow Hand.

Once you know a maneuver, you must ready it before you can use it (see Maneuvers Readied, below). A maneuver usable by Shinobi is considered an extraordinary ability unless otherwise noted in its description. Your maneuvers are not affected by spell resistance, and you do not provoke attacks of opportunity when you initiate one.

You learn additional maneuvers at higher levels, as shown on Table 1: The Shinobi. You must meet a maneuver’s prerequisite to learn it. See Table 3-1 on page 39 of Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords to determine the highest-level maneuvers you can learn.

Upon reaching 4th level and at every even-numbered Shinobi level after that (6th, 8th, 10th, and so on), you can choose to learn a new maneuver in place of one you already know. In effect, you lose the old maneuver in exchange for the new one. You can choose a new maneuver of any level you like, as long you observe your restriction on the highest-level maneuvers you know; you need not replace the old maneuver with a maneuver of the same level. For example, upon reaching 10th level, you could trade in a single 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd-, or 4th-level maneuver for a maneuver of 5th level or lower, as long as you meet the prerequisite of the new maneuver. You can swap only a single maneuver at any given level.

Maneuvers Readied: You can ready four of your five maneuvers known at 1st level, and as you advance in level and learn more maneuvers, you are able to ready more, but you must still choose which maneuvers to ready. You ready your maneuvers by training for 5 minutes. The maneuvers you choose remain readied until you decide to train again and change them. You need not sleep or rest for any long period of time to ready your maneuvers; any time you spend 5 minutes in training, you can change your readied maneuvers.

You begin an encounter with all your readied maneuvers unexpended, regardless of how many times you might have already used them since you chose them. When you initiate a maneuver, you expend it for the current encounter, so each of your readied maneuvers can be used once per encounter (until you recover them, as described below).

As a Shinobi, you can refresh up to your Wisdom modifier in expended maneuvers by using a move-equivalent action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity and by expending one daily use of your ki power. You cannot refresh maneuvers on the same round you expended them.

Stances Known: You begin play with knowledge of one 1st-level stance from any discipline open to Shinobi. At 4th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, and 17th level, you can choose additional stances. Unlike maneuvers, stances are not expended, and you do not have to ready them. All the stances you know are available to you at all times, and you can change the stance you currently use as a swift action. A stance is an extraordinary ability unless otherwise stated in the stance description.

Unlike with maneuvers, you cannot learn a new stance at higher levels in place of one you already know.

Ki Power(Su): You can channel your ki to manifest special powers of stealth and mobility. You can use your ki powers a number of times per day equal to one-half your class level (minimum 1) plus your Wisdom bonus(if any). Ki powers can be used only you are wearing light or no armor and are unencumbered. Your ki powers are ghost step, ki dodge, and stance mastery.

Sudden Strike(Ex): At 1st level and every 3 levels afterwards(4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19) an Shinobi gains +1d6 to her sudden strike damage. It works exactly as the ninja ability of the same name.

AC Bonus(Ex): You can add your Wisdom modifier as a bonus to Armor Class, so long as you wear light or no armor, are unencumbered, and do not use a shield. This bonus to AC applies even against touch attacks or when you are flat-footed. However, you lose this bonus when you are immobilized or helpless.

Quick to Act(Ex): You gain a +1 bonus on initiative checks. This bonus increases by 1 at 8th, 14th, and 20th level.

Ghost Step(Su): Starting at 3rd level, during your turn, you can spend one daily use of your ki power to become invisible for 1 round. Using this ability is a free action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. At 12th level, you can become ethereal when using ghost step instead of becoming invisible.

Ki Dodge(Su): At 8th level and higher, you can spend one daily use of your ki power to cause an attack against you to miss when it might otherwise hit. When you activate this ability, your outline shifts and wavers, granting you concealment (20% miss chance) against all attacks for 1 round. Using this ability is a free action that provokes no attacks of opportunities and is usable only during your turn.

Evasion(Ex): As the rogue ability of the same name.

Improved Evasion(Ex): As the rogue special ability of the same name.

Stance Mastery(Ex): At 20th level, the Shinobi gains the ability to gain the benefit of two stances at once. By spending three daily uses of your ki power, you can use a swift action to enter a new stance without losing the benefit of your current stance. This lasts 1 minute, at which point you choose which of the two stances you will keep and lose the benefit of the other.

Demented
2008-01-25, 06:49 PM
I read the title and figured that a "Slime Shinobi" class would be awesome. /random

Kai-Palin
2008-01-26, 01:00 PM
This is a really well thought out combination, it seems balanced to me.
Two thoughts:
1. The recovery method for maneuvers is rather odd. The Shinobi kind of becomes a one-trick pony when he or she can't restore more than one maneuver in a round. Maybe the shinobi restores 1 expended maneuver/2 levels, minimum one, when he or she spends a full round action meditating?
2. The weapon proficiencies are a little strange. So the Shinobi can use any and all light weapons I can find, simple to exotic? It might make more sense to have proficiency with simple weapons and kata (monk weapons), that would, I believe, allow the Shinobi use of things like throwing stars and a kama.

DeadPlatypus
2008-01-27, 08:41 AM
I initially intended them to gain the ability to recover maneuvers well at 5th level, but that doesn't seem like a good idea. The light weapons part was a mistake, fixed it. I have dead levels at level 5 and level 11(the others gain maneuvers). Does anyone think I can grant them some non-combat abilities?
Thanks for the feedback.

DeadPlatypus
2008-01-29, 09:36 AM
What they lose(compared to the Ninja):
AC Bonus
Full Sudden Strike Progression
Trapfinding
Ghost Step comes later
Poison Use
Great Leap
Acrobatics
Ki Dodge comes later
Speed Climb
Ghost Strike
Improved Poison Use
Ghost Mind
Bonus to Will saves based on ki points
Ghost Sight
Greater Ki Dodge
Ghost Walk
What they gain:
AC Bonus in light armor
Quick to Act(weaker than the Swordsage)
Evasion comes earlies
Improved Evasion
Stance Mastery level 20 ability
Maneuvers(between Swordsage and Warblade. Recovery method in between as well)
Stances(better than the Swordsage[sounds fitting but a bit unsure about the balance])
Good Will Save.

An idea I have is to make them even more ki based, like giving them the ability to get Mettle as an immediate action but expending ki points for it. Or I could make it so all their abilities require ki points to use, and raise the amount given to class level + Wisdom modifier. Other abilities could be something like decreasing the initiation time of certain maneuvers, or bonuses to saves.