4E Ninja

[DiscipleofBob]

After trying to figure out how to effectively recreate my good ol' ninja character from 3.5, and trying to find a starting point to check out homebrewing for 4th Edition, I've decided my first project to be the ninja. Now, while races, monsters, and equipment has been relatively easy for me so far, homebrewing classes is a bit of a challenge, mostly due to how many friggin powers each class has. I've only gotten At-Wills down now, so I'm more than open to suggestions.

NINJA

Role: Striker, the Ninja specializes in dealing damage and taking down the target as quickly as possible. When an immediate kill isn't possible, the ninja utilizes shadow, illusion, and acrobatic stunts that defy physics to keep the element of surprise.
Power Source: Ki and Shadow. Ninjas train to master the limits of their own body by recognizing the flow of ki, and use it to manipulate the shadows to keep their form concealed.
"Ki" Abilities: Dexterity, Wisdom, and Strength.
((Horrible pun completely intended.))

Armor Proficiencies: Cloth
Weapon Proficiencies: Simple Melee, Simple Ranged, Ninjato*, Katar, Spiked Chain, Simple Melee, Military Melee, Shuriken, Unarmed Strike

Hit Points at 1st Level: 12+Constitution score
Hit Points per Level Gained: 5
Healing Surges per Day: 6 + Constitution modifier

Trained Skills: Acrobatics and Stealth. From the class skills below, choose four more trained skills at 1st level.
Class Skills: Acrobatics (Dex), Athletics (Str), Bluff (Cha), Dungeoneering (Wis), Endurance (Con), Heal (Wis), Insight (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Perception (Wis), Stealth (Dex), Streetwise (Cha), Thievery (Dex)

Suggested Builds: Acrobatic Ninja, Shadow Ninja

Class Features:

Ambush Strike: At the start of an encounter, the ninja is considered hidden and gains combat advantage against anyone who is not or has not specifically attacked him. For example, if the party's negotiations with the bandits run south and the bandits attack the paladin, but not the ninja, the ninja takes advantage of the situation and is considered hidden and gains combat advantage. If some of the bandits attack or are about to attack the ninja, the ninja does not gain concealment or combat advantage. However, if the ninja was say speaking with the noble he is sent to kill, and suddenly whips out a dagger and attacks the noble, he is considered to have taken caught the noble unaware and gains the benefits of being hidden and gaining combat advantage.

Sudden Strike: As the rogue's Sneak Attack feature, except the Ninja only gains the bonus damage when he has concealment. Combat advantage does not factor into the ninja's abilities as far as Sudden Strike is concerned.

Hidden Weapon Talent: Any concealed weapon that the ninja draws, such as a dagger or shuriken, increases its damage die by one step during the turn it is drawn.

In addition, the ninja must choose between one of the following class features:

Ki Dodge: The ninja is someone who has studied and mastered his own body beyond normal limits. He has studied the best way to dodge an attack, roll with the punch, etc. Add the ninja's Wisdom modifier as well as the ninja's Dexterity modifier to the ninja's AC as long as he is wearing cloth armor.

Shadow Form: When the ninja moves, he instinctively manipulates the shadows around him to better hide his form. When the ninja takes a double move action, he gains concealment until the end of his next turn.

[DiscipleofBob]

At-Will Powers:
((note: I'm not sure if it's ruled this way in the book, but for the purposes of writing these an unarmed strike is considered a Melee weapon for the purposes of the powers below.))


Feint Strike
You attack your enemy with a misleading attack, ready to deliver a hidden, more efficient blow when your enemy parries or dodges your first attack.
At-Will Ki, Weapon
Standard Action, Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Dexterity modifier damage.
Miss: Make a secondary attack against the same target
Secondary Attack: Dexterity + 2 vs. AC
Secondary Hit: 1[W] + Dexterity modifier damage.
Special: The secondary attack may not be made with the same weapon as the first attack. It may be made with an unarmed strike or an off-hand weapon, for example, instead of the main hand weapon.
Increase damage to 2[W] + Dexterity modifier for both attacks at 21st level.

Puncturing Strike:
You focus your ki to hit a normally unreachable vital spot.
At-Will Ki, Weapon
Standard Action, Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Wisdom vs. Fortitude
Damage: 1[W] + Wisdom modifier damage.

Shadow Strike:
You wreathe your attack in shadow energy drawn in by your ki.
At-Will Shadow, Weapon
Standard Action, Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Wisdom vs. AC
Damage: 1[W] + Wisdom modifier damage.
Miss: You gain concealment until the end of your next turn.

Vanishing Strike:
You make a quick strike and vanish in a puff of smoke only to reappear some distance away.
At-Will Ki, Weapon
Standard Action, Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Damage: 1[W] + Dexterity modifier damage.
Special: You may teleport up to 3 squares after the attack as a move action.


Encounter 1

Distracting Feint
You strike your enemy in his face and take advantage of his momentary disorientation, causing him to think you've vanished when you've merely escaped his field of vision for the moment.
Encounter Ki, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Dexterity modifier damage, and you are invisible to the target until the end of your next turn.
Special: You may shift up to 2 squares after the attack.

Leap Kick
In a display of martial prowess, you suddenly leap in the air with a roundhouse kick catching every enemy around you.
Encounter Ki, Unarmed
Standard Action Close burst 1
Target: Each enemy of your size category or larger you can see.
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 2d4 + Dexterity modifier damage.

Spider Strike
Whether it is from actual poison or simply a manipulation of the target's life energy, your target feels the extra effect from your strike.
Encounter Ki, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Wisdom vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Wisdom modifier poison damage.
Effect: On your enemies next turn, they take poison damage equal to half your level plus your Wisdom modifier.

Winding Strike
A solid blow to the gut temporarily paralyzes the foe's stomach muscles and leaves him winded for a short time.
Encounter Ki, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Dexterity modifier damage, and the target is stunned until the end of your next turn.


Daily 1

Debilitating Strike
You strike a particular nerve which renders your foe more susceptible to pain for a short time.
Daily Ki, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Wisdom vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Wisdom modifier damage, and all attacks against the target do extra damage equal to your Wisdom modifier (save ends).

Festering Shadow Wound
What appears to be a normal wound becomes more painful and persistent than usual due to dark shadows festering around the wound.
Daily Shadow, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Wisdom vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Wisdom modifier damage, and the target takes ongoing 5 damage (save ends).

Ghost Strike
Not even the ethereal can escape your attack.
Daily Shadow, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Wisdom vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Wisdom modifier damage.
Effect: You become insubstantial until the beginning of your next turn.
Special: Insubstantial targets take full damage from this attack.

Monkey Switch Manuever
A confusing, acrobatic strike in which you switch places with your opponent.
Daily Ki, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Wisdom modifier damage.
Special: You may choose to switch places with your target.


Utility 2

Art of Substitution
The attack against you that seemingly connects instead hits an illusion.
Encounter Ki
Immediate Interrupt Personal
Trigger: You would be hit by a melee or ranged attack (before damage is rolled).
Effect: The attack misses. Teleport up to 6 squares away.

Shadow Doppelganger
You create an illusory clone of yourself that is near indistinguishable from you. When your doppelganger is hit, it vanishes in a puff of smoke.
Daily Ki
Minor Personal
Effect: You create an illusory clone of you. The clone looks and sounds exactly like you, and you can control its movements. It uses your stats except it cannot inflict damage or other effects of attacks on a target, and it disappears as soon as it takes damage. When you take a move action, your clone may take a free move action that you control. The doppelganger lasts until the end of your next turn or until it is destroyed.

Fleeting Ghost
(As the Rogue power of the same name.)

Great Leap
(As the Rogue power of the same name.)


Encounter 3

Blinding Strike
An attack to your opponent's exposed eyes leaves them blinded for a small while.
Encounter Ki, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Dexterity modifier damage, and the target is blinded (save ends)

Chi Strike
You force your chi into a solid form and attack your opponent from a distance.
Encounter Ki, Weapon
Standard Action Ranged 5
Attack: Wisdom vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Wisdom modifier damage.

Lunging Strike
As you charge toward your enemy, you leap into the air and bring your weapon down upon him.
Encounter Ki, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Special: You must charge as part of this attack.
Hit: 2[W] + Dexterity modifier damage.

Turnaround Strike
When your opponent attacks you, you quickly dodge the attack and retaliate with a quick strike.
Encounter Ki, Weapon
Immediate Interrupt Melee weapon
Trigger: You get attacked
Effect: The attack automatically misses and make an attack on the target
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Dexterity modifier damage.


Daily 5

Ki Sap
Your manipulation of your own life energy allows you to control and absorb a small portion of your victim's.
Daily Shadow, weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Attack: Wisdom vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Wisdom modifier necrotic damage. You gain temporary hit points equal to half the damage you deal.

Ninja Combo
You commit a series of consecutive strikes on your opponent.
Daily Ki, weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Dexterity modifier damage, and make a secondary attack.
Secondary Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Secondary Hit: 1[W] + Dexterity modifier damage, and make a tertiary attack.
Tertiary Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Tertiary Hit: 2[W] + Dexterity modifier damage.


Utility 6

Ghost Step
With a quick gesture to focus your ki, you suddenly vanish from view.
Daily Ki
Standard Action Personal
Prerequisite: You must be trained in Stealth.
Effect: You become invisible for 5 minutes. The invisibility ends when you take damage or when you declare an attack (you lose the invisibility before rolling the attack or damage dice, so you do not get to add your sudden strike damage unless you would get it from other means).

Invisible Edge
You focus your ki, and suddenly your image becomes blurry and distorted to your opponent.
Encounter Ki
Standard Action Personal
Effect: You gain a +2 bonus to all defenses and concealment until the end of your next turn.


Encounter 7

Daily 9

Utility 10

[DiscipleofBob]

This post is reserved for the ninja's Paragon Paths which currently include:

Acrobat Fighter: A mastery of death-defying daredevil stunts that defy logic and make scaling any obstacle a breese, as well as confuse enemies.

Shadow Master: A true master of the art of manipulating shadow energy, the Shadow Master can do anything from using solid shadows as weapons to teleporting through shadows.

Chakra Wielder: A ninja who has mastered the art of ki so perfectly, he can harness his very life force and use it as an invisible weapon.

Nightstalker: A Nightstalker is an invisible, inaudible assassin who takes it upon his own honor to never get caught and keep his name unknown.

[DiscipleofBob]

This post will be reserved for other information, such as feats and items.

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

Just a quick thought...Vanishing Strike is probably overpowered. If there's a wall of defenders between you and your foe, you can run through them each round, then teleport back to safety. Every round.

Just something to consider. It looks more like an encounter power to me.

[DiscipleofBob]

Hm... should I lower it to teleport 3? I figured the Defender would just charge forward unless he's trying to hold a bottleneck or something, in which case, it'd be a great way to lure the Defender out.

EDITS: I was looking through the At-Wills and noticed one of the Ranger's that basically does what I'm going for, but I see what the problem is here...

[KillianHawkeye]

Feint Strike:

Remove the line "Special: The target's AC is lowered by 2 for this attack."

Change the line above it to "Secondary Attack: Dexterity +2 vs. AC"

That's more in line with how stuff is written in the book. Seems a little overpowered to me, though. I mean, there's a Fighter at-will that is Str+2 vs. AC and only does [W] damage (without Str mod, and only one shot at making the attack). I'm not as familiar with Striker powers yet, however, so maybe it's okay.

[DiscipleofBob]

Fixed. Yea, it did seem a tad above the cut when comparing it to others. Homebrewing classes is hard. Even the most subtle details make a world of difference in the end. I fixed the wording and added a disclaimer that the secondary attack had to be made with a different weapon, such as an off-hand weapon or an unarmed strike.

I also added "as a move action" to Vanishing Strike. Hopefully that makes it less broken than before, but if it persists, I might change it to an encounter power and think of a different At-Will.

[Ceiling009]

Did you want your ninja to use unarmed strikes? If you did, I'd seriously include the guidelines mentioned in Wotc's converting your character part 1... Also, I think adding wisdom bonus to AC, even if just restricted to cloth armor, means that with a 20's in dex and wis, that's 10 + 15 + 2 + 6 = 33 at level 30. You gotta see how the other only cloth wearing classes deal with that. I think it's only the Wizard and the maybe the Warlock you'll have to see the math about.
I think a static bonus of maybe +2 then +4 at level 21 means that it's really good regardless.

[Ceiling009]

I think you should give them unarmed strike proficiency, basically it's a d8 and has the off hand property, and you have a +3 proficiency with it. Look at the converting your character 1 article from wizards. There are some other things too...

Err double post sort of.

[DiscipleofBob]

Hm... is that ridiculously high for characters at level 30? I want the class to be exceptionally hard to hit for a good reason.

EDIT: I just noticed you forgot the base 10, so that's really an AC of 43, and that seems on the high-but-manageable side to me, though I may be mistaken.

As for the unarmed strike, I'll edit in the proficiency, but I don't want it to do a d8. Otherwise, there'd practically be no reason for daggers and shuriken other than ranged attacks.

Oh, level 1 Encounters and Dailies up.

[Siosilvar]

As seen in another thread, the absolute maximum AC at 30th level is 50 ± 1, so 43 is probably okay.

[Goober4473]

Ninjas should probably be ki power source only. Shadow is like, necromancy, and shadowcaster stuff. Dark magics, not just being sneaky.

The armor bonus should probably be a flat +2, brining them to the equivalent of a striker in hide armor, but with no check penalty. Any more, and you're giving them heavy armor without heavy armor.

[mikeejimbo]

Should Leap Attack really have the Weapon descriptor? If it does, it means you can add the weapon's enhancement bonus, but from the flavor text it doesn't seem like you're using the weapon.

Other than that, I'm liking it so far. Keep it up. :smallsmile:

[DiscipleofBob]

As seen in another thread, the absolute maximum AC at 30th level is 50 ± 1, so 43 is probably okay.

Okay, good to have a basis for comparison.


Ninjas should probably be ki power source only. Shadow is like, necromancy, and shadowcaster stuff. Dark magics, not just being sneaky.

The armor bonus should probably be a flat +2, brining them to the equivalent of a striker in hide armor, but with no check penalty. Any more, and you're giving them heavy armor without heavy armor.

Hm... I wanted the weird shadow-energy type stuff to justify some of the ninja's other abilities. I dunno, I might decide to change it once I see some actual published stuff regarding the Shadow power source.

Well, I'd like it to scale a little bit. The maximum AC seems to be manageable so far. Would making it half the Wisdom mod be better?


Should Leap Attack really have the Weapon descriptor? If it does, it means you can add the weapon's enhancement bonus, but from the flavor text it doesn't seem like you're using the weapon.

Other than that, I'm liking it so far. Keep it up.

Good point, I'll just change the keyword for that, and thanks for the encouragement.


I'll most likely be publishing one level of powers at a time, that seems to be the best way to see stuff scale.

EDIT: Utility 2 powers are up

[DiscipleofBob]

Added some new powers.

If anyone has suggestions for powers this class should have, I'm encouraging suggestions right now.

[Asbestos]

I think Shadow Form could use some work. As is, my options for gaining shadow form are double shifting, effectively moving 2 squares, or moving up to 12 (or 14 if you're an elf) squares. Maybe something like... "if the ninja moves at least 5 squares they gain concealment until the end of their next turn" ? Its a larger distance than what Warlocks have to move to get concealment, but its a little more dangerous than just shifting two squares. Unless you want your ninja to be more shifty than movey.

[Alteran]

As seen in another thread, the absolute maximum AC at 30th level is 50 ± 1, so 43 is probably okay.

Let's work it out.

Ninja

10 (base) +
15 (half level) +
2 (starweave armour) +
8 (26 dexterity) +
6 (22 wisdom) +
6 (+6 armour) =
47 AC

Ranger
10 (base) +
15 (half level) +
5 (elderhide armour) +
1 (armour spec. hide) +
8 (26 dexterity) +
6 (+6 armour) =
45 AC, or possibly 41-43 for a two weapon fighting ranger (lower dexterity).

Rogue
10 (base) +
15 (half level) +
4 (starleather armour) +
8 (26 dexterity) +
6 (+6 armour) =
43 AC

Warlock
10 (base) +
15 (half level) +
4 (starleather armour) +
6 (22 intelligence) +
6 (+6 armour) =
41 AC

So yes, the Ninja's AC will be significantly higher than most strikers. For the sake of comparison, a Fighter:

Fighter
10 (base) +
15 (half level) +
13 (elderscale armour) +
1 (armour spec. scale) +
6 (+6 armour) =
45 AC

So unless I missed something, a Ninja will have higher AC than a fighter, albeit not one optimized for AC scores. This is probably too much. It think a static bonus would be better, as some people have suggested. +2 at heroic, +3 at paragon, and +4 at epic should be fair, although you would still have to consider that the ninja will have much higher AC than most strikers.

[Yakk]

Add the ninja's Wisdom modifier as well as the ninja's Dexterity modifier to the ninja's AC as long as he is wearing cloth armor.
No, this isn't allowed in 4e. You don't get to add two stat-scaling stats to AC.

All you are giving up is 3 to 4 AC. Adding half your Wisdom to AC is relatively poor.

The +2 at Heroic, +3 at Paragon, +4 at Epic isn't a bad solution. I'd add in "+Wisdom to Reflex against attacks by anyone the Ninja has attacked since the start of the Ninja's last round, for some flavor!


Shadow Form: When the ninja moves, he instinctively manipulates the shadows around him to better hide his form. When the ninja takes a double move action, he gains concealment until the end of his next turn.

Instead, try copy/pasting the Warlock ability. If you are at least 3 squares from where you where at the start of your most recent turn, you have concealment.

...

Have you thought about what weapons the Ninja should be allowed to/encouraged to use?

...


Miss: You gain concealment until the end of your next turn.

Make that hit?


Special: You may teleport up to 3 squares after the attack as a move action.

Also make that hit only. :-)