Mearls Speaks of 4E

[Talisman]

Some people get free NPC levels; some don't. I...don't get it either.

Take note: the *cleric* got a free level (even 1 level behind, the cleric should have been awesome)

...While the *fighter/bard* and the *fighter/OotBI* did not.

Because, y'see fighters and bard are so much tougher than mere clerics.

[Maxus]

Ninja 11

Like a rogue but you pay dearly for looking cool

I took another look at the Ninja because of this.

It might do alright by making Sudden Strike just be Sneak Attack, giving out 1 or 2 (plus Wisdom) uses of Ki Power per level, and if you're really feeling frisky, give them Armored in Life.

[Voss]

Anybody know what this 'Legend of the Samurai' ninja version is like? At least, thats what the idiot says his player is using, so I have no idea what it can actually do. Apart from apparently fail to hide from things, and fail to disarm traps.

[K]

So I was looking around at the Warmage list, and I noticed that she could have saved everyone's lives against the Salamander if she had just cast Mass Fireshield.

Considering that she was doing 90% of the damage for the party, she may have run out of spells at that point, but it is interesting to note.

I also noted that she didn't use any Advanced Learning spells, which is pretty sad really . It would have been only three spells, but when those choices can be things like Resilient Sphere (also known as "save vs. shut the hell up while I kill this other guy.") or some the the more interesting spells from Sandstorm or Frostburn.

I'm also sad to see that she never used Evard's Black Tentacles, but with her party they probably would have run into the spell's effect.

[Koumei]

Anybody know what this 'Legend of the Samurai' ninja version is like? At least, thats what the idiot says his player is using, so I have no idea what it can actually do. Apart from apparently fail to hide from things, and fail to disarm traps.

Sounds like the Rokugan/"Legend of the Five Rings"/"Everyone is a Samurai" setting. The Ninja in that has:

Full BAB
4+Int skills
d6 HD
Good Will to all manki... er, I mean, a good Will save
Sneak Attack just like a Rogue.

Yeah, the BAB means they needn't pay for wands of "The Cleric spell that makes my BAB equal my level" for those extra flasks per round.

Proficiency: various "Ninja" weapons, including "I saw a Ninja Turtle us it", the katana. No armour. Using armour with any penalty negates some of their tricks.

A slowly scaling (+5 at 20th level) Dodge bonus to AC... as per the Dodge feat (yes, you seriously have to declare it ahead of time. You can split the bonus amongst targets)

Poison use and Uncanny Dodge (early on)
Int added to Initiative, and Con*5 added to base speed
Deflect Arrow
See in Darkness

As you can see, a lot of it is "No-one cares", and it lacks the Rogue special abilities and Evasion. But it has full BAB and Sneak Attack, and the speed-based abilities are nice. Over all, you could make it work just fine in a very similar way to the Rogue, but it's nothing special.

And Ninja aren't meant to be stealthy. I should know, I played Revenge of Shinobi (see: a ninja who wears white and red, and runs up to people to stab them in the face).

[ubernoob]

Isn't ninja quite literally short for a Japanese word that translates quite literally to "quiet person" or something like that?

[Psychic Robot]

No. "Ninja" is Wapanese for "slightly less awesome than a samurai dual-wielding katanas but still sweet because they use magic on my favorite animé."

[angelfromanotherpin]

Isn't ninja quite literally short for a Japanese word that translates quite literally to "quiet person" or something like that?

Etymology from the wikipedia

Ninja is the on'yomi reading of the two kanji 忍者 used to write shinobi-no-mono (忍の者), which is the native Japanese word for people who practice ninjutsu (忍術, sometimes erroneously transliterated as ninjitsu). The term shinobi (historically written with the Man'yōgana 志能備), has been traced as far back as the late 8th century when Heguri Uji no Iratsume wrote a poem to Ōtomo no Yakamochi. The underlying connotation of shinobi (忍) means "to steal away" and—by extension—"to forbear", hence its association with stealth and invisibility. Mono (者, likewise pronounced sha or ja) means a "person."

The word ninja became popular in the post-World War II culture. The nin of ninjutsu is the same as that in ninja, whereas jutsu (術) means skill or art, so ninjutsu means "the skill of going unperceived" or "the art of stealth"; hence, ninja and shinobi-no-mono (as well as shinobi) may be translated as "one skilled in the art of stealth." Similarly, the pre-war word ninjutsu-zukai means "one who uses the art of remaining unperceived."

No. "Ninja" is Wapanese for "slightly less awesome than a samurai dual-wielding katanas but still sweet because they use magic on my favorite animé."

Yeah, these days anyone who doesn't want fan-wank in their Nipponese spies should use the term shinobi, or even suppa.

[angelfromanotherpin]

Duplicate post.

[The 13 Wise Buttlords]

Yeah, these days anyone who doesn't want fan-wank in their Nipponese spies should use the term shinobi, or even suppa.

Oh, the irony.

[Roy]

...So they have 'Sarah' doing nothing but casting Magic Missile at the Darkness, which the others constantly bumble into? *stare*

[Bigode]

Unfortunately, it's even worse than Rokugan.

[Tydanosaurus]

...So they have 'Sarah' doing nothing but casting Magic Missile at the Darkness, which the others constantly bumble into? *stare*

Yeah, it looks like their strategy was, "Warmage casts MM. . . . . . That's it."

If only there was some, I dunno, spell or something that prevented fire damage. Some early, easily available spell that every Cleric took, as something to swap out for a heal or something if nothing else. Man, that would've been a cool feature.

[Roy]

I have to ask. Were names changed to protect privacy?

[Crissa]

And please stop with the damned 'you gain class X's at will attack as an encounter power' stuff. It's utterly worthless.

(smartass) Does that mean I get to us it at will during that encounter? (/smartass)

-Crissa

[RandomCasualty2]

Yeah, it looks like their strategy was, "Warmage casts MM. . . . . . That's it."

Some groups really do play that way. I played once with a 16th level wizard who would do stupid metamagic combos with magic missile like repeat and twinned magic missiles.

For whatever reason, there are people out there who think magic missile is the bee's knees because it automatically hits. And no matter what you tell them about it they always come back to you with "But it always hits!"

[Psychic Robot]

There are also people who think that magic missile is overpowered. I like to call these people "idiots."

[Username17]

True story: I was at GenCon a few years back and sitting in at a talk about writing D&D material by one of the WotC Freelance dudes. And he was going on about spell benchmarks and how if you wrote a first level spell that was more powerful than magic missile that was overpowered. Because magic missile was the benchmark of top power at that level.

I laughed so hard. DragonChild was like "Be quiet, you'll get us kicked out."

Really unsettled the guy. Seriously, magic fucking missile. 3.5 damage for a spell slot.

-Username17

[Psychic Robot]

I really should attend GenCon. I'm afraid of the unwashed masses, though.

What's the clean-to-dirty ratio?

[Koumei]

I used to be a MM-fan, when I began playing. I then discovered that ranged touch attacks always hit, "Save or Get Laughed At" is better, and there's still SR anyway. And, you know, 3.5 damage is not a level 1 ability, 7 damage certaily isn't a level3 ability and 17.5 damage is a joke at level 9.

Just a poorly told joke.

[JonSetanta]

I really should attend GenCon. I'm afraid of the unwashed masses, though.

What's the clean-to-dirty ratio?

That's 50% of the reason for my avoidance too.
The other half is cost.

[Absentminded_Wizard]

I never hung out at the convention center much at GenCon, so I can't tell you too much about it. Really, I'm not sure how much personal hygiene has to do with any smell you might notice, anyway. It's always in August and there are a bunch of people crammed into the building. Yeah, people sweat a lot. And it's worse if they have to go outside to go to the convention center (as opposed to using the Skywalk).

[Leress]

Unfortunately, it's even worse than Rokugan.

Okay I've finished reading that ninja and yes it is worse than the Rokugan one.

Here is what it would have at 11th level...
11d6 HD
BAB +8
Base Save +7/+7/+3
31 Class skills with 8+int skill points (no Diplomacy or UMD)
A good set of weapons and light armor proficiency
Unarmed strike for free
Silent Kill- which works just like sneak attack except it can't be done at range (+6d6 at 11th level)
Trap Finding
Shinobu-jutsu - add ninja level to climb, hide, move silently checks later it gains the ability to add the ninja level to the DC of anyone who tracks them.
Evasion
Endurance - at 4th level???
Ki abilities - These per day abilities (2/day at 11th level) You know a number of signs (4 at 11th level 9 total) that give you boosts you must be able to gesture to do it and they provoke AoOs
Rin - +4 strength for 1 min/ninja level
Kyo - invisible for 1 min/ninja level
Toh - walk on water for 10min/ level
Sha - heal 3d8 + 1/ninja level by touch (3d8+11 at 11th)
(Now you only have 2 uses of Ki per day at this level)

Shichi-ho-de - add ninja level to Disguise and can put on Disguise in 1 minute
Goton-no-jutsu - Hide in plain sight
Chunin - Like leader ship except you don't get a cohort and all the followers are made of only ninja levels or you can choose to take a bonus feat instead.
You also gain a bonus to movement (+20 by 11th level)


So..yeah it is not really that great since it seems to be more geared to low magic type power level.

[Koumei]

Rin - +4 strength for 1 min/ninja level
Kyo - invisible for 1 min/ninja level
Toh - walk on water for 10min/ level
Sha - heal 3d8 + 1/ninja level by touch (3d8+11 at 11th)

Are the other five "Kai, Jin, Retsu, Sai, Zen"?

The first four make me think it would be. Because as we know, Shinto and Ninja go hand in hand (by dint of both being Japanese).

[Leress]

@Koumei: Yes