thinkin about ninjas

Been thinking about Ninjas lately, seems people tend to go for the combat ninja style, or the stealth assassination ninja style, of course there is overlap, but I think it would be cool to have the ninja choose one of two paths.

In the combat path the Ninja would be just like a ninja is now, except it would get doublesheath and a toned down version of shadow arts, a more powerful push for those larger opponents, it would also get a few more dusts and smokes, maybe a dust for faerie fire, or a plague smoke or something, and shurikens that have a chance to cause bloodloss. As a penalty they would have a gimped study which would take them a long time to get a person soul marked, and would really need all circumstances in their favor to make an assassination happen.

The stealth Ninja would lose third attack and pugil, not have throw, doublesheath, caltraps, grapple, nerve pinch, push or shadow arts, and only have a basic blindness dust. What they would gain is autosneak, falcon eye, a death kiss with say 1/4 chance of working, and the ability to hide in all places thieves and rangers can hide or camouflage. They wouldnt get detect camo mind you, but a stealthy ninja would have no problem, hiding in the woods.

And no one would ever make the latter, when they could just own hard with the combat one. I like the push for variation, but I think "Expertise" and "Mastery" and "Lore" fit better than Cleric-->Healer/Shaman style. It also takes a lot less work for the IMPs.

Perhaps Stealth Focus, Martial Focus, and Spirit Focus. The first gets advanced hiding, sneaking, and study/assassinate functions. The second gets a boost to fighting, such as dual parry and a few more dusts (as you said), with a better variety of thrown weapons (possibly tailored to opponents). The third would get more spells with more varied effects, as well perhaps some Chii-based stuff akin to Monks.

So, at rank 20, they pick Spirit Focus, get a few basics retro-added to practice, then at 25, they get 2 choices in their Spirit Expterise, then 1 choice for Spirit Mastery, with a Ninjutsu ability at ~40 that is based on their paths taken thus far. That would give diversity to a class that has been pretty stagnant.

Been thinking about Ninjas lately, seems people tend to go for the combat ninja style, or the stealth assassination ninja style, of course there is overlap, but I think it would be cool to have the ninja choose one of two paths.

In the combat path the Ninja would be just like a ninja is now, except it would get doublesheath and a toned down version of shadow arts, a more powerful push for those larger opponents, it would also get a few more dusts and smokes, maybe a dust for faerie fire, or a plague smoke or something, and shurikens that have a chance to cause bloodloss. As a penalty they would have a gimped study which would take them a long time to get a person soul marked, and would really need all circumstances in their favor to make an assassination happen.

The stealth Ninja would lose third attack and pugil, not have throw, doublesheath, caltraps, grapple, nerve pinch, push or shadow arts, and only have a basic blindness dust. What they would gain is autosneak, falcon eye, a death kiss with say 1/4 chance of working, and the ability to hide in all places thieves and rangers can hide or camouflage. They wouldnt get detect camo mind you, but a stealthy ninja would have no problem, hiding in the woods.

Having played a few ninjas, I gotta agree that alot of them seem to go a more melee style rather than the ideal assassination, with a couple that do a little bit of both. This seems like a neato idea

Ninjas? You never played any good ninjas, shut up. <3

Didn't say I played any good ones, I just played a few. A couple assassinates on people I found out were linkdead, a few pks, about 100 pdeaths combined, did I mention I rage delete all of them? Yeah...moving on...

Yeah, nothing wrong with dial-up. Except 28.8 connection...and dropping all the time...I'm on cable or dsl or some crap now heh, thank you Portland. Did I remember to warn everyone to stay the **** away from southern oregon? They don't even really have guinness down there.

Did you mention all of this via dial-up? lol

Rather than paths, make a bunch of selectables.

Like, at one rank, you pick super hide or a hybrid of dusts.

Lots of those. I think it would work better, personalized characters.

I'd give a big HECK NO to super hide. At least now if you know a ninja is stalking you, you can go chill in the forest for a decent chance of taking him out.

I'd give a big HECK NO to super hide. At least now if you know a ninja is stalking you' date=' you can go chill in the forest for a decent chance of taking him out.[/quote']

Agreed. These super ninjas would have no threats beyond other rogues/vamps. I do NOT like that idea at all. Personally, I feel that ninjas are fine as is, though I've always been rooting for a return to the 1.0 assassinate-or-die feel of ninjas.

I think ninjas are 100% fine as is. If you gave a ninja hide anywhere, you would effectively cause everyone at pinn to spam where pk/who pk/where/scan ten times more than now, and noone would ever not be poisoned lol. I think making them more combat oriented would make them a pseudo warrior, and more stealthy would be an assassinating, blinding, poisoning, assassinating person that you would never learn their name.

would be an assassinating' date=' blinding, poisoning, assassinating person that you would never learn their name.[/quote']

I'm on the same page, but fail to see why its a bad thing, hah...

Ninja's are some tough cookies. I like the idea "E" but we know its not gonna happen. Super hide scares me. Just the thought of it. Sounds like pain.

Calandra could hide where ever she chose - and we all saw how that turned out.

Could you please explain exactly what is wrong with ninja's now expect that you think your changes sound cool?

At the moment, they certainly seem strong - enough melee power to overcome some opponents, assassinate to overcome those they would have trouble in a melee with.

Seems like a good mix to me...

L-A

I cant think of anything "wrong" with ninjas, but that doesnt mean I think they are perfect. Rangers became super popular when they were changed to have three very different paths. I think paths are always good for a class, makes them more re-playable and dynamic. I think ninjas are boring in the selectable skills, so I was just suggesting two possible paths that came to mind.

Just because the class is good doesn't mean it can't be better.

I don't think anything was WRONG with rangers before all these changes, but they're most certainly more awesome now.

Well, since Ninjas suck, let's give that path do a different class, eh? Like...anything except ninjas. Just never liked 'em much.

That's why ninjas have ninjitsu. It was the first selectable skill this game had.

And the age is showing. The class has been static ever since and could be quite detailed. I think each class should be given a plethora of options to enhance RP and PK.

That's why ninjas have ninjitsu. It was the first selectable skill this game had.

Yes, I am a big fan of customization, and having to sacrifice this for that and all. It makes it a bit more interesting, and then if someone hasn't fought me yet, they have some thinking to do.