Sublime Shinobi (3.5e Class)

Summary::A sublime version of the Minimum Level::1 Class Ability::Other Class Ability Progression::Full

Sublime Shinobi
This class is a sublime version of the shinobi.

Making a Shinobi
The shinobi, also known as the ninja, is a deadly and feared assassin, master of unorthodox warfare, stealth, espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and strange mystical powers forged from their inner ki. Dressed in black they stalk the night, unseen by all.

Making a Shinobi
Abilities: Shinobi are almost universally dexterity focused, using Weapon Finesse to compliment their inherent mobility and nimbleness. Yet a shinobi must also be wise and aware of his surroundings, needing a good wisdom score. Constitution is important for anyone in the line of fire, strength still has its place as a source of damage, and intelligence helps supplement their skillful natures. Charisma is still called on, for when the mask is off shinobis must be able to infiltrate and destroy from the inside out.

Races: Any race can be shinobi, but they are most common in the small and the nimble folk. Orc shinobi are too aggressive for the subtle blade of the ninja.

Alignment: Any. While many are lawful, the rogue shinobi are often the tales of legend, heroes, and villians.

Starting Gold: 5d4&times;10 gp (125 gp).

Starting Age: As fighter.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Sublime Shinobi.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Shinobi are proficient with all simple weapons, as well as the bolas, jian, kama, katana (bastard sword), net, nunchaku, sai, shuriken, siangham, sling, wakizashi (short sword), and whip. And, of course, unarmed strikes. We're not monks.

Shinobi are proficient with light armor, but not with shields.

The disciplines available to you are Anima River, Dancing Goddess, Setting Sun, Shadow Hand, Surreptitious Bandit, Thousand Daggers, Tiger Claws and one additional discipline of your choice.

Once you know a maneuver, you must ready it before you can use it (see Maneuvers Readied below). A maneuver usable of the 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: Shinobi. You must meet a maneuver's prerequisite to learn it. See the table to determine the highest level maneuver you can learn.

Upon reaching 4th level and every even-numbered scoundrel 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 and exchange for the new one. You can choose a maneuver of any level you like, as long as you observe your restriction on the highest level maneuvers you know; you need not replace the old maneuver with a new 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.

You ready maneuvers by focusing for 5 minutes. The maneuvers you choose remain readied until you decide to focus again and change them. You need not sleep or rest for any long period of time in order to ready your 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 (unless you recover them, as described below).

Sublime shinobi recover all their maneuver either as a move action, or as a swift action while unobserved. Unlike other maneuver-users, sublime shinobi may changed their readied maneuver when they recover them.

At 2nd, 4th, 6th, and each even level thereafter, 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.

 : A 1st level sublime shinobi turn any improvise weapon or object in her hand into a capable weapon. It gains the statistics of the closest weapon you are proficient in (pool cues become quarterstaves, broken bottles are daggers, and so forth). In your hand it is as dangerous as a real weapon and you take no penalty for its use. : The shinobi is always armed, even when disarmed. They gain Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat.

They are prepared and used just like her normal martial maneuvers, but belong to no discipline. Their DC scales with level (10 + 1/2 class level + wisdom modifier) and they are considered to be a maneuver level half your initiator level (maximum 9th), specialized maneuvers cannot be made into martial scripts.. Select from the list below:

At first the shnobi only has access to the specialized maneuvers of the following list:

 (Rush): You imbue your body with unnatural spring, granting your class level + 10 competence bonus on jump checks and you're always treated as having a running start.

 (Boost): As a swift action, gain a +10 foot bonus to speed for 1 round. At 4th level and every three levels beyond, the bonus rises by another +10 feet.

 (Boost): As a swift action you become invisible as the spell and your rendered completely silent as if affected by a personal silence spell for 1 round.

 (Strike): As a standard action you produce a smoke bomb which produces a 10 foot cube of smoke similar to a fog cloud spell. At 4th level and every four levels beyond, the cube grows by +10 feet (20 ft cube, 30 foot cube, etc). The smoke lingers in the air for 5 rounds before dispersing. You can always choose to smoke a smaller area than your level allows.

After attaining 4th level she may also selected specialized maneuvers from the following list:

 : (Rush) As a move action you can make a bluff check to feint the enemy. At 10th level, you can perform this as a swift action.

  (Strike): As a standard action duplicate the effect of shadow jauntToB, teleporting 50 feet away. At level 8 this can be done as a move action, and at level 16 it can be done as a swift action.

 (Strike): As a full round action you gain the benefits of disguise self, which lasts until you change disguises or dismiss the effect. This is a result of clever use of makeup and minor facial positioning, and so is not detected by true seeing.

 (Boost): As a swift action just before making a death attack, you focus your mind on the kill granting +2 to the DC of the death attack and an extra +1 point of damage per class level.

  (Stance): You blend into the background you stand against, granting you concealment (20% miss chance). If you stand still, you become impossible to make out as if you were under the effect of invisibility.

 : (Stance) You gain the benefits of spider climb.

After attaining 7th level she may also selected specialized maneuvers from the following list:

 : (Stance) You focus you senses, granting blindsense out to 30 feet. At 10th level this upgrades to blindsight.

  (Boost): You make all your weapons ghost touch weapons for 1 minute. You can end the duration early as part of an attack action, discharging the effect in the form of a banishment spell. The saving throw is Wisdom based.

  (Boost): Unlike a normal boost this is activated as part of an attack with a poisoned weapon you can use this ability. The poison now ignores poison immunity, although they gain a +4 bonus on their save.

After attaining 10th level she may also selected specialized maneuvers from the following list:

 (Strike): As a standard action you can blow a mixed dustcloud of various drugs into the face of others. All creatures in a 15 foot cone must make a Will save or forget the last 5 minutes. If they are in the middle of combat, they are instead confused for 1d4 rounds as they try to remember what they were fighting for. Once someone has made a save against amnesia dust, they are immune for 24 hours after.

 (Strike): As a standard action make a single melee attack. This attack deals an additional 2d6 Con damage to any creature susceptible to critical hits due to massive blood loss.

  (Stance): While in this stance you may as a standard action you duplicate the effect of mirror image, but the copies can roam on their own away from you as long as they maintain within 30 feet of you. Every round, you can switch position in which copy is the real you, and which are duplicates as a swift action.

After attaining 13th level she may also selected specialized maneuvers from the following list:

  (Counter): As an immediate action you can make a 5 foot step to avoid an attack, leaving a suspicious wooden log in your place to take the blow. If a 5 foot step does not take you out of danger (such as with most aera effect spells) the use is wasted. Where did that log come from anyway?

 (Strike): As a standard action, if you make a melee attack against a flatfooted opponent who is unaware of your presence you can perform a silent takedown. They must make a Fortitude save or immediately take nonlethal damage equal to their maximum hit points +1, falling unconcious silently without the sound of a falling body or scream. You can now move the body elsewhere while it remains unconcious. If they succeed on the save, they take no damage but are grappled and muffled, preventing speech but not soft noises. Subsequent rounds use typical grapple rules to maintain a grapple and other effects.

 (Counter): As an immediate action, if an opponent charges you you can immediately charge them, moving up to your movement speed and passing by your opponent. You may make a charge attack to counter their charge attack; if your attack roll is higher then the attack against you (if any) is negated. They take damage from your charge attack as normal if you hit.

After attaining 16th level she may also selected specialized maneuvers from the following list:

  (Strike): As a standard action, you slip into the spirit world as if using ethereal jaunt. This lasts until you dismiss it as a standard action.

 (Counter): As an immediate action, if you have at least 1 hand free, you can try and catch a single melee attack against you. Make an opposed attack roll, if you exceed their roll their attack has been blocked. You cannot use this against a full attack or pounce.

They gain Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat.

This bonus applies to both touch and flatfooted AC, and is lost if the shinobi is rendered helpless.

 : At 2nd level and higher, a shinobi can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If she makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if the shinobi is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless shinobi does not gain the benefit of evasion.



If an shinobi studies her victim for 3 rounds and then makes a sneak attack with a melee weapon that successfully deals damage, the sneak attack has the additional effect of possibly either paralyzing or killing the target (shinobi's choice). While studying the victim, the shinobi can undertake other actions so long as his attention stays focused on the target and the target does not detect the shinobi or recognize the shinobi as an enemy. If the victim of such an attack fails a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 HD + Wis) against the kill effect, they die. If the saving throw fails against the paralysis effect, the victim is rendered helpless and unable to act for 1d6 rounds plus 1 round per level of the shinobi. If the victim’s saving throw succeeds, the attack is just a normal sneak attack. Once the shinobi has completed the 3 rounds of study, he must make the death attack within the next 3 rounds.

If a death attack is attempted and fails (the victim makes their save) or if the shinobi does not launch the attack within 3 rounds of completing the study, 3 new rounds of study are required before he can attempt another death attack.

 : At 4th level a shinobi can react to danger before her senses would normally allow her to do so. She retains her Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if she is caught flat-footed or struck by an invisible attacker. However, she still loses her Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized.

If a shinobi already has uncanny dodge from a different class she automatically gains improved uncanny dodge (see below) instead.

 : At 5th level a shinobi has mastered the art of "the ability of lightness". She is able to set her apparent weight to almost nothing as a free action, allowing her to walk upon water and dance on the end of a needle. This has the effect of making the shinobi immune to all falling damage, and allowing her to walk upon liquid or otherwise unsuitable surfaces (though they may still require a balance check if the surface is too thin in width or is in motion). In addition, it makes her acrobatics much easier to pull off. She may take 10 on Balance, Climb, Jump, Swim, and Tumble checks even if in a stressful situation.

They gain the Darkstalker feat from Lords of Madness, forcing creatures to roll spot and listen checks even if they have abilities such as blindsense, blindsight, and similar.

 : At 8th level a shinobi can use the Hide skill even while being observed. As long as she is within 10 feet of some sort of shadow, a shinobi can hide herself from view in the open without having anything to actually hide behind.

She cannot, however, hide in her own shadow.

 : A shinobi of 8th level or higher can no longer be flanked.

This defense denies another sneak attacker the ability to sneak attack the character by flanking her, unless the attacker has at least four more sneak-attack granting levels than the target does.

If a character already has uncanny dodge (see above) from a second class, the character automatically gains improved uncanny dodge instead, and the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum level required to flank the character.

For every round you shorten the duration by, the DC drops by -2 points (minimum -4 points for 1 round of study).

 : At 10th level a shinobi is almost invisible while in the shadows. When in shadowy illumination they have total concealment. When in complete darkness, they blend in so well that even creatures with extrasensory abilities (darkvision, See in Darkness, blindsight, etc.) take a 20% miss chance from concealment anyways.

 : At 11th level a shinobi can dodge attacks and brush off the largest of explosions. This ability works like evasion, except that while the shinobi still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks henceforth she henceforth takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless shinobi does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.

 : At 12th level a shinobi is impossible to follow. The shinobi has no scent, leaves, no tracks, and all mundane attempts to track her fail. Even magical abilities and divinations designed to locate beings such as locate creature or find the path struggle. They must make a caster level check against the shinobi's HD + 10. If they fail, the spell go nowhere, leading into dead ends or giving impossible and obviously false information.

 : At 14th level a shinobi moves with such grace that few things can slow her down. She ignores difficult terrain, and is immune to entangling, paralysis, and stunning. Effects which would make her move at half speed do not slow her speed at all, and effects which reduce her speed to 5 ft. (such as with solid fog) instead only halve her speed. She is still susceptible to other hazards of the terrain beyond movement penalties, and can still be grappled to immobilize her.

She may make death attacks against any flatfooted creature who has not yet acted in battle or is in a surprise round, regardless if she had studied or not. In addition, she gains a new ability to death attack; the ability to hold off the effects of death or paralysis of any victim or failed their saves until later. Thereafter the shinobi can try to slay the victim at any later time, as long as the attempt is made within a number of days equal to her shinobi level. To make such an attempt, the shinobi merely wills the target to die (a free action) or enter paralysis as if the death attack had just occurred. This latter ability is a supernatural ability and a powerful curse that requires break enchantment or greater to remove before it takes effect. A shinobi may only keep one victim in waiting like this at one time, if she sets a new victim the old victim is freed of his curse.

 : At 17th level a shinobi has become so good at hiding she hides from reality itself. The subject is protected from all devices and spells that detect, influence, or read emotions or thoughts. This spell protects against all mind-affecting spells and effects as well as information gathering by divination spells or effects, even foiling limited wish, miracle, and wish spells when they are used in such a way as to affect the subject’s mind or to gain information about it. In the case of scrying that scans an area the creature is in, such as arcane eye, the spell works but the creature simply isn’t detected. Scrying attempts that are targeted specifically at the subject do not work at all.

Creatures who see the shinobi have a hard time recalling what they just saw. Anyone who witnesses a shinobi and then tries to recall that information after the shinobi has left must make a Will save DC 10 + 1/2 HD + Wis. On a successful save they remember as normal and may do what they wish. On a failed save their memory becomes hazy. They recall the activities and words of the shinobi, but not who it was or any details beyond a foggy blackish shape.

 : At 19th level a shinobi can observe a whole room full of people... and murder everyone forever. The shinobi can observe any number of creature in a 30 foot radius, taking 3 rounds of observation per person to be targeted in the area. Once observations are complete, they may make a single death attack attempt against one of the targets in range, and all marked creatures in the 30 foot radius are subject to the death attack as if you had rolled the attack roll against them. In a flash, a mere six seconds, dozens of people can be executed in a single fell swoop.

Her type changes to outsider, and she counts as a member of her original type and as an outsider, whenever beneficial. She appears always blended into her surroundings, giving her a constant 50% concealment which is not bypassed by true seeing. Unlike other outsiders, the shinobi can still be brought back from the dead as if she were a member of her previous creature type.