Ninjas Are Dumb
Dragon assistant editor Mike McArtor really likes ninjas in D&D. I don’t. Here’s why.
The class system of D&D has long worked on a basis of four classes - the fighter, the wizard, the cleric and the rogue. There’s some leeway for change, but the basic four archetypes must always be filled:
- The warrior, who presents opponents with tough opposition and specializes solely in combat
- The mage, who is physically weak but defeats challenges using powerful offensive magic
- The priest, who is of middling toughness but supports the group with mostly defensive and restorative magic
- The thief, who is quite weak but overcomes challenges in clever, skilful ways like sneaking, backstabbing and trapfinding
There’s some leeway here, and room for mix-and-matching abilities. You can see, for example, that the paladin is a warrior with some priest ability, while the new duskblade class is a warrior with some arcane. Neither of these lose their class focus, and both fit into one of the four main roles.
This isn’t the case with the ninja classes that edge their way into the D&D game. The problem is that ninjas don’t fit perfectly into the game’s class system. Initially they seem to fit as a thief, but the usual implementation is a kind of rogue-monk combination who relies on arcane abilities. Essentially, it’s shifting the thief archetype from Intelligence based to Wisdom, and therein lies the problem. What we end up with is a ‘dumb’ rogue.
D&D balance also says that whatever abilities a class grants must balance with other, similar classes. We give monk abilities and magical enhancements to the rogue to create the ninja, so what does he lose? Frequently, he trades in his skills and a big part his sneak attack, and there’s where a problem lies. Your ninja, in exchange for improved combat and magical ability to remain unseen, ends up the weaker spy and assassin for his level. Even on a practical level, you’re replacing the party’s thief with a skill-light sneak attacker who can’t pick locks or disarm traps. The rogue’s clever intelligence and skill is vital to the party!
What, then, is the correct way to implement the ninja in third edition? One way might be as a rogue/monk synergy prestige class representing a certain secretive assassin order. Another might be a series of variants, trading rogue abilities for magic and techniques. Even more simply, the best ninja is frequently just a combat-specialist rogue outfitted with a few cheap alchemical and magic items, dipping perhaps a level into monk and taking a feat to use Int in place of Wis. Sometimes the simple approach is best.
May 14th, 2007 at 5:34 am
Agreed 100%. I also don’t like taking a Japanese cultural and historical icon and forcing it into a fantasy setting. I mean we don’t see a Roman Centurion Class or a Greek Oracle for instance. Ninja seems fitting for a Japanese Historical RPG, but not D&D…no it just does not fit.
May 16th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
Ninjas are dumb in D&D because anyone who wants to be a ninja wants to be a Hollywood ninja - a stealthy, assassin-ish figure who is also a masterful fighter. With a katana. And no armor. And some sort of shadow/invisibility powers.
In other words, they want to be Jack Bauer.
As a result, any actual ninja class that is balanced invariably disappoints, and leaves a sour taste in the mouths of everyone involved.
June 10th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
i do think the eastern influence in dnd suck but i love the ninja samurai as classes. so in my campaign renamed them. ninja is the assassin(screw the prestige class) and samurai is sword master(does not use katana and wakizashi only bastard sword and short sword)
November 11th, 2007 at 7:18 am
You’re all overlooking one very vital point, D&D is all about fun so who cares if some classes don’t balance out with others ? Players who stress over their stats and want to be the toughest person in the party often overlook the most important element of D&D… Role play.
Some of my most enjoyable characters have been the most ineffective combat characters I’ve had. I once played a Bard who’s highest stat was thirteen and he was so much fun because I knew he’d suck in fights so I focused on the R.P side of it all exclusively and my party knew he was weak so they were always vigilant in keeping him safe.
In essence he was the most powerful person in the party because he was charismatic and always protected, gained an excellent reputation and in the end I stopped using him because he hit twenty first level and we didn’t own the books for epic level campaigns.
Ninjas in D&D are fine as they are, don’t get so caught up on skills and the like or who’s the strongest etc. If it bothers you so much there’s something else to consider… Change the Ninja class.
It says in the D.M.G I believe it is, the ‘rules’ in D&D are just guidelines and not set in stone. In the end the final say on everything comes down to the D.M that’s why he’s called the Dungeon MASTER.
If balance is particularly important because of the type of gaming session that’s being played such as a gladiatorial arena match between players and one of them wants to be a Ninja then alter the class a tad, it’s that easy.
Well it’s not actually easy to correctly alter a class I will admit but if you know what you’re doing and can be bothered it’s a potential solution for balancing things out.
Also, keep notes. I love it when others come up with good stories or ideas for campaigns or interesting player class alterations and I always ask my friends to email particularly entertaining ideas to me. They’ve been the basis for hundreds of hours of thoroughly entertaining gaming.
spades-8@hotmail.com
That’s obviously my email address, if anyone who reads this has any material they’d care to share or would be interested in some of the campaigns I’ve written please let me know and I will be more than happy to send something your way.
Thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to read this and happy gaming !
November 26th, 2007 at 11:13 am
nInj4z 4|23 73h h4XX0r
November 27th, 2007 at 10:35 am
The closest class to a ninja is rogue.
rogues like ninja’s have stealth, magic(casting from scrolls), skilled combatant, and focus on agility and dexterity.
December 9th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
i dont se y ninjas are so dumb i think thar cool i gust startid a new charicter and hes a niga so NINJAS ARE COOL!!!!!!!
December 10th, 2007 at 10:40 am
cannot….read….above….post….too….obfuscated….
December 12th, 2007 at 3:30 am
wil i think that was the point, looks to me sarcasm or a joke :P
I’ve played ninjas a little so far and they seem like and interesting class as well as giving a chance to making things interesting. like.. how a ninja got into a western midevil area or even gearing the entire campain towards a more eastern course. to me ninjas seem more like a prestege class with some of their abilities but like cadbury said above, if you don’t like it and it can be made fair, change it.
February 28th, 2008 at 3:25 am
“gust startid a new charicter AND HES A NIGA. . .” heheheheh
May 21st, 2008 at 12:11 am
Agreed with cadbury. ninjas are more “in the fray” than rogues in combat and outside of it can be incredibly useful due to invisibility. A rogue can sneak into a room undetected, a ninja can do back-flips through it unnoticed. Ninjas are more about style than anything else, and in the words of Scoundrel(the E needs an accent mark), “it doesnt matter if you live or die, as long as you look really awesome doing it!”. So what if their not a walking swiss army-knife?