"Go to the sign of Marvel's Axe, a dubious inn on the edge of the Thieves Quarter, in the City of Greyhawk, and look to your own wrist. If you perceive a bracelet and dangling dice, watch for the next throw in the war between Law and Chaos and be prepared to follow the compelling geas." -Signal

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Complete Ninja's Handbook - PHBR15


The Ninja. Is there a class that is more of a munchkin dream class than this? If it were possible to turn Drizzt Do'Urden into a ninja within the rules I think everyone who exemplifies what is wrong with the game I love and what it has become would do so. This was the last of the PHBR series. I had forgotten that there were so many of these. In the post on Monday I mentioned how it started off good and ended a min/max nightmare. This is where it ended. There may be a better example of why "splatbook" is now a somewhat derogatory term in the industry or to those who actually roleplay but this would have to make a run for the prize.

From the Back of the Book:

Superhuman feats of skill and daring are the stock in trade of the fearless warriors known as ninja. This 128-page accessory gives you all the information you need to role-play exotic ninja, lone wolf operatives, and other character types--new character kits, special rules, and descriptions of the ninja's unique weapons and equipment. The Complete Ninja's Handbook brings life to these shadowy figures of myth and legend.

2 comments:

Dennis Laffey said...

Funny, the Complete Fighters' and the Complete Ninja's are the only two of the series I bought (and I still have them). Having actually played the Ninja presented in the book, I didn't find it in any way overpowered. It was just a Thief with alternate starting values for the skills and a tweaked weapons list.

Now, we didn't try out all of the alternate classes/kits. It's possible some of them were over the top. But I found this book to be fairly useable back when I was running 2E. YMMV.

Anonymous said...

I agree. None of these 2e class books ever really went over the top power wise. They presented new takes on old classes that often had significant disadvantages to balance them.

They were kits to help make classes and characters fit your campaign and are still great today.

Spaltbooks were all the crap made by third party pubs. for 3e. Shit like pirate sourcebooks and 15 different necromancers that were better than the last set of 15 different necromancers.

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