Ninja
The Rogue Monks
By: Areyn
What is a Ninja?
Progressing From Monk to Ninja
Skills, Brute Power, or Greater Potential?
Ninja Animal Forms
Conclusion
What is a Ninja?
Ninja. The word conjures many imagines for different people, from pizza eating turtles to fearful assassins with mystical powers. For myself, I seek to become a ninja in Temuair by practicing the skills of both monk and Rogue. Only with the wide range of skills available to both paths do I feel I can approach the skills of the ninja.
Stealth. Ninja are masters of stealth. Many times the ninja will not be detected at all until the victim's corpse is discovered. The rogue skill hide is the most obvious means of stealth, allowing one to move undetected among others. Throw smoke bomb, another rogue skill, is less subtle, but allows the ninja a few moments of chaos to escape.
Martial Prowess. By following the monk path then becoming a rogue, ninja will have a wide variety of combat maneuvers both armed and unarmed. Ninja may attack from a distance with surigam or the mystic eagle's strike.
Mystical Abilities. Ninja can discern the elemental weaknesses of aisling and beast opponents alike, summon a biting wind to assault enemies, brace themselves against any physical assault, and even draw the life force from weakened creatures to replenish their own.
Poison Mastery. Ninja can become very accomplished herbalists, brewing potent poisons or healing elixirs of many types. Ninja can poison creatures who face them in melee or leave poisoned caltrops in their wake. To prepare them for working so closely with poisons, most ninja learn to cleanse the body of poison early in their career.
Progressing From Monk to Ninja
There are two ways to become a rogue monk. A rogue may work to insight 99 and rededicate to the monk path or a monk may work to 99th insight and rededicate to the rogue path. Certainly both are rogue monks, but I feel the only path for a true ninja is to be a monk, then become a rogue.
A monk can not use rogue weapons. Since rogues only have 2 weapon skills it is not a great sacrifice, but rogues becoming monks lose versatility. Ninja, monks who become rogues, are skilled in both armed and unarmed combat. They may not be able to use a few kicks while armed, but they have the option of fighting either way, and despite popular myth several monk attacks work even when you are armed.
Rogues have many skills that can not be practiced as a monk, including gempolishing, sword smithing, higgling, and of course, entering the black market. The only skill a monk might have to sacrifice when becoming a rogue is the ability to mix potions. Since other paths are able to use herbalism, I hope that becoming a rogue will not limit this skill. If it does, I am willing to make the sacrifice, considering all I will gain in exchange.
In the arena, the difference is crippling to rogues who become monks. Such rogue monks can be trapped as any other aisling and must even be wary of where they set their own traps. A ninja may be as carefree about setting traps as any rogue. Ninja will be able to master the sense skill, allowing them to sense the elemental attack and defense of other aislings. Rogues who become monks can not until they become master.
Going from rogue to monk has advantages for those who might consider it. Most notably, a rogue can easily get all skills and save massive amounts of potential ((Stat points)) gaining 99th insight as rapidly as a rogue who spends her growth potential. That will allow the rogue monk to become exceptionally strong after rededication. This may be the route for people seeking great power, but not concerned with the variety of abilities ninjas posses.
Skills, Brute Power, or Greater Potential?
I am what is commonly referred to as a "skills monk". The primary goal for a skills monk is to learn as many different skills as possible.
After I learned all the skills available to monks outside the monastery I stopped using my potential growth so that I can save that potential for later. After I rededicate to rogue, I will apply all my saved potential then. ((I am saving up the stat points I get at each insight instead of spending them. When I become a rogue, I will begin fresh at 3 in each stat, but I can spend all the saved up stat points. This will allow me to have a much higher STR and/or CON than normal rogues of the same insight. This is not a bug. It has been reported and is now approved by the director of Dark Ages. Read the report here.))
The downside of saving your potential is that the last several insights in the first path will be very hard to achieve. A monk must be physically strong to gain experience at a reasonable rate to insight.
The other school of monks is commonly called "power monks". They forego several skills in order to train more vigorously for combat. Power monks can deal more damage in a direct physical confrontation, but will have few if any of the mystical abilities listed above.
Power monks can opt to save some of their potential just as I am doing. It's up to the individual how much they want to grow as a power monk and how much potential they are willing to save for after rededication. Certainly a monk who is used to the raw force of a power monk's draco kick will have difficulty adjusting after rededication. Saving now means more strength later.
Dion is the most difficult monk skill to learn. However, a monk following draco form has no need of it whatsoever. Dion is identical to draco stance in every way but name. If you are happy with draco form, don't worry about learning dion. Both skill and power monks can benefit by applying the potential required in intelligence for dion in other directions.
Many monks consider beag nochd a novelty. It has a long chant ((5 lines)) and is very draining ((about 700 mana)) however it can become fairly powerful with practice. If you wish to become a power monk or just save a little more potential for after rededication, avoid beag nochd. On the other hand, beag nochd will be nice to have for ranged attacks at odd angles after you rededicate.
Puinneag beatha is perhaps the most useless of all monk skills. If you don't want beag nochd, then don't worry about puinneag beatha at all. This secret only works on severely weakened creatures ((around 1000 health or less remaining)) and does not function in the arena at all.
Ninja Animal Forms
Ninja may follow any monk form. However, it is not likely to find a white bat ninja. White bat skills are redundant with and inferior to the rogue skills: hide, study creature, and blind snare.
Scorpion form is not a common form, even among monks. At low insights it is very useful, but after about the 20th insight, the now redundant skills and ineffective trance make it beneficial to change to another form.
Sting is the Scorpion form attack skill. It poisons an enemy, but after the monk learns poison punch, it becomes redundant. The Scorpion stance is identical to the priest spell armachd and the effects of the two are not cumulative, so adventuring with even the lowest insight priests can make this secret ineffective. Trance is a very fun skill and is very useful within its limits, but it only works on the weakest of creatures.
I strove to become Kelberoth form because it offers more variety in two ways. First, most monks are draco form and I find that rather boring. Second, Kelberoth offers three unique skills and Draco offers only one skill that cannot be learned by other means. Draco stance is identical to dion, and snort is shorter taunt.
That being said, the weaknesses of Kelberoth form should be pointed out. The strike looks very impressive, but it HURTS! This strike, when successful, will remove 60% of your remaining health. The kelberoth strike also doesn't do nearly as much damage as a well-developed draco kick either. Roar, the kelberoth support skill, only works on creatures in touch range and they must be very weak or the secret fails to subdue them.
Kelberoth stance is useful and I have no complaints with it. The stance enhances the strength ((+3 STR)) of the martial artist, allowing her to strike for more damage and perhaps even learn skills that were restricted from the character because of her frailty. This stance is not cumulative with the Ceannlaider entreaty "grant strength" Having one active precludes the casting of the other.
Draco is undoubtedly the best form in Temuair. The kick is one of the most damaging skills in Temuair and works in all four directions at once. Snort works even on powerful enemies and aislings in the arena, unlike the support secrets of other forms. The stance is simply fantastic. It fails often and only lasts 10 seconds, but a skilled practitioner will be virtually immune to physical attacks.
Conclusion
Ninja are not intended to be the most powerful aislings in Temuair. There are other easier paths to raw power for anyone who cares about such things. Ninjas are incredibly versatile and have more depth than most subpathed combinations. It is my love of variety and fun that prompted me to pursue this path.
If you like some of the ideas here and want to try them out please contact me and I will give you any details you would like. I'd love to get together with others and see what sort of variations we can develop.
~ Areyn