D&D 5E My Barbarian Ninja

[BASHMAN]

So I played in a 5e game where we were supposed to make characters who were descended from our old characters. My old character was a Half-Orc Monk, and I wanted to make this new character be his daughter, also a Monk, but with a bit of a darker edge to her; more like a ninja. She'd be 3/4ths human, 1/4th orc, so i'd play it as human.

Later I found out though, that another PC had already made a female human monk. Change of plans.

At first I decided to scrap the character entirely, and make a descendant of another character, but then I looked at the barbarian class again. Then I looked at the backstory of the proposed character. Something happened.

Is it just me, or does the barbarian class make a freaking awesome ninja? Yes, there will need to be a lot of re-skinning involved. Put away your notions of kilt-wearing claymore wielding men with bright orange beards frothing at the mouth with blood-lust.

Instead, imagine a ninja spirit warrior, who enters a "battle trance" during which she is completely fixated on the task at hand. Like River Tam, having one of her "episodes" which results in lots of dead bad-guys. I also added in here a bit of a "drunken master" effect, that she quaffs some of "the good stuff" to induce these trances; but I'm thinking of dropping that and having the battle trance be simply the result of intense target fixation and focus. The "half damage from weapons" part of the rage is skinned as her attempts to block the attacks. So when a badguy hit her with a club, and she took half damage, I narrated it as "As the club is about to strike at her head, Kodachi's forearm shoots up to block and takes the hit instead".

My resulting character, Kodachi, is a 1/4th orc (effectively human) who, unlike her father, has embraced the primal call to violence from her orcish ancestors. While her father, Kage, suppressed this, she has harnessed it and refocused it.

At first level she took the Dual Wielding feat. We rolled stats, and I ended up with Strength 14 (+2) Dexterity 18 (+4) Constitution 16 (+3) Intelligence 13 (+1) Wisdom 11 Charisma 11 after applying racial and class mods. Notice that Dex is her highest stat instead of strength. So she won't get as much out of raging per se as she could with a high strength; but she keeps a very high AC. Because her Con is high stat #2, this results in a high AC without wearing any armor. Sort of like a monk with Wisdom.

For weapons I took Scimitars (1d8 slashing finesse) and re-skinned them to be Ninja-To. I took a cestus for each hand, re-skinned to be Tekko. I took a longbow, re-skinned into a Daiku, and daggers, re-skinned into Shuriken.

Most of the time, she attacks with her paired Ninja-To, using Dex to hit and damage. So +3/+3 to hit; 1d8+4/1d8 damage (+1d6 martial die). When she is raging, she uses STR to hit and damage with both weapons, with +1/+1 AND ADVANTAGE to hit; 1d8+4/1d8+2 damage (+1d6 martial die).

For skills I took Climb, Tumble, Sneak, and Balance. Background I made up "Ninja" which gave me those skills and as a "Trait" I copied "False Identity" from the Charlatan.

Now let's look at the "Barbarian" abilities that she gets as she levels, and see how they can be Ninja'd.

Fast Movement - this is already a Monk thing; so that easily works.

Feral Instinct - heightened awareness improving initiative? Yeah, I'd say that works for a ninja.

Relentless Rage - Able to take a licking and keep on ticking. This is her battle trance / drunken master resilience paying off.

Feral Reflexes - Cannot be surprised. I'd say that's ninja appropriate.

Fearless Rage - Cannot be afraid while in her battle trance; her concentration and focus has become so strong that she cannot be distracted from it.

Regenerative Rage - Regain HP while raging when bloodied. This probably would be re-skinned as the Drunken Master training, maybe taking a swig of "the good stuff"; or it is simply some sort of effect of the battle trance allowing her Ki to refocus an heal her body.

These all seem to work so far.

For future feats I plan 2 weapon Defense, Shift (groan) and Strike and Fade. The Strike and Fade feat I see as being very "Ninja-Like" as she dives past an enemy, who only after the fact notices the two sword slices the passing shadow made.

So what do people think? Does this work?

 

[Wyckedemus]

That sounds awesome. I love the class mechanics, and that inspiration and reflavoring can make them work for a variety of archetypes.

Sounds like a fun character!

 

[I'm A Banana]

Very cool! I'm a fan of how this shows off some of the flexibility of 5e already. "Battle Trances" of all types could find one possible expression in the Barbarian class!

I'd love to see how the damage on this character compares with a more stereotypical barbarian, but I guess once it's passed the "enough" threshold, there's not a lot more necessary.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Ha! I had thought through a barbarian dumping strength very similar to this -- I didn't have the elaborate reskinning (which is awesome) but did think that an elf (35' move) building with the feats twd, deflect, charge, and fast move (= 55' now, after level 2 and the feat!) would be a hoot to play (using a finessable scimitar and a short sword. That foregoes the extra elf damage and the advantage when raging with strength (which you've thought around -- cool) but still seemed more fun than the fighter builds I had been trying.

 

[Warbringer]

I like it ... Only minor whine is that can't see false identity working without bluff and disguise in background skills.

Curious also on the damage curve

 

[BASHMAN]

Ha! I had thought through a barbarian dumping strength very similar to this -- I didn't have the elaborate reskinning (which is awesome) but did think that an elf (35' move) building with the feats twd, deflect, charge, and fast move (= 55' now, after level 2 and the feat!) would be a hoot to play (using a finessable scimitar and a short sword. That foregoes the extra elf damage and the advantage when raging with strength (which you've thought around -- cool) but still seemed more fun than the fighter builds I had been trying.

One thing about your build; you won't be able to really use Deflect much; when you are raging, you cannot use Reactions.

Regarding Kodachi, she DOES use STR to hit while in her battle trance; remember that Finesse weapons can use EITHER STR ***OR*** DEX. You can choose to use STR when you want to. And having +1 to hit with Advantage is better than +3 to hit without it.

Damage output was pretty good. She never really got to use her second attack; everything died in one hit; even the boss (because she was the last one to get a chance to hit it, after it ended several rounds of invisibility).

In battle trance she did 1d8+4+1d6 with her main weapon, and 1d8+2 with her other weapon. So combining them together would be 2d8+6+1d6 = 17.5 average damage per round; assuming both attacks hit. Which is not a bad assumption, when attacking with advantage.

Outside her trance, she gets 1d8+4+1d6 with her main weapon, and 1d8 with her other weapon; so a net loss of 2 damage; 15.5 damage. She could use Reckless Attack to get Advantage, but usually won't do it (unless she thinks the enemy will go down before his next action).

After last session she also got another option for combat; a +1 Katana. Now as a TWF person, she won't use it very much (it is a 2-handed sword) but against enemies that REQUIRE magic items to hit them for full damage, she will use it.
If she were raging with the Katana she does 1d10+5+1d6 damage with it, hitting with advantage. This gives her a damage output of 14 per round.

If she picked up a Greatsword, doing 1d12 damage, she'd do approximately 15 damage per round. So she is better off with paired swords for 1d8 apiece. I also calculated that TWF doesn't allow you to use your STR bonus off-hand; but it doesn't stop you from using your Rage bonus off-hand.

Now if I had taken 18 STR, like a stereotypical barbarian, and were using a greatsword, damage would be 1d12+6+1d6 while raging (15 damage per round).
A dual wielding barbarian would do 1d8+6+1d6 and 1d8+2 when raging (19.5 dmg per round).

So she traded off about 2 points of damage per round for MUCH higher AC, while not having to wear armor at all.

 

[BASHMAN]

I like it ... Only minor whine is that can't see false identity working without bluff and disguise in background skills.

Curious also on the damage curve

I thought about that too; I might check with GM to see if he'll allow me "Immune to Alcohol" as a trait instead, so she can drink like Jackie Chan in Legend of the Drunken Master.

But I've also been considering dropping the "drunken" part of the character entirely, as the "battle trance" ki ability thing really explains it all without needing a drunken aspect to it.

 

[TwoSix]

I wonder how Barbarian Rage would work if it gave a Bonus to Dexterity instead of Strength. Too overpowered?

 

[Kobold Stew]

I wonder how Barbarian Rage would work if it gave a Bonus to Dexterity instead of Strength. Too overpowered?

I think so.

One thing about your build; you won't be able to really use Deflect much; when you are raging, you cannot use Reactions.

Good catch -- thanks.

 

[Gaming Tonic]

I like seeing that the versatility to combine options so far is working well in this edition. This is not the typical build and has some advantages but also leaves a few things on the table because of the mechanics, Rage and Deflect for example. If you are okay with it than I say game on. Some people will sit and calculate this damage over that damage as in two handed weapon vs. two weapon but I think deciding on what works for the "character" is the way to go and that is usually how I make my characters. If we always just build for the toughest combination then variety quickly falls off.