PosChengBand - Ninjas

[CyclopsSlayer]

Way back in Heng, Ninja's seemed very powerful potentially, I just kept killing them off stupidly.

Now in PCB I am loving the almost OP start, even if it is a bit of a finicky playstyle. Hit - move to Hide- Hit - Move...

Some things I noticed;

-On the Ladder, all but one of the high-end Ninjas were wielding lamps/lights. Is Hiding no longer practical at deeper levels? (Mobs see through it or something?)

-Poison Needle, I had always thought in Heng it sounded too limited for general use and was just inventory clutter. Considering that none of the Ladder carries one, and several look like they never even went to get it. Just a pointless toy?

-Sabers, Katanas, Scimitars, make me uncomfortable with my weapon and impose what seems like a -35 To-Hit. What makes a weapon good/bad for a Ninja? It can't be just weight.

TIA

[wobbly]

-On the Ladder, all but one of the high-end Ninjas were wielding lamps/lights. Is Hiding no longer practical at deeper levels? (Mobs see through it or something?)

Look a little closer. See the Ds on those lights? they're dark lamps

[GenericPseudonym]

Those ninjas are wearing lamps with the Darkness ego, which is kinda rare (~10% of artifacts, i'm not sure about ego items). Lamps of darkness actually have negative light radius, so for example you can wield glowing weapons like Sting without ruining your stealth because the lamp's aura of darkness overcomes Sting's aura of light.

Poison needles always struck me as something that was supposed to be useful for non-melee combatants like Mages, by letting you kill high-hp targets like big dragons. A warrior or ninja can likely kill things faster just by using their normally high melee damage instead of rolling for instakills. I've never used one myself though.

The weapon types you can use are defined on an individual basis, bsically. You can look at s_info.txt in the edit files to see which ones work for yourself: any weapon for which Ninjas have a skill cap of 'beginner' or 'unskilled' gives them penalties.

[debo]

Poison needles are good against non-unique HP/def bags. Things like GWoPs die a lot faster to poison needle melee than to straight-up fighting. I carried around one as a swap for awhile for that reason.

[CyclopsSlayer]

Thanks all!

I honestly didn't know about Ds, sweetness, having open slots is never a good thing.

As to the Needle, I can see the validity of a swap weapon use. That must be the 'DOKUBARI' in the s_info I am guessing.

One question, the s_info shows the Ninja as competent in Martial Arts, yet they cannot make barehanded attacks. I am guessing the Martial and Riding scores are leftovers or artifacts and serve no purpose?

[GenericPseudonym]

Martial arts skill does nothing if your class can't make unarmed attacks, but riding is actually usable by everyone. Classes with a cap lower than Master usually don't bother with it, but technically even a permanently-unskilled sorcerer should be able to charm or summon a horse, get on its back, and stumble around awkwardly.

[Fnord]

The weapon types you can use are defined on an individual basis, bsically. You can look at s_info.txt in the edit files to see which ones work for yourself: any weapon for which Ninjas have a skill cap of 'beginner' or 'unskilled' gives them penalties.

This isn't really very transparent, since you need to compare to the actual weapon list. I went through this once and hope I didn't miss anything, so for everyone's convenience here's the list of ninja-compatible weapons. The * ones can be mastered, the rest skilled.

Also worth noting that Wakizashi (just as main gauche) gives a dual wield bonus when main hand is a sword and they're the off-hand. So wield them in the right slot (this goes for anyone, not just ninjas)


dagger*
main gauche
tanto*
rapier
small sword
wakizashi
ninjato*
poison needle*
falcon sword
dragon fang*

[CyclopsSlayer]

Finally got around to restarting a Ninja several months later.
I was @L24 and Azog at the bottom of the Orc Cave dropped a sweet 'Ninjato of Sharpness (4d9) (+6,+6) +4 Digging, as well as a !Dexterity.
Kinda made my day.

[CyclopsSlayer]

So, restarted my Ninja. Progressing nicely. Then I got the Phial of Galadriel and a Feanorian Lamp and tried reforging. This is what I got;

The Feanorian Lamp of Galadriel
It provides no light.
It decreases radius of light source by 3.
+2 to Searching
Prevents Teleportation; Permanent Darkness
It reminds you of the artifact of Galadriel
It cannot be harmed by the elements.
Score: 4.41k (L16)

So, IF I use it, no Phase Doors, no Teleports, and I can pretty much ignore teleport to/away mobs. BUT no escapes, yuk...

[nikheizen]

[T makes the item worthless unless you are a berserker.
Teleportation is mandatory

[CyclopsSlayer]

Yes, that's why I cheered to get a Dark Lamp at first, and then arrgh'd when I saw the rest.

Dark Lamps are hard enough to get in the first place without crap like that. /sigh... I would have worn a regular lantern with Infravision or something if they didn't lose their effects when they are out of oil. So now I wait for another Galadriel clone.