Float like a Butterfly, Sting like Kyuubi - Or, What Ninja Should Have Been
Have you ever looked at the Ninja alternate class in your trusty old copy of Ultimate Combat and thought, "Boy, you sure are an awkward blob of mechanics hung together by dental floss and strung over a weaker version of the already underwhelming Core Rulebook Rogue's chassis?" Ever wondered how you could create a character that evokes the stealth, combat power, and psycho-spiritual pseudo-magic of Ninja Gaiden's Hayabusa Ryu, Darker than Black's Hei, X-Men's Psylocke, or Naruto's... well, everyone? Look no further! You've found your class.
The first thing you need to know about the Kinetic Shinobi is that it's built on a very clever premise. The authors marry the bare bones of the Kineticist – elemental focus and a version of kinetic blast that comes coupled with a weapon creator form infusion somewhat reminiscent of the Occult Adventures Elemental Annihilator's Devastating Infusion at first level, with a small array of other rethemed Kineticist features that come with deeper levels – to the good ideas behind the flawed execution of the UC Ninja – a version of the ki pool that feels impactful, sneak attack, and access to ninja tricks – while leaving behind the flaws of both parents: the much-maligned burn resource and the Ninja's narrow and overall weak focus. This gives the Kinetic Shinobi a ton of flavor right out of the gate, unburdened by overly-restrictive baked-in mechanics. The one “downside” (and I use that term loosely, here) to the approach taken with this core design is that the Kinetic Shinobi does, more or less, render the Ninja obsolete. Under normal circumstances, I would count that as a harsh penalty against a hybrid class. In this case, however, the Ninja was arguably a worse version of the CRB Rogue it's based off already, and Paizo put the final nail in its coffin long ago with the Pathfinder Unchained Rogue. I can't fault this book for burying a dead horse.
The second, and arguably most important aspect of the Kinetic Shinobi to be aware of, is that the skeleton I've described above is fleshed out with an enormous variety of customization, offering a unique experience for every character. The straight use of the Kineticist's elemental focus makes the Kinetic Shinobi fully compatible with all (7, as of this writing) Paizo Kineticist elements, any further options added in the future, and the plethora available in other third party books, such as the excellent Kineticists of Porphyra series also by this team of authors. The real value of both the class and the book, though, is the Shinobi Talents feature, gained at every odd level starting at 1. There are some 50-odd of these, ranging the gamut from alternate weapon forms (known as Hadou techniques), poison use, skill tricks, special defenses, and a few very anime-inspired one-offs (Bunshin Rush and Dragonbreath will remind you of a certain pair of ninja from a village hidden in leaves). Included are even a handful of options that facilitate both manufactured weapon and unarmed strike builds (although they are in large part outshone by the archetypes that focus on those styles). Also accessible through Shinobi Talents are the Kineticist's basic and composite blasts, substance infusions, and utility wild talents, and the aforementioned Ninja Tricks, including Master Tricks (and, by proxy, Rogue Talents and Advanced Rogue Talents). All accounted for, I would be surprised if there were less than 200 options available.
If that doesn't sound like enough material to you, there are also a whopping 11 archetypes included with the Kinetic Shinobi, which include a couple of slgihtly-more-Ninja variants, a couple slightly-more-Kineticist variants, and a series of gish archetypes that hybridize in a third class, including: gunslinger, fighter, monk, vigilante, swashbuckler, bloodrager, and magus. Each is, of course, provided with a twist that makes them more than a simple combo deal. Alternate Favored Class Bonuses for every race in the Advanced Race Guide and a handful class-specific Feats round out the player material, and a sample NPC (featured in the cover art) is provided as the finishing touch on the book.
I have only two gripes with this book; both are small. The first is that, as written, there is an issue of clarity in the function of the advanced Hadou techniques, which are central to the class's combat mechanics from very early on. I was able to suss out the correct Rules As Intended in every case after a single reading of the class, but there's enough ambiguity to the wording that an inexperienced player might find themselves lost (or a malicious player might find themselves tempted to exploit the Rules As Written). I can't hold this fault too strongly against the book, but it is a bit jarring, if only due to the fact that the rules text of the rest of the material (which far, far outnumbers the Hadou techniques) is very meticulous. The second is that the core class offers no way to attain an enhancement bonus or weapon properties on its attacks, which is a problematic oversight for an iterative attack focused class – solved by allowing an amulet of mighty fists to affect the class's form infusions. That said, the authors were very quick to answer all the questions I had about clarity (too verbose to repeat here), and offered easy solutions to the few problems I noted, so I would strongly recommend any would-be player or GM of a Kinetic Shinobi give a brief read over N. Jolly's and Onyx Tanuki's clarifications on the Paizo Product Discussion page unless or until the text is updated following the date of this review (3/10/17).
Overall, I give the Kinetic Shinobi 4.5/5 Stars (rounded up for this platform), for excellent flavor that fills a badly needed niche, creative and fun mechanical design, and a body of work that is high in both quantity and quality, having extraordinarily few issues for a fully featured class.
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |