General Prestige Class : Shadow Sun Ninja

"Even the brightest light must cast a shadow." - Doomveil, initiate of the Shadow Sun clan

A Shadow Sun ninja is a martial artist who studies the balance between good and evil, light and dark. Founded by a reformed half-fiend, this fighting school teaches its students to find power in balance. A Shadow Sun ninja uses dark energies to drain his foe's life, but then turns and uses the power of light to lend that stolen strength to an ally. A Shadow Sun ninja is a study in contrasts. She knows that evil lurks in the hearts of all living creatures. Even the purest of the pure suffer temptation. By exploring her inner demons, bringing them into the light, and accepting them as part of her soul, she achieves a deeper understanding of herself and the strength within her. A Shadow Sun ninja would argue that denying, rather than accepting, one's base impulses would be the same as refusing to use one's left arm.

Requirements

To qualify to become a Shadow Sun Ninja, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:

Class Skills

The Shadow Sun ninja's class skills are Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Escape Artist, Hide, Jump, Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (religion), Knowledge (the planes), Listen, Martial Lore, Move Silently, Perform, Profession, Sense Motive, Spot, Swim, and Tumble.

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Class Features

A Shadow Sun ninja is a stealthy, unarmed warrior who draws on the power of light and dark. Many of her abilities come in two forms. She must use the first form of the power before she can use the second. A Shadow Sun ninja cloaks herself in darkness to hide from her enemies, then leaps from the shadows with a burst of light to blind her foes.

Maneuvers: At 1st, 3rd, 6th, and 9th level, you gain a new maneuver known from the Setting Sun or Shadow Hand disciplines. You must meet a maneuver's prerequisites to learn it. You add your full Shadow Sun ninja levels to your initiator level to determine your total initiator level and your highest-level maneuvers known.

At 5th level and 10th level, you gain an additional maneuvers readied per day.

Stances Known: At 5th level, you learn a new martial stance from the Setting Sun or Shadow Hand disciplines. You must meet a stance's prerequisite to learn it.

Monk Abilities: Your add your class level to your monk level to determine your class-based AC bonus, unarmed damage, unarmored speed bonus, penalty on your attacks when using your flurry of blows ability, and the number of daily attempts of your Stunning Fist feat.

If you have no monk levels, you gain the AC bonus of a monk whose level equals your Shadow Sun ninja level. In addition, you gain additional uses of the Stunning Fist feat as a monk. (Your non-monk, non-Shadow Sun ninja class levels provide one use per four levels and your monk, and Shadow Sun ninja class levels provide one use per level.)

You do not count your class levels for the purpose of determining when you gain any other monk class features, such. as bonus fears, evasion, or other special abilities.

Touch of the Shadow Sun (Su): A Shadow Sun ninja strikes a careful balance between light and dark, good and evil. Although your heart is dedicated to good, you know that the shadow of evil will always be a part of you. This realization, along with careful control of your ki energy, allows you to wield the energy of both the dark and light aspects of your being. This understanding and mastery allows you to do damage with one attack, then turn and heal an ally with the reverse of that harmful energy.

With a melee touch attack made as a standard action, you can deal negative energy damage equal to your base unarmed damage + your Wis modifier. Note that undead are healed this attack, since it uses negative energy.

In the round after you use this ability, you can touch a creature as a standard action and heal an amount of damage equal to the damage you dealt with your negative energy touch on the previous round. If the target of this healing touch makes no effort to prevent you from touching him you can touch the creature as a swift action.

You cannot use both aspects of this ability on the same round, nor can you use the negative energy touch again in a round after you have already successfully used it. After you channel negative energy into a creature, you convert that energy into a positive energy charge that prevents you from using the negative energy aspect of this ability until positive energy has been discharged.

Flame of the Shadow Sun (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, you can create a protective cloak of negative energy by using your ki. This cloak absorbs cold damage. You can then gather this energy, transform it, and unleash it as a searing attack.

As an immediate action, you can shroud yourself in shimmering, dark energy that provides resistance to cold 10 until the start of your next turn. If this resistance reduces the damage you take from any attack or effect, you can take a swift action on your next turn to hurl a bolt of fiery energy with a range of 60 feet. This bolt requires a ranged touch attack to hit and deals 2d6 points of fire damage.

Light within Darkness (Su): From 4th level on, the darkness can not muffle your inner light. Rather, the shadows cause it to seethe and roil as the light within you struggles to break free. If you make a melee attack against an opponent on the round after you make a successful Hide check, you burst to a searing corona of light. All opponents within 60 feet of you that failed to detect you while you were hiding must make Fortitude saves (DC 10 + 1/2 your character level + your Wis modifier) or be blinded for 1 round. Creatures who are aware of the ninja, such as those who made successful Spot checks to notice her, are unaffected by this attack.

Darkness within Light (Su): You know that while light cannot exist without darkness, the opposite is also true. By using your ki and closing your eyes, you view the world in a vague, shadowy form. Those also trapped within darkness appear clear and distinct before you.

Starting at 5th level, you can close your eyes and willfully ignore any other senses that confer the ability to pinpoint the location of a creature (such as blindsense, blindsight, and scent). You become effectively blinded, but you gain a special benefit on attacks made against targets that are also blinded or effectively blinded. Against such foes, you ignore the drawbacks for fighting while blinded. Instead, you gain a +4 bonus on melee attack rolls and a +4 bonus on melee damage rolls against such enemies. In addition, if you have the Stunning Fist feat, blinded opponents take a -2 penalty on their saves to resist your stunning attacks.

You suffer the penalties for being blinded and deafened until the start of your next turn. The blindness cannot be negated through any means, magical or mundane, until that time. You gain the benefit of this ability if you willingly turn off your sense of sight or if some effect, such as a blindness spell, robs you of your sight.

Void of the Shadow Sun (Su): You eventually learn to draw upon the power of light to shield you from attacks. Even if an opponent manages to breach this shield, it is not destroyed. Rather than fade away, the shield shifts into an aura of icy cold, black energy that can harm your enemies.

Starting at 7th level, as a swift action you can wreath yourself in a halo of bright, flaming light. You gain a +2 deflection bonus to AC. This ability lasts until the start of your next turn. If an opponent successfully hits you despite your improved AC, you lose the deflection bonus to AC and you cannot use this ability again on your next turn. However, you can project a pulse of frigid, black energy in a 30-foot-radius burst around you as a standard action in the round after your shield is pierced. Enemies in this area take 8d6 points of cold damage, with a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 your character level + your Wis modifier) for half damage.

Child of Shadow and Light (Su): As you learn to harness the power of your ki, you become capable of spilling forth light and dark energy. Beginning at 8th level, you can focus your power, engulfing the area around you in alternating patterns of light and dark.

While you are in a Setting Sun or Shadow Hand stance, you can forgo its normal benefit as a swift action to gain the effect of child of shadow and light. This ability lasts as long as you would maintain the Setting Sun or Shadow Hand stance, or as described below. You can also stop using child of shadow and light and resume gaining the normal benefit of the stance as a swift action.

If you use this ability to exert light energy, the area around you fills with blinding light. All enemies within a 60-foot-radius burst become dazzled for 1 round. This is a 9th-level spell for purposes of determining how it interacts with magical darkness.

If you exert dark energy, the area around you is cast into total darkness for 1 round in a 60-foot radius burst. This ability is considered a 9th-level spell for the purposes of determining how it interacts with magical light.

As long as you maintain this stance, you alternate between projecting light and darkness. If this ability is active at the beginning of your turn, its effects reverse. If it projects light it now projects darkness, and vice versa.

You cannot activate this ability in the same round in which you end its effect.

Balance of Light and Dark (Su): As a Shadow Sun ninja, you strive to control your dark side, even as you use it to power your martial arts. Sometimes, particularly when you face a truly daunting foe, you can allow your inner shadow to run rampant. In such cases, you undergo a terrible transformation. When you adopt this wrathful battle aspect, your foes are doomed. Yet, each time you use this ability, you teeter closer to damnation.

At 10th level, once per day as a swift action, you can transform into a creature of pure darkness for 1 minute. Your body and all items you carry when you transform become a deep, inky black. You gain immunity to critical hits, mind-affecting abilities, death attacks, energy drain, and poison. You also gain a +8 bonus on Hide checks. Negative energy attacks, such as inflict spells, heal rather than harm you. You gain a +4 bonus on attacks against creatures in areas of darkness or shadowy illumination.

In addition to these benefits, with each successful unarmed attack you make, you can choose to bestow one negative level on your opponent. You heal 5 points of damage for each negative level you bestow. These negative levels disappear in 1 hour.

If the subject has at least as many negative levels as HD, it dies. Each negative level gives a creature a -1 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, ability checks, and effective level (for determining the power, duration, DC, and other details of spells or special abilities). Additionally, a spellcaster loses one spell or spell slot from her highest available level. Negative levels stack.

At the end of your transformation, you take 1 point of Constitution damage per negative level you bestowed. If this damage drops your Constitution to 0 or lower, your body dissipates into an inky cloud. Unless you are restored life by true resurrection, you rise in 1d4 days as a vampire. Your alignment becomes evil, though your alignment on the law-chaos axis remains the same. You are now a dedicated champion of evil and an NPC. You retain access to all your abilities in this prestige class and lack a normal vampire's vulnerability to sunlight. Your vampiric body forms in the spot your mortal form perished.

Legend holds that the souls of Shadow Sun ninjas who are corrupted in this manner are imprisoned within the Iron City of Dis, Dispater's capital within the depths of Hell. A successful quest to free the soul from its prison cell destroys the vampire and restores the Shadow Sun ninja to life. Legend holds that several mighty Shadow Sun heroes languish within Dispater's prison, waiting to be freed.

Shadow Sun NinjaHit Dice: d8
CLBABFortRefWillMan KnownMan ReadiedStances KnownSpecial
1st+0+2+2+2100Monk Abilities, Touch of the Shadow Sun
2nd+1+3+3+3000Flame of the Shadow Sun
3rd+2+3+3+3100-
4th+3+4+4+4000Light within darkness
5th+3+4+4+4011Darkness within light
6th+4+5+5+5100-
7th+5+5+5+5010Void of the Shadow Sun
8th+6+6+6+6000Child of shadow and light
9th+6+6+6+6100-
10th+7+7+7+7010Balance of light and dark

Shadow Sun Ninja Lore

Characters with ranks in Knowledge (arcana) can researching Shadow Sun ninjas to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including the information from lower DCs.

One does not find a Shadow Sun ninja. Rather, a ninja finds you. Sometimes, gangs of toughs pose as members of this prestige class to strike terror in commoners and other weak folk. Such antics end quickly if a real Shadow Sun ninja hears of them.

Playing a Shadow Sun Ninja

As a Shadow Sun ninja, you walk the line between good and evil. You have seen the darkness that lurks within your own heart. As a heroic soul, you know that if darkness resides in you, it must dwell in every mortal's heart. You are naturally suspicious of others and prone to seek out hidden threats. Even while sitting in the midst of your companions in the warmest and welcoming of environments, you feel the darkness clawing at your soul, and you see the lurking evil that waits in the hearts of all creatures. You pursue good for its own sake. If you arrive in a town beset by evil and drive out or slay the villains, you are likely to leave without saying a word or making any effort to gather acclaim or befriend those you saved. A few months later, you might return and ensure that your good deeds have endured. You know that when evil falls people who were good and welcoming when you left might have turned to tyranny in your absence.

Once you have completed your training and left the Shadow Sun enclave where you learned the order's secrets, you can expect little contact with other ninjas. The process of joining the Shadow Suns forces you to look at the worst parts of your soul without flinching. Although the ninjas of this order are strong enough to endure such trials, few of them wish to be reminded of them. Shadow Sun dojos are usually austere, isolated places with the ambiance of a graveyard or a tomb. Only the Shadowspeaker, the dojo's head trainer and master dwells there on a permanent basis. A Shadow Sun ninja seeks a Shadowspeaker's advice only under the most pressing circumstances.

Combat

In battle, you alternate between stealth and a vicious, frontal assault. Your training focuses on the duality of your soul, and this comes through in your tactics. Many of your abilities shift between light and dark effects. Thus, you might lurk in the shadows to take advantage of darkness abilities, then leap into the fray to bathe your opponents in avenging light. As the shadow returns, you slip away to start the process again.

The Spring Attack feat is an excellent choice for you, as is Blind-Fight. Darkness shrouds you, but you have no special ability to see through it. A magic item that grants darkvision provides you with an important edge. The original Shadow Sun ninjas were half-orcs and half-demons. When they developed this fighting style, they gave little thought to creatures who were blind in the dark.

Advancement

Those who seek the Shadow Sun path are usually tormented by some deep divide within their personalities. If you join this prestige class, you are likely no different. Half-orcs who struggle to walk a righteous path despite racially motivated hatred and taunts find the Shadow Sun path appealing, particularly if those same individuals already follow the monk's path and make an effort to control the darkness that lies within them.

Once you join the Shadow Sun order and master its basic teachings (in game terms, take 1st level in this class), you are on your own. The path of the Shadow Sun is one meant for the individual. Others cannot help you find the balance between your good and evil natures. Only you can achieve this. Some Shadow Sun ninjas never again cross paths with a member of this order once they leave their dojo.

As mentioned above, Spring Attack and Blind-Fight are excellent feat choices for members of this prestige class. You should also consider gaining ranks in Hide, Move Silently, tumble, and Balance. These skills allow you to move about the battlefield more easily.

Resources

Shadow Sun ninjas rely only upon themselves. Some of them long for the companionship of good, reliable friends. Thus, they frequently join with heroic adventuring bands to light injustice. However, Shadow Sun ninjas rarely develop deep friendships.

Many Shadow Sun ninjas adopt new names to reflect the path they walk. A ninja uses this name when dealing with others but sometimes, when she forms a particularly close bond with an ally, she might share her birth name. This act shows deep trust and faith. To a Shadow Sun ninja, her old name represents the turmoil that raged within her before she learned to control her dark side. In essence, a ninja is giving her companion the name of the dark twin that resides within her soul. When a Shadow Sun ninja overextends her powers and falls into darkness, vampire that arises in her place typically uses her birth name.

Source: Tome of Battle

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