Now you see him. Now you're seeing stars. The ninja opens every fight with a knife in the back and ends it in a cloud of smoke two rooms away.
A ninja fights on his own terms or not at all. You start invisible, you strike for enormous bonus damage from behind, and when the fight goes badly you throw a smoke bomb and simply stop being there. No other character in Britannia gets to decide when a fight ends.
Ninjitsu is the engine. Animal Form turns you into a rabbit or a wolf — faster, unnoticed, and able to walk past things that would eat a person. Surprise Attack and Backstab punish anything that hasn't spotted you. Mirror Image splits off decoys. Death Strike plants a delayed wound that gets worse if the victim moves.
Be honest with yourself about the difficulty. This is the hardest profession on the newsstand to train, because Hiding and Stealth are slow, dull skills with no shortcut, and the ninja is weak until both are high. The payoff is the most fun character in the realm. The price is the most tedious first week.
You get 700 skill points in total, which is seven skills at 100 (Grandmaster). Here is a sheet that works, and why each line is on it. You can load this exact spread on the hero sheet in the magazine and slide the numbers around.
| Skill | Points | Why it's here |
|---|---|---|
| Ninjitsu | 100 | Animal Form, Smoke Bomb, Surprise Attack, Mirror Image, Death Strike. The whole identity. |
| Fencing | 100 | Weapon skill. Kryss and daggers are the ninja's weapons — fast, and they pair with backstabs. |
| Tactics | 100 | Damage multiplier. Your opening strike is multiplied by this too, so it matters more here than anywhere. |
| Anatomy | 100 | Damage, and bandage speed. |
| Hiding | 100 | Go invisible on demand. Without this at 100 you are simply a bad fighter. |
| Stealth | 100 | Move while hidden. This is what separates a ninja from someone crouching in a corner. |
| Healing | 100 | Bandages. No shield, light armour, and a habit of being deep behind enemy lines — you need these. |
| Total | 700 | of 700 |
Stealth barely trains until Hiding is high, and Hiding alone just lets you sit still. Train Hiding to 80 before you seriously start on Stealth, or you'll waste a week.
Fencing weapons are fast and light, which suits a hit-and-vanish fighter. If you'd rather hit once very hard, Swordsmanship works on the same sheet — just expect to be seen more.
Skills go up by using them, and they go up fastest on a task that is just barely hard for you. Climb the rungs in order — each one stops paying off, and that's your cue to move up.
NPC trainers for Fencing, Tactics, Anatomy, Healing and Hiding. Then the ninja's rite of passage: stand somewhere quiet and press Hiding over and over. It is as boring as it sounds. Put something on in the background.
Resist the urge to go fight. Get Hiding into the 80s before anything else — every other ninja skill depends on it. Hide in a corner of your house, or anywhere no one will interrupt you.
With Hiding high, hide and then walk. Each successful step is a Stealth gain. Walk laps around a room, a house, a town square. Stealth is the second grind and there's no way around it either.
Learn Animal Form and live in it — travelling as a wolf trains Ninjitsu while you go about your day. Then start ambushing: stealth up to orcs and ratmen in Despise, open with Surprise Attack, finish, re-hide, repeat. This is the loop you'll use forever.
Walk into places far above your weight class and take what you came for. A stealthed ninja can cross a dungeon that would kill him in a straight fight. Bring smoke bombs and know your exit before you go in.
Buy this before you do anything else. Total damage to your purse is small, and every item on the list earns itself back in an hour.
| What | Where | What it's for |
|---|---|---|
| A Book of Ninjitsu | Ninja NPCs, Zento | The ability book. Nothing works without it. |
| A kryss or dagger | Weaponsmith | Fast, light, and the classic backstab weapon. |
| Smoke bombs | Made with Ninjitsu, or bought in Zento | Your escape hatch. Never leave town without several. |
| Light leather armour | Tailor | Heavy armour penalises stealth and stamina. Stay light. |
| 200 bandages | Tailor | Your only real healing. |
| Shuriken | Ninja NPCs | Thrown, and they can carry poison. Lovely for opening a fight from out of reach. |
The right room makes training three times faster. These are the spots worth a rune.
The ninja home town. Book, trainers, shuriken and smoke bombs all in one place.
The best Hiding and Stealth training ground there is: quiet, private, and nobody wanders past to break your concentration.
Gentle enough that a half-trained ninja survives being spotted. Where you learn the ambush loop.
Once Stealth is high, the whole map opens up. Deep dungeon floors, guarded rooms, the far side of a champion spawn — a ninja goes where a knight cannot.
The first week is genuinely boring, and a half-trained ninja is weaker than a half-trained anything else. Start with a Knight, learn the world, then come back and build this one properly.
Don't sit and grind Ninjitsu. Turn into a wolf and use it for everyday travelling — faster movement, fewer things attack you, and the skill climbs the whole time. Free progress.
Plate makes noise, drains stamina and hurts your stealth. If you find yourself wearing it, you've accidentally built a bad knight.
A smoke bomb buys you seconds, not safety. Decide where you're running to before you walk into the room. Ninjas who improvise die in the dark.
Britannia runs on favours. These are the people you want in your party and on your friends list.