#trailgaunt

(art from Wilderness Origins, taken from Nathaniel James’ Artstation)

Today marks the end of the final first-party ninja archetype (there were only 5, admittedly) that we’ll be covering on the blog, so let’s take a look!

It’s hard to do characters that are flashy and over the top while also having them with a job that ostensibly requires them to be stealthy most of the time. More often than not, this is played for laughs when the former quality absolutely shattering any illusions of succeeding at the latter.

However, it is important to remember that there are many ways to conceal oneself, and one such way is distraction and discombobulation.

Plenty achieve this with fire or various tricks to inhibit the senses, but for characters with magical abilities, sometimes the answer is a little more green.

Originating with ghorans and almost certainly limited to other planty folk like leshies or perhaps the very rare humanoid, I present the petal ninja, a specialist in conjuring and transmuting oneself into clouds of petals and pollen to befuddle foes and avoid notice.

No doubt you’ve seen plenty of visual media where a character vanishes or reappears in a cloud of leaves or petals (most commonly sakura blossoms), as well as using such whirlwinds of plant matter to befuddle their foes, and that’s exactly what these ninja do, tipping this particular sort of ninja into the “supernatural badass” zone.

Some might fight to protect their people using subterfuge, while others may be little more than mercenaries. Regardless, petal ninjas has a reputation for being able to sneak into impossible places, perhaps more so than even other shinobi.

So, with that in mind, let’s take a look and see what they have to work with!

With an expenditure of ki and focus, these ninja can conjure up swirling storms of petals nearby. At their base level, they provide concealment for them, making them hard to hit and easy to hide in. However, by focusing, they can add in additional effect, ranging from being near-blinding to infused with toxic pollen to even be mesmerizing, forcing foes to make saves against increasingly more harmful effects. However, this comes at a cost. The more they focus on the potency of their clouds, the less they can focus on their enemy’s vitals, reducing the amount of harm they can do with attacks that strike for their foe’s weak points until the storm passes.

They can also transform themselves into a cloud of petals for a few seconds, becoming insubstantial but not invicible. However, it can be difficult to tell them apart from any other cluster of plant matter, making it easy for them to vanish, drop into hiding and strike foes from a new angle, or simply use it to pass into a secure location through holes small enough to let delicate flower petals through.

They also have an ability to alter local light levels, creating areas of darkness or brighter light as needed, perhaps to thwart enemy ninja or harm the eyes of light-sensitive foes.

While a ninja thrives on being completely undetected, these shinobi specialize in battlefield control when stealth fails and they must fight. The conjured storms of petals are perfect for combat stealth to get a foe to lose track of you while you set up sneak attack after sneak attack, and adding additional effects is useful for debilitating or suppressing foes when corralling and weakening foes is more important than setting up the killing blow. What’s more, the ability to briefly become a cloud of petals is not just good for mobility, but also for getting out of a scrape while simultaneously setting up for another attack or clean getaway. The ability to alter light levels is… neat, but only super useful if the lighting is already within one stage of what you want it to be. Spending multiple ki points to try and turn an area of bright light into total darkness is a waste. Beyond that, however, I recommend a build with other battlefield control options, as well as tricks that add additional debilitating effects to your sneak attack, negating the reduced damage that comes with making use of their abilities.

Vanishing into flower petals and reappearing again is a powerful aesthetic that I’m sure we can all appreciate, and that signature style no doubt is very precious to the ghoran people, a thing that they created, which despite being unique enough to put the potential blame on their kind after a job, makes it perfect for sending a message when needed.

Having dedicated their life to protecting societal order, but realizing that doing so meant sometimes in “pruning” undesirable elements, Serenity the aphorite chose to become a shinobi, one specializing in using their cosmic dust to befuddle foes and vanish from sight. Now, they serve as a mercenary, taking contracts against anarchists and those who abuse the law alike, as long as their client provides incontrovertible proof first.

The ghoran village of Tsubaki has long been guarded from intruders by it’s guardian shinobi, that use their vanishing arts to lure those that seek their village astray, getting them lost in the confusing forests until their expire. However, this has led to a growing problem with trailgaunts, as the poor souls they abandon arise as perpetually lost but ever malevolent undead.

(art by Tatiana Vetrova on Artstation)

 While magic can provide discreet ways to get a message across, there always seem to be limitations in that regard, not to mention ways to intercept even those messages.

Sometimes, you just need a good old-fashioned courier, one that is discreet and capable in order to get a message across.

We’ve actually covered an archetype like this in the past, the so-called “Impervious Messenger” bards, who use magic to memorize and protect information so they can share it with the recipient later.

The code runner comes from Ultimate Intrigue as well, and serves much the same function albeit more mundanely, using mnemonic exercises to memorize the message perfectly so that they need not carry around written messages that could be stolen, and are resistant to methods used to try and extract that information from their heads.

These are the cross-country information runners that might serve armies on the move, or the silent couriers in the night making sure an important missive gets to where it needs to go, no matter what likes in wait to intercept.

 Whether they have some inborn gift, or years of training in that regard, these rangers learn the art of memorizing the written or spoken word, able to memorize it so perfectly that even if they do not understand it, they can replicate the memorized text or words perfectly later, that is until they need to memorize a new such message.

They also boast a strong resistance to divination magic, helping to protect their location and their minds from being discovered and intruded upon by magic.

A fairly simple archetype, code runners shave off a few things, most notably hunter’s bond, but the reward is being able to absorb and replicate information, which can prove quite useful in non-combat scenarios. For the combat side of things, you’re going to want to lean into the favored enemies/terrains and your combat style to make up the difference left by a lack of bond, as well as spells that do the same, favoring control and buffing to shore up your weaknesses. Beyond that, pick the style and build that suits you.

 Interestingly, while the most thematic use for these rangers is carrying messages, that’s hardly the only thing they can use their incredible memory for. Indeed, being able to take an hour to memorize text or a message can also be used for espionage, allowing a spy to take detailed information back to their leaders without having incriminating contraband on their person.

  Traveling through the wild, the party stumbles on a recently deceased body riddled with poisoned arrows. While he does have some useful gear on him and could be properly laid to rest, curious spellcasters that ask questions of his spirit discover he died trying to get a warning to a nearby city. If they fail to discover this message, the messenger relates it to them himself when he rises later as a trailgaunt.

 Though they are self-serving and craven creatures, the Dark Lord relies on the boggards in the marshes bordering his domain to keep him abreast of any intruders. The limited magic of the boggards does mean that they rely on couriers to keep in contact with him, however, which a sly group of heroes can take advantage of by intercepting them.