Welcome to Guidance, Private Sanctuary’s source for tips and techniques for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, written by Everyman Gamer Alexander Augunas. Today, we’re going to be looking at a catfolk ninja Iconic Design.

Sometimes I have big, grandiose ideas for why I create the builds that I create. Other times I just wanna make a catfolk ninja. Today is the latter.

Build Concept

Lets talk about the core components for this build.

• Catfolk: Catfolk are the centerpiece of today’s build. Don’t ask me why, I guess I’ve come down with cat scratch fever or something. (God, I hope not….) In earnest, catfolk are an AWESOME race. They have some of the best favored class options and racial feats of any race in the game, as today’s build attests to.
• Ninja: In my mind, ninja is the perfect class for catfolk. Dexterity and Charisma are both excellent for the class and ninja can select the unique catfolk rogue talents that exist in the game. It’s a little sad that the ninja alternate class is now substantially worse in the wake of the unchained rogue (a problem that I solved in my Everyman Gaming product, Unchained Cunning), but the theme’s too good for us to say too down about it for long.
• Claw Blades: Ever hear of this weapon? Maybe not. Its from the Advanced Race Guide, and its specifically for catfolk with claws. It lets them use their claws as a manufactured weapon instead of a natural weapon, meaning you can make iterative attacks with your claws using your base attack bonus instead of making one full-base attack bonus claw per hand. It’s a cool option, and its one we’ll be making use of in this build.

Early Levels (1–7)

• Classes: ninja (scout) 7
• Feats: Two-Weapon Fighting (1st), Weapon Finesse (Bonus), Piranha Attack (3rd), Nimble Striker (5th), Catfolk Exemplar: fast sprinter (7th)
• Abilities: ki pool, no trace +2, poison use, ninja tricks, scout’s charge, sneak attack +4d6
• Ninja Tricks: finesse rogue (2nd), vicious claws (4th), shadow clone (6th)

So the basic idea is to build a ninja with a strong emphasis on speed and agility, befitting a catfolk. Lucky for us, the ninja alternate class qualifies for the rogue’s scout archetype because the scout only replaces class features that both classes possess. (It’s a special rule for alternate classes, and this is one of the only archetypes in the game that said rule applies to.) This means that at Level 4, whenever our kitty charges, that charge attack deals sneak attack damage. Hooray!

Catfolk have some AWESOME racial rogue talents that a ninja can pick up using her rogue talent ninja trick. Picking Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat for second level is a little bit more important, but at 4th level the feat of choice is vicious claws, an awesome talent that allows our rogue to deal d8s of sneak attack damage when attacking with her claws. Expect some table variation regarding whether or not you can benefit from this rogue talent while using cats claws, but the answer at my table (based upon the weapon’s wording) is yes. From there, the shadow clone rogue talent rounds out a very solid list of choices.

The feat choices seem pretty obvious given our focus, but you might be wondering why I opted for the fast sprinter version of the Catfolk Exemplar feat instead of the sharp claws version (the latter of which we’ll be getting to during the mid levels). Even though sharp claws improves damage, fast sprinter gives us something far more valuable; +10 bonus feat of movement whenever our catfolk charges, which plays nicely with the scout’s charge ability. Now, our catfolk can charge an extra 20 feet (10 for her racial trait, 10 from the feat) AND her attack at the end of the charge is a sneak attack. Radical!

Let’s continue with this build at the mid levels, shall we?

Mid Levels (8 –14)

• Classes: ninja (scout) 14
• Feats: Two-Weapon Fighting (1st), Weapon Finesse (Bonus), Piranha Attack (3rd), Nimble Striker (5th), Catfolk Exemplar: fast sprinter (7th), Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (9th), Lunge (11th), Catfolk Exemplar: sharp claws (13th), Claw Pounce (Bonus)
• Abilities: ki pool, no trace +4, master tricks, poison use, ninja tricks, scout’s charge, skirmisher, sneak attack +7d6
• Ninja Tricks: finesse rogue (2nd), vicious claws (4th), shadow clone (6th), vanishing step (8th), invisible blade (10th), combat trick: Claw Pounce (12th), evasion (14th)

Nimble Striker is one of my favorite feats in the game, simply because it removes the AC penalty for charging. Considering how charge-focused our ninja is at early levels, it makes sense that I built it into the class’s framework at Level 5. But now in the mid levels, that feat becomes even more of a shining star, as we add the Lunge feat to the list of things that Nimble Striker improves. Now after moving into position, our catfolk ninja can drastically increase her threatened area with a whirlwind of slasing claws of doom. Awesome, right? We also pick up the shark claws manifestation of Catfolk Exemplar, which increases our catfolk’s claw damage to 1d6. Better still, we get the delicious combo of scout’s charge and Claw Pounce. We’ve gone over scout’s charge before, but adding Claw Pounce effectively allows our catfolk to make a full-attack with her claws at the end of a charge. And all of those attacks deal sneak attack damage, thanks to scout’s charge. This means that our ninja can put the hurt on an opponent early on during the first round of combat, considering that she’s got a 50 foot speed while charging (for a total movement of 100 feet during the charge). Take that in for a second. Our catfolk can charge one entire longbow range increment without taking any penalties AND make a full-attack sneak attack at the end of that charge, including some delicious Two-Weapon Fighting tactics thanks to our feat investments. That’s just wicked.

Endgame (15+)

• Classes: ninja (scout) 20
• Feats: Two-Weapon Fighting (1st), Weapon Finesse (Bonus), Piranha Attack (3rd), Nimble Striker (5th), Catfolk Exemplar: fast sprinter (7th), Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (9th), Lunge (11th), Catfolk Exemplar: sharp claws (13th), Claw Pounce (Bonus), Greater Two-Weapon Fighting (15th), Weapon Focus: claws (Bonus), Double Slice (17th), Two-Weapon Rend (19th)
• Abilities: hidden master, ki pool, no trace +6, master tricks, poison use, ninja tricks, scout’s charge, skirmisher, sneak attack +10d6
• Ninja Tricks: finesse rogue (2nd), vicious claws (4th), shadow clone (6th), vanishing step (8th), invisible blade (10th), combat trick: Claw Pounce (12th), evasion (14th), weapon training (16th), pressure points (18th), deadly scratch (20th)

No big surprises here. Some more awesome Two-Weapon Fighting abilities to make our ninja’s claw attacks even more deadly. After you grab Claw Pounce, the rest of the build is sort of just whatever you want it to be because you’re full-attack pouncing with sneak attack at anything within 100 feet of you. I’m good with that. (Especially if you pick up a pair of featherstep soles for your boots; then you just laugh off difficult terrain too.)

And that’s the build for this week! What do you think? How likely are you to throw a squad of catfolk ninjas at your players now? Or maybe you’d like to play one yourself? Would you do anything to tweak this build? Leave your questions and comments below, and I’ll be back with another awesome article on Monday. Take care!

Alexander “Alex” Augunas has been playing roleplaying games since 2007, which isn’t nearly as long as 90% of his colleagues. Alexander is an active freelancer for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and is best known as the author of the Pact Magic Unbound series by Radiance House. Alex is the owner of Everyman Gaming, LLC and is often stylized as the Everyman Gamer in honor of Guidance’s original home. Alex also cohosts the Private Sanctuary Podcast, along with fellow blogger Anthony Li, and you can follow their exploits on Facebook in the 3.5 Private Sanctuary Group, or on Alex’s Twitter, @AlJAug.