Viper Style

This page is being revised with build information yet to come.

The Ninja Spy possesses highly specialized training that, if put to the right use, can lead to ultimate victory, even against an overwhelming force.

Student Kiricletica, a Ninja Spy that began her first life by attempting to complete every adventure she could as a solo adventurer, without any hirelings or party members, devised an attack style that slows and damages many enemies but can also deliver catastrophic damage-over-time to tougher Orange- and Red-Named enemies.

Kiricletica (along with Teacher Saekee) dubbed the technique "Viper Style." The Viper Style is a high-stealth Monk assassin that can bypass high volumes of enemies, reaching places and targets with less fighting.

Viper Style is applied by combining, in order

• Freezing the Lifeblood: Water/Dark/Water finishing move that paralyzes enemies for up to one minute, often holding them fast for that full minute since they must make a high Fortitude save (DC 10+Monk level+WIS modifier) rather than a low Will save from weapon-effect paralysis.
• Touch of Despair: Dark/Dark/Dark finishing move that decreases enemy fortification and increases negative energy vulnerability by 25%. Any Ninjutsu effect that's active will be activated with this finisher.
• Poisoned Soul: Ninjutsu training that, on delivering a Touch of Despair, injects a total of 5 stacks of Ninja Poison into an enemy over 30 seconds. An enemy can gain up to 20 stacks of poison.

Viper Style relies on the use of shortswords or kamas to inject Ninja Poison.

While you can perform the Freezing finisher, you cannot use Poisoned Soul or inject Ninja Poison (outside of the Poisoned Darts ability) while fighting unarmed or with quarterstaves. A piercing/slashing weapon is required. (Items and feats that claim such damage, such as Vorpal Strikes, Ivy Wraps, or Brawling Gloves, won't work.)

Likewise, while a shuriken can inject Ninja Poison on critical hits using the Sting of the Ninja ability, it cannot utilize the Freezing finisher nor can it use Ninjutsu abilities.

Many lesser enemies don't survive past the Freezing finisher if a Ninja Spy trains in the No Mercy ability where helpless enemies gain up to 30% more damage from your attacks. Any Sneak Attack bonuses you train also affect Helpless enemies.

Freezing the Lifeblood works on all humanoid creatures (not monstrous types) except Red-Named enemies. This means that lesser but dangerous Orange-Named enemies can be paralyzed and Ninja Poison can be injected at will, killing the mini-boss sometimes before they can ever attack.

Viper Style, as its name implies, suggests a more covert approach appropriate to Ninja Spies, just as a hunting cobra looks for an opportunity to strike its prey in secret and in silence.

If you assess your battle while in stealth, maneuvering yourself behind enemies and out of the line-of sight of others, you may find that some enemies can be struck with the Freezing attack, paralyzing that foe while not alerting others. This may allow you to return to Sneak, charge another Freezing finisher and immobilize as many enemies in that party as you can to isolate any leaders.

Viper Style allows you to add in other attacks.

• Unbalancing Strike: This is one of four Elemental Ki Strikes you can choose from the Ninja Spy tree. This attack is a Water move, so it can charge up the Freezing finisher while also causing a Bluff/Deception effect that spins the enemy away briefly, allowing you to avoid attacks from them.
• Touch of Death: Once an enemy has a Touch of Despair finisher, the Touch of Death's devastating 500-point negative energy attack is magnified by the Touch of Despair curse.
• Poison Exploit: Another Ninjutsu ability. Against very tough Red-Named enemies that are immune from paralysis, you can inject the maximum Ninja Poison you can into an enemy with Poisoned Soul and, after switching to Poison Exploit, use the Touch of Despair finisher to forcibly extract all stacks of Ninja Poison from the enemy at 1d30 damage per stack. If you train in the Deadly Exploits ability, the base damage goes up to 1d50 per stack, or at up to a base 1,000 points of damage (this is often higher due to the debuffing vulnerability and any untyped poisons that are also magnified).

Weapons that damage CON or Fortitude saves can improve Viper Style's effects. Weapons with untyped poison damage will have their poison damage magnified by the Ninja Poison's poison debuff of 5% per stack (up to 100% vulnerability).

Very few enemies are immune from both poison and negative energy, so note that Viper Style works best on living humanoids (this includes halflings, orcs, gnolls, wildmen and lizardmen). Living enemies with some or total immunity to Viper Style include

• Demons (immune to poison, immune to Freezing)
• Undead (skeletons immune to poison, healed by negative energy)
• Duergar (immune to all paralysis)
• Monstrous humanoids
• Giants (their Fortitude save is probably too high for Freezing)
• Warforged (immune to Freezing)
• "Living" spells
• Elementals
• Aberrations (immune to Freezing, Renders immune to poison)