The yagudo are fiercely defensive of their ancestral home of Mindartia, having occupied the lands of the continent long before the founding of Windurst. These feathery warriors have a vast knowledge of the forests, hills, and plains of their homeland, allowing for deadly guerilla tactics. Unsuspecting prey may find themselves ambushed by zealous assassins who strike from above.
The nokizaru is an archetype of the ninja class, available only to yagudo ninjas.
Archetype Main Ability Scores:
The nokizaru mainly focuses on STR or DEX for martial combat and WIS for her class features.
Archetype Feature Replacements:
1st – Throw Anything. 5th – Ki Power. 6th – Light Steps. 8th – Ninja Trick. 10th – Cloaked in Shadows. 19th – Hidden Master.
Elevated Strike (Ex)
At 1st level, when the nokizaru makes a melee attack with one of the weapons listed in the yagudo’s Swordtrained racial trait and attacks on or charges from higher ground, her first attack of the round deals sneak attack damage.
This ability replaces throw anything.
Utsusemi (Su)
At 5th level, the nokizaru can create 1d4 duplicate afterimages of herself that conceal her true location. This ability functions as Mirror Image, using her ninja level as her caster level. Using this ability is a standard action that uses up 1 ki point. At 9th level, the nokizaru creates 1d4+1 afterimages, and may use this ability as a move action for 2 ki points. At 13th level, she creates 1d4+2 afterimages, and may use this ability as a swift action for 3 ki points. This ability counts as the Shadow Clone ki power for the purposes of prerequisites.
This ability replaces a ki power gained at 5th level.
Monkey Climb (Ex)
At 6th level, when utilizing light steps, a nokizaru may also gain a climb speed equal to her base land speed. This climb speed is not doubled by light steps, but may be increased with effects such as that of haste. This functions the same as light steps, except removing the limitation of not being able to move across vertical surfaces.
This ability modifies light steps.
Cornering Strike (Ex)
At 8th level, the nokizaru may use her elevated strike class feature with each weapon attack she makes instead of just the first. Additionally, for the purposes of using sneak attack, she may use natural rock walls and trees at least 5 ft. in length or diameter to flank her enemies. She does not gain a bonus to attack rolls when using rock walls or trees in place of allies for flanking.
This ability replaces a ninja trick gained at 8th level.
Assassinate From Above (Su)
At 10th level, a nokizaru may spend a ki point as a full-round action to leap to a target at a lower elevation than her, and then make a full attack with her melee weapons. She gains the bonuses (and AC penalty) of charging from higher ground for all of these attacks, and does not take any fall damage from the leap. The range of this leap is 50 ft. – both horizontal and vertical distance, increasing by 10 ft. for every two ninja levels after 10th. This leap must put her within reach of her target.
This ability replaces cloaked in shadows.
Aerial Assassin (Su)
At 19th level, a nokizaru can become one with the wind. She can, as a standard action, cast fly on herself. This fly spell allows her to gain bonuses for attacking on or charging from higher ground, provided she is at a higher elevation than her target. She uses her ninja level as her caster level for this ability. Using this ability consumes 2 ki points from her ki pool. In addition, the nokizaru treats fall damage as if she fell 100 ft. less than she actually fell.
This ability replaces hidden master.
