Play Your Next 5E D&D Game as a Sewer Ninja

Over at Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted fulfill a request from someone in the Nerdarchy community to create a Assassin rogue/Gloom Stalker ranger multiclass character build for fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. Instead of going with some of the obvious choices we decided to come up with something a bit more unique with the race for our 5E D&D Sewer Ninja. We were also thinking about the upcoming release of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist for a character who would be fun in an urban adventure campaign setting. Let’s get into it.

Behind the CBG — Sewer Ninja

Every Character Build Guide we create considers the journey as much as the final outcome. We aim to present a guide suitable for any level of 5E D&D play whether you’re pursuing an epic campaign from start to finish, starting beyond 1st level or choosing a character for a one shot. Then we take those concepts and develop an NPC or creature version of the character build for DMs to incorporate into their games. All of this gets packaged up and laid out in a PDF you can find over at Dungeon Master’s Guild. We’ve got dozens of pay what you want products at DMG, many of them best sellers so if you want to check those out start with the Sewer Ninja here.

All about the character story

Each CBG starts with a character concept sticking to a particular schtick, from the Mind Breaker’s psyche crushing smites to the Sewer Ninja’s subterranean martial arts mastery. Sometimes puns and pop culture references instigate the creation of a CBG too — particularly with this one! At every step of the way we considered options for navigating a cityscape fast and undetected whenever urban adventure calls.

For us it’s important to consider who these characters are as individuals and why they follow these particular paths. One special thing to note with this CBG is while we always aim to make the journey to 20th level as practical as possible — none of these characters “come online” after an awkward slog through many levels — the Sewer Ninja fulfills the initial goals at 7th level. From here until 20th level they refine their techniques and build on the strong foundation established by earlier levels.

Looking back on this Copper Best Seller now over three years later there’s a few surprising things to note. First of all this is only our third CBG! It didn’t take us long to start really stretching those creative muscles after the Mind Breaker Paladin and Zen Archery Master. The Sewer Ninja also distinguishes itself because the character embodies the theme almost immediately thanks to the race and background choices alone. These early CBGs did a terrific job setting the tone for future iterations because of the strong narrative threads running through the entire adventuring career. Lastly although there’s many, many new 5E D&D character options available since this was originally created it nevertheless achieves the goals we set out to accomplish and remains a viable, exciting and fun character to play.

“Very well done! Before watching the video it was obvious from the video description you were doing TMNT. Wasn’t certain which one between Leonardo and Raphael until you mentioned duel daggers. Both had anger issues as Raph was constantly going off and Leo was constantly frustrated to the point they both fought it out. Growing up with the original TMNT I wholeheartedly appreciate this video!

“This might possibly be the best character to play through Dungeon of the Mad Mage with. At least in the early levels. If my Hexadin dies I am so playing this.”

“This is such a great f***ing video!! Bahaha because “Ninja turtle” is probably trademarked! They pretty much described EVERYTHING about a Ninja turtle without it being a “Ninja 🐢” !! Well done boys!!! Cowabunga dude!!!”— Comments from Nerdarchy the YouTube channel

Ninja Tortle NPC for 5E D&D

Full disclosure — the NPCs and creatures we make in CBGs are some of my favorite bits of 5E D&D content to create. We step back and look at the character build to find the standout features that feel like signature abilities. The juice! From there we consider what sort of person or people would possess or gain these abilities and build a stat block around them. More often than not the section of a CBG For Dungeon Masters presents a generic creature.

One component of this video series not present in the Sewer Ninja is a post-build discussion on how or why a Dungeon Master can use the character guide as an NPC or creature. Obviously a quartet of Sewer Ninjas makes for the most straightforward implementation. Adventurers whose actions place them in conflict with these sewer dwellers could certainly make for an interesting development. In classic comic book style an initial confrontation could lead to a temporary alliance.

Variations on the Form. The Ninja Tortle stat block in the CBG cleaves closely to the player character version, which in this case models itself on one particular fictional character from the group. With the options available today it wouldn’t be difficult at all to add enough variety for each of the four individuals from the source material. For the group’s technical expert incorporate the artificer’s Infuse Item trait and change the Sai to a Quarterstaff. The group’s defacto leader slap the Martial Adept feat on there and change the Sai to a pair of Shortswords. As for the group’s fourth member how about some Bardic Inspiration and change the Sai to a pair of clubs (reskinned as nunchaku of course).

“Smoke Bomb. When the ninja tortle takes damage, it can use its reaction to move up to its speed to an unoccupied space it can see without provoking opportunity attacks, and take the Hide action with advantage on the Stealth check. Until the end of its next turn, the space it moved from is heavily obscured.”

If your next 5E D&D game needs a pizza loving amphibian who practices martial arts in the sewer — whether you’re the DM or a player — check out the Sewer Ninja Character Build Guide here.

*Featured image — Way back during the pinnacle of human civilization creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird introduced a silly concept to comic book fans. But their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would go on from their 1984 Mirage Comics debut to become a global phenomenon still recognized and beloved by kids and adults all over the world. [Illustration by Kevin Eastman]

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