Many classes are boring to play, and I think I can fix them without unbalancing the game. I have likely overlooked many critical points, and I look forward to hearing about how bad all these ideas are.
–PHYSICIAN–
PROBLEM: Healing is powerful, but also overly simple. Rarely is target choice an interesting decision, and that ability is supposed to define the class. Same goes for revive; the ideal timing is somewhat situational, but it’s fairly safe just to fire it off whenever.
SOLUTION: Remove the Physician and redistribute aspects of this class.
–ALCHEMIST–
PROBLEM: Neuts out! Many Alchemists die to investigative kings, and others are often executed even after an open discussion of role. This should be an interesting class where you try to take an objectively neutral position while demonstrating potential value to both sides.
SOLUTION: With Physician gone, you’re the only source of the full heal ability. Guarantee at least one Alchemist in each game to make up for it. This also makes claiming Alchemist at least a tiny more likely to forestall accusations.
–BUTLER–
PROBLEM: Early on you just randomly occupy people hoping to find occupy immune players. Sometimes you can glean information if there are no deaths one night, but it’s unlikely and difficult to verify without an investigator.
SOLUTION: Add ability “Tend Wounds.” Infinite uses at night. You target a player and remove any bleeding or poisoned conditions. Does not protect from attacks.
–COURT WIZARD–
PROBLEM: Recharge isn’t particularly fun, and many classes don’t make great use of it. Ice Ward alone does not make for a particularly engaging class experience.
SOLUTION: Add ability “Necromancy.” Identical to Physician’s revive.
–HUNTER–
PROBLEM: Most nights, especially early, you just sit quietly and wait. Deciding who to wolf is interesting, and baiting the scum into attacking into a bear is a skill, but those don’t become particularly relevant until several turns into the game.
SOLUTION: Add ability “Track Footprints.” Infinite uses at night. You target a player and learn the classes - but not numbers - of those that visited the target.
–KNIGHT–
PROBLEM: Optimal use of your main ability removes you from the game.
SOLUTION: If someone attacks into a knight, instead of both players dying, they both gain a bleed effect that will kill them at the end of the following night if not healed. This adds an interesting social dynamic to the next day, as the knight and attacker may have to argue over who is the real knight. Also adds to the healers vs. bleeders subgame.
–NOBLE–
PROBLEM: All of your abilities are low impact and nearly useless until the last couple nights.
SOLUTION: Return the “Maid Spy” day ability in place of “Political Pressure.” Increase bonus of “Noble Twin” to count as three votes. “Maid Spy” is one of the most fun abilities in the game, and buffing “Political Pressure” truly allows you to become the master of the voting process.
–POSSESSOR–
PROBLEM: It’s incredibly difficult to win, and tends to be very obvious when you change bodies.
SOLUTION: When you change bodies via “Possess,” the death announcement of your former body picks a random BD or neutral class that is not at capacity in the current game instead of revealing your former possessor identity. While it may still be clear to astute players that you may still be alive, it generates some doubt and can create interesting conversations.
–SCORNED–
PROBLEM: It’s easy to win by luck if one of your targets is naturally suspicious. Additionally, the BD have no real incentive to try to stop you from winning like they do with the Fool, outside of avoiding the execution of BD targets, which they already do.
SOLUTION: Remove Scorned, replace it with the Traitor…
Traitor (Neutral / Social)
The Traitor loses if they die and are still the Traitor.
If the Traitor is elected king, there is a 50% chance they will become evil instead of remaining netural. The Traitor now gains the victory conditions of their new class.
DAY: Trollbox
NIGHT: Trace Bloodline - Reveal if a target has royal blood.
NIGHT: Incriminate - Target appears suspicious to investigative classes, but only if they have royal blood. Does not confirm the presence of royal blood.
If it is too difficult as designed, you could replace “Trace Bloodline” with a passive that tells you at the start of the game which players are of royal blood.
If anyone knows the term for a jealous, younger prince/princess who covets the claim of the oldest heir, that would be a better class name.
