[Class Suggestion] The Duke - A Neutral Class with Royal Blood

Class/Lore/Fanfic
#1

Unique - Only one Duke may spawn in a game.
Goal: Live to see the Prince execute a Blue Dragon.
(If Prince dies before your objective is achieved you will not commit suicide. The alternative route to victory is to become a Neutral King).

Passive 1: Royal Blood
Passive 2: Unstoppable - Immune to occupation and target changing.

Day Ability 1: Hidden Tunnel - Hide in the Prince’s jail cell tonight. People will not be able to visit you and you will be able to listen in. 3 uses. (Note: being jailed overrides this).
Day Ability 2: Royal Armor - Make yourself immune to death tonight. 1 use.

Night Ability 1: Hecklers - Send your personal guard to occupy a target. Pierces occupy immunity. Does not count as a visit. 3 uses.
Night Ability 2: Forged Certificate - Remove Royal Blood from your target. 3 uses.

Lore: A once well respected member of the court, now forgotten in favor of the youthful and beloved Prince, the Duke is fueled by jealousy and will stop at nothing to see the Prince fail.

Notes:

Primary Goal: Adding some fairly subtle levels of confusion is all the Duke needs to see the Prince slip up. Common Prince executions come from people failing to step up as royals (because they’re usually not royal); forcibly removing Royal Blood from otherwise Royal players could see their perfectly honest claims fall flat. The ability to pierce occupy immunity is nothing to be sniffed at either. It’s gonna be really hard for occupy immune classes to explain they’ve been generically occupied, it’s also relatively safe as it does not count as a visit on the part of the Duke.

Secondary Goal: I’ve noticed, and been quite saddened by, the sheer lack of Neutral Kings that are seen in the game these days. Neutral King starters have been among some of the most memorable games I’ve played, particularly when the Neutral King is an aggressive player. Having a Neutral Royal Blood class will make Neutral Kings a semi-common occurrence.

Royal Blood is a game mechanic that is vastly unexplored and has great potential to add new layers to the game. Right now, the successive Kings are highly likely to be BD barring a lucky Cult/Unseen conversion. Which just makes King succession rather boring.

The most common deaths for Seekers, Masterminds, etc is by claiming Princess and then getting caught by not stepping in a Royal Blood phase. By this class simply existing, there is room for claims of having your Royal Blood removed by a Duke, and the possibility of it actually happening. There’s a little bit more variety in outcomes when voting for a new King now.

Since I’ve given the class a very specific goal, to prevent it being heavily feast or famine and to keep the thematic of a salty outcast Royal, they won’t commit suicide if they fail and will have the opportunity to get the throne for themselves. That itself is also a victory over the Prince.

Happy to take suggestions for alternate abilities.

2 Likes
#2

Gag shouldnt exist.

1 Like
#3

It’s pretty good. Not much you can do if prince dies n1, should have an alternate ability that helps prince live or that gives him information on others.

#4

Would be grateful for your reasoning. We already have chills, assassin distract, etc. Chill makes some votes interesting and gives reaper the opportunity to feign reaped/chilled. Gag is a Prince focused version of chill. What’s bad about it?

#5

Yes but… NO CLASS DERSERVES A HARD COUNTER.

Have you seen what happened with inquistor?

2 Likes
#6

I wouldn’t call this a hard counter. I think Prince would still be very strong with a Duke in play. They’re also not guaranteed to spawn like Inquisitor is w/ Sorcerer.

#7

It’s a hard counter. Does it need the prince to play bad to win? Yes. You may argue that well it can just become a neutral king but, a butler isn’t a hard counter to king. He can become king and do nothing and still lose.

Plus we are talking about this class.
New players would exe because of this m

1 Like
#8

I’m not sure what you mean; reaching the Primary win condition is easy if the Prince or BD is bad, same for Scorned, same for Fool. At the same time, a good Fool/Scorned can play the game well and best a decent BD. Likewise, a fair bit of output is required on the part of the Duke to reach that primary win condition, you don’t just press your abilities and have your win handed to you. Plus, you can’t solely rely on stepping because there’s no guarantee you’ll survive as Neutral King.

I’ll break down his two abilities that could be considered “counters”.

Duke can listen in on Prince and their jailed target. This allows the Duke tailor his logs to make the prisoners look like they’re lying. Faking a Drunk claim and saying a Knight claim (that they observed earlier in the game) is occupy immune for example.

Duke can gag a prisoner and prevent them from speaking. Given the meta we are currently in, the Prince is revealed and can simply push for a gagged person to claim. Gagging is more useful late into the game or if used opportunistically, say after someone is framed but gets pardoned in case they’re a fool. It’s not a one size fits all “shut the prince down” button. Gagging also forfeits the ability to observe the jailed target for that night.

These abilities make life harder for the Prince, and are very much tailored to the Prince, but they are certainly not “hard counters”. Would you consider Marshal a hard counter to Prince for having abilities tailored to him?

#9

Prince doesn’t need this and it’s too easy to win as.

A bad prince already loses the game for BD.

1 Like
#10

It’s almost like a class I remember. Job to get executed by the prince. And he only made it cause “Prince can exe anyone” that’s actually a false statement

#11

Oh and your royal blood removal sounds like baron a cool class. You should check it out.

#12

Gonna have to disagree here. BD can and do swing back from bad Princes all the time.

#13

Thanks for making the same mistake as me.

I meant can.

#14

I think he should try to become Neutral king and that should be his only win con. He can gain information from prince and then try to become neutral king.

#15

I think you would need to make gag a targeted ability, not blanket. Perhaps:

Day Ability 2: Silencing Wine - Prevent a target from speaking tonight. 3 uses.

Otherwise the Duke is just going to blindly gag d3, d4, and d5, completely neutralizing the prince. This would also silence evils at night and anyone linked by a mystic.

Hidden tunnel is interesting. One’s first instinct might be to use hidden tunnel to gain info and stay alive the first two nights, but you might out yourself pretty quickly as a fool or duke (obviously you would need to claim merc guarded, but good luck).

#16

Not a bad idea actually. Would at least require the Duke to pay attention to whoever might be a prime jailing target. Has extra applications to Mystic/etc too.