[Class Suggestion] The Jackal

Class/Lore/Fanfic
#1

The Jackal :shield:

Neutral Special
Tools of the Trade (Day) - Pick a day ability from the list. It occupies the second slot. Each ability in the list has one use. Not an actual ability: simply a Facelift mockery that allows you to choose what ability you want to execute today. - Infinite uses
DAY ABILITY (Day) - DAY ABILITY. (Replaced by the selected day ability). - 1 use
Tools of the Trade (Night) - Pick a night ability from the list. It occupies the second slot. Each ability in the list has one use. Not an actual ability: simply a Facelift mockery that allows you to choose what ability you want to execute tonight. - Infinite uses
NIGHT ABILITY (Night) - NIGHT ABILITY. (Replaced by the selected night ability). - 1 use
Survive.

Available day abilities:

  • Clear Mind
  • Exhume
  • Expose
  • Trollbox
  • Stoneskin Potion
  • Magic Dust
  • Magic Cloak
  • Poisoned blade (Nightshade Poison if Unseen, Rupture if Cult). Using it prevents Assassin/Cult Leader from using their ability, and vice versa.
  • Nightshade Wine (don’t die from GK obviously, but I’m still on the edge about this one)

Available night abilities:

  • Happy Hour
  • Empower
  • Tornado
  • Debauchery
  • Gossip
  • Maid Spy
  • Follow
  • Watch Carefully (reveal MM before N3 or no?)
  • Heal (can target self)
  • Will-o-wisp
  • Frame
  • Drug
  • Mind Warp
  • Snoop
  • Assassinate
  • Deceive
  • Find Magic
  • Stand Guard (or Stonewall)
  • Concentrated wine
  • Smite
  • Dark Wisp (work for Cult, too?)
  • Defile (good luck)

During his journey, Jackal has met many an odd fellow: some friendly, some sketchy, some outright crazy. However, for a man with a silver tongue, what the person is up to is none of his business: all he looks for is a nice chat. After befriending them folks, even if only for a moment, they all seem eager to show their expertise. Some may be versed in helping the others, others may be cunning and sneaky, while others find their expertise in killing. No matter the person, they all seem to like Jackal enough to teach him a few tricks of his own. And as Jackal arrived in Castle Adiart, he happened to get entangled in its messy politics. All he cares about is leaving the place in one piece: he’ll resolve the conflict by any means necessary.

As my own take for a neutral survivor, I wanted to have something whose main ability is not a BD-sided heal with no drawback. After trying to figure out a less BD-sided ability for the Alchemist, I realized pretty much every ability is less BD-sided. So I gave him all of them.

As the jack-of-all-trades, Jackal has access to all kinds of skills, but he only gets to use each of them once. He also has no passive abilities, which leaves him vulnerable to many things: poisons and bleed require him to either waste his only heal on himself or ask for others for healing. He’s also not occupy immune, leaving him vulnerable to Butlers, Drunks and anyone else. In the end, he’s a weak son of a gun with a lot of knowledge in trades.

Instead of going for “one of everything” skill wise (because a lot of them are just repeats), I wanted to go for one of each kind of ability. So if the ability you’re thinking of is not on one of the lists above, look down below for reasons why it’s not.

List of day abilities left out and reasons why:

  • Telepathy: Too confirmable
  • Private matters: Too confirmable
  • Political Pressure: Too confirmable
  • Noble Twin: Too confirmable
  • Inoculate: Too strong
  • Imprison: Too confirmable and strong
  • Scout: Don’t know how to implement
  • Dirty Work: LMAO
  • Blood of Mithras: Too strong
  • Bewilder: Too confirmable in Unseen games
  • Royal Finger: Too confirmable
  • Decide fate: Too confirmable
  • Facelift: Useless
  • Icy Touch: No souls (although I’d kinda want to see him have one-use Reap and start with one soul)
  • Gather Darkness: No souls
  • Distract: Too confirmable in Cult games

List of night abilities left out and reasons why:

  • Serve wine: Superseded by Happy Hour
  • Wolf companion: Unique effect, too confirmable
  • Bear companion: Just a better Stoneskin
  • Defend: Goes against his win condition
  • Cold Steel: Superseded by Assassinate
  • Link Minds: Unique skill
  • Conduit: Unique skill
  • Intrigue: Supersedes Gossip and Frame
  • Window Peek: Superseded by Watch Carefully
  • Test Faith: Superseded by Watch Carefully
  • Self-Care: Combined with Heal to heal yourself
  • Execute: Can’t jail
  • Flirt: Superseded by Watch Carefully
  • Bat Eyelashes: Superseded by Watch Carefully
  • Expert Investigation: Superseded by Watch Carefully
  • Surveille: Superseded by Watch Carefully
  • 2-For-1: Supersedes Assassinate
  • Eradicate: Supersedes Assassinate
  • Protection: Requires knowledge of Unseen
  • Frenzy: Specifies Assassin
  • Mental Blur: Too confirmable
  • Probe: Superseded by Watch Carefully
  • Convert: Really?
  • Brainwash: Okay.
  • Foresight: Superseded by Watch Carefully
  • Spike Traps: Unique, also similar to Stand Guard and Happy Hour
  • Snare Trap: Unique, too similar to Happy Hour
  • Wall of Fire: Superseded by Stonewall
  • Brotherhood: Requires knowledge of Cult
  • Gaze: Superseded by Watch Carefully
  • Identify: Superseded by Watch Carefully
  • Guards!: Superseded by Stoneskin
  • Allies: Superseded by Watch Carefully
  • Swear Fealty: Supersedes Clear Mind
  • Fatal Guards: Supersedes Assassinate
  • Crimson Potion: It’s just heal
  • Emerald Potion: It’s just Assassinate
  • Hide: It’s just Stoneskin but night
  • Ruthless Efficiency: Supersedes Assassinate
  • Shield: Don’t know how to make it work
  • Puppet Strings: Supersedes Assassinate
  • Possess: Please no
  • Reap: Please no
  • Intimidate: Happy Hour
  • Magic Missile: Assassinate
  • Circle of Death: Please no
#2

I think the sheer number of abilities is quite off-putting, if you were to make it so he rolls a bunch of different abilities, that might work.

Also the simple survival wincon is rather bland, I’d much rather see him have a survive to see the BD fall or a survive to see the cult/unseen lose.

#3

I wanted to run down all the possible abilities to see if a concept like this can be balanced. I’ve seen a couple of BD concepts where you get a random combination of abilities and while it does sound fun, I just wanted a different concept.

No. Mercenary/Sellsword styled neutrals are a mistake. This guy is intended to be true neutral. Just make this guy replace Alchemist if that’s what you’re worried about.

#4

Btw. I would make it so that you simply cannot chose abilities from unique classes and reorganize the list accordingly.

Also I don’t see why heal and self care are combined. That’s practically the same as just having self care 9 times out of 10.

Oh. And you should have the fact that he doesn’t suicide from abilities as a passive.

Otherwise looks good

#5

Also you forgot about party

#6

And exhume

#7

I think I excluded every BD unique from the list for confirmability reasons. Scum uniques are a bit different since they often have a similar ability somewhere (like how Illusionist’s Mind Warp could be mixed up with Apostle’s Mind Warp or a Frame), and you don’t necessarily want to admit “oh yeah I mind warped him”.

Most of the time you are going to use it on yourself. However, it can also come up as a way to prove yourself. Do you want to save it for your own survival or for proof you’re not scum. I simply did not want an additional Self-Care because he already has Stoneskin and Party, adding a Self-Care on top of the possibility of a one-turn heal circle sounded a bit too strong.

Good idea, I didn’t consider it because I never added Knight abilities and I added Nightshade Wine at the last moment.

“Concentrated wine”, 4th from the bottom.

Second from the top.

1 Like
#8

I mean. Mind warp is on apostle and other unique scum ability’s are already locked. So why not word it like that to make the list feel less arbitrary?

#9

In the end, how they decide to implement it is their business: I’m not an UI designer, I just basically listed every ability that I thought would not confirm them too well and if I had to design the UI for it, I would’ve slapped them in a Facelift-style list with hover-texts.