[Class Suggestion] The Shadow (Neutral Killing)

Class/Lore/Fanfic
#1

The Shadow (Neutral Killing) - A dark boogeyman from beyond the veil.

Passive 1:
Tainted Blood - If you are killed by any means other than Prince’s execution or execution by vote, your killer will become the new Shadow on the 3rd night after your death. If your killer is a member of the Cult or Unseen, they will not change unless or until they are the final living member of their faction.

^ Example: Hunter bleeds you and kills you. On the 3rd night following your death, the Hunter becomes The Shadow. If the game is over before then, naturally nothing happens.

Passive 2:
Bitter Victory - You will win if any Shadow wins, even if you are dead.

Day Ability:
Altered Silhouette - Choose a player. You will have their investigative results, and they will appear to have visited your target instead of you, if anyone is watching. (3 uses.)

^ Observer, Wisped Princess, etc. will see your target incorrectly visiting.

Night Ability 1:
Bad Luck - Kill a player who was voted up for treason and pardoned the previous day. You gain occupation immunity and your target cannot be changed when using this ability. (2 uses.)

Night Ability 2:
Sudden Darkness - Choose a player to pull into the night, killing them.

#2

I see why you went with this, but in general I think it will be easier to find than the other NKs, which may be an issue because three nights is a long time to wait for a replacement, if you’re lucky enough to get one at all.

Should those three nights pass, however, we may run into another issue - as they will be the most likely to kill you, converting an Assassin or Cult Leader to a new Shadow means they know who and what all of their teammates were (and, somewhat less importantly, vice-versa). This may not play out very well if the Shadow decides to claim Sheriff and start outing his teammates, and in general the remaining Unseen or Cult will probably bus the shit out of any of them that kills a Shadow on accident.

Not sure how you’d fix this, but it’s kind of a cool concept.

#3

As described, the Assassin or Cult Leader would be converted only if they were the last member of their faction left. At that point, being able to identify their (dead) former team mates as suspicious won’t win them any credibility.

#4

I can read I promise.

Anyways, that leaves you as pretty easy to find and hard to replace, which is probably an issue. All of the other NKs have some sort of defense mechanism, whereas all this guy has is frames and situational replacement.

#5

What happens in the scenario where a CW makes a shadow target and kill itself?

#6

Obviously the shadow turns into a shadow after being dead for 3 nights :wink:

#7

I love the concept of this. Only Bad Luck needs to be tweaked in my opinion. I prefer something like this to fit with the “shadow” theme:

Silhouette Slaughter - Kill target player and anyone that target player visits. (2 uses)

New shadow should also come back on the 2nd night in my opinion. So only 1 night in between. I also think the old shadow player should be in control of the new shadow body. Their win condition would be tied, so the new shadow player won’t bus that he’ll become shadow. Basically old shadow player “possessor jumps” to new shadow player if new shadow player kills old shadow player within two nights.

Shadow should be able to become unseen/cult before they’d be last member in my opinion or his killing power is too low. Just have the shadowed unseen/cult not see who current members are similar to becoming king as scum. The Shadow wouldn’t want to out unseen/cult as they’re allies early on and scum can only kill Shadow through day voting. Scum would have to effectively out themselves to get Shadow killed, so it’s a lose-lose for them too, especially if they know that Shadow can revenge-out MM/CL. Mutually assured destruction keeps this dynamic viable and I think it could be balanced over time.

Occupy/Redirect immunity can fix the CW problem by the way. Another problem is hunter retribution on Shadow? Death knight kill on Shadow?

Another idea I’ll throw out here is that if a shadow respawns in another player it gains a characteristic of their class. These are all the classes that can kill:

Starting King: Hides the Order Execution message and becomes Psycho King.
Alchemist poison: poison/bleed immunity.
Hunter: Retribution passive/Occupy immunity
Assassin: 2 for 1 option, 1 charge. Sudden Darkness can target two tonight.
Knight: If any neutral attempts to kill you, they will suicide upon discovering you’re neutral.
Death Knight: maybe revive and be vote immune 2 days, you can still be occupied so it’s not impossible to deal with.
Cult Leader: Eradicate option, 1 charge. Sudden Darkness can target two tonight.
Mercenary: The contract will suicide this night unannounced.
Sellsword: Will never happen, so win the game as Shadow instantly.

#8

The idea is interesting. The problem is it just stops dead after cult/unseen kill them unless there is only one member. A solution is needed. I think the time should be less than 3 nights, since that’s a long absence. Maybe one night, or even 2 nights?

I agree with @Solic, the Bad luck should be more powerful.

Also, why not turn Prince into Shadow?

What happens if Shadow becomes Psycho King and wins? Do other shadows still win? Also, if king executes Shadow, is he immune? Does he become a Psycho? Or just a shadow? If he converts, he could be executed if the game isn’t about to end.

One more suggestion: Conversion can steal wins from players, which I object to with cult and unseen (although not much can be done about that), so what if the Shadow just revives in their killer’s body?