[Class Suggestion] The Spiritualist (Neutral Possessor Hunter)

Class/Lore/Fanfic
#1

Spiritualist (Neutral Wildcard)

Only appears when a Possessor is present in a game, and is in every game that has a Possessor

Win Condition: Kill the Possessor
-Spiritualist then dies upon the death of the Possessor
-Immune to conversion

Passive Ability
Spirit Veil (Passive)
-Immune to Possession for the first 5 nights.

  • If Possession is attempted, receive a message - “Your veil has prevented a malicious spirit from entering your body.”

  • This allows the Spiritualist to know that the Possessor is still in the same body he was the night before.

Day Ability 1
Spirit Shackle (2 charges)
-Shackle the spirit of target player and their 2 neighbors. If the Possessor is among these targets, he is unable to acquire a new body the following night.

  • “Neighbors” are based on adjacent number position. Ex) If you Spirit Shackle player #4; players #3 and #5 are also affected.
  • Does not move to next available neighbor if adjacent is dead
  • Possessor recieves a message at night and Possess is greyed out/unable to be used - “You have been shackled to your vessel for the night.”

Night Ability 1
Séance (Infinite charges)
-Perform a séance on target player. If the target player or their 2 neighbors become possessed that night, you receive a message.

  • "You sense the presence of a malicious spirit around [player].”
  • Affected players also receive the message
  • Can also help the Spiritualist confirm themselves
  • “Neighbors” is the same mechanic as stated above

Night Ability 2
Willing Vessel (1 charge)
-Lower your veil and attempt to draw the Possessor out of target player and into yourself. If successful, sacrifice yourself to eradicate the Possessor. Spirit Veil is removed upon use.

  • Bypasses Possessor night immunity
  • The player that is currently being “possessed” returns to their body the following day.
  • If it fails, the only way to win is to get the Possessor lynched or executed by the Prince
  • You become vulnerable to Possession earlier than normal if used within the first 5 nights

Lore
The Spiritualist has been chasing after the Possessor for their entire lives They care not for factions or choosing sides… they only care to stop the Possessor. The Spiritualist will sacrifice their life for him to never kill again.

Other Class Modifications
With this class being directly connected to the Possessor, we feel that he needs some buffs since there will be another person against him. Rook and I do not know the exact way to “balance” this perfectly, and if this is an idea that the Devs like, then we will think farther on balance issues. But for now this is what we have.
The Possessor would be able to be occupied, but immune to death of all kinds at night. He would gain a day time ability, and his night ability would have a 1 day cool down.

Possessor

Passive
(New) cannot die at night from anything

  • so basically the ONLY way to kill him, would be to hang him, or Spiritualist use Willing Vessel

Day Ability 1
(New) Spiritual Decoy (2 charges)
-Place a fragment of yourself into target player the following night. The target player will appear as being possessed if affected by a Spiritualist’s Séance. Lasts for 1 night.

  • If the targeted player falls within the 3 affected players of Séance that night, it will return a false positive to the Spiritualist and all affected players.

Night Ability
Possess has a 1 day cool down now

  • this makes the Possessor have to stay in his host body for at least a day and really decide when and what body to jump to next. Modifying wills and talking in chat so his gameplay becomes more than jumping and killing new bodies every night.

Comments
Social deduction games have had neutral killing roles, but if you add an opposition to the Possessor you open up a story line of a dynamic battle of cat and mouse between the Spiritualist trying to hunt down the Possessor, and the Possessor jumping from body to body (or laying low in one host). All this is going on while the Blue Dragon and “Evil” factions are going at each other.

The addition of the Spiritualist can help to balance the power of a neutral killer like the Possessor, and could open up possibility of making him stronger or weaker/ the Spiritualist stronger/ weaker.

We feel that the new possessor is a great rework, but can cause confusion on when the true Possessor is actually dead. This is our solution having a class in the game that can actively look for the possessor and help shed light into the body jumping that the Possessor does.

Players that “get their body back” from a successful Willing Vessel will return to their body as usual that morning. Their “revival” could openly signify that the possessor has been slain. BUT if night 5 has passed and the possessor can kill the Spiritualist… that opens up a whole other level of deception.

Concept came from me and my friend that play the game every night between 8:00 - 12:00 CST
We both would love to hear the communities feedback on this Class!

Alkander & Rook

#2

Sweet. One problem.

There already is an Offical Possessor.

1 Like
#3

And also already a Spiritualist.
Unofficially. But we are using it in FoL.

#4

Hey, Rook here. We had a ton of fun creating this class.

We realize there is already an official Possessor in game, but felt the need to add a day ability to the current Possessor to help balance out the power of the Spiritualist. This would prevent the Possessor from feeling helpless in their presence.

I’m not familiar with what FoL is, but the name Spiritualist can easily be replaced with something else that fits the lore.

#5

The Exorcist.

1 Like
#6

Okay, let me make one big complain before I break this class down

Hardcounters are absolute shit and are toxic for game balance
If you want to nerf something then fucking nerf it directly don’t make a “OH LOOK MY CLASS HAS ONE JOB AND THAT’S TO KILL THIS OTHER CLASS EXDEE”
I can fucking guarantee without reading any further that I will detest this class and I highly suggest that, if you suggest another class, you have it as an independent entity and not hunting down a UNIQUE FUCKING NEUTRAL CLASS

#7

ooh
maybe the spiritualist can become the distraught
and the revenant can become the haunter/haunted

#8

should be neutral wildcard.

well possessor will need a major buff if you make a class specifically to kill them.

shackle the target, not the neighbors. people can’t control who they are next to in the player list.

  1. only to one person, not their neighbors.
  2. no, not if infinite charges

I see you gave the possessor a “buff.” the buff is to slightly ward off this class. NO. Possessor will need major buff if the spiritualist exists. Also, polik is right. Call it exorcist.

Lastly: Possessor doesn’t need to be made weaker. Neutral killers rarely win unless they become neutral king.

#10

Love that name! Fits the concept

We did not intend this classes purpose to be a “hard counter”. We simply thought it would be cool to have the Blue Dragon fighting against the “Evils” while there is a “neutral battle” of cat and mouse going on at the same time. All 4 factions involved (BD/ Evil/ Possessor/ Spiritualist) would be invested in the “hunt” since the Possessor could wipe out either or both factions completely.

Hypothetical situation: In a cult game the cult eliminate all of the BD… but the Possessor is still alive, they would have to work with the Spiritualist to find the Possessor as the Possessor hops bodies.

You seem very close minded and upset at the concept before reading it from what you said. I am saying that these classes would be connected in a synergistic way of balancing the two, each tweaked with the other in mind.

This would be Unique in that it is a “neutral combo” that appear and interact together.

I would love your feedback as a Moderator as to potential issues that could be caused with this dynamic.

We have came up with unique ones, and are working on those too. Once the Possessor rework came out it got me and Rook really excited with this “neutral battle” relationship

I’ll fix that now, that would be the category for this games set up

I agree that he would need ways of dealing with this class that has the sole purpose of killing them. When we made this class we made notes on how to help the Possessor, but for the sake of this post wanted to focus on the Spiritualist. So once this class is “flushed out/ polished off” then we’d address the Possessor. Would love to hear ideas on how to “buff” the possessor, I do feel like he is the strongest Neutral Killer currently.

the “neighbor” mechanic wouldnt negatively affect the other players who are not the Possessor, in fact, ALL abilities of the Spritualist only interact with the Possessor, and dont negatively impact “normal” players. Just gives them messages. This neighbor mechanic gives the Spiritualist a “wider range” of 1-3 people to hit with shackles… hoping the Possessor is one of them.

I feel like this would be very hard and turn into a game of “wack a mole” and I like the idea of knowing that he is “one of those 3” which would make the possessor have to act in his new body and not just lay low.

1 Like
#11

That’s exactly what it is

This is the problem

let’s say a Possessor, a Reaper and a Spiritualist all spawn
then the Possessor has to deal with
A. The Blue Dragon needing him dead
B. The Unseen/Cult discovering his Identity and selling him out however
C. The Reaper being able to kill him through his Immunity
D. Th Spiritualist, a class COMPLETELY FUCKING DEDICATED TO KILLING HIM

Possessor got this rework because it wasn’t fucking winning, this class will simply revert the Possessor to that state and will make the Possessor EXTREMELY NOT FUN

I have seen hardcounters suggested for all kinds of games like these, hell, if you look at Town of Salem and look up the work “Firefighter” you get fuckloads of results, and they’re all terrible

It’s not synergy it’s giving the Possessor an even fucking worse time than he has already

I’m not saying it wouldn’t be unique I’m saying it would be toxic for game balance

as for the “cat and mouse” thing
The Possessor is a Neutral Killer
he’s not supposed to play the role of mouse

#12

Love the feedback man, this is what were looking for :slight_smile:

I agree totally, I feel like in the same way that a Spiritualist 100% spawns with a Possessor… the opposite should happen for Reaper. Other classes like Merc… or even Alch woul be ok I feel like, but yes having all those killers would be impossible.

I can see that being frustrating, which is where the buff in whatever way to the possessor would have to take place. He would have to weave his body hopping abilities along with laying low and staying in hosts bodies, which I feel like is much more fun than: KILL hop body… KILL hop body… KILL hop body.

Also what if you gave the Possessor a different win condition…

  • Kill the Spiritualist
  • Kill 5 people
  • Survive till day 8 (would have to change lore)

That all just popped into my head, just trying to think of what would be fun and dynamic for everyone (including Possessor)

The cat and mouse analogy doesn’t fit perfectly for this duo. The cat and the mouse would be different in that… the mouse can kill the cat.
The Possessor is already a sneaky class (as are everyone pretty much). Disguising himself in others bodies while not being found out by everyone is very mouse like… but he can also kill. So yea, cat and mouse is a bit too simple of an analogy for this dynamic, I’ll have to think of a new one.

Thank you for the feedback

1 Like
#13

When your class is targeting a specific class, it’s a hard counter.

Like Sheriff to Unseen
And Paladin to Cult

#14

When i say “Possessor would need a buff if this class exists” i mean a buff not related to spiritualist. The possessor is not so overpowered they need a hard-counter; if you want a possessor hard counter, you need to give the possessor a buff not related to the spiritualist.

It’s quite clear this class is terrible. A better Idea would be to make the exorcist, who only spawns in games with two neutral killers, to see the neutral killers lose. But this idea would still be bad; you might find it easier to make an “exorcist” class with anti-NK abilities, but they are BD, not neutral.

#15

What I mean to say is we did not create this class for the sole purpose of countering the Possessor. I agree that the Spiritualist is a “hard counter” to him, of course.

I am suprised for multiple people on these forums to meet ideas for a game thats in beta with such harshness. Constructive Criticism is just that… constructive towards pointing out weak points and expressing what things make you not like it. You also do this (with the next thing I’m talking about) but for a game thats in beta… our job as a community is to try to bounce ideas off each other to make them better or realize that it just doesnt work out. All the rest of what you say is great, and I love your ideas!

This is what needs to happen, because in talking to Rook, we discussed that we felt like the Possessor was at a huge disadvantage after we kept giving the Spiritualist more stuff. We’ll think on it tonight and make a post.

Again thank you guys for the feedback on the balance of everything. Now its about how to make things fair/fun to every faction involved.

1 Like
#16

Don’t feel bad old chap. My first suggestion was absolutely terrible and I was also told how terrible it was. Almost everyone on this forum has made a terrible suggestion at one point or another or several points.

The reason we don’t like it is because it would ruin the balance of the game. I can understand you might think it is fun for different battles, but there are already interesting combinations.

It is BD vs cult/unseen vs the neutral killers who also want to kill eachother

This class is unneeded. It would make the balance worse; while possessor needs a change, this is not it.

#17

Nevertheless, there should be an Excorist Class.

Because honestly the name “the Exorcist” is too cool not to waste.

#18

ooh
how about a neutral hard counter for the priest!

#19

Is this how we treat new forum members now?

#20

It’s how Rope treats them, apparently.

#21

I think the idea of a cat and mouse would work.

Why don’t you just create an original class with this concept in mind.