A while ago I did a feedback on Discord saying Princess was dull. I did not know how, but I just hated to play Princess.
It was basically a class to confirm the Alch, give space to MM claim and wait for King to die to then step to confirm. Then RB changed, Prentender came, Sheriff spawns were lower and we now can have three BD with the same class. Almost all uses of Princess were gone, and now she just sits there passively changing the game with Flirt, sometimes finding K/Os and wisping. That’s it. A very mechanized and pretty inflexible play style. Dull.
Thing is, she is well designed. Both her abilities are great for the game, fair and useful in luck situations. However the game’s changes did not followed up with Princess, and now she is almost always suspicious. Anyone can claim Princess, really. If you are a legit Princess you can end up being really unlucky as well, getting just dead results, or being called MM/Pretender, not finding anything useful or, as I said, just confirming an neutral claim as not the NK. So, how to change an already well designed class to follow up the game current state? I think I have some ideas. These are individual ideas. I am not necessarily suggesting all of them to be added together, but instead throwing changes that can by itself help Princess in some aspects.
I just want to point out first that Flirt is absolutely necessary for the game. Not exactly for its use, but for its passive impact. It changes the game even if Princess is not spawned, making people mostly claiming a class that fits between the two results that Princess get. Also her low confirmability is important, but when something like this reaches the point of being more sus than Knight claims, I feel like something is wrong.
Refulgent Wisp (Day Ability) If the King dies tonight, discover who was the killer. 1 use.
At first glance, it can look powerful. Giving out directly the killer? Why?!
Well.
We need to think about it not just proactively, but how it changes the game passively as well, just like Flirt. First of all: it has one use, it is a one-shot chance to find the killer, so you are rewarded for reading scum and presuming when King is going to be killed. It can be yoloed? Sure, but then it just feels more satisfying — everything is a yolo in earlygame anyways.
And how does this DA affects the game passively? King is very likely going to be less killed during the night, forcing evils to look for ways to convince court it is EK/PK. Killers may also seem to look forward to claim Butler to get out of this, what is rarely fake claimed or Pretender. King would be less stressed about using guards, so we can probably low GK guards for 4 as well, but I am ok with 5. It rewards evils if they kill king properly, and rewards Princess for scumreading properly. It punishes less King for not using Guards, and punishes more evils for yolo killing starting King early. Princess will also have a way to “confirm”, and opening space for fake-princess-claims to point out someone as killer and slow down the court on them for a day. Not to say it fits the theme! Investigative, wisps, find the killer, princess caring to her father?!..
Stately (Passive) Immune to most redirection and occupy abilities.
or
Stately (Passive) Always get correct results.
What do I want with this now. Right now Princess is the weakest Investigative class. Her power do find evils is really low, even being more thought-inducing than others, what I like. However, as a Investigative class that needs to read people and not just rely on direct answers (like Obs, Sheriff and Pala) she is very affected by frames and preventions. Not to say this make them much more suspicious, like they needed more of it. What I want here is to make Princess’ logs more reliable, constant. Not only it would make her get some attention away of the other Inv classes that are currently way better, she could really change the game’s flow with her logs. They are not THAT confirmable and makes her stand out as Investigative, while also being important to the game proactively and not only passively.
Stalk Wisp (Day Ability) Discover who visited you tonight. 2 uses.
Can’t even out killers tho, as you are likely DEAD. However, still a good niche ability thay may be helpful into confirming fellow good friends. Basically a nerfed Follow. Also a way to keep your logs going even if you are jailed or prevented, what I approve.
