Usurper (Spiritual Successor to Pretender)

Class/Lore/Fanfic
#1

Let me start by laying out my reasons for creating this class:
• Looking for abilities that resonate with the player-base. (Feedback is appreciated and encouraged, but please construct your feedback in a way that lets me further develop the class, or tell me what aspects you liked so I may reuse them for a different class in the future.)
• Fill the game design niche Pretender leaves behind (Win condition of becoming King), without requiring the class to complete the win condition for two separate classes. (Or at least make it rewarding/entertaining to do so.)
• Have no way of mechanically confirming yourself, unless that confirmation results in your immediate victory or completely shakes up the way the game plays.
• Remove the safety of claiming openly.

Without further ado, here’s the Usurper

The Usurper :star: :fire:

Neutral Special
Ballot Mixing (Passive): During elections for a new King, votes for you count twice. If an election you stepped forward for has no clear winner, you win the election.
King Nothing (Passive): If you are the only surviving player in a game, you win.
Coup D’état (Day Ability): Execute the King and take his crown, becoming a Usurper King. 1 use
• Only enabled while a King is on trial.
• Functions as though the King had used Decide Fate(Execute) on himself.
• Public feedback: Player [X] staged a coup and has become the Usurper King!
Blood Test (Night Ability): Test target player for Royal Blood. Infinite Uses
Regicide (Night Ability): Attack target player. 2 uses
• If target is The King, or has Royal Blood, 1 use of Regicide is regained if the attack succeeds. (A King with Royal Blood only restores 1 charge)
• Attack bypasses healing.
Be crowned The King and survive to see all who would oppose you lose. (Defeat BD, Cult/Unseen and NK).

Notes: Incompatible with all classes

The Usurper King :crown: :i42: :fire:

Neutral Special
Totalitarian Regime (Passive): The King cannot be voted up for trial. If no trials have taken place when the voting phase concludes, whoever the King is currently voting for is put on trial. If a day ends without a player being executed, gain 1 charge of Killer Guards.
All classes except Prince can target the Usurper King with their abilities.
Improved Tenacity (Passive): Occupy and redirect immune. Can talk at any point during a trial. Immune to abilities that make a player bleed.
Decide Fate (Day Ability): Decide an accused player’s fate. Infinite uses
Killer Guards (Night Ability): Attack target player. The guard will die in your place if the player is protected. 1 use
• Does not count as visiting.
Paranoid Guards (Night Ability): Become Death Immune tonight. Occupy and Kill all players who attack you. 2 uses
• Attack bypasses Death Immunity and healing.
Survive to see all who would oppose you lose. (Defeat BD, Cult/Unseen and NK)

Notes: Compatible with most Neutral classes

Coronation: When crowned, the Usurper becomes a Neutral (Not Announced)/Usurper King(Announced).

I am undecided on which King the Usurper should become if they are crowned the old-fashioned way. Let me know which you would prefer.

Ballot Mixing

Elections resulting in a draw were the worst feeling for the Pretender. Giving Usurper a better version of Royal Blood is an easy fix. The name is to keep the spirit of the Pretender alive. :heart:

King Nothing

One of the main design issues with the Pretender was that the class had to complete two separate win conditions to actually win, and had a hard time limit to do so (Can’t be elected in a court with too few players) This ability allows the Usurper an alternative if they fail to be crowned.

Coup d’état

Sometimes being discreet doesn’t work. This ability hard confirms you as Usurper King, but this isn’t a problem from a balance perspective, as all non-neutral players must work together to defeat you.

Usurper King

Totalitarian Regime
Decide Fate

Due to the synergy between Totalitarian Regime and Decide Fate, openly claiming a Neutral class until it is certain there is no Usurper in the game is very ill advised. When a Usurper is crowned, the court will have a large incentive to vote neutrals up for trial, as they are the only classes a Usurper King can ally with. Ability has infinite uses to avoid the court all voting Pardon on every trial.

Killer Guards

Your only realistic way of beating a Hunter, outside of an ally Sellsword eating the arrow for you.

Due to the chaos that would undoubtedly ensue when a Usurper King is revealed, I think it’d be very hard to speculate how this class would impact the balance of the game, but I would love to hear your thoughts on the concept, and how you think I could improve it.
I have very little faith this class would ever find its way into the game, but I wanted to give myself some closure on the whole ‘Pretender’ chapter.

#2

The Usurper :shield: :fire:

Neutral Special
Ballot Mixing (Passive): During elections for a new King, votes for you count twice. If an election you stepped forward for has no clear winner, you win the election.
King Nothing (Passive): If you are the only surviving player in a game, you win.
Coup d’état (Day Ability): Execute the King and take his crown, becoming a Usurper King. 1 use
• Only enabled while a King is on trial.
• Functions as though the King had used Decide Fate(Execute) on himself.
• Public feedback: Player [X] staged a coup and has become the Usurper King!
Blood Test (Night Ability): Test target player for Royal Blood. Infinite Uses
Regicide (Night Ability): Attack target player. 2 uses
• If target is The King, or has Royal Blood, 1 use of Regicide is regained if the attack succeeds. (A King with Royal Blood only restores 1 charge)
• Attack bypasses healing.
Be crowned The King and survive.

Notes: Incompatible with all classes

The Usurper King :crown: :shield: :fire:

Neutral Special
Totalitarian Regime (Passive): The King cannot be voted up for trial. If no trials have taken place when the voting phase concludes, whoever the King is currently voting for is put on trial. If a day ends without a player being executed, gain 1 charge of Killer Guards.
All Killer classes can target the Usurper King with their abilities.
Improved Tenacity (Passive): Occupy and redirect immune. Can talk at any point during a trial. Immune to abilities that make a player bleed.
Decide Fate (Day Ability): Decide an accused player’s fate. Infinite use
Killer Guards (Night Ability): Attack target player. The guard will die in your place if the player is protected. 1 use
• Does not count as visiting.
Paranoid Guards (Night Ability): Become Death Immune tonight. Occupy and Kill all players who attack you. 3 uses
• Attack bypasses Death Immunity and healing.

Notes: Compatible with most Neutral classes

1 Like
#3

Thanks for compacting all that information. I’m not a champion with markup.

#4

Does this include Prince jail?

OP. Make it 2 use.

Being unable to vote a known scum is a problem. Having the Usurper NOT be a scum in the first place causes the same issue as the Pretender.

1 Like
#5

It does not include the Imprison ability. I’ll edit to make that clear.

I’ll make paranoid guards 2 uses for now.

Anything else to comment on?

#6

Edited OP to include Jake’s cleaned up layout.

Totalitarian Regime now allows all classes except prince to target the king.

#7

I think this class will force people to keep around Knight claims, as there’s no real other way to kill the king. Prince can’t Jail exe, and Hunter is only conditional

#8

And even if they are evil, they probably still are a killing class, which means you still need them to kill the King.

#9

That’s a positive side effect of this class that I hadn’t considered. Awesome!

#10

Worst Design ever…

since Coup D’etat is a day ability, (not a night) the usurper will become king day 1, and start killing people from day 2 to 4, until butler poison.
and imagine if there is no butler. now evil has a friend on the throne. a Friend who cannot ever be voted.

This is in contradiction to the spirit of the game.

1 Like
#11

I mean no offense, but everything you said is either subjective or utterly false.

For one, how often do you see a King voted up on the stand D2? (You say D1, but I’ll assume that’s a typo, because no trials can even take place on day 1.)Yeah. Never. And even if they were, you’re not forced to click the button if you think it’s too risky to do now.

Also, you do not win with any evil class, you can only win alone(not crowned) or with non-killing neutrals(crowned). So, no, Evils do NOT have a friend on the throne.

I urge you to read again, and this time apply your reading comprehension.

(Also, calling a suggestion ‘the worst suggestion ever’ is just plain rude, even if your arguments had been valid.)

#12

So far, it’s the worst suggestion, and we have the OG Grand Idea threads

#13

For the sake of argument, I’ll engage with you on this, but let me preface this by saying(reiterating?) That this was primarily a fun project for me to let my creativity loose on. Had I intended on making an actual suggestion, I would’ve made something with a much less radical impact on how the game is played. (Because this community treats anything that breaks the mold as if it brings forth the end of times)

Now, to engage: You have any argumentation for that opinion for me to actually work with? Your initial comments weren’t negative, so I can only guess as to why you suddenly had such a change of heart.

#14

https://forum.imperium42.com/t/grand-idea-fol-ashes-version/69876/6?u=jakethewolfie

#15

So you mean to say a meme suggestion that would make the game utterly unplayable is a better suggestion than what basically boils down to adding a final boss to ToL?

Do you mind giving an actual argument, rather than just posting the class you already named in your previous post? If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you had some kind of personal vendetta against me for something I did.

#16

It basically needs all killers dead in order to win.

#17

As does every other killer class(excluding BD killers winning with other BD killers)
Your point?

#18

It needa to do this before becoming king, or else it immediately dies.

#19

It has essentially two bears to help with that. I gave it three originally, but that was ‘OP’.
Two is too weak?

I can’t appease everyone, I guess.

#20

Sorc can target and then proceed to blow up the king.