One silly concept: New Killer - The Handyman (v1.1)

CogumeloAmigo

Concept: Character "employed" by the Entity to tend to the Realms. He builds the pallets, makes sure that the lockers are always stocked with whatever items the other killers may require, moves the generators around, installs the breakable doors and takes care of all other minor repairs that need to be sorted out before every trial begins.

Character Lore:

Spoiler Warning

Young Alexei Volejnikov had, according to himself, the most amazingly boring life one could ever dream of. Born somewhere in southern Russia around the late 80s, Alexei figured out early that he didn't belong there and that he couldn't move away from that life. The fall of the Soviet Union and the restructuring of the economy made sure that his "slightly-below-average" income single mother would have no way of moving somewhere else.

Days turned into weeks, weeks into months and months into years. And Alexei continued to grow duller as the time went by: Too many ideas, too much energy... too little to do. Farming was literally watching the grass grow, he had no aptitude for music or sports, and the townspeople held some unspoken grudge against his late father, so socializing wasn't much of a thing for the teen.

A few more years passed and Alexei had become even more dull, always tapping his feet or fiddling with whatever he had in his hands. Biggest event in the last half decade had been his mother growing sick. Lucky her to clock out of this purgatory sooner than later. If anything he had found something more interesting to do other than watching his mother coughing her lungs out... Or rather, something found him. A voice, calling him to the outskirts of the small town and towards a rundown shack that had been closed off for as long as he could remember. The front gate was open and the door was unlocked.

Inside the building Alexei found brand new tools, shelves stocked with supplies and all sorts of blueprints. There was also a strange hook hanging besides a locked door. And something felt strangely eerie about those, the dull Alexei felt uneasy and backed away, back to his boring life and to his boring, dying mother.

But now curiosity tempted the young man. He returned days later to have another quick look, then returned again to take a peek at the blueprints, then once more to shuffle through the building supplies. In less than a month Alexei had been taken by some indescribable inspiration and the shack had become part of his routine. The hammer felt as an extension of his arm and the nails of his will, the shack had become his workshop and safe haven from the cold and banal world outside until one night he lost track of time and decided to sleep there, just under that fascinating piece of metalwork that was the hook hanging besides the still locked door.

What a strangely pleasant dream he had... gruesome and violent, but it was almost like a game...

By sunrise he was getting up and ready to head back home. Back to his boring life and to his boring, dying mother. Like always she had been retching and coughing in her bed, but now she complained that Alexei had been disappearing during the nights. Alexei just prepared her medicine and waited for night to come so he could dream underneath that hook again.

He wanted to see the game once again...

Another morning came, and his boring, dying mother once again complained her boring complaints. That went on for three more times, and then Alexei realized that he wouldn't have to deal with the boredom anymore once his mother was no more. Then he wouldn't need to leave his workshop anymore. Her health wouldn't hold up for too long... One month passed, then two... Then suddenly one morning his mother began recovering, a true miracle according to the doctor that tended to her occasionally. She would be back on her feet in just a few months, but her son would have to tend to her afterwards. Constantly.

That night Alexei bagged the hammer from the workshop.

There was no way he would give up now that he had found something to fill the void... And besides, he needed to test something he had seen in one of his dreams. Something about that marvelous hook.

Dusk came, and just as his boring, soon-to-be-dead mother began complaining that her son was leaving again, Alexei caved her skull in with his hammer.

She didn't die, but that was part of the plan. Alexei picked her unconscious body up and carried it to the shack. He had seen it done in his dreams and wanted to try it by himself.

The screams of a raging mob didn't take long to fill the air outside the workshop, apparently someone saw him carrying his boring, half-dead mother around and took offense to that.

Alexei didn't bothered, even as fire began to flicker outside the window. That world didn't felt real anymore. He wanted the one from his dreams.

His boring, abhorred mother now screamed in pain as the hook pierced her flesh.

Then there was a click...

And the once locked door slowly opened, revealing only a black fog for Alexei to step through. He had found his way out of boredom.

The Handyman - Alexei Volejnikov

The Handyman is an odd killer that hunts down his victims by using his power, Tinker the Realms, to turn the already scarce resources available to the survivors against them.

His personal perks, Open Space Concept, Don't Blame the Tools and Hex: Shoddy Product, allow him to quickly punish survivors that take the environment around them for granted.

Height: Average

Speed: 4.4m/s (110%)

Terror Radius: 24m

Weapon: The Handyman wields a standard carbon steel claw hammer, which he jokingly calls "The Practical Method".

Power: Tinker the Realms

"The Entity may be almighty and all-seeing. But the Handyman truly believes himself to be fit enough for dealing with the day-to-day activities, and that is just as disturbing sometimes."

The Entity has granted the Handyman enough power to manipulate the environment and props around him, for they are his life's work and he will be completely devoted to it while not idle.

• Special Ability: Master Nail

Press and hold the Power button to aim and fire a special nail out to a range of 20 meters. Any upright pallet or locker hit by the Master Nail becomes locked in place and cannot be interacted with by survivors until the nail is removed. The Handyman has three nails he can use, and gains a new one whenever a set nail is removed.

Nails can be removed survivors that interact with it, requiring 2 seconds and a skill check to successfully remove. A survivor with a toolbox can use it to remove the nail in just 1 second and requires no skill check. A survivor inside a locker that has been hit by the Master Nail has his or her aura revealed to the killer and can only break free after 8 seconds and 2 successful skill checks. The Handyman is always notified if a set nail is removed by a survivor.

The Handyman manually can recover a nail by interacting with it for 0.5 seconds or by opening a locker that was hit by Master Nail. The Handyman can also recover one nail by opening locker any locker, but this action instantly removes the nail set furthest from his position.

The nail deals no damage to survivors it hits directly, but causes them to scream as it travels through them without resistance. A nail that does not hit any lockers or upright pallets disappears and is automatically recovered after 4 seconds.

The Handyman is slowed down to 3.6m/s while aiming with this power and takes 0.2 seconds to pull up a nail before aiming. Fired nails travel at 40m/s.

• Special Ability: King of Splinters

By pressing and holding down the Active Ability button for 1 second, the Handyman can trap all windows, dropped pallets and other objects that can be vaulted over that are inside his terror radius by creating sharp splinters on those surfaces. Healthy survivors that vault over the splinters become injured, and injured survivors that vault over them receive the Deep Wounds status. The Handyman is slowed to 3.2m/s while channeling this power.

The splinters remain for 7 seconds, and last for only 2 seconds after being triggered.

The Handyman can vault over surfaces under the effect of King of Splinters, including pallets, but he is slowed by 20% during the vault.

This power has a cooldown of 25 seconds after being used.

Perks:

• Open Space Concept:

"Why did I even put these up?" -Alexei Volejnikov; The Handyman

Seeing your prey using the environment to escape bothers you more than most others. You gain a token whenever a survivor you are chasing performs vault, up to a maximum of 2/3/4. The next you interact with a breakable door or dropped pallet, all tokens are consumed and you are granted a 10% movement speed bonus for 2 seconds per token consumed.

Survivors inside your terror radius scream whenever you break a door or pallet.

• Don't Blame the Tools:

"I understand that you aren't all as appreciative of those hooks as I am, but that was just disrespectful." -Alexei Volejnikov; The Handyman

The Entity's hooks as sacred to you, and you won't tolerate any attempts to deface them. Any survivor attempting to sabotage a sacrificial hook has their aura revealed to you for 5/6/7 seconds, and any survivor that successfully sabotages a hook while inside your terror radius becomes Exposed for 2/3/4 seconds.

If you down a survivor while within 4/8/12 meters of a sabotaged hook, that hook is immediately repaired.

• Hex: Shoddy Product:

"Not all of my works come out perfect and most of those that don't are just broken down and recycled. Most." -Alexei Volejnikov; The Handyman

A hex that brings out imperfections and causes malfunctions on what is otherwise reliable.

Pallets break immediately after being vaulted over by the seventh/sixth/fifth time.

Haven't given much thought on add-ons, but some ideas are:

• Brown Nail / Yellow Nail / Green Nail / Purple Nail: Survivors that are hit directly by Master Nail or remove a set nail from a locker or pallet suffer different status effects for 4 seconds. Blindness (Brown)/ Hemorrage (Yellow)/ Oblivious (Green)/ Exhausted (Purple).
• Iridescent Nail: The Handyman gains the ability to recall set nails across the map by holding down the Power button for 3.5 seconds. This causes the two furthest nails set from his position to be removed from their locations and recovered. The Handyman is slowed to 3.2m/s while recalling nails this way. This add-on disables the Handyman's ability to regain nails by opening lockers.
• Mother's Medicine (Iridescent): Hear a notification whenever a survivor begins to treat the Deep Wounds status effect. Survivors that successfully remove the Deep Wounds status become Broken for 8 seconds.
• Roll of Duct Tape (Purple): Hitting the Escape Hatch with Master Nail the delays it's opening by 15 seconds. Survivors can remove this nail normally, but cannot use keys to open a nailed Escape Hatch.
• Rat-chewed Cable (Green): Allows the Handyman to hit the Switch Box of either Exit Gate with Master Nail. Survivors take 20% longer to power that Exit Gate. The buzzer from a nailed Exit Gate can be heard from 10 meters further.
• Doctor Charm (Green): Set nails gain a terror radius of 24 meters
• Plague Charm (Green): Survivors inside lockers cough as if under the effects of the Plague's Vile Purge.
• Legion Charm (Purple): Survivors under the effects of the Deep Wounds status trigger Killer Instinct.
• Clown Charm (Brown): Set nails emit confetti when removed.

Feel free to leave suggestions if you want. I thought it would be funny to make a few add-ons that tie directly to other killers mostly because the Handyman is the guy cleaning after them.

Now picture this upstanding citizen firing nails around as if he was serving the ball on a game of table tennis.

EnderloganYT

I get it's a 'silly concept' but I'm gonna hold it to normal standards anyway because I can

He can shut down chases far too fast without giving the survivors a chance to escape, which is far too powerful. He wouldn't take a whole lotta skill to be one of the best, which I believe is an issue. The nails on the pallets can be used to essentially prevent them from using anything, and the 3 nail 'drawback' isn't that prohibiting, since he can recall them whenever in such a short amount of time. I suggest making it so that he can ONLY recall them at lockers, meaning he actually has to be careful with using them.

King of Splinters also needs a larger drawback. Perhaps he can't vault windows, or maybe it takes longer to. That way the player has to utilize their power with proper timing, rather than just whenever they're in a jungle gym or something.

I also have a bone to pick with 2 specific add-ons. Duct Tape and Rat chewed cable. These don't affect his power, they affect the game itself, making it even easier to play this guy and win with minimal effort. Perhaps make it so his Nail or Splinters can affect those objects, adding on the debuffs to them in the process.

Open Space Concept has a cool premise but ultimately is useless outside of like 2 scenarios.

Don't Blame the Tools is alright I guess, but it really just seems like a Hangman's Trick rework.

I don't see how you could get more than the 6/5/4 tokens needed to activate Shoddy Product. Maybe needs to be reworded to "every seventh/sixth/fifth pallet vaulted by survivors breaks right after they finish vaulting" but otherwise a good perk.

Overall a really cool concept, but the power has very minor drawbacks and is kinda broken. that, and Open Space Concept needs either a rework or a buff.

CogumeloAmigo

Okay, so we got v1.1 out now. Suppose it is better to just edit the original post with these changes and talk about them later so we can keep the discussion fresh.

• Master Nail: The ability to freely recall set nails has been moved to an Iridescent add-on, this way we both nerf the power and make the add-on itself more interesting. I personally like when the iridescent ones change gameplay a lot, and that fits the bill. Now nails are still regained when they are removed manually by either survivors or by the killer, but the killer can now recall a single nail by opening a locker.
• King of Splinters: The Handyman now has decreased vaulting speed when interacting with surfaces affected by the power and the cooldown has been increased from 20 to 25 seconds.
• Add-ons have been readjusted to better work with the killer's power.
• Hex: Shoddy Product has been rewritten to feel more intuitive.
• Open Space Concept has been reworked to be a more general use perk. Breaking speed was removed so it wouldn't stack with Brutal Force and now the perk focuses on regaining lost distance on survivors after breaking something.

Thanks for the feedback!