Killer Concept - The Scarecrow * (W/ LONG INSIGHT!!!) *

Tatutoy

The Scarecrow

Introduction

Intro

First off, do not bash me for taking this guy from Injustice 2. I think he's just too amazing and even his character concept could easily fit in Dbd's world.
The cool thing is that he would be a Killer that would bring a brand new mechanic to the game and add a new depth to the early game stage.

Confused? Don't worry, I'm going to explain all in short.

So...Let's talk about what The Scarecrow would be able to do!

Killer Ability (Fear of Sight)

Fear of Sight

While holding down the Space Bar Key, Fear of Sight is active.
An eerie glow covers his body and The Scarecrow's terror radius is dropped to zero. His movement speed is dropped by 10% and he cannot perform a lunge while holding Space Bar (or the key relative to it).
His appearance becomes so monstrous that, for each Survivor looking directly at him, he will receive a notification on screen and for a brief moment will be able to paralyze them in fear by emitting a malicious and noisy laugh (the action is performed by pressing the lunge key). The Survivor will not be able to move while in Fear, and will keep in that state based on the distance to the Killer. The closer the Scarecrow is and the more aligned to the center the Survivor's camera is with the Killer, the longer the Fear duration is (leading up to a maximum of 7 seconds).
The Scarecrow can make advantage of Fear of Sight by locating Survivors from afar just by their glimpse of camera if he's using it.
He can also stun multiple people if lucky and take down groups of careless Survivors that are relatively close to him.

Summarized:

• Can only be used when gauge is 100% (5 seconds to charge from a fully depleted gauge).
• Takes 2s to shape (can walk while shaping, but not attack).
• His movespeed is dropped by 10%.
• Heartbeat decreases to 0%.
• Cannot lunge while Fear of Sight is active.
• Lasts for 10 seconds (to fully deplete), or until releasing space bar, or until using the Fright move.
• Survivors looking at the Scarecrow with their cameras create a Fright indicator on the Killer's screen.
• Fright indicator gives a chance to Fright the Survivor remotely by clicking M2, stunning them in fear up to 7s maximum (based on the Survivor's angle of view at the Scarecrow and the distance from him). A 7s Fright would need the closest range possible and the camera aligned to the center with the Killer. A camera that is far from aligned to the center to Scarecrow will result in a really shorter stun.
• Survivor's that have The Scarecrow at any angle of their cameras receive a brief eerie sound warning, and have half a second to look away from the Killer.
• The Fright move makes the Scarecrow shout and become idle for 1.75s.
• A delayed click to inflict Fright will result in a miss (when the Survivor is not looking at you anymore).
• Hitting a Survivor while he's in Fright state will not remove them from that state.
• Fright can hit multiple people at once.

Killer Perks

Malicious Harvest

Harvesting is forbidden in your lands. Survivors that interact with Chests, Dull Totems and dropped Items have their aura revealed to you for 30/60/unlimited seconds. Hitting the survivor or starting a chase hides their Aura again.
"The meadow indeed has a dreadful feeling to it. I developed a fear for harvesting since I saw it" - Elijah Looke

Crows, Scared Crows

Whenever you are close to a crow, you feel the urge to kill. If you're in a chase, gain 2%/4%/6% movement speed bonus for 4 seconds with a cooldown of 180/120/60 seconds.
"I used to hate those ol' bastards. No kidding. But now I miss them...What? I never heard a single caw for months now" - Uncle Brynn, the Farmer

Hex: Rotten Field

One third of the area of the map you're in becomes dead, affecting all the surroundings. All the Survivors inside the area have their movespeed reduced by 2%/3%/5% and their hearing capabilities are reduced and overcomed by a loud fog noise.
The Hex persists as long as the Hex Totem is standing.
"It was cold in Brighttown, and the fog took over the meadows like it belonged there." - Diary of The Detective

Killer Mechanics

A Little Talk

Remember when I said that this killer could add a new depth to the early game of Dead By Daylight?
Ok, I owe you guys a clarification.

The Scarecrow is a Killer that punishes Survivors that are oftenly looking around, not afraid of the outcomes. If you read everything above you will notice that.
With that in mind, we could say that, since the Survivors don't know which Killer they are going to face every single game, having a Killer that can catch up to you just by having him in your field of view will make them think twice about looking around, every early game.
That means that, even if you're not playing The Scarecrow as a Killer, you can still have an advantage before showing up since Survivors will be scared looking around.

And to add on top of that, it would give a new feel to the chases (that are, for me, the best part of the game).
Now I will need you to be creative and mind with me the scenario:

A poor Claudette (why always her, tho?) is doing her gen like a badass, because her team is not going too well. David is playing mega immersive, Meg is healing and Dwight is the new gift for the Entity.
Suddenly she realizes the heartbeat intensifying, and knows that she cannot look around because she knows that a Scarecrow is looking for her. So then she chooses one direction and starts to run. Of course she keeps her camera a little bit upwards so she doesn't bump into a wall of something, but in the end she makes it somewhere safe. There is no heartbeat, the music is gone and she can keep her genjockey role going. Then she decides to look around, and when she faces back...BAM! The scarecrow is there, right behind her really close, and with a really intense shout, she feels she cannot move. That thing is so frightening and spine-chilling, that she can't let go of the look, or do anything at all. Then he comes with that long and bloody sickle shining to the moonlight, and fiercely strikes her to the ground, followed by a malevolent laugh. And all the hope is gone...

I hope you guys can imagine the scare factor in play!

Thanks for the read.
I really hope everyone likes it!
Please leave some feedback. I love reading those!

Written by Tulio (Tatutoy).

NightmareReborn

Neat concept! I could see this working out if it was tested a bit. The ability is pretty balanced in my opinion and the character would fit in seamlessly. The only issues come with some of the perks. Malicious Harvest seems a little OP. I would reduce the values to maybe like 20/25/30 seconds max. Survivors interact with those objects A LOT, so a perk affecting those items shouldn't have too drastic of an effect. The crow perk is kinda confusing to me. Does the bonus apply for each crow near you? Or the whole murder of crows? The last perk is amazing, I'm surprised this hasn't been added already. Although, it would put a heavy workload on the devs creating the affected areas on every map. Nice job overall!

Tatutoy

@NightmareReborn said:
Neat concept! I could see this working out if it was tested a bit. The ability is pretty balanced in my opinion and the character would fit in seamlessly. The only issues come with some of the perks. Malicious Harvest seems a little OP. I would reduce the values to maybe like 20/25/30 seconds max. Survivors interact with those objects A LOT, so a perk affecting those items shouldn't have too drastic of an effect. The crow perk is kinda confusing to me. Does the bonus apply for each crow near you? Or the whole murder of crows? The last perk is amazing, I'm surprised this hasn't been added already. Although, it would put a heavy workload on the devs creating the affected areas on every map. Nice job overall!

Hey, firstly I would really like to welcome you to this Killer debate! I really enjoyed reading your feedback.
I wanted to clarify that I changed some values at the original post because I had some feedback in other places aswell.

So, let's talk about what you bring to the table here!

1) I can think of Malicious Harvest being way too strong and someone at Reddit said something similar. Maybe unlimited seconds is OP. It would have to need some testing, but we have to keep in mind that it's still a Perk slot. Also, starting a chase after a Survivor would make his aura fade aswell now.

2) The second perk Crows, Scared Crows would have it's effect active whenever you are close to a crow (it doesn't matter if there are 3 crows, it wouldn't stack). So the Killer would receive his 4 second movespeed bonus and then the Perk would went to a cooldown; in order to be activated he would need to be close to a crow again. It could have many utilities, from the chase pespective to the roaming bonus to get from place A to place B (for Killers that don't have any form of displacement utility, like Clown or Trapper, I think it could be interesting).

BTW, thanks for the feedback! I really liked reading your thoughts. Please do not mind replying!

Tatutoy

Sry the double post..

Mockingbird_X

Hi, welcome to the land of critique ^___^

Firstly, the way you describe the power is somewhat complicated. I would try to make it more simple in terms of description.

If you would allow my take:

KILLER ABILITY (FEAR OF SIGHT)

Grants the ability to switch between Punishment and Fear modes.
While in Fear mode:

• No attacks can be made
• Speed drops slightly (10%)
• Survivors looking at the Scarecrow in Fear mode create a Fear noise indicator
• Fear noise indicator gives a chance to Fright the Survivor remotely by clicking the M2, stunning them for up to 7s (depends on Survivor's angle of view at the Scarecrow)
• Fright stuns the killer for 1.5s

Hitting a Survivor while in the state of Fear will not remove them from that state.

This is just nasty. Literally robs the Survivor of any agency they might have.

KIller perks

Malicious Harvest
Great idea. Way too long aura reveals. I would argue those should be in single digits; starting from 1s to 4s max.

Crows, Scared Crows
I do not understand this. How does this work? Imagine you are in a chase and the survivor is running ahead (obviously) - the Survivor will trigger any crows before you ever could. Also there is a speed increase mechanic - bloodlust.

Hex: Rotten Field
It's okay. I kinda like it, really.

Overall thoughts

I don't like the power due to the fact that it counters the core balancing mechanic of the game - Survivors' field of vision. Survivors are in third-person view exactly so that would have more agency and more intel on the Killer - they cannot hurt the Killer, so they need to evade. Respectively, the Killer is restricted to a first-person view due to being extremely dangerous to Survivors.

Your suggested Killer Power counters it and breaks the balance. With this power there is no longer any skill or mindgames involved - the Survivors are literally blind and paralyzed, saying stunned and waiting for the Killer to slaughter them. It breaks the competition.

Tatutoy

Hey @Mockingbird_X !
First of all, thanks for the response and a warm welcome to the topic!

I really like your Killer ability formatting since it's a reader friendly approach. I wouldn't call it "Punishment" Mode though, since we already have that for Doctor, or even a Mode really. It would be an active skill just like a Spirit's phase-walk, and I'm going to explain why it's not a switchable mode later.

@Mockingbird_X said:

Hitting a Survivor while in the state of Fear will not remove them from that state.

This is just nasty. Literally robs the Survivor of any agency they might have.

Well we could think of it being really OP if the Fear hit at the closest range possible, and the Survivor' camera as centered as possible aswell. The 7 seconds would for sure put even a healthy Survivor to the ground, because that would give room for two swings easily.
But it's not. Yes, I know what you are thinking. "How it wouldn't be OP?" Well, try to follow me on this one:
I've played a TON as Survivor in this game, and we as Survivor mains learned to adapt our gamestyle for each killer, in every situation.
We know that running into open spaces against a Leatherface is a no go, so we eventually learned to stick our butts close to those objects and tiny places. We learned that against a Trapper, if you're not looking down regularly, you are going to get caught eventually. That if you're in a chase against a Huntress, then you shouldn't be walking straight everytime you hear her pulling her axes out.

Those are just some examples, and what I mean with them is that Survivors are smart, and for the most, learn with time how to exploit killers (besides Legion, you have nothing to do against this guy LOL).
I'm going to bring your last thought here because I think it's convenient to this argumentation:

@Mockingbird_X said:

Overall thoughts

I don't like the power due to the fact that it counters the core balancing mechanic of the game - Survivors' field of vision.

Let's just pretend that Freddy doesn't exist as a Killer in DBD and I'm the one giving the idea for him in this topic. With your thought right here, Freddy wouldn't be a fair Killer, since Survivors wouldn't be able to see him in their field of vision. I think what you meant here is how The Scarecrow's power would negate the ability of Survivors to get visual information. But here's the point: they don't need it! At least not as much as any other Killer, simply because his mechanic revolves around his heartbeat. That's the key to exploit him, and since I gave you examples of how good Survivors are smart, they would adapt to this situation really easily.

Scarecrow's Fear of Sight is really strong if we look at it's strengths and all, but the major flaw here is what balances it: the no heartbeat is a good indicator to run and not look around if you know that he's close. It's not really hard to do. You still have your pallets and you can drop anytime you feel to.
You could say that "Well, how am I going to know that he's around if I can't even look to anything?"
First, Fear of Sight is a skill and not a mode. If it were a mode, THEN it would be broken to the game itself. It has to be charged, it has to delay the Killer if he decides to use it's power, and most importantly, it HAS to have a cooldown. So that means that he's no going to be running around saying like "Hey, just look at me so I can get my insta-stun!". There are moments that he CAN be looked at, and even if someone looks at him from a distance while he's using it, the stun would be so minor, that it wouldn't guarantee them getting caught.

About the Perks, I'm glad you enjoyed them for the most!
Crows, Scared Crows would only work if the crows were still close. Like, if we assume a Survivor just ran into a couple of them and made them fly, the Killer would only receive the bonus if they were flying close. if they took 3 seconds to leave the place and the Killer only came after, then it wouldn't activate.
And yes, it could add up to the Bloodlust to cause a nice sprint advantage. (Might be too strong, would need to test it).

So, do you feel me? I hope I could clarify a bit my vision of him for you, and really hope my arguments were convincing for you aswell. If you believe this Killer wouldn't be a good idea for the game, then please let me hear what you are thinking. I would be glad to!

Mockingbird_X

I wouldn't call it "Punishment" Mode though, since we already have that for Doctor, or even a Mode really

The Doctor's ability is the one I got the name from, really, since I didn't know how to name it and didn't want to introduce new terms too much.

Crows, Scared Crows would only work if the crows were still close

Okay, I think I got it. It's interesting, making you goat the Survivor into the parts where crows are. Might be an interesting source of new plays.

With your thought right here, Freddy wouldn't be a fair Killer, since Survivors wouldn't be able to see him in their field of vision

Not exactly. Freddy's power has a transition period, which allows Surivivors to take action, the sleep can be countered easily by Skill Checks and awake Survivors. Moreso Freddy's power makes him severely handicapped - he's the only Killer that is unable to use a simple hit without using his power first. Well, this is not a discussion about him, though

If it were a mode, THEN it would be broken to the game itself. It has to be charged

Mode switches are not instant either. And this would allow for additional time the Scarecrow would have to waste before he can hit after instilling fear.
If not mode - to restrict it as an ability - it must have a meter of sorts, that is quickly depleted when walking with Fear of Sight, probably...?

I've played a TON as Survivor in this game, and we as Survivor mains learned to adapt our gamestyle for each killer, in every situation
The Scarecrow's power would negate the ability of Survivors to get visual information. But here's the point: they don't need it!

I...don't know, really. I main Killers and I horrible at being a Survivor. When playing Killer, though, I can see the Survivors act according to points you're making, however I'm still on the fence about the 7s stun and the fact that stun is not removed after a hit. You imply high skill Survivors, but it's my impression that countering Scarecrow would require way more skill than countering Trapper or Huntress due to the fact both of them actually "aim" their attacks manually. I'm not sure how Scarecrow would aim and if it's possible to evade the fright?

I'm afraid at this time I just cannot bring myself to agree with you on this concept not being OP.

Tatutoy

@Mockingbird_X said:
Mode switches are not instant either. And this would allow for additional time the Scarecrow would have to waste before he can hit after instilling fear.
If not mode - to restrict it as an ability - it must have a meter of sorts, that is quickly depleted when walking with Fear of Sight, probably...?

Well, it would be needed adding a depletion rate. When the gauge is full (5 seconds to recover a maximum depleted gauge)** Fear of Sight** could be used again. I really like to compare it with The Spirit's haunting skill, because it would work almost indetically in the charging system.

@Mockingbird_X said:
I'm still on the fence about the 7s stun and the fact that stun is not removed after a hit. You imply high skill Survivors, but it's my impression that countering Scarecrow would require way more skill than countering Trapper or Huntress due to the fact both of them actually "aim" their attacks manually. I'm not sure how Scarecrow would aim and if it's possible to evade the fright?

So here's the thing I believe you missed (or maybe I wasn't too clear because it could have been written better) - It IS possible to evade the "fright" stun. Someone asked me on Reddit about it and that was my initial response:

" What you would have to do is make sure you're not looking directly at the Killer, and if you do, there's actually a margin of a second/half a second to look away (the Survivor receives a brief sound warning - something like a Banshee sound from Darkwood), and also if The Scarecrow is not using Fear of Sight, then you will never get stunned."

That means you will be getting a brief feedback from the game saying "Hey, if you don't turn your camera immediately you WILL get stunned by his move" (the sound warning of half a second/a second). And also the 7 second stun would be something really hard to pull out by The Scarecrow, simply because it depends a lot on the Survivor's mistake, and you playing the mind game really well. I believe a 2 or 3 second stun would happen with some frequency, and the Killer wouldn't be able to instadown healthy people with it. He would need to hit fright twice before securing a hook.

I'm making a change on his skill layout, hoping it's more understandable.
Here as it follows:

Fear of Sight

While holding down the Space Bar Key, Fear of Sight is active.
While in this mode, an eerie glow covers his body and he shapes to a baleful form:

• Can only be used when gauge is 100% (5 seconds to charge from a fully depleted gauge).
• Takes 2s to shape (can walk while shaping, but not attack).
• His movespeed is dropped by 10%.
• Cannot lunge while Fear of Sight is active.
• Lasts for 10 seconds (to fully deplete), or until releasing space bar, or until using the Fright move.
• Survivors looking at the Scarecrow with their cameras create a Fright indicator on the Killer's screen.
• Fright indicator gives a chance to Fright the Survivor remotely by clicking M2, stunning them in fear up to 7s maximum (based on the Survivor's angle of view at the Scarecrow and the distance from him). A 7s Fright would need the closest range possible and the camera aligned to the center with the Killer. A camera that is far from aligned to the center to Scarecrow will result in a really shorter stun.
• Survivor's that have The Scarecrow at any angle of their cameras receive a brief eerie sound warning, and have half a second to look away from the Killer.
• The Fright move makes the Scarecrow shout and become idle for 1.75s.
• A delayed click to inflict Fright will result in a miss (when the Survivor is not looking at you anymore).
• Hitting a Survivor while he's in Fright state will not remove them from that state.
• Fright can hit multiple people at once.

I think it balances it out @Mockingbird_X . What it's your impression?

GeneralV

This was amazing! I would love to see my favorite Batman villain in DBD.

Cornpopers_Evan

Oh yeah, I quite enjoyed all of this. I especially love the fact you picked my favorite Scarecrow design ever.