New Killer Idea: The Fire Priest
The Fire Priest
Story: He was an Aztec priest who performed ritual sacrifices to the volcano until one day he himself was shoved into the molten abyss. Only when he realized his skin was no longer melting did he open his eyes and find himself in The Entity’s realm.
Cosmetic: Ornate feather headdress, ceremonial clothes/gold medallions, scorched and melted skin.
Weapon: A lava rock cudgel with glowing red/orange spots
Power: Tectonic Disturbance
Short version: The priest can cause flames or stone to rise up from the ground.
Long version: Use the special power button to cause stone or fire to burst forth from beneath a survivor’s feet. The power affects 9 tiles (3x3 grid) in front of the killer. This starts at 3 tiles from the killer and ends at 6 tiles away.
Above the status icons the killer sees a 3x3 grid. Each square in the grid has 6 lines (top, bottom, left, right, and 2 diagonals). Some of these lines will be randomly lit up, illustrating which parts of the ground will be affected by the fire or stone. After using the power, a new layout of highlighted lines is randomly generated.
The killer can use the secondary power button to switch between fire and stone. Each switch generates a new layout of active grid lines.
When using fire, flames spew up from the ground in the pattern shown by the killer’s active grid lines. A healthy survivor who runs across a flame becomes injured, is set ablaze, and gains the “Hotfoot” status. Injured survivors gain the status effects, but remain injured (not dying).
The Hotfoot status allows the survivor to run at Sprint speeds until the “run” button is released for the first time. This also works like Deep Wound in that the survivor needs to “Pat Out” the flames in time or enter the dying state (I know! But keep reading, you’ll see). Due to the burn injury to the feet, the survivor will whimper and move more slowly (say 85%) for the next 60 seconds after a Pat Out. Coming within 5 meters of another survivor before Pat Out will set them ablaze and afflict them with Hotfoot as well.
(I know deep wound is unpopular, so I feel like the Pat Out should be quick, like 3-5 seconds. It’s mainly just to ensure that a flaming survivor doesn’t “Sprint” around the map for the rest of the match. Also the speed boost almost guarantees that the survivor will escape and have a chance to Pat Out the flames. This will also force the killer to be strategic when using flames.)
When using stone, walls of lava rock rise up from the ground in the pattern shown on the killer’s grid. (dull black basalt, rough pumice, shiny obsidian, a mix of different types? What would look the best?) These walls will, at random, sometimes be short and vault-able, and sometimes be tall. If the pattern is aimed right, it can slow down a survivor by forcing them to find a path through the pattern of sudden walls. The walls remain in place until the killer forms stone walls elsewhere. (This can lead to strategies like slowing travel through an exit gate, limiting mobility around a generator, hex, or hatch, or blocking certain doors, windows, or narrow spaces.)
The time between each use of Tectonic Disturbance should be around 8 seconds to prevent the spamming of flames and walls.
Add-ons should affect the number of active grid lines, how many sets of walls can remain standing, how long and how slowly burnt survivors hobble around, whether injured survivors go into the dying state from flames, etc.
This killer borrows certain traits from several existing killers which could lead new fun new strategies. There’s the ground area effect of The Doctor, the new status effect similar to The Legion, and even the potential to spread flames to other survivors like The Plague’s infection. Hopefully you guys find this to be interesting.
I don’t have any ideas for perks just yet, but I’m sure some fun ones will be suggested. The main question I have right now is the grid of 3x3 tiles. Is that too big, too small, or just right? (I’m not quite sure how big a tile actually is, but I assume it’s the footprint of a generator. Also, does a “tile” count as a “meter”?)