The Leatherface - character rework design

TheDarkWall

So conceptually in terms of just bad design, I cannot think of a single character that needs more work than Leatherface. Playing like a version of billy with all the good things removed and a lot of extra bad, the only thing he excels at is obviously camping. Something the game actively discourages to the point where it's reasonable to say it's not the way the game is intended to be played in it's entirety. But the character's power is also weak and easily avoided making him not have much else to do. This rework is obviously something that would have to be tweaked and edited no doubt to be appropriately strong but not op, but I think it has potential. The goals of this proposed rework are the following:

• Remove the disproportionate strength of LF's ability to camp compared to other killers
• Make the character more interesting to play as and against
• Make the character viable versus decent players
• Uphold the character thematically

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So with those goals in mind, here is the concept I've come up with for the new version of Leatherface. Leatherface is a simple man, but when it comes to his craft of preparing a succulent meal of human flesh, he is second to none.

With his first power, Grotesque Offering, The Leatherface can enhance 3 hooks per match, causing them to be visibly more vicious in appearance. Once enhanced, the hook cannot be sabotaged until a survivor has been hung on it at least once. Upon hanging a survivor on the hook and repairing, healing, cleansing, gate opening or sabotaging actions within 32m of the gate occur at 50 percent their normal speed. After the survivor is rescued from the hook, this effect still lingers for 120 seconds. However, after the survivor is rescued, the effect can be negated if the enhanced hook is sabotaged.

Notes - The effect is applied in the proximity of the hook by the player and when carrying a survivor the aura of an enhanced hook is highlight white.

However, despite being the king of his domain, there is no fear greater to The Leatherface than the fear of invaders into his realm. Fear takes hold of him in his second ability, Hysterical Butcher. The fear of survivors gradually builds within Leatherface as he chases them and they use obstacles to stand between him and his goals. Once his fear reaches it's fever pitch, Hysterical Butcher can be activated (manually). Once active, it will remain active for the next 30 seconds as leatherface pulls up his chainsaw. During this phase, Leatherface can run at 4.8 m/s and has the ability to fully charge his M1 attack to break pallets, similar to what he can do now but taking 1.8 seconds to break them (a trade off for the fact that there is no chainsaw to rev). Every time a survivor is hit with his basic attack, the strength of hysterical butcher increases in various ways.

1 hit - increased lunge distance, T3 myers range

2 hits - decrease successful attack cooldown (does not stack with stbfl)

3 hits - access to his finishing move, disembowel. By holding down the power button leatherface can rev his saw, releasing it will execute a similar attack to the demogorgon's pounce which downs in a single hit. Upon using this attack once, Hysterical Butcher is ended instantly.

Successfully pallet slamming Leatherface once he's entered Hysterical Butcher will instantly kick him out of the mode. After time runs out, Hysterical Butcher goes on cooldown for 30 seconds.

Notes - Hysterical Butcher builds up over time while in chase. Becomes fully charged after 30 seconds. Getting pallet slammed or blinded grants bonus progression. Once full it can be saved and popped at a moment of the player's choosing.

With these abilities, The Leatherface has the power to be claim territory as his own slowing progress within his realm while exerting a tense chase on those unlucky enough to be caught trespassing.

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I do have a few ideas for add ons but I wanted to wait and see what people thought of the base idea first. I think it would be interesting in the sense that we currently have killers that can set traps and make certain areas dangerous, but none that really control a certain area and limit actions within it. I could see tweaking the time, space covered and action penalties for grotesque offering as needed. The idea with Hysterical Butcher is to give him a slightly better chase potential with a chance to potentially snowball. But the instadown being locked behind a 3rd hit during this mode would hopefully make it still reasonably hard to do. The pallet stun obviously being there to allow the survivor some method of maintaining survivability once the mode is active and making it so Leatherface can't just mindlessly hold W.

So yeah, let me know what you think and thank you if you've taken the time to read this far.