Fun Killer Idea - The Hound & Master

One of my favorite concepts of the game is the creative potential it has for work-shopping unique antagonists, and balancing their concepts within the game's engine. In my spare time as a writer, I love thinking about new killer ideas and constructing their abilities and three unique perks. This is one of my ideas that I found interesting, so I decided to share it with you guys. I'm no artist, but here are some fun illustrations and story I added. I don't actually have any expectations of this idea being seriously considered for anything, but here's what I came up with. Enjoy my nonsense.

The Hound & Master

-- Story --

At the far end of the nineteenth century, at the pinnacle of scientific advancement, Bennett Howard Mastiff was eager to join the race toward immortalizing his name in history. He attended the University of Cluj-Napoca, gambling his family's fortune to gain knowledge in the fringing, taboo fields of biology. It wasn't long before his pretentiousness caught attention - boasting of ideas of elongating human life. In reality, his ideas were bold, but in practice, unethical. Bennett was asked to cease his work, though he had no intention of doing so. He was unanimously ejected from his university.

Later in his life, when Bennett's family was left penniless due to his blunders, the Mastiff family mansion was abandoned. Bennett was left with nothing of value, inheriting only the worthless estate and his dead father's pocket-watch. It was not enough for him. To escape his debts and troubles, Bennett planned to burn himself alive in the estate. The fire was strong, but the flame was merciful. Bennett had collapsed from the smoke, but he awoke with the house scorched around him, yet he was spared. He took this as a conniption of powers unseen, dedicating his life to a higher calling.

After surviving miraculously, he turned his family's estate into a pilgrimage site for those who had nothing. It became The House of the Fire's Fade, promoting the powers of nature above all else. Hundreds of vagrants and outcasts came to hear his mad sermons, but it didn't take long for his old ways to return. He preached of fire as if it were holy, claiming it was the key to immortality. The hundreds heard and the hundreds believed his ramblings. His flock became his army, raiding local homes and stealing ingredients for Bennett and his radical ideas. Eventually, his flock even napped animals from homes and farms to serve as live subjects for his cathedral of pseudo-scientific revelations.

The authorities could not stop the cult, for the flock's numbers were too great. The cult of Fire's Fade watched Bennett daily as he subjected living animals to his experiments, treating his laboratory as if it were a biblical site. These experiments were anything but holy. These animals were bound in oily ribbons, burnt alive before the awe of a crowd. Bennett timed each sacrifice with his father's pocket-watch, waiting for the moment when his own miracle was reproduced. For three months, he waited patiently to see an animal survive his baptisms, just as he did.

On Christmas day, as his flock began to lose their faith in their master, Bennett retrieved his final sacrifice. It was a hound, starved and angry over its imprisonment. It snarled as it was bound in red ribbons and hoisted up for the remainder of the Fire's Fade, snapping its jaws as Bennett lit the ribbons and held his golden watch up to time the animal's survival. It was inconceivable. The animal did not die. The fire did nothing to the beast. The watch's dials wound on and on, as did the hound's fuse. The flock arose in astonishment, all while Bennett watched in breathless gaze. He had finally done it.

As a twist, the experiment seemingly worked, but it gave birth to something terrible. The restraining ribbons disintegrated, releasing the burning hound. She tore at Bennett's legs, bringing the holy man down and to the mercy of angry fire and teeth. Bennett was not spared from the fire a second time as he and the hound became a pyre of the ages, putting the Mastiff family mansion to ruin and all those who refused to leave their master. The University of Cluj-Napoca denounced Bennett Howard Mastiff's work and claimed his cultist ideas were nothing but grand posturing and a failure on every account. Those who visit the haunted remains of the Mastiff family mansion disagree. The sound of whaling animals and a ticking watch can still be heard among the ash and decay.

-- Design --

The Hound and Master is a fusion between stealth and aggression. It relies on both to hunt survivors. This killer is based around controlling two separate characters, for they both rely on each other. Just like Bennett Howard Mastiff's story, his strength relies on instigating others to do his work.

The players begins as The Master - a ghostly man who can navigate through scenery and track survivors. He has no terror radius, cannot be stunned by pallets, can strike generators and pallets, check lockers, and can move straight through most walls. Although he is seemingly untouchable, he has limited interactions with the world. He cannot attack or pull survivors from vaults or generators, and has a hindered movement speed. He can only interact with survivors when they are down or in lockers.

When The Master needs a survivor hunted down, he calls upon The Hound. Using his pocket-watch, The Master can summon The Hound, which requires a small amount of time to summon, though the process can be cancelled with flashlights. Successfully summoning The Hound in a valid spot switches the player's perspective to The Hound. She is an exceptional hunter, able to chase survivors down at high speeds. She can quickly vault through windows and hunt injured survivors with ease, but cannot break pallets or check lockers. Her terror radius is also large, which means survivors will be alerted to her presence at lengthy distances.

While The Master is left stationary, he is not entirely without use. When the player is controlling The Hound, The Master is left in place and can block vital areas. Survivors cannot pass through him while he is channeling the Hound, meaning he can block pallets, narrows corridors, generators, or even lockers.

The player can instantly switch back to The Master at any time, destroying the hound until it is summoned again. When The Hound brings down a survivor, it is up to The Master to track down the injured victim and take them to a hook - if the player so chooses to do so.

-- Unique Perks --

This killer is meant to be flexible in play styles and supports a multitude of fun interactions with different perks. The Hound & Master's unique perks aid in hunting survivors and focuses on using senses to hinder survivors.

Patience

Patience is a perk that keys the killer in on survivor movements. It increases the volume and distance of survivor's footsteps, and even deceases the volume of the chase music to enhance audible tracking in the middle of a chase. The perk has reduced usefulness around progressed / finished generators.

Hex: Decay

Decay is a hex perk for killers who prefer not to stop and destroy pallets. If a pallet is down for 50/40/30 seconds (depending on the perk rank), it is automatically destroyed. This phenomenon is nullified if the hex totem is cleansed.

Hex: The Fire Fades

This hex does nothing while it is uncleansed. Once The Fire Fades is cleansed, the mist is slightly / moderately / greatly increased (based on perk's rank). In addition, for the remainder of the match, your terror radius is reduced to zero as long as no survivor has direct sight of you. If at least one survivor is looking at you, your terror radius is returned to normal, until direct sight is lost again.

I'm sure there's a sea of balancing issues, but again, I'm not really expecting this to go anywhere outside of this topic. I've had a lot of fun designing this killer and I would love to hear what you guys think. I really enjoyed making this and would like to do more of these in the future.