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Kromos
April 11th, 2012, 07:31 AM
Role Name: Absorber

Alignment: Evil Neutral

Win Condition: See the town dead. Can win with mafia or neutral killers. Must survive.

Game Size(s): Any

Abilities: Absorbs the abilities of those who visit or affect him (passive ability). He can use one of the abilities he has absorbed at night.

One visit = one charge of that ability. The player who visited him retains his abilities. He cannot absorb the abilities of a student or amnesiac. He can absorb the abilities of the cult or mason leader which he can use to create his own cult or masons. If he is released from jail he absorbs the jailor's jail ability but not his execute ability. If the jailor executes him he will survive and can use the jail + execute ability (cannot jail without executing). He cannot be killed at night because he absorbs the kills. If a gunsmith or armoursmith gives him an item he receives that item in addition to being able to give someone else an item. He cannot be blocked because he absorbs the ability. Investigative roles will still work as normal when checking him.

Additional Notes: Potentially powerful ally to the mafia and neutrals. He can pretend to be a large amount of roles because the players who visited him won't be notified he has absorbed their ability (they could guess). He can take in kills (e.g. vigi shot, spree killer kill) and use them back against town. He can keep visiting a veteran (needs an ability to do this) in order to absorb alerts (veteran has to be on alert for this to work) to kill those who visit him as well as taking their abilities. He can create fake jail and architect chats and even create his own cult or masons.

He will want to look scummy enough to be visited but not scummy enough to be lynched.

One Sentence Summary: Ninja that steals abilities by being visited instead of by visiting other people.

Nick
April 11th, 2012, 07:37 AM
What if he visits a veteran?
Target of jester suicide?

Kromos
April 11th, 2012, 07:41 AM
What if he visits a veteran?

He doesn't die. He absorbs the veteran's alert ability. If he uses the alert ability he will kill those who visit him AND take their abilities.


Target of jester suicide?

He dies.

Nick
April 11th, 2012, 07:48 AM
Would single use ability be better than unlimited uses?

Cannot die at night is very powerful by itself.

Kromos
April 11th, 2012, 08:50 AM
Would single use ability be better than unlimited uses?

Cannot die at night is very powerful by itself.

He gets one charge per visit so if 2 doctors visited him he would get 2 heals. When he has used the heal ability twice he won't be able to use it anymore unless a doc visits him again.

clementine
April 11th, 2012, 03:55 PM
This sounds really interesting, but as it is, I think it might be a little OP because he is night immune and just absorbs all attacks or actions against him. I'd be interested in seeing how this might play out in a game though... It would be difficult to balance your actions just right so that people visit you so you can gain abilities yet not be lynched during the day. I think if his win condition was must win alone, it would be more balanced.

Ubernox
April 11th, 2012, 05:11 PM
It's balanced, because he has no in independent abilities of his own. He is very reliant on who visits him. For example, if only sheriffs, investigators and doctors visit him he'll be useless.

Capitalier
April 11th, 2012, 11:25 PM
Abilities: Absorbs the abilities of those who visit or affect him (passive ability).

Lemme hear more, bro.

I think that you should narrow that down to visiting only, and not affecting. I don't particularly like the veteran stealing part, and it could also allow him to become a bus driver too easily (potentially OP as he could now drive people towards himself). You would then have to determine if the bus driver then visits 2 people, or visits 1 and affects the other for the purposes of a setup with this role.

Kromos
April 12th, 2012, 01:48 AM
This sounds really interesting, but as it is, I think it might be a little OP because he is night immune and just absorbs all attacks or actions against him. I'd be interested in seeing how this might play out in a game though... It would be difficult to balance your actions just right so that people visit you so you can gain abilities yet not be lynched during the day. I think if his win condition was must win alone, it would be more balanced.

He would have no chance if he must win alone because he can't kill people without first being attacked. I think he works well as a mafia / neutral killer support as he can heal / guard them and use other actions to disrupt the town or give them false information to help scum.


Lemme hear more, bro.

I think that you should narrow that down to visiting only, and not affecting. I don't particularly like the veteran stealing part, and it could also allow him to become a bus driver too easily (potentially OP as he could now drive people towards himself). You would then have to determine if the bus driver then visits 2 people, or visits 1 and affects the other for the purposes of a setup with this role.

I didn't think about the bus driver but I really like the idea that he could switch someone with himself (if that option was enabled by the host) in order to get more people to visit him. Like a lookout or spree killer he would have to judge who would be getting the most visits with varying levels of success. If it is discovered that the bus driver failed to swap the absorber with his other target (e.g. the inves/detective/lookout results don't match with the swap) then it could be a way of finding the absorber. He isn't likely to gain this ability much as bus drivings will quickly go to a PR / scummy person combo. It should make people think whether the scummy person they are swapping is actually an absorber stealing their ability.

I want to make a neutral role that actually has a chance of surviving unlike the witch. The only way for him to be killed is to be lynched or by suiciding so he doesn't get random killed by the mafia or visits a veteran. The veteran death takes a bit more skill to avoid but I think it will be more interesting to have a role you can only lynch because if you try shooting or executing it you will only make it stronger. A veteran alert is a powerful weapon but as a reverse veteran you will have to judge your actions to get town to visit you but not scum. You could end up doing a lot more harm than good if a load of scum visit you and it carries similar risks to using a normal veteran alert.

Capitalier
April 12th, 2012, 11:30 AM
I'll actually approve this, because I don't think that it will actually get that OP in game. The only real problem I had would be the surviving jailor-execution part, but that's a death sentence in itself.

However, if you use it, please balance the setup appropriately. I do not suggest including a cult or masons within such a game, because it could create an artificial game-throwing situation as the new cult / masons should not be allied with him.

Also, since he doesn't win the witch, he don't think he should be immune to the witch. You probably will not have a setup like that, but if you do ...

Ubernox
April 12th, 2012, 01:35 PM
The thing is, if the absorber starts becoming too obvious with his bus-driving and his continuous attempts to draw people to himself, someone's going to notice. He is really vulnerable to lynching during the day, simply because of his nature; he needs to draw attention to himself, which is always a dangerous thing to do in mafia.

BorkBot
April 12th, 2012, 01:49 PM
It's implied here that the swap would fail:

If it is discovered that the bus driver failed to swap the absorber with his other target (e.g. the inves/detective/lookout results don't match with the swap) then it could be a way of finding the absorber.

If he absorbs a bus drive and then tries to bus drive himself, wouldn't he absorb his own ability and thus not get switched?

Ubernox
April 12th, 2012, 01:57 PM
http://aftershox.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/paradox-clock.jpg

Forum Mafia GM
April 12th, 2012, 02:08 PM
It's implied here that the swap would fail:


If he absorbs a bus drive and then tries to bus drive himself, wouldn't he absorb his own ability and thus not get switched?

nuoh my god

while on this account: i'd prefer if jailor execute actually kills the absorber, as it's somewhat an extension of a town lynch

I'll wait before adding it to the compendium. It needs to be polished slightly.

Ubernox
April 12th, 2012, 03:31 PM
Yeah, I did find myself cringing a bit on the "immune to execution" thing. But then again, the role's downsides almost make up for that.

Kromos
April 12th, 2012, 04:01 PM
He's not going to absorb the bus he is driving so driving himself shouldn't be a problem. Investigators/sheriffs/detectives/lookouts will get normal results back from him because I can't see away for this role to work without this. He is immune to blocks/witchings/drivings/kills.

He can win with the witch because they have the same win condition (see town dead). His multiple abilities means the ability the witch controls would probably have to be randomised so I think it is better he is immune to witching. Witching would also be a cool power to have as he can use it to force someone to visit him.

I see your point with the mason / cult recruitments as it wouldn't make for good win conditions and could cause game throwing. He can no longer absorb the ability to recruit masons. He can be converted into the cult. He could possibly absorb the ability to convert to allow the cult to convert twice in one night but that could be OP.

The jailor execute is a death sentence like you said because he will be lynched the next day assuming the jailor claims. I think it adds a bit more doubt for the jailor because even when you are sure someone is scum and should be killed you could be executing an absorber instead. If the jailor is killed the night he jails the absorber and doesn't leave a last will the absorber could get away with a jail + execution. The downside to being forced to execute is that the absorber will have to kill his target even if he thinks he is the sk or mafia. Jailors could even claim to be absorbers to get information from scum.

Some roles (FM 6 Lucifer, M-FM 6 Banshee) have been made invulnerable to lynches + jailor executes so being invulnerable to just jailor executes is less of a problem for town when they can lynch him the next day in most cases. I think that as a lynch is the decision of the majority it should be unavoidable but a jailor execution isn't that different from a vigi shot chosen by one person so I don't see it as an extension of the lynch.