THIS IS A POTENTIAL REPLACEMENT FOR CULT
Demagogue (Neutral Evil) "A radical populist who will stop at nothing to bring down the establishment - even if it means burning it all down in the process."
Alternative names: Terrorist Leader, Political Extremist, Revolutionary
Every night, the Demagogue may choose a target to visit. If that target is a Citizen or non-Government town, they are "doused" / flagged. The target will know they were flagged, as they will receive this message.
"A charismatic individual talked to you at length about the evils of the Town government, and passionately shares his vision of the future. A better world is possible! You are now a Sympathizer / Fellow Traveler."
Demagogue cannot flag Mafia / Triad, Neutrals, or Town Government roles (excluding Citizen). Attempting to do so will not alert the target, but give feedback to the player that they realized their target did not appear "susceptible to radicalization" because they are Town Government / Mafia / Triad / Neutral, and thus you walked away. This serves as a soft detect function for Demagogue.
At the Demagogue's discretion, they may "activate" their flags at night. This converts all flagged players to the Demagogue's faction. Converted players retains their original roles and abilities. The only difference is that their roles are prefixed (e.g. Radicalized Party Host, or Rebel Spy).
Converted players become part of a group night chat with the Demagogue. In addition, all feedback is shared with members of the Demagogue's night chat (e.g. Spy targets, Invest results).
After the Demagogue activates his flags and converts players, and after the Demagogue has consumed all flags, the Demagogue no longer has any contributions beyond being a member of the faction and having a lynch vote. However, because the other players retain their original roles and abilities, they may use their abilities to bring down their enemies (and hide from other Town Investigatives).
Converted players have an additional night ability on top of other night abilities they may or may not have. They may visit a house and detonate a suicide bomb. This has similar mechanics to the Mass Murderer's killing spree ability. The bomb will only kill whoever was at that house at night. The only guaranteed kill is the player himself, so it is possible for a bomb to detonate and kill no one other than suiciding the player if no one visited the house, and the owner of that house visited someone else that night.
Demagogue cannot win with Mafia / Triad or Neutral Killing roles. The goal of the Demagogue is to eliminate the Town, Mafia / Triad, and Neutral Killing roles.
When audited, Demagogue becomes Scumbag, and they lose their night abilities. If they have already converted players, they are still a member of the night chat and faction.
When audited, converted players become Citizens, but still retain their membership in the Demagogue's faction and night chat, and they still retain their additional suicide bomb night ability.
Options
1: Demagogue is limited to 3 flags (default is 2).
2: Demagogue cannot be roleblocked.
3: Jailor and Bodyguard knows if someone is flagged.
Why Demagogue?
Demagogue does not have an issue with unrelenting growth that the Cult has, as it has a limited number of converts. This is balanced by converts retaining their original role - which is a bonus to the fun factor of the players involved, and allows players to have a strong provable alibi for Town - and gaining a skill-based suicidal night ability. This ability can end up hurting the Demagogue more often than not, as failing to kill priority targets will reduce the already limited size of the faction.
Demagogue cannot stack with Mafia / Triad / Neutral Killing, which prevents overpressure on the Town, and keeps things interesting for the other factions.
Demagogue cannot just convert people at random and call it a day. Limited number of converts + a two-stage activation ability akin to the Arsonist requires the Demagogue to 1: figure out the roles of the other players 2: choose high value targets such as Power roles, but not so visible that they will be killed before converting them, and 3: do this all in a timely manner considering the two-stage nature of the ability. Demagogue thus can only really become a strong force mid or late game, as opposed to the Cult that is converting Town's at Night 1.
Potential problems of my proposed rework:
Suicide bombing ability may still be overpowered, considering every member aside from the Demagogue gets it on top of their original role abilities. An additional limitation to be considered is that there is ONE suicide bomb for the entire faction, and the night chat may choose who will be the one to use it. Once it is consumed, it cannot be replenished.
Changing win conditions is still punishing for converted players. And being able to take out a sizeable fraction of the town is still significant. Another consideration for Demagogue is to give the option for Demagogue to be Night Immune. If the Demagogue is somehow killed/lynched after converting players, the faction is disbanded and converted players revert to Town. The only problem with this consideration is the possibility of gamethrowing on part of faction members. For example, if someone wants a Town-Jailor win and they are converted, they can out who the Demagogue is and have them killed so that they can return to Town. Although generally players in Mafia are pretty good about this, in my experience at least. A response to this would be to allow members to still get original role wins, e.g. converted Jailors still get Jailor wins as after all they are still a Jailor, but the win will not count for Town but for Demagogue.