Champion Concept: Thomas of the Royal Guard

Melgrin··3 votes·1,047 views

WORK IN PROGRESS, ALL RESPECTFUL FEEDBACK APPRECIATED This thread will contain no specific numbers. I leave that up to the theory-crafters and Riot.

Thomas of the Royal Guard is a soldier. His nerves of steel and deadly arsenal of Napoleonic-era-style weapons have served him well alongside his fellow linemen upon many a field of battle... but what sets Thomas aside from his compatriots, you ask? Why, POMP of course! All glinting steel, embroidery and a fancy Grenadier's hat, Thomas strikes a figure both dashing and intimidating. He's clearly the type to polish his boots and wax his mustache before rushing into the fray. Do you have the grit, gusto and guile to take to the Field of Justice in style?

Appearance: Tall, dark and dashing. Sporting colonial-era fancy military threads of blue and gold and a stunningly tall grenadier's hat (the black fuzzy ones that the Buckingham Palace guards wear). Wields a musket fixed with full-length bayonet and a mustache.

Attributes

Slow marching speed Melee auto-attack with bayonet Medium-tanky Low base damages and high AD ratios (You can have a lot of damage as a long-range AD caster or be a pestering nuisance of a tanky bruiser) long cast times, low cooldowns

The primary feature here is that he is a slow champion who requires patience and careful positioning in order to be useful. Despite the slower play-style, quick thinking and reflexes are required to get anything done. This champion is intended to be punishing and high-skill/high-reward.

Abilities

Resource: Morale - Starts at half, refills slowly over time, with damage dealt to champions and when gold is gained, this resource is spent in chunks to use his abilities. If ever it reaches 0 due to spamming, whiffed abilities or damage taken he receives the buff "tactical retreat", cowing his head, receiving a silence and a speed-buff boost for a considerable period of time.

Passive: Nerves of Steel/Pride and Vanity - The effects of damage on Thomas' ability casts and morale are lessened as he gains levels, while the effect that missing abilities has on his morale is increased.

Q: Load/FIRE! - Holding Q causes Thomas to load his musket. Releasing Q cancels the cast and causes you to have to start all over again. Substantial cast-time. Upon completing loading, Q fades out and your next auto-attack is replaced by a high-range musket shot. The shot travels on a random trajectory within a narrow cone, simulating the inaccuracy of musket-fire. Naturally, the closer you are to your target the better of a chance you have to hit them. This is a fast, nearly-instantaneous projectile ability. It can pass through 2 targets and hit a third before stopping. Each pass through a target reduces damage and changes the trajectory of the projectile.

Notes - this ability costs a low amount of morale which is negated completely if the shot hits. Interruption of the cast causes morale loss equal to half of a missed shot. While potentially spammable with its non-existent cooldown, the self-rooting properties of this ability and long cast-time (reduced by CDR) make this high-damage skillshot easily balanced. The width of this ability's inaccuracy cone should be the size of the average champion hitbox at medium range, with a slight chance to miss smaller champs.

W: Fire in the hole! - This lobs a grenade towards your cursor at a distance based on the amount of time you hold the ability. Additionally, the grenade (a classic round, black gunpowder-and-fuse affair) begins counting down a timer as soon as you light the fuse to throw it, meaning that it could potentially blow up in your hand, resulting in severe shame and loss of morale.

E: Hit the deck! - Thomas dives towards your cursor, landing prone. Being prone has these effects: proximity-based stealth in brush, doubles accuracy of FIRE! (Q), causes grenades (W) to be rolled on the ground (this detonates them on player's ankles, slowing them significantly), no auto-attacks, very slow movement speed (crawling). Additionally, this ability can be double-tapped to turn the dive into a medium-speed roll (dash). All bonuses apply only while Thomas is prone. E will be replaced with "On Your Feet" while prone. Guess what that does.

Ult: CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGE! - With a ferocious battle-cry, Thomas charges into the fray in a straight line, bayonet first. This is a fast charge which deals LUDICROUS single-target damage and fears/immobilizes the target. Upon connecting with an enemy, if Thomas' Musket was loaded it may be fired while enemy is impaled with Q, causing a knockback and regular Q damage. Upon initial charge, Thomas begins generating Morale... for a few seconds. After a good distance he becomes exhausted, progressively draining his morale faster and faster. Soon enough it can drain your whole bar, resulting in the ult being cancelled and triggering "Tactical Retreat". This is an execution ability, doing more damage to lower-health targets and fearing them even longer. The cast can not be cancelled manually. Additionally, if Thomas hits a wall during his charge he will be stuck to the wall until he can pull his bayonet free. I think it would be cool to add a feature where in order to pull your bayonet free you have to hit R as fast as possible. 15-20 hits to get free, kinda thing.

3 Comments

GiantRobotCamels2 votes

So I like the concept however I think his abilities give too much room for error and not a lot of payout. I understand you are going for a champ that is hard to play but with the ability to miss his Q just because it randomly went a different way makes it very hard to hit at long range.

Personally I feel that a champions abilities should not hinder their ability to trade damage where as the first cast of Hit the deck! makes him very slow and stops auto attacks. It sounds like something I wouldn't use if I played him.

Also what role did you see him playing? (Just curious)

-GRC

Melgrin2 votes

Thanks for the feedback!

As far as his Q goes, think of a very narrow cone which, at about half-lane-length, would be the width of the average champion's hitbox. That way the miss chance only becomes relevant at long-range. It not only makes the ability consistent at decent range but usable as a "hail-marry" kinda thing at extreme distance... but not without an inherent risk. Every other champion's skillshot ability relies on your skill alone. In a real battle you have to rely on your equipment functioning properly as much as your own talents. I wanted a champion that reflects that.

The idea behind "Hit the deck!" was to give him a choice - use your escape/mobility OR hunker down into "siege/artillery/sniper" mode. Imagine a team-fight wherein you hit the deck at your tower (or maybe a little further out if you're feeling brave) and start pummeling the enemy team with Qs. The enemy is then forced to either dive you or back off, lest they be wrecked by musket balls. One of his many strong-suits should be forcing the enemy team into making split-second engagement decisions like that. Furthermore, the proximity-based stealth in brush gives you a great way to ambush players. Then, based on how successful that ambush was, you can either get up and choose to retreat (without your mobility which you just used) or follow it up with a bayonet charge. What I wanted was a ranged AD who could hang with the big-boys top by virtue of his range and mobility while having every shot (Q) feel substantial and meaningful instead of just like little pokes. You should ideally have to be rapidly reloading and switching targets every/every-other shot. At the same time you have to think "Am I still safe here? By the time I reload will they be on top of me? What's my morale at? Can I afford a missed shot or cancelled reload?". I know it may have been unclear but you can still throw Qs while prone, just not your regular melee AAs.

Ideally I see him working everywhere except jungle. He's an unconventional ranged AD/Caster.

Thanks again for the feedback!

GiantRobotCamels1 votes

OK his Q makes a lot more sense now. I thought the width would be a lot larger. Also I understand the use of Hit the deck! better. Its like the old Xerath W before his rework.

-GRC

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