Rex Does Kongai: Psychos Three – The Unkindest Cuts

For once, the Psychos are on the backburner and I'm going to have to fly through them today. Shouldn't be too bad, though, since most of them are shaping up pretty well.

The ones that are left, anyway. Because gone are the subpar Psychos #4 and #6, dropped in favor of shuffling over the Vamp from the Gangsters. She's going to be getting a bit of a update to reflect her new Psycho heritage and I've got a tweak here and there but, for the most part, this installment is about getting the bars polished up and into a finalized form.



PSYCHO 7. THE VAMP
Name: Rebecca Vampinsiaro
Title: The Black Widow
HP: 55
RES: 1/1/4
Innate: When opponent a new opponent switches in to fight against her, Rebecca gains 20 health.
Bar (v5): Skill #1 now interrupts on with a specific debuff, damage increased. Skill #2 revised, now has a chance to stun new opponents. Skill #3 now procs a debuff which has a chance to cause healing instead of damage. Skill #4 now forces opponent to attack self if they have a specific debuff. Resistance lowered.

1. Slap. 10en, 8spd, 12dmg, Phys. 80hit, 100proc. If your target is Beloved, this attack will interrupts their attack if it strikes first. A successful hit will cause Beloved to end. Close.
2. Heart Breaker. 45en, 2spd, 13x3(39)dmg, Phys. 90hit, 100proc. If your target has a Switch Cooldown Timer active then this attack has a 50% chance to stun them for the next turn. Both.
3. Deadly Kiss. 50en, 9spd, Dark. 100hit, 90proc. For the next 2 turns, your target is Beloved (Beloved: When you attack you have a 50% chance to heal rather than harm your opponent.). Cooldown: 1. Far.
4. Black Heart. 40en, 10spd, Dark. 100Hit, 90Proc. Your next attack will have a chance to hit fleeing (60%). If your target is Beloved then you may cause them to target themselves (75Proc). A successful hit will cause Beloved to end. Far.

With her move to the Psychos, I've taken the opportunity to spruce up Vamp's bar and put into place some new ideas for going about what I want her to do.

Skill #1, Slap, was always dangerous since it was a fast quick interrupt. But, here, I've taken the idea from the discarded Psycho #6 of an interrupt that really isn't and paired a fast, cheap attack with a debuff that allows it to interrupt.
That debuff comes from the new Skill #3, Kiss, which is now a little cheaper and instead of simply having a chance to stop an attack with the whole converting damage into healing thing, it instead procs a debuff that does the same. While it's up on her foe, they'll have a chance to gift her with health rather than take it away. I'm not sure, at the moment, where the best balance point for that is so I've left it at a roughly equal coin-flip.

Because that debuff is short lasting, though, and because landing an interrupt while it's up will strip it away even sooner, I feel comfortable taking the cooldown off of Skill #1. It's now just a quick, cheap attack that gets supercharged when Skill #2 is in play. The combination should be rather nasty but also keep players from defaulting to Slapping away. You can't interrupt right away, now you have to work at it.

The new theme of more or less controlling an opponent's actions continues with the revised Skill #4. I've dropped the idea of a skill that makes a target stun itself and, in its place, given out another way of interracting with that central debuff. While that debuff from Skill #3 is in play as well it forces their attack to hit their own health bar rather than the former Vamp's, giving her a way to truly reflect attacks. They wouldn't, by the way, have a chance to heal themselves, although if this redirection failed they'd still have that chance to restore some health. The net result is that it's really not worthwhile to attack so, again, to limit the potential for locking a character down indefinitely this skill also strips away that Skill #2 debuff.

And to make sure that there's not a completely useless skill on the bar it also does a little something else but we'll get to that.

The final change is to Skill #2 which used to be a Gun Attack and that, obviously, had to go since those are a Gangster thing. So, the new Skill #2 was changed to deal a bit less damage and punch through resistance a bit better since it no longer has that chance to avoid it entirely. It also picks up the idea of a conditional stun from the old Skill #4 but now ties into the Ex-Vamp's anti-switch innate. When an opponent switches in, she gets healed. And when they switch in they'll also get that Switch Cooldown to prevent them from switching out again. While they have that debuff, this attack will have a decent chance to stun them and since it works from either range that makes it very dangerous to switch in against the Vamp – instead, you'll have to stay and dance the dance that she wants as she tries to twist you in knots and prevent your attacks.

And that's where the secondary effect of Skill #4 comes into the picture, too, since it will not only have a chance to reflect attacks, it'll add a chance for P7's attack to hit fleeing as well. That allows her to put a hurting on her opponent, to wrap them up and tie them down with her reflecting debuffs and then threaten them with a further blast of damage even if they throw up their hands and try to run away.

It's all moving her into more Trapper territory which is, I think, fine. She's not going to stop anyone right away but she can put a foe in a tough spot in a hurry and that's great. It not only gives her disruption a purpose other than preserving her narrow slice of life but it also plays into her new theme as the Black Widow. The seductress who lures her prey to their doom. Once you step into her web, well, you just might not make it out...


PSYCHO 5. THE SHADOW
Name: Robin Echs
Title: The Shadow Stalker
Innate: After making a critical hit, Robin has a 40% chance to dodge all attacks for the next turn.
HP: 55
RES: 3/0/7
Bar (v3): Skill #1 dmg lowered, Skill #2 dmg lowered, Skill #3 dmg on return switch removed, Skill #4 revised, now has a chance to stun opponent.

1. Phantom Pain. 35En, 7spd, Phys. 95Hit, 95Proc. Your target will take 24 dark damage at the end of the next turn. One of their teammates is struck for 12 physical damage. Close.
2. Shadowy Strike. 40En, 6spd, 28dmg, Dark. 90Hit, 50Proc, 10Crit. This attack has a chance to set the range to its opposite. Both.
3. Shadow Stab. 55En, 2spd, Dark. 95Hit, 100Proc. Your target takes 12 physical damage. You are switched out of the fight. The next time your target is struck you are switched back in. Close.
4. Shroud of Darkness. 40En, 3spd, 12dmg, Dark. 90Hit, 75Proc, 10Crit. At the end of the next turn, your target has a chance to become Paralyzed for the next turn (Paralyzed. You are stunned and unable to move. Attacks made against you are automatically critical hits.). Far.

One big change here. I've taken Rocker #2's old Skill #3 which I dropped for being too problematic and applied it here, replacing the old Skill #4. Although it adds yet more disruption to an already quite disruptive bar, that doesn't bother me so much since that's sort of the Psycho's thing. And, unlike R#2, the Shadow doesn't have a super-huge nuke to really take advantage that will turn even the hardest of targets into a finely shredded paste. She's got Skill #2 which deals a good amount but I've been working on reducing her damage so that the threat here really comes from her disruption – like the Vamp, the Shadow needs to be a card that ties her opponents down and then finishes them off with her generally weaker hits. So, Skill #1, 2, & 3 have all seen their damage drop.

Unfortunately, I wanted to find a way of making her innate proc more often by giving her a way to guarantee a critical hit. So, rather than just stunning a target her Skill #4 instead “paralyzes” them. That's basically the same as a Stun with the additional quality of making any hit an automatic critical. That's probably really dumb of me – especially with a range-less power hit - but I think I've got the damage set here well enough that Shadow will still require 3 hits to finish off all but the weakest of foes. I'll have to crunch the numbers more carefully to check, though, since I'm just going by my best judgement right now.

Either way, Shadow's still deadly enough that I feel justified setting her health and resistance fairly low. She might be a slippery card but she's going to need to be.


PSYCHO 3. THE DOPPLEGANGER
Name: Dark [Foe's Name]
Title: Your Evil Twin
Innate: Dark [Foe] has the innate ability and resistance of its foe.
HP: 75
RES: 4/0/6
Bar (v3): Skill #4 now heals if target has particular debuff, cost increased.

1. Blood Pact. 35En, 2spd, 24dmg, Phys. 95Hit, 100Proc. You steal half of the damage that you cause. If you have a Sympathetic Link then you steal the full amount of damage caused. Close.
2. Sympathetic Link. 40En, 3spd, Dark. 100Hit, 90Proc. For the next 6 turns half of any damage you suffer is also taken by your target as well. Both.
3. Memorize. 20En, 10spd, Dark. 100Hit, 100Proc. If you are attacked this turn, Memorize is replaced by that attack for the next 3 turns. Both.
4. Unequal Trade. 20En, 2spd, Dark. 100Hit, 100Proc. You steal a buff from your opponent. If they lose a buff in this way, they take 12 dark damage. If you have a Sympathetic link you gain 12 health (100Proc). Both.

Only a minor change here. Skill #4 creeps up in power again and gets a bit of a cost increase in recognition. But it now also procs a minor heal if its target has already been debuffed by Skill #2. Like with Skill #1, this makes the debuff in slot 2 a key component of this character and ensures it's beneficial to put into play. It means giving this character a bit more healing, which is dangerous, but it might well be okay.


PSYCHO 2. THE STALKER
Name: Jarod Molereed
Title: the Masked Murderer
Innate: This card can equip any item OR This card has the resistance, health, and innate of another random card.
HP: 80 OR varies
RES: 5/1/2 OR varies
Bar (v3): Skill #3 cost raised

1. Terrifying Slash. 50En, 7spd, 24dmg, Phys. 95Hit, 30Proc. There is a chance this attack reflects your foe's attack if it strikes first. Close.
2. Brutal Mockery. 20En, 10spd, Dark. 100Hit, 100Proc. You use the same skill that your opponent did last turn. Both.
3. Cruel Twist. 20En, 10spd, Phys. 100Hit, 80Proc. You have an 80% chance to repeat the same move that you used last turn. Both.
4. Unmask. 30En, 10spd, Dark. 100Hit, 100Proc. Performs a random move from a random character that shares the same group as your item OR Performs a random move from the card whose identity you have assumed. Both.

Nothing much to see here. I've raised the cost on Skill #3 so that it's a null cost instead of a net-cost. That somewhat lessens the concern that P2 can capture a particularly powerful skill and, then, drive it into the ground but not by much. It's still a problem but one I'll probably have to live with – I think the randomness of it all offsets it enough that it should be okay. The times when you do get a good skill to ride will be outweighed by all those times you don't, in other words, and it'll all work out on average. I'm even alright with turning Skill #1 from a 50 energy skill into a repeatably 20 energy one – opponents can always step away, rendering it useless.


PSYCHO 1. THE MIND KILLER
Name: Maury Pheros
Title: The Dream Killer
Innate: When this character attacks, his damage is applied to his foe's lowest resistance.
HP: 70
RES: 2/2/2
Bar (v3):

1. Ego Assault. 40En, 6spd, 7x5(35)dmg, Dark. 95Hit, 50Proc. This attack has a chance to disable your target's innate for the next 3 turns. Close.
2. Night Terrors. 30En, 8spd, 8x3(24)dmg, Dark. 95Hit, 75Proc. This attack has a chance to interrupt your foe if it strikes first. Close.
3. 1.Mind Bender. 60En, 3spd, Dark. 100Hit, 90Proc. One of your foe's skills is locked at random for the next 4 turns. Mind Bender is replaced by that locked skill while it remains disabled. Both.
4. 2.Psychic Vibrations. 0En, 10spd, Dark. 100Hit, 75Proc. You have a chance to perform the same move that your opponent performs this turn. Far.

No changes here. This is the sort of card that I'd really have to see other people play with first before I went much further. It seems alright to me but I've lost all perspective now and I'd need to see how it got used and what the feedback was before I could regain it.