Houndmaster

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Other Changes

Stats
Base damage reduced by ~40-50%
Stun, Move, Bleed, and Blight Resistance reduced by 10%

Misc
Crit buff changed to “+10% DMG vs Marked, +25% Stress Healing Done” (was “+20% Bleed Skill Chance”)

Now starts with all 7 skills trained, and has two “forms” – human and hound.

He begins combat in human form, with access to the 3 human skills: Blackjack, Target Whistle, and Guard Dog; and the shared skill: Lick Wounds. The 3 human skills do not end his turn but transform him into hound mode, where he gets access to his 3 hound skills: Hound’s Rush, Go Fetch, and Cry Havoc. Lick Wounds is available in both forms: it ends your turn in either form but provides a bonus effect in Human form.

Hound’s Rush now has a hidden effect that removes the Target Whistle debuff (so you can’t stack the debuff with multiple Houndmasters)

Dog Treats removed (for now…)

Gyll's Notes

The Houndmaster is the most transformative redesign of the bunch, and the one that took the most work to get right. The original idea came from trying to figure out how to convey the idea of a true “pet class”, a man and hound working together in tandem. Since every character in a battle gets 1 action per round, it made sense that the man and hound should each get their own action.

Once I settled on the two-action transform model with one shared skill, the rest of the skills came together pretty quickly. The hardest part to balance was the damage. Hound’s Rush couldn’t do too much damage on its own since it can be combined with other utility like stun, mark, and guard; but I wanted the Houndmaster to be able to output decent damage if he dedicated his whole turn to it. That’s where the design for Target Whistle came from, which gives double damage against the target if they were already marked. Hound’s Rush has a hidden effect which removes this debuff to prevent multiple Houndmasters all stacking the debuff and attacking for massive damage.

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