Character Duo: Puppeteer (Marionettist) & Puppet (Marionette)

[Aer]

This is a bit barebones of a suggestion, but I saw an idea about a heavily armored character in Deadlock, and it reminded me of two characters—one from Gigantic named Aisling who is alive and summons the spirit of her deceased knightly father to assist her in battle, and Princess Zelda when she was a ghost in Spirit Tracks after having her body stolen.

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I think it'd be interesting to have a character that is a pair—one being a ghost or living person and the other being a marionette that controls itself but can be possessed or directly controlled by the puppeteer's spirit/control bar.

The puppeteer has its own abilities:

Weapon. Saccharine Unity (a control bar).

• Shoots a malefic bolt of shadow energy in the form of a grasping hand from puppeteer's control bar. When the marionette is within range of the puppeteer, the marionette will also shoot a similar bolt of energy that seeks the enemy the puppeteer targeted with their reticle.
  • If the marionette is preset and within range, the puppeteer's alt fire could command the puppet to light melee. If held, the marionette heavy melees.
  • If the marionette is not present or not within range, the puppeteer's alt fire could shoot short-ranged tensile strings from their control bar that slice and bleed (weapon damage over time).
• Their light melee could be a simple thwack with their control bar.
• Their heavy melee could be a shadowy hand from their control bar that punches or slaps.

1. An offensive ability that deals damage, debuffs/crowd controls, or both with the strings of their control bar.
2. A command for the marionette.
   1. Normal press directs the marionette to do something based on what the puppeteer is looking at while an ALT press tells the marionette to follow the puppeteer or defend/assist if looking at an ally.
   2. The marionette could get a small fire rate buff when commanded to do attack/defend to encourage its usage over letting them decide what to do for themselves.
3. Possession.
   1. The puppeteer takes direct control of the armor and gets a new set of abilities—including a new ultimate.
   2. This ability could have a duration.
   3. The possessed marionette can light melee, heavy melee, and parry.
      1. If living, puppeteer's body could be left lifeless where it activated the ability until they in/voluntarily return to their body.
         1. If the body is killed while the puppeteer's spirit is possessing the marionette, the puppeteer will die when the marionette is destroyed.
      2. If a ghost, the puppeteer could possess the marionette and pilot it like a vehicle—impervious to all harm—until the marionette is destroyed or the duration ends.
4. Reconstruction.
   1. The puppeteer can reconstruct the marionette if it is destroyed.
      1. This ability is unavailable if the puppeteer is possessing the marionette.
   2. The marionette does not use any of the below abilities unless possessed.
      1. (Reconsidering this since I'm not sure how strong the puppeteer might be if the marionette randomly used its abilities when not possessed. I guess they could randomly use abilities during Greater Possession.)

The marionette's abilities—what the puppeteer will use upon Possession:

1. Tensile strings unleashed from its arms that garrote enemies, bleeding (spirit damage over time) and pulling them a distance towards the marionette.
   1. If it manages to pull an enemy in front of it, the marionette could unleash hidden blades to pierce or shadowy hands/tendrils to asphyxiate them, dealing spirit damage.
      1. If shadowy hands/tendrils, it could silence.
2. Leap a short distance and perform a graceful sweeping kick upon landing that knocks enemies up, dealing weapon or melee damage.
3. Release shadowy energy into the earth that manifests as dark hands, reaching up to grasp enemies with the intent to hinder and cripple, dealing spirit damage.
   1. If the hands grasp an enemy that is in midair (nearly the height of two jumps), they will be yanked back down to the ground and are briefly immobilized.
4. Greater Possession, empowered by the puppeteer entwining their soul with the unknown entity piloting their marionette, the puppeteer seizes the body of an enemy player.
   1. The possessed player is considered an enemy to their former allies during the duration.
   2. The marionette will act on its own again while its puppeteer is possessing an enemy player.
      1. During the duration, the possessed player gains a special barrier that must be destroyed to end their possession early.
         1. True damage could still bypass this barrier. When it does, it could directly harm the puppeteer instead of the possessed player.
      2. If the puppeteer is a living character, killing their body will also end the possession early and force their spirit back into the marionette.
         1. If the marionette has also been destroyed, the puppeteer simply dies.

The marionette's stats could depend on the puppeter's boons and investments while also benefitting from the puppeteer's items when possessed. Alternatively, the marionette can benefit from both, excluding the investments, at all times.

 

[Aer]

Completely forgot to describe the puppeteer's parry, a detail about their possession, another detail about the marionette...

Cont. (Weapon)

• Weapon. Saccharine Unity (a control bar).
  • Their parry could be of them holding up their control bar to create a spiderweb of strings that blocks a blow.

Cont. (Puppeteer's abilities.)

• 2. A command for the marionette.
  • As a passive, the marionette could automatically go defend their puppeteer if they're not possessed by them, if they're possessing an enemy player, or if they're currently not acting out a command.
    • This could be triggered by a damage threshold dealt to the puppeteer, which the marionette will seek out the source of with an internal cooldown.
    • This could be triggered by proximity and a damage threshold such as an Abrams, Billy, or Calico being too close to the puppeteer for a prolonged period of time dealing damage to them—also with an internal cooldown.
    • This could make the marionette disregard a command depending on the puppeteer's remaining HP and how much they lost within a short amount of time.
• 3. Possession.
  • When the puppeteer is possessing their marionette, a spectral control bar could appear above the marionette's head to convey this to allies and enemies.
    • If the puppeteer is a living character, they will appear lifeless but could be playing with their control bar as if in a trance.

Cont. (Marionette's abilities.)

• 4. Greater Possession, empowered by the puppeteer entwining their soul with the unknown entity piloting their marionette, the puppeteer seizes the body of an enemy player.
  • When the puppeteer is possessing an enemy player, a spectral control bar could appear above the enemy player's head with a malignant aura around their model to convey this to allies and enemies.
    • If the puppeteer is a living character, they will appear lifeless but could be playing with their control bar as if in a trance.

 

[Aer]

A little lore behind why the enemy player gets a barrier instead of taking direct damage to their body when possessed beyond just balancing reasons:

The puppeteer desperately wants a new body—a new life, and they see the Mystics as all potential and powerful candidates. While their original wish was to have exactly that, the entity that inhabited their puppet changed that for them and became their only friend and family.

This changed both her goal and thus her wish to be for the entity's sake instead, to wish them a proper and powerful body instead while the puppeteer steals one for themself. The puppeteer wants no harm to come to the body they steal, so they use all of their might and magic to protect it which exhausts them when thwarted (the special barrier breaking).

As for this entity, no one knows if it truly came to the puppeteer to help them or if it came with deceit in mind—to use them for a wish then discard them afterwards once they get it.

Also, what makes this barrier special is that it is immune to being dispelled by Curse and redirects true damage to themself.

• Oddly, despite dispels not supposed to be affecting ultimate-related buffs, it can dispel Ivy's barriers granted by her ultimate.

 

[Jessychu]

Wait this is literally such a good idea omg.. I loved Spirit Tracks too I need this to be real!!