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Psychic Roach "Le Prince"– Deadlock Hero Concept
Elusive / Disguise / Ganker / AssassinHero Overview
He's charming, he's sophisticated, but this mysterious French aristocrat harbors a deadly secret beneath his elegant disguise. Le Prince uses invisible explosive Martyr Roaches to eliminate unsuspecting targets, while his mesmerizing Psychic Hypnosis draws victims into his deadly embrace. When stealth is required, his Immaculate Disguise allows him to walk among enemies as one of their own. And when cornered by overwhelming odds, there's always one final gambit - to Roach OUT! and scatter his true form into a swarm of loyal subjects ready to overwhelm his pursuers, or flee the crime scene.Core Fantasy
" Master the art of deception and explosive ambushes. Use your psychic abilities to confuse and control enemies while your invisible roach minions deliver deadly surprises. When things go wrong, scatter into multiple bodies and overwhelm and disorient your enemies with coordinated chaos.”Abilities
! The stats of the skills are either vague or just exemplary numeric values - it's all just an idea. I don't have nearly enough hours in Deadlock to throw around proper numbers.1. Martyr Roach
The Prince silently places an invisible martyr roach on an enemy hero. The roach stays attached for about 6 seconds before exploding. The Prince can detonate it early with a repeated button press or by shooting the roach. The roach does not explodes if any other hero kills it.Can be alt-cast to send the roach ahead at longer range, but with reduced damage, no invisibility, and a bigger explosion radius.
Only one roach can be attached to each enemy.
Stats:
- Damage (Regular): High spirit damage with strong scaling
- Cast Range (Regular): Short, melee range
- Explosion Radius (Regular): Small radius, can damage multiple enemies standing close together
- Damage (Alternative): 60% of regular damage
- Cast Range (Alternative): 4-5x the regular range
- Explosion Radius (Alternative): 2.5x the regular radius
- Martyr Roach HP: Enough to survive two shotgun blasts
- Target mode: targeted.
- Level 1: Increased explosion radius for both modes
- Level 2: +1 charge
- Level 3: Explosions heal the Prince and fellow roaches for a percentage of damage dealt
Design Note: This is his primary damage ability for assassinations. The regular cast is designed for close-range stealth kills, while the alt-cast provides area control and farming capability.
2. Psychic Hypnosis
The Prince opens his coat, and together with his loyal knights, they use their psychic might to hypnotize an enemy, forcing them to walk slowly toward the caster. While hypnotized, the target receives small damage every 0.2 seconds and continuously gets a spirit resist debuff. This is a 1.2-second channel ability.Stats:
- Cooldown: Medium-short
- Cast Range: Medium
- Walking Speed: Target walks slowly toward caster; if cast at maximum range, target doesn't reach the caster
- Duration: Around 1.2 seconds
- Damage: Small damage over time
- DoT Effect: Each tick reduces the target's spirit resistance for a few seconds
- Spirit Resist Debuff Duration: 5 seconds
- Spirit resist per dot: 2.5%
- Level 1: Increased cast range and target walking speed
- Level 2: Increased spirit resist debuff effectiveness to 3.5%
- Level 3: Increased hypnosis duration by 0.8 seconds
Design Note: Added to give this assassin character a reliable disable for setting up kills. The hypnosis theme fits the psychic cockroach concept perfectly. This ability always interrupts the third ability, and players can detonate the first ability while channeling this one.
3. Immaculate Disguise
The Prince and his guards use their psychic abilities and clothing to disguise themselves as another person, mimicking almost every aspect of the target for a medium duration. Can be recast to end the disguise early. Using any ability or taking damage from heroes ends the disguise. Though the Prince cannot be targeted by enemy abilities while disguised, he can still be damaged by area of effect skills.Stats:
- Cooldown: Long (around 30 seconds), starts only after disguise ends
- Cast Range: Very long for better setup opportunities
- Duration: 15 seconds
- Speed Buff: 15% movement speed and dash distance
Upgrades:
- Level 1: +5 seconds duration, -10 seconds cooldown
- Level 2: 400 damage treshold required to force-drop the disguise
- Level 3: When disguise ends, gain 30% bullet and spirit resist for 5 seconds
Design Note: So, it's as I understand a kind of SPY ability from TF2 - the power to disguise as others. I only played TF2 once, so probably it's not exactly the same. But it suits the elusive assassin idea I had in mind, though there are issues with how it could be implemented in practice.
The marker is one concern. If there is no marker - it would be too easy to tell that it's not a real hero, so he probably needs to have the marker. This is problematic too, because if the target sees another copy of themselves on the map, the disguise can be easily blown off.
So, another possible solution is to make the marker visible only to heroes who are close to the Prince. That fixes the problem of the targeted hero instantly realizing they’ve been copied, but it introduces a new issue: the disguise may not be as convincing to the specific heroes the player is trying to fool by posing as their teammate.
The other concern is the voice chat. A few points here:
If it works like the marker system, activating voice chat while disguised lets you talk to the enemy team within a certain range. It may be a double-edged sword, as for example, if the player you disguised as already spoke, it would be suspicious for them to have a different voice, but it also can lead to funny interactions between players and an ability to bluff your way out.
Should the Roach Prince be able to hear nearby enemy voice chat? That’s thematically perfect but very OP - it could easily get the character banned in competitive play every time. However, it suits the character and can be restricted to the same range as the marker, like a proximity chat sort of thing.
If you can speak to enemies, what happens with your own team’s chat? Do you hear both at once? Does one cut off? That could get chaotic real fast.
In conclusion, I am pretty confident that the disguise would be okay enough to trick players without voice chat ability.
4. Roach OUT! (Ultimate)
The Prince commands his loyal guards to abandon their disguises and scatter as roaches, leaving everything behind - even their clothes. Roach health and damage scale with the Prince's health and gun damage. The Prince can transfer his consciousness between roach bodies by pressing 4. While in roach form, he cannot use his normal abilities or items, but passive effects still work on the selected roach body.Commands
The Prince can issue commands to his loyal servants:First Command - "I say Attack!": All roaches in proximity automatically attack and shoot the targeted enemy, pursuing them until given a new command or they lose the target.
Second Command - "I say Move!": All roaches in proximity move to the pinged location. Upon arrival, they search for enemies to attack or circle the area awaiting new orders.
Third Command - "I say Scatter!": All roaches disperse in different directions from their Prince within the given range, but not beyond the Prince's command radius.
Alt Cast - "I say Follow!": All roaches group up around the Prince and follow him.
Fourth Command - "Body Change": The Prince transfers his consciousness to another roach's body. The swap has a very short cast time, and the Prince glows with purple light during the transfer. He automatically selects the roach closest to his crosshair; if none are targeted, he swaps with the nearest roach in any direction.
Roach Behavior
Base Behavior: Roaches begin by scattering when the ultimate activates. When not under direct command, they attack enemies on sight. If no enemies are visible, they roam in circular patterns until commanded.Attack Behavior: Roaches shoot any visible enemy, prioritizing heroes. They will chase targets but abandon pursuit if the enemy moves beyond attack and sight range, returning to standard roaming behavior.
Post-Control Behavior: When the Prince leaves a roach body without issuing new commands, the roach has two possible behaviors:
If the Prince was recently attacking an enemy still in sight, the roach continues attacking and tries to close distance
Otherwise, the roach returns to base behavior - roaming and attacking enemies on sight
Stats
Cooldown: Very longDuration Until Forced Transformation: 15 seconds
Base Attack: Low damage, but scales with the Prince's gun damage
Base Health: Low but scales with the Prince's health - designed to survive a few hits rather than tank damage
Innate Spirit Resistance: Roaches resist spirit damage, requiring gunfire rather than ability damage to be killed efficiently
Movement Speed: Fast enough to disorient enemies
The Prince can see all roaches through walls with bright ally outlines and on maps as small roach icons, showing their exact locations. Roaches can use all movement mechanics, have 2 stamina points, and can walk on walls and ceilings.
Prince Roach Stats
The Prince roach cannot use character items but benefits from all passive item effects. This makes him tankier and more damaging than regular roaches. When the Prince leaves this body, upgrades are removed and health is calculated as the same percentage as the Prince's health bar.Upgrades
Level 1: +2 additional loyal guard roachesLevel 2: The Prince can use weakened versions of his first two abilities while in ultimate form:
Martyr Roach: Functions like the alt-cast martyr roach, isn't invisible and has area-of-effect damage. Kills the casting roach, and the Prince transfers to the nearest remaining roach.
Psychic Hypnosis: Greatly reduced duration (0.3 seconds instead of 1.2-2.0 seconds). Spirit debuff lasts 1.8 seconds instead of 5, with reduced effectiveness. Effects can stack, requiring multiple quick casts to achieve the same reduction as the humanoid form.
Level 3: - 30% of cooldown.
Animation: Upon activation, the Prince immediately scatters his assembled form, with roaches fleeing in all directions while leaving his disguise clothes on the ground (always the character's default outfit, not the disguised hero's clothing). All roaches appear identical in size and appearance. When the Prince transfers between roaches, he flashes with purple light, giving enemies a visual cue of the body swap.
Design Notes: This ultimate creates a summoner/clone hero similar to Meepo, Brewmaster, or Phantom Lancer. The core question was whether a multi-character hero could work without being overly complex or unfun.
While not exactly like Meepo, this design could work but requires significant skill and map awareness. The mechanics need extensive testing and refinement to ensure the ability isn't too complex or disorienting. Key considerations include whether to allow human form spell casting, providing clearer indicators for which roach will be controlled next, and ensuring players can reliably target their intended roach without ruining setups.
Weapons
Father's Gift (Primary Weapon)
An old-fashioned but well-polished repeater pistol engraved with "Le Prince." This noble gun was given by the king to his son to assist in his voyage to the realm of Men. The weapon was specifically crafted for the Prince's needs by an enchanted French weaponsmith (who was very tasty).Stats:
- Fire Rate: Fast rounds with low individual damage
- Ammo Capacity: 16 bullets
- Reload Time: Fast
- Left Click: Shoot
- Right Click: Zoom/ADS
! Something akin to these guns (Link to the article with pictures of these guns - https://smallarmsreview.com/french-model-35-s-pistol/):
Melee Weapon: Royal Pocket Knife
A pocket knife fitting for royalty, made in the same style as the gun with matching engraving. Delivers low melee damage as this character isn't designed as a bruiser.Animations:
- Regular Hit: Knife slips through sleeve to hand for a fast strike, then pulled back by roaches in the sleeve
- Heavy Hit: Assassin-like strike with reverse grip, from upper position downward and to the right
Gameplay Identity
Strengths:
- Fast, baseline elusive character
- Excellent pick-off potential
- Strong nuke ability requiring setup but dealing massive damage
- Can disrupt enemies through deception
- Ultimate provides strong escape with counter-attack potential
Weaknesses:
- Low health pool
- Weak gun damage
- Mediocre pushing potential; needs to use escape ultimate first for tower damage
- High skill requirement with good situational and landscape awareness
- Must constantly track heroes chosen for disguise
Typical Gameplay Loop:
In early game he harasses enemies and farms while using Martyr Roach to nuke targets. Once his full kit is unlocked, he begins setting up ganks, roaming into other lanes or hunting down enemies in the jungle with his disguise.In team fights, later into the game he waits for the right moment to strike key targets through momentary deception. His ultimate secures cleanup kills and adds pushing power. When the fight turns against him, he scatters into roaches and escapes after achieving his objectives.
The Ideal Gank Sequence:
Get a disguise quickly and find an enemy > use the disguise to get close to them > wait for a few moments so the enemy is farther from their team > plant the martyr roach > cast hypnosis to stack spirit resist debuff > blow them up > finish with gun damage and items
If enemies come close and there's no way to fight: Roach OUT! to Scatter
If the target is not dead and there's ability for a team fight: Use the scatter but now command the roaches to attack > hypnotize the enemy with continuous roach hypnosis from the alt cast command > blow them up with a barrage of martyr roaches > leave one roach to get away
Success!
Visual Design
The Bug Itself:
A more aesthetically “pretty” cockroach species, as they supposed to be royalty.The "Man" Form:
The psychic roaches can manipulate perception to a certain extent (easier to convince someone you're a bug-man than a plain human when you're actually a bunch of roaches). Design includes:- Clothing: Elegant long overcoat covering neck to boots, high boots to the knee, scarf, wide French hat
- Accessories: Rose or handkerchief in coat pocket
- Face: Mostly covered, portrayed as cockroach-human hybrid with long mustaches(not a real mustache), purple or yellowish eyes
- Overall Aesthetic: Similar to Francoeur from "A Monster in Paris"(2011), possibly wearing a mask
! Here’s what Franceour looks like in "A Monster in Paris"(2011).
Lore
Personality
A cocky yet charming gentleman with clear noble upbringing. Curious about human lifestyle and the occult powers of this species. Wonders about humans as the most prominent high-intelligence species other than his own roaches. Becomes angry when disobeyed by those he considers his servants. A bit of a womanizer. Becomes very secretive and elusive when someone cracks his disguise. Has a French accent.Reason for participating in the ritual: A national secret? Or the Prince’s whim? Nobody knows.
Story
The Prince, who calls himself "Le Prince", presents as a tourist claiming to be from a small European kingdom near France, here on diplomatic business to explore the States. What he fails to mention is that his kingdom appears on no map, he arrived by hiding in shipping crates, he's actually a giant psychic cockroach, he's not alone (his guardsmen are with him), and his kind eats other animals... though he does genuinely enjoy travel postcards, which is perfectly normal.His hypnotic abilities make victims feel completely at ease - the prey calmly walks toward consumption. A skilled gunsmith who crafted the Prince's weapons experienced this firsthand, creating immaculate engravings and flawless mechanisms before becoming a very tasty meal that fed the royal caste for weeks.
His mission to the USA, given by his father, remains secretive. Is it seeking recognition from powerful politicians? An alliance request? Something more sinister like espionage? Nobody knows for certain.
The Prince and his roaches enjoy their stay in New York with freshly stolen expensive clothing - overcoat, boots, hat, and scarf. They lie their way out of situations, disguise as fellow citizens, observe humans, explore the city seeking contacts for their purposes, and flirt on popular New York boulevards. Everything felt perfect and impeccable, with humans submitting to his commands while he practiced his human qualities - until the ritual began.
The guard roaches were obviously against participation, but the Prince was fascinated by the wish-making abilities of the patrons and immediately commanded participation, threatening death for any resistance. So, they entered the ritual.
Lore Connections
As a foreigner to New York living in a secluded kingdom somewhere in France, he may not have many connections, but potential links include:- Pocket: As Pocket is a sort of American royalty, the Prince might have opinions about Pocket, plus both hide their true identities
- Vampire Characters: The Prince might be interested in how they can live among people while drinking blood
- Non-American Characters: Fellow tourists/foreigners by definition
! I asked the AI to generate yet another slop image - this one actually worked pretty well tho. Something close to this design, but I don’t think he needs all those clothes on his torso except for the scarf and coat . His face should look more stylized and human(and brown, not blue) to better appeal to the citizens of New York, but this one good enough.
P.S.:
So, this might be the last of my ideas for now (I might even play Deadlock now, hell yeah!). I think the challenge of implementing a clone hero in the game is interesting, especially paired with a disguise mechanic. Unlike in Dota, the view is not top-down, so controlling multiple characters is more inconvenient and disorienting to players. Also, with much more fingers occupied by default, having to press other commands and buttons for controlling units isn't that great. But I might be wrong, and actual game devs might know a way. That's how I decided to deal with it - make the units automatic, and replace the regular abilities with unit controlling ones. Don't give too many of them, but enough to fulfill the fantasy of controlling more than one hero. It's not the same amount of creativity and control as Meepo and other clone heroes from Dota have, but I think it's good enough.The other part of the challenge is the disguise. I honestly don't know how good it will be with a map that has hero portraits and shows the entirety of the map to players. So I figured the ability probably needs some proximity marker showing, to act invisible on the map (it still isn't reliable, because a marker of your teammate popping up suddenly is suspicious, this teammate not having a marker is suspicious too, or having two teammates with markers is suspicious too - everything that interacts with the map is too suspicious). But the hero needs only a few seconds - something like 2-3 seconds to make his combo: come close to the victim, plant a roach, use the second ability, and blow them up. Maybe do another explosion afterwards if you have charge items, or use gun or ultimate to finish them and then scatter. I think if the idea is to do it swiftly and not plant yourself in enemy lines for a minute or two, it should work, especially if there's a teamfight - it can be very disorienting for people to have two teammates in the whole chaos.
Fluff-wise, I immediately thought about Francoeur from "A Monster in Paris," as this design is very cool and has some charisma, and they're both bugs. It also fits the whole theme of using disguise well. Personality-wise, Francoeur is much more good-hearted, so with this being Deadlock, and him being a prince, he probably would be cocky and smug or something. We don't have a flirty character(Lash is kind of close, but he mainly likes himslef) like Pangolier or Keeper of the Light, so I figured something in between - maybe a nice and charming Don Juan(like Pango), but instead of being a creepy old man like KotL, he's a creepy bug.
I like this one gameplay-wise the most! I think something similar in Deadlock would be cool, compared to my first concept "Devilhands" who might be hyper boring by the notion of him, mostly walking and standing and shooting. The Undertaker is nice but probably over-engineered with his skill interactions. Wish everyone good games and more of them on the new characters (really like Doorman so far, and patiently waiting for the Bloodseeker kind of guy, aka Drifter).
GL HF
