Coven Balance Overhaul

[EvanFishsticks]

It’s my belief that the Coven is terribly balanced. The lack of sub-alignments makes it hard to make a balanced rolelist with all the roles at different power levels. The roles are swingy and vary in their effectiveness. The ability to get busted combos like PM/Necro and hot garbage like Poisoner/HM in the same list makes it very difficult to get a balanced game. My overhaul will be focused on making the Coven more tactical and less volatile.

First, I’ll be introducing the new sub-alignments:
Spoiler: Coven Interruption - These roles focus on interfering with other players and sowing false information.

Coven Support - These roles benefit the other Coven roles but do it do much to mess with those outside the Coven.


Coven Killing - These roles are the main killers on the Coven team. Every role will have the ability to kill in one way or another if they have the Necronomicon, but these roles are the only roles that can kill directly without it.
Now that we have the alignments of the Coven, let’s get to the roles that go in them. Changes to roles are in RED

Coven Leader
Spoiler: Alignment: Coven Interruption
Attack: None
Defense: Basic
Abilitiy: Control one person each night.
Attributes:
Your first target will perform their action on your second target.
Your target will know they were controlled.
You will not know your target’s role.
With the Necronomicon, you can choose whether or not you want to deal a Basic attack to your target as well as control them. You will also know the role of your target and cannot be detected by a Sheriff.
Additional Info:
Immunities: Detection, Bite, Roleblock, Control
Unique
Invest: LO/Forger/CL

I want the Coven Leader to still be the "head" of the Coven, but I don't want it to be a catch-all in terms of abilities. Swapping the investigation for permanent Detection/Basic immunity keeps CL a powerful Coven role while allowing more room for support roles like the Potion Master. Once the CL has the Necronomicon, the only difference between the current CL and my version is that it can choose to attack and control its target or just control them.

Medusa
Spoiler: Alignment: Coven Killing
Attack: Powerful
Defense: None
Ability: Stone gaze visitors at night.
Attributes:
You may stone gaze twice.
Stoned player's roles and last wills will not be displayed.
With the Necronomicon, you can visit others with your stone gaze. The first time you receive the Necronomicon, the amount of gazes you have left will be reset to 2.
Additional Info:
Immunities: Roleblock
Unique
If bitten by a Vampire, will be dealt a Basic attack.
Invest: Surv/VH/Amne/Medusa/Psychic

With Medusa, I didn't change much. I like where the role is now, but I made a few small changes to make Medusa a little more tactical. By reducing the amount of starting gazes to two, this forces Medusa to be more selective when gazing, instead of just blowing through them the first 3 nights. The reset with the Necronomicon is to compensate and give the Medusa more freedom with their kills. The phrase "the first time" references another change that I will explain later in the post.

Potion Master
Spoiler: Coven Support
Attack: None
Defense: None
Ability: Use a potion to heal, investigate, or kill someone.
Attributes:
Select a healing or investigation potion to use on your target.
All potions work as they do currently.
Once you use a potion, you must wait one night before you can use the same potion again.
With the Necronomicon, your potions no longer have cooldowns, and you gain access to a killing potion that deals a Basic attack to your target.
Additional Info:
If bitten by a Vampire, will be dealt a Basic attack.
Invest: Doc/Disg/SK/PM

I feel like the Potion Master is too powerful for just one role right now, so I removed its ability to kill without the Necronomicon. This might be a little too much, so this change is something I really want feedback on.

Poisoner
Spoiler: Coven Interruption
Attack: None
Defense: None
Ability: Poison someone each night, roleblocking them.
Attributes:
You can poison up to two people to roleblock them that night.
A Doctor healing a poisoned target will stop them from dying and will stop them from being roleblocked if they are healed the night they are poisoned.
With the Necronomicon, your poisons are more powerful. Whoever you poison with the Necronomicon will be dealt a Basic attack the following night.
Additional Info:
If bitten by a Vampire, will be dealt a Basic attack
Invest: Escort/Consort/Transporter/Poisoner (Hypno swaps results with Poisoner)

In my opinion, Poisoner is the weakest Coven role. Its killing method is so flimsy (Basic attack + delay) and the Necronomicon barely helps compared to the boost it gives to other Coven. People have also been asking for a Coven roleblocker, so I thought I would remove Poisoner's ability to kill without the Necronomicon in exchange for disruption ability to make it more helpful to the Coven. I kept the Doctor counter because otherwise I thought Poisoner would be too overpowered.

Necromancer
Alignment: Coven Support
As far as the Necromancer goes, I actually think its the most balanced of the Coven roles. Overall, I don't have any changes for it besides giving it an alignment.

Hex Master
Spoiler: Alignment: Coven Interruption
Attack: None
Defense: None
Ability: Cast a hex on one person each night.
Attributes:
Hexes cast on non-Coven members permanently change your target's investigation results to Framer/Jester/Vampire/Hex Master.
Players will not know they have been hexed.
You may cast a hex on a member of the Coven to roleblock all visitors to your target that night.
You may only hex yourself once.
With the Necronomicon, your hexes become Astral and you deal a Basic attack if hexing a non-coven player.
Additional Information:
If bitten by a Vampire, will be dealt a Basic attack.
Invest: Framer/Jester/Vampire/Hex Master

Hex Master has always been kind of useless without the Necronomicon. Once HM has it they become quite powerful, but I have only ever seen their final hex kill come into play once or twice, and only when Coven already had the game wrapped up. I wanted to make the Hex Master more useful on its own, primarily because of a different change detailed later.

Illusionist (New role!)
Spoiler: Alignment: Coven Support
Attack: None
Defense: None
Ability: Cast an illusion each night, hiding the activities of your target.
Attributes:
Casting an illusion on a Coven member makes them appear Not Suspicious to a Sheriff and makes all of their visits Astral for that night.
You will know who
With the Necronomicon you can use your illusions to haunt people. You can now cast illusions on two people at once, one Coven and one non-Coven. The Coven target will be hidden while the non-coven target will be dealt a Basic attack.
Additional Information:
If bitten by a Vampire, will be dealt a Basic attack.
Invest: Investigator/Consigliere/Mayor/Tracker/Illusionist (Plaguebearer moved to BG/GF/Arso/Crusader)
Casting an Illusion on a Coven player does not count as visiting, casting one on a non-Coven player does.

I would really appreciate feedback on the Illusionist as well. It's a new role I just came up with on the fly so it obviously needs some finishing touches (achievements, lore, etc.) but I think it's a good addition to the Coven.

The Necronomicon

Spoiler: Currently, I am not a fan of the Necronomicon (NM) mechanic. Unlocking new powers is cool and all, but the fact that who gets it is entirely determined by RNG is off-putting. My next major suggestion is that all members of the Coven will receive a day ability, like Jailor or Mayor, to give the NM to someone else in the Coven the next night. Once N3 arrives, the Coven Leader will receive the NM as they do currently. If they are dead, it will be given to a different Coven member in this priority order: Interruption, Support, Killing. During the day, when the holder of the NM clicks the sun icon, a menu will come up with the other Coven members. The holder will select who they wish to give the NM to, similar to Jailor, or can select nobody if they want to keep the NM for another night. If someone dies with the NM, the next person in the priority list will receive it. I think this would be a positive change as it would greatly reduce the harsh effect that RNG has on the NM mechanic and will allow for more advanced strategies and tactics for those that are creative enough to come up with and utilize them. It will also promote/require more communication between all the members. For this reason, the Night phase will be increased to 1 minute in Coven games to allow for the Coven to discuss strategies for who will receive the NM and what they should do with it.

Ranked Role List:
Spoiler: I think the current list is quite balanced, the only change I am making is swapping the Random Coven slots to the two new Coven alignments.

Jailor
Town Investigative
Town Investigative
Town Protective
Town Support
Town Killing
Random Town
Random Town
Random Town
Coven Leader
Medusa
Coven Support
Coven Interruption
Neutral Killing
Neutral Evil

So, there are all of my ideas for a Coven overhaul. Thanks for taking the time to read through everything I have come up with, and please leave feedback. I really want to know what everyone thinks and I want to improve this as much as possible. I plan on adding another Coven Killing role, but I'm fresh out of ideas for now. Once again, I appreciate any feedback you have and I put a lot of work into this, so thanks so much for reading it!
-EvanFishsticks