At some point, while I love Natchoguy's idea, I think there's 2 separate concepts of "Shadow Demon" here.
Possibly, here are the 2 general ideas
A) Duke Rageweaver - Flanker that can disable / tie-up one unit, eg. Wardancer from Warhammer Fantasy
B) Natchoguy - Evasive & Stealthy Cloaker, eg. Arbiter from Starcraft 1.
Dash and adaptation of the Darkness (level 10) may still suit a melee Shadow Demon very nicely
Assassination-style abilities (ie jump out from shadows, do massive damage) aside, I think Flankers are most interesting if there is a way to get the AI to pick on the Ranged Units rather than the Melee. This makes the "balance" flow something like
Ranged > Melee
Melee > Flanker
Flanker > Ranged
Practically however, Flankers are usually used as support units for Melee, to be Melee DPS etc support-style roles. The main issue lies with their target acquisition - how do you instruct a Melee Flanker to target a ranged unit far away, that may not even be attacking the Flanker ?
This can be implemented using an ability with a minimum Range, rather than Maximum. Most Melee style characters use a Dash of sorts, or a Rogue-style Stealth + Teleport.
The following suggestion tries to bear the above in mind.I agree.I guess my first qualm is all of this constant desire to add demons. What's with that? I'm sure we can get more creative than just tossing "demon" behind a word.
That said this suggestion seems to be fairly solid, not sure about the demon thing, perhaps less of a 'known' thing. I like the idea of some sort of 'shadow' thing that skirts around the edges of your dungeon in dark places. Rethink the name / model and we might be in business.
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Name : Shadowbeast / Shadowmaw
Appearance : For most part, a black shadow in the form of a clawed beast, roughly appearance as follows.
Stats: (bolded parts are changes from Duke Rageweaver's original lineup)
Health: Medium
Attack: Above Average
Defense: Below Average
Armour: Below Average
Accuracy: High
Speed: Medium
Dexterity: High
Intelligence: Low-Medium
Wage: Medium
Abilities
- Level 1 - Uses Claws to attack a target.
- Level 3 - Shadowmeld - remains unseen inside the shadow of an ally. Passive Invisibility when not attacking / using special abilities and in the same tile as a friendly non-Imp Creature. It automatically becomes visible when moving out of the tile.
- Level 5 - Shadowstep - the caster dashes over next to the enemy while remaining invisible. Invisibility lasts for 3 seconds or until the caster attacks. This has a minimum range, and prioritises targets with Low Armor, Strength and Health (in that order).
It is used to launch the Level 6 and 8 Abilities, which are very close range.
- Level 6: Shadow Cell - The caster plunges its arms into the ground and black spines erupt from the ground to ceiling to "capture" in a black cell. Both caster and target may not attack. If the Caster or its target (prisoner) is attacked by anyone else (including Keeper spells), the ability ends. Lasts for 10 seconds.
(credit : Duke Rageweaver's Grip)
- Level 8: Shadow Vice - The caster sinks into the ground and black spines erupt from the ground to latch onto the target and does normal damage to him. The prisoner may struggle against the Shadow Vice using his full set of abilities, but targets no one else. The Caster may not be attacked by anyone else, but if the Caster's target (prisoner) is attacked by anyone else (including Keeper spells), the ability ends. It prioritises targets with Low Armor, Strength and Health (in that order). Lasts for 10 seconds.
(credit : Duke Rageweaver's Whack. unlike Whack, the target may deal full damage to and receives full damage from the Shadowbeast, but the Shadowbeast may not be targeted by others)
- Level 9: Rebound
- Level 10 : Darkness - All enemies in the same and surrounding tiles (total of 9 tiles) as the caster have their sight reduced to 2 tiles. This generally means they will only see / attack the Shadowbeast. This is actually an AoE Debuff, and anyone afflicted by Darkness that is attacked by another target will lose the Debuff. Last 10 seconds, Cooldown 2 minutes.
(credit : Natchoguy's Darkness)
Notes
- Darkness is always combined with a fresh recast of Rebound
- Shadow Cell and Shadow Vice will not be used in the 20 seconds after Darkness is used, unless there are only 2 or less casters nearby who are still afflicted by Darkness (the rest have been restored and can see properly now)
- Shadow Vice is vulnerable and fully disrupted / ended by Freeze (a full Freeze, not just a movement freeze) from their target
- Shadow Cell is not used if there are no allies occupying the enemies nearby other than the target (since it will be disrupted by the Shadowbeast geting attacked)
- Shadow Cell / Vice can be deployed by dropping the Shadowbeast near the unit to be occupied. Depending on the type of unit, the Shadowbeast will effectively "tie up" the unit for 10 seconds (using either Cell / Vice depending on the Armor, Strength, Health etc of the unit)
The ultimate Shadowbeast Combo should go something like this
--> Shadowmeld (not targeted by enemies initially)
--> Shadowstep into group of Ranged units
--> Cast Rebound & Darkness, causing most of them to damage themselves
--> if there are still many enemies alive, use Shadow Vice to protect itself from outside damage while picking on one weak unit
Note that Darkness can be counterproductive against the wrong units, ie Melee units near Ranged units will target the Shadowbeast, and Ranged units using Lightning / Drain will still do full damage as they do not Rebound.
In such cases, Darkness can be combined with the "drop" of a Melee unit and picking up the Shadowbeast to let someone else "Tank", as the Shadowbeast may not last very long in such situations.
This is just an idea, much up for debating.