Pretender will be very hard to win with, which is causing a lot of complaints.

I blame Alchemist.

Well, not just Alchemist, but them along with Inquisitor, Fool, and I guess pretty much all of this game’s current Neutrals.

I see no problems with instating a difficult Neutral class. If it needs to be buffed later, that’s really easy. Give it self-guards, let it kill more Royals, and if it’s really bad give it a couple kills as King to speed up the game. It’s much, much easier to buff a class than it is to nerf it. So why the outrage?

I blame Alchemist.

See, here’s what happened. We all got so used to Neutral classes that are too good at accomplishing their wincon.

Alchemist needs to survive. Okay. But what do we give it to do that? Four nights of death immunity activated during the day, two free kills on other players (notice the Pretender also has two kills but has to investigate them first and may only kill other Royals), and infinite healing, which makes it very beneficial to the Blue Dragon if kept alive. That’s a lot of powers.

Inquisitor needs to have the Sorcerer die. Okay. But what did we give it to do that? One-shot night immunity, visits hidden from Observers, a neat investigative ability, and a three-use immunity-piercing attack on the Sorcerer (or any other magic users). Plus, you win even if somebody else kills the Sorcerer, meaning you can do literally nothing and still win. That’s a lot of powers.

Fool needs to get lynched. Okay. But what did we give it to do that? Two self-frames, two nights of death immunity, permanent occupation immunity, and the ability to make it appear as if others said things they did not. That’s a lot of powers.

I could go on, but I’d hope my point is made. The overall power level of Neutrals in this game is really high. Hell, even the Neutral King apparently has a 75% winrate. It’s for this reason that introducing a difficult Neutral class is getting so much backlash so quickly. It’s not that the concept is bad, or that the class is underpowered to a broken degree. It’s that we’ve come to expect such a high level of power to accomplish our goals as a Neutral that anything less than that seems like it will be too hard.

I for one welcome this change. Rolling Neutral should not be handing you a relatively safe and easy win. Having to work hard for my victories as a Pretender will make them even sweeter, and I think we all need to take a step back here and look at this objectively. It’s okay for a class to be difficult; hell, it’s infinitely better than it being so strong it’s boring. It’s okay for a class to be buffed post-release; that’s way simpler than trying to nerf it will ever be. But when it comes down to it, I can see where all of these complaints are coming from, even though I don’t agree.

I blame Alchemist.