Custom Character: The Commander | Forums

[Rye.Bread.]

Hello folks, I was playing through the knights campaign again and I had an idea for a character. Based off of what I would want to have as a skill-set if I were in the For Honor universe, he pulls strengths from a variety of different characters. Jack of all trades, master of none. A lot of his kit is based on counter-attacks and punishes. He fights dirty, fights with his men, and carries a big stick.

I'll transcribe it from the document I wrote up earlier today, properly formatted for this forum. (Bolds, spoilers, spacing)

The Commander:
A For Honor class concept for the Knights.

The Commander, once a lowly, but honorable grunt, he fought his way up the ranks and into the respect of his men. Unlike cowards who hide behind their troops, the Commander insists on fighting at the front line. He wields the Crow'sBeak, a devastating pole weapon with a two spikes and a hammer to break, stab, and smash. Due to his days in the low-ranks, he will not hesitate to fight dirty, and kill using any means possible. An insult to his men is an insult to him, so watch that you do not cross him, or incite his wrath.

Classification: Hybrid. Counter-Attacker, Hard Hitter (Hard Difficulty)
Strongest overall in left and right guards. His top attacks are his hardest hitters, but they are very slow, and have a long telegraph. Has a distinctly French-sounding accent, much like his weapon of choice. (Bec de Corbin, or Beck deh Core-Bah-nn)
The Crow's beak is interesting as one often uses the sideways spike instead of the hammer portion.

Feats:
Level 1 | Conqueror ______|Reinforce __|Thick Blood
Level 2 | Speed Revive ___|Arrow-Strike |Tough as Nails
Level 3 | Protected Revive |Arrow-Storm |Flesh Wound
Level 4 | Inspire _________| Catapult ___|Second Wind

His feats are broken into 3 distinct playstyles. The first focuses on assisting allies already on the field. The second focuses on support strikes, with the third turning the Commander into a hard to kill brawler.
Reinforce-Upgrades 2 of your team's Captains into Elite Captains in Dominion and Skirmish. Spawns up to 2 of these Captains if less than 2 Captains are spawned per wave. Elite captains are skilled, being adept at blocking and attacking, and can parry. They also passively inspire directly adjacent minions.(Max 2 minions inspired per captain.)

Renown: Gain renown by assisting or saving other heroes and killing enemy minions to unlock your feats during a match.
Revenge Mode: Boosts damage and health. Parries and throws knock enemies down. Auto parries on activation.
Dirty Fighting: Fight and win by any means necessary, employing a variety of tactics.
Sweeping Counter: Left and Right light attacks have superior block property at startup. Use it to counter, and sweep the enemy off their feet. Attack becomes unblockable after a counter.

Note: His top guard stance has him holding the weapon upright at a 45 degree angle in front of him. His light attack from this position is a chop with moderate damage and slower than average speed for a light attack. As a general rule, his best openers are from the left and right, with his most powerful finishers coming from the top.
In the left or right guard stance, he holds the weapon much in the same way, in a low guard, with the hammer facing inward.


Moveset:

Quick-Poke: (RS ← → ) + RB, [INFINITE-CHAIN]
Perform a quick stab. (I wanted this to help clear minions, primarily.) Out of lock he holds the weapon at half and uses it in a cutting motion against minions. Quick and reliable, but low damage.
One-Two: RT + (RS ← →), RT + (RS Opposite), RT + (RS ^) [CHAIN]
A quick poke and then a chop. Due to being a chain, the heavy attack comes out faster than a normal heavy, but is otherwise normal.
Culling Finisher: (One-Two), (RS ^) + RT
Continues the One-Two chain with an unblockable top-heavy attack. The total combo is RB, RT, RT.

Wide Swing: RB + RT [ZONE ATTACK]
Lightning quick attack. The Commander swings his weapon from resting position outwards in a wide arc according to the guard stance. Works in left or right stance while in guard mode. Outside of guard mode it comes out from the left. The Commander remains static throughout animation.

Sweeping Counter: (RS ← → ) + LB
Works just like the Warden’s crushing counterstrike, but only to the left or right. Has a superior block property while simultaneously knocking the enemy to the ground and dealing the damage of one light attack. The animation would be thus: block/parrying out to the left or right, then another motion to sweep downwards at the legs, with the hands ending up at the tail end of the haft. The sweeping motion is unblockable. Uses extra stamina if it counters successfully.
Culling Strike: (Sweeping Counter), (RS ^) + RT
After sweeping the enemy to the ground, perform a devastating overhead chop. Deals massive damage. Enemy should have a 60+% chance to block it if they are skilled. Is blockable for balance reasons due to the enemy having been knocked to the ground.
Dirt Kick: (Sweeping Counter), RB
After knocking the enemy to the ground with your Sweeping Counter, kick dirt or sand into their face, blinding them.

Dirty Throw: X, (← ^ → ) + X
After performing a guard break, initiate a throw. The Commander will plunge his dagger into the enemy, dealing minor bleed damage and using the weapon to guide the throw. Continues to add more minor bleed damage as you travel. Release X to stop travelling. (Similar to Warlord's throw in animation, but not nearly as much distance. Has REGULAR THROW DISTANCE, but instead of just tossing them you move with them.) I would say he gets four steps normally, 4 with full throw distance stat, and 2.5 with minimum stat, to visualize it for you. Warlord gets 6 or 7 steps, for comparison.

Culling Parry: (Parry, RS ^), (RS ^) + RT
Devastating counter-attack after an upward parry only. Unblockable and high damage, but telegraphed from a mile away. Unlike Blind-Justice you cannot input-buffer a left or right parry into the top attack, meaning that the enemy guard will already be in the top stance. 60+% chance for skilled enemy to parry this, or just dodge.

Feint Mix-Up: RT, [Feint], X
Perform a feint and then quickly kick your opponent backwards with one leg. Unblockable. Knocks opponent to the ground if they are exhausted. Unlike a shield bash or shield tackle, you do not move from your current location.
Note: Between the heavy attack, feint, and kick, there is a considerable stamina drain. (3 separate drains.)



Executions:
Stomp
The enemy falls onto their stomach in front of the Commander. As they try to crawl away in vain, he walks up and stomps their head, executing them.
Neck-Slice
The Commander uses his weapon to pull the enemy forward by the bowels, and then slices their neck open with his dagger.
(Note: If I can't have jugular blood spewing everywhere, I'll take a decapitation instead.)
The Hammer
The Commander knocks the enemy to their side with his weapon, and then caves their head in with a long overhead swing.
Beatdown
The Commander approaches the enemy and mercilessly beats them to death with the hilt of his dagger, a la Leatherface. Execution status applies at the third hit out of 6 or 7.



Emotes:
Out-of-combat
Hurrah!: A mix between the Conqueror’s and Raider’s pelvic thrusts. An excuse to have an easily spammable thrust emote.
All is lost: The Commander falls to his knees and droops his head.


Armor:
A mixture of Conqueror-style hats, with chest armor like the Warden’s. Arms would be a mixture between both.
Weapon:
Hammer & Beak, Top Spike, Haft


Weapon Image Gallery:

Spoiler:  Show

He would look a lot like this, but with more of a brigandine/coat of plates/partial plate on the chest, more visible maille, and the Crow's Beak instead of a poleaxe.

Spoiler:  Show

Trivia:
When your team rallies, the Commander himself will yell "BACK IN LINE!", much like the crier that normally does.


Tentatively, this character would be available to play as a male only like the Lawbringer. (Also half as much animation and modeling work. C: )


Post with comments, compliments, and concerns, I hope that Ubisoft adds it to the game, even better if as is in this post.
I hereby fully release/share the intellectual property contained in this post to Ubisoft where appropriate. I will, however, continue to edit this post as I deem necessary to balance the character and reserve the right to do so if and until such a time as I receive notice of a confirmation of addition to For Honor. (If such a thing occurred. Until then, I'll keep messing with it.)


If you like the idea, make a post to keep the thread active. Make sure to comment your thoughts. ;)

[Rye.Bread.]

Moveset:

One-Two: RT + (RS ← →), RT + (RS Opposite), RT + (RS ^) [CHAIN]
A quick poke and then a chop. Due to being a chain, the heavy attack comes out faster than a normal heavy, but is otherwise normal.
Culling Finisher: (One-Two), (RS ^) + RT
Continues the One-Two chain with an unblockable top-heavy attack. The total combo is RB, RT, RT.

Removes Reckless Swings chain and added these two.

Wide Swing: RB + RT [ZONE ATTACK]
Lightning quick attack. The Commander swings his weapon from resting position outwards in a wide arc according to the guard stance. Works in left or right stance while in guard mode. Outside of guard mode it comes out from the left. The Commander remains static throughout animation.

Wide Swing is now an entirely new Zone Attack. You no longer spin, and inside guard mode the direction is dependent on your stance. Still fast, but now if opponent matches guard they will block it.

Sweeping Counter: (RS ← → ) + LB
Works just like the Warden’s crushing counterstrike, but only to the left or right. Has a superior block property while simultaneously knocking the enemy to the ground and dealing the damage of one light attack. The animation would be thus: block/parrying out to the left or right, then another motion to sweep downwards at the legs, with the hands ending up at the tail end of the haft. The sweeping motion is unblockable. Uses extra stamina if it counters successfully.

Now only deals the damage of a light attack.


Feint Mix-Up: RT, [Feint], X
Perform a feint and then quickly kick your opponent backwards with one leg. Unblockable. Knocks opponent to the ground if they are exhausted. Unlike a shield bash or shield tackle, you do not move from your current location.
Note: Between the heavy attack, feint, and kick, there is a considerable stamina drain. (3 separate drains.)

Added note about the true stamina drain on the character for using the sum total of this combination.



Neck-Slice
The Commander uses his weapon to pull the enemy forward by the bowels, and then slices their neck open with his dagger.
(Note: If I can't have jugular blood spewing everywhere, I'll take a decapitation instead.)

Added note about decapitations.


If you like the idea, make a post to keep the thread active. Make sure to comment your thoughts.

This post is to summarize the various major changes I have made to the character.
TL;DR:
1) Sweeping Counter damage reduced and it costs extra stamina on a successful counter. It should be balanced now.
2) Changed up chains. Removed Reckless Swings and added One-Two and Culling Finisher.
3) Redid Zone Attack.
4) Notes about various things. It's all in the quote.

All changes are notarized in the quote and notated with larger text.

[Rye.Bread.]

I've seen some posts on the forums, and decided to go with my ORIGINAL idea for the character, which was to give him a Bec de Corbin, or Crow's Beak. The weapon was a warhammer with a large spike opposite the hammer, which was a frequently used portion. Hammers are currently underrepresented in For Honor, so if you'd like to see this in the game please do post to show your support (keeping the thread front page), and to post any suggestions or balance concerns you may have. This character is not static and I'm happy to discuss it, so long as it's constructive.

Sort of an addendum, the muse for the character is the French-side of the 100-years war.

Other changes during this post, aside from the obvious grammatical and syntactical changes to fit the (old) new weapon, would be a modified execution, and a further explanation of Dirty Throw.