Ideas for new characters and/or abilities

[Iron_Guard8]

While we need other core improvements before anything else, the devs have already mentioned we will be getting new characters in future. The first new zombie looks to be Tim, but there will be others eventually. Why not have a fun thread to come up with new ideas? Some may even make it into the game.

For the zombies, I was thinking of a character that is essentially a 'pet class' like necromancers in EQ or Warlocks in WoW, although with less control over their summons. Perhaps that Gravedigger class that has never made in game yet. The ability I'm thinking of would call up a couple of regular Browncoats, I'm thinking of 2 per use of the ability and 3 with an upgrade. I say 2/3 because 1 Browncoat on its own isn't particularly effective. This would let you use them in any mode, and in vanquish and vanquish confirmed they wouldn't count for scoring but could harass the enemy. For main weapon I was thinking of him shoveling clumps of dirt at the plants, making it a parabolic arc weapon with a slow rate of fire, moderate damage and a slight splash effect. For his other 2 abilities-one would be an AoE buff that would heal any summonables (his own and any of the regular mobile zombies in a large radius), any summonables in the area but at full health would get a temporary speed buff instead, the final ability would be to plant a gravestone that could be destroyed (but would be tough), when the Gravedigger was vanquished they would immediately spawn at the gravestone instead of at the main spawn and this would consume the gravestone and restart its cooldown so it had a delay to be used again after it was invoked. I'm thinking either 100 or 125 health. He would likely be support or possibly defense.

For the plants another fungal character, a puffball, maybe. It would be larger mushroom than the Night Cap. It's main attack would be a slow firing, moderate ranged spore shell weapon that could be charged up to give it a slight increase in damage, but also making it have a burst radius at the target point, inflicting slight damage on any in the AoE. For abilities the main one I was thinking of was for it to 'infect' its main attack so that any zombies or bots that took any damage from the spore shell weapon would be tracked, much like Corn's butter barrage, for a few seconds, but would only track those hit (not an AoE from infected targets), and would reveal their health for the duration of the infected effect. Their second ability would be to release an AoE spore cloud directly around themselves that does moderate damage to all opposing targets close by. Their 3rd ability would be another local cloud of spores that instead of damaging zombies, would reduce the damage all friendly targets in the local AoE until it absorbed a certain amount of damage when it would despawn, a sort of ablative armor cloud. It would have 150 health. This plant would be defense or possibly support.

Anyone have any fun ideas to share with the forums?

[CRAAAZZYChomper]

Plants need a catapult character:

Winter Melon:

Primary fire: lob a slowing melon

Ability 1: Barrage: Winter Melon selects an area of effect. For the duration, all her shots gravitate towards that zone severely, but she  has a significant rate of fire increase.

Ability 2: Fruity Barricade: Winter Melon creates a set of stairs that players can climb from both sides. Plants can see through it.

Ability 3: Cool Calculation: Winter Melon can now see the arc she would get if she shot. Her rate of fire decreases, she but has an increased splash damage and splash radius.

As for a mushroom: 

Toadstool:

Primary fire: Shoot your tongue. Severe damage dropoff.

Ability 1: Grapple: Your tongue sticks to the next zombie it hits and pulls them in, allowing you to do exponentially more damage. Any zombie reduced to 0 hitpoints in the following second is eaten and Toadstool regains hitpoints.

Ability 2: Sunny Secretion: Toadstool sprays 10 sun. For each 5 damage he deals in the next few seconds, he produces another sun.

Ability 3: Toad Leap: Toadstool increases in speed and jump while sprinting. He can attack while sprinting, but does less damage.

I'm sorry, I don't have any zombie ideas.

[voidlistener]

Jester:

Primary: juggle and throw balls/bombs/whatever

1 - Moving fast and reflecting projectiles for a short time

2 - Instant explosion with jack-in-the-box, probable death in process

3 - Rubber chicken missile, medium damage that pushes away

Passive: 10-% of immediate recovery

Neptuna:

Primary: energy bolts from trident

1 - launch octopus - stun that both protects and blocks the target plant and to be destroyed or timer

2 - relocating and dealing damage with a whirlpool

3 - thunami wave - pushes everyone - damages plants

Beta - carrotina:

Primary: carrot launcher

1 - tractor beam - move, pull or push

2 - jetpack

3 - health transfer link - sacrifice health to heal allies

Passive - faster regen

Missile Toe:

Primary: charged snow balls

1 - freeze buff screen - allies shoot through it to get ice damage

2 - ice ray

3 - ice shield - surrounds you - can be destroyed - big enough to cover allies or walk on it - cancel at will and return absorbed damage as ice shards

Passive - you know. Freeze

[brady3176]

Love your ideas, and I love thinking about all the potential there is for new characters! I have a few ideas, not as fleshed out as yours, but just character concepts.

One idea I had would be a scarecrow like character, but its really just a pumpkin. It would be a pumpkin acting as a head and have vines coming from it wrapping around and holding the scarecrow together. Probably would have a classic scarecrow straw hat or something on too. It would probably use a scythe as a weapon, and that's a bit iffy since usually plants themselves are the weapon. Someone on reddit suggested something really cool, instead of it just being another assassin like class it would be a "farmer".. It could grow buffs for the team or just be a summoner/pet class like your grave digger idea. 

Another one I'd love to see is the imitator. He would function as like a spy from TF2, he would be able to disguise himself as his plant allies or zombie enemies. He would turn grey when zombies get too close to him revealing that he is a "spy". Not sure what attacks he would have himself, but maybe he could just mimic other plants and zombie abilities?

Of course, I'd love to see a caulipower too. Could be another mage utility plant, or maybe not a support at all. There are a few ways you could take him. Unfortunately I doubt there is any possible way to actually "hypnotize" someone, but the confused state the hypno shrooms put you in could just work too.

And I'd love to see a Wall-nut or just Wall-knight. Would definitely be a slow tank, maybe he could move by just rolling... floating... or have some sort of mech suit he uses to get around. His abilities would depend on which form would work best.... probably the mech suit, but a class focused all around rolling around and "bowling" like citron would be fun too.

Alternative healers for each team would also be really cool, like I've seen the Aloe getting thrown around a lot. Not sure what the zombies' would be.

Those are probably just my favorite ideas, but of course I'd love to see any PVZ heroes... hero get in, not just wall knight. Being that night-cap.. sort of got in I definitely think its a possibility. 

[voidlistener]

Apple Mortar:

Primary: slowly lobs apples(who would have guessed)

1 - gravity apples - surround  target or self with several floating apples that launch onto zombies coming at range

2 - apple saucer - like drone, but only with vertical attack and ability to camicadze plunge on target

3 - bombegranate - explodes after lobbing, leaves seeds - mini-mines

Passive: zombies receive cooldown to sprint

Caulipower:

Primary: mind blast (conus shape, a bit splash)

1 - meditation - reduce cooldown on allies for a bit

2 - hypnotize - launches missile-debuff effect from hypno-shroom

3 - mind games - creates duplicates of area of plants with 1 hp and nerfed abilities

Zombies are actually hard to properly think of... Hovergoat would be good to return

Undying Pharaoh:

Primary: ray attack from scepter

1 - eternal curse - reduces damage and max health of area

2 - sarcophagus - protects himself with high but destructable armor and slowly regains health

3 - raises a pack of mummy zombies(have sand tornado sneak attack)

Passive: 2 ability turns on by itself at low health if not on cooldown

[arit0824]

Diver (zombie)

Like sharks, the diver zombie prefers working alone to hunt down plants. Unlike sharks, he follows the supremacy of Dr. Zomboss

His robotic shark can smell a drop of brain a mile away and hunt down the biggest of plants.

You’re gonna need a bigger goat spell.

Diver Zombie met Scuba Soldier when Scuba fell off of Dr. Zomboss boat. He gave Scuba his helmet cuz he couldn’t swim underwater. Since there zombies they don’t know anything about breathing.

175 health

Many sharks in the sea

Passive- his hitbox is only Diver himself. Byte has 200 health. If you destroy Byte and not Diver, Diver won’t be able to attack for some time until he summons a new robotic shark. There is a 15 seconds cooldown where he can’t do anything but sprint and use his 1st and 3rd ability. Vanquishing diver will destroy Byte as well. Byte cannot regenerate health and his health bar is seen below Diver’s health like a shield bar.

BYTE

Primary- carries a giant robotic shark on his side. The robo shark is named Byte that can shoot lasers from its mouth when aiming (similar to chomper), while it’s normal attack without aim is chomping.

Sticky Sucker

1st ability- equipped with small sticky octopus (or piranha) that are thrown similar to sticky grenades. They attach to plants on a direct hit that slow and do DOT. If it hits a wall or floor, it attaches to the surface and slows and do DOT to any plants near its small radius, before dying off 10 seconds. He can have a maximum of two octopus at once. They can stack. They will have a projectile prediction path. They can be destroyed by other plant allies. Cooldown- regenerates like Chomper’s spike weed.

(Upgrade- he can have three octopus at once (3 pts)

Upgrade- they slow and after a little while, explode. Doesn’t do DOT anymore. (2 pts)

Apex Predator

2nd ability- Byte transforms to a larger version of himself. The Diver jumps onto Byte and rides him (similar to how Deadbeard rode his cannon). In this form, Byte is slower and cannot sprint and can no longer use his lasers, but Diver can still use his abilities. If Byte chomps near a plant, he swallows and instakills them. While Byte is shredding the plant life (like digesting), Byte and Diver are vulnerable and can’t use any abilities. After Byte is done shredding, he will rejuvenate some health for himself but not Diver. Pressing this button again will make Byte teleport in a water portal to a direction in front of him (similar to Unicorn Chomper). He has three charges. The charges won’t regenerate until he jumps off of Byte. To jump off of Byte, press the cancel button. Cannot cancel if Byte is in the middle of shredding. Cooldown- 20 seconds

(Upgrade- Better Shredder allows Byte to shred the plants faster. Upgrade- Blood Shark allows Diver to heal as well after Byte is done shredding.

Upgrade- Torpedo allows Byte’s Apex Predator form to no longer have a slow penalty (3 pts).

Upgrade- Megalodon Speed changes the teleports to one super  fast and long dash with damage reduction while dashing. Only one charge and cannot regenerate until Diver jumps off of Byte (4 pts).

Sonar Shark

3rd Ability- Diver can send out a tinier shark (similar to Corn’s butter beacon) that swims underwater only showing its fin. It circles around a large area with its landing being its point of rotation. It can go through cliffs and fall off cliffs. Whichever plant is near the fin’s small radius, they will be revealed for a couple seconds to all allies. Only one shark can be thrown and present. The shark will last until it has done 3 laps. It goes rather fast. Cannot be destroyed. Cooldown- 20 seconds

(Upgrade- if the sonar shark hits an enemy plant, the shark will circle around the plant for 3 laps in a slow pace, even if the plant jumps or flies elsewhere. It will expose the enemy plant till the tiny shark’s duration is gone and if the enemy plant goes near other plants it will expose them too. (4 pts)

What do you think of this idea? I’ll appreciate feedback and comments. I’ll draw this one digitally soon and plan to make another idea of a character named GhostPepper

[spIash_damage]

Engineer Drone - yep, the one from GW1.

This could be used in place of Double Time.

[voidlistener]

Ghost Pepper:

Primary: sonic wave (projectile)

1 - Haunt - immunity to target's damage and homing on him for a short time

2 - Banshee Howl - area damage, boosted  by other GP in area

3 - Possess - buff/debuff attack, health and speed(1 per player, you are invincible, look through target's eyes and only capable of turning ability off)

Passive: You are unrevivable. However, you can revive allies to full health to GP

Toxic Blob:

Primary: slap(melee) with scattering droplets(long range)

1 - Toxic cloud - bouncing missile that gives toxic buff to zombies and damages plants

2 - Ooze - fast move as puddle, damage reduction, damage plants that walk into you, hitbox on the ground

3 - Volatile - restore own health , temporary attack and speed buff

Passive: toxic damage

[CRAAAZZYChomper]

@voidlistener Why not name it the Zomblob, in reference to PvZ heroes?

[voidlistener]

To be honest, I was thinking about Zomblob, just forgot his name). And something still feels off about both names.