A.P.I. The Hardboiled Detective

I have been hatching up the idea for this hero for a good long while now. If nothing else, I just want to get the concept "out there". This is a very quirky hero, with some mildly complicated abilities, I consider him to be a "Lethal Joke Character", and have tried to balance Parody with Usefulness. (feel free to call me out on any "technicalities")

Name: Ace Problem Investigator (A.P.I.)
Hero Name: Hardboiled Detective

(A.P.I.) should be a Ranged, Caster, with a low Strength, middling Agility, and high Intelligence (or energy, whatever you call it)

Abilities: (Here is where it starts getting complicated)

Aggress!

Description: Using powerful reality-bending hammerspace powers, (A.P.I.) pulls a random implement of destruction from under his hat, inside his trenchcoat, in his back pocket, in his pants pocket, or in his shoes. Then (A.P.I.) aggresses with the random implement!
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Targeting: Manually targeted unit or point within 600 range.

Effects: 30% chance to pull out a Pistol from his trenchcoat.
25% chance to pull a Flamethrower from under his hat.
20% chance to pull a Tazer from his pants pocket.
15% chance to pull a Sniper-Rifle from his shoes.
10% chance to pull a Mini-Gun from his back pocket.

Pistol:
Fires 5 shots .25 seconds apart, randomly in a 30 degree, 600 range cone.
Each shot does 10/15/20/25 damage.
Hero is unable to move while firing, and the bullets pierce through foes hit.

Flamethrower:
Sprays a burst of flaming fuel in a 45 degree, 450 range cone.
The blast does 25/50/75/100 damage, and sets the target on fire for 5 seconds dealing 5 damage per second.
Attack is instant.

Tazer:
Discharges an electrical blast in a 300 range circle around the hero.
The electricity does 50 damage, and roots for 1.5/2/2.5/3 seconds.
Attack is instant.

Sniper-Rifle:
Shoots a single forceful shot from a Sniper-Rifle after 3 seconds in a straight line at 1,200 range.
The bullet does 75/100/125/150 damage, and knocks those hit by it, backwards 150/200/250/300 distance.
Attack occurs at the end of a 3-second channel, and pierces through foes hit.

Mini-Gun:
Unloads 25/50/75/100 bullets over the course of 5 seconds, randomly in a 90 degree 600 range cone.
Each bullet does 5 damage.
The hero is unable to move while the attack is in-progress, and bullets do NOT pierce through foes hit.


Disconcerting Ogle (I know this is probably too long of a name, but I'm sticking with the parody here, gimme a break.)

Description: (A.P.I.) gives you a look most disconcerting. You are not sure whether you feel comforted, angry, or terrified.
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Targeting: Manually targeted hero within 500 range.

Effects: If (A.P.I.) has higher Intelligence than the target does, stun the target for 1.5/2/2.5/3 seconds.
If (A.P.I.) has lower Strength than the target does, he gets stunned for the same duration.


Shit just got REAL (I seem to have a penchant for long names)

Description: There are enemies everywhere, you got stung by a bee, that guy over there just flipped you off, and the wind just blew dirt onto your hat. Shit just got REAL. You pose in a hardboiled manner.
Cooldown: 60 seconds
Targeting: Self.

Effect: (A.P.I.) takes a moment to pose in a hardboiled manner and collect himself. After 3 seconds of posing, (A.P.I.) gains a buff that heals 30/40/50/60% of his health over 20 seconds, increases his armor by 2/4/6/8 for 20 seconds, and increases his movespeed by 10% for 20 seconds.
Gains buff at the end of a 3 second channel.


BELLY OF THE WHALE! (Also probably far too long, sue me.)

Cooldown: 120 seconds
Targeting: Self.

Effects: Stuns every unit, hero, creep, and tower in 400/600/800 range (except for (A.P.I.)) for 5 seconds. Units capable of moving, (meaning not towers) are slowly pulled towards (A.P.I.) for 5 seconds, and then at the end of that time, are thrown out in a random direction, for 800/1000/1200 range.
This ability is channeled. (Can be stunned/rooted/etc. out of it.)

Fantastic concept! I love the parody, and happen to be a huge fan of film noir and the Hard-boiled Detective.

The long names are fine...they aren't really that long.

The hero's name could totally be Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe. =)

Now, some criticism.

Ability 1 - Too much randomness! You want an ability that is somewhat reliable for a particular purpose. Limit the implements to a certain variety with similar functions, so you can plan when you want to use this ability. Or, make a spellbook-type-deal with multiple weapons, but that's complicated to use.

Ability 2 - Clever idea, but really a rather boring ability when you think about it. Stuns a target, snore. Probably stuns you too, snore. Invent a better debuff to put on the target! Perhaps they become confused in some fashion. I could come up with some things, but since this is your hero and you've done a good job thinking up the concept and ability names, I think you should have an opportunity to modify him on your own first.

Ability 3 - This is fine. However, I think it could be improved by adding some synergy with the other abilities as opposed to some miscellaneous beneficial effects.

Ultimate - I don't really like this ability on him, or on anyone for that matter. It seems like one of those things that will either be overpowered or useless, and annoying for everyone involved. I suggest a total replacement here.

Overall, the abilities are themed nicely, but I think you can do a better job of making them fit together. Also, don't be afraid to make the effects more ridiculous. This is a lethal joke character, so the sky is the limit in terms of hilarity.

Also, do you have a model in mind?

This is less a parody of Film Noir and the Hard-boiled Detective, and more a parody of a parody of Film Noir, the Hard-boiled Detective, and pure insanity incarnate, ala the roughly 1,700 page webcomic/game/thing that is Problem Sleuth.

The hero's name being a combination of the 3 main-character's names mish-mashed together. The abilities being re-hashes of common events/attacks in said comic, and the general reality-bending insanity that results.

On Ability 3: The first two abilities and the ultimate were the only ones I had concrete ideas for, the third ability I kinda pulled out of my ass and am not particularly fond of myself.

On the Ultimate: Changing the ultimate shouldn't be hard, given the variety of choices I have to interpret from said comic of awesome. Though again, I was intentionally going for the "almost useless, arbitrary, and very very VERY random".

On Ability 1: The first ability makes infinitely more sense to me, given I have read all of said comic that I draw inspiration from, and was intented to be painfully random, but also can easily be changed to something more useful and less arbitrary.

On Ability 2: I had about 3 different effects for this particular ability in mind, I kinda just flipped a coin to pick which one to put up.

On Model: Absolutely no idea, I came up with this character with the knowledge that I had no idea for a model and that nothing that I could think of at the time really "fit". This will be one of the things of "tweaking" that must be done, though any help here is much appreciated.

Thank You!

For the critique and help, I really just wanted to get this down, so I could get some feedback and get tweaking. My memory tends to be a bit volatile and I forget things quickly if I don't get them down quickly. *wanders off to do tweakings*

I've not seen the movie so most of these seem like odd ideas to me.

The random weapon one would be difficult to do if you want sniper to channel when it's selected, but I can think of a few ways it's possible.

Cokemonkey11 wrote:The random weapon one would be difficult to do if you want sniper to channel when it's selected, but I can think of a few ways it's possible.

It's not an issue of coding. It's an issue of knowing what you want your ability to do (roughly) before you use it.