QCF Design Community

So I know there was a thread some time ago asking something similar to this, but given that it's been nearly a year since the thread was last commented in and since this has a different focus from the first I decided to start a new thread about this: what ideas do you have for monster race (and chemist) class challenges? Note that these ideas could be a theme for the stories seen in other class challenges (like bleaty for the warlord or the meat men for monk), mechanics for the dungeon enemies/boss/layout to inherit (like the malfunctionarium's constant teleportation or the momentum required to kill enemies in crusader gold), the playstyles or strategies that each dungeon could promote/require, or just whatever you have on your mind.

I'll start with some of the ideas I had brooded over regarding the rat monarch:

Story/goal: In the description for the rat monarch, it mentions that the proclaimed king is, in reality, a movement operating counter to the communal society that rats normally live in rather than actual royalty. This got me thinking about the class challenges involving a singular rat monarch (imagine the thief challenges with garrett) attempting, successfully or not, to establish their own kingdom. I don't have all too much in terms of story or characters to meet in the challenge, but I thought that elaborating on the reference in its description might be interesting.

Gameplay: As most players with the class recognize, the rat monarch has quite a few interesting traits about him that influence how the class plays: for example, corrosive strike and its synergies, all items are large + reduced health/mana, and the refills from purchasing items. Given this, I'd like to see what the community can think of as level designs that might take these tactics to their extremes or subvert/prevent them entirely - my most interesting idea that I came up with involved a blend of mechanics seen in the triple quest (2-2's totems and 3-3's Watcher) involving gold and shops: with each strike on the boss/special enemy, the prices of ALL shop items are increased by a flat amount (number uncertain), with a special enemy that can reduce said shop prices upon death. I thought it would be interesting to see how slowly restricting the refills offered by shops could change gameplay or strategy in defeating the boss, especially when rats generally want to get a few hits in on the boss to build up corrosion stacks (and thus damage).
[note that the aforementioned price increase would have to be similar to getanadafix's plant spawns to prevent KB cheesing bypassing the increase entirely]

I'd love to hear other ideas about how the traits like all items large or corrosion stacking could be tested or twisted to create a challenging level, since most of the other ideas I had seemed a bit cruel or lacking (one was forcing GG worship via a bead requirement, which felt not only cruel but also didn't fit in with the idea of a greedy monarch).

If you have ideas for any of these classes missing their trio of class challenges, add them to this thread.

Neat idea!

I'd probably theme the class challenges on how they got to live where they do (i.e. finish with their Vicious map), with some changes to the map of course to make it interesting...

I'd also more-or-less keep the habit of, 1st stage optimal for class (i.e. use advantages); 2nd stage, you need to think how you can use your abilities because they are not easy to capitalize; 3rd stage, you're pretty much unable to use your main abilities, i.e. need to work around them.

For example:

Rat Monarch
Stage 1: some southern map, with lots of (otherwise weak) Naga, and a boss similar to Sseth from the Paladin Gold map, who is nigh unbeatable with conventional means, but is a breeze for the Rat. Blacksmith & Bazaar prep (you don't want to leave home without your Bear Mace, do you? ), altars: Binlor, Mystera, Dracul.
Stage 2: Magma Mines, I really like how all the poison/mana burn monsters make leveling non-trivial and how the three bosses each need very different approach. To make it interesting, I'd change monsters a bit to include, let's say: Cave Snake, Burn Viper, Wraith, Goblin Miner, Minotaur, Goblin. Mage Guild and Alchemist preps. Altars: any 2 of: Jehora, GG and The Earthmother.
Stage 3: Demonic Library, with no shops for example (though your inflation mechanic could also be interesting, for example: increase every item's store price by your level*2 gold). Thieves Guild prep only. Altars: any two of: Taurog, Tikki Tooki, Pactmaker. VS Count Blah-Blah for boss instead of The Avatar (who is out to do some shopping for the "contemporary literature" shelves... ).