Designing a League of Legends Champion Part 3

In this post I am going to be going through my initial concepting. I decided that I wanted to champion to be somewhat related to spiritual possession and came up with a list of potential narrative factors.

Does the spirit want to be bound?

Is it bound to a person or an object?

If an object what is the object?

If it is bound to a person is the host’s consciousness still there?

If so who is more in control?

Does the host want the spirit to be there?

What is the Spirit?

Why were they bound?

What is the goal of the spirit?

I then went through answering the questions to come up with some different potential character ideas.

Concept 1

Does the spirit want to be bound?

No

Is it bound to a person or an object?

An Object

If an object what is the object?

A suit of armour

Who was the spirit before they were bound?

A normal person

Why were they bound?

Cursed by powerful magic user

What is the goal of the spirit?

Break free from the armour they are bound to

Concept 2

Does the spirit want to be bound?

Yes

Is it bound to a person or an object?

A person

If it is bound to a person is the host’s consciousness still there?

Yes

Who is more in control?

The host

Does the host want the spirit to be there?

Yes

What is the spirit?

Eldritch being

Why were they bound?

The host is their champion and the spirit lends them its strength

What is the goal of the spirit?

To further their influence in the world

Concept 3

Does the spirit want to be bound?

Yes

Is it bound to a person or object?

Person

If it is bound to a person is the host’s consciousness still there?

Yes

Who is more in control?

Spirit

Does the host want the spirit to be there?

No

What is the spirit?

Long dead mage

Why were they bound?

Host found object containing the spirit and it allowed the spirit to return

What is the goal of the spirit?

To recover their full power

Concept 4

Does the spirit want to be bound?

It doesn't know yet

Is it bound to a person?

Yes

If it is bound to a person is the host’s consciousness still there?

No

What is the spirit?

They don't know

Why were they bound?

They don't know

What is the goal of the spirit?

To find out who they were and why they were bound

Concept 1 and 2 were the two that most interested me so I expanded more into what I envisioned their narrative, looks and gameplay would look like.

Concept 1 further explored

Narrative

Character based in Freljord (Icy land in the north) and was originally just a villager in a small village. Village is attacked by strange beings that can use magic. Most of the villagers are killed but some kept to experiment on, including champion. All die in the experimentation except the champion whose soul is separated from his body and implanted into a suit of armour. The beings suddenly leave and leave the champion behind. They soon find out that they cannot die, instead when the armour takes too much damage they are put into a torpor like state and they have control over icy magic. They now wander Runeterra searching for the creatures who did this to them and a way to break their soul from the armour.

Visuals

Large, bulky stature.

Frosty ethereal glow + cold wind effects

No weapon

Gameplay

Magic damage based juggernaut.

Tanky with high potential damage but no mobility options.

Good cc options to make up for no mobility.

Ability where armour is rooted in place but untargetable spirit can briefly leave the armour and cast spells from itself.

Concept 2 further explored

Narrative

Character based in Bilgewater (Port city/island with deep sea monster hunting and pirates). They made a living sneaking onto ships at night and stripping materials off of them. One night they were discovered by crew members who were waiting for them and was subsequently taken out to near the shadow isles (spooky islands that are full of malevolent spirits and wraiths) and abandoned there as punishment. While there they were approached by a sea spirit that offered them powers in exchange for allowing the spirit to reside in their body. They agree and they start to look more fish like while gaining shark teeth and and an octopus tentacle arm

Visuals

Scrappy looking, lithe, pointy shark fins, shark like teeth

Shark like features increase when using certain abilities

Gameplay

Magical Slayer

Kit based switching between shark mode which revolves around dashing in trying to do as much burst as possible and dashing out and octopus mode which has cc and some tank killing capability.

After thinking about it I decided that concept 2 resonated with me the most and decided to take it ahead to full kit design. In the next post I will go over the design goals for the champion and the process of designing their kit.