Idea for T. Jacob's birthright effect.

[Sekru]

Since T. Jacob currently has no birthright effect, I've been thinking of one for him that wouldn't be just "remove Tainted Esau lmao"-type solution. So here's what I've come up with: "You feel regretful."

Upon picking up birthright, "Anima Sola" gets replaced with a new innate item called "Repent" a 4 charge item. "Repent" would automatically charge up to the first bar over time like "anima sola", but would need room clears to go beyond that.

Upon use, depending on the amount of charges, one of 4 things will happen:
1 charge triggers an "anima sola"-style effect, except Esau's charge will cause him to always target the enemy with the highest max hp in the room instead of Jacob.
2 charges will give Esau a "120volt"-style aura that damages enemies with Jacob's current damage for the room.
3 charges causes Esau to automatically pull bullets and enemies into himself whenever the 1 charge "Anima Sola"-effect is in use. Note that this effect was designed with the announced upcoming change of Esau becoming immune to enemy/environmental damage in mind.
4 charges causes Esau to stop attacking Jacob and instead to independently seek out enemies with increased aggression for 20 seconds (This effect persists through rooms). While in this state, Esau cannot damage Jacob as Esau's independent attacking could potentially be far too unpredictable to avoid consistently.

My intent with this item was to give T. Jacob increased amount of options for how to deal with/utilize Esau without completely trivializing him as a threat.

Just as a note, having "9volt" while also holding birthright, would only speed up the first bar charge and not grant the automatic 1 charge. Additionally, "The Battery" would allow Jacob to combine effects 2 or 3 with the the 4 effect in a single room using the 4 charge effect first. 4.5 volt would allow Jacob to potentially keep Esau perpetually friendly during boss fights if his DPS is high enough. I'm not sure if this would be too strong, but considering how T. Lost can accomplish similarly broken effects with the "4.5volt" and "Book of shadows", I kinda consider it acceptable.

What do you guys think? Obviously feedback and improvement suggestions to my idea are welcome.

[abisalspider]

I like the idea of the Birthright allowing you to weaponize Essau easier, but this idea seems a bit too complicated and doesn't really take into account that Essau dies really easily in later floors. Or even in just rooms with a lot of Red Poop or spiky rocks. Which would essentially leave you with a worse Anima Sola.

Personally I would go with something simpler like "Anima Sola now targets 2 enemies per room. If Essau is alive, he is automatically selected as one of the targets. The other is the closest enemy to Isaac"

[Sekru]

Originally posted by abisalspider:

I like the idea of the Birthright allowing you to weaponize Essau easier, but this idea seems a bit too complicated and doesn't really take into account that Essau dies really easily in later floors. Or even in just rooms with a lot of Red Poop or spiky rocks. Which would essentially leave you with a worse Anima Sola.

Personally I would go with something simpler like "Anima Sola now targets 2 enemies per room. If Essau is alive, he is automatically selected as one of the targets. The other is the closest enemy to Isaac"

The devs have already stated that they are going to make Esau invincible to enemies and environmental hazards and boost his ability to survive Jacob's attacks by a huge margin (possibly even just straight up make it impossible for him to die when Jacob isn't in lost form.)
Also, all of the effects I've listed for the item, are already implemented in the game in the form of other items (120-volt effect, enemy/bullet attraction, larynx and everything jar already are active items that change their effects based on charge level.) so I don't think implementing it would be very complex on a development level.
I do understand where you are coming from though, considering how simple most of the other birthright effects are. I mostly took inspiration from T. Forgotten's Birthright effect since I find that to be incredibly fun. Thanks for the feedback though.)