Dharc the Dark Charmer Concepts

- The lone male member of the Charmers is none too impressive in terms of stats. His dash speed is rather slow (Peach/Daisy-ish, which would be 55th, or lower?), either being a lower end middleweight or a high end lightweight. Things do not get faster in the air, where he has Bayonetta-esque air speed (49th), fall speed is :shrug:. Point is, he isn't going to be winning any races or stat checks. Instead, Dharc relies on strong use of his Familiar and his Spirit Art to overwhelm foes with either numbers or sheer power.

- Dharc's familiar, Meda Bat (I wonder if I should say Dharc gave it a name?), is a constant minion who exists alongside Dharc, more of a small Assist Character really. Dharc can send it out for attacks with special inputs, or do...more with it. If the Meda Bat's HP is depleted (or Dharc uses a variant of his Down Special), then it will have to respawn after some reasonably long timer.

- Dharc's Side Special is Dark Blast (named after the Meda Bat's attack), which causes Dharc to point his staff forward and send the Meda Bat flying forward. It proceeds to drop dark, explosive spheres like a bombing run across its duration! Dharc can actually cancel into this attack on hit (including vs shield), which doesn't cause him to take less lag but does allow him to set up situations where the opponent has to deal with both Dharc aggressing them and with the Meda Bat has a delayed hitbox. Of course, the Meda Bat isn't really defending itself at all, so this is a GREAT way for the foe to hit the Meda Bat away for damage and to cancel it. Dharc can also use this to cover an approach, at the same cost of the Meda Bat being quite vulnerable. A pretty core part of Dharc's neutral and combo game.

- Dharc's Neutral Special is Darkness Eye (or Approaching Darkness, or something). The Meda Bat turns to the screen, its single eye glinting ominously, and causes the area in a sphere around it to become dark and unseeable. Dharc is free to use this area to his advantage, blocking his attacks or any "setup" he might do. Opponents don't get to hide inside, though, as the Meda Bat will cause them to shine brightly inside or otherwise not block them, so only Dharc gets to use this useful space. This lasts until the Meda Bat is hit, given a new order or probably a set time. Note that Dharc can use this when the Meda Bat is anywhere and has multiple attacks that allow de-synching (probably), so Dharc can use it for some tricky setup.

- Dharc's Up Special is grabbing onto the Meda Bat as it flaps upwards, very similiar to Olimar's Up Special. Probably a fairly good recovery, not sure there's much to say, either give Dharc an alternate recovery (swapping places with the bat and calling it Panic Shuffle?) or Dharc lacks a recovery until the Meda Bat gets back to him.

- Down Special is Dark Spirit Art - Greed and has high variation depending on if you hold the button for a good while or not. If you don't hold the button, then Dharc taps the ground a few times, causing a magic circle to briefly appear in front of him before fading. This sets a trap on the ground for XX seconds, which will trigger if the foe moves over it, causing 10%-ish damage and collecting energy from the foe, of the darkness variety. This either powers up Dharc instantly into his Empowered State, or he then has to move to the circle before it disappears to gain it.

Alternately, Dharc can hold down the button to have the circle appear below his Meda Bat, causing it to be tributed! This sends the Meda Bat into its death respawn state, but causes Dharc to instantly enter his empowered state. He also gains a lot more duration when sacrificing the Meda Bat. In exchange, of course, Dharc no longer has his Familiar out when he is Empowered.

Dharc's right arm, which as implied in his card art is missing, gets a clawed arm of darkness when in his empowered state, and his magic becomes significantly more powerful. He gains four new Specials (which if he is Empowered with his Meda Bat can be accessed with B + A?), and most of his moveset is otherwise buffed as well. Note that Dharc gets no stat bonuses when empowered, so approaching is still not the easiest. I also had the thought Dharc's staff-based normals/attacks might cause chip damage.

- Empowered Neutral Special is Greed Snatch, a command grab involving him powerfully grasping forward at around gut-height. Enemies who are hit have the claw rip into their body, dealing damage and sucking magical power out of them. This leaves the foe in prone and extends Dharc's empowered state, being his only way to extend it. It possibly also heals him. I could go with a lot different animation here, but I definitely want a command grab in here.

- Empowered Down Special is Darkness Burst. Dharc raises his staff high and causes a massive explosion of darkness around him. This move works akin to Hero's Magic Burst, dealing a lot more damage and knockback the more time that Dharc had left in his Empowered State, but also draining it entirely. A flashy and powerful finisher, but it leaves Dharc in disadvantage after, especially if he sacrificed his familiar to enter the state.

- Empowered Up Special has him grow (darkness?) wings that look like Meda Bat's, charging incredibly fast in a chosen direction. Hitting an opponent in the air causes Dharc to deal damage, bounce off of them and refresh USpec, making it a good combo starter. It also has very low landing lag. All around excellent.

- Forward Tilt is a quick inwards swipe with his staff, which has a sharp scythe-like edge as we can see, which will pull them in for another hit. If the Meda Bat is out, Dharc can hit A again for a follow-up attack where the Meda Bat swoops down and spins for 3 hits of 3% damage with combo starter knockback. This move is a mediocre combo starter without the Meda Bat, with long range being a saving grace but probably mediocre range, but an amazing combo starter with the Meda Bat due to both increased damage on the move and on being able to perform more damaging combo strings.

- Down Tilt is a command that causes the Meda Bat to swoop down for a hit, possibly in a drill-like spin too but maybe not, pops opponents up and drags them along its path. A good poke and can be used to desync the Meda Bat. Presumably has a Dharc hit in Empowered State in some way.

- I'm kind of imagining Forward Smash is normally a very fast Smash but it has mediocre damage and knockback, primarily being a combo finisher. But in its Empowered Statre, Dharc holds the scythe above him and pours darkness energy into it, making it a much laggier but MUCH more powerful kill move with strong range. Kinda ends up looking like Gordeau's Infinite Worth from UNIST actually.