Finne WIP

Rough appearance until I can get Tirk to draw him proper: http://i.imgur.com/0oJyllf.png

STATISTICS
Fall Speed: 8/10: Finne has a terminal velocity roughly equal to Roy or Donkey Kong's.
Gravity: 7/10: And he reaches that fairly quickly, too; after about 21-22 frames in the air(a little faster than Roy)
Size: 7/10: Finne is relatively tall, more so than Marth or Roy, and he's a bit wider than them as well.
Weight: 6.5/10: Finne's a little bulky, and he carries a lot of gear, so he hovers right below Mario's weight. Mario's fairly heavy, btw.
Walking Speed: 3.5/10: Finne walks carefully, stalking around with his sword at his side, moving near the speed of Snake.
Running Speed: 6/10: He picks up the pace here, running around at the speed of Lucas. His acceleration is decent as well.
Full Hop: 5/10: Not the best here, midair or grounded, but nothing that would end him, either.
Short Hop: 7/10: High means low here, of course - Finne's short hop is indeed rather short, and thus rather good.
Air Mobility: 4/10: Nothing spectacular. You're not Jigglypuff.
Max Air Speed: 7/10: You can, however, reach some pretty good speeds in the air. Eventually.
Jump Squat: 5 frames, so middling or slightly below average.
Traction: 3/10: Finne hails from a time where rubber-soled shoes were not yet invented, so he's slippery.

ANIMATIONS:

Intro: A piece of the background is pushed open like a door, and Finne steps out from it, 'closing' the Dimension Door behind him.
Idle 1: Finne taps the back of his scimitar against his left shoulder while he looks up and to his right, then left, as if searching for something to do.
Idle 2: Finne's face contorts into a toothy scowl as he raps his sword on the ground, and his right hand flashes yellow, blue, and red with electricity, ice, and fire effects, respectively.
Up Taunt: Finne rummages through his pockets, pulls out a potion of Cure Light Wounds, and takes a swig.

Up Special: Force Hook Charge
Finne leans back, enveloping his right hand in a blue light as he pulls it to his side, then thrusts his arm forward and shoots an ethereal, hooked chain of neon-blue energy from his hand. If this hook connects with a wall or character, Finne will be yanked all the way to the target at Falcon's dash speed. If the hook hits close enough to the ledge, Finne will snap to it automatically; otherwise, he'll wallcling. If it hits a character, floor, or non-clingable wall, Finne stops and assumes his idle pose when he reaches the target(or begins to fall if in midair). You can launch the chain in any of the 8 main directions, and you'll travel the same speed and have the same range no matter where you aim.

Now for the boring stuff. Force Hook Charge deals 5% damage if it connects with an opponent, and the chain has a maximum range of 1.75 Battlefield Platforms, about the length of Fire Bird. The hook and chain come out on frame 10(decently quickly), and if the move whiffs, you're looking at 35 frames of ending lag(fairly bad). If you hit, however, you only suffer 11 frames of ending lag(pretty good). The move does virtually no shield damage or shield stun due to its low damage output, and it does -not- count as a Command Grab; if you hit a shield, you'll zip over and net the 11 frames of ending lag, but you won't grab them out of it. And you'll probably be punished. However, there is a saving grace - the attack, while not electrical in nature, has a 1.5x hitstun modifier, meaning that if you cleanly connect with it, you will almost definitely get something out of it.

You can be hit out of Force Hook Charge at any point, whether you're moving or not, but of course this is difficult from the front, and practically impossible if you've hit the opponent(unless you're in a FFA). Attacks can clank with the hook, and most will given the low damage, canceling the move(meaning Finne won't jettison himself toward the attacker). They cannot clank with the chain itself, since it doesn't do any damage, but if the opponent is hitting that, they're likely hitting Finne too.


Neutral Special: Mirror Image/Mirror Strike
Finne takes on the popular 'smug fencing man' pose - head tilted forward, body leaning slightly back, one eye facing forward, and sword outstretched. The tip of his blade flashes, and an aethereal duplicate appears in the same pose, overlapping with Finne but slightly juxtaposed from him, floating around. If the duplicate(usually this means Finne) is hit while this duplicate is out, then the duplicate will flash and fade out in a blur of static, and Finne will disappear and reappear behind the foe in the same pose, but with his sword stuck in their back(or whatever is appropriate). After a large amount of hitlag, the foe will shoot off and take the knockback, and Finne will lift his sword up, sling it down, and return to idle. This is no mere Counter, however; press B again before/without being hit and you'll initiate Mirror Strike. Finne and the duplicate will pull their swords back before the duplicate disappears and reappears two Platforms in front of Finne, facing him, as they both stab forward. Finne and the duplicate will then retract their blades and shake/flip their hair out of their eyes before the duplicate disappears. If no one attacks them, Finne will dismiss the duplicate by waving his hand through it, shake his head, and return to idle.

It takes Finne about 5 frames to get into his pose, and another 2 before the duplicate starts to manifest. The duplicate won't be fully formed until frame 10, but Finne can counter attacks starting from frame 8, up until frame 24. There are 30 frames of ending lag if no one attacks, for a total of 54 frames. If the duplicate is hit, Finne will appear behind the aggressor after just two frames, with the sword 'already there', ie, there's no stab animation, they're just stabbed mate. Frame 10 is the earliest that you can initiate Mirror Strike, and Finne and the duplicate will attack 10 frames after you do, with 5 active frames and 25 frames of end lag. Finne's attack works as normal and can be clanked, but the duplicate's stab is transcendent, and cannot be interrupted; the duplicate is also intangible during this animation. If used in the air or while moving via some other method(like a platform), the duplicate will remain wherever it starts to form, and won't move with Finne. It will however snap to 2 Platforms ahead of him if you use Mirror Strike. The duplicate is what must be attacked to cause Finne to Aizen his way behind the opponent and stab, so you can use this as a sort of trap for characters with damaging recoveries, but you'll need to be careful; you and the opponent are stationary during the hitlag, but you'll be falling during that endlag.

Finne stretching out his sword actually carries a hitbox, but it only does 2% and flinches the opponent. The counter attack deals a set 13%, with horizontal knockback down and away from Finne that usually sends the opponent into the ground for a tech chase. During Mirror Strike, Finne and the duplicate have two separate hitboxes, each dealing 9% damage with the same knockback as the counter. However, if both attacks hit the same opponent, not only will that opponent take 18% damage, the knockback will send them straight up, killing Mario as early as 65% without DI.


Down Special: Web


Side Special: Shocking Grasp
Finne pulls his right hand back, coats it in electricity, then lunges forward with his right side and arm extended outward in a grasping motion. If his hand connects, he'll grab the opponent and electrify them, before releasing them in a similar manner to a regular grab release. Finne lunges about half a Battlefield Platform, but if you're in the air, you'll travel that much distance on top of the lunge(making the aerial range better than the grounded range). On the ground, whether you hit or miss, Finne returns to his original stance, with no change in positioning after the attack. Naturally, you can grab people out of the air with this, and it has a large grab box on top of having good range. Finne's hand is intangible, but if an opponent manages to hit past that without getting grabbed, his arm is vulnerable, and he extends his hurtbox a lot. If you hit, remember that this move is electrical in nature - that means there's 1.5x the amount of hitstun on this sucker compared to a normal grab release. One last thing to note: if you connect with this Move in midair, you are NOT put into a helpless state. If you whiff, you're outta luck.

Shocking Grasp doesn't come out until frame 17, making it a relatively slow option, but its grab box lingers for a lengthy 9 frames, and after that is over, you have 20 frames of ending lag. If you hit, shocking the opponent takes an additional 8 frames. 46/54 total frames means that Shocking Grasp is high-committal, but not as much as you'd think - uncanceled, Roy's PM Dash Attack totals 56 frames(you can act out on frame 40, however). Hitting with the initial grab does no damage, but the shock that comes immediately after deals a hefty 15%. Following up after a hit isn't difficult with proper prediction or improper DI due to the increased 'hitstun', but note that unlike other grabs, the distance the opponent is sent after release does increase with their percentage, so it'll get tougher and tougher. If you grab someone in midair, you'll both fall at Finne's fall speed for the 8 frames the opponent is grabbed, so you can attempt suicide kills. It's very risky, however, and you are extremely unlikely to safely kill anyone with this move directly, as even Ganondorf can recover in most cases that Finne could, since Finne can't go in very deep with his poor recovery.


STANDARDS:

Jab: Full Attack Action
Finne flips his scimitar around and holds it in reverse grip, then slashes diagonally upwards, hitting the area directly in front of his chest. If A is pressed again, he'll drop his sword, catch it in his right hand, and slice downward. Press it again, and he'll bring the blade straight up, upside down. Fourth time, he'll slash from top-right down to bottom-left, and the fifth time, he'll toss the sword back into his dominant hand and stab forward. Then, he'll crack his knuckles, pop his neck, wipe his sword down, roll his right shoulder, or bounce back and forth on his feet. Which one Finne does is random, but they all take the same amount of time, and he will do one for each sequence of his Jab performed. So, if you Jab three times, ending on the straight-up slice, he'll do a random three of those animations after the attack.

The first hit of Finne's Jab comes out on frame 6, each hitbox lasts for 3 frames, and you have a window of 7 frames between the end of each slash that you can continue the attack(though you can hit A while one part of the attack is going to automatically continue it). If you do, the next slash will come out 4 frames after your input. This means that, at its fastest, the last hitbox will end on frame 37. Then, you have 8 frames of endlag, plus 5 for each hit of the Jab, including the first one. So, 13-33. You can act out 3 frames before the move ends, however, canceling whatever animation is playing. The first four hits each deal 5% damage, and the final 8%, for a max of 28%, but it becomes progressively easier to DI out of the more hits that land, and since this attack's hitboxes are so close to Finne, excluding the final hit, it's easy to escape.

All four of the first hits deal very little knockback, and if you're careless you can be punished even on hit. The finishing stab has high base knockback and moderate knockback growth, with an angle comparable to Ike's upward-angled FTilt. You're unlikely to hit with this portion of the attack, but it's rewarding if you can.


Dash Attack: Bladed Dash
Finne bursts forward, turning sideways and flipping his sword to an underhanded stance, held backwards with the blade facing out, and places it against his arm. He slips into the Z-Axis for a moment before quickly dashing back out to the other side, tossing his sword to his right hand and mirroring his pose. Once it's over, Finne comes back out of the Twilight Zone and slams his foot forward into the ground to stop his dash, before flipping his sword back over to his left hand, spinning it around in the air to its normal orientation, and taking up his idle stance.

There's a lot going on in this move, but we'll start simply. Finne traverses a total distance of 1 Platform using this move; half a Platform each dash. It's first active from frames 8-10, then is inactive until the second hitbox comes out for frames 17-19. Finne is in the Z-Axis during frames 1, 6-7, and 15-16, and is thus invulnerable to most attacks during these frames. The first hit of this attack deals 6% damage and light forwards knockback, so up until mid-high %s it will combo into the second hit without proper DI or Smash DI. The second hit deals 7%, for a total of 13% damage, and has mid-low, diagonally forward knockback. You can't get any TRUE combos out of this attack, but you can follow up with a couple of options if you read the opponent's DI.

Since Finne dashes forward quickly at the start of this move, he has a decent Boost Grab. He's also invulnerable to most everything during frame 1, so use that to your advantage as well.


Forward Smash: Lunge
Finne holds his sword above his head, pointed forward and slightly down, and runs his hand over it, imbuing it with electricity while he charges this move(and during the startup if uncharged). When released, he'll lunge forward with the top of his body, stabbing downward at his opponent. You can angle this move, but doing so is a little weird; angling it 'up' will actually cause the sword to tilt downward more sharply, while angling 'down' causes it to tilt upward and makes Finne lunge his sword upward from his waist instead of above his head. Inverse controls, my child. Or you can think of it as angling Finne's hand, because that's what you're doing. Range-wise, the sword can hit as far away as 3/4ths of a Platform from Finne's body.

Lunge's hitbox starts on frame 14, decent enough. The move itself has high base knockback and middling knockback growth, making it a dependable kill option due to the electrical hitstun. However, the main draw to this move is its mixup potential. A downward angled hit will send the opponent at the Sakurai angle, while an upward angled one will send them straight into the ground, creating a tech chase situation. A non-angled hit sends the opponent slightly downwards, but primarily horizontally. Upward or non-angled hits on offstage opponents are deadly, but massively unreliable and predictable. Also dangerous; Finne greatly extends his hurtbox using this move. Be careful.


Up Smash: Lightning's Hand
Finne twists his body, crouches down and leans out toward the camera, and holds his sword over his shoulder, the blunt edge of the blade resting on his back, during the startup of this move. When you finally allow him to get out of this horridly uncomfortable position, he springs up a tad and reams the air above him with his sword, leaving a trail of electricity in its wake. The slash and the trail both cover the same around - around half a Platform horizontally, and about a full Platform off the ground, but the trail lingers for a bit.

Finne's Up Smash takes a substantial 24 frames for its hitbox to become active, then that hitbox is active for 5 frames, and after it ends there are 33 frames before Finne can act, making for a total of 62 frames. That's right, this move takes over a second - almost putting it on par with Ike's Smashes. But rejoice, for you are not quite as boned as the radiant man. The trail of electricity your sword leaves behind lasts for 15 of those 33 frames, and is an active hitbox of its own.

The damage varies depending on just where and when you hit, but generally enemies in front of Finne(where the sword is coming down) can expect to take around 19%, while those behind or above him get 16%. Foes hit by the back or top hitboxes will take powerful vertical knockback, and those hit by the front end get knocked along the ground horizontally, but take less overall knockback. Vertically, you can kill Mario on FD starting around 80% with no DI, or 105-110% if they have a brain. The electricity line does not hit those hit by the sword, but deals 12% damage and large amounts of hitstun to the first character to come in contact with it, and then fizzles out.

There are a few tricks you can do here. For starters, if you catch someone with the electricity. you might be able to follow up if you predict correctly, even with your endlag, since the hitstun is so great. Secondly, DACUS. Finne has a good one owing to his relatively low traction, and if you DACUS this move, you leave a huge string of electricity, a full Battlefield Platform's worth. You can use it as a shield, if you're feeling gutsy, or to catch an opponent falling down.


Down Smash: Black Tentacles
Finne throws his scimitar into the ground ala Ike's Down Taunt, and pulls his elbows to his sides, hands in front of him, palms up. His forearms and hands surge with necrotic energy, and he lifts his hands to the sky, gazing upward as if summoning some sort of demon. The ground at Finne's feet erupts in a writhing mass of, you guessed it, black tentacles, seething and grasping for any non-Finne body around. The tentacles' height varies; some are super short, while others reach up to a full Platform's width upward; these heights fluctuate during the move and appear random, but they're consistent between uses. Nonetheless, you will always nab someone who's on the stage or no more than half a Platform off of it, with it being less and less likely the higher they are. The tentacles extend out a third of a Platform on each side of Finne. If the Black Tentacles come in contact with someone, they grab them, give 'em a nice squeeze and slam them into the stage, where the foe can tech. Finne remains with his arms raised, glowing, and shaking uncontrollably for the entire duration of the move, extending his hurtbox upward a bit, but narrowing him out horizontally. Once the move is over, he lowers his arms and doubles over in a pale sweat, leaning on his sword while he shudders and gasps for breath.

Black Tentacles has only 11 frames of startup! ...until the sword's hitbox comes out. That's right, it's a weak knockdown(or spike to airborne opponents) that deals 3% damage. However, it can lead into the rest of the move if you connect with it, and the opponent doesn't tech it. Honestly, you probably don't want to land it. The actual tentacles, and their hitboxes, come out on frame 26, and are active for 8 frames. They are treated as grab hitboxes, and cannot be clanked with. The constriction deals 13% damage, and the slam an additional 4%, for 17% total. After the slam, Finne has a whopping 42 frames of ending lag in which he tries to pull himself back together, making the move as a whole take -76 frames-, but he can act out as 'early' as frame 65, really giving him 31 frames of ending lag. While not decent by any stretch, that's serviceable. The slam sends enemies behind Finne if they don't tech it, around a 125 degree angle.


Forward Tilt: Dervish Dance
Finne leans backward and skims the area directly in front of him with his scimitar, running it horizontally across the air rather than sending the blade forward. This move is incredibly quick, coming out on frame 4, lasting for 3 frames, and topping off with only 12 frames of ending lag. Altogether, the move takes under a third of a second to complete. Dervish Dance has two distinct hitboxes: a larger one that encompasses most of the attack, near Finne's body and covering most of the sword; and a tiny sweetspot, at the very edge of the attack's range(about half a Platform away). The normal hit will do 11% damage and inflict weak upward knockback, good for following up, while the sweetspot deals 14% damage and has knockback comparable to Sheik's Forward Air - that is, powerful and nearly horizontal, angled down. Opponents will have to ensure they DI for the correct hit, or they'll become fodder for a follow up or uh, the blast zone.


Down Tilt: Mage Hand
Finne thrusts his hand downward, fingers splayed and palm facing the ground ahead of him. A small, ethereal version of his hand materializes on the ground about a third of a Platform past Finne's body, and performs an uppercut, rising up to a little over half a Platform's height by the end. The uppercut has four overlapping hitboxes, each about the same size; the first is the smallest, and is on the ground where the hand is, the second a little ways above that, and the third and fourth of course are higher up. The first three hitboxes have very weak upward knockback, and link into the final hit, which sends opponents weakly at the Sakurai angle.

The hand appears on frame 4, but the first hitbox doesn't come out until frame 7(still rather fast), when the uppercut starts. The move lasts for 5 frames, and you have 25 frames of ending lag as Finne flexes his hand and returns to idle. So, normally, the move is 37 frames long, but Finne can interrupt it by jumping, dashing, or crouching as early as frame 19, just 7 frames after the hitboxes disappear. Said hitboxes deal 2%, 2%, 3%, and 4% respectively, for a total of 11% damage if all connect. The closer the opponent is to the hand itself, the more likely you'll get in all of the hits. The higher hitboxes are bigger than the lower ones, so even if you space incorrectly, you can still smack someone for less damage.

This is a good poke and is decent for popping an opponent up into the air quickly, though due to the angle it's a bit harder to follow up than similar DTilts(unless you zip over...). The kicker here is that this move is excellent at breaking through crouch canceling thanks to its multiple hitboxes, meaning Finne has an easy answer to the technique, so long as he can correctly space his DTilt. It's worth nothing that the Mage Hand can be clanked with normally, though, so pretty much any attack will cancel it out.


Up Tilt: Frigid Touch
Finne crouches down and clenches the fingers on his right hand as he cocoons it in icy blue energy, then springs upward and shoves his hand diagonally upward, fingers still curled inward. Finne leans upward on the balls of his feet while he does this, so he reaches pretty high up. His hand exudes the typical icy diamondlike effect, and it can freeze anyone it hits, though the rate is low and you won't get much out of it until 90+%, unless you nail the sweetspot. The hitboxes actually start when Finne begins to jut his hand upward, meaning that there are a few hitboxes as the hand goes forward. It's a single hit move, though, so you can't link the hitboxes together.

The first hitbox comes out on frame 11, and the move is active until frame 17. After that, you have 28 frames of ending lag, for 45 total frames, but Finne can act out on frame 38. Most of the hitboxes deal 14% damage and average diagonally upward knockback, but the first deals 12% and less powerful, but more vertical, knockback, and the final hitbox at the very apex of the attack deals 17% and more powerful knockback, making the sweetspot a good, if tricky, kill move. The sweetspot also has a better freeze effect, and you can potentially follow up after it around 30-40% or so.

AERIALS:

Neutral Aerial: Wreath of Blades

Forward Aerial: Vampiric Touch

Up Aerial: Power Attack

Down Aerial: Banishing Blade

Back Aerial: Arcane Edge

GRAB GAME:

Grab: Finne bends over a tiny bit, and reaches down far with his right hand before yanking it up, trying to grab an opponent with his rising hand. For his running grab, he dives low instead of bending over, and rises up with his hand outstretched to grab. His pivot grab has him go down low and scoop up like an uppercut. If he connects with any of these, he lifts and holds holds the foe up high in the air while glaring up at them. For his pummel, electricity surges through Finne's arm and courses into his foe's body, dealing 3% damage.

Finne's grab comes out on frame 7, like most characters', but his running grab also comes out frame 7, and his pivot on frame 9, putting his overall grab speed among the best in the game. All his grabs are active for 3 frames. His standing grab has 21 frames of ending lag if he whiffs it, while his dash and pivot grabs both have 28(the totals are thus 31/38/38). His pummel animation is a shortish 21 frames, and is good for racking up a little extra damage if you're not concerned with the opponent's DI.

Unfortunately, Finne's horizontal grab range is sub-par, about the length of Peach's grab. However, vertically, it's excellent, reaching from very near the ground all the way to Marth's standing height. This means that not even Jigglypuff can crouch under Finne's grab, giving him an effective answer to crouch canceling when coupled with his grabs' speeds. Naturally, he's also good at yanking people out of the air, so if you're feelin' frisky you can try to grab armor your way through aerials.


Forward Throw: Gust Of Wind
A ball of swirling wind forms above Finne's head as he slings his captive foe at the ground, then sticks his hand out and directs the wind to erupt toward the foe right before they hit the ground, bouncing them across the stage. They'll normally bounce three times, all close to each other, then keep on sailing across the ground. The overall knockback is mostly horizontal, with a slight downwards angle.

This throw lasts for 33 total frames, with the foe being thrown on frame 11, and the wind connecting on frame 13. The wind is the only damaging hitbox, and it deals 13% damage. In a FFA, it can collide with another character and cause Finne to miss his intended target entirely, but hey at least you get something. When you can act out of this move depends on the foe's weight, of course, but expect a quick recovery. Don't plan to follow up, however, since the base knockback is high and the angle(along the ground) doesn't lend well to such things. To make matters 'worse,' the knockback growth isn't half bad either. However, if the opponent techs this move, which is comparatively easy to do(though obviously they only get one shot, as there aren't nearly enough frames for the tech window to reset during the bounces), then you've got a tech chase on your hands. Normally, they actually won't want to tech the move for this very reason, but it's a good kill throw, so they may need to.

You CAN throw someone directly off the ledge with this attack if you're close enough, but if you do, they'll travel faster and you won't hit them with the wind unless they're as big as or bigger than Bowser, and even he's a crapshoot. If they happen to jump, you might catch them. It's a (gimmicky) way to set up an edgeguarding situation regardless.

Down Throw: Thunderstomp
Finne unceremoniously drops his opponent, raises his boot, and pounds the foe into the ground, creating a concussive burst of electricity that launches the foe upward

Up Throw: Lightning Bolt
Finne pulls the foe down a bit, then hurls them directly into the air, crouches down, looks up, and fires a crackling bolt of blue lightning over his shoulder, straight up at his opponent. Visually, the animation is reminiscent of a combination of Thunder and Zelda's Up Aerial. There's a lot of hitlag as the bolt electrifies the foe, and once it's over, the victim suffers a small amount of vertical knockback, along with longer-than-average hitstun due to the attack's electrical nature. Meanwhile, Finne is resting on his knee, panting, before pushing himself back up with his right hand.

Finne hurls his opponent on frame 12, and the bolt connects on frame 15, dealing 13% damage. There are around 10 frames of hitlag, though of course it varies based on the opponent hit. Finne has to deal with 36 frames of ending lag, but since his foe will be in hitlag during some of them, it's closer to 25-27. At 51 frames, it's a long animation, but it's well worth the wait - Lightning Bolt's knockback is great for setting up an aerial follow-up, typically with your Neutral or Up Aerial. The foe can mix up their DI, and they have a lot of time to plan it, but if you read it correctly you're nearly guaranteed a follow-up until high %s. Due to the extra hitstun, it's unlikely that even characters like Luigi will be able to escape with their Neutral Air, either.


Back Throw: Forceful Hand
Finne tosses the opponent roughly over his shoulder, flips around to face them, and backhands the air, which causes a huge hand made of blue force energy to appear from the Z-Axis, and do the same. The force hand, to its credit, manages to HIT the opponent, sending them flying back.

The toss comes out frame 12, and the hand hits on frame 14, dishing out 12% damage with a side of medium horizontal knockback. Afterward, you'll suffer 25 frames of ending lag, for 39 total frames. The knockback isn't normally enough to kill until quite high percentages, but it's sufficient to reset the game to neutral or force an edgeguard situation if that's what you need. This is normally Finne's least useful throw, but it can serve as a kill throw in niche situations. It does have one saving grace: it shines in Free For Alls, where you can hit many opponents with the giant hand, making it a decent option to keep people off your back.