The Fanatic

"Madness can take many forms, but none so contemptible as man's belief in a mythology of his own making. A world view buttressed by dogmatic desperation invariably leads to single-minded fanaticism, and a need to do terrible things in the name of righteousness. This man is an animal - rabid, destructive, and incapable of nuanced understanding. He. must. be. put. down. Loading_fanatic.wav"

- The Narrator

A towering and domineering force of seething, zealous rage and terrible intent, the Fanatic is a monk who has gone rogue from the Church to hunt down and slaughter anyone and anything affected by the Crimson Curse anywhere it can be found. His heavily scarred face reveals a storied past of brutal and consequential encounters with the mutated inhabitants of the Courtyard, from which he has spilled unimaginable amounts of heathen blood. At his disposal are several iconic weapons and tools for slaying vampires; stakes, garlic, crosses and prayers. However, his most dangerous weapon is his unwavering conviction in the righteousness of his cause and the zealous fervor with which he pursues it, even if it means putting himself directly in harm's way. At times, the line between fervor and the wish for self-destruction can become precariously blurred.

To him, anyone or anything he merely even suspects to be tainted by the Crimson Curse must be cleansed in flames. Over the years, countless scores of innocent men and women have been burned at the stake without trial or a single ounce of pity or mercy by this madman in his single-minded pursuit to eradicate the Crimson Curse from the land. He will not rest until the last vampire has been hunted down and heaped upon the pyre or until the last breath has been drawn from his body.

While some may say or view him as misunderstood, overzealous, or even a fallen hero, this does not alter the fact that he has deemed himself to be judge, jury and executioner and that, given the chance, he would gladly incinerate the Hamlet and all who reside there in order to "save" their souls or worse, unintentionally awaken the horror below from the slaughter of the adventurers who had the unfortunate incident to become afflicted by the disease. He is a menace that must be put down like the rabid dog he has become.

Behavior
The Fanatic is a boss added in The Crimson Court DLC. He is a wandering boss, like The Collector and Shambler, and will hunt down your heroes, should they wander into a dungeon bearing the Crimson Curse. He will not appear in the game until a town event occurs announcing his arrival. Once he has appeared, he will randomly spawn somewhere inside a dungeon whenever you bring a party with members afflicted by the Crimson Curse in it.

If the game decides that the Fanatic is to appear during an expedition, a special loading screen with his face will show when the Dungeon is loading. This is your primary warning that he is lurking somewhere within.

The Fanatic will not spawn in boss quests due to their loading screen having priority over his. This makes bringing any amount of cursed heroes to these quests safe.

In particular, if you have 2 or 3 heroes infected, the chance of him appearing is 20% and 33% at medium and high infestation, respectively. If all four of your heroes are infected, there is a 75% chance at both medium and high infestation.

Upon entering battle, the Fanatic will always surprise the party. If you decide to run away from the Fanatic, he will appear in the next encounter, fulfilling his promise to hunt "the Cursed" down. He will spawn in the two back ranks with his stake and pyre in the front two rows.

During the first turn of the battle, he will perform "Sentence Rendered" on one of your heroes. This places them on the stake where they cannot do anything and take constant HP damage — every time any character takes a turn. The Fanatic has three turns per round.

While a character is burning at the stake, he will attack with 3 actions every round. His attacks move him forward and cause debuffs, bleed, stuns, and horror, and he has bonus damage against cursed and marked heroes, while his buffs move him backwards away from the front line.

Similarly to the Hag, a hero currently burning at the stake will not retreat with the rest of the party if the party retreats from combat, but will instead count as having died. In addition, if this hero had any trinkets on them when you retreated from combat, those trinkets will be lost.

Unlike the Hag's cauldron, the Fanatic's pyre does not restore its durability after a hero gets released from it. If the pyre is destroyed, the Fanatic will use Fury of the Righteous as his first move on every round, dealing physical and stress damage to your entire team in order to avenge his pyre.

Abilities
Apprentice =

Veteran =

Champion =

Loot
Drops Crimson Curse-related trinkets, such as the Ancestor's Vintage and the Coven Signet. Subsequent Fanatic defeats will yield gem loot and other trinkets related to the Crimson Curse. Additionally, he can drop a special item known as The Cure. Any hero who uses it will be immediately healed from The Crimson Curse. Like The Blood, all unused vials of The Cure will be stored upon returning to the Hamlet.

Strategy
The Fanatic is a relentless and challenging foe, and beating him with a poorly-geared party is nearly impossible. As such, you should be prepared for whenever you venture into a dungeon bearing the Crimson Curse. Attempting to retreat without abandoning the expedition is hopeless, as the Fanatic will simply appear in the next encounter.

Being able to move him across the battlefield or target all four ranks is essential to this fight. Like the Hag, the Fanatic will start every round using "Sentence Rendered" to place a hero on his pyre if one is not there already, dealing damage every action until they are on Death's Door. Whether or not you risk damaging the pyre to free the burning hero should depend on how much damage they can inflict — freeing the burning hero allows them to strike and costs the Fanatic an action, but striking the pyre buffs the Fanatic's damage, and destroying it altogether allows the Fanatic to use "Fury of the Righteous", which he will use every turn to deal devastating damage to the whole party. "Strike the Heretic" and "Holy Stake" are both high-damage single-target attacks, with the latter dealing extra damage to marked targets, so being able to guard and clear marks can go some way towards mitigating the damage taken.

DoT attacks — Bleed moreso than Blight — are highly effective (although at higher tiers, very unlikely to stick), since the Fanatic has both three actions per round and the ability to boost his own PROT. Accordingly, debuffs are extremely ineffective, as he will burn through 3 rounds of any debuff each turn. Ripostes can be useful, as the Fanatic's three actions and access to multi-party attacks mean he will likely trigger Riposte at least once each turn. As with the Hag fight, boosting the party's Dodge is also a viable strategy, giving you a chance to avoid "Sentence Rendered" and allow the entire party to deal damage. Stress is unlikely to be a significant factor during this fight, unless it occurs at the end of an expedition or during a Short quest where you cannot camp to deal with it.

Compositions with attacks that hit Row Three are significantly more effective than most against the Fanatic — bringing heroes like the Flagellant or the Bounty Hunter can prove extremely useful. Additionally, having a wide range of healing abilities available at any rank will prove to be extremely useful; characters such as the Occultist, Crusader, and (again) Flagellant work well. Building a successful comp against the Fanatic should revolve around strong sustain through any three members of the group; compositions with a single healer, or a single source of row-3 damage dealing are risky, and rely on the offensive attacks the Fanatic deploys, which have the potential to stun the person you intended to hit him with.

As may be expected, the Flagellant (being the hero introduced with the DLC) has the most strengths against the Fanatic; the Flagellant's strong bleed attacks work wonders through the high PROT of the Fanatic, his bread and butter damage ability can hit Row Three, and the Flagellant downright benefits from being tied to the stake via "Sentence Rendered" — an auto-trigger of his powerful below-50% abilities is given for free. Any party meant to fight the Fanatic should include the Flagellant, if the interest is in an easy victory.

Trivia

 * The Fanatic is voiced by Youtuber/Streamer Baertaffy, whose longest and most popular series consist of Darkest Dungeon playthroughs, going well over 400 episodes and hundreds of hours of playtime. Baertaffy is also the voice of The Viscount and The Baron.
 * The Fanatic wears multiple Trinkets on his person, including a Book of Holiness, Fortifying Garlic, Glittering Spaulders, Holy Orders, and Martyr's Seals.