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."

- The Narrator

The Fanatic is a wandering boss added in The Crimson Court DLC. He is a wandering boss, like The Collector and Shambler, and he 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 declaring his arrival. Once he is in the game he will randomly spawn somewhere inside the dungeon whenever you bring a party with Vampires in it. Note: it is not yet known how the game determines probability of the Fanatic spawning, however a party with four vampires in it will guarantee his appearance.

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 biggest warning that he is lurking somewhere within.

Behavior
Upon entering battle, the Fanatic will always surprise the party. If you decide to run away from 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 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 the Fanatic makes a move. The Fanatic has three moves per turn.

While a character is burning the stake, he will use offensive attacks with 3 actions every round. His offensive attacks move him forwards and cause debuffs, while his buffs move him backwards away from the front line.

Abilities
He has stress inducing abilities, as well as a powerful ability akin to the Hag's cauldron.

Sentence Rendered: Ability which places one of the characters onto a pyre, which damages every turn until at deaths door.

Brand the Tainted: Ability which brands one of the crimson cursed characters. This causes horror DOT and Marked.

Loot
Drops Crimson Curse items starting with the Ancestor's Vintage. Subsequent Fanatic defeats will yield gem loot and other trinkets related to the Crimson Curse.

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.