Right now all mutations are focused on physical aspects of the being the blob interacts with. What if it could tamper with the mind but, instead of atrophying critical thinking (Predator mutation line) or increasing INT, it would allow telepathy and other stuff like that?
A Mentalist Mutation tree would be awesome for roleplayers who go for a scientist.thinking about 4 STR, 4 DEX, 4 PER and 20 INT. Yup, played this build with Dragon MA and it was AWESOME. Buffing PER to 10 and keeping INT at 20 works good for RP Those poor souls have 2 options to survive: build and hack robots (which sadly comes late in the game), or augment themselves, either by using bionics, or by mutating. The latter poses a problem for RP: the scientist would know that they would lose their minds by becoming a humanoid animal (looking at you, post-thresh Beast), and they would become outcasts in society (this means death; I like to play as a scientist heavily dependent on stronger NPC’s).
Here comes the Mentalist tree: it’s like an INT-oriented Alpha, and with some. NPC’s can’t know you’re a mutant (no visible and ugly mutations apart from Insanely Intelligent), you get a lot of INT, and you can use INT-based ranged attacks (and abilities) to survive. You should stock up on serums to breach the Thresh pretty fast, because the only thing that can balance post-Thresh (which should bring serious offensive capabilities and some utility mutations) is a (VERY) weak pre-Thresh. The lore of this tree is that you become a kind of Zombie Master, tampering with the blob inside all living beings. Here’s a list of suggestions for some mutations that could work with this tree.
Pre-Thresh: Designed to weaken the (already weak if RP-ing) character. No Mentalist traits here yet. The starting Traits imply a physically weak character, but with a powerful mind. The mutations build on that.
Traits: Bad Back, Bad Knees, Fragile, Glass Jaw, Jittery, Junkfood Intolerance, Lactose Intolerance, Languorous, Lightweight, Slow Footed, Slow Healer, Thin-Skinned, Weak Stomach, Fast Learner, Fast Reader, Good Memory, Less Sleep, Self-Aware, Skilled Liar, Spiritual. (Initially I wanted to place Pain Resistant here too, but I want this tree to feel like if anything, even a normal zombie, gets into melee range, you’re fucked. You wouldn’t even have time to feel pain, death will come first.)
Mutations: Hollow Bones, Extremely Intelligent, Extremely Perceptive. These are the only vanilla mutations which would fit. I’d add these:
Very Slow Healer: Your body can’t heal on it’s own, at least in a matter of days. You require medical aid, or use of nanobots. Requires Slow Healer.
Extremely Thin Skinned: The flesh on your body is very thin and weak. Increased cutting damage, and all cutting attacks cause bleeding. Requires Thin Skinned.
Muscular Atrophy: Your muscles have started to decay. -2 STR. Upgrades to Severe Muscular Atrophy.
Severe Muscular Atrophy: Your strength has alarmingly diminished. You are slower, and lose some dexterity. -4 STR, -2 DEX, -15% speed on all actions. Allows mutating Paraplegic.
Paraplegic: You have lost control of your legs! You are forced to use a wheelchair. However, 0 HP on your legs brings no debuff (since you already have it). Stacks with Severe Muscular Atrophy.
Keen Senses: Your mind has started to perceive more, and your senses have started to refine themselves. You can sense enemies through walls (3 tile range), but you are more sensitive to pain. +2 PER. Allows mutating Expanded Nervous System.
Acceptance: You have started to realize that you can’t dwell on sorrow in order to survive. Negative morale debuffs halved. Allows mutating Insight.
Insight: You have started to understand the human mind, in all of it’s complexity, and you think you could exploit it’s weaknesses. +3 on all speech-related skills. Allows mutating Keen Senses and Ignorance.
Post-Thresh: Here this mutation tree starts to shine.
Mutations: Insanely Perceptive, Insanely Dextrous, Very Little Sleep, Tireless. I’d add these new mutations:
Telepath (thresh mutation name): You have elucidated the secrets of the human mind, and you dwell on it’s beauty and complexity, constantly breaching new barriers.
Apathy: You finally understood that sorrow brings only death. No debuffs from negative morale. Allows mutating Ignorance.
Ignorance: Your mind has transcended the thoughts of hunger and thirst. No debuffs from being thirsty or hungry, but you still have to eat and drink. Requires Tireless. Allows mutating Expanded Nervous System.
Expanded Nervous System: Your Central Nervous System has managed to grow new neurons (with the help of the mighty blob, of course!), and improved the ability to transmit and generate nerve impulses. +10 INT, +10 PER, increased pain. Allows mutating Psionic Spike and Mind Read.
Mind Read: You can “feel” what your peers are feeling. +6 to all speech-related skills. Allows mutating Clairvoyance.
Psionic Spike: Your mind has grown the ability to interact with your enemies. You can cause severe headaches to your victim, eventually culminating in a seizure, coma and death. Depends on your victim: weak critters and zombies require 1-2 spikes, zombie masters and necromancers 3-4 and humans should require 4-5 (at 8-INT). Max Range depends on your INT (2 tiles/INT). Doesn’t depend on your victim’s armor: you can one-shot a 1-INT power-armored human, but you can kill a nude scientist with 10 blasts. Upgrades into Psionic Blast.
Psionic Blast: Your mind has adapted to destroying those who wish you harm. Is a more powerful version of Psionic Spike. Allows mutating Telekinesis.
Telekinesis: Your mind has grown so strong that you can interact with non-organic material as well. Use it to draw distant items to you (max 10 tiles away), and to throw items with great speeds towards your foes (kinda like Electromagnetic Unit, but works with all items). Allows mutating Clairvoyance.
Clairvoyance: Your mind and senses have adapted and interconnected: by channeling your psychic power, you can see through walls up to 10 tiles away. Extremely tiring (should bring a Tireless character to Exhausted in 6 turns). Allows mutating Possession.
Possession: You can enter another being’s mind and use their body as your own. You wouldn’t be able to depart for more than 15 tiles away from your body, and, after exiting your host, it’ll die. This ability would tire you after you exit the host, and you could use it only once per day (it’d make you exhausted really fast).
This mutation tree would be quite good for RP-ers, especially for INT-based characters. Imagine getting Rooter and cosplaying as a cooler Three-Eyed Raven, or strolling around in a wheelchair at the front of a mutant army, as Professor X. I would love to code it… if I knew how to make ranged mutation-based attacks. I don’t think there’s code in-game for mutations that works like the activatable ranged bionics, otherwise I would’ve already reached v2 on this mod.