Nexus Clash

Monstrous Mass would be a 60 CP child of Translucency. Characters with this skill gain a permanent 25 Hit Point increase. They also gain +5% to hit with HTH and Heavy Weapons, +10 to maximum inventory carrying capacity, and add +5HP per AP spent erecting Fortifications or Mounds. The character is also able to activate the Heavy Lifting Status Effect for 1 AP and 10 MP. This status effect may not be activated if already active, however it can be activated while the character is encumbered. It costs an additional 1 MP for every 15 minutes beyond the first.

Yes, this is a skewed Fiendish Bulk in all but name. It represents a WM with out-of-control physical mutations. It would be useful to WM looking for a more unorthodox style of play, allowing Thrown Superheavy attacks, aiding Cultivate Ground, and offering non-PM options. Inspired by the Michael Shea story Fat Face.

I kinda like growing Wyrm Master's sub-theme as a throwing/melee damage dealer, something that can shift towards slightly more independence than the rest of the Summoners. It's likely still a little undercooked, but at least builds upon some flavorful dead ends in WM's skill tree.

Thenixon wrote: ↑Fri Aug 29, 2025 6:50 pm EAgKfyUXkAEIdgW-285179748.jpg

Exactly this!

WM has a direct line to uh ..*checks notes* a plane of uncontainable flesh?

What the whole thing was an activation form like Heavy Lifting, gave the bonus you listed, but had a per tick cost. Deactivated wm would be..deflated? At lower than max HP, or some other bodily cost?

i do feel this skill needs to be fleshed out a bit. hue hue

i think other than a smaller passive HP boost (+10) having most of the skill as actionable buff to HP (another additional +25), inventory capacity, heavy lifting, mound/fort hp bonus, and hth bonus makes more sense to me. Its a power that can be tapped into, but not a permanent thing like just being an IB.

additionally for flavor: add a permanent passive increase (+3?) to acid blood damage because this Wyrm master is chocked full of more acid than the regular wyrm.

What if the WM could be able to carry its imps around on its back while heavy lifting like a mama spider

What if they add that mass from kills or corpses? So for every kill they get... say 1/4th of these bonuses, up to all of these (so 4 kills for full bonus in this example) for a duration.

This looks like something that would be a child skills of Mutagenic Touch, or maybe even Metamorphic Unguis, rather than Translucency.

This also seems like a strange collection of bonuses, most of which probably aren't worth 60CP, as opposed to something interesting to invest into. You've got a small bonus to H2H, a rather meaningless bonus to heavy weapons, you've got superheavy combat, and Structural Engineering buffs, and extra HP... I just have a concern about what sort of build would even use this. Sure, if a WM had 60CP left over and nothing to spend it on, +25 HP and +10 Inventory is certainly nice. But that's typically not a concern on a character with no soak and not really a defensive aura.

I'm also wondering if it should be more tied towards the Wyrm Master being a spellcaster, as opposed to just a repeat of the IB/NC skill. Perhaps something like:

• passive +5% Hand-to-Hand
• passive +5% Melee
• passive +5% Heavy Weapons (on top of the above)
• Activated ability that grants Heavy Lifting
• Activated ability also makes buff spells cost 2x MP but have double the effect. (Conjure Sinews is 20MP and gives +4 for 30 ticks, Sharp Vision is 20 MP for +30% ranged for 30 ticks, etc)
• Buffed spells from activated ability only applies to cast spells, not from spellgems.

Maybe add a smaller passive HP buff but also a MP buff as well to make it more caster-centric. +10 max HP and +10 max MP, for example.

Thematically speaking (for a mountain of flesh), may I suggest

• +X HP where X is dependent on level
  +Y soak, perhaps favouring impact, cold and fire, which are most readily negated by more mass
  superheavy lifting (toggle)
  aura of stink (toggle)
  perhaps a buff to acid (vomit), fire (demon) and unholy (also demon) damage dealing skills, on the basis that more demon mass means more demon damage