The Foundry

Howdy y’all, and happy Halloween! I had originally intended to do a trio of gruesome subclasses for this year’s spooky season project, but this month has been just one thing after another, so sadly most of my mental bandwidth has been dedicated to other things. But, I still had enough in me to get this long dormant project out the door, so I’ll count that as a win. And don’t worry, those other two subclasses are still going to get released at some point, it just may take a while.

Anyway, this is an overhaul of my Circle of the Parasite subclass, which is based on Nidus from Warframe. After Nidus himself got a few well deserved updates a few years back, I felt it only appropriate to give him the glow up he deserved. I had big plans for the art direction of that project, but sadly they fell through, so this project has been sitting in storage ever since. The fact it was basically done was what originally gave me the confidence to try and release 3 subclasses this year. But with this October being a mess and the other two subclasses growing in scope, only the Infestation remains.

So, what’s all changed? Well, kind of everything. This go around, I wanted to really lean into the Infestation’s natural ability to change and adapt, so much like my Medium subclass from my Mourner, I gave it one feature that sets up the Mutation Point system that Nidus is known for, then made all of his abilities, and his augments, Adaptations. I also added a bunch of custom ones that I felt fit the theme and meshed with the Druid’s core abilities, like Wildshape and Spellcasting. I also made it so you can swap out one Adaptation for another on a long rest.

I’m also incredibly pleased with the formatting. Originally when I was working on this subclass, the plan was to commission some gross, infested elements that I could use to create a custom Homebrewery style, which could also be used for other projects I’d like to eventually release. Hopefully I can still one day do that, but for now, I found a really nice, simple theme, based on Tomb of Annihilation, that fits the Druid/nature look. Then, I let the artwork do the talking when it comes to the infested nature of the subclass. There were some elements from the original I wanted to keep, specifically the journal. That was an element that I was really proud of, and I really like the lore I wrote for it and what it added to the vibe of the subclass, so it would have been a shame to leave it out.

Anyway, I hope you all like this updated version of my squishy, gross, infested boi! Also, it’s come to my attention that apparently my last Warframe subclass was like 3 years ago, and it was just a rework. Time sure flies, but this cannot stand, as there are SO MANY WARFRAMES I still need to do. Look forward to more of them in the future. Until next time, stay safe, stay spooky, don’t forget to love each other, and Happy Halloween!