Fanged Collars and You: A Parasite Guide

[Chronosplit]

There’s been talk about this artifact/race, but it’s a bit scattered around the Cults thread and isn’t all complete. So I decided to put together what I could into a guide after spending some time collecting more info. Have fun with the horrors, and if anyone has anything to add go ahead!

The Parasite race is one that is unique to the Forbidden Cults DLC. Rather than it being a start choice for a character, you access it by equipping an artifact amulet named the Fanged Collar and dying with it on. Though it appears on the surface that all you gain is a Generic talent tree, there is enough going on through the game to say this is a proper race all it’s own. A Parasite character changes in the following ways:

-They cannot equip headgear at all, and anything you were wearing beforehand is gone. As this would imply, they also cannot use head Tinkers.
-They cannot change their amulet to anything but the Fanged Collar. In a roundabout way you could say that a Parasite starts with -5 WIL in exchange for 10 CUN, has +15% Blight/Darkness/Acid resistance, +20.00 max HP, and -7 Mental Save in exchange for +15 Spell and Physical Save.
-All characters lose the ability to put points into their racial tree, and gain Race/Parasite in exchange along with a generic point in the first talent. They don’t lose the talents themselves like a character turned into an undead by Rak’Shor’s Cunning, they just can’t invest in them anymore. Cornacs do not lose the ability to gain extra Talent/Generic points however, and basically function as a normal human would through the entire game. Undead can still become parasites and do not lose their racial tree access.

There’s also one other thing, there are many NPCs in the game that you automatically eat. When this happens, there are no other options. When you eat one you gain a free generic point as opposed to any other benefit they would have given, and usually you will fail the quest. The known list for the main campaign is as follows:

-All escorts. Be careful if you have a build that revolves around an escort tree or unlocking Tinkers, but on the bright side this also means all escorts provide something universally useful that you can use immediately. This can either be a very large source of generic points, or only one or three through Dreadfell and Renkor. It all depends on a lot of factors, like when you got the collar and how long you put off some Tier 1 dungeons.
-The Merchant in the tunnels. This means no merchant randarts at the last part of the game. You also automatically join the Assassin Lord, giving you access to the Tricks of the Trade Prodigy and the Font of Sacrifice in the dark portal as a trade-off. In my experience you almost always won’t even find a Fanged Collar by the time you find the tunnels. It’s possible as it’s a Tier 2, but unlikely.
-The Yeek that you save from Subject Z. The benefit here mostly depends on your confusion resist, as that is the noticeable thing you would have gotten as a non-Halfling.
-Melinda. The game has you going for a bit, but when she’s in your fortress you can eat her when talking. For some reason not even the ending changes after eating her.
-Fillarel. Kill Krogar, then talk to her. Same exact result happens as when she’s killed by some other means.
-Slasul. This is different in that you don’t actually eat him, but it forces you into a fight. You can still get the Prodigy under these conditions. You just can’t talk to him afterwards.
-Aeryn, after failing (or not doing) the Charred Scar quest and defeating her on level 10 of high peak, is automatically eaten by you. You cannot eat her if you finished the Charred Scar properly.

The tree you gain for this is as follows:
-Take a Bite: The Parasite tree is granted to you with a point in this talent. You make a weapon attack with a percentage that scales with your highest of STR, DEX, or MAG. Similar to Wyrmic’s Swallow, if the target is below 20% of health you can instantly kill it. Either way you get a small regen for 5 turns afterwards, which overrides other regen effects such as infusions. The regen’s power and instant kill chance depend on CON. Like most first talent racials, the cooldown is the only thing effected by points. This is basically a stronger bump when it scales above 100% damage, nothing spectacular here. Fungus talents influence the regen effect in length and resource recovery, and even then it’s not too noticable in a fight.
-Ultra Instinct: This is most likely what you’re here for! This passive global speed boost is a rather large one, bigger than a Yeek’s Quickened at 25% (and it stacks if you are a Yeek and have invested in Quickened). Max this.
-Corrupting Influence: You gain a very good amount of Blight, Darkness, Acid, and Temporal resist (40% when maxed) in exchange for a minus in Nature and Light resist (-13% when maxed). Take caution here as more points also worsen the drawback, and after a few points it starts to result in diminishing returns. It can help you around the large amount of Blight damage that you’ll see in Dreadfell onward and Darkness/Temporal resist can also be very useful, but you can be Radiant and Searing Horror bait if you’re not careful with choosing gear correctly. Making up for your weaknesses is definitely doable however. 1 point in Thick Skin can help early on with one point, and maxing Thick Skin will counteract 5 points in Corrupting Influence.
-Horror Shell: It’s a shield that lasts for 10 turns, more points increase the shield's strength and decrease the cooldown. Compare this to Skeleton’s Bone Armour, except it scales with CON and (from my experience at least) it's worse in the strength total. Points should go into here only if you really need it, if CON is one of your main stats and you have the points, or you have access to the Aegis/Light tree. It’s still large under the right conditions as it scales well with points most of the time, just your other shield choices might also yield more.

Misc. Notes:
-You get an achievement for maxing all talents in the tree.
-Note that the Fanged Collar is powered by unknown and none of these talents are marked as spells. You can apparently go Antimagic with this, but I haven’t tried. This would mean that Oozemancer and Krogs are not exempt, pretty much.
-You can change the Fanged Collar to any headgear visually in the fortress, this also restores your face. Turning cloak hoods on in the options also shows your normal face. I guess that explains why no one really notices your head?
-There is an addon named Parasite-in-Pocket that automatically gives you a Fanged Collar from the start. Depending on your class however, doing this from the start might dig you an early grave due to the stat deduction.

[Arcvasti]

Siding with the Assassin Lord as Parasite is probably fine since you'll have Font of Sacrifice.

[Chronosplit]

Siding with the Assassin Lord as Parasite is probably fine since you'll have Font of Sacrifice.

That's true, it is a bit more of an even trade-off in that case. I should probably add that to the OP.

[Gustavo_Paranga]

Does anybody knows if parasite undead can use infusions? would be neat but generic starving

[Arcvasti]

Assuming that undead can even be parasitized, it shouldn't change their ability to use infusions.

[c2t]

Things that bring someone back to life from the dead do not seem to work with parasites. Or at the very least Blood of Life and Ring of the Dead didn't work for mine: https://te4.org/characters/149541/tome/ ... b1ec5c156b

[Daethe]

Things that bring someone back to life from the dead do not seem to work with parasites. Or at the very least Blood of Life and Ring of the Dead didn't work for mine: https://te4.org/characters/149541/tome/ ... b1ec5c156b

I was playing my Skeleton Doombringer today and died with the collar on, I got the prompt for the resurrection from the Parasite, and did so. I then died again later on and was able to use my Skeleton Re-Assemble to resurrect yet again.

[Wombat]

The blood of life did work for me, but I found it after becoming a parasite so maybe that makes a difference.

[Chronosplit]

Long overdue update with the actual info about Aeryn. Thanks to Zeyphor and helminthauge for that. I didn't run into eating her because I never failed the quest!

EDIT: Also the undead stuff.

[Haelbreak]

Tidbit of info I've noticed:

Most races lose the ability to invest generics.

Undead do not.

Reason for this seems to be the Fanged Collar checks Race / (x), where as Undead is Undead / x. Least this definitely works with Ghoul but I imagine it's true of the others.

[Chronosplit]

Tidbit of info I've noticed:

Most races lose the ability to invest generics.

Undead do not.

Reason for this seems to be the Fanged Collar checks Race / (x), where as Undead is Undead / x. Least this definitely works with Ghoul but I imagine it's true of the others.

Interesting. I bet there's a build that uses this with Ghoul. It'd have to be something that doesn't require heavy Generic investment even with the extra points though.

[GlassGo]

I it bug or feature?

[Chronosplit]

I it bug or feature?

I've been thinking about this for a bit. I'm honestly not sure. On one hand it sounds kinda exploity, on the other hand I can't really think of any way that one would be missed. It could very well be intentional, unless undead weren't originally supposed to become a Parasite for the same reason as not being able to use the Blood of Life.

[Blackvision]

Worth noting that as a Parasitic ex-Yeek, you can't eat the Yeek that Subject Z attacks (possible if you escape with the rod before engaging the fight in the tunnels and then returning once paracited) - you just get the usual Yeek dialogue and can't eat him afterwards either.

[mckwack]

I hope I'm not necroposting this thread, but inquiring mind wants to know..

Just wondering.. with the way Lich evolution is handled in 1.7.x, they basically became a race of their own, yes? They even have their own racial tree (along with the original race's) and have a separate entry on the 'Winners table' list (Lich/Necromancer instead of <Original-race>/Necromancer).

So.. if a Lich who wears Fanged Collar dies, would they be resurrected as a Parasite, or would they have the option to activate the Lich resurrection skill and stays as a Lich? Would they loose their Race/<Original-race> tree or the Undead/Lich tree, if choosing/becoming a Parasite? Or, in 1.7.x, Undeads could no longer become a Parasite?

My Lich winner hasn't had the chance to find a Fanged Collar yet, so I haven't been able to test this theory myself. Will try to send one from my other characters through the Item Vault if I ever could find one and report the findings here. Also, a search for 'Lich Parasite' in the forum didn't give out much info, hence my question above.

Cheers.