2e:Brood Mother

Any maiesta is easily recognizable, but there are none that blossom with life in the way that a brood mother does. While other maiesta harbor gravs in their wombs, brood mothers play host to a small legion of the spirits, sheltering not only the common gravs used by all maiesta, but clutches of lesser gravs most others would readily ignore. Shaping these humble spirits, and sharing with them her power and that of her other gravs, a brood mother rests easy despite her weight, knowing that her allies as ever close at hand.

How to play a Brood Mother
Brood Mother battlefield roles can be very versatile, but all of them center around the effective tactical deployment of their broodlings. Broodlings are fragile to the point that even a single point of damage will down one, but can occupy space and block enemy movement through them, bolster damage output against enemies adjacent to them, and serve as an anchor point for the vast majority of the Brood Mother’s abilities. They are also spawned en masse and are safely returned to the Brood Mother and ready to spawn again if downed, so don’t feel too bad about using them as sacrifices to protect allies.

The three Veteran classes for Brood Mother each present a different picture of how the class can be used. Commands form a sizable part of the Brood Mother’s arsenal, allowing her to deploy various effects both on-turn and off-turn as the situation demands, but their repeated use can get expensive very quickly, and so each Veteran class path suggests an answer. Centurion suggests using the broodlings to support herself, making use of Warrior Queen's discount on Commands used on her own behalf. Nygguroth presents the option of paying Command costs with broodlings rather than with Gravitas, thanks to Untapped Potential; broodlings are a renewable resource in their own right, after all. Machinist, meanwhile, prefers to ignore Commands for the most part and simply focus on churning out as many broodlings as possible to block space, offer additional firepower, and serve as anchors for what non-Command abilities the class has to offer. It’s worth noting that the Nygguroth and Machinist mindsets do benefit somewhat from crossing over into each other, due to all that extra Command fuel.

The greatest strength of the Brood Mother is also her greatest weakness, however. As their entire kit revolves around broodlings, they are left at a tremendous disadvantage if they ever have none to work with. While the Brood Mother and her broodlings can handle single-target attacks easily enough, area damage has the potential to wipe out her broodlings en masse and bypass some of her best defensive tools, so caution should be taken when engaging enemies capable of exploiting that vulnerability.

How to hybridize a Brood Mother
Brood Mothers are unfortunately the most awkward class to make part of a Hybrid. They have low base stats as a primary, but as a secondary they are effectively forced into a Endless Fecundity/Shelter pairing due to the one-passive limit and the entire class requiring broodlings in order to function. This in turn means they miss out on Palanquin Grav, severely limiting the quantity and spawning rate of their broodlings, and due to Hybrids trading the first two free stat increases for their secondary's Basics, they have trouble picking up the Vitality to make Iron Spine work in those respects either.

Consider making a Heritor that leans heavily into Brood Mother abilities instead if you want to make a build that mixes Brood Mother aspects with those of other classes. If you still want to stick to a Brood Mother Hybrid, use it as the primary class and dip the secondary for something to support it. Shield Mother can offer Phalanx to pair with Brood Mother's own Swarming Defense to bolster Armor even further while surrounded by broodlings, or options like Heavy Breathing and Mountain Bearer to help regulate Size and Capacity for the purposes of things like Adoption or Iron Spine; Primal, meanwhile, can help capitalize on the large piles of small dice that Brood Mother offers by adding Wild Magic to the mix, making each broodling's contribution to damage potentially that much more explosive.

Attribute Advances
Any maiesta can purchase the following abilities. Additionally, they gain one of their choice for free upon reaching thresholds of 200, 500, 1000, and 2000 total XP spent on advances.

Basic Abilities
The brood mother begins the game with these abilities, without requiring the expenditure of any XP.

Novice Abilities
Any brood mother can purchase the following abilities.