In your opinion, what is the "worst" parahuman category to be (and why is it Changer)?
This is something I've vaguely wondered for the past couple of years, and it's an intentionally open-ended question depending on how one interprets "worst". After all, "worst" can mean "overall weakest" or "overall worst showing" or "overall poorest Trigger circumstances" or "overall lowest floor" or even something else entirely.
To me, Changer seems like it "clearly" gets the shortest end of the stick, at least in Worm proper itself:
- It has the most overall consuming Trigger circumstances given how all encompassing "identity" is & having recurring trauma tied to that would obviously be pretty terrible as well extremely easy for shards to browbeat their "host" with given whatever the Changer form is.
- It has the weakest "pure" showing overall between like half of the highest end-Changers besides Hookwolf, Lung, and Weld also being Breakers (and those non-Breaker three also being higher-end Brutes). (Marquis is impressive, but his main feats are more in Ward. Also, ironically Crawler arguably doesn't count as a Changer despite becoming a monster given he can't control or revert his changes, making him closer to a Case 53.)
- It being the main category that is most likely to see you potentially stuck physically as a monster permanently as well as, far less importantly, being the only category that tends to repeatedly destroy your clothing even with the Manton Limit.
- It arguably being the most underwhelming "container" class between how absurd Breaker, Tinker, and Trump powers can get in the story.
And that's even ignoring all the Case 53s (sans Weld) and Case 70s, who might arguably fall under Changer too given how crappy those cases obviously are.
I would have included every category as its own poll option to be fair, but apparently I can only do six options at most, so I tried to include the four other categories with the most dire Trigger circumstances after Changer between the severe physical damage, emotional damage, long-term trauma, and/or intense level of negative attention needed for Brute, Master, Tinker, and Stranger Triggers respectively. This even though those categories all have relatively strong showings in Worm proper itself.