if you wanted to one way you could have mutations work is a choice out of 3, possibly random, or maybe they are a kind of skill tree (but for mutations), with branches that end up in certain ways, like there could be a mutation (there prolly is already in fact), that gives you scales, and one branch could make you a lamia or naga or something, or another branch could make you a kobold, stuff like that. and fur would prolly have it's own kinds of mutants it could make you into, and one likely one even if it's not in yet could be werewolf or somethin (werewolf could include the whole night turn into a wolf human hybrid thing, or it could simply make you always just a wolf person, and it's just called werewolf cuz of the fame of that name), these are just ideas though.
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I will be adding more mutations in the future. Animal based, deminic, eldritch and so on.
The way you pick between those mutations is still something I'm not set on. "Skill tree" is probably what I'm going to do, but I will spice it up in some way.
Transformation mutations like lycantrophy is something I'm also thinking about, but I'm not fully decided on that one either.
While I want mutations to be large part of the game, they are not that high on the priority list right now. I will have to overhaul the character graphics first before I start working on them, but I will deffinitely add more mutations.
What kind of character graphics will you be overhauling? For me, personally, I like the style of most of the characters (although I do think the main character could use more customizability).
As for mutations, unless they are high fantasy with multiple distinct races of humanoids to chose from, they tend to be event based - as in, you interact with the game in a certain way as to gain the mutation, like being bitten by a werewolf or interacting with a cursed items. Mutations like this can range from being straight upgrades (think getting a sci-fi doctor to upgrade your body) through having some positive qualities but also negative things (things like vampirism giving you strong abilities but the sun will hurt you and other NPCS might turn against you), or just be straight up something negative you usually want to get rid of like a zombie plague or even just magic sicknesses which mutate your body in odd ways.
Idk if you've already considered that options but I have seen it in a bunch of games and I think it works well.
Side characters are AI generated. I had to touch them up and do the blinking and talking animations. Main character is made from pre-rendered images.
I would like all character graphics to be made by hand, but I'm quite aware how long the individual updates take. Using AI in some capacity for most ingame graphics would make things easier, but I don't want to just relegate all the work to it. I still want the graphics to have some kind of personal touch.
As for mutations, what you said is pretty close to what I want to go with. Different acts will give you different mutation points which you will be able to use to unlock different mutations. I will be adding different mutagens you can extract from different animals and enemies, but you will also be able to get special mutations by interacting with certain artifacts, doing quests or just being at the right place at the right time.