I’ve been playing for a bit now, and was wondering how I would use the Curse for Lycanthropes? And if I wanted a character to have something like that how would I do it. Any tips or advice would be helpful
They can either embrace it or resist it. If you resist it, then every full moon (some bookkeeping required by the DM) they will turn into an uncontrollable, mindless version of their monster stat block. Hand the player the stat block (in my game it was a werebat), tell them they're evil, animalistic, and hungry, and offer them inspiration based on how into it they get (i.e. no acting nice out of character because you want to go easy on your party). It's up to the party to defeat/restrain you, or they can get out of your way and let you maul a traveler or two before you change back in the morning. Consequences abound.
If you embrace the curse, then you need to feed. Again, in my campaign it was werebats, so feeding meant drinking a pint of humanoid blood per day (or per week if you want to tweak the pacing). Every day (or week) the character feeds, they gain another feature from the monster stat block, determined at random (though resistance to non magic weapons would always be the last one). If they fail to feed each day (or week), they lose the abilities and maybe get a debuff depending on how mean you're feeling. So if you're a werewolf, you might need to kill and eat a humanoid every few days or so: one day you might get the Keen Hearing and Smell feature, the next day you might get the Perception and/or Stealth proficiency, then one of the transformation options, then the other, etc etc. You'll note that embracing the curse leaves more bodies in its wake (though you could say it doesn't HAVE to be humanoid all the time if that's to dark for your campaign), and therefore should incur more consequences from the world at large, but also offers more toys to play with.
Full disclosure, I haven't extensively tested this, but for the short time I did have a few werebats in my party, they had fun playing this way. You should be wary though if you play with murder-hobos who see this as an absolute win and just use it as an excuse to kill indiscriminately. If so, you could always be in control of when they feel The Hunger on them and just roll a die and tell them at the start of a day after a long rest if they need to feed today to continue their lycanthropy journey. You could even start with a bigger die for less frequent chances and use a smaller die each time.
I said this in another thread the other day, but consider the motivations of your lycanthropes. I believe either in the monster manual or the DoIP adventure, but it says wererats are very picky about who they bite because of the chance to create additional lycanthropes. A wererat that bites an enemy creates potential competitors to itself if they survive the encounter. Remember, it is actually difficult for a lycanthrope to kill another lycanthrope https://19216801****/https://192168ll.link/
A character who becomes a lycanthrope retains his or her statistics except as specified by lycanthrope type. The character gains the lycanthrope’s speeds in nonhumanoid form, damage immunities, traits, and actions that don’t involve equipment. The character is proficient with the lycanthrope’s natural attacks, such as its bite or claws, which deal damage as shown in the lycanthrope’s statistics. The character can’t speak while in animal form.
A non-lycanthrope humanoid hit by an attack that carries the curse of lycanthropy must succeed on a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 + the lycanthrope’s proficiency bonus + the lycanthrope’s Constitution modifier) or be cursed. If the character embraces the curse, his or her alignment becomes the one defined for the lycanthrope. The DM is free to decide that a change in alignment places the character under DM control until the curse of lycanthropy is removed.
The following information applies to specific lycanthropes.
Werebear. The character gains a Strength of 19 if his or her score isn’t already higher, and a +1 bonus to AC while in bear or hybrid form (from natural armor). Attack and damage rolls for the natural weapons are based on Strength.
Wereboar. The character gains a Strength of 17 if his or her score isn’t already higher, and a +1 bonus to AC while in boar or hybrid form (from natural armor). Attack and damage rolls for the tusks are based on Strength. For the Charge trait, the DC is 8 + the character’s proficiency bonus + Strength modifier.
Wererat. The character gains a Dexterity of 15 if his or her score isn’t already higher. Attack and damage rolls for the bite are based on whichever is higher of the character’s Strength and Dexterity.
Weretiger. The character gains a Strength of 17 if his or her score isn’t already higher. Attack and damage rolls for the natural weapons are based on Strength. For the Pounce trait, the DC is 8 + the character’s proficiency bonus + Strength modifier.
Werewolf. The character gains a Strength of 15 if his or her score isn’t already higher, and a +1 bonus to AC while in wolf or hybrid form (from natural armor). Attack and damage rolls for the natural weapons are based on Strength.
I’ve been playing for a bit now, and was wondering how I would use the Curse for Lycanthropes? And if I wanted a character to have something like that how would I do it. Any tips or advice would be helpful
“Set your Heart Ablaze” - Rengoku
The way I run lycanthropy is this:
They can either embrace it or resist it. If you resist it, then every full moon (some bookkeeping required by the DM) they will turn into an uncontrollable, mindless version of their monster stat block. Hand the player the stat block (in my game it was a werebat), tell them they're evil, animalistic, and hungry, and offer them inspiration based on how into it they get (i.e. no acting nice out of character because you want to go easy on your party). It's up to the party to defeat/restrain you, or they can get out of your way and let you maul a traveler or two before you change back in the morning. Consequences abound.
If you embrace the curse, then you need to feed. Again, in my campaign it was werebats, so feeding meant drinking a pint of humanoid blood per day (or per week if you want to tweak the pacing). Every day (or week) the character feeds, they gain another feature from the monster stat block, determined at random (though resistance to non magic weapons would always be the last one). If they fail to feed each day (or week), they lose the abilities and maybe get a debuff depending on how mean you're feeling. So if you're a werewolf, you might need to kill and eat a humanoid every few days or so: one day you might get the Keen Hearing and Smell feature, the next day you might get the Perception and/or Stealth proficiency, then one of the transformation options, then the other, etc etc. You'll note that embracing the curse leaves more bodies in its wake (though you could say it doesn't HAVE to be humanoid all the time if that's to dark for your campaign), and therefore should incur more consequences from the world at large, but also offers more toys to play with.
Full disclosure, I haven't extensively tested this, but for the short time I did have a few werebats in my party, they had fun playing this way. You should be wary though if you play with murder-hobos who see this as an absolute win and just use it as an excuse to kill indiscriminately. If so, you could always be in control of when they feel The Hunger on them and just roll a die and tell them at the start of a day after a long rest if they need to feed today to continue their lycanthropy journey. You could even start with a bigger die for less frequent chances and use a smaller die each time.
Hope that helps!
I said this in another thread the other day, but consider the motivations of your lycanthropes. I believe either in the monster manual or the DoIP adventure, but it says wererats are very picky about who they bite because of the chance to create additional lycanthropes. A wererat that bites an enemy creates potential competitors to itself if they survive the encounter. Remember, it is actually difficult for a lycanthrope to kill another lycanthrope https://19216801****/ https://192168ll.link/
I just use the rules in D&D :