The title explains it all. I know they are massively powerful compared to other races but I want to see if it could work. You know just for fun and totally not because a player has been bugging me for 5 months straight and I want to die!
Point said player at the Order of the Lycan Blood Hunter and/or the Shifter race from Eberron (which is as overpowered as all Eberron races are, but at least tolerably so). Also remind them that you're the DM and if you don't want to homebrew magic non-evil werewolf rules for your game, he can stop bothering you or he can find a new game.
That said, if Insistent Player is Insistent, lycanthropy is well defined as being a curse that can either be resisted or embraced. If resisted, the character retains their alignment and personality whenever the moon isn't full and can either actively repress the inner beast or find themselves suffering blanks spots in their memory if they're not aware of their curse. If embraced, the character's alignment changes to the alignment of its particular werecritter and their personality shifts to match that of the said critter, with some allowance for previous persona.
This would be best done as a feat rather than a new race, as even a natural-born lycanthrope is of an already existing race. "Werewolf" is not a species, it's a species modifier. If the player is interested in exploring the struggle of civilization vs. savagery and intellect vs. primal instinct that a werewolf embodies, that could be an interesting story to pursue.
If the player is looking to turn into a furry and go ham on shit because Yeetwolf, either put your foot down and tell them to stop bothering you, or let them have it only for the curse to start playing havoc with their situation in the game. Because frankly, there's very little that motivates a torch-and-pitchfork mob more quickly or thoroughly than a loose werewolf in their midst, ne?
@Yurei1453 has a point in that this is best done as a feat/item rather than a new race.
I actually built custom feats / items. For me the feat is the main component of the mechanic, it gives you your stack bonuses and disadvantages. My feat looks something like this.
Curse of Lycanthropy.Lycanthropes (Excluded due to copyright reasons)
Silver Sickness. Contact with silver burns lightly to the touch. When touching anything silver you must make a DC 10 Constitution check or drop the item due to the searing pain. Though items like silver coins do not cause you any real damage, weapons made of silver burn you dealing double damage. Silver Sickness gives you Vulnerability to all Silver-based weapons.
Shapechange. You begin to learn to control the lycanthropic curse that now lives in your blood. As an action, you can transform into your Hybrid or Dire Wolf form. This form lasts a number of hours equal to half your character level (rounded down). You can revert to your normal form earlier by using an action on your turn. You automatically revert to your normal form if you fall Unconscious, drop to 0 hit points, or die.
Hybrid Form.While in the Hybrid form you can speak, use equipment, and wear armor. You have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical weapons that aren’t silvered. While you are not wearing heavy armor, you gain a +1 bonus to your AC.
Dire Wolf Form. While in the Dire Wolf form you can't speak, use equipment, wear armor or cast spells. This form doesn’t break your concentration on a spell you’ve already cast, however, or prevent you from taking actions that are part of a spell, such as Call Lightning, that you’ve already cast. You also retain the benefit of any features from your class, race, or other source and can use them in your Dire Wolf form if you are physically capable of doing so. However, you can't use any of your special senses, such as Darkvision.
While you are transformed, the following rules apply:
Hybrid Transformation. Attune to Lycanthrope Curse - Werewolf (Hybrid). This magical item will adjust your character stats for you.
Dire Wolf Transformation. Attune to Lycanthrope Curse -Werewolf (Dire Wolf). This magical item will adjust your character stats for you.
Bloodlust. At the start of your turn, if you’ve taken any damage since the beginning of your last turn, you must make a Wisdom saving throw to maintain control. The DC equals 10, or half of the total damage you’ve taken from attacks since your last turn, whichever number is higher. On a successful save, you must still make a concentration check for any spell you may be concentrating on. On a failed save, if concentrating on a spell you automatically fail your concentration check, you must move directly towards the nearest creature to you and use the Attack action against that creature. If there is more than one possible target, the DM chooses the target. You then regain control for the remainder of your turn.
If you are under an effect that prevents you from concentrating (like the Barbarian’s rage feature), you automatically fail this saving throw.
Full Moon.During a full moon, you must make a DC 15 Wisdom check, On a failed check you lose control of your character and transform attacking everything in sight. On a successful save you are still forced to change, however, you remain in control but unable to change back until dawn.
The I have items such as Lycanthrope Curse - Werewolf (Hybrid) and Lycanthrope Curse -Werewolf (Dire Wolf) these items change the stats on the character sheet for the players so once they attune to them they can see all of the updated stats and how their abilities work.
The main feat also adds an extra attunement slot so that these items don't take up a player's normal attunement slots. This is a mix of the Druid Wild Shape Ability, Critical Roles Blood Hunter - Order of the Lycan, and D&D Lycanthropes instructions found in the Monster Manual.
Is it balanced I honestly don't know we've really only ever had one person try it and only for a short time? Also please keep in mind that this is designed for a campaign setting where silver weapons are not common and really only certain people go out of their way for special silvered weapons. So the Silver Sickness isn't as terrible as it sounds, but if your campaign is common with silver weapons you may want to change that to only apply while transformed instead of a constant effect.
I've released some races that are intentionally a bit more powerful than others in my Brute (Large) Races series, currently just for minotaurs and trolls, but I'll likely add others to it over time, so I've thought quite a bit about this general subject.
I think the first thing to keep in mind is that a race can be stronger without being massively stronger; so for those two you will find they have some pretty strong bonuses, but not so much so that you'll see Minotaur Wizard winning a no-magic fist fight against a Halfling Monk. A Large raced fighter might outclass a Medium sized one, but not so much that the Medium sized fighter isn't still powerful in their own right, and so-on.
The other thing to keep in mind are penalties; monster stat blocks are combat focused because that's what they're for, so they don't give you any of the non-combat penalties that such a creature would face. So for example, on the Minotaur and Troll races I've emphasised that they are considered monsters, so have significant social penalties to overcome outside of combat. If that's not enough, you could force a monstrous player to test for bloodlust, so while they might be strong, they could find that strength hard to control, interfering with stealth, unable to go after the target they want to and so-on. It's also worth remembering that monster stat blocks are for monsters of specific levels, whereas a race should scale with player level, this means that your level 1 lycanthrope isn't going to have the same stats or abilities as a high level monster equivalent.
Lastly, the key thing in D&D is that things don't necessarily have to be balanced to work in a campaign in the first place, as you always have a dynamic balancing factor; the DM. I've put notes on my races emphasising the role of the DM with notes about ways to push back against optimised Large player characters, making social situations more tense and dangerous, making enemies better able to spot, or more likely to target, a Large player and so-on. If your player picks a strong race but then doesn't take full advantage of its capabilities, then there's less need for the DM to push back against a Lycanthrope dressmaker, but if your players are heavily optimising for a race's additional strengths then the DM should push back more. This is essentially true of any group of players; if someone builds a well optimised monk then you throw tougher enemies at the group, and have the toughest of those go for the monk, or you engineer situations in which combat isn't the answer and so-on.
That's not to say you shouldn't worry about making a race OP, as you should still try not to go overboard, but if a race should be strong then don't worry too much about it being strong, just try to think about what the cost of those strengths might be; physical strength can make a creature scary, fear isn't necessarily going to make people want to help you (rather than flee from you or call for the guard) etc.
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Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Had to work a little bit to figure out why this ancient thread was pinging me. All right.
The original poster asked in the Homebrew and House Rules forum for a 'fair and balanced' lycanthrope race, because he had a player who was being a turdburger over wanting to be a werewolf. The Monster Manual rules for adding lycanthropy to a character are, as pointed out, not really fair or balanced. Immunity to nonsilvered mundane weapon damage is absolutely ridiculous - even as a beyond-level-20 Epic Boon, that would be outrageously overpowered.
The request was quite clearly for an option beyond the Monster Manual rules. The best such option, especially since the class was overhauled at the beginning of the year, is the Order of the Lycan blood hunter, from Matthew Mercer. That hits pretty much all the Were Guy character points without being blatant hogwash, a'la the Monster Manual rules.
That said, welcome to the forums. Maybe be a little careful with the thread necromancy, but elsewise enjoy your stay.
The title explains it all. I know they are massively powerful compared to other races but I want to see if it could work. You know just for fun and totally not because a player has been bugging me for 5 months straight and I want to die!
Heh.
Point said player at the Order of the Lycan Blood Hunter and/or the Shifter race from Eberron (which is as overpowered as all Eberron races are, but at least tolerably so). Also remind them that you're the DM and if you don't want to homebrew magic non-evil werewolf rules for your game, he can stop bothering you or he can find a new game.
That said, if Insistent Player is Insistent, lycanthropy is well defined as being a curse that can either be resisted or embraced. If resisted, the character retains their alignment and personality whenever the moon isn't full and can either actively repress the inner beast or find themselves suffering blanks spots in their memory if they're not aware of their curse. If embraced, the character's alignment changes to the alignment of its particular werecritter and their personality shifts to match that of the said critter, with some allowance for previous persona.
This would be best done as a feat rather than a new race, as even a natural-born lycanthrope is of an already existing race. "Werewolf" is not a species, it's a species modifier. If the player is interested in exploring the struggle of civilization vs. savagery and intellect vs. primal instinct that a werewolf embodies, that could be an interesting story to pursue.
If the player is looking to turn into a furry and go ham on shit because Yeetwolf, either put your foot down and tell them to stop bothering you, or let them have it only for the curse to start playing havoc with their situation in the game. Because frankly, there's very little that motivates a torch-and-pitchfork mob more quickly or thoroughly than a loose werewolf in their midst, ne?
Please do not contact or message me.
@Yurei1453 has a point in that this is best done as a feat/item rather than a new race.
I actually built custom feats / items. For me the feat is the main component of the mechanic, it gives you your stack bonuses and disadvantages. My feat looks something like this.
Curse of Lycanthropy. Lycanthropes (Excluded due to copyright reasons)
Silver Sickness. Contact with silver burns lightly to the touch. When touching anything silver you must make a DC 10 Constitution check or drop the item due to the searing pain. Though items like silver coins do not cause you any real damage, weapons made of silver burn you dealing double damage. Silver Sickness gives you Vulnerability to all Silver-based weapons.
Shapechange. You begin to learn to control the lycanthropic curse that now lives in your blood. As an action, you can transform into your Hybrid or Dire Wolf form. This form lasts a number of hours equal to half your character level (rounded down). You can revert to your normal form earlier by using an action on your turn. You automatically revert to your normal form if you fall Unconscious, drop to 0 hit points, or die.
If you are under an effect that prevents you from concentrating (like the Barbarian’s rage feature), you automatically fail this saving throw.
Full Moon. During a full moon, you must make a DC 15 Wisdom check, On a failed check you lose control of your character and transform attacking everything in sight. On a successful save you are still forced to change, however, you remain in control but unable to change back until dawn.
The I have items such as Lycanthrope Curse - Werewolf (Hybrid) and Lycanthrope Curse -Werewolf (Dire Wolf) these items change the stats on the character sheet for the players so once they attune to them they can see all of the updated stats and how their abilities work.
The main feat also adds an extra attunement slot so that these items don't take up a player's normal attunement slots. This is a mix of the Druid Wild Shape Ability, Critical Roles Blood Hunter - Order of the Lycan, and D&D Lycanthropes instructions found in the Monster Manual.
Is it balanced I honestly don't know we've really only ever had one person try it and only for a short time? Also please keep in mind that this is designed for a campaign setting where silver weapons are not common and really only certain people go out of their way for special silvered weapons. So the Silver Sickness isn't as terrible as it sounds, but if your campaign is common with silver weapons you may want to change that to only apply while transformed instead of a constant effect.
Monster Manual is not homebrew though.
It is extremely unbalanced, but not homebrew.
I've released some races that are intentionally a bit more powerful than others in my Brute (Large) Races series, currently just for minotaurs and trolls, but I'll likely add others to it over time, so I've thought quite a bit about this general subject.
I think the first thing to keep in mind is that a race can be stronger without being massively stronger; so for those two you will find they have some pretty strong bonuses, but not so much so that you'll see Minotaur Wizard winning a no-magic fist fight against a Halfling Monk. A Large raced fighter might outclass a Medium sized one, but not so much that the Medium sized fighter isn't still powerful in their own right, and so-on.
The other thing to keep in mind are penalties; monster stat blocks are combat focused because that's what they're for, so they don't give you any of the non-combat penalties that such a creature would face. So for example, on the Minotaur and Troll races I've emphasised that they are considered monsters, so have significant social penalties to overcome outside of combat. If that's not enough, you could force a monstrous player to test for bloodlust, so while they might be strong, they could find that strength hard to control, interfering with stealth, unable to go after the target they want to and so-on. It's also worth remembering that monster stat blocks are for monsters of specific levels, whereas a race should scale with player level, this means that your level 1 lycanthrope isn't going to have the same stats or abilities as a high level monster equivalent.
Lastly, the key thing in D&D is that things don't necessarily have to be balanced to work in a campaign in the first place, as you always have a dynamic balancing factor; the DM. I've put notes on my races emphasising the role of the DM with notes about ways to push back against optimised Large player characters, making social situations more tense and dangerous, making enemies better able to spot, or more likely to target, a Large player and so-on. If your player picks a strong race but then doesn't take full advantage of its capabilities, then there's less need for the DM to push back against a Lycanthrope dressmaker, but if your players are heavily optimising for a race's additional strengths then the DM should push back more. This is essentially true of any group of players; if someone builds a well optimised monk then you throw tougher enemies at the group, and have the toughest of those go for the monk, or you engineer situations in which combat isn't the answer and so-on.
That's not to say you shouldn't worry about making a race OP, as you should still try not to go overboard, but if a race should be strong then don't worry too much about it being strong, just try to think about what the cost of those strengths might be; physical strength can make a creature scary, fear isn't necessarily going to make people want to help you (rather than flee from you or call for the guard) etc.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Had to work a little bit to figure out why this ancient thread was pinging me. All right.
The original poster asked in the Homebrew and House Rules forum for a 'fair and balanced' lycanthrope race, because he had a player who was being a turdburger over wanting to be a werewolf. The Monster Manual rules for adding lycanthropy to a character are, as pointed out, not really fair or balanced. Immunity to nonsilvered mundane weapon damage is absolutely ridiculous - even as a beyond-level-20 Epic Boon, that would be outrageously overpowered.
The request was quite clearly for an option beyond the Monster Manual rules. The best such option, especially since the class was overhauled at the beginning of the year, is the Order of the Lycan blood hunter, from Matthew Mercer. That hits pretty much all the Were Guy character points without being blatant hogwash, a'la the Monster Manual rules.
That said, welcome to the forums. Maybe be a little careful with the thread necromancy, but elsewise enjoy your stay.
Please do not contact or message me.
Hey! Can I have a link to this? also what are your opinions on using "Bloodhunter Order of the Lycan" along with the feats/items?
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