Thanks, everyone. I ran into a situation where a player cast detect magic to find a wererat, in rat form. I ruled it at the time that lycanthropy was not magic but the nature of the curse still I wanted to check with everyone to see if I called it correctly.
Thanks, everyone. I ran into a situation where a player cast detect magic to find a wererat, in rat form. I ruled it at the time that lycanthropy was not magic but the nature of the curse still I wanted to check with everyone to see if I called it correctly.
It's plausible lycanthropes smell differently from their base creature, just from existing in different environments, but yeah, I wouldn't let detect magic work for this. If you need to find a wererat in rat form in a pack of giant rats, have the party face play some music and roll Performance + Insight to see if any of the rats appear to be listening to it - unless there are also Awakened rats in the pack, that should do it. The other surefire way is picking up the entire pack and dropping it - only the wererat is immune to falling damage.
The other surefire way is picking up the entire pack and dropping it - only the wererat is immune to falling damage.
That sounds like the old witch-ducking method of finding a witch: If she lives, she's a witch and we burn her, if she drowns she was not a witch, but she's dead anyway, oops.
The other surefire way is picking up the entire pack and dropping it - only the wererat is immune to falling damage.
Monster Manual lycanthropes are only immune to bludgeoning/piercing/slashing damage when it's delivered by an attack. They're definitely not immune otherwise, which means they can still take damage from falling, being crushed by a cave-in or collapsing roof, etc. Otherwise, that's correct. Worth pointing out that lycanthropes don't lose their damage immunities in humanoid form either.
Falling damage is not a weapon attack. They are not immune
There is an official ruling in Sage Advice Compendium on this:
A monster is immune to damage from nonmagical bludgeoning weapons. Does it still take damage from falling? Yes, that monster is still going to feel the hurt of a fall, because a fall is not a weapon.
But from a strict RAW perspective, the Lycanthrope trait makes them immune to damage from nonmagical attacks of any sort, not just weapon attacks. Damage from fall or other source that aren't attacks such as failed saving throws are not subject to this damage immunity.
Damage Immunities bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks that aren’t silvered
Is Lycanthropy considered a magical 'cursed' condition and if so would detect magic be able to at least identify the individual has a magical aura?
Nothing in the stat block indicates the curse is magical.
What InquisitiveCoder said.
Thanks, everyone. I ran into a situation where a player cast detect magic to find a wererat, in rat form. I ruled it at the time that lycanthropy was not magic but the nature of the curse still I wanted to check with everyone to see if I called it correctly.
That is a good section. Thanks for pointing it out!
It's plausible lycanthropes smell differently from their base creature, just from existing in different environments, but yeah, I wouldn't let detect magic work for this. If you need to find a wererat in rat form in a pack of giant rats, have the party face play some music and roll Performance + Insight to see if any of the rats appear to be listening to it - unless there are also Awakened rats in the pack, that should do it. The other surefire way is picking up the entire pack and dropping it - only the wererat is immune to falling damage.
That sounds like the old witch-ducking method of finding a witch: If she lives, she's a witch and we burn her, if she drowns she was not a witch, but she's dead anyway, oops.
Monster Manual lycanthropes are only immune to bludgeoning/piercing/slashing damage when it's delivered by an attack. They're definitely not immune otherwise, which means they can still take damage from falling, being crushed by a cave-in or collapsing roof, etc. Otherwise, that's correct. Worth pointing out that lycanthropes don't lose their damage immunities in humanoid form either.
Falling damage is not a weapon attack. They are not immune
There is an official ruling in Sage Advice Compendium on this:
But from a strict RAW perspective, the Lycanthrope trait makes them immune to damage from nonmagical attacks of any sort, not just weapon attacks. Damage from fall or other source that aren't attacks such as failed saving throws are not subject to this damage immunity.