I am not an experienced player but I am playing a Curse of Strahd campaign and I am having fun roleplaying as a Werewolf. Then I got interested in the other D&D Lycanthropy variants. Comparing and stuff. After that, I got interested in researching on Google about the characteristics of the real animals. It was fun learning about the animals.
Then, after that, I think that some of the Lycanthropes variants need to better match the characteristics of their correspondent animal.
For example: Rats have resistance to disease and poison. Wolves have excellent night vision. Tigers can climb trees at 20 feet per 2 seconds. In D&D, lycanthropes based on these animals don't get that.
Another thing: Kodiak Bears have 1100 PSI bite force. And Bengal Tigers have 1050 PSI bite force. But still, in the game Weretigers have 1d10+str on Bite Attack, and Werebears have 2d10+str on Bite Attack. Werebears should have same damage as Weretigers on the bite attack. The small diffetence would come in the str bonus. 1d10+str. 17str vs 19str.
I say Kodiak Bears because it seems that it was the base animal for Werebears, because of the fur collor used and it is the biggest and strongest brown bear known.
A bear's thick fat, loose skin and dense fur protect A LOT. It could give +2 AC instead of +1.
And by the way, the biggest wolves reach 1200 PSI bite force.
I just think some things/facts/info could be brought to those lycanthropes sheets to be even closer to the animals they were based on.
And off course, there could be more kinds of lycanthropes. If I could suggest one, it would be Werejaguar. In fact the Werejaguar is a real folklore here in Brazil. It is told by one of our native indigenous people, the Guarani. They call the Werejaguar Jaguareté-avá. Its the tale of a shaman who, through a dance ritual, could turn himself into the Werejaguar to hunt and protect the territory from invaders.
Jaguars have the strongest bite between ALL carnivorous mamals in the planet, even if they are the 3rd in size between the big cats (1500 PSI bite force). But off course, their claw attack is less destructive than the Bengal Tiger's or Lion's. The overall STR and HP would be less than Weretiger’s. But they are better at climbing stuff (trees), they are 23% faster on ground too, and more stealthy than Tigers. And like the Tiger they have night vision, keen smell and keen hearing (60,000 hertz). And as bonus you could choose to be regular collor or melanistic (black in collor).
Game mechanics often have to compromise fidelity for balance and narrative. In the case of the werebear versus weretiger, the weretiger gets the Pounce ability, which lets it get a free bite, meaning that it is capable of dealing more damage than the werebear in any given round.
In order to give these creatures interesting abilities, according to its most charismatic traits, it needs to be weakened in other ways.
If you want to make D&D match real world physics you’ll have to rewrite at least 1/3 of the rules. I don’t stress over it, I just hand wave everything as magic and enjoy the game instead of stressing out over realism and physics.
If you want to make D&D match real world physics you’ll have to rewrite at least 1/3 of the rules. I don’t stress over it, I just hand wave everything as magic and enjoy the game instead of stressing out over realism and physics.
QFT. The published stats of Allosaurus in 5E are identical to the stats of tigers, despite the dinosaur being six to eight times as massive.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
In terms of why, it herself have pointed out that it's a game that requires balance. In the real world, the wolf never had to deal with a raptor and they have quite different environments (which they did have to "balance" in) so they are very much out of whack with each other. In game, they may well fight, so there has to be some kind of balance. A bear might wipe the floor with humans, but to make the game fun, we need tin able to fight one, so it's nerfed a bit. You won't ever see your figures become official for this reason. They may make sense, but it's a game.firt and foremost.
If you want to implement your homebrew stats in your campaign, feel free to do so. Just be aware that there is a reason why they were selected against in the actual game - it might make your game unbalanced. Especially when you realise that your greater threats are now weaker than they should be compared to bears etc, have to be buffed to maintain the hierarchy and you end up with CR90 tarrasques that your party literally cannot defeat.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
I've actually been working on adding more nature-inspired flavor and abilities to lycanthropes, but only because this is a plot point in the campaign I'm running. Mnemosyne is right in that any additions to the stat block really affect balance, especially when it comes to PC lycanthropy. If you're prepared for that, then homebrew away.
As for me, I kind of needed to buff lycanthropy for my story purposes. Werewolves in my universe were created to help defeat an ancient threat that is resurfacing, and the god of wit and power is offering to curse the party with lycanthropy to give them a leg up. Problem is, the PC stats for werewolves aren't all that useful or appealing given the party's level, composition and resources. So I've had to beef it up to make it feel more like a valuable tradeoff for becoming an incurable bloodthirsty monster. While it makes the players crazy strong, we're in the final arc with the BBEG fight on the horizon. I can afford a bit of super saiyan action.
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Hey. I want to talk about lycanthropy in DnD 5e.
I am not an experienced player but I am playing a Curse of Strahd campaign and I am having fun roleplaying as a Werewolf.
Then I got interested in the other D&D Lycanthropy variants. Comparing and stuff.
After that, I got interested in researching on Google about the characteristics of the real animals. It was fun learning about the animals.
Then, after that, I think that some of the Lycanthropes variants need to better match the characteristics of their correspondent animal.
For example: Rats have resistance to disease and poison. Wolves have excellent night vision. Tigers can climb trees at 20 feet per 2 seconds. In D&D, lycanthropes based on these animals don't get that.
Another thing: Kodiak Bears have 1100 PSI bite force. And Bengal Tigers have 1050 PSI bite force. But still, in the game Weretigers have 1d10+str on Bite Attack, and Werebears have 2d10+str on Bite Attack. Werebears should have same damage as Weretigers on the bite attack. The small diffetence would come in the str bonus. 1d10+str. 17str vs 19str.
I say Kodiak Bears because it seems that it was the base animal for Werebears, because of the fur collor used and it is the biggest and strongest brown bear known.
A bear's thick fat, loose skin and dense fur protect A LOT. It could give +2 AC instead of +1.
And by the way, the biggest wolves reach 1200 PSI bite force.
I just think some things/facts/info could be brought to those lycanthropes sheets to be even closer to the animals they were based on.
And off course, there could be more kinds of lycanthropes.
If I could suggest one, it would be Werejaguar. In fact the Werejaguar is a real folklore here in Brazil. It is told by one of our native indigenous people, the Guarani. They call the Werejaguar Jaguareté-avá. Its the tale of a shaman who, through a dance ritual, could turn himself into the Werejaguar to hunt and protect the territory from invaders.
Jaguars have the strongest bite between ALL carnivorous mamals in the planet, even if they are the 3rd in size between the big cats (1500 PSI bite force). But off course, their claw attack is less destructive than the Bengal Tiger's or Lion's. The overall STR and HP would be less than Weretiger’s. But they are better at climbing stuff (trees), they are 23% faster on ground too, and more stealthy than Tigers. And like the Tiger they have night vision, keen smell and keen hearing (60,000 hertz). And as bonus you could choose to be regular collor or melanistic (black in collor).
I got some idea of how the sheet could be.
Thanks for reading.
Game on.
Game mechanics often have to compromise fidelity for balance and narrative. In the case of the werebear versus weretiger, the weretiger gets the Pounce ability, which lets it get a free bite, meaning that it is capable of dealing more damage than the werebear in any given round.
In order to give these creatures interesting abilities, according to its most charismatic traits, it needs to be weakened in other ways.
If you want to make D&D match real world physics you’ll have to rewrite at least 1/3 of the rules. I don’t stress over it, I just hand wave everything as magic and enjoy the game instead of stressing out over realism and physics.
Professional computer geek
QFT. The published stats of Allosaurus in 5E are identical to the stats of tigers, despite the dinosaur being six to eight times as massive.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I won't stress over stuff. It was just an idea.
No worries.
In terms of why, it herself have pointed out that it's a game that requires balance. In the real world, the wolf never had to deal with a raptor and they have quite different environments (which they did have to "balance" in) so they are very much out of whack with each other. In game, they may well fight, so there has to be some kind of balance. A bear might wipe the floor with humans, but to make the game fun, we need tin able to fight one, so it's nerfed a bit. You won't ever see your figures become official for this reason. They may make sense, but it's a game.firt and foremost.
If you want to implement your homebrew stats in your campaign, feel free to do so. Just be aware that there is a reason why they were selected against in the actual game - it might make your game unbalanced. Especially when you realise that your greater threats are now weaker than they should be compared to bears etc, have to be buffed to maintain the hierarchy and you end up with CR90 tarrasques that your party literally cannot defeat.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
I've actually been working on adding more nature-inspired flavor and abilities to lycanthropes, but only because this is a plot point in the campaign I'm running. Mnemosyne is right in that any additions to the stat block really affect balance, especially when it comes to PC lycanthropy. If you're prepared for that, then homebrew away.
As for me, I kind of needed to buff lycanthropy for my story purposes. Werewolves in my universe were created to help defeat an ancient threat that is resurfacing, and the god of wit and power is offering to curse the party with lycanthropy to give them a leg up. Problem is, the PC stats for werewolves aren't all that useful or appealing given the party's level, composition and resources. So I've had to beef it up to make it feel more like a valuable tradeoff for becoming an incurable bloodthirsty monster. While it makes the players crazy strong, we're in the final arc with the BBEG fight on the horizon. I can afford a bit of super saiyan action.