So my DM said that in order to get what the book gives me at 3rd level with the Totem Warrior path, I would have to get an actual totem myself before gaining the ability. Fair enough.
The bear that I encountered was in the Neverwinter wood, and of course rather than a regular bear he made it a werebear. I got bit and failed my save, so now my chaotic good barbarian is a lycanthrope.
I honestly HATE this. This is absolutely not how I wanted my character to be built. The werebear stats are objectively worse than my barbarian stats (I'm going for a combat focused build). On top of the fact that my character is a pretty good person and would hate the idea of attacking innocents.
How do the rules for lycanthropy work? Will I just randomly attack my party once a month at full moon? Can this be reversed? Can I attune to it and never use it other than for disguise?
I really wish my DM would've just given me what the book says I get and not made it such a fetch-quest, but on top of that cursed my character to something I won't be able to control. I'm really frustrated and just want to either get rid of it or attune and never use it. Anybody know my options?
Remove curse can get rid of it if you were bitten instead of born with it, and really you're only going to change form during the full moon. Also, your stats don't fully change to match the gereric monster werebear stats, so you're a little better off than you think, stats wise.
A lycanthrope can either resist its curse or embrace it. By resisting the curse, a lycanthrope retains its normal alignment and personality while in humanoid form. [...] However, when the full moon rises, the curse becomes too strong to resist, transforming the individual into its beast [or hybrid] form.
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.
Have a talk with your DM outside of the session, also, and explain how you feel about their actions -- taking character agency away is not really ideal, and lycanthropy definitely borders on that, especially if it hadn't been discussed as a possibility (did things like this come up as a possibility in your session 0?). They might've thought they were doing you a favor by giving you the stats bump -- and they might be planning for you to learn that type of info in-game. The DM might not backtrack on it, but at least might make it easy to find someone who can cast remove curse if no one in your party has access to it yet, if you still decide you don't want it.
This subforum is geared towards bug reporting and support for the D&D Beyond website and products, not really towards player/rules advice. This should go into the General Discussion forum or Rules Discussion subforum, IMO.
That said, if you're unhappy with a move that your DM made, the first thing you should ALWAYS do is simply talk to them. Let your DM know your concerns and preferences, and see what they say. If they won't let you change anything, ask them if you can switch characters. If they still won't budge, well, you may have to consider if you want to keep playing at that table or find a new group. No D&D is better than bad D&D.
I've known DMs like this who make players go the extra mile for mundane class abilities. It can either turn out super well by enriching the story and character building, or super frustrating as the players struggle to make characters they like all the while the DM throws deadly combats that are balanced for more optimized characters. If you're frustrated, talk to your other party members and DM. Chances are they notice the same struggles/frustrations.
Yeah sorry I put it in the wrong space, I re-posted in the general forum. I'm gonna talk to my DM tomorrow, hes a good guy so I think he'll work with me. Just frustrating is all. Thanks!
Be patient with your DM they might have something planned but mostly talk to them and tell them about why you hate this and see if the DM has something planned for your character, plus it will make for a good roleplay scenario with what the DM is setting up with your character. And no I don't think the DM will just make you suddenly attack people, but you will either have to make saves for it or he will give you the reigns of the roleplay on how your resisting it or such. But if the DM just suddenly makes you attack others no save, no nothing, then talk with your DM about it. I honestly think that if you get both the Totem and the werebear ability you will be a riptide during combat for sure. If your totem barbarian abilities surpass the weaknesses against silvered once you get your totem then your built for combat.
How it works is really up to the DM, you might go with attacking people at random, you might not even attack people at all, talk to your DM about it, its the best thing to do. One thing I notice during campaigns is that they don't talk to their DM as frequently about their characters and what they want to happen for that character and where they want to go with them.
It is worth looking at the Werebear rules. As it is, their alignment is Neutral Good - meaning that when you are under a full moon, you will basically become less chaotic. Chances are, if you're going to kill anyone, it'll be poachers, illegal loggers, people camping in the woods who are irresponsible with their campfire, that sort of thing.
The lycanthrope rules frankly tend to be a pure boost to PC's (which is why I am rewriting them for my world), I have a werebear bear totem barbarian and he was broken at lower levels, even without the immunity to non-silvered weapons.
With how you're feeling, best to talk to the DM. As others have said, they might have some awesome plans to link the lycanthropes to your backstory and send the party on a quest to cure you!
While I understand a DM wanting to make the experience more interesting, giving you a debilitating curse through the bite of a good creature seems a bit unreasonable. Unless he is creating an adventure based on you finding a means of removing the curse, it seems unfair to put you through that time and expense. I’m still stumped on why a good creature would bite you without serious provocation. This wasn’t a wererat or werewolf biting you. That being said, this does open up several plot hooks, and my guess is that this was more his way of thinking rather than merely being a jerk. We DMs can often be jerks while trying to creature good adventures though 😆.
While I understand a DM wanting to make the experience more interesting, giving you a debilitating curse through the bite of a good creature seems a bit unreasonable. Unless he is creating an adventure based on you finding a means of removing the curse, it seems unfair to put you through that time and expense. I’m still stumped on why a good creature would bite you without serious provocation. This wasn’t a wererat or werewolf biting you. That being said, this does open up several plot hooks, and my guess is that this was more his way of thinking rather than merely being a jerk. We DMs can often be jerks while trying to creature good adventures though 😆.
well, they were in the woods in search of a 'bear totem.' i imagine it might have been a miscommunication between the good bear made of totem-stuff and the wild-eyed hatchet wielding barbarian. c'est la vie.
So my DM said that in order to get what the book gives me at 3rd level with the Totem Warrior path, I would have to get an actual totem myself before gaining the ability. Fair enough.
The bear that I encountered was in the Neverwinter wood, and of course rather than a regular bear he made it a werebear. I got bit and failed my save, so now my chaotic good barbarian is a lycanthrope.
I honestly HATE this. This is absolutely not how I wanted my character to be built. The werebear stats are objectively worse than my barbarian stats (I'm going for a combat focused build). On top of the fact that my character is a pretty good person and would hate the idea of attacking innocents.
How do the rules for lycanthropy work? Will I just randomly attack my party once a month at full moon? Can this be reversed? Can I attune to it and never use it other than for disguise?
I really wish my DM would've just given me what the book says I get and not made it such a fetch-quest, but on top of that cursed my character to something I won't be able to control. I'm really frustrated and just want to either get rid of it or attune and never use it. Anybody know my options?
Remove curse can get rid of it if you were bitten instead of born with it, and really you're only going to change form during the full moon. Also, your stats don't fully change to match the gereric monster werebear stats, so you're a little better off than you think, stats wise.
Have a talk with your DM outside of the session, also, and explain how you feel about their actions -- taking character agency away is not really ideal, and lycanthropy definitely borders on that, especially if it hadn't been discussed as a possibility (did things like this come up as a possibility in your session 0?). They might've thought they were doing you a favor by giving you the stats bump -- and they might be planning for you to learn that type of info in-game. The DM might not backtrack on it, but at least might make it easy to find someone who can cast remove curse if no one in your party has access to it yet, if you still decide you don't want it.
Birgit | Shifter | Sorcerer | Dragonlords
Shayone | Hobgoblin | Sorcerer | Netherdeep
This subforum is geared towards bug reporting and support for the D&D Beyond website and products, not really towards player/rules advice. This should go into the General Discussion forum or Rules Discussion subforum, IMO.
That said, if you're unhappy with a move that your DM made, the first thing you should ALWAYS do is simply talk to them. Let your DM know your concerns and preferences, and see what they say. If they won't let you change anything, ask them if you can switch characters. If they still won't budge, well, you may have to consider if you want to keep playing at that table or find a new group. No D&D is better than bad D&D.
I've known DMs like this who make players go the extra mile for mundane class abilities. It can either turn out super well by enriching the story and character building, or super frustrating as the players struggle to make characters they like all the while the DM throws deadly combats that are balanced for more optimized characters. If you're frustrated, talk to your other party members and DM. Chances are they notice the same struggles/frustrations.
Yeah sorry I put it in the wrong space, I re-posted in the general forum. I'm gonna talk to my DM tomorrow, hes a good guy so I think he'll work with me. Just frustrating is all. Thanks!
Be patient with your DM they might have something planned but mostly talk to them and tell them about why you hate this and see if the DM has something planned for your character, plus it will make for a good roleplay scenario with what the DM is setting up with your character. And no I don't think the DM will just make you suddenly attack people, but you will either have to make saves for it or he will give you the reigns of the roleplay on how your resisting it or such. But if the DM just suddenly makes you attack others no save, no nothing, then talk with your DM about it. I honestly think that if you get both the Totem and the werebear ability you will be a riptide during combat for sure. If your totem barbarian abilities surpass the weaknesses against silvered once you get your totem then your built for combat.
How it works is really up to the DM, you might go with attacking people at random, you might not even attack people at all, talk to your DM about it, its the best thing to do. One thing I notice during campaigns is that they don't talk to their DM as frequently about their characters and what they want to happen for that character and where they want to go with them.
It is worth looking at the Werebear rules. As it is, their alignment is Neutral Good - meaning that when you are under a full moon, you will basically become less chaotic. Chances are, if you're going to kill anyone, it'll be poachers, illegal loggers, people camping in the woods who are irresponsible with their campfire, that sort of thing.
The lycanthrope rules frankly tend to be a pure boost to PC's (which is why I am rewriting them for my world), I have a werebear bear totem barbarian and he was broken at lower levels, even without the immunity to non-silvered weapons.
With how you're feeling, best to talk to the DM. As others have said, they might have some awesome plans to link the lycanthropes to your backstory and send the party on a quest to cure you!
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While I understand a DM wanting to make the experience more interesting, giving you a debilitating curse through the bite of a good creature seems a bit unreasonable. Unless he is creating an adventure based on you finding a means of removing the curse, it seems unfair to put you through that time and expense. I’m still stumped on why a good creature would bite you without serious provocation. This wasn’t a wererat or werewolf biting you. That being said, this does open up several plot hooks, and my guess is that this was more his way of thinking rather than merely being a jerk. We DMs can often be jerks while trying to creature good adventures though 😆.
well, they were in the woods in search of a 'bear totem.' i imagine it might have been a miscommunication between the good bear made of totem-stuff and the wild-eyed hatchet wielding barbarian. c'est la vie.
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