Hi I didnt know whether to put this into the homebrew or dm forums. I'm just hoping to get some help.
So I am starting up a new campaign next year and one of the party members is wanting to run an idea he has had and I like it. It's just hard balancing.
Its Lycanthropy but defective. Instead of turning into a werebeast he instead turns into a random breed of dog.
I don't know whether to put is as a background, feat or as he has already put it as - a custom action.
This is what he has written up so far.
When used, roll a d100, whatever it lands on is the creature John becomes.
1-30 Small dog breed
31-55: Large dog breed (Mastiff stats)
56-75: Wolf
76-83: Blink Dog
84-87: Dire Wolf
88-91: Death Dog
92-95: Worg
96-97: Hell Hound
98-99: Winter Wolf
100: Werewolf Other:
John’s alignment does not change, regardless of transformation, he is still conscious and in control of his own actions. John’s HP, attacks, immunities, vulnerabilities, abilities, proficiencies, armour class, stats (besides intelligence, wisdom and charisma), etc change to match that of the creature he has the form of. John’s human abilities and proficiencies do not carry over. While transformed, John is classified as whatever creature type his form is (mostly beast) John gains no additional understanding of any new languages upon switching, always understands common, and if the animal John transforms into cannot speak, neither can John. John gains the ability to speak to and understand other creatures of his kind while transformed (dogs can talk to other dogs and wolves, vice versa). John loses all equipment upon transformation, he can’t carry them . Transformation can be maintained indefinitely, but changing to and from takes an action, and John may only change forms twice before needing to take a long rest (human to dog to human = need long rest). Cannot turn into another dog while in dog form, can only turn back to human. Werewolf is able to carry and use equipment and cast spells (without a verbal component), as John has a somewhat humanoid form.
He is also asking if his character can passively speak and understand any canine and I feel like that will make it too broken in rp sense. I feel like doing the druid circle thing where he can understand the dogs body language but he can't really communicate with it.
If you have any ideas on how to balance this please help. I have never done homebrew like this, (the last homebrew thing I made myself was a flask that turns non magical water into wine and vice versa, for the drunken master monk)
And for context he is a human varient hexblade warlock.
While I am all for homebrew, this feels like giving him the druid wild shape for free. Although it may not be as it is a form of lycanthropy, because the transformation happens only at a full moon then it could be interesting. Holding the transformation indefinitely exceeds even the ability of a druid class and seems way too powerful for a background/feat. Maybe locking it behind the moon would help. Giving them the ability to speak to dogs could be interesting but, on the other hand, could be too similar to the spell Speak with Animals.
Have a conversation with your player, maybe have them start off druid and then multiclass into a hexblade warlock? Alternatively, the player could be the Shifter race instead of a human - it has some good flavour there. Ultimately though, it is up to you as the DM, if you want to go further in on homebrew go for it. If you want it more balanced, look to the rules and pre-existing options for your player to realise their character concept. If the rules say they have to be a higher level to do the things they want to do, maybe have them encounter the things they need to get these traits during the campaign. Sounds like it could be a lot of fun.
Constrain the change to match Polymorph but limited to canines and with an extended duration. Using the spell might help to balance the change. Also, constrains the beast form to scale with PC level.
Is the intent for the PC to play as a Lycan or to cure themselves of it?
As for when the change happens, you can once per long rest if the PC is leaning into the change or set a mechaninc like: roll a d20, get your PC level or lower, "Dog for a day" or whatever time frame you feel is appropriate.
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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
I fully agree it is a bit too powerful. The party is starting at level 3 and the campaign is built, that they players have secrets that they have created. His is that he has defective lycanthropy and his brother who was a wizard died and is now his patron. At least he thinks its his brother ;) so unfortunately asking him to go druid would change everything he has created for his character.
I will ask him if he wants to try shifter, he just chose human varient for the feat which is why I thought changing it to a feat would help.
But I have asked if he is alright with changing the possible transformations to wild shape CR on level ups. Making it that at level 3 it would be basic dog breeds and Wolf until higher levels. But should I allow werewolf as an extremely low yet rare chance at level 3 seeing as how its CR is 3?
As far as I know he hasn't got plans to cure the lycanthropy. He has told me that the concept is from a book he is writing which is why I don't think he will be easy to move for a more balanced option. He has changed a bit to where his intelligence is his dump stat.
That seems a little difficult to balance but not unreasonable. It is basically a free multi-class but it's excellent for lore and flavor. Just remember if you let one player do something like this you may need to do additional things for others so they don't feel left out.
If you are concerned about the RP effects of being able to take to all canines you could just make it so canines have different languages and dialects and he doesn't know them all. Its homebrew, why wouldn't dogs have a variety of languages if they come from a variety of places. No reason a winter wolf would speak the same language as a pug, when they likely had very different lives.
One way to potentially balance it would be to add in some negatives that would offset the potentially overpowered nature. You mentioned the lycanthropy is defective so you could add that into the transformation mechanic. You could treat the transformation as a concentration spell they have to maintain and when they fail there are adverse effects. That or simply make the available transformations limited and level appropriate.
You could make a second chart for random negatives based on the defective nature to balance it out.
That could be anything from they temporarily lose control and attack anything nearby, they get distracted by any nearby rodents, to maybe they fail to fully transform and only their face turns canine or only part of them transforms back to human if you wanted a more humorous twist. All up to what you think would work best with your table. It's all about fun after all. :)
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Hi I didnt know whether to put this into the homebrew or dm forums. I'm just hoping to get some help.
So I am starting up a new campaign next year and one of the party members is wanting to run an idea he has had and I like it. It's just hard balancing.
Its Lycanthropy but defective. Instead of turning into a werebeast he instead turns into a random breed of dog.
I don't know whether to put is as a background, feat or as he has already put it as - a custom action.
This is what he has written up so far.
When used, roll a d100, whatever it lands on is the creature John becomes.
1-30 Small dog breed
31-55: Large dog breed (Mastiff stats)
56-75: Wolf
76-83: Blink Dog
84-87: Dire Wolf
88-91: Death Dog
92-95: Worg
96-97: Hell Hound
98-99: Winter Wolf
100: Werewolf Other:
John’s alignment does not change, regardless of transformation, he is still conscious and in control of his own actions. John’s HP, attacks, immunities, vulnerabilities, abilities, proficiencies, armour class, stats (besides intelligence, wisdom and charisma), etc change to match that of the creature he has the form of. John’s human abilities and proficiencies do not carry over. While transformed, John is classified as whatever creature type his form is (mostly beast) John gains no additional understanding of any new languages upon switching, always understands common, and if the animal John transforms into cannot speak, neither can John. John gains the ability to speak to and understand other creatures of his kind while transformed (dogs can talk to other dogs and wolves, vice versa). John loses all equipment upon transformation, he can’t carry them . Transformation can be maintained indefinitely, but changing to and from takes an action, and John may only change forms twice before needing to take a long rest (human to dog to human = need long rest). Cannot turn into another dog while in dog form, can only turn back to human. Werewolf is able to carry and use equipment and cast spells (without a verbal component), as John has a somewhat humanoid form.
He is also asking if his character can passively speak and understand any canine and I feel like that will make it too broken in rp sense. I feel like doing the druid circle thing where he can understand the dogs body language but he can't really communicate with it.
If you have any ideas on how to balance this please help. I have never done homebrew like this, (the last homebrew thing I made myself was a flask that turns non magical water into wine and vice versa, for the drunken master monk)
And for context he is a human varient hexblade warlock.
While I am all for homebrew, this feels like giving him the druid wild shape for free. Although it may not be as it is a form of lycanthropy, because the transformation happens only at a full moon then it could be interesting. Holding the transformation indefinitely exceeds even the ability of a druid class and seems way too powerful for a background/feat. Maybe locking it behind the moon would help. Giving them the ability to speak to dogs could be interesting but, on the other hand, could be too similar to the spell Speak with Animals.
Have a conversation with your player, maybe have them start off druid and then multiclass into a hexblade warlock? Alternatively, the player could be the Shifter race instead of a human - it has some good flavour there. Ultimately though, it is up to you as the DM, if you want to go further in on homebrew go for it. If you want it more balanced, look to the rules and pre-existing options for your player to realise their character concept. If the rules say they have to be a higher level to do the things they want to do, maybe have them encounter the things they need to get these traits during the campaign. Sounds like it could be a lot of fun.
Reminds me of Ladyhawke.
Constrain the change to match Polymorph but limited to canines and with an extended duration. Using the spell might help to balance the change. Also, constrains the beast form to scale with PC level.
Is the intent for the PC to play as a Lycan or to cure themselves of it?
As for when the change happens, you can once per long rest if the PC is leaning into the change or set a mechaninc like: roll a d20, get your PC level or lower, "Dog for a day" or whatever time frame you feel is appropriate.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
Thank you for the response
I fully agree it is a bit too powerful. The party is starting at level 3 and the campaign is built, that they players have secrets that they have created. His is that he has defective lycanthropy and his brother who was a wizard died and is now his patron. At least he thinks its his brother ;) so unfortunately asking him to go druid would change everything he has created for his character.
I will ask him if he wants to try shifter, he just chose human varient for the feat which is why I thought changing it to a feat would help.
But I have asked if he is alright with changing the possible transformations to wild shape CR on level ups. Making it that at level 3 it would be basic dog breeds and Wolf until higher levels. But should I allow werewolf as an extremely low yet rare chance at level 3 seeing as how its CR is 3?
Thank you for the advice.
As far as I know he hasn't got plans to cure the lycanthropy. He has told me that the concept is from a book he is writing which is why I don't think he will be easy to move for a more balanced option. He has changed a bit to where his intelligence is his dump stat.
That seems a little difficult to balance but not unreasonable. It is basically a free multi-class but it's excellent for lore and flavor. Just remember if you let one player do something like this you may need to do additional things for others so they don't feel left out.
If you are concerned about the RP effects of being able to take to all canines you could just make it so canines have different languages and dialects and he doesn't know them all. Its homebrew, why wouldn't dogs have a variety of languages if they come from a variety of places. No reason a winter wolf would speak the same language as a pug, when they likely had very different lives.
One way to potentially balance it would be to add in some negatives that would offset the potentially overpowered nature. You mentioned the lycanthropy is defective so you could add that into the transformation mechanic. You could treat the transformation as a concentration spell they have to maintain and when they fail there are adverse effects. That or simply make the available transformations limited and level appropriate.
You could make a second chart for random negatives based on the defective nature to balance it out.
That could be anything from they temporarily lose control and attack anything nearby, they get distracted by any nearby rodents, to maybe they fail to fully transform and only their face turns canine or only part of them transforms back to human if you wanted a more humorous twist. All up to what you think would work best with your table. It's all about fun after all. :)