I run a homebrew campaign, and although the overwhelming majority of everything that occurs follows the rules to the letter, I like to add in a little homebrew to my encounters to keep things frosty for those who know the rules a little too well. One of those came in an encounter with three werewolves while walking through the woods trying to find a Sorcerer. Party encounters three men in the woods, words are exchanged, threats are made, and initiative is rolled. The party druid immediately hits the lead bad man with moonbeam, forcing him to convert into a wolf (home brew, because I think a werewolf's natural form should be the wolf, and concentrated moonlight should turn a werewolf into a wolf). The party fights well enough, using magic and makeshift silver weapons, and defeats the three wolves, BUUUUUT the party ranger gets bit on the leg. No worries, right? Just has to pass an easy constitution check. Nope, here comes the next homebrew...
This session ends the same as every other. No mention of the bite, no worries. The next session ends with the ranger hearing how he is feeling angry at night, and making a DC1 CON save, which he easily passes, so no worries. Next session ends with a DC5, then DC10, then DC15 which he finally fails a month after getting bit. Story line has him getting madder and madder about everything that has played out so far, till he finally succumbs to Lycanthropy and transitions.
Here is how he acts like a werewolf without holding back. Since we play on Zoom (global crisis and what not), he gets a breakout room where he finds himself facing off against a number of enemies equal to the total number of party members and NPCs in the room. Every interaction he has with them is translated into an action his wolf form is capable of doing. For instance, "I make an attack with a short sword" goes into the main room as "the wolf attempts to bite you" and I as the DM apply the appropriate modifiers. On the other side, any action the party takes, no matter what, is presented in the breakout room as hostile. For instance "I put up my hands and try to reason" gets passed as "I curse and threaten the wolf with my axe."
Needless to say, the fight is chaotic, takes a bunch of time because I have to interpret and relay every action, but ultimately the party kills the team member werewolf, then hits him a couple more times while on the ground to ensure he's dead and can't be resurrected or healed. During the fight, by chance the wolf randomly picked one non- decrepit target to attack, and it happened to be the one NPC in the room, and he landed a bite on the NPC (which the party immediately killed to prevent a repeat of events). The party starts talking about "holy crap, did we just kill a party member?" And the attitude in the party shifts dramatically because the first dead player was killed by other players.
Now my hope was that another party member would get bit, so they could figure out how to cure that ("wolfsbane can be harvested over in Giantslandvilleburg") but I can only force so much. Either way, months later the party is still talking quit this event, as it made for a very interesting encounter.
I'll post what I used for modifiers for the player when he turned into a wolf when I get the chance,
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I run a homebrew campaign, and although the overwhelming majority of everything that occurs follows the rules to the letter, I like to add in a little homebrew to my encounters to keep things frosty for those who know the rules a little too well. One of those came in an encounter with three werewolves while walking through the woods trying to find a Sorcerer. Party encounters three men in the woods, words are exchanged, threats are made, and initiative is rolled. The party druid immediately hits the lead bad man with moonbeam, forcing him to convert into a wolf (home brew, because I think a werewolf's natural form should be the wolf, and concentrated moonlight should turn a werewolf into a wolf). The party fights well enough, using magic and makeshift silver weapons, and defeats the three wolves, BUUUUUT the party ranger gets bit on the leg. No worries, right? Just has to pass an easy constitution check. Nope, here comes the next homebrew...
This session ends the same as every other. No mention of the bite, no worries. The next session ends with the ranger hearing how he is feeling angry at night, and making a DC1 CON save, which he easily passes, so no worries. Next session ends with a DC5, then DC10, then DC15 which he finally fails a month after getting bit. Story line has him getting madder and madder about everything that has played out so far, till he finally succumbs to Lycanthropy and transitions.
Here is how he acts like a werewolf without holding back. Since we play on Zoom (global crisis and what not), he gets a breakout room where he finds himself facing off against a number of enemies equal to the total number of party members and NPCs in the room. Every interaction he has with them is translated into an action his wolf form is capable of doing. For instance, "I make an attack with a short sword" goes into the main room as "the wolf attempts to bite you" and I as the DM apply the appropriate modifiers. On the other side, any action the party takes, no matter what, is presented in the breakout room as hostile. For instance "I put up my hands and try to reason" gets passed as "I curse and threaten the wolf with my axe."
Needless to say, the fight is chaotic, takes a bunch of time because I have to interpret and relay every action, but ultimately the party kills the team member werewolf, then hits him a couple more times while on the ground to ensure he's dead and can't be resurrected or healed. During the fight, by chance the wolf randomly picked one non- decrepit target to attack, and it happened to be the one NPC in the room, and he landed a bite on the NPC (which the party immediately killed to prevent a repeat of events). The party starts talking about "holy crap, did we just kill a party member?" And the attitude in the party shifts dramatically because the first dead player was killed by other players.
Now my hope was that another party member would get bit, so they could figure out how to cure that ("wolfsbane can be harvested over in Giantslandvilleburg") but I can only force so much. Either way, months later the party is still talking quit this event, as it made for a very interesting encounter.
I'll post what I used for modifiers for the player when he turned into a wolf when I get the chance,