huh.... no regen or vulnerability to silver anymore???4

I was surprised too. It seems like silvered weapons should do something against lycanthropes though, so I homebrewed this trait for a campaign I'm preparing:

Lycanthropic Fortitude. If damage reduces the lycanthrope to 0 Hit Points, it makes a Constitution saving throw (DC 5 plus the damage taken) unless the damage is from a silvered weapon or Critical Hit. On a successful save, the lycanthrope drops to 10 Hit Points instead.

Increased health and AC to make up for the removal of silver vulns. Not sure how I feel about it TBH! 

It doesn't say when the Bite's curse ends, would it be permanent? Which I think would be fun, could go unnoticed for months until they would get knocked to 0 HP.

Silvered Weapons deal extra damage to shape-shifted creatures on a crit. So the vulnerability is baked into the magic item now, instead of the stat block!

Quote from TheRedGriffon >>

It doesn't say when the Bite's curse ends, would it be permanent? Which I think would be fun, could go unnoticed for months until they would get knocked to 0 HP.

 It's permanent unless someone cast Remove Curse or Greater Restoration on them. So yes it could be months later. It doesn't show it on here but curses is a defined term in the PHB.

So what exactly does it mean to become a werewolf under the DM's control? If the creature retreats, heals, and turns back into its normal form, does it now have the werewolf stats, losing all other abilities? Its alignment and personality change? Presumably removing the curse turns it back into itself? Interpreting this as simply and directly as written, that would all seem to be the case.

Most of the monsters in this book are an improvement. This is not one of them. Ghostfire Games' Liars of Etharis has a werewolf statblock that is much closer to what I'm looking for when I want to include a werewolf.

Quote from DallonChevalier >>

So what exactly does it mean to become a werewolf under the DM's control? If the creature retreats, heals, and turns back into its normal form, does it now have the werewolf stats, losing all other abilities? Its alignment and personality change? Presumably removing the curse turns it back into itself? Interpreting this as simply and directly as written, that would all seem to be the case.

Correct, if you ever hit 0hp after getting the curse, you lose your PC and it becomes a generic CE werewolf statblock controlled by the DM. By RAW it doesn't technically imply that a removal of the curse would reverse the transformation, though I assume they thought it was implicit. Interestingly, I think the PC would still be in humanoid form until it got a chance take a turn and use its bonus to do so. 

My disappointment is Immeasurable and my day is ruined.

They did a lot right with this one, like: Darkvison, Monstrosity, large in hybrid form, higher AC, higher asi's, more damage, a bonus action transformation, and pack tactics is certainly neat.

But an extra 13 hp and +3 to AC does not make up for the lack of Immunity to non-sivered BPS. I was really hoping they were making the new werewolf like the Loup Garou with all these other changes, but they removed the immunity and DIDN'T GIVE THEM REGENERATION! 

Like, why???? Every flavour of Vampire gets it, Trolls get it, why don't Werewolves get it?

Edit: Not every flavour of Vampire gets it either, they've removed it from vampire & vampire spawn and didn't give it to the new ones. WHY? Revenant & Trolls kept it, so it's not like a dead ability, vampires and werewolves are both two of the supernatural creatures that thematically should get it! GAAAAAAAAAAA!

And I'm not a fan of giving Lycanthropes weapons they can use in hybrid form, it kinda just spoils the vibe of transforming into a rampaging blood thirsty monster if they just pick up a bow and calmly ping shots from a distance. And the fact the bow does more than the claws is a crime, like are they trying to encourage them to use a bow instead or what?

And tbh, they really should have buffed the Lycanthropes CR, we have vampires for like every cr but Lycanthropes are still stuck between like cr 2 and 5? (except the Loup Garou)

I'm just gonna keep using the Loup Garou from Van Richtens Guide to Ravenloft, and I'd suggest others do the same.

This is just a bad monster. No one wants this. 

They removed Vampire's Regen in the monster Manuel too. Not sure why they did this.

Quote from LuckiestLycan >>

My disappointment is Immeasurable and my day is ruined.

They did a lot right with this one, like: Darkvison, Monstrosity, large in hybrid form, higher AC, higher asi's, more damage, a bonus action transformation, and pack tactics is certainly neat.

But an extra 13 hp and +3 to AC does not make up for the lack of Immunity to non-sivered BPS. I was really hoping they were making the new werewolf like the Loup Garou with all these other changes, but they removed the immunity and DIDN'T GIVE THEM REGENERATION! 

Like, why???? Every flavour of Vampire gets it, Trolls get it, why don't Werewolves get it?

Edit: Not every flavour of Vampire gets it either, they've removed it from vampire & vampire spawn and didn't give it to the new ones. WHY? Revenant & Trolls kept it, so it's not like a dead ability, vampires and werewolves are both two of the supernatural creatures that thematically should get it! GAAAAAAAAAAA!

And I'm not a fan of giving Lycanthropes weapons they can use in hybrid form, it kinda just spoils the vibe of transforming into a rampaging blood thirsty monster if they just pick up a bow and calmly ping shots from a distance. And the fact the bow does more than the claws is a crime, like are they trying to encourage them to use a bow instead or what?

And tbh, they really should have buffed the Lycanthropes CR, we have vampires for like every cr but Lycanthropes are still stuck between like cr 2 and 5? (except the Loup Garou)

I'm just gonna keep using the Loup Garou from Van Richtens Guide to Ravenloft, and I'd suggest others do the same.

 To a few prior comments,

Self-healing abilities simply provide monsters with more hit points, so in keeping with this edition's convention of removing unnecessary language, those hit points have simply been factored into the monster's hit point total and AC instead (regen is calculated as lasting for three rounds per combat). In some monsters where regeneration is part of the monsters lore, it remains undisturbed, but that is not the case with werewolves. 

As other commentators have noted, shapeshifters' weakness to silver is now part of the silvered weapons themselves, rather than the shapeshifters' stat block (to increase readability of the stat blocks at a glance).

Regarding the use of weapons in hybrid form: the stat block indicates that they can be used not that they must be used. If you'd rather your Werewolves use Bite or Scratch instead, then do so.

You are certainly more than welcome to use the Loup Garou–it's an excellent monster! But the negativity here is totally unnecessary and unproductive. Rather than focus on things to dislike, look at what you can do with this stat block. It's CR 3, which means that many more players can encounter a Werewolf (and survive) than can do the same with a Loup Garou. Engage with things in good faith and at least try to enjoy them (and it's fine if you don't)!

Quote from TheOtherRyan >>

Quote from LuckiestLycan >>

My disappointment is Immeasurable and my day is ruined.

They did a lot right with this one, like: Darkvison, Monstrosity, large in hybrid form, higher AC, higher asi's, more damage, a bonus action transformation, and pack tactics is certainly neat.

But an extra 13 hp and +3 to AC does not make up for the lack of Immunity to non-sivered BPS. I was really hoping they were making the new werewolf like the Loup Garou with all these other changes, but they removed the immunity and DIDN'T GIVE THEM REGENERATION! 

Like, why???? Every flavour of Vampire gets it, Trolls get it, why don't Werewolves get it?

Edit: Not every flavour of Vampire gets it either, they've removed it from vampire & vampire spawn and didn't give it to the new ones. WHY? Revenant & Trolls kept it, so it's not like a dead ability, vampires and werewolves are both two of the supernatural creatures that thematically should get it! GAAAAAAAAAAA!

And I'm not a fan of giving Lycanthropes weapons they can use in hybrid form, it kinda just spoils the vibe of transforming into a rampaging blood thirsty monster if they just pick up a bow and calmly ping shots from a distance. And the fact the bow does more than the claws is a crime, like are they trying to encourage them to use a bow instead or what?

And tbh, they really should have buffed the Lycanthropes CR, we have vampires for like every cr but Lycanthropes are still stuck between like cr 2 and 5? (except the Loup Garou)

I'm just gonna keep using the Loup Garou from Van Richtens Guide to Ravenloft, and I'd suggest others do the same.

 To a few prior comments,

Self-healing abilities simply provide monsters with more hit points, so in keeping with this edition's convention of removing unnecessary language, those hit points have simply been factored into the monster's hit point total and AC instead (regen is calculated as lasting for three rounds per combat). In some monsters where regeneration is part of the monsters lore, it remains undisturbed, but that is not the case with werewolves. 

As other commentators have noted, shapeshifters' weakness to silver is now part of the silvered weapons themselves, rather than the shapeshifters' stat block (to increase readability of the stat blocks at a glance).

Regarding the use of weapons in hybrid form: the stat block indicates that they can be used not that they must be used. If you'd rather your Werewolves use Bite or Scratch instead, then do so.

You are certainly more than welcome to use the Loup Garou–it's an excellent monster! But the negativity here is totally unnecessary and unproductive. Rather than focus on things to dislike, look at what you can do with this stat block. It's CR 3, which means that many more players can encounter a Werewolf (and survive) than can do the same with a Loup Garou. Engage with things in good faith and at least try to enjoy them (and it's fine if you don't)!

Vampires gained 51 hit point, three rounds of regen would be 60, if that's the case someone at WoTC isn't very good at maths. Their AC also stayed the same at 16, while also having lost their bps resistance (which should also have buffed their health/AC too). Regen also serves more than just a higher hit point pool, it provides the monster with a far shorter recovery period, which can be a very impactful tool in its arsenal. Let's say the vampire or Loup Garou is low, but it sees an opening to flee into it the halls of its keep, well now the party has to try and keep up with it, otherwise just from it running away it's going to start gaining all the hitpoints it lost back, especially if it can widen that gap over time. Whereas just having 51 more hitpoints means it can take maybe one or two more attacks. I'm all for simplifying things, but removing features that are mechanically distinct is a horrible way of doing it, and in fact the old werewolf proved that.

As fun fact, regeneration is actually in the werewolves lore, its just so fast and almost instantaneous from non-sivered bps that to show that while also simplifying the statblock the writers gave them immunity instead of a regen feature in 2014. (You can even see this if you read the Curse of Strahd comics where their immunity is shown as rapid regen)

But ofc that didn't really come across very well in 5e, and it ended up being a a rather large mechanical issue when it comes to players getting their hands on it, and caused some confusion as to why they have it and not a regen feature. So as seen with the Loup Garou, they went back and gave them an actual regeneration feature instead of immunity, even if it's unfortunately significantly weaker than the lore would suggest.

I also didn't mention silver, I think including what it does under the weapon is neat, so I'm just gonna nit pick and mention that technically "Shapeshifter" the creature type doesn't exist in 5.5e and that I assume silver weapons now refer to Shapeshifted creatures like the new Moonbeam does.

My main issue with giving Lycanthropes weapons isn't per-say about the option of using them, though I'm not a personal fan of it, it's about how optimal it is. The werewolf's Longbow does 2d8+2 with a +4 to hit. Their claws 2d6+3 with a +5 to hit & their bite 2d8+3 with a +5 to hit. Yeah the bow has 1 less to hit & damage than the bite, but they have 150/600 range with that thing, and can make two attacks with them (with a 1 higher average damage than their claws). They don't just have the option of using a bow, it's just straight up better for them to use it, they lost their main defensive feature and they gave them a great ranged option. They didn't need it, nor does it feel thematic, but mechanically it's their best option in their tool kit, and that sucks for the vibe.

Mooncursed creatures that are forced to transform beneath the ill lit sky, driven to craven acts of bloodlust and savagery, to tear flesh from bone with gnarled claws and bloody fangs. Only to pick up a bow and ping shots at their target from 150ft away because thats actually alot more effective and safer than all that curse stuff they got going on. Like, I can't be the only one who thinks that completely ruins the entire vibe.

And on CR, as I mentioned before, I really do think they should have buffed their CR and done more with Lycanthropes as a whole. They're such a cornerstone of the supernatural, and yet as mentioned prior they're stuck between CR 2-5 (Excluding the Loup Garou), and unlike the Vampire who got a bunch more versions for all throughout the games CR's, Lycanthropes didn't move beyond that 2-5 CR space. And sure that means lower level players can interact with them, but tbh, werewolves given all their lore shouldn't be as low as they are in the first place and should probably not be designed around low level play like they currently are. Their regeneration is literally described and shown as near instantaneous in their lore, if their current CR isn't high enough to work with elements like that, then it should be buffed to accommodate.

And I'm going to give criticism both positive and negative towards the new stuff, because I want to see WotC improve on things like this in future, and just ignoring the bad in "good faith" isn't going to see that happen. As previously mentioned, I think they did alot right in this new statblock, but they also did a fair bit wrong and that should be addressed. It's also why I reference the Loup Garou throughout, because they did a lot right in the Loup Garous statblock, and they were clearly taking a few pages out it's book when creating this new statblock. It's just a shame they left out certain elements that this new werewolf statblock really could of used.

Also an added tangent, in what universe should a literal werewolf be on the same tier of power (CR3) as a vampires human pet (Vampire Familiar). Like seriously, they're just a human given a special Umbral dagger who gets the privilege of being a vampires pet and they're apparently on par with a literal werewolf.

So can the werewolf use Scratch in his human form? It doesn't specify when it's available.

They are just zombies now?

Omg, wtf did they do to the werewolves?! They completely gutted them!

It's so bad that my DM outright stated that he's not using this werewolf statblock at all and, in fact, will just make his own.

I like how Lycanthropy is now more serious, with the curse, a level 3 spell slot is enough to cure it, but its permenant if you're reduced to 0HP. Good! Pity silver vulnerability is gone though.

Real talk, I thought it was annoying as a lower level character with no magical or silver weapons. 

I was really hoping the new monster manual would have the "best possible version" of the Werewolf.

As a side note, I have never seen a Werewolf with a longbow in any scenario.

I'd really like to understand how only a quarter of the book's 500 monsters contain monsters with a large pop culture following, and something like this makes it to publishing.

If I have to buy a Werewolf-specific book 36 months from now just to get a realistic stock stat block, I will be pissed.

The phrase "best possible version" was mentioned several times in the interview series' on Youtube for the Core books.

This for sure is not it.

This version of Werewolf is basically just a low level Druid with a farmer background.