Imagine an adventurer’s eyes turning pale at the sight of the full moon. Suddenly, shaggy tufts of fur erupt from their pores, and an unbridled howl escapes their lips as they morph into the primal form of a lycanthrope!
These classic shapeshifters are a varied bunch in Dungeons & Dragons, ranging from the archetypal werewolf to the unorthodox wereraven. This article will focus on how to play your character as a lycanthrope, plus the rules surrounding them in the Monster Manual. (If you’re a DM hoping to bring these iconic creatures to the battlefield, we recommend reading our guide on how to run werewolves like apex predators.)
Becoming a lycanthrope
A lycanthropic character typically inherits the curse from their parents or is afflicted after suffering a wound from another lycanthrope. Lycanthropy acquired via an injury can be dispelled by Remove Curse, though a lycanthrope who inherits the condition from their family can only be cured via Wish.
PLAYER CHARACTERS AS LYCANTHROPES
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. The character can’t speak while in animal form.
A non-lycanthrope humanoid hit by an attack that carries the curse of lycanthropy must succeed on a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 + the lycanthrope’s proficiency bonus + the lycanthrope’s Constitution modifier) or be cursed. If the character embraces the curse, his or her alignment becomes the one defined for the lycanthrope. The DM is free to decide that a change in alignment places the character under DM control until the curse of lycanthropy is removed.
The following information applies to specific lycanthropes.
Werewolf. The character gains a Strength of 15 if his or her score isn’t already higher, and a +1 bonus to AC while in wolf or hybrid form (from natural armor). Attack and damage rolls for the natural weapons are based on Strength.
Werebear. The character gains a Strength of 19 if his or her score isn’t already higher, and a +1 bonus to AC while in bear or hybrid form (from natural armor). Attack and damage rolls for the natural weapons are based on Strength.
Wereboar. The character gains a Strength of 17 if his or her score isn’t already higher, and a +1 bonus to AC while in boar or hybrid form (from natural armor). Attack and damage rolls for the tusks are based on Strength. For the Charge trait, the DC is 8 + the character’s proficiency bonus + Strength modifier.
Wererat. The character gains a Dexterity of 15 if his or her score isn’t already higher. Attack and damage rolls for the bite are based on whichever is higher of the character’s Strength and Dexterity.
Weretiger. The character gains a Strength of 17 if his or her score isn’t already higher. Attack and damage rolls for the natural weapons are based on Strength. For the Pounce trait, the DC is 8 + the character’s proficiency bonus + Strength modifier.
Source: Monster Manual
Lycanthrope traits
A lycanthrope has three different forms: a humanoid state, a hybrid one that combines humanoid and animal traits, and a pure animal form. Lycanthropes have the same stats as normal characters in humanoid form but benefit from the damage immunities and non-weapon stat block actions of their associated werecreature, as well as occasional bonuses in their animal and hybrid forms.
For instance, a character with werewolf lycanthropy gains a Strength of 15 and a +1 Armor Class bonus in their wolf and hybrid forms, as well as Bite and Claw abilities, which they can use for Multiattack. The character also gains immunity to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks but becomes vulnerable to silvered weapons (the main weakness for all lycanthropes).
A lycanthrope player character can thus be supremely strong, but with this strength comes caveats. For example, the player may lose control of their character while in their hybrid form, a possibility hinted at in the Monster Manual.
Setting ground rules for lycanthropes in your game
In order to make the most of the lycanthropic curse, DMs and players should develop answers for the following questions:
1. How did the character acquire lycanthropy?
Is this condition your family legacy, or did you obtain it while suffering injuries from a werecreature ambush in the Shadowfell? Mainstream werewolf movies like "The Wolf Man" and "An American Werewolf in London" tend to depict the latter, but D&D adventures like Curse of Strahd feature families of wereravens who refer to themselves as “kindnesses,” and presumably pass their tendency to sprout feathers down each generation.
The means of how lycanthropy was acquired could be the difference between a frenzied character who has no control over their animal form and a force of nature like Oyaminartok the Winter Walker, a goliath werebear in Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden who only passes her curse to pure-hearted souls who impress her with their fighting prowess.
2. What kind of lycanthrope is the character?
The Monster Manual contains info on werebears, wereboars, wererats, weretigers and werewolves, but there are other shapeshifters out there, including werebats (featured in Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage). Fantastical hybrids like werecrocodiles and even weremoles were also present in older editions of D&D, and can be replicated in fifth edition by mixing different monster stat blocks.
For sheer flavor, it’s also worth noting what your character’s transformed appearance resembles. Our typical image of a werecreature is that of a wolfman, but D&D’s myriad races offer grander possibilities. A tiefling wererat might retain its characteristic horns, while an aarakocra weretiger could have vestigial wings.
3. Does the character embrace or reject their lycanthropy?
The Monster Manual states that lycanthropes can either reject their curse or embrace it. Resistance typically results in the tortured werewolf that we see in cinema who buries their inner animal until the full moon arises, while acceptance leads to at-will transformations but a potential descent into bloodlust. In D&D terms, those who resist retain their normal alignment in humanoid form but potentially become uncontrollable during a lycanthropic episode. Those who embrace witness a steady alignment shift, which might result in a character becoming the antithesis of everything they once stood for.
You may be playing in a game that pays less attention to alignment, however. Recent fifth edition releases have steered away from categorizing the personalities of monsters and humanoids with broad strokes, and a DM who wishes to follow suit might ignore alignment shifts in favor of presenting the player with tough questions and significant opportunities for roleplaying their new form.
How might a newly-infected wererat explain his condition to fellow adventurers or family, for instance? Perhaps he knows he’s still a decent man at heart, but will the city guards be as understanding? Let the player interpret their lycanthropy and challenge them with ability checks to keep control of their form and I guarantee that drama will naturally generate at the table.
It’s also useful to ask what a lycanthropic character might think of the potential spread of their condition. A humanoid hit by an attack that carries the lycanthropy curse needs to succeed on a Constitution saving throw (DC 8 + the lycanthrope’s proficiency bonus + the lycanthrope’s Constitution modifier) or become cursed as well. An evil lycanthrope could use this to their advantage to create an entire pack, while a good lycanthrope might avoid passing his curse on to others. And if he does, how might he repent for creating another furry wretch in his likeness?
Raising the stakes for lycanthropes in your game
In my home games, I’ve tweaked the triggers that cause lycanthropy and made it a trickier condition to get rid of, as Remove Curse struck me as a fairly low-level spell to remove such a life-changing condition. Any DM who wants to follow suit can experiment with these two processes:
Have the lycanthrope character transform more often
Try making the lycanthropic curse appear whenever the player rolls a natural 1 or 20. After all, plenty of real-world medical conditions are triggered by anxiety or excitement, so why should lycanthropy be limited to the full moon? A character can potentially change into a werewolf mid-battle upon delivering a crushing critical hit. Imagine the narrative shenanigans that could result from lycanthropy manifesting during a failed Persuasion check!
Make lycanthropy harder to cure
Perhaps lycanthropy can be a special condition that has evolved over time to be stubbornly resistant to magic. Curing it might require the congealed blood of another lycanthrope, or perhaps rare herbs like wolf’s bane, the plant that has repeatedly appeared in folklore as a werewolf deterrent. Previous D&D editions established wolf’s bane as a spell component coveted by hags, who would be happy to make a lycanthropic character go through the wringer to get a few sprigs of the precious plant.
If your party isn’t one to hunt for herbs or deal with hags, maybe you could have a skilled alchemist sell anti-lycanthropy potions for an outrageous price, inciting desperate players to commit thievery!
Meet Julius, the lycanthropic dragonborn
The light of the full moon illuminates the dragonborn — if indeed he is one. His fine waistcoat and robe resemble wizardly garb, but his physical appearance is downright primal. His body is hunched. He has serrated scales extending from the ridges of his face and a tail that has tufts of fur sprouting from a spiked tip. Prodigious fur also grows from his chin, giving him the bizarre appearance of a bearded lizard. He has a bushy beard.
With a growl, the creature downs a vial of liquid into his frightfully toothy maw. Within a few seconds, his scales shrink and the fur disappears. After letting out several grunts, he vigorously shakes his head and straightens his back. At last, the dragonborn speaks, and it is in a pleasant voice.
“Salutations!” he remarks. “I hope my condition does not cause you distress. My name is Julius Ozdemir!”
Julius Ozdemir is a dragonborn lycanthrope who I most recently played in the fifth edition revision of The Sunless Citadel from Tales from the Yawning Portal. I developed him with lycanthropy in mind and intentionally chose a dragonborn to subvert the typical idea of a wolfman. When Julius transforms, he’s less like a wolf and more like a feathered dinosaur who also happens to have a breath weapon!
Julius is the owner of the library of Saltmarsh. He’s an aspiring wizard whose bumbling drive for knowledge often puts him in situations that most normal folk would run from. During a research expedition — where he planned to observe several werewolves from afar in the hopes of writing a paper on lycanthropic pack habits — Julius was bitten and barely escaped with his life. A few days later, he was found atop the roof of the Saltmarsh library in tattered pajamas that had burst from his burgeoning lycanthropic form.
Being one to appreciate the nuances of life and the humor in becoming a guinea pig for his own lycanthropic research, Julius accepted his strange new form and found himself reluctantly enjoying the sordid urges that came with every full moon. His scholarly side remained ashamed of his antics, however, especially when he went on a feeding spree one evening, inadvertently slaughtering three hens and consuming all of the meat pies in Saltmarsh’s bakery.
Luckily, Julius’ alchemist wife developed a potion that miraculously suppresses the lycanthropic curse for extended periods of time. Mixing the potion requires a constant supply of wolf’s bane, however, and so Julius often finds himself travelling to odd parts of the world in search of this rare bit of vegetation.
Julius is a chaotic good eccentric who noticeably shifts into a chaotic neutral firebrand upon transformation. In social situations, he’s keen to negotiate in his normal form and quick to resort to violence in his hybrid form. In combat, normal Julius acts like a traditional wizard and uses his magic from afar, whereas werewolf Julius is a ball of reckless energy, dashing across the battlefield and making use of spells, melee attacks, and his innate draconic breath in an unpredictable manner.
Meeting Julius in your game
In your games, Julius will work well as a quest-giver or mentor for any player coming to grips with a newfound lycanthropic condition. His wife’s knowledge of wolf’s bane can also be a great hook to push parties into a variety of adventurers as they attempt to locate the plant.
Alternatively, Julius could also be played as a darker Jekyll and Hyde character and inserted into any campaign to surprise players who think they know everything about their NPC companions. Imagine their surprise as the seemingly innocuous dragonborn wizard suddenly changes into something far more frightening!
Julius is but one example of the storytelling potential that lycanthropes can bring to your D&D game. Whether you’re creating a werecreature-infested Domain of Dread ahead of Van Richten’s Guide to Everything or simply seeking to add a little shapeshifting to your home game, let your inner beast break free, embrace the call of the wild, and howl in glory at the moon.
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Jeremy Blum (@PixelGrotto) is a journalist, gaming blogger, comic book aficionado, and fan of all forms of storytelling who rolled his first polyhedral dice while living in Hong Kong in 2017. Since then, he's never looked back and loves roleplaying games for the chance to tell the tales that have been swirling in his head since childhood.
really good article!
so many ads... could you reduce them next time?
This is great!
Awesome article!
I never much liked the forced alignment change, particularly with werewolves being chaotic evil. Sure it has a long tradition as a monster trope but it seems to go against how all the other lycanthropes get their designations, what with wolves being highly social animals that serve an important role in nature. There are tons of druids, rangers, and even some clerics and monks that have a broad world view of life and death that should fit right into being a werewolf that aren't de facto labeled chaotic evil.
what ads??
since the tarrasque's attacks dont technically count as magic, a lvl 1 pc with lycanthropy is immune to all the tarrasque's attacks except it's swallow attack
This is great! Thanks for all the tips, I think I'm going to use this for my next campaign
It can still pick them up and fling them. Lycanthropes still take fall damage.
If your lycanthrope dragonborn has copper scales, would that make him Orange Julius?
“A fall from a great height is one of the most common hazards facing an adventurer. At the end of a fall, a creature takes 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every 10 feet it fell, to a maximum of 20d6. The creature lands prone, unless it avoids taking damage from the fall.”
They're immune to bludgeoning damage from non-silvered weapons, falling damage is bludgeoning, unless there's a special caveat for lycans taking falling damage. But I'm not gonna stop you from running the game u want to run, its just how I'd rule it lol.
In the Player Characters As Lycanthropes block, Werewolf is listed twice.
There was a wererat lycanthrope in a campaign I played in once- it ended up being super fun for all players and the DM! Lots of full moon craziness!
Good article, and fun. I do wish there was more official rule-making on shapeshifting characters (outside of the usual Druid and magic-fuelled stuff like polymorph etc).
I think they could do a whole UA on shape shifters, including playable lycanthropy origins (like they have done with Dhampir).
The lythari elves who are mentioned from time to time could also blend well with this, or with the few wild. I made a homebrew a while back and think something like that could be interesting: https://www.dndbeyond.com/my-creations (i cannot claim full credit for this, it is kind of a synthesis of a number of other examples i found on the inter web and included a bit of my own spice, so full credit to other authors even if i cannot name them now!)
The key word is weapons. They're immune to bludgeoning damage from non-silvered weapons.
Falling is not a weapon.
Great article, and alot of good tips on how/when a lycanthrope could transform and whether the pc retains Control or not. But one question, how would you determine how long the transformation lasts?
Great article!
I never considered allowing PCs to embrace the change without going the full alignment change, but rather just one step in that direction.
Now if only it was easier to do on D&D Beyond...
This was a great read, especially as I'm soon to throw a bunch of wererats at my players :)
By the way, I've just read through the wereraven entry and I find them, quite peculiar. They don't have any alignment, they have no immunities but regenerate damage and there's no weakness to silver, except to halt their regeneration... is there a mistake in their entry?
There are 2 version's of wereraven's. The original from Curse of Stradh which follows the same as the other were creatures and the new version from Candlekeep book. Perkins said the new version it is testing new variants of were disease.
Issue is players can't be a wereraven unless playing evil campaign as wereravens are good and won't pass the curse onto others. In fact if a player forces them to make them a wereraven then the rest will hunt the player down to undo the curse.
Are the Shifter subraces considered Lycanthropes? Could they also be played in the ways described in the article??
Cool article!
Forced alignment change (for example were bears) never really made sense with my evil characters. I think we need to buff up the were rat because the 15 DEX won't help a lot if you are a higher level player.
Also, I'm building up some homebrew stuff, and I need your opinion for a Were-Spider