So my buddy decided to write about Werewolves on his blog and I’ve been looking for a subject to get me back into the habit of writing on here again and figured that Werewolves are as good of a subject as any to inspire some writing. I am somewhat of a fan of them after all. This is mostly a response to his blog post and how I interpret some things differently than him.
My background with dealing with werewolves comes from my gaming background and love of cheesy horror movies. As I’ve mentioned before, Werewolf The Apocalypse is the game I have played the most extensively and have tons of experience with. It is absolutely wonderful and amazing and full of well thought out fluff and NPCs. I miss it and I miss my old gaming group where we played this… sigh…
Okay so, I completely agree that Pathfinder/DnD lycanthropes suck. They suck hard compared to Whitewolf’s and those in most literature/mythology. Hell, arguably Twilight’s wolves are just as “awesome” as the template in the Monster Manual. Instead of unstoppable killing machines, these critters are a slight boost to the base creature and aren’t that good at some of the things their base animal can do. I don’t like that and I hate having to use them as is. Given the chance I would change the template completely.
Let’s start with the same things he did. First we look at the template:
+1 CR, Gains Shapechanger subtype, Size: unchanged, AC: +2 Natural Armor, DR 10/Silver (Natural), DR 5/Silver (Afflicted), Gains Natural Attacks based on creature when in hybrid and animal forms, gains all natural abilities of the animal when in Hybrid of Animal forms, gains low-light vision, scent, Change Shape (Use Con roll to change between Human, Hybrid, and Animal forms), Curse of Lycanthropy, Lycanthropic Empathy, +2 Wis, -2 Cha, +2 Str and Con (in hybrid and animal forms only), in addition other stats of the lycanthrope in Hybrid or Animal form default to either the animal or base creature’s base stats (whichever is higher).
I don’t mind the two types of lycanthropes existing (Natural and Afflicted) but I do have a problem with them being different in terms of some abilities. I would remove the Afflicted’s reduced damage reduction and leave it at that. I don’t mind the concept of both types of lycanthropes existing (Natural and Afflicted) but I just don’t like the concept of the afflicted’s physiology being weaker.
+2 Natural AC, makes sense.
Damage Reduction. Like my friend, I also think that damage reduction isn’t the best way to deal with this piece of Werewolves and other lycans. They heal insanely fast, can absorb tremendous blows, and keep going no matter how powerful a blow they’re dealt. I might change this to be a DR 5/Silver and Fast Healing 4 or 5/Silver. That puts them in the right category for me. Regeneration works, but I feel that Fast Healing and a DR are more appropriate to what I’ve seen on film and in literature. I only include Silver as the end all be all way around them because they are lycanthropes. That is their weakness, period, end of story. Maybe it can change depending upon the species (not all lycanthrope legends have an allergy to solver, some are allergic to gold or other precious things), but for anything connected in such a way to the moon it must be silver.
Shape Change. I’m a Werewolf The Apocalypse (WTA) veteran. I’m used to werewolves having 5 (yes FIVE) forms. I’m perfectly okay with lycanthropes having 3 forms in this template. The use of the Constitution modifier for controlling the change makes sense to me as well. You are trying to control your body and force it to change itself through the use of the disease that you have inside of your body. You also have to fight through the violent and awful pain that the transformation causes you in order to not stop yourself partway through.
I will happily agree that a Werewolf in Hybrid form needs a set of claw attacks. 1D4 seems too low for a supernatural predator like that though. I also feel that the Bite attack’s 1d6 is also too low. That is, unless there are additional abilities that a werecreature was granted. For a werewolf, maybe instead of just gaining Trip in hybrid form it instead gains 2 Claw attacks (at 1D4 each), a Bite (its normal 1D6), Pounce, Grab (on the Bite attack), and Rake. In animal form you’d only have the abilities of the base animal, so in the case of a wolf you’d have trip in that form.
My experience in WTA leaves me wanting more from my shapeshifters in hybrid form. In that game, someone entering Crinos (their equivalent of Hybrid form) gains approximately 50% of their own height and doubles their Glabro (Near-man form) weight (which is usually already almost double their human form weight and is all muscle). So a 6 foot tall, 180 pound werewolf in human form would turn into a 9 foot tall, ~650-700 pound Crinos. (And this is the low end of the scale!!!). If a character is shapeshifting into a hybrid form known for power or strength (Wolves, great cats, pretty much any large predator) they should be subject to the same effects as an enlarge person spell, making them 1 size category larger with all associated penalties and bonuses. (This would include increasing their claw and bite damage to the next die category)
I do like his changes to STR/CON/DEX modifiers. Those are pretty solid. I’d stick with a +4 STR/CON and a +2 DEX for werewolves in Hybrid form myself. Maybe give them a bonus to Speed and DEX in Animal form. Obviously this should be incorporated with the Enlarge effect in mind.
Being a shapeshifter you are now, you have been cursed with a pure, primal spirit of fury and anger that has incorporated itself into your very being. The legends of werewolves attacking during full moons is spoken of for a reason. In WTA this was explained by Werewolves being easier to anger as the moon got fuller, fueling their supernatural Rage powers and making them more likely to enter into a Frenzy. This was because of their connection to the moon. In DnD you just go into a crazed frenzy with no control during a full moon.
Now, in WTA, you could use your Rage score to gain additional turns, activate powers, or you had to roll it when something that could make you angry did. Kinda like the Hulk, you wouldn’t like them when they are angry. I would like to see something like this implemented with Lycanthropes in PF/DnD. Maybe not quite to the same extent though. Maybe give them a 1/Day use of Barbarian Rage or the Frenzy of the Frenzied Berserker prestige class, but it can only be used in Hybrid form and you could end up entering it involuntarily if you fair a Will save or drop below ¼ HP or something similar. Obviously the difficulty is determined by the phase of the moon.
And re-reading my buddy’s post he’s already mentioned something like that…
Anyways the point is that I want to add something like WTA’s Frenzies that also makes the Werewolf stronger and tougher to kill while taking control away from the base creature. Maybe entering Hybrid form automatically puts them into a State of Barbarian Rage… hmmm…
So there’s a bunch of thought dumping for you to sift through.
No comments:
Post a Comment