Lycanthropy

At work unable to do some research, so I'm throwing myself on the mercy of the rules lawyers:

Can Lycanthropes use all normal items in hybrid form?

Would an Amulet of Mighty Fists enhance the attacks of a Lycanthrope? (if not, what does other than Greater Magic Fang? And is there an itemized version of Greater Magic Fang)?

Suggested feats for a Lycanthrope that spends most of it's time and fighting ability in Hybrid form?

This is a werewolverine btw.

A hybrid form lycanthrope (typically) has hands. Thus, gauntlets and other equipment can be used. The real question is whether or not the individual lycanthrope could concentrate long enough to do so. Most werewolves would rather just rip into you with tooth & claw.

The lycanthrope can benefit from any feat out there; what kind of fighting style did you have in mind? If you're going to be in hybrid form, you can do anything you could in human form, but you get stat bonuses and skill bonuses and (usually) extra feats. Take the character concept you had for the base character, and run with it. Don't stop that feat progression just because he contracted lycanthropy.

Short Answer: All of them.

Control over lycanthropy

Here's a related question --

If a player wants to be a lycanthrope, say a weretiger, how much control does he have over the character when it's in tiger form?

If he is a natural lycanthrope with the improved lycanthropy feat, does that mean he has absolute control over the shape change, even when it is the full moon? Or does this just mean that the character does change into tiger form at the full moon but the player retains complete control over the tiger's actions?

Alternatively, if the character had been bitten and made a lycnathrope, do they ever get to control their actions when in lycanthrope form?

Any comments would be appreciated as we are starting a new game soon and one player is considering playing a druid who got bitten by a weretiger and then advanced as a fighter for a few more levels. But the issue of how much control he will have over the character while in tiger form does not seem to be addressed in any of the books....

A natural lycanthrope has learned how to control their power by the time they become a PC.

An infected lycanthrope can attempt to resist a change, but that's about it. If they suffer an involuntary change, they are in animal form (not hybrid) and are in DM control.

If they ever voluntarily change shape, or take ranks in the Control Shape skill, they have given in to the curse and immediately take the full Alignment change to match that of a normal lycanthrope for their type (ie. werewolves become CE). Typically, this means they're no longer a PC.

Of course, you can Rule 0 this if you want.

Well, the alignment change is only a factor depending on the flavor of lycanthrope and the attitude of the DM. As a DM I'd NPC anything evil because I don't run evil. But other DMs might be all-right with it, and even I would allow a player to keep playing a werebear or a weretiger (if I didn't think balance issues with the other players would arise.)

I actually wanted to have a PC of mine become a weretiger, not only for the powergamer combat bonuses, but because I thought an alignment shift from Neutral-Good to True Neutral would have been quite interesting. Didn't get the chance, though.

It seems like there's a lot less reason to want to play a Lycanthrope, with the Anthropomorphic template from Savage Species being around.

Hybrid form seems to be the thing most people want.

One of my players is an infected lycanthrope and I handled it this way:
He´s not willing to give in to his darker side, so he´s not allowed to change form willingly. He´s allowed to take ranks in Control Shape (Kesh: why shouldn´t he? He tries to resist involuntary change and gets better the longer he´s infected).
When he changes form in battle he changes to hybrid form and is totally out of control. Full moon makes him change into animal form but still he can´t control himself.
That causes him lots of problems particularly in battle and the restrictions outweigh the advantages by far, so I reduced the ECL 3 to an ECL 2.


Recently he got an amulett from the barbarian greywolf-tribe which helps him to control his shape and allows him to change into wolf form without penalty and still retain he´s conciousness.
The good thing is I am able to guide his actions without outlining a set of rules. If he constantly changes form for no apparent reason (e.g. to heal himself) the amulett-bonus will drop faster to zero than he can say "skill check", or if he changed and went berserk he should feel the need to make good for his misdeeds ,even if they were involuntary, to prevent a decrease. On the other hand I can reward good role-playing with an increase. I really like it that my player can discover his potential without me telling him what exactly is allowed and what is not so that he can make his own decisions.

There are still some tight restrictions like he can´t attack someone when he´s in wolf form without risking to infect the enemy and his skill check is still worse than 50:50, so he has to be cautious.

Kathryn: In the case of a natural lycanthrope I´d say they like to give in to their animal/hybrid forms but a player would still be able control his actions as long as they are not out of character.