I'm starting a police procedural compaign in Ptolus (inspired by a thread at ENWorld actually...) starting at level 1 and one of the players *REALLY* would like to play a werewolf. And elf rogue lycanthrope to be exact (Yeah, someone read Elfquest growing up...) I initially said no straight out until he mentioned that he'd be willing to kill his character, have him raised and then have lycanthropy affect him afterward (Maybe after being killed by werewolves that work for a corrupt noble house). That got me thinking.
The problem is that the lycanthrope template is totally assinine. (Levels in player and animal HD? Guh?) The threads on ENWorld I read made it seem even more incomprehensible.
So, I downloaded this, which has a lot of excellent ideas and drasticaly simplifies the template. It's a great book, so if you like were-stuff get it.
Basically, no ability bonuses (besides what he'll get as an elf already). The darkvision is obviously a moot point, but the Scent ability is drastically reduced. 5 feet, 10 ft upwind, 0 ft downwind. Does not reveal the exact location, only the presence (so invisibility is still a threat). Tracking with scent only possible with the Track feat. They also gain the Alertness feat while in wereform. Any INT, CHA, many DEX skills (basically any skill that requres patience or concentration) are unusable in wereform without picking up another feat (and having a +3 Will save minimum at that...). Spells and magic items that require a trigger are impossible to use.
A lot of the typical lycanthrope abilities will only be gained by picking feats outlined in the book. Not sure if that would gimp a rogue or not. I haven't DM'ed 3.5 before.
There's also something called "Moon Hit Points" to circumvent the DR issue. Basically, you get temporary hit points while in were-form, but these HP are ignored by magic and silver entirely- taking it right off the main HP total. The book suggested 20 of them, but I may reduce it to 10 or 15.
On top of that, I may also add a 5/vulnerability to silver. Meaning that he'll take an extra five points of damage from any silver weapon. This'll mean a silver bullet could easily kill him straight out for a few levels. And given that the setting is very magic heavy and savvy (The City Watch has been trained to deal with weird stuff, and are issued silver weapons and bullets just in case. The crime families are also just as canny.) this may work.
I'm jettisoning the alignment restrictions, with one potential caveat. I'm thinking on full moon nights, he'll have to make a save of some sort or shift into wereform and or shift temporarilly to CE while in wereform. The likelyhood is that he'll just be chained into the basement of the Brotherhood of Redemption (a group dedicated to redeeming "evil" creatures). On nights when he can't it'll be interesting.
I'm debating the use of the Control Form skill. May be moot anyway, since he may go for natural lycanthrope.
Basically, I think the backstory is he's a natural lycanthrope runt (no ability bonuses, extra silver vulnerability, scent ability reduced by living in a city for so long) that was delivered to the Brotherhood as a cub by some adventurers. The alignment issue is circumvented, while still capturing some of the traditonal werewolf curse flavor.
So what do you think? I'm not overly familliar with adjusting for LA and all that, and yeah I'm kind of a new DM- but this seems like a good compromise to me.
The problem is that the lycanthrope template is totally assinine. (Levels in player and animal HD? Guh?) The threads on ENWorld I read made it seem even more incomprehensible.
So, I downloaded this, which has a lot of excellent ideas and drasticaly simplifies the template. It's a great book, so if you like were-stuff get it.
Basically, no ability bonuses (besides what he'll get as an elf already). The darkvision is obviously a moot point, but the Scent ability is drastically reduced. 5 feet, 10 ft upwind, 0 ft downwind. Does not reveal the exact location, only the presence (so invisibility is still a threat). Tracking with scent only possible with the Track feat. They also gain the Alertness feat while in wereform. Any INT, CHA, many DEX skills (basically any skill that requres patience or concentration) are unusable in wereform without picking up another feat (and having a +3 Will save minimum at that...). Spells and magic items that require a trigger are impossible to use.
A lot of the typical lycanthrope abilities will only be gained by picking feats outlined in the book. Not sure if that would gimp a rogue or not. I haven't DM'ed 3.5 before.
There's also something called "Moon Hit Points" to circumvent the DR issue. Basically, you get temporary hit points while in were-form, but these HP are ignored by magic and silver entirely- taking it right off the main HP total. The book suggested 20 of them, but I may reduce it to 10 or 15.
On top of that, I may also add a 5/vulnerability to silver. Meaning that he'll take an extra five points of damage from any silver weapon. This'll mean a silver bullet could easily kill him straight out for a few levels. And given that the setting is very magic heavy and savvy (The City Watch has been trained to deal with weird stuff, and are issued silver weapons and bullets just in case. The crime families are also just as canny.) this may work.
I'm jettisoning the alignment restrictions, with one potential caveat. I'm thinking on full moon nights, he'll have to make a save of some sort or shift into wereform and or shift temporarilly to CE while in wereform. The likelyhood is that he'll just be chained into the basement of the Brotherhood of Redemption (a group dedicated to redeeming "evil" creatures). On nights when he can't it'll be interesting.
I'm debating the use of the Control Form skill. May be moot anyway, since he may go for natural lycanthrope.
Basically, I think the backstory is he's a natural lycanthrope runt (no ability bonuses, extra silver vulnerability, scent ability reduced by living in a city for so long) that was delivered to the Brotherhood as a cub by some adventurers. The alignment issue is circumvented, while still capturing some of the traditonal werewolf curse flavor.
So what do you think? I'm not overly familliar with adjusting for LA and all that, and yeah I'm kind of a new DM- but this seems like a good compromise to me.
