Casting Spells in Lycanthrope Alternate Form

[dontpunkme]

Ok, so here's the situation, due to some ultra chaos involving an artifact, my 13th level Enchanter just gained the weretiger (natural lycanthropy). The problem: hybrid form is extremely limiting (but so damn sexy for touch spells) for casting spells. Are there any feats or spells that will allow me to still cast spells with this form (aside from using still spell) without affecting the spell level? Even better if its something I could have be made into a magic item (whether for like 1 minute/day or even better continuous use).

 

[phindar]

Can lycanthropes not cast in Hybrid form? I'll admit this has never come up before in my game (I guess I don't use enough lycanthropes), but if the hybrid forms have hands and are capable of speech, it seems like they should be able to cast. If they can't (either from a specific ruling I'm not aware of, or a house rule), I'd think that Natural Spell is the closest thing to what you're looking for.

Edit: Here's what I was looking for, from the SRD: "The creature retains any spellcasting ability it had in its original form, although it must be able to speak intelligibly to cast spells with verbal components and it must have humanlike hands to cast spells with somatic components."

I guess its anybody's call (or more likely, the GM's) as to whether or not hybrid forms can speak intelligibly enough for casting, though they should have "humanlike" hands covered if they can use normal weapons and the like. Absent RAW to the contrary, I'd allow hybrid forms to cast. I'd also allow lycanthropes to take Natural Spell and cast in animal form, just because that seems more interesting to me. I like to err on the side of interesting in these cases.

 

[Pinotage]

The problem with the hybrid form is that it can't speak. Natural spell should cover everything as the previous poster said, but there are a few other product on lycanthropes out there with feats specifically for this. Examples include Paradigm Concepts' Slaves of the Moon and Sean Reynolds' Curse of the Moon. Both are excellent products which cover lycanthropes in detail.

Pinotage

 

[dontpunkme]

Under special attacks: "A lycanthrope’s hybrid form does not gain any special attacks of the base animal. A lycanthrope spellcaster cannot cast spells with verbal, somatic, or material components while in animal form, or spells with verbal components while in hybrid form."

I don't know if the DM will allow natural spell, as its alternate form and not wild shape. Also because I effectively jumped from being a 13th level character to a 22nd level character, I have a massive XP gap and likely will not be seeing another level before the campaign ends. Assuming my DM is in a really good mood, is there any way to make a magic item that grants the user natural spell (and if so what is its base price based on limited uses and continuous use).

Even though there is a multitude of quality third party supplements out there unfortunately the game I'm in is WoTC only. So 3rd party feats/spells really don't help. Are there any other WoTC feats/spells/magic items out there?

 

[frankthedm]

I don't know if the DM will allow natural spell, as its alternate form and not wild shape. Also because I effectively jumped from being a 13th level character to a 22nd level character, I have a massive XP gap and likely will not be seeing another level before the campaign ends. Assuming my DM is in a really good mood, is there any way to make a magic item that grants the user natural spell (and if so what is its base price based on limited uses and continuous use).

If the DM is in a good mood, GET CURED!

 

[seans23]

IMC I house-ruled that alternate form can be used in lieu of "Ability to Wildshape" in feat or class preqrequisites... then I sent the wererat sorceror at them.

 

[Pinotage]

I don't know if the DM will allow natural spell, as its alternate form and not wild shape. Also because I effectively jumped from being a 13th level character to a 22nd level character, I have a massive XP gap and likely will not be seeing another level before the campaign ends. Assuming my DM is in a really good mood, is there any way to make a magic item that grants the user natural spell (and if so what is its base price based on limited uses and continuous use).

Even though there is a multitude of quality third party supplements out there unfortunately the game I'm in is WoTC only. So 3rd party feats/spells really don't help. Are there any other WoTC feats/spells/magic items out there?

Well, given the fact that you ECL is now way higher than the rest of the party, I'd say not being able to cast spells in hybrid or animal forms is fine. What your DM might be interested in is the 'progression charts' published on the WotC website some time back. These were essentially levels that you gained in the particular lycanthrope class. That helps with the 'leveling' aspects.

I can't recall anything off the top of my head that will help with the hybrid form, apart from preparing a lot of Silent spells. Note that there are a lot of spells without verbal components that can still be cast in hybrid form. Otherwise the Silent spell feat is useful. I think there's a metamagic rod for that as well.

Pinotage