A wolf among the sheep

[Telperion]

So, one of the characters was bitten by a natural born were-wolf, and has turned into a Chaotic Evil monster. The thing is that the player / character likes it.

The over all feel of the campaign is towards evil / neutral / lawful characters. None of the characters in the group are good at present, although a few of them are lawful neutral, and could basically go towards good if given the right incentive. Probably not Lawful Good, though.

So, who could this sudden lycanthropy in the party destroy the campaign? We are talking about more of a social roleplaying adventure, than hack'n'slash. There are some fights, but most of them are dealt with hired mercenaries or trained soldiers. The end result is that most of the players tend towards socially capable, but rather physically weak characters. Or in the case of the wizards their spells simply lack extensive combat applications. The campaign has hardly had time to start yet, and there is this CE character running loose already. There are game mechanical things that can be done to get rid of the lycanthropy, bu they will be fairly drastic and difficult to pull off. Especially since the character / player probably won't be receptive to them. Further more there is the slight problem that suddenly one of the characters is much more combat oriented and capable of killing things. While the character was more combat oriented than the others to start with he was also capable of plenty of social interaction. Now, I feel that the character is losing whatever social skills or capabilities it had to begin with and a growling, intimidating and "destroying" wolf has appeared into the group.

So, what's the worst case scenario that you can come up with? What can this were-wolf monster do to my socially oriented campaign before being hunted down, and most likely killed?

 

[monboesen]

I've had a similar situation in my campaign for about two years. One player was infected by a wererat in one of the first adventures. To make matters worse another character is a witch hunter, trained to hunt and kill such creatures.

My take on it has been to follow the rules quite closely. At first he did not know he was infected. After he found out he was, in game terms, explained what would happen if he ever gave in to his new and strange urges or actively tried so shift to wererat form. It was the wizard and witch hunter who did the explaining.

As the rules stand, a character who has contracted lycanthropy will become an npc as soon as they embrace their new powers. In my game this means that if he does not try to resist changes when wounded and at full moon, he becomes an npc immedietly. Same thing happens if he ever willingly try to shift form.

If he cannot resist and changes form his mindset complety changes. Anyone he had strong feelings about he now harbors burning hatred against. This coupled with an almost irresisteable desire to kill, maim and gorge himself on human flesh makes him quite unsociable. He can either play this out himself or let me take over the pc until he turns back to human form.

This has had a great impact on my game. Many storylines has revolved around a possible cure, but they have not yet succeded. It also means that every combat is very dangereous. If he is wounded and changes, the other players suddenly faces a dangerous and unpredictable foe that they have to take down without killing.

I would not advice you to let him have any control or even resemblance to his former self in his wolf forms for several reasons. One is fun, it has lead to many great combat and roleplaying scenes in my game. Especially as the characters personality is slowly changing in human form as well, he will not be able to stave off the terrible curse forever. Another is power. A lycanthrope is more powerfull than standard races, they have an ECL of 2+. They get bonus hd and bonus feats, scent, dmr and other powers.

In my game this has so far been balanced out by the loss of control, as most of the powers only apply in hybrid or animal form.

At the least he should have to pay this ECL cost if he wants to play the werewolf and you are willing to let him. Easiest way is not to let him level the next couple of times the others do.