Can Lycanthropes talk in hybrid form?

[thundershot]

According to Races of Faerun, Lycanthropes can't use verbal components of spells in hybrid form. That leads me to believe that they can't talk any more in that form. Also, the hybrid form is now the same size as the larger of the two creatures... in a Weretiger's case, large.

My best friend and player has had a weretiger bard for years, and he feels he's being completely screwed by the "uber-powered" 3e lycanthrope rules. His character is a young weretiger, and prefers the hybrid form. Now he can't talk or cast spells in that form, and to top it all off, the form is now LARGE, which isn't how he envisioned his character at all.

So I've been thinking about how to tackle this... and let me know if it sounds kosher. I hate just "rule 0-ing" things left and right, especially just for one character. Would it be feasable to take the Tiger and lower its HD to that of a younger tiger that would be medium sized? The stats would go down according to the size change rules (and I'm sure that's fine with him, he was pissed when he found out how much stronger lycanthropes got in 3e), and the size would go down, as well as the ECL (hit dice).

Unfortunately, I'll have to wait until July to see what the new tiger looks like stat-wise and make the adjustments...


Any advice or help is appreciated.
Thanks!
Chris

 

[Kesh]

Biologically, they shouldn't be able to speak. After all, a wolf's muzzle is not designed to emulate speech. It's made for tearing into things, and to provide an excellent sense of smell.

However, in a fantasy environment, I'd allow it. Otherwise, animal races like gnolls couldn't speak Common.

It's a contradictory rule, and I'd ignore it.

 

[jonesy]

Casting spells is a couple of degrees harder task than speaking because of pronounciation issues. Since he's been a lycanthrope for a long time now, he's probably gotten over the speaking issue and people can actually understand what he says now, but it could be that he is simply unable to cast spells because of said emulation problem.

 

[Tonguez]

I'd take the Scoobydoo line - he can speak but can anyone actually understand whats being said?

Again the anatomy issue comes in so that the words are not as clear as they would be with a more human-oid form. Its because the words aren't clearly annuciated that spells fail,

btw I'd run Gnolls speaking Common the same way...

Oh and making him a Medium sized Tiger shouldn't be a problem