Do wererats really have to be evil?

[Quasqueton]

Just a funny little rodent full of curiosity, who loves to climb on my shirt when I open his cage.

Yeah, he's trying to climb up to your throat, so he can rip it open and curiously watch the blood pump from your jugular vein.

Quasqueton

 

[VirgilCaine]

They didn't know for sure. The town had recently been the subject of orc attacks led by a hobgoblin (homebrew PC race), and tensions were running high. When the PC's entered town, the hobgoblin in the party was accused of it by the mayor's widow. The sheriff took the group to his office for questioning but released them on their own recog. While investigating the attacks, the PC's became suspsicious of the sheriff and his men becuase they were missing at unusual times.

This group of players is typically very paranoid, so they followed one of the deputies when he left to travel to the "lair" outside town. When the arrived, they saw the sheriff and some of his deputies speaking with wererats in their hybrid form. The made a listening check and discovered that the conversation was a back and forth argument with the "wererat" group wanting to leave town, and the sheriff's group wanting to stay. Before, anything else could be gleaned, they formulated a battle plan and dove in to battle.

So, I'd say it was a combination of the "All wererats are evil" mentality and some purposefully vague information which they didn't take the time to investigate.

Well, that's sad.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Wererats are evil for the same reason that werewolves are savage, marauding loners.

Historical perception of the traits of the animal got more to do with the folklore than anything real. And... well, the prospect of slow, horrible death by the filthy, filthy diseases carried by rodents did tend to give our ancestors pause.

 

[Feathercircle]

I sort of use the historical perception aspects with all the lycanthropes in my campaign... with one exception. The standard European historical perceptions which almost everyone is familiar with don't apply universally- a lycanthrope's manifestation is grounded in the local perception of the animal in question. The archetype's you've absorbed growing up determine the sort of werecreature you become... All lycanthropes of the same kind from the same background tend to strongly resemble each other, but there's little or no similarites between lycanthropes of differing cultures... A serpent to one culture might be a creature of poison and deceit, a cold-blooded killer, while in a second paradigm it might be emblematic of ancient wisdom, a symbol of regenration and healing. A weresnake from the first culture would likely be a master manipulator, corrupting society in secret, while one from the second might very well be a bastion of the community, in and out of wereform. In my campaign, you might very well find good wererats, depending on where you're looking...

 

[Felon]

At this point, the PC's were faced with a wonderful dilemma - Do we kill the sheriff? He's unarmed and bleeding. When asked, he says he'll certainly continue to "breed", just as any other creature would. He's not going to go and bite every person he sees, but overtime, he will certainly sire a number of other wererats. He does work to protect the town in everyway and cares for the people a great deal. So, the PC's find themselves with this deliciously moral ambiguity (I like those!

KER-CHOP!

Let his god sort it out.

 

[caudor]

I suppose if a group of wererats decided they didn't want to be evil, then they are simply unusual wererats. Nothing complicated about that.

Perhaps the situation they are in makes it in their best interest to do so. Self-interest is a powerful motivator.

 

[yennico]

Everytime I see a Wererat, I think Splinter from TMNT - or the Skaven from Warhammer.

Ditto

You could create a small monastic order composed entirely of wererats. They seek to control their lycanthropic urges through the strict regimen of meditation and martial training. In time, they hope to learn to master their animalistic side.

Nice idea.

 

[Turanil]

Yeah, he's trying to climb up to your throat, so he can rip it open and curiously watch the blood pump from your jugular vein.

Quasqueton

LOL!

(BTW: The rat is half a pound in weight, and when he bites (happened once as I was harrassing him), I think he hardly does more than 25% of 1 point of damage; so with my natural damage reduction of one half hit-point per hit, I hardly notice it... )

 

[Li Shenron]

I don't have an explanation why werewolves and wererats are evil while werebears are good I suppose these "standard alignments" had inspiration from horror literature, and that's why D&D made them this way, but of course a DM is always entitled to define a race as he wishes it to be like in his own setting.

The only possible complication that may arise is if the players are used to wererats being evil an would always react accordingly. Of course you should let them know, in case they for instance attack them on sight!

 

[amethal]

(BTW: The rat is half a pound in weight, and when he bites (happened once as I was harrassing him), I think he hardly does more than 25% of 1 point of damage; so with my natural damage reduction of one half hit-point per hit, I hardly notice it... )

If that's all you have for DR, don't ever get a parrot. Only the tarrasque wouldn't notice a bite from one of my "pets".

If the authors of the Monster Manual wanted variation in lycanthrope alignment, they would have put "normally" or "often" in front of their alignment entry.

However, who cares what they think? Its not their game, its yours.

Personally, in my campaign any creature can have any alignment. Evil solars and good fiends are unbelievably rare (and chances are no PC will ever meet one) but that doesn't mean they don't exist.