Health or Experience?

[disgruntledarcher]

Recently on a quest, my group encountered a band of likens and my archer character was infected by a were-bear. I'm having trouble assessing the situation. My character is of chaotic nuetral alignment due to past exp and future plans (revenge). I like the fact that my liken abilities granted me 31 more hp but the cons still remain. With it comes the risk of destroying any armor I may be wearing at the time of a low-health tranformation. Also, the inability to reside in a city during the nights of the full moon is inhibiting. The main concern of mine is the fact that due to my be considered three levels higher than the rest of my party, we're now considered to be a one level higher group. This is bad because now we get thrown into harder scenarios and less exp. I have the chance to remove the curse in the city we just arrived in. Now, the question being: Heath or Exp, what would you chose?

 

[BSF]

There are a couple of suggestions I have, having run a campaign with a werebear PC in it.

First of all, the lycanthropic templates are pretty significant boosts to power. Your DM needs to determine if the curse is really a curse, or just another component in the toolbox for character power & DM Story hooks. If your DM wants to take a toolbox approach, then I would encourage you to look at the template classes on WotC's site for werebears. They had a Savage Progressions feature last year detailing it.

Playing a werebear can be a lot of fun. But you do have to embrace it as a player. You have to understand your PC's feelings toward being a lycanthrope and you have to resolve that feeling of a loss of control. You will also need to resolve the conflicting feelings the PC might have if there is an opportunity to relieve this curse and the PC doesn't take it. (Though I see one possible hook using the revenge motif if you choose that route.)

The effective party level does become a concern because you are impacting the way the CR and exp system works. If your DM isn't using variable exp, then you are affecting it for the entire party. So, while all this is metagame considerations, they are relevant if they impact the enjoyment of the other players. Your DM can use variable exp to rectify the disparity in effective Levels for PCs, and that would mitigate your concerns.

For the PC, I wouldn't worry about the exp. I would worry about the RP. What would the character do in this situation? Figure that out and you have your answer.

Incidentally, it looks like your DM is possibly misapplying the stat increases. Con adjustments should only come when you are in bear form. When you try to reverse engineer how the bonuses are applied, you also need to consider the animal adjustments. The linked Savage Progressions column helps break this out and is useful for figuring out how non-book lycanthropes are built, so it is a good read regardless. There was also an article in Dragon that had a different class breakdown for some lycanthropes.

Best of luck!

 

[BSF]

I have search, so I decided to use it.

Back in December of 2003, the topic of lycanthropy by levels came up. If you want to read more of that discussion: Lycanthropy by levels, underpowered (Dragon #313)

Now I am wondering how all of that worked out for Candidus_Cogitens. It was a good conversation and I hope it all worked out well for his or her game.

 

[iwatt]

I DM a game with a Wrebear. The Party is Level 6-7. A 6th level ranger was contaged with Lycanthropy, and decided to keep it. Since the full Lycanthrope change is 8 Levels (6 animal Hit dice, and 2 LA), I decided to use the WOTC savage progression mentioned before. In order to keep it slightly blanaced team wise, what I didi was bump the Ranger to Level 8 (Ranger 6 + 1 Level of template + 1 Bear HD) but kept his earned XP the same. Basically I loaned him the XP (without interest ) since giving him only the first LA of the template would have pretyy much shafted him: change shape into an animal form withou Natural attacks. The first Bear Hit dice gives him a bight attack at least and skills to put into Control Shape. This keeps a melee character involved in the story. Last night was the first time he screwed up a control shape and had to fight in bear form. He wasn't too disgruntled, and is currently salivating into taking the second Lyc LA for the hybrid form.

The werebear is a lot of fun for everybody, and I also House ruled that his Bear HD and Lyc LA's count as Levels for his animal companion. So he changed his wolf for a bear.

This might not be to useful, but I think it was worth sharing that the Wrebear is fun, but involves forgoing regular and planned character advancement (i.e forget about taking Prestige classes, Animal Hit dice are the way to go.

On a side note, I've always had trouble with Forced Alignment changes. With The Lycanthropes I choose an aspect and explain teh Alignment shift that way:

Bears: very protective..... Lawful good. This doesn't mean he follows the laws of the land, etc...but that he's now very protective of those he cares for. Almost Instinctually.

Wolves: They love the Hunt. They want to hunt tougher prey each time. What's topugher to hunt than other intelligent beings. But the hunt brings out instinctual savagery during the kill.

But I also use a less strict interpertation of alignment anyways

 

[hong]

Recently on a quest, my group encountered a band of likens and my archer character was infected by a were-bear. I'm having trouble assessing the situation. My character is of chaotic nuetral alignment due to past exp and future plans (revenge). I like the fact that my liken abilities granted me 31 more hp but the cons still remain.

You misspelled "lichens". Hope this helps!

 

[Angel Tarragon]

To take a note from Buffy The Vampire Slayer series you could have a cage fitted into a subterranean passage underneath your residence (if you have one). Have the bars built from adamantium and have them magically reinforced. If you can plot the course of the moon, then you can prepare for this and put yourself in the cage when the time is appropriate. This will help you avoid ruining any armor. I'd suggest donning a loincloth before going in, so you don't ruin any clothes as well.

 

[vulcan_idic]

You misspelled "lichens". Hope this helps!

Actually, he misspelled what probably should have been spelled Lycans (an abbreviation of the longer Lycanthrope)... I wasn't going to say anything attributing it to some sort of regional or campaign specific slang, but gee hong, if you're going to correct someones spelling, be smart about it. It is extremely clear from context that the word is an abbreviation for "Lycanthrope" rather than the pluralization of a word meaning, "a simple plant consisting of a fungus living in close association with an alga, typically growing as a crust or covering on rocks, walls, and trees"... ("Oh no, a band of tiny, simple, immobile plants covering that wall!! *gasp*)

 

[disgruntledarcher]

Thanks for the input. Under the consideration on this topic, I think I'm going to continue in with the curse. I figure I can still maintain my quest as my planned archer and now I'll just imlpy somebetter tactics. With Close Combat Shot, I can join the other players in melee in order to assist them among other things (healing, mage armor, etc.) As far as the risk of armor loss in tranformation, I'll just wear unenchanted armor so the loss is minimal. With the transformation in the low health situation, I won't lose my alignment because I didn't transform willingly, plus I can switch to melee battle since even though my character's an a archer, he's still pretty balanced combat-wise. The increase in health will allow me to take over when our "tank" is low on health and wants to switch to ranged combat. I'll just put up with the curse for now and deal with it until it becomes to inhibiting.