D&D 5E Lycanthrope Player Characters - How Would YOU Do It?

[Clint_L]

We're ramping up for our next D&D campaign, and one of the players ("Gaelin") really wants to play the role of a werewolf. (This person is an avid hunter, and also a huge fan of The Elder Scrolls games, especially Skyrim and Elder Scrolls Online, loves dogs...) So nobody was really surprised when she asked the DM "so in this campaign, can I be a werewolf?"

It's always tricky when players have a very specific vision that is based on pop culture, because it can be hard to make that work in a D&D framework while maintaining some degree of balance and consistency with other, ore conventional player characters. I do my best to honour each player's character concept, but sometimes they really push the boundaries, like they basically want to be Goku or something.

How far are others willing to go to accommodate custom characters?

 

[Clint_L]

You mean like the Order of the Lycan?

Blood Hunter: Order of the Lycan - DND 5th Edition

dnd5e.wikidot.com

That's what I'd do, and then tweak it to accommodate the howl and summon wolf spirit abilities that were described, which would mean giving something else up.

 

[Tonguez]

Level-ups Feat chain

 

[CleverNickName]

It's always tricky when players have a very specific vision that is based on pop culture, because it can be hard to make that work in a D&D framework while maintaining some degree of balance and consistency with other, more conventional player characters. I do my best to honour each player's character concept, but sometimes they really push the boundaries, like they basically want to be Goku or something.

How far are others willing to go to accommodate custom characters?

Well, in that other thread, our DM and fellow players have been quite accommodating, so long as the backstory can support it and it fits the character's theme. For example, the DM is allowing the Eldritch Knight to use the druid's spell list instead of the wizard's because they both agreed it was a better fit for an Outlander character.

You're definitely right about balance and consistency. It can be hard to reign in the player's imagination, especially when a precedent has already been set. A while ago, a player pitched the idea of playing a vampire character, as-written in the Monster Manual. Obviously the DM said no, but suggested the Dhampir from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft as a compromise. The player declined because it was much less powerful (ie, more balanced) than the Monster Manual version and the player felt cheated.

 

[I'm A Banana]

The player wants to be able to grow as a werewolf, similar to the way things are done in Skyrim. (For those who don't know: contracting lycanthropy in Skyrim unlocks a special quest and a whole new skill tree. As you unlock parts of this skill tree, you learn a unique form of magic (howls) that allow you to temporarily boost your combat ability, summon spectral wolves, heal yourself, etc.) So the player wants his lycanthropy to be more than just a status condition--she wants it to gradually change her character over the course of several levels.

This is a big impact, so just doing it as a species isn't going to work. Doing it per the 5e MM is also going to be underwhelming if the player's looking for "werewolf skills." Sounds like the player's going to want to do "cool werewolf stuff" in every fight, maybe on every turn - that's a big impact.

The big drawback of feats and subclasses is a diversity of abilities. A Path of the Beast barbarian is still mostly just a barbarian, with a few extra bells and whistles. It's not a whole power-set, it's like 4 abilities over 20 levels. Feats fare a little better, but only a little, and would require quite a bit of personalization from the DM. If they're happy with it, that'll be OK, but it's not cool werewolf stuff in every round (and maybe not in every fight).

What might be worth exploring is just...re-flavoring. Stat boosts, summoning, healing...that's all just spells. Those give you more diverse options, too. A paladin, ranger, or eldritch knight could give you what you're looking for here, since magic is a bigger part of those classes, while still retaining some martial ability. If you combine it with a thematic species choice like Shifter, you could get the options and the power level. Your plate mail can be tough hide, maybe let smites deal slashing damage, simple changes like that can go a long way.

 

[Corinnguard]

Maybe a 5.5e conversion of PF2's Beastkin versatile heritage?

From the Archives of Nethys:

Beastkin is a blanket term for any person who has gained the ability to partially or fully transform into an animal through any number of means, while maintaining a balance with their humanoid side. Most beastkin are born of werecreatures or have a werecreature ancestor in their lineage. The curse might not always fully manifest in the child of the werecreature pairing, giving the child the transformative nature of their lineage without a weakness to silver or a loss of control during the full moon. Born or made, werecreatures usually hold such beastkin in high regard, as they embody many of their strengths without any of their weaknesses.

Beastkin - Ancestries - Archives of Nethys: Pathfinder 2nd Edition Database

Beastkin is a blanket term for any person who has gained the ability to partially or fully transform into an animal through any number of means, while maintaining a balance with their humanoid side. Most beastkin are born of <a style="text-decoration:underline"...

2e.aonprd.com

Or how about a heritage that is the descendant of lycanthropes such as Level Up's Garoul?

Garoul | Level Up

a5e.tools

The player could then pick the Lupine Ascension gift at 1st level in order to shapeshift into a wolf. Hehe. Then they could get the Huff and Puff paragon gift at 10th level.

 

[Micah Sweet]

We're ramping up for our next D&D campaign, and one of the players ("Gaelin") really wants to play the role of a werewolf. (This person is an avid hunter, and also a huge fan of The Elder Scrolls games, especially Skyrim and Elder Scrolls Online, loves dogs...) So nobody was really surprised when she asked the DM "so in this campaign, can I be a werewolf?" Our DM is a good one, and she agreed to work with the player to find a way to make it happen. The version in the Monster Manual was kicked out of consideration, because she didn't want the character to become an alignment-shifting part-time NPC...but pretty much anything else is on the table.

The player wants to be able to grow as a werewolf, similar to the way things are done in Skyrim. (For those who don't know: contracting lycanthropy in Skyrim unlocks a special quest and a whole new skill tree. As you unlock parts of this skill tree, you learn a unique form of magic (howls) that allow you to temporarily boost your combat ability, summon spectral wolves, heal yourself, etc.) So the player wants his lycanthropy to be more than just a status condition--she wants it to gradually change her character over the course of several levels.

I thought it would make a good discussion topic for EN World. And I also thought it would be fun to set up a poll, and then collect peoples' suggestions and put them into the poll.

I have two options. You can use the feat chain in A5e, which is good if you want the contraction of lycanthtopy to happen in-game over a period of time. The other option I use is a slight homebrewing (to account for Level Up's heritage rules) of the 3pp Van Richten's Treatise on Lycanthropy:

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

This is a wonderful book detailing every aspect of lycanthropy and provided detailed mechanics for handling virtually anything having to do with it, along with a lot of different kinds of were-creatures (more than I've seen anywhere). I really can't recommend it enough for anyone interested in lycanthropy in 5e.

 

[Corinnguard]

2e's Creature Crucible: Night Howlers allowed a player to play a lycanthrope back then.

 

[Distracted DM]

I miss the monster classes from 3.5.

* Grimm Hollow had got a game system about mutation into different types of creatures.

Savage Species! Yeah I definitely think "I want to play a dragon/illithid/etc" is best served as its own class. It seems like making them as an ancestry/origin etc is too much power if you want to stay true to the monster; IME players tend to think "I want to be a (monster) (class) so I can have all the power of a (monster) AND a (class) and their features will wombo-combo!"

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

There is space for a future class, something like the sifter class from Pathfinder1, but I suggest to add some touch from Warden 4e and the totemist from "Magic of Incarnum".

Other idea is to create something like a "simbiont" monster class. The PC would be more powerful but the power balance wouldn't be broken becuase the distribution of of XPs would be like one player with two PCs. A simbiont monster class could be for example a "hollow" living construct working like a sentient power-armour. A gnome artificier would be "wearing" a paladin "autognome" like a construct mount.