Lycanthropes, HD, LA, EXP and You!

[cignus_pfaccari]

You are wrong in this case - the afflicted character gains all tiger hit dice and is such 9th-level, discounting the LA. He gains also low-light vision, scent and a wisdom bonus of +2, so I wouldn't think, that your theory holds true.

Don't forget Iron Will!

Not only does he gain the hit dice, but Control Shape is now a class skill for him, so he now has all the skill points from the animal hit dice to spend on it.

This, however, does bring up the question of what happens if I earn enough XP to get past the ECL and take another level, and then seek a cure. I'd rule that, at that point, the curse couldn't be lifted any more.

Brad

 

[Klaus]

IMHO, it'd be like being level drained of all the animal HD and template LA. You just lose that many levels and your XP is reduced to the appropriate ammount.

 

[FEADIN]

XP-wise, the character suffers an influx of XP to represent his newly-gained HD. So a 1st-level fighter (0 XP) who becomes a werewolf (+2 LA for afflicted and +2 HD for wolf) suddenly has 10000 XP (the minimum for 5th level). If he gets cured of his affliction, he loses the necessary XP to rid him of the LA and animal HD.

I would say that he doesn't have more xp, he needs more xp to level up, he keeps his xp and start to progress more slowly (if in a group far below in levels), that's the curse, in this case you have plenty of time to seek a curse before the problem of gain/loose xp arise.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

The savage progressions by Sean Reynolds are an excellent method of handling the curse.

The nice thing about the system is that the change is gradual, and in order to gain control over the cool abiities, the character has to invest in the class.. XP, skill points.. etc..

As a curse, if you can control the changes, its not bad... but some variant Clerics can Turn Lycans instead of Undead.... an interesting twist

Using Savage Progressions also makes it less likely for the character to want to be 'cured' the farther they progress... as the character loses the Lycan levels....ouch!

If you follow the RAW, an inflicted character immediatly gains the abilities and LA of the template.. meaning a 12th level character running around in a 3rd level group.
Using Savage Progresssions, its easier to handle in play.

Anyway.. rambling.. still