Level Up (A5E) Natural Lycanthropes as a Heritage

[Corinnguard]

In Gate Pass Gazette #0, we were introduced to a number of Lycanthrope Synergy feats for players who were willing to become Afflicted Lycanthropes. But what if you wanted to play as a Natural Lycanthrope? Would you need to pick up the Lycanthrope Synergy feats as well and ignore the parts for Afflicted Lycanthropes?

I like to think that Natural Lycanthropes could be a Heritage. It could be written along the lines of the Planetouched heritage with each kind of lycanthrope being a Gift with it's own set of benefits.

Thoughts?

 

[VenerableBede]

If you wanted to give natural lycanthropy to any heritage, I would write natural lycanthropy as a Gift that didn’t have an assigned heritage. If you want to be a natural lycanthrope you can pick the appropriate Gift instead of one of the usual ones for your heritage, then maybe have Paragon Traits only available to people who took a natural lycanthropy Gift (rather than a specific heritage).

 

[Corinnguard]

If you wanted to give natural lycanthropy to any heritage, I would write natural lycanthropy as a Gift that didn’t have an assigned heritage. If you want to be a natural lycanthrope you can pick the appropriate Gift instead of one of the usual ones for your heritage, then maybe have Paragon Traits only available to people who took a natural lycanthropy Gift (rather than a specific heritage).

Pathfinder 2nd edition has something like this. It worked along the same lines as a Mixed Heritage in A5e.

 

[VenerableBede]

Pathfinder 2nd edition has something like this. It worked along the same lines as a Mixed Heritage in A5e.

Further evidence that true originality is dead But, I suppose the good news is that if Pathfinder already does this - and does it well - then it’s a proven method that might work as well in A5e.

 

[Corinnguard]

In Pathfinder 2nd edition, race had been renamed ancestry. So you picked an ancestry and then selected from one of several heritages tied to that heritage. These basically were the same as the heritage gifts in A5e. A heritage that wasn't tied to a specific ancestry was called a Versatile heritage. The Planetouched in 2nd edition Pathfinder were treated as Versatile heritages. The closest Lycanthrope heritage in PF2 was the Beastkin Versatile heritage. They had all of the strengths of a lycanthrope, but none of their weaknesses.