Players wanting to become infected with Lycanthrope

[Outlanders]

Howdy, all...

In the current game that I'm running, the party had to fight off a pair of were-rats. It wasn't all that difficult, considering the party is 3rd level, they took out the nasty's quite quickly.

However, one of the party members, a fighter, was bitten, and now the player want's the character to become infected. First, he missed his fort. save, so the disease has taken hold.

But, to top that off, he used what could only be construde as player knowledge to 'help' the infection take hold, by doing some weird crap with the corpse of a dire rat.

Now, sure, the character is LE in alignment, and the player is a GM as well, so he has access to the rules, as I do (but I have far more resources than he does).

I guess this really isn't a question, it's more of just a post to get other people's opinions.

This is what is going to happen. Sure, the character is infected, and he expects that I'll allow him to keep it. That's not going to happen, not at 3rd level.

On the full moon, he's going to change. I'll have him attack the party, all out, with everything he has. He's the main fighter, everone else are cleric's, mages and one poor, inept monk. He has the most hit points and the highest AC out of the party.

I'm going to force him to fight to the death, to kill the party. Some might find this to be a little harsh, but it states that a lycanthrope loses control and becomes totally beastial during the first change.

Also, considering that the rest of the party ranges in alignment from true Neutral to Awful good, I mean, lawful good, if they found out that he was infected, odds are the good characters would possibly try to have him cured, while the neutral might try to have him killed.

So, it comes down to this... as a GM, what would you do?

Chris

 

[Hand of Vecna]

I'd do what you already suggested -- have the LE Fighter-turned-Wererat attack and slaughter the N and LG clerics and mages, and hope that the surviving non-wererat PC's subdue him and force a cure on him.

Why is a LE fighter travelling with a group of LG clerics and mages and a monk, anyway?

Also, you'd be perfectly justified in penalizing the character and/or player for using Player Knowledge that the character would/could not have, especially in a case of Character-Boosting like this.

 

[Kyramus]

Personally I play lycanthrope as follows.
Natural Lycanthropes (ie born with it) can control their urges.
Transformed/infected to become Lycanthropes CAN NOT control their urges.

With that in mind, your plan to make him fight will be ok, BUT you can't make him fight to the death. Even beasts have a will to live.

What you might want to do is let the whole thing play out, when the pc returns the next morning, is he going to be welcomed by the PC's or not. (grins)

 

[Rashak Mani]

Remove Disease
Have the party cleric cast it on him, or if the party cleric cant cast it yet, drop him a hint and have him ask a city cleric to cast it on the Fighter. Nothing better than a worried cleric about the main fighter which he heals all the time.
Dont let him become a WereRat so easily, and I think you should punisy him in someway for using GM knowledge with a 3rd lvl Fighter.
My two cents anyway.

 

[Outlanders]

I didn't notice what I had typed until you posted it out (bad writer, bad!)... I meant to say, that I was going to force the player to kill the other party members, attack them until they were all dead. Odds are he would be able to mop the floor with them anyhow.

And, that's a damn good question, what IS a LE character doing with a group that is essentially all good alignment.

I allowed it, for sake of pure role playing. He's been playing the alignment quite well, really.

However, I will be the first to admit that this is the first time I've actually ran a game in about 7 years, and the first time playing in about 5 years.

I told the players NOT to get attached to their characters, as I am basically learning how to run 3rd edition from scratch.

The bottom line? I'm bound to make mistakes. And, it appears, that this is exactly what happened. As long as a person learns from their mistakes, that's what really matters.

Chris

 

[Tar-Edhel]

I'm going to force him to fight to the death, to kill the party. Some might find this to be a little harsh, but it states that a lycanthrope loses control and becomes totally beastial during the first change.

I'd be a little upset if I was to lose my PC that way. If you want to give a lesson to your player, have him flee the party and attack someone in the nearest town (someone who will call the gards and have him killed or emprisonned).

Don't punish the whole party if one player is metagaming. Having your wererat to-be restart first level while the others are 3rd should be an even better lesson.

You made a mistake, true. But not everyone needs to be penalized.

 

[Outlanders]

Rashak Mani:

In the game I'm running, there is a 6th level cleric in the village they are currently based out of, so that person can cure disease. The party, however, can't.

On an adventure related note, they did manage to find a ancient elf (it was trapped in statis, and the party succeeded in freeing her). She's a 10th level cleric, who's suffering from Amnesia. There are two ways of removing this, a Restore spell (the party might find the scroll that I placed in the dungeon), or a dispel magic (they have one of those, but never thought to use it).

If they can figure out how to cure the cleric, she'll remember who and what she is, and she'll be able to cure the lycanthrope.

Before anyone says anything, no this character isn't going to be a party member, she's going to be a patron to the party, someone who can occasionally help by curing and so forth.

Chris

 

[DarkJester]

Chances are that if he knows what Lycanthropy entails (as a player) he will take measures to secure himself on the night of the first change. If he is in manacles and a cage he won't be doing much to the party..... I had a character try it once, unfortunatly they were in a wilderness enviorment with only rope bindings.....needless to say, the weretiger character broke the bonds and took 2 pcs down with him.

 

[Dingleberry]

You could always talk to the player about it before the next session, so he understands what will happen if he continues down that path.

 

[Berk]

I don't see why anyone would want to be an inflicted lycanthrope unless they were very very near level and had a ton of skill points to put into control shape or whatever that skill is. Being an inflicted lycanthrope means you can't completely control your shape shifting and such, just basically predict it. And as a 3rd level fighter you won't get many skill points to put into control shape or whatever that skill is when you level. Just seems more of a hassle then anything else to me, for both the DM and player.