Cleon
Hero
If you don't fancy Track I'd also consider Improved Initiative or Weapon Focus (bite). Of those two I like Improved Initiative better, since their attacks are already pretty good.
Special Conversion Thread: Lycanthropes and their ilk
- Thread starter Shade
- Start date
If you don't fancy Track I'd also consider Improved Initiative or Weapon Focus (bite). Of those two I like Improved Initiative better, since their attacks are already pretty good.
freyar
Extradimensional Explorer
Isometric skills with Imp Init sounds good.
OK, skills, feats, and DR are now agreed upon. As for CR, these seem considerably better than the CR 2 bugbear or wererat and possibly even better than a CR 3 werewolf, so I'd go at least CR 3. Treasure, alignment, and advancement are fine with me.
OK, skills, feats, and DR are now agreed upon. As for CR, these seem considerably better than the CR 2 bugbear or wererat and possibly even better than a CR 3 werewolf, so I'd go at least CR 3. Treasure, alignment, and advancement are fine with me.
Cleon
Hero
Well a Dire Rat advanced a size category would get +1 Challenge Rating, so CR 3 makes sense. Especially considering their nastier "curse".
What about Level Adjustment - LA +3 like the SRD Wererat?
Updating the Ratwere Working Draft.
Cleon
Hero
By the way, I'm wondering whether it wouldn't be better to split out the "Human-Form" stats since that might make it easier to parse, e.g.:
Ratwere
Medium Magical Beast (Shapechanger)
Hit Dice: 3d10+9 (25 hp)
Initiative: +7
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares), climb 20 ft., swim 20 ft.
Armor Class: 16 (+3 Dex, +3 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+5
Attack: Bite +6 melee (1d6+3 plus ratwere plague);
—Hybrid-form: Shortsword +6 melee (1d6+2/19-20), or bite +6 melee (1d6+2 plus ratwere plague), or dagger +6 melee/ranged (1d4+2/19-20)
Full Attack: Bite +6 melee (1d6+3 plus ratwere plague);
—Hybrid-form: Shortsword +6 melee (1d6+2/19-20) and bite +1 melee (1d6+1 plus ratwere plague), or dagger +6 melee (1d4+2/19-20) and bite +1 melee (1d6+1 plus ratwere plague)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Ratwere plague, summon rats
Special Qualities: Alternate form, dire, damage reduction 10/magic or silver, low-light vision, scent, speak with rats
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +6
Abilities: Str 14, Dex 17, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 11
Skills: Balance +11, Climb +11, Hide +9, Listen +5, Move Silently +5, Spot +5, Swim +11
Feats: Alertness, Improved Initiative, Iron Will (B), Weapon Finesse (B)
Environment: Urban and underground
Organization: Solitary, family (2-5), pack (6-24) or troupe (2-24 plus 2-40 dire rats and rat swarms)
Challenge Rating: 3
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always chaotic evil
Advancement: 4-9 HD (Medium) or by character class
Level Adjustment: +X
Ratwere, Human Form
Ratwere
Medium Magical Beast (Shapechanger)
Hit Dice: 3d10+9 (25 hp)
Initiative: +7
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares), climb 20 ft., swim 20 ft.
Armor Class: 16 (+3 Dex, +3 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+5
Attack: Bite +6 melee (1d6+3 plus ratwere plague);
—Hybrid-form: Shortsword +6 melee (1d6+2/19-20), or bite +6 melee (1d6+2 plus ratwere plague), or dagger +6 melee/ranged (1d4+2/19-20)
Full Attack: Bite +6 melee (1d6+3 plus ratwere plague);
—Hybrid-form: Shortsword +6 melee (1d6+2/19-20) and bite +1 melee (1d6+1 plus ratwere plague), or dagger +6 melee (1d4+2/19-20) and bite +1 melee (1d6+1 plus ratwere plague)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Ratwere plague, summon rats
Special Qualities: Alternate form, dire, damage reduction 10/magic or silver, low-light vision, scent, speak with rats
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +6
Abilities: Str 14, Dex 17, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 11
Skills: Balance +11, Climb +11, Hide +9, Listen +5, Move Silently +5, Spot +5, Swim +11
Feats: Alertness, Improved Initiative, Iron Will (B), Weapon Finesse (B)
Environment: Urban and underground
Organization: Solitary, family (2-5), pack (6-24) or troupe (2-24 plus 2-40 dire rats and rat swarms)
Challenge Rating: 3
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always chaotic evil
Advancement: 4-9 HD (Medium) or by character class
Level Adjustment: +X
Ratwere, Human Form
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 13 (+3 Dex), touch 13, flat-footed 10
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+5
Attack: Shortsword +6 melee (1d6+2/19-20), or dagger +6 melee/ranged (1d4+2/19-20)
Full Attack: Shortsword +6 melee (1d6+2/19-20), or dagger +6 melee/ranged (1d4+2/19-20)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Summon rats
Special Qualities: Alternate form, dire, low-light vision, scent, speak with rats
Skills: Balance +3, Climb +11, Hide +9, Listen +5, Move Silently +5, Spot +5, Swim +11
Armor Class: 13 (+3 Dex), touch 13, flat-footed 10
Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+5
Attack: Shortsword +6 melee (1d6+2/19-20), or dagger +6 melee/ranged (1d4+2/19-20)
Full Attack: Shortsword +6 melee (1d6+2/19-20), or dagger +6 melee/ranged (1d4+2/19-20)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Summon rats
Special Qualities: Alternate form, dire, low-light vision, scent, speak with rats
Skills: Balance +3, Climb +11, Hide +9, Listen +5, Move Silently +5, Spot +5, Swim +11
Cleon
Hero
Since you've suggested you'd like to finish off one of our "batches" so we can get something posted on the CC, I'll post a proposal for the flavour text and tactics.
* * *
A giant rat nearly as big as a man. Its form flows and the "rat" develops disturbingly human-shaped limbs, allowing it to stand on two legs and wield weapons in its furry hands.
Ratweres are dire rats infected with a form of lycanthropy that enables them to assume a human or half-human form. This disease, the "ratwere plague", is fatal to all living creatures except for dire rats and humans.
Ratweres live in places were both rats and humans can be found – sewers, rubbish heaps and the like. Their lives are a constant struggle for survival with frequent fights over resources and authority. A ratwere's lair normally contains ordinary rats and dire rats, for ratweres have the power to summon and control such vermin. Ratweres view normal rats as disposable cannon fodder and emergency rations. They show little more consideration to their own kind, backstabbing rivals and cannibalizing the sick or elderly. Humanoid flesh is a prized delicacy, but ratweres are cautious enough to mostly prey on people unlikely to be missed.
A typical ratwere weighs about 120 pounds and is 5 or 5 feet long in its natural giant rat form, or a little over 5 feet tall in human or hybrid form.
Ratweres speak the language of whatever humans they live nearest to, usually Common.
Combat
Ratweres prefer ambushes. They usually summon rats to soften up or distract their enemies. Most ratweres value their own lives far more highly than their allies, so rarely risk themselves to aid each other. A ratwere will often flee if injured.
Cleon
Hero
Updating the Ratwere Working Draft.
By the way, did we discuss Advancement? I put in the standard base HD × 3 Advancement, but since we're basing this on a Dire Rat and the Dire Rat's HD cap out at 6, we could have given in HD 5-6 (Medium).
That seems a bit stingy for a "magical super rat" though, so I'm happy sticking to HD 4-9.
So let's declare this Ratwere finished and proceed to the next beastie.
Cleon
Hero
Okay, it's time for the Greater Wererat.
To recap:
A Greater Wererat is what you get when a human contracts the Ratwere Plague from being bitten by a Ratwere (the BECMI 'lesser wererat') or another Greater Wererat.
They have the same basic stats as the normal BECMI Wererat (e.g. the Ratwere) and retain the class abilities of their human form when in rat or hybrid form if they are superior to the wererat stat.
They have all the powers of BECMI wererats.
PC4 - Night Howlers has greater wererats as a "monster class" which gives them additional powers as they level up:
At 3rd level they gain accelerated daily natural healing - 1d4 plus 1 point per 3 levels while resting instead of the usual 2/day while resting.
The number of rats and giant rats they can summon improves with level, and at 5th level they gain the ability to summon other wererats.
Finally, at 7th+ level a PC4 greater wererat can give itself immunity to normal weapons while in human form, but only for a limited period (3 turns plus 1 turn per 2 levels above 7th).
To recap:
A Greater Wererat is what you get when a human contracts the Ratwere Plague from being bitten by a Ratwere (the BECMI 'lesser wererat') or another Greater Wererat.
They have the same basic stats as the normal BECMI Wererat (e.g. the Ratwere) and retain the class abilities of their human form when in rat or hybrid form if they are superior to the wererat stat.
They have all the powers of BECMI wererats.
PC4 - Night Howlers has greater wererats as a "monster class" which gives them additional powers as they level up:
At 3rd level they gain accelerated daily natural healing - 1d4 plus 1 point per 3 levels while resting instead of the usual 2/day while resting.
The number of rats and giant rats they can summon improves with level, and at 5th level they gain the ability to summon other wererats.
Finally, at 7th+ level a PC4 greater wererat can give itself immunity to normal weapons while in human form, but only for a limited period (3 turns plus 1 turn per 2 levels above 7th).
Cleon
Hero
While we're doing the Greater Wererat I think it's important to remember that our next (and, hopefully, final) rat lycanthrope conversion is going to be the Wererat Lord, so we want to make sure to have something to distinguish the two.
The main power of the Wererat Lord is that it can control infected wererats it has created and summon packs of giant rats.
Secondly, while standard AD&D Wererats specifies that it takes a silver or magic weapons to hurt them in ratman and giant rat forms, the Wererat Lord just has "hit only by silver or +1 or better weapons" which implies such weapons are needed while they are in human form too.
They also have slightly better AC and Intelligence than a standard Wererat and live up to 200 years.
Oh, and there's one more thing - the lycanthropy disease Wererat Lords inflict doesn't kill humanoids who aren't humans, but turns them into wererat slaves like it does humans.
So, for our "Greater Wererat" I'm thinking we should keep the improved healing and DR for limited periods abilities but not have them be able to summon wererats, so we make wererat domination a Wererat Lord exclusive.
For the Greater Wererat stats, I think we should apply the Dire Lycanthrope template on a human plus a Ratwere, maybe with a note that Greater Wererats can break the "of the animal type" rule for the base creature, then add a couple of special abilities.
freyar
Extradimensional Explorer
I have tried to write a response to this several times and kept running out of time to do it...
I will agree that the ratwere is finished. Looks good.
I also like the "Dire Lycanthrope" idea for the Greater Wererat, but I wouldn't say that they are applications of the dire lycanthrope template with the rules broken. I'd just start with the dire lycanthrope template as a baseline but make them a separate monster. I do like most of your ideas for them.
Incidentally, are we calling them "Greater Wererats" or "Greater Ratweres" or something else?
I will agree that the ratwere is finished. Looks good.
I also like the "Dire Lycanthrope" idea for the Greater Wererat, but I wouldn't say that they are applications of the dire lycanthrope template with the rules broken. I'd just start with the dire lycanthrope template as a baseline but make them a separate monster. I do like most of your ideas for them.
Incidentally, are we calling them "Greater Wererats" or "Greater Ratweres" or something else?
Cleon
Hero
Good. I might as well start statting one out with the standard Warrior 1 Human as the base humanoid.
They're genuine lycanthropes, since they're humans infected with a shapechanging curse, so I was going to use "Greater Wererat". That's the name used in the Dungeon Magazine version, so we have a precedent.
Cleon
Hero
Greater Wererat Working Draft
Lycanthrope, Greater Wererat
Greater Wererat, Human Form
Medium Humanoid (Human, Shapechanger)
Hit Dice: 1d8+1 plus 3d10+12 (34 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 15 (+2 natural, +2 leather, +1 buckler), touch 10, flat-footed 15
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+5
Attack: Longsword +5 melee (1d8+1/19–20) or heavy crossbow +4 ranged (1d10/19–20)
Full Attack: Longsword +5 melee (1d8+1/19–20) or heavy crossbow +4 ranged (1d10/19–20)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Summon ratkin
Special Qualities: Alternate form, damage reduction 5/magic or silver, low-light vision, rodent empathy, scent, speak with rats
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +3, Will +5
Abilities: Str 13, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 8
Skills: Climb +9, Handle Animal +3* (+7 vs. rodents), Hide +8, Intimidate +3* (+7 vs. rodents), Listen +5, Move Silently +6, Spot +5, Swim +9
Feats: Alertness (B), Improved Initiative, Iron Will (B), Multiattack (B), Stealthy (B), Weapon Finesse (B), Weapon Focus (bite)
Environment: Urban and underground
Organization: Solitary, pack (2-8), infestation (2-8 plus 4-16 ratweres), troupe (2-8 plus 11-20 dire rats and rat swarms) or colony (2-16 plus 6-24 ratweres plus 2-40 dire rats and rat swarms)
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always chaotic evil
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +3
Greater Wererat, Dire Rat Form
Medium Humanoid (Human, Shapechanger)
Hit Dice: 1d8+1 plus 3d10+12 (34 hp)
Initiative: +7
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares), climb 20 ft., swim 20 ft.
Armor Class: 16 (+3 Dex, +3 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+7
Attack: Bite +8 melee (1d6+4 plus ratwere plague)
Full Attack: Bite +8 melee (1d6+4 plus ratwere plague)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Ratwere plague, summon ratkin
Special Qualities: Alternate form, damage reduction 10/magic or silver, low-light vision, rodent empathy, scent, speak with rats
Saves: Fort +9, Ref +6, Will +5
Abilities: Str 17, Dex 17, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 8
Skills: Climb +12, Handle Animal +3* (+7 vs. rodents), Hide +11, Intimidate +3* (+7 vs. rodents), Listen +5 , Move Silently +9, Spot +5, Swim +12
Feats: Alertness (B), Improved Initiative, Iron Will (B), Multiattack (B), Stealthy (B), Weapon Finesse (B), Weapon Focus (bite)
Environment: Urban and underground
Organization: Solitary, pack (2-8), infestation (2-8 plus 4-16 ratweres), troupe (2-8 plus 11-20 dire rats and rat swarms) or colony (2-16 plus 6-24 ratweres plus 2-40 dire rats and rat swarms)
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always chaotic evil
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +3
Greater Wererat, Hybrid Form
Medium Humanoid (Human, Shapechanger)
Hit Dice: 1d8+1 plus 3d10+12 (34 hp)
Initiative: +7
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares), climb 20 ft., swim 20 ft.
Armor Class: 16 (+3 Dex, +3 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+7
Attack: Longsword +7 melee (1d8+3/19–20) or bite +8 melee (1d6+4 plus ratwere plague) or heavy crossbow +7 ranged (1d10/19–20)
Full Attack: Longsword +7 melee (1d8+3/19–20) and bite +6 melee (1d6+1 plus ratwere plague); or heavy crossbow +7 ranged (1d10/19–20)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Ratwere plague, summon ratkin
Special Qualities: Alternate form, damage reduction 10/magic or silver, low-light vision, rodent empathy, scent, speak with rats
Saves: Fort +9, Ref +6, Will +5
Abilities: Str 17, Dex 17, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 8
Skills: Climb +12, Handle Animal +3* (+7 vs. rodents), Hide +11, Intimidate +3* (+7 vs. rodents), Listen +5 , Move Silently +9, Spot +5, Swim +12
Feats: Alertness (B), Improved Initiative, Iron Will (B), Multiattack (B), Stealthy (B), Weapon Finesse (B), Weapon Focus (bite)
Environment: Urban and underground
Organization: Solitary, pack (2-8), infestation (2-8 plus 4-16 ratweres), troupe (2-8 plus 11-20 dire rats and rat swarms) or colony (2-16 plus 6-24 ratweres plus 2-40 dire rats and rat swarms)
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always chaotic evil
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +3
Greater wererats are close kin to common wererats and ratweres. They are infected with a potent form of lycanthropy, the ratwere plague, which transforms humans and dire rats into lycanthropes and is fatal to most other creatures. While they shun the common wererat, greater wererats often rule colonies of ratweres, rats and dire rats. Greater wererats casually devour their rodent minions whenever food runs short, and even a gifted ratwere is looked down upon as little better than a slave.
Combat
Greater wererats use their animal or human forms to spy on enemies and set up ambushes, but favor their hybrid form for fighting. Given time, they use summon rodents to call rat allies to send into combat. Most greater wererats treat their rodent and ratwere underlings as disposable chattels, and are unlikely to risk their own skin to protect them.
Alternate Form (Su): A greater wererat can assume a bipedal hybrid form or the form of a man-sized dire rat.
Ratwere Plague (Su): Supernatural disease—slam, Fortitude DC 15, incubation period 1 minute; damage 1d6 Wis plus being sickened. The sickened condition last as long as the victim suffers Wisdom damage from this disease.
Unlike normal diseases, ratwere plague continues until the victim reaches Wisdom 0 (and is transformed into a lycanthrope or dies) or is cured by remove disease or similar magic.
Ratwere plague is a powerful curse, not a natural disease. A character attempting to cast any conjuration (healing) spell to remove the ratwere plague, or heal the Wisdom damage it causes, must succeed on a DC 20 caster level check, or the spell has no effect on the afflicted character.
Afflicted humans reduced to 0 Wisdom transform into greater wererats, afflicted dire rats reduced to 0 Wis transform into ratweres, and other creatures reduced to 0 Wisdom die.
Rodent Empathy: A greater wererat has a +4 racial bonus on Charisma-based checks against any animal or magical beast of the rodent family, including rats, dire rats and ratweres.
Speak With Rats (Su): A greater wererat can communicate with rats and dire rats as if it had a permanent speak with animals spell. It can also use this ability to speak with ratweres and other wererats using this ability, which sounds like rodent squeaks and chirps.
Summon Ratkin (Su): Once per day, as a standard action, a greater wererat can call forth 1 rat swarm or a pack of 1d6+1 dire rats. These creatures arrive in 2d6 rounds and serve the wererat for up to 1 hour.
A greater wererat's summoning ability increases as it gains additional hit dice. It can summon larger numbers of rodents, and at 8 Hit Dice it gains the ability to summon ratweres. See the Greater Wererat Summoning Table for details.
A greater wererat can only use summon ratkin on ratweres it personally created by infecting a dire rat with ratwere plague. If no such ratweres exist, the greater wererat can only summon normal or dire rats.
Greater Wererat Summoning Table
Skills: Greater wererats have a +4 racial bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks and a +8 racial bonus on Climb and Swim checks. Greater wererats can use their Dexterity modifier or their Strength modifier for Climb and Swim checks, whichever is better.
In rat or hybrid-form, a greater wererat gains a +8 racial bonus on Balance checks and can always choose to take 10 on Climb and Swim checks, even if rushed or threatened. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.
Feats: Greater Wererats gain Alertness, Iron Will, Multiattack, Stealthy and Weapon Finesse as bonus feats.
The greater wererat presented here is based on a 1st-level human warrior, using the following base ability scores: Str 13, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 9, Cha 8.
Originally appeared in Dungeon #88 (1988).
Skill Breakdown
Human Warrior Skills (12 SPs): Handle Animal 4, Hide (cross-class) 2, Intimidate 4
Ratwere Skills (6 SPs): Listen 3, Spot 3
Lycanthrope, Greater Wererat
Greater Wererat, Human Form
Medium Humanoid (Human, Shapechanger)
Hit Dice: 1d8+1 plus 3d10+12 (34 hp)
Initiative: +4
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 15 (+2 natural, +2 leather, +1 buckler), touch 10, flat-footed 15
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+5
Attack: Longsword +5 melee (1d8+1/19–20) or heavy crossbow +4 ranged (1d10/19–20)
Full Attack: Longsword +5 melee (1d8+1/19–20) or heavy crossbow +4 ranged (1d10/19–20)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Summon ratkin
Special Qualities: Alternate form, damage reduction 5/magic or silver, low-light vision, rodent empathy, scent, speak with rats
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +3, Will +5
Abilities: Str 13, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 8
Skills: Climb +9, Handle Animal +3* (+7 vs. rodents), Hide +8, Intimidate +3* (+7 vs. rodents), Listen +5, Move Silently +6, Spot +5, Swim +9
Feats: Alertness (B), Improved Initiative, Iron Will (B), Multiattack (B), Stealthy (B), Weapon Finesse (B), Weapon Focus (bite)
Environment: Urban and underground
Organization: Solitary, pack (2-8), infestation (2-8 plus 4-16 ratweres), troupe (2-8 plus 11-20 dire rats and rat swarms) or colony (2-16 plus 6-24 ratweres plus 2-40 dire rats and rat swarms)
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always chaotic evil
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +3
Greater Wererat, Dire Rat Form
Medium Humanoid (Human, Shapechanger)
Hit Dice: 1d8+1 plus 3d10+12 (34 hp)
Initiative: +7
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares), climb 20 ft., swim 20 ft.
Armor Class: 16 (+3 Dex, +3 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+7
Attack: Bite +8 melee (1d6+4 plus ratwere plague)
Full Attack: Bite +8 melee (1d6+4 plus ratwere plague)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Ratwere plague, summon ratkin
Special Qualities: Alternate form, damage reduction 10/magic or silver, low-light vision, rodent empathy, scent, speak with rats
Saves: Fort +9, Ref +6, Will +5
Abilities: Str 17, Dex 17, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 8
Skills: Climb +12, Handle Animal +3* (+7 vs. rodents), Hide +11, Intimidate +3* (+7 vs. rodents), Listen +5 , Move Silently +9, Spot +5, Swim +12
Feats: Alertness (B), Improved Initiative, Iron Will (B), Multiattack (B), Stealthy (B), Weapon Finesse (B), Weapon Focus (bite)
Environment: Urban and underground
Organization: Solitary, pack (2-8), infestation (2-8 plus 4-16 ratweres), troupe (2-8 plus 11-20 dire rats and rat swarms) or colony (2-16 plus 6-24 ratweres plus 2-40 dire rats and rat swarms)
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always chaotic evil
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +3
Greater Wererat, Hybrid Form
Medium Humanoid (Human, Shapechanger)
Hit Dice: 1d8+1 plus 3d10+12 (34 hp)
Initiative: +7
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares), climb 20 ft., swim 20 ft.
Armor Class: 16 (+3 Dex, +3 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+7
Attack: Longsword +7 melee (1d8+3/19–20) or bite +8 melee (1d6+4 plus ratwere plague) or heavy crossbow +7 ranged (1d10/19–20)
Full Attack: Longsword +7 melee (1d8+3/19–20) and bite +6 melee (1d6+1 plus ratwere plague); or heavy crossbow +7 ranged (1d10/19–20)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Ratwere plague, summon ratkin
Special Qualities: Alternate form, damage reduction 10/magic or silver, low-light vision, rodent empathy, scent, speak with rats
Saves: Fort +9, Ref +6, Will +5
Abilities: Str 17, Dex 17, Con 18, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 8
Skills: Climb +12, Handle Animal +3* (+7 vs. rodents), Hide +11, Intimidate +3* (+7 vs. rodents), Listen +5 , Move Silently +9, Spot +5, Swim +12
Feats: Alertness (B), Improved Initiative, Iron Will (B), Multiattack (B), Stealthy (B), Weapon Finesse (B), Weapon Focus (bite)
Environment: Urban and underground
Organization: Solitary, pack (2-8), infestation (2-8 plus 4-16 ratweres), troupe (2-8 plus 11-20 dire rats and rat swarms) or colony (2-16 plus 6-24 ratweres plus 2-40 dire rats and rat swarms)
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Always chaotic evil
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +3
Greater wererats are close kin to common wererats and ratweres. They are infected with a potent form of lycanthropy, the ratwere plague, which transforms humans and dire rats into lycanthropes and is fatal to most other creatures. While they shun the common wererat, greater wererats often rule colonies of ratweres, rats and dire rats. Greater wererats casually devour their rodent minions whenever food runs short, and even a gifted ratwere is looked down upon as little better than a slave.
Combat
Greater wererats use their animal or human forms to spy on enemies and set up ambushes, but favor their hybrid form for fighting. Given time, they use summon rodents to call rat allies to send into combat. Most greater wererats treat their rodent and ratwere underlings as disposable chattels, and are unlikely to risk their own skin to protect them.
Alternate Form (Su): A greater wererat can assume a bipedal hybrid form or the form of a man-sized dire rat.
Ratwere Plague (Su): Supernatural disease—slam, Fortitude DC 15, incubation period 1 minute; damage 1d6 Wis plus being sickened. The sickened condition last as long as the victim suffers Wisdom damage from this disease.
Unlike normal diseases, ratwere plague continues until the victim reaches Wisdom 0 (and is transformed into a lycanthrope or dies) or is cured by remove disease or similar magic.
Ratwere plague is a powerful curse, not a natural disease. A character attempting to cast any conjuration (healing) spell to remove the ratwere plague, or heal the Wisdom damage it causes, must succeed on a DC 20 caster level check, or the spell has no effect on the afflicted character.
Afflicted humans reduced to 0 Wisdom transform into greater wererats, afflicted dire rats reduced to 0 Wis transform into ratweres, and other creatures reduced to 0 Wisdom die.
Rodent Empathy: A greater wererat has a +4 racial bonus on Charisma-based checks against any animal or magical beast of the rodent family, including rats, dire rats and ratweres.
Speak With Rats (Su): A greater wererat can communicate with rats and dire rats as if it had a permanent speak with animals spell. It can also use this ability to speak with ratweres and other wererats using this ability, which sounds like rodent squeaks and chirps.
Summon Ratkin (Su): Once per day, as a standard action, a greater wererat can call forth 1 rat swarm or a pack of 1d6+1 dire rats. These creatures arrive in 2d6 rounds and serve the wererat for up to 1 hour.
A greater wererat's summoning ability increases as it gains additional hit dice. It can summon larger numbers of rodents, and at 8 Hit Dice it gains the ability to summon ratweres. See the Greater Wererat Summoning Table for details.
A greater wererat can only use summon ratkin on ratweres it personally created by infecting a dire rat with ratwere plague. If no such ratweres exist, the greater wererat can only summon normal or dire rats.
Greater Wererat Summoning Table
| Hit Dice | Ratweres | Rat Swarms | Dire Rats |
| 4-5 | — | 1 | 1d6+1 |
| 6-7 | — | 1d3 | 2d6 |
| 8-9 | 1d3 | 1d4+1 | 3d6 |
| 10-11 | 1d4+1 | 2d6 | 4d8 |
| 12+ | 2d6 | 3d6 | 5d10 |
In rat or hybrid-form, a greater wererat gains a +8 racial bonus on Balance checks and can always choose to take 10 on Climb and Swim checks, even if rushed or threatened. It can use the run action while swimming, provided it swims in a straight line.
Feats: Greater Wererats gain Alertness, Iron Will, Multiattack, Stealthy and Weapon Finesse as bonus feats.
The greater wererat presented here is based on a 1st-level human warrior, using the following base ability scores: Str 13, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 9, Cha 8.
Originally appeared in Dungeon #88 (1988).
Skill Breakdown
Human Warrior Skills (12 SPs): Handle Animal 4, Hide (cross-class) 2, Intimidate 4
Ratwere Skills (6 SPs): Listen 3, Spot 3
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Cleon
Hero
Okay, I've posted an initial draft for the Greater Wererat. I added the SRD normal rat's +4 racial bonus to Hide and Move Silently to the creature because it seemed the easiest way to give it Stealth skills comparable to the Ratwere.
Incidentally, the initial Draft of the Ratwere had those racial bonuses too but I didn't include them in our final skills so I've just cut them from the Working Draft.
I've also added a pan-rodent version of the standard lycanthrope Animal Empathy power to them, since it seemed appropriate.
The main Xs left are the Damage Reduction in their various forms and it needs to have a 1st level Feat and a human Bonus Feat.
Any ideas?
Incidentally, the initial Draft of the Ratwere had those racial bonuses too but I didn't include them in our final skills so I've just cut them from the Working Draft.
I've also added a pan-rodent version of the standard lycanthrope Animal Empathy power to them, since it seemed appropriate.
The main Xs left are the Damage Reduction in their various forms and it needs to have a 1st level Feat and a human Bonus Feat.
Any ideas?
freyar
Extradimensional Explorer
I like what you've got. I also don't see a difference between the Ratwere Plague here and in the ratwere draft; I know you mentioned the slight difference in the two original monsters, but I think I prefer thematically having them be the same.
Unless you want to make the DR HD-dependent, I'd go with 10/magic or silver like the ratwere. Or maybe magic and silver.
Unless you want to make the DR HD-dependent, I'd go with 10/magic or silver like the ratwere. Or maybe magic and silver.
Cleon
Hero
There isn't any difference in the Ratwere Plague. It's the Wererat Lord (the next lycanthrope on my to-do list) that carries a different form of Lycanthropy.
Magic and Silver seems too strong and is unsupported by the original monster.
The main question is do we let them have some DR when in human form like the Night Howler version of the greater lycanthrope?
If so, do we make it temporary like in that source or fixed - maybe DR 10/magic or silver in animal or hybrid form and DR 5/magic or silver in human form?
Alternatively, we could give it DR 5/silver in animal or hybrid form (like a standard infected lycanthrope) and DR 5/magic or silver in human form.
Cleon
Hero
That's the one I'm leaning towards, too.
Updating Greater Wererat Working Draft.
That doesn't leave much to figure out apart from the two feats. Any preferences?
Cleon
Hero
The SRD normal Rat has Stealthy, so it was one of the feats I was considering.
Power Attack would be effective, but it just doesn't seem terribly "ratty". Both the Dire Rat and Rat have Weapon Finesse to increase their natural attack modifier. Our Greater Wererat inherits that as a bonus feat, but its Str and Dex values mean it doesn't actually get any benefit from it.
How about Weapon Focus (bite) to improve its bite attack?
Agreed. It looked more like strong CR 3, but I went for a 4 to distinguish it from the Ratwere.
Yes, we should allow for a group with both ratweres and greater wererats.
Organization: Solitary, pack (2-8), infestation (2-8 plus 4-16 ratweres), troupe (2-8 plus 11-20 dire rats and rat swarms) or colony (2-16 plus 6-24 ratweres plus 2-40 dire rats and rat swarms)
Hmm... that suggests we could add those "combined wererodents" groups to the Ratweres too.
e.g.:
Ratwere Organization: Solitary, family (2-5), pack (6-24), infestation (4-16 plus 2-8 greater wererats), troupe (2-24 plus 2-40 dire rats and rat swarms) or colony (6-24 plus 2-16 greater ratweres plus 2-40 dire rats and rat swarms)
