D&D 5E Turning a PC into a lycanthrope

[SnakeEyes097]

So there is an encounter coming up in my campaign against a wereboar, and there is no help in either the DMG or PHB. All I can find is on p. 207 of the MM, and everything in there is awesome and lycanthropy apparently has no downside.

I was thinking that if a character is infected with lycanthropy, it would be cool if they got sicker, after two days their stats got a -1 and they had -10 max hp, -2/-20 after four days, then better over the course of 5 days and then make them turn at night on the 9th night, and have them uncontrollably attack the party. I'm not sure how to handle the progression of it from there though, and as I say the only official D&D source I can find has all positives, and nothing sucky.

Maybe they make Charisma checks at disadvantage and some other out of combat penalty, have a descending DC to keep control each time they change until they can control it, and if they choose to embrace their curse they get the benefits from the book but keep the made up penalties? And to cure it, maybe a jumped up version of Remove Curse or Greater Restoration that they will have to find an NPC capable of casting and have a fun side quest session that has a time limit to obtain a rare material to cast the spell.

I think my group would find this challenge to be really fun, and different party members would react differently; one would be inclined to keep it, one would be undecided, and two would be inclined to be cured. What I would like is input from the community here as to what would be a good way to implement it that has a clear cost/benefit trade off that is neither unfair for the character nor gamebreaking in it's greatness. I'd only like one lycanthrope in the party, not for everyone to seek being turned themselves as a way to have an iwin button.

 

[Fanaelialae]

Check out MM pg. 206, under Curse of Lycanthropy.

Lycanthropy is a curse, and I believe it should be handled as such. If you embrace that curse, you get the full benefits of lycanthropy but you also become an NPC. On the other hand, if you resist the curse then you can't change forms at will and should seek a Remove Curse as soon as reasonably possible. I would interpret a refusal to lift the curse as tacit consent to embracing the curse. After all, this character is a serious threat to those around him.

I did add a third option to my campaign - mastering the curse. Basically, you become a level 0 lycanthrope upon infection, which has minimal benefits with a lot of drawbacks. You gain Silver Vulnerability without any damage immunity, and are at constant risk of transforming into a berserking lycanthrope any time you are angry, particularly during the full moon. You can multiclass as a lycanthope class, which gradually grants you the benefits of being a lycanthrope as well as abilities that help you resist transformation or allow you to snap out of it under certain conditions. The damage immunity is represented by the lycanthrope classes granting a ton of hit dice. If you complete the level progression, you no longer transform against your will and the curse cannot be removed without your consent.

 

[Eltab]

I don't think I would go there with a PC, especially when lacking rules or other guidelines.

If you can get your hands on a copy of 3e Ravenloft, there is a racial feature - Lunatio - where you lose control of your passions during the Full Moon, plus have a cyclic set of penalties/bonuses to certain skills. You might want to use that, and say the PC has only a mild case of lycanthropy, or that he willpowered himself out of it.

And most important - Before you do anything permanent to another player's character: TALK WITH HIM ABOUT IT FIRST.
You as DM get to play every other being in the world; if this idea is really cool, give it to a recurring NPC and see how the players interact / react. Do not deceive yourself with the belief that you have the authority to run other peoples' characters, or to make major decisions in their stead; they get one and only one person to control, and most folks are very possessive about them.

 

[Sunseeker]

5e has a very minor template that gives some very minor buffs, but I think it assumes the possibility of control.

I followed the design of death saves and went with this:
DC 18 Con check to avoid infection (I'm handling it as a magical disease).
You feel kinda bad until the first full moon.
DC 18 Will to resist transformation and retain your mind.
-Taking damage while under the full moon invokes a save.
-Killing an enemy while under the full moon invokes a save.
If you fail, you run off and become an NPC for the night. I'm not going to make the party fight one of their own, that's kinda a jerk move; at least not the first night.
If you fail 3 times before you succeed, you become an NPC permanently. If you succeed 3 times before you fail, you get the basic template and control over your condition...to an extent. Taking damage and killing still trigger a transformation check, lower DC though.

Also: people generally hate you.

 

[iserith]

I'd keep it simple: You gain the benefits of lycanthropy, but every full moon, you turn into a monster under the control of the DM and, unless preparations were made to contain you beforehand, you go on a rampage with appropriately dramatic results the aftermath of which causes you (fun, memorable) problems. At the end of this rampage, make a Wisdom saving throw. If you succeed, carry on as above. If you fail, carry on as above, but mark 1 bloodlust. When 3 bloodlust is attained, the PC reaches the point of no return, embraces his or her bestial nature, and becomes an evil NPC under the control of the DM permanently (or until cured of the curse somehow).

I would make sure the players also understood and bought into this rule.

 

[SnakeEyes097]

Thanks for the input guys. We are playing Princes of the Apocalypse, which I probably should have mentioned in the first post as there is a scripted NPC who is a wereboar. I talked to a few other friends from AL as well, and what I ended up doing was infecting the player who's adventure hook was to kill the wereboar and regain his master's sword. He doesn't know yet that he's infected, and they will all think it's part of the story anyhow. Once I make him turn at the next full moon, I'll have the discussion about how long and what it'll take to embrace the curse and then he can make an informed decision. I've done a lot of work since that first post to make their chosen adventure hooks a cool part of the story line, so if he doesn't want to be a lycanthrope then there will be a quest fairly quickly to stop it and if he wants to embrace it I'll use a homebrew version of your help plus the material from 3.5. Thanks so much for the help guys!

 

[CapnZapp]

All I can find is on p. 207 of the MM, and everything in there is awesome and lycanthropy apparently has no downside.

...

I'd only like one lycanthrope in the party, not for everyone to seek being turned themselves as a way to have an iwin button.

Okay, so the OP has gotten an answer he's satisfied with, but the general question remains:

Would you all say lychantropy per RAW is all benefits no downside? That the only drawback is that now you're "cursed" without further specification?

Or rather, how would you go about arriving at the OP's conclusion that it's a "win button" and a power-up?

 

[n00b f00]

I would try to make it a class with limited levels that had a transformation that worked similarly to a druid's.

Balanced with a cost rather than just free stuff. If the player wants to play a lycanthrope that's fine with me. As long as it's not the wrong sort of disruptive.