D&D 5E Wizards planning a change to lycanthropes?

[Zardnaar]

Really? A PC that only takes damage from magic weapons is a HUGE buff. Most monsters in single digit CR's don't have magic attacks. Sure, there's some with energy attacks, but, they're not exactly common. I just saw what adding Were-rat does to a PC in my campaign and it makes that character FAR too powerful.

Love the regeneration version. Much less powerful but still keeps the flavor.

Might have wires crossed I wasn't meaning PC were critters. I may have misread OP.

On PC regeneration or magic weapon immunity hell no. As long as it's optional I don't care though.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Could creatures with regeneration powers to be used for "food source" by vampires, undead and other creatures?

In a videogame regeneration for monsters is better if the player need magic or silver weapons.

Can werebeasts be infected by undead bites?

Can a monster hidden among humans be discovered thanks her regeneration? Be injured for the trial to test the fast healing.

In some old stories the werewolves could survive lethal attacks, but they were totally KO for a lot of time. The character believes she is dead but this comes back later wishing revengeance.

Could a evil warlord to use infected werebeasts as cannon fodder in the battlefield? With regeneration then they shouldn't worry too much about firearms.

* Now I was thinking about the lore of the TV-Show "Teen Wolf" as source of inspiration. In Stephen King's "Blue Moon" a werewolf was hurt by fire, and like this later discovered. The fact is in the old stories the lycantrope was recogniced when there were humans by the injuries suffered in the fights with the beast shapes.

 

[Reynard]

Related question: why does any sort of magic damage always overcome these kinds of resistances? Doing so not only boosts casters, but makes this stuff almost pointless. I think it should always be specific without concern over whether the source is mundane or magical (like the troll).

 

[tetrasodium]

On Perkins' what do you think bit, The wereravens in ravenloft are pretty involved in things & this probably works better or at worst equal for them.

Seems they're sort-of playtesting replacing lycanthropes' resistances with regeneration, instead.

Particularly interesting that they had an opportunity to make that update for Curse of Strahd Revamped, released just last year, and hadn't. Almost like they've since started rethinking some aspects of monster design. I wonder why they'd be doing that...?

I agree it looks like that, the resistant to nonmagical b/p/s that's not silvered might as well say "resistant to characters who haven't managed to scrape together "100-600 gp(dmg135/xge126) for a magic weapon & groups the GM has declared can't buy one cause the GM couldn't possibly just say resistant till something you don't have or haven't done in that case". regeneration if they don't take x damage has problems on its own in 5e though because it's likely to be met by a party by accident with cantrips.... Every. Single. Round.

I haven't seen the one in candlekeep so hope thy are a little more involved inmaking not regenerate than troll/revenant/etc.

Could creatures with regeneration powers to be used for "food source" by vampires, undead and other creatures?

In a videogame regeneration for monsters is better if the player need magic or silver weapons.

Can werebeasts be infected by undead bites?

Can a monster hidden among humans be discovered thanks her regeneration? Be injured for the trial to test the fast healing.

In some old stories the werewolves could survive lethal attacks, but they were totally KO for a lot of time. The character believes she is dead but this comes back later wishing revengeance.

Could a evil warlord to use infected werebeasts as cannon fodder in the battlefield? With regeneration then they shouldn't worry too much about firearms.

* Now I was thinking about the lore of the TV-Show "Teen Wolf" as source of inspiration. In Stephen King's "Blue Moon" a werewolf was hurt by fire, and like this later discovered. The fact is in the old stories the lycantrope was recogniced when there were humans by the injuries suffered in the fights with the beast shapes.

It's done for the creatures of droaam in the form of "Grist" (ie detoxified troll meat) so maybe but I bet it's not pleasant.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Related question: why does any sort of magic damage always overcome these kinds of resistances? Doing so not only boosts casters, but makes this stuff almost pointless. I think it should always be specific without concern over whether the source is mundane or magical (like the troll).

I think it's simple a result of relatively lazy thinking early in D&D's history which has been continued as a trope, rather than any conscious design decision.

Early on, spells were pretty scarce and seen to be important. And obviously casters can't "silver" a spell (where others can swap to a silvered weapon or the like). And on top of that, in fiction, casters tended to be able to harm various creatures of the night. So I think it was essentially seen as "only fair" that spells hit these creatures normally, even if it didn't entirely make sense. Note that the reverse was true somewhat as well. There are some creatures which are immune to certain spells or damage types largely associated with spells that clearly haven't really been thought through either.

As time has gone on, spells have grown more common and in some ways more powerful, certainly more usable, so it's more of a question, and yes, has made it increasingly pointless to use silvered weapons or the like. I do think changing to regeneration rather than resistance or immunity makes sense in part because of that. Regeneration is still an annoyance to casters, where if something isn't resistant or immune to that damage type, or magic damage in general, they didn't have to be concerned.

 

[aco175]

I can see regeneration more for PCs and the normal resistance for monsters.

 

[tetrasodium]

I think it's simple a result of relatively lazy thinking early in D&D's history which has been continued as a trope, rather than any conscious design decision.

Early on, spells were pretty scarce and seen to be important. And obviously casters can't "silver" a spell (where others can swap to a silvered weapon or the like). And on top of that, in fiction, casters tended to be able to harm various creatures of the night. So I think it was essentially seen as "only fair" that spells hit these creatures normally, even if it didn't entirely make sense. Note that the reverse was true somewhat as well. There are some creatures which are immune to certain spells or damage types largely associated with spells that clearly haven't really been thought through either.

As time has gone on, spells have grown more common and in some ways more powerful, certainly more usable, so it's more of a question, and yes, has made it increasingly pointless to use silvered weapons or the like. I do think changing to regeneration rather than resistance or immunity makes sense in part because of that. Regeneration is still an annoyance to casters, where if something isn't resistant or immune to that damage type, or magic damage in general, they didn't have to be concerned.

It's worth noting that for a while in 3.x they did flat damage reduction & flat resistances so dr & resist 2-5 would make a sword & board fighter or scorching ray casting caster cry after it applies to each attack to double triple or even quadruple while a rogue barbarian or big boom casting caster would shrug it off as just a small fraction.

You can "silver" a spell though by declaring that the focus item needs to be made with silver/byeshek/flametouched iron/etc. I experimented with it a bit when I started running 5e & didn't find it rewarding or meaningful with the combo of resistance+inverted lfqw scaling present.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Related question: why does any sort of magic damage always overcome these kinds of resistances? Doing so not only boosts casters, but makes this stuff almost pointless. I think it should always be specific without concern over whether the source is mundane or magical (like the troll).

I'd be tempted to remove the bit about spells, and leave only silver, so if you actually want to kill a werebeast, you have to get stabby. I might allow specific spells like Moonbeam and similar to prevent the regeneration as well.

 

[jayoungr]

Almost like they've since started rethinking some aspects of monster design. I wonder why they'd be doing that...?

My immediate thought when I saw that is that they're thinking of ways to make lycanthropes playable without being overpowered. Especially for AL purposes; an infected PC automatically became an NPC if not cured in the Ravenloft AL season.

 

[Quartz]

For PCs, I don't like the idea of regeneration. It's just too powerful for only one PC to have it. If you want to model 'only killed by silver' then simply make it that if the PC is reduced to 0 HP a failed Death Save Throw has no effect - the PC doesn't pass the DST - unless the wound was inflicted by a silver weapon.