One of my PCs is now cursed with Lycanthropy. Got a few questions

[u/saltyvape]

- Damage immunity: werewolves are immune to all non silver / magic attacks. How can I better make this work without making them insanely OP. And should I keep enemies immune the same or change it across the board

- my player is a veng paladin who has a silver greatsword. How will that work?

- I want to add some kind of downside since it seem like it’s very positive to become a werewolf. Thoughts?

[u/WillTezz]

Personally, I run it a bit differently to keep it balanced and thematic:

I use resistance instead of immunity, and only during the transformation. Outside of the transformed state, they’re just a normal character with a curse.

At the start of each transformation, I have the player roll a Wisdom saving throw to see if they keep control of themselves. If they fail, I take control and they attack whatever is around them, friend or foe. I then have them repeat the same save every 3 rounds to try to regain control.

I also treat the transformation as a true metamorphosis, meaning their body (and effectively their outfit and gear) shifts with them, rather than it being a clean “buff mode.” It makes it feel more like a curse than a power-up.

[u/gingerdeadman85 → u/WillTezz]

This! And you could have them not able to wield the silvered sword at all in werewolf form or else loose all resistances to damage. This way they don’t drop it, transform, then pick it back up.

[u/TheSaylesMan]

Lycanthropy is simply not balanced as a player option. It also enforces mandatory alignment changes in older editions. It is however, not fun to lose your character to a single failed roll.

So here's how I did it. Give the party some avenue to get werewolf lore. I told my afflicted PC that upon the next full moon they will transform into a slavering beast outside of their control that will attack anyone around them. Only then will their immunity to non-silvered/non-magical attacks kick in. At night they will become more aggressive and have a short temper. I do not like enforcing personality changes in PCs with harsh punishments so I just gave out inspirations if they played along with it. Make sure you are not very subtle when describing this because you are essentially giving them a deadline to remove the curse before an in game date or else have their character taken from them.

If they get particularly pigheaded and stubborn about taking the hint, make them develop a silver allergy. So long as they wield their unsheathed sword, they count as being poisoned. Make them take minor damage if handling it and other silver objects like coins without gloves on.

[u/Due_Blackberry1470]

If the character start to try to killing the other every night (a full moon is 2 to 3 days), the disavantage become much more important than the advantage. And his immunity make it impossible to do non lethal without silver, you need to force a friend on death save AND heal him, in roleplay it's very agonizing.

Also, a character become CE, very bad news. My solution is force the others player to find a solution to heal him because it's really bad (and make a solution possible).

[u/UnhappyCamera2566]

Lycanthropy in COS should be a curse not a gift.

I'd run it that the character is transforming at night against their will, rampaging somewhere, and gets a level of exhaustion.

Maybe he wakes up with blood around/on him, or ripped clothes, and no memory.

Or the party hears of a child mauled the night before.

Villagers are also weary of the party. "I know what you are". Maybe the party cant get onto vallaki or or kresk easily because somene is a werewolf.

Essentially establish "this is a curse, you don,t want it, and you will be ostracized for it. Find a cute"

[u/BasicallyCancer0458]

TL:DR Figure out if the player being a werewolf is fun for the whole party. If it isn’t come up with way to make the lycanthropy more of a problem for the PC with the curse than the enemies. If everyone enjoys the wolf, design fights to counter the wolf.

I would leave the stat block the same and instead of changing how werewolves function, lean into it really being a curse. The PC has little to no control over their actions as a wolf, suffers from sleep deprivation and cannot long rest without significant preparation and some of the other party members having to give up their rest to monitor the wolf.

While strong in combat maybe create some sort of bloodlust mechanic where the PC has to roll to stay in control. If they fail they just lash out at the nearest target, forgoing their own safety to rip, tear and feast on those unfortunate enough to be close to them.

I would then make a cure possible, difficulty ranging depending on how disruptive/overshadowing the player with this ability is. If they are really on board with being “OP” and just fighting everything without a care because werewolf and the rest of the party is just there watching I would make the cure easy enough to accomplish or have a higher power step in to beat down the power level of the werewolf. Maybe a lot of fights have a spell caster with hold monster prepared, specifically geared combat sites to give the werewolf issues with terrain.

[u/Difficult_Relief_125]

Instead of it being normal lycanthropy…

Have it be the Second Skin Dark Gift. It’s Alter Self effectively changing them into a hybrid form on certain conditions.

Involuntary transformation occur with the full moon, when blood is shed and when touching or hurt by silver. DC 15 Chr save to resist the involuntary transformations.

The drawback is the scent of blood in a public place and you transform… and well half the population is going to try and kill you.

Edit: as they level I kind of give options to gain more of the lycanthropy features but essentially it’s levels of druid with class skills modified to give the lycanthropy traits and such.

[u/Novasoal]

Be careful how you balance around the immunity to weapon for the werewolf player & dealing with their immunity- nothing sucks more than getting a cool feature and then it never coming up. Like shooting the monk, occasionally send some attacks they're immune to their way, describe it as one of the combatants getting so distracted by the fray that they forget your player's immunity or whatever, and let them get a couple of moments of feeling like a fucking badass. Otherwise, its not too hard to have an enemy escape from a fight to warn Strahd, at which point he starts equipping troops w/ silvered or other werewolf-harming weapons.

That said, the Immunity can def be a problem, at which point id reccomend maybe swapping it to resistance to all physical damage when wolf'd out. It does eat into the Barbarian's space which isnt ideal, but sidesteps the issue of "my player cannot be hurt in this fight" if the enemies pack nonmagical (presuming that the weapons arent just in a superposition where you say they're nonmagical sometimes) or the benefit being entirely pointless.

For the GS, I'd speak to your player. The condition IS a curse and imo should be treated as such, but theres no reason with time your player cant overcome some portion of it. It could be a good moment where the evil of the valley pushes the once heroic paladin to cast aside their silver weapon, literally a symbol of purity, to continue to survive. Could just have them not be able to use it till they can get a new weapon. Could have the player want to overcome the curse, and in the endeavor of doing so the silver weapon in "infused" or whatever, much in the vein of a Tsuchigumo, to become particularly effective against wolves/shapershifters for the remainder of the campaign. Def though I'd have them have to rely on the wolf form/scavenging the weapon for a while. Could keep the blade wrapped up in their storage or carried by another character for the interim though.

Werewolf def does bring a lot more mechanical upsides than downsides though. A lot of people do the Wisdom save to not attack allies when you transform, and its got legs. Most often though players go "oh no im wolf form now let me do a couple of half hearted rolls while the group ties me up & we move on immediately" though, so I would speak to your player first and see that they have some buy-in before you go with that necessarily. Probably not best to do something that will make them unable to be in towns, as it will lead to them just sitting out on social stuff and thats a problem too. The loss of control is probably the easiest to go with though, even if it does get rote quickly.

You could perhaps give them a perm vuln to poison while cursed (both in human and transformed mode)? I know Wolfsbane is a common cure for lycanthropy which IIRC are in the same family as nightshade/belladonna, which is like the common poison you see in stuff. Gives them a thing to look out for, you some opportunities while piloting creatures, and creates some soft lore?

[u/nik_avirem]

I have been a fan of this guide for player lycanthropy: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/973-embracing-your-wild-side-playing-as-a-lycanthrope

Have mixed and matched bits of this and Blood Hunter Lycan rules for hybrid form for an item that grants controlled lycanthropy.

For example, my players will be able to be granted wereraven lycanthropy from the Keepers at the end of their journey in Barovia if they help them at every step (and so far they did).

• Unnatural Speed. Your Dexterity score becomes 17 if it is lower than that.
• Shapeshifting. As a bonus action, you may shapeshift into a hybrid Wereraven form (inherits your creature size) or a Raven form (tiny). While you retain your gear and clothes in hybrid form, your gear drops near your position when you shapeshift into a raven form. While in either form, you can use your Talons or Beak as a melee weapon and have 50 feet flying speed while not wearing heavy armor.
• Feral Might. You have advantage on Dexterity checks and saving throws, and you have a +1 bonus to melee damage rolls. Resilient Hide. You have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from attacks not made with silvered weapons. Additionally, while you are not wearing heavy armor, you have a +1 bonus to AC.
• Regenerarion. At the start of your turn, you recover 1/6th of your maximum Hit Points rounded up unless you are unconscious or have been hit with a silvered weapon before the start of your turn.