My players discovered a wererat had bitten 2 kids that were running food to refugees that have hidden in the sewers. They thought it best to leave the kids down there so they wouldnt be executed or taken by the city if brought back to the surface... then they left the city and havent been back in the region for probably 3 months in game. Im thinking its time for a wererat infestation
Serves them right for not fronting up with some cleric fee's and having the kids de-cursed. It would be cool, actually, if Lycanthropes were drawn to locations where greater concentrations of lycanthropes are found, so, first you get the rats, then the surrounding country side starts getting ravaged by werewolves, the foresters, druids and rangers start to vanish as a were Tiger takes them out one by one, and the highways gain a wretched reputation far and wide, thanks to the savage banditry of gangs of were boars.
AJ Pickett Fees?! Why would I charge children to remove the affliction....even my evil priest has a heart in that respect....as I've said before I hate lycanthropy,especially wererats.....but WereDragons are pretty cool though! 🐊
Funny, wererats actually can't infect lycanthropy through bite since their teeth usually rest outside of their mouth and are thus dry. I don't know if you DM knew this, but it could be possible that you just left two wounded kids down there who weren't infected bit just bitten
I love wererats. My favorite lycanthrope. I don't use alignment in my campaign except for angels and demons and such that are literally made of good and evil. So when my players encountered the wererats of a large city they got tangled up in a wererat civil war between the relatively "good" Rat King and a crazed fanatic who would have been right at home in Skavenblight. Incidentally I bought a box of WH Clanrats just for that story arc.
Man that is cool. I used to play a D&D campaign that the creatures we encountered did not stay with the "normal" alignments. Even met a lawful good red dragon once in that world. Nice guy, smoked cannibus.
A couple of things worth mentioning: In earlier editions wererats in humanoid form were unable to completely mask the smell sewer. They would also have rat like facial features like pointy noses, big front teeth and pointy whisker like moustaches. These features wouldn’t be so prominent to that you would be able to tell that an NPC is a wererat just by looking at him, but still they are there… When roleplaying a wererat, mimic their twitchy noses and shifty eyes. Finally wererats think of themselves as having great style. But it is always just a little bit off. Examples: a very expensive jacket, with a stain that can’t be removed, or it is missing a button, or one of the gold buttons has been replaced different brass button. They may have very fine set china for dining, but one of the cups is missing and a plate has been chipped. The living room may be furnished with red velour armchairs, except for one that is green.
My paladin would volunteer, he is a silver dragonborn werebear. The group he was with had to restrain him from murdering a wererat who had information that the group needed
A fantasy novel I am currently writing features were rats with a pair that are major protagonists in the story. They fall under the lawful neutral alignment where the rest of their kin are lawful neutral working in the criminal underworld of a major port city. At this point I'm 1/3 of the way into writing it at just over 100 pages in. Many of the characteristics of were rats you mentioned in this video (I realize now is 4 years old) I was already incorporating in the story. I always felt that their whole existence was to make people on the surface believe that they didn't exist so that their microcosm of a society could operate undetected. Good video!
Well... There's not much to stop anyone from repurposing the wererat's stat blocks (albeit with a few tweaks) to make Skaven a possibility. And if you apply it as a template, you could effectively recreate Clan Moulder; especially if you're a fan of rat ogres.
@@marclytle644 forget the feverish furry fetish artwork about skaven females. The artwork of what they really look like is absolutely repulsive and horrific. I don't see how skaven males find them attractive much less how a human could hold the contents of their stomach at the mere sight of them.
Another phenomenally helpful video. Apart from really making me want to use wererats in a game it gives me some ideas for how to run social lycanthropes. The werehyenas in Zakhara run in packs and have natural charm effects similar to a friends spell. They typically befriend people in a village and lure them out to the pack where they can either be food or a new convert. This gives me some great ideas as to how to run them better.
I have a friend who loves that sort of thing, particularly this one time a Paladin got infected and the player had no idea (the DM rolled for the save vs disease), just suddenly, the Paladin's god was not having anything to do with the character.. so.. they went on a holy quest, tried to atone for whatever they had done, etc.. meanwhile, the DM is going on about "The Taint".. full moon happens, the character wakes up covered in blood, and still has no idea.. goes on the mission to solve the local murders, the DM is tormenting them with mentions of "The Taint" to the point they are starting to really get emotional about it.. finally, they find out what is really going on, all is forgiven, they get a cure, and the memory of the game is priceless.
@@AJPickett why would the god abandon the dude and not say 'holy shit, you are infected with lcyanthropy dude! Get a shower or something!" gods can be fickle but that is just stupid.
I'm sure by now you are aware that "humanoid" in the curse doesn't mean "a being resembling a human in its shape" (two arms, two legs, and a head or whatever), but the actual creature type. However I do think it is interesting to homebrew the curse to expand out to other types that are humanoid shape, or say screw it and include what you like. Imagine a beholder wererat or other werecreature! My friend is a bit new to DMing and made this mistake. When fighting meenlocks, a player asked if they were humanoid in planning to cast hold or charm person, and the DM said yes since they literally are humanoid in shape. I sent a PM to make him aware of the mechanical distinction. He made the spell fail rather than tell the player actually no, which kind of sucks but that's also a metagame question. Instead he could have asked, "does my character understand this creature enough to know the spell will work?" and the DM should allow a Nature/Arcana roll.
11:00 Another thing. Humanoids who contract lycanthrophy will normally be traumatised by this, as they have no control over their transformation and they have no free will once they are transformed either. When they revert back to normal form, they have no memory of what had happened or what they have done in the beast-form. This is in contrast to natural (or real) lycanthropes who are born with lycanthrophy. This is all quite handy for wererats, because wererats can summon and control giant rats. When they need to, they just visit the place where their former victims live. Preferrably at full moon nights where involutary transformations are highly likely. Watch their former victim transform to the giant rat state and control them from then on throughout the night! This way, natural were rats can gather small bands of giant rats, just visiting former victims of theirs. And they can use them for whatever they like during the night. The victim will have no idea what had happened anyway. Perfect rogue guild soldiers!
I have found wererats to be especially effective in naval and Spelljammer campaigns where they can be used to on ships to give the appearance of little or no crew. No one gets suspicious of a few rats on board heheheh.
You can combine the therianthropy disease with other templates, the way I try to set it about in my games is that an undead template cannot be acquired until after if you want both to work. A werewolf cannot bite a zombie and the zombie contract lycanthropy. But you can raise a werewolf corpse from the dead as a zombie.
Can include any "Humanoid" and "Does not necessarily need to be alive" you say? Well that could make for a fun plague sea or pest wave for the world to deal with.
There are two sets of wererats in published D&D campaigns that I know of, and both are not originally human. -In the _Out of the Abyss_ campaign, players can escape their drow captors with the help of a pair of deep gnomes named Topsy and Turvy, who were bitten by wererats and have thus inherited the curse. Later in the same campaign, the PCs will probably arrive in Blingdenstone, a deep gnome town that is just starting to regain its populace. However, a clan of other deep gnome wererats named the Goldwhiskers lives there, but is in conflict with the returning gnomes. Thankfully, they seem to be able to suppress most of their evil tendencies enough that they don't try to kill you on sight. All they want is to be treated as members of the Blingdenstone community (they are descended from the original inhabitants), and will even help against oozes that threaten the regrowing populace if the PCs promise to negotiate for their acceptance. If they don't, the Goldwhiskers are content with just moving somewhere else...
I like to use Skaven models as stand in for any grid game play. Also makes great spies, and could sell information to the highest bidders. Not just another standard thieves guild. Mine uses blackmail, assassination, and embezzlement as well.
What's a typical thieves guild supposed to be? I've always run them as if they're basically the mob. Theft,drugs,prostitution, extortion etc. are they not supposed to be crime families?
My big city has wererats as part of the local thieves guild - they do spying and some dirty work for them. With doppelgangers and a rakshasa, eventually take over the thieves guild and then have to be dealt with. Monster Manual Extended 1, 2 and 3 help make this a level 9 to 10 thing. My players are now so paranoid about every new person they meet lol
Anyone up for Wererats can take inspiration from the Skaven in Warhammer Fantasy. The thing about both of those things is that they're like cockroaches. If there's one of them, there's dozens more that you can't see.
Call me crazy if you want, but I think this would be the perfect way to incorporate Skaven into a campaign if one's willing to fiddle with the stat blocks a bit. Especially for Clan Moulder, since they're the ones responsible for the creation of rat ogres. Clan Eshin would also be another strong candidate.
4:00 you forget that the lycanthrophy disease is only possible to contract if the victim lose a great deal of hit points. More than 50% of maximum. And as you say the damage should be dealt from bites only. This condition might change from edition to editon though, I haven't checked all editions. Btw. Thanks for the video! WereRats are awesome and great for making interesting adventures and scenarios with plot twists and surprises.
Would a dragonborn wererat in rat form keep his breath weapon? I know a shifted dragonborn druid would, but there are subtle differences between druid's and lycanthrope's shape changing.
I have a team of reocurring NPCs that are Thayan envoys of Hierarch Lysarg, a common contact in my campaigns since he is basicly one of the Thayan embassadors. A Mindflayer, a Kenku and a Wererat. The Wererat is the chaimberlain of an influential masked lord of waterdeep, the Mindflayer has escaped his hive and hides in a broken Nautilus-Ship in a mountain range, amassing his own crew of twisted experiments and the Kenku is the spymaster of a thieves guild operating in the Neverwinter woods. Noone knows that they are allied with Thay but when they act as the Hierarchs envoys, they always come together. That makes tgem great at disguising anything and obscuring the site they hold their secret meetings in. By now my players have gotten over it, but when first meeting this deadly trio they dealth with severe lack of trust and constant paranoya afterwards - is that rat following them a spy? Is that sound they hesr an actual sound or just a Kenkus mimicry? Is someone scrying on them (the Kenku is able to cast scry)? Is that mindflayer reading their thought? Did he hear them plotting? That combined with the trios pet mimic that actually works as a normal, although seemingly animated, chest for them, made my players go crazy. They thought they would be able to see what the Hierarch is planning, rummaged through his chest only to loose an arm and discover the floating (invisible) orb above them. Since then they once played a somewhat evil party and those three were their allies and now they have recently met them again as a party if morally uncerrain characters having to pick a side in the war between Thay and the lords alliance.
Yes, they still get the stat increase to dexterity due to contracting the disease/curse of Lycanthropy, Although they may not manifest a lot of physical differences, they are now able to pass this disease on to others, so it is still significant.
Any reason why various types of were curses might stack. Say if a player character was unfortunate enough to be bitten by a wererat and then later a werewolf? Would they be able to turn into either or a hybred of both?
Ah, there are reasons and there are opinions, my opinion is no, they don't stack, my reasoning is that I have not seen any were-hybrids in published material, however, that said, if you wanted to run a "D&D Underworld Evolution" story line, by all means, don't let anyone's opinion stand in the way of your fun.
I would argue that the undead cannot be wererats, as they are immune to disease. However, that raises the question as to whether death cures the disease in the case of various kinds of resurrection? If so, would revivify also work? Please discuss.
Ok, I’m thinking there’s a city that suddenly suffers from a rash of organised crime. When the players investigate, they discover a thieves guild, kenku, and wererats. Eventually it ends up as a three way war in the shadows.
idk if this is worth asking on an old video but, im new to dnd n i wanted to know, could i make a were rat character n like.. be viable? if thats the right word
another fantastic vid! the usefulness of this creature in dnd is endless, spies assasins rouges and trickster mages, all waiting to be played out in wererat form. what are you using for wererat minis? skaven work great.
Many of the images in the vid are Skaven pics, so yeah, perfect miniatures for hybrid form were rats. I think I have one or two minis that would do the trick, otherwise I would just shove a plasticine tail on a rogue mini :)
Absolutely, whenever discussing a race/species alignment, it is an indication of the way they behave collectively, so it is possible to have a good society with evil members, and an evil society with good members, they don't automatically choose exile, mostly they just learn to operate within the swarm, keep their heads down and just go along with things, abstaining from instigating acts of evil themselves.
Wererat King - Huge Abhorrent monster. A mound of twisting flesh with all forms of the transformation in a writhing mass. Maybe it is worshiped as some sort of avatar or god.
As AJ said, wererats don't suffer from the unreasoning animal savagery of other lycanthropes like werewolves. Probably has something to do with the fact that rats are scavengers and not top predators. That said, I would think the phase of the moon still has some effect on them, though more subtle. And in D&D were creatures of all sorts can shift forms at will unless they are overtaken by moon madness. Though weather they actually have to see the full moon or not for this effect, I'm not certain. Personally I would say no and that the phase of the moon effects them seen or not, but that's just my opinion.
@@lafortya honestly in that context it doesn't make sense why werewolves do. the wolf is a pack creature. so if driven by savagery or huner it will attack other creatures. the human is also a beast that does not prey upon its own like that under sensible circumstances. and a werewolf is both.
@@taddad2641 Possibly. Though consider that werewolves aren't actually wolf or human, they're werewolves, a predatory supernatural monstrous creature of evil origins. And werewolves generally don't attack their own pack members, but go after prey. Humans etc being counted as prey.
I love rats. They are adorable and I'm honestly sad I'm allergic to them. Do you think our glorious wererat overlords would take pity on those of us who would raise and feed rats ourselves?
Benjamin Lupine In "Tales of Ravenloft" there is a story that describes the reaction of a wererat to a human hurting rats - it seems behavior is repaid in kind...
I don't know if anyone is still watching these comments, but I need some advice: I want to pit my party against a group of half a dozen wererats running a river smuggling operation out of a dockside warehouse. I want to give the wererats a couple levels of character classes; make one a Rouge and one a Warlock, etc. My question is, how would this effect their CR? I've tried using the DMG to calculate the numbers, but that process confuses me. Any advice will be appreciated.
GMs discretion. Depending on the game they're running it could be as simple as a curse-removing heal spell all the way up to an elaborate ritual using materials that each needed an almost epic quest to obtain...
Hi, sorry I did not see this comment earlier, yes, I would like to make a video about the blood war, I am sort of nibbling at it's edges as I talk about devils, demons, slaadi and such, but it deserves an in depth look, I agree.
I might do a video about the subject of horror in D&D actually, my friend Alex (part of my home game crew) is a master at building suspense and making me leap out of my seat with actual frights, while I have a knack at describing visceral carnage, infections, mutations and such in a way that makes him squirm or dry heave a little bit.
Just had my sort of character I use as a dm, a kind of nasty kobold get turned into a wererat because the situation kind of made a lone wererat who was sort of the beginning of a wererat group become desperate. The kind of deal is that this group is evil, and the kobold's was already very wererat like, it was only supposed to be kind of a contact, but the deal is the kobold likes to be a boss. Now the players want to more kind of spread the curse. Technically they are supposed to act like henchmen to the kobold to build an evil organization, and now they are interested wererat nature be a part of our group, like the kobold hive. Don't know how the black dragon would react to the kobolds that already crawled around like vermin around his swamp lair suddenly became wererats, whether he might see them as possible threat. Whether the wererat kobold would even follow their dragon master for long. I just kind of put that some sort evil being like a witch/hag or devil decided to try and start it as some evil deal, but now I am thinking of the logistics that a member of the party is a new wererat leader, that he would take the authority away from the patient 0 wererat. It will already change plans for this campaign, but they won't be organized yet like the examples you gave.
One of my players described were rats as one of the were creatures that nobody wants to be. Everyone wants to be a werewolf or werebear. Nobody wants to be a rat.
What if the players have to make a deal with the wear rat mafia and they get in over their heads.What if there is a situation where the wear rats make everyone pay protection money and if they dont they destroy all their stuff.
You are certainly thinking along the right lines, wererats can operate a lot like a mafia, however they can also worship dark gods and demon lords as a supernatural cult, or follow a charismatic and insane leader who converts all its devoted followers into wererats.
Imagine a clan of wererats beeing succesfull. They'd take over leaders. The city would become a LE city-state of dutiful, obedient, sadistic citzens. Rinse and repeat and you'd get a nation of wererats in just a dozen years. Belive me. - That is unless some infight for scraps breaks out once they get relative security. When it ceases to be "us vs them", and they feel oppressed, then they fight. In our times it is typical when immigration is involved. - EDIT: I have the plans, with monopoly and shutting down of silvermines, blocking silver imports, propaganda on Mao levels for diverting attention to other lychans and raising low suspiciousness on the state confiscation of all silver. In the hunting of lychans (Good lychans expecially), lychan hunter mercenaries get killed. A ship captain gets hanged for smuggling a mere 10kg of silver in the nation. I have everything.
congratulations, did you have any questions, anecdotes about wererats, thoughts about the video, requests for monsters or environments for me to cover in future videos?
Far creatures like Dryad, Pixies, and Satyrs. The Undeads you missed like ghouls, ghasts, wights, death knights, reverants, and wraiths. Underdark creatures like Grimlocks, Trogs, Hook Horrors, Druegar, and Deep Gnomes. Lizardmen, Merrow, Sahuagin, and Yuan-ti. Hydras, Manticores, Harpies, and Cockatrice.
Not to insult anyone. Some of the descriptions of the wererats and their behavior are similar to how people stereotype Jews.'greed, money, scheming, chosen people'. (just an observation) it's kinda funny.
I just began building a Wererat as a "Horseman of Pestilence" character.
My players discovered a wererat had bitten 2 kids that were running food to refugees that have hidden in the sewers. They thought it best to leave the kids down there so they wouldnt be executed or taken by the city if brought back to the surface... then they left the city and havent been back in the region for probably 3 months in game. Im thinking its time for a wererat infestation
Serves them right for not fronting up with some cleric fee's and having the kids de-cursed. It would be cool, actually, if Lycanthropes were drawn to locations where greater concentrations of lycanthropes are found, so, first you get the rats, then the surrounding country side starts getting ravaged by werewolves, the foresters, druids and rangers start to vanish as a were Tiger takes them out one by one, and the highways gain a wretched reputation far and wide, thanks to the savage banditry of gangs of were boars.
There is a forest near where some fey are having a social with a group of werebears
AJ Pickett Fees?! Why would I charge children to remove the affliction....even my evil priest has a heart in that respect....as I've said before I hate lycanthropy,especially wererats.....but WereDragons are pretty cool though! 🐊
@@michaelkelligan7931 Churches are very good at having no heart even if individual members do.
Funny, wererats actually can't infect lycanthropy through bite since their teeth usually rest outside of their mouth and are thus dry. I don't know if you DM knew this, but it could be possible that you just left two wounded kids down there who weren't infected bit just bitten
I love wererats. My favorite lycanthrope. I don't use alignment in my campaign except for angels and demons and such that are literally made of good and evil. So when my players encountered the wererats of a large city they got tangled up in a wererat civil war between the relatively "good" Rat King and a crazed fanatic who would have been right at home in Skavenblight.
Incidentally I bought a box of WH Clanrats just for that story arc.
Man that is cool. I used to play a D&D campaign that the creatures we encountered did not stay with the "normal" alignments. Even met a lawful good red dragon once in that world. Nice guy, smoked cannibus.
@@marclytle644 lol thanks for the story
@@marclytle644, inspired by Wormy?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormy_(comic_strip)
Yeah, that's how I prefer to treat alignments, too. :) I find it more believable, more immersive. :D
A couple of things worth mentioning:
In earlier editions wererats in humanoid form were unable to completely mask the smell sewer. They would also have rat like facial features like pointy noses, big front teeth and pointy whisker like moustaches. These features wouldn’t be so prominent to that you would be able to tell that an NPC is a wererat just by looking at him, but still they are there…
When roleplaying a wererat, mimic their twitchy noses and shifty eyes.
Finally wererats think of themselves as having great style. But it is always just a little bit off. Examples: a very expensive jacket, with a stain that can’t be removed, or it is missing a button, or one of the gold buttons has been replaced different brass button. They may have very fine set china for dining, but one of the cups is missing and a plate has been chipped. The living room may be furnished with red velour armchairs, except for one that is green.
WizardOfTheHills: These are great ideas, thank you!
Also they could only inflict lycanthropy through their weapons
Think Peter Pettigrew from the Harry Potter films as far as a similar look and behavior.
Ratfolk Wererats that just hulk out in the hybrid form sound hilarious
Wererat... the most disappointing form of lycantrophy you can be cursed with, lol
After careful consideration, all I can offer in their defense, is that they are sneaky and mean.
I'm a werestraycat
I'd play wererat
Most disappointing and most underrated. They can shrink and be stealthy with a perfect urban ability and have greater wererat versions.
Tell that to the poor werechihuahuas
Had an idea for a lich that was a lycanthrope
I tend to blend this monster with "Skaven" (ala Mordheim) in my games.
Let's release a WereBear into a middle of a group of WereRats .
My paladin would volunteer, he is a silver dragonborn werebear. The group he was with had to restrain him from murdering a wererat who had information that the group needed
Now that sounds like a pitfight I would bet on.
A fantasy novel I am currently writing features were rats with a pair that are major protagonists in the story. They fall under the lawful neutral alignment where the rest of their kin are lawful neutral working in the criminal underworld of a major port city. At this point I'm 1/3 of the way into writing it at just over 100 pages in. Many of the characteristics of were rats you mentioned in this video (I realize now is 4 years old) I was already incorporating in the story. I always felt that their whole existence was to make people on the surface believe that they didn't exist so that their microcosm of a society could operate undetected.
Good video!
Very fine curation of this lore sir, you're a true sage.
Can they change form at will or forced to by the moon cycles? Do they have their special abilities all the time or only in wererat form? Thanks
they wish they were skaven
*shudders* Anyone that would want to be a skaven.... have you seen their females?!
@@marclytle644 that's why I prefer pathfinders ratfolk, there generally cleaner and wont stab you in the back....most of the time I mean
Well...
There's not much to stop anyone from repurposing the wererat's stat blocks (albeit with a few tweaks) to make Skaven a possibility. And if you apply it as a template, you could effectively recreate Clan Moulder; especially if you're a fan of rat ogres.
@@marclytle644 forget the feverish furry fetish artwork about skaven females. The artwork of what they really look like is absolutely repulsive and horrific. I don't see how skaven males find them attractive much less how a human could hold the contents of their stomach at the mere sight of them.
Yes yes
Another phenomenally helpful video. Apart from really making me want to use wererats in a game it gives me some ideas for how to run social lycanthropes. The werehyenas in Zakhara run in packs and have natural charm effects similar to a friends spell. They typically befriend people in a village and lure them out to the pack where they can either be food or a new convert. This gives me some great ideas as to how to run them better.
That sounds very cool (as a DM, as a player it is the stuff of nightmares).
+AJ Pickett (The Mighty Gluestick) Still trying to work out what to do with the character who got infected :)
I have a friend who loves that sort of thing, particularly this one time a Paladin got infected and the player had no idea (the DM rolled for the save vs disease), just suddenly, the Paladin's god was not having anything to do with the character.. so.. they went on a holy quest, tried to atone for whatever they had done, etc.. meanwhile, the DM is going on about "The Taint".. full moon happens, the character wakes up covered in blood, and still has no idea.. goes on the mission to solve the local murders, the DM is tormenting them with mentions of "The Taint" to the point they are starting to really get emotional about it.. finally, they find out what is really going on, all is forgiven, they get a cure, and the memory of the game is priceless.
+AJ Pickett (The Mighty Gluestick) That sounds awesome.
@@AJPickett why would the god abandon the dude and not say 'holy shit, you are infected with lcyanthropy dude! Get a shower or something!"
gods can be fickle but that is just stupid.
Remember the wererat encounter in the 2nd edition book to explain combat? Great classic
My favorite type of bandit stat block.
The type that can follow the party members that love using invisibility to escape
I'm sure by now you are aware that "humanoid" in the curse doesn't mean "a being resembling a human in its shape" (two arms, two legs, and a head or whatever), but the actual creature type. However I do think it is interesting to homebrew the curse to expand out to other types that are humanoid shape, or say screw it and include what you like. Imagine a beholder wererat or other werecreature!
My friend is a bit new to DMing and made this mistake. When fighting meenlocks, a player asked if they were humanoid in planning to cast hold or charm person, and the DM said yes since they literally are humanoid in shape. I sent a PM to make him aware of the mechanical distinction. He made the spell fail rather than tell the player actually no, which kind of sucks but that's also a metagame question. Instead he could have asked, "does my character understand this creature enough to know the spell will work?" and the DM should allow a Nature/Arcana roll.
Love the rat from Princess Bride! I didn't see Brown Jenkin😊
That gold coin trick was exceptionally cool and very cunning. Nice.
These guys are such cool mobs! This is really interesting lore, and it sparks the imagination! Thanks for posting!
A few simple traps and a bit of cheese will rid you of that Weremouse problem
11:00 Another thing. Humanoids who contract lycanthrophy will normally be traumatised by this, as they have no control over their transformation and they have no free will once they are transformed either. When they revert back to normal form, they have no memory of what had happened or what they have done in the beast-form. This is in contrast to natural (or real) lycanthropes who are born with lycanthrophy.
This is all quite handy for wererats, because wererats can summon and control giant rats. When they need to, they just visit the place where their former victims live. Preferrably at full moon nights where involutary transformations are highly likely. Watch their former victim transform to the giant rat state and control them from then on throughout the night! This way, natural were rats can gather small bands of giant rats, just visiting former victims of theirs. And they can use them for whatever they like during the night. The victim will have no idea what had happened anyway. Perfect rogue guild soldiers!
wouldn't it be Therianthropy than Lycanthropy?
Yes.
I believe that the werecreatures of DnD were developed before the therian term was popularized.
1 pack of Lankhmar wererats + 1 wand of size alteration = 1 giant headache for my players!
Bwuahahahaha!
I have found wererats to be especially effective in naval and Spelljammer campaigns where they can be used to on ships to give the appearance of little or no crew. No one gets suspicious of a few rats on board heheheh.
You can combine the therianthropy disease with other templates, the way I try to set it about in my games is that an undead template cannot be acquired until after if you want both to work. A werewolf cannot bite a zombie and the zombie contract lycanthropy. But you can raise a werewolf corpse from the dead as a zombie.
Can include any "Humanoid" and "Does not necessarily need to be alive" you say? Well that could make for a fun plague sea or pest wave for the world to deal with.
There are two sets of wererats in published D&D campaigns that I know of, and both are not originally human.
-In the _Out of the Abyss_ campaign, players can escape their drow captors with the help of a pair of deep gnomes named Topsy and Turvy, who were bitten by wererats and have thus inherited the curse.
Later in the same campaign, the PCs will probably arrive in Blingdenstone, a deep gnome town that is just starting to regain its populace. However, a clan of other deep gnome wererats named the Goldwhiskers lives there, but is in conflict with the returning gnomes. Thankfully, they seem to be able to suppress most of their evil tendencies enough that they don't try to kill you on sight. All they want is to be treated as members of the Blingdenstone community (they are descended from the original inhabitants), and will even help against oozes that threaten the regrowing populace if the PCs promise to negotiate for their acceptance. If they don't, the Goldwhiskers are content with just moving somewhere else...
Wererat Mind Flayer, I really like that Idea.
I like to use Skaven models as stand in for any grid game play. Also makes great spies, and could sell information to the highest bidders. Not just another standard thieves guild. Mine uses blackmail, assassination, and embezzlement as well.
What's a typical thieves guild supposed to be? I've always run them as if they're basically the mob. Theft,drugs,prostitution, extortion etc. are they not supposed to be crime families?
My big city has wererats as part of the local thieves guild - they do spying and some dirty work for them. With doppelgangers and a rakshasa, eventually take over the thieves guild and then have to be dealt with. Monster Manual Extended 1, 2 and 3 help make this a level 9 to 10 thing. My players are now so paranoid about every new person they meet lol
Ngl they sound exceedingly similar to the Nosferatu clan from Vampire: the Masquerade. And I like this very much.
.. sounds like a masquerade violation..
PS- Gary says Hi 🎭
a rich & ever-thriving port city filled with water rats, which are naturally larger than normal rats. have fun.
Anyone up for Wererats can take inspiration from the Skaven in Warhammer Fantasy.
The thing about both of those things is that they're like cockroaches. If there's one of them, there's dozens more that you can't see.
Great video again AJ, thank you very much.
Most welcome Gary!
Call me crazy if you want, but I think this would be the perfect way to incorporate Skaven into a campaign if one's willing to fiddle with the stat blocks a bit. Especially for Clan Moulder, since they're the ones responsible for the creation of rat ogres. Clan Eshin would also be another strong candidate.
I agree
Binging on your videos lately, man. So good.
I am the netflix of monsters :D
4:00 you forget that the lycanthrophy disease is only possible to contract if the victim lose a great deal of hit points. More than 50% of maximum. And as you say the damage should be dealt from bites only.
This condition might change from edition to editon though, I haven't checked all editions.
Btw. Thanks for the video! WereRats are awesome and great for making interesting adventures and scenarios with plot twists and surprises.
An effect of this condition would be that only fairly weak creatures would be in danger of contracting wererat lycanthrophy.
ty!
you just explained how to run a thief's guild
Would a dragonborn wererat in rat form keep his breath weapon? I know a shifted dragonborn druid would, but there are subtle differences between druid's and lycanthrope's shape changing.
I have a team of reocurring NPCs that are Thayan envoys of Hierarch Lysarg, a common contact in my campaigns since he is basicly one of the Thayan embassadors. A Mindflayer, a Kenku and a Wererat. The Wererat is the chaimberlain of an influential masked lord of waterdeep, the Mindflayer has escaped his hive and hides in a broken Nautilus-Ship in a mountain range, amassing his own crew of twisted experiments and the Kenku is the spymaster of a thieves guild operating in the Neverwinter woods. Noone knows that they are allied with Thay but when they act as the Hierarchs envoys, they always come together. That makes tgem great at disguising anything and obscuring the site they hold their secret meetings in. By now my players have gotten over it, but when first meeting this deadly trio they dealth with severe lack of trust and constant paranoya afterwards - is that rat following them a spy? Is that sound they hesr an actual sound or just a Kenkus mimicry? Is someone scrying on them (the Kenku is able to cast scry)? Is that mindflayer reading their thought? Did he hear them plotting? That combined with the trios pet mimic that actually works as a normal, although seemingly animated, chest for them, made my players go crazy. They thought they would be able to see what the Hierarch is planning, rummaged through his chest only to loose an arm and discover the floating (invisible) orb above them. Since then they once played a somewhat evil party and those three were their allies and now they have recently met them again as a party if morally uncerrain characters having to pick a side in the war between Thay and the lords alliance.
what if a ratfolk get bitten? :D still count?
Yes, they still get the stat increase to dexterity due to contracting the disease/curse of Lycanthropy, Although they may not manifest a lot of physical differences, they are now able to pass this disease on to others, so it is still significant.
Any reason why various types of were curses might stack. Say if a player character was unfortunate enough to be bitten by a wererat and then later a werewolf?
Would they be able to turn into either or a hybred of both?
Ah, there are reasons and there are opinions, my opinion is no, they don't stack, my reasoning is that I have not seen any were-hybrids in published material, however, that said, if you wanted to run a "D&D Underworld Evolution" story line, by all means, don't let anyone's opinion stand in the way of your fun.
SKAVEN.
A Hill Giant wear rat. How big would be their Rat form?
Rodents of unusual size? I don't think they exist.
@@AJPickett *applause*
He’d make all the rules
Can you do a video on the werebats. They could make a good theif too
Love your videos keep up the good work
Thank you, will do!
Check out del Toro's Graveyard Rats for inspiration for their lair.
That was an awesome episode.
I would argue that the undead cannot be wererats, as they are immune to disease. However, that raises the question as to whether death cures the disease in the case of various kinds of resurrection? If so, would revivify also work? Please discuss.
Very informative ...Thank you .
Can you make an updated version of this video plz
Boo wants to know, is there a aerospace hamster....... squee sqeeeek
@3:05 That would scare the shit out a house cat.
Unless its a wearcat.Then it might be licking its lips.lol
Do Lycanthropes of different types eat each other? Hmmm, what do you think? I imagine a weretiger would certainly eat a wereboar.
If such predator prey relationships exist with were-creatures I wonder how they would interact in their human forms.
Unless the were-rat knows ninjitsu and has pet turtles :)
MisterTutor2010 haha
Ok, I’m thinking there’s a city that suddenly suffers from a rash of organised crime. When the players investigate, they discover a thieves guild, kenku, and wererats. Eventually it ends up as a three way war in the shadows.
Are you going to talk about manes demon
idk if this is worth asking on an old video but, im new to dnd n i wanted to know, could i make a were rat character n like.. be viable? if thats the right word
sure, don't see why not
another fantastic vid! the usefulness of this creature in dnd is endless, spies assasins rouges and trickster mages, all waiting to be played out in wererat form. what are you using for wererat minis? skaven work great.
Many of the images in the vid are Skaven pics, so yeah, perfect miniatures for hybrid form were rats. I think I have one or two minis that would do the trick, otherwise I would just shove a plasticine tail on a rogue mini :)
are there werefoxes if not there should be
If not, stats are easy to create 👍👍
Yes they are called "foxmaiden" its a japanese creature of Kara-Tur very sly...very evil
Yes,its a japanese monster called a fox maiden. They only have a female version. Very sly...very evil creature
First time I ever got turned into a lycanthrope, it was a wererat.
I know you said the wererat is lawful evil. But is it possible for a wererat to turn against other wererats and become under any good alignment?
Absolutely, whenever discussing a race/species alignment, it is an indication of the way they behave collectively, so it is possible to have a good society with evil members, and an evil society with good members, they don't automatically choose exile, mostly they just learn to operate within the swarm, keep their heads down and just go along with things, abstaining from instigating acts of evil themselves.
of curse you used pettigrew lol
Wererat King - Huge Abhorrent monster. A mound of twisting flesh with all forms of the transformation in a writhing mass.
Maybe it is worshiped as some sort of avatar or god.
Couple questions. Do wererats lose control during the full moon too? Do were creatures have to see the moon or do they change automatically?
As AJ said, wererats don't suffer from the unreasoning animal savagery of other lycanthropes like werewolves. Probably has something to do with the fact that rats are scavengers and not top predators. That said, I would think the phase of the moon still has some effect on them, though more subtle. And in D&D were creatures of all sorts can shift forms at will unless they are overtaken by moon madness. Though weather they actually have to see the full moon or not for this effect, I'm not certain. Personally I would say no and that the phase of the moon effects them seen or not, but that's just my opinion.
@@lafortya honestly in that context it doesn't make sense why werewolves do. the wolf is a pack creature. so if driven by savagery or huner it will attack other creatures. the human is also a beast that does not prey upon its own like that under sensible circumstances. and a werewolf is both.
@@taddad2641 Possibly. Though consider that werewolves aren't actually wolf or human, they're werewolves, a predatory supernatural monstrous creature of evil origins. And werewolves generally don't attack their own pack members, but go after prey. Humans etc being counted as prey.
is a Halfling or Gnome wererat one size smaller, including in their rat form?
JoaoG R Me personally I’d say yea for immersion reasons, but it’s totally up to you.
Storm giant were Whale
I love rats. They are adorable and I'm honestly sad I'm allergic to them. Do you think our glorious wererat overlords would take pity on those of us who would raise and feed rats ourselves?
Benjamin Lupine In "Tales of Ravenloft" there is a story that describes the reaction of a wererat to a human hurting rats - it seems behavior is repaid in kind...
I don't know if anyone is still watching these comments, but I need some advice: I want to pit my party against a group of half a dozen wererats running a river smuggling operation out of a dockside warehouse. I want to give the wererats a couple levels of character classes; make one a Rouge and one a Warlock, etc. My question is, how would this effect their CR? I've tried using the DMG to calculate the numbers, but that process confuses me. Any advice will be appreciated.
it doesn't impact their CR very much at all.
how would you cure this "curse" from any were beast
GMs discretion. Depending on the game they're running it could be as simple as a curse-removing heal spell all the way up to an elaborate ritual using materials that each needed an almost epic quest to obtain...
Can you make a video on the blood war?
Hi, sorry I did not see this comment earlier, yes, I would like to make a video about the blood war, I am sort of nibbling at it's edges as I talk about devils, demons, slaadi and such, but it deserves an in depth look, I agree.
¡skavens! :D
Skaven dont change there a race
@@hotpopcorncake They are also far more chaotic and destructive.
Are there any wearreptiles or birds or non mammal creatures?
Not for 5E yet... but in previous editions, oh my yes, were-everything.
yea like were-octopus
Were-Cthulhu!
AJ Pickett lol it could be some kind of mind breaking lovecraftian mutation horror that makes you go mad and attack people.
I might do a video about the subject of horror in D&D actually, my friend Alex (part of my home game crew) is a master at building suspense and making me leap out of my seat with actual frights, while I have a knack at describing visceral carnage, infections, mutations and such in a way that makes him squirm or dry heave a little bit.
Kobold wererats?
Can you imagine a wererat mindflayer? I'm not sure if it would be hilarious or terrifying lol
Just had my sort of character I use as a dm, a kind of nasty kobold get turned into a wererat because the situation kind of made a lone wererat who was sort of the beginning of a wererat group become desperate. The kind of deal is that this group is evil, and the kobold's was already very wererat like, it was only supposed to be kind of a contact, but the deal is the kobold likes to be a boss. Now the players want to more kind of spread the curse. Technically they are supposed to act like henchmen to the kobold to build an evil organization, and now they are interested wererat nature be a part of our group, like the kobold hive.
Don't know how the black dragon would react to the kobolds that already crawled around like vermin around his swamp lair suddenly became wererats, whether he might see them as possible threat. Whether the wererat kobold would even follow their dragon master for long. I just kind of put that some sort evil being like a witch/hag or devil decided to try and start it as some evil deal, but now I am thinking of the logistics that a member of the party is a new wererat leader, that he would take the authority away from the patient 0 wererat. It will already change plans for this campaign, but they won't be organized yet like the examples you gave.
One of my players described were rats as one of the were creatures that nobody wants to be. Everyone wants to be a werewolf or werebear. Nobody wants to be a rat.
True
So cool. The real Master Splinter.
How would you do a Yuan-ti on a white t where rat forum
What?
Or some such
Any Renier family friends?
How long is WereRat lifespan ?
Same as the base creature as far as I know.
Abishai known as dragon devils
Indeed
Wouldn't giants and zombies be considered not humanoids? Giant and undead respectively?
Specific exceptions overrule general rules.
OOOooooooooooooooDddddddoooh YEAH, WERERAT Isss BEST RAT!
What if the players have to make a deal with the wear rat mafia and they get in over their heads.What if there is a situation where the wear rats make everyone pay protection money and if they dont they destroy all their stuff.
You are certainly thinking along the right lines, wererats can operate a lot like a mafia, however they can also worship dark gods and demon lords as a supernatural cult, or follow a charismatic and insane leader who converts all its devoted followers into wererats.
My fav too 😍
ROULSs.
Imagine a clan of wererats beeing succesfull. They'd take over leaders. The city would become a LE city-state of dutiful, obedient, sadistic citzens.
Rinse and repeat and you'd get a nation of wererats in just a dozen years. Belive me.
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That is unless some infight for scraps breaks out once they get relative security.
When it ceases to be "us vs them", and they feel oppressed, then they fight. In our times it is typical when immigration is involved.
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EDIT: I have the plans, with monopoly and shutting down of silvermines, blocking silver imports, propaganda on Mao levels for diverting attention to other lychans and raising low suspiciousness on the state confiscation of all silver. In the hunting of lychans (Good lychans expecially), lychan hunter mercenaries get killed. A ship captain gets hanged for smuggling a mere 10kg of silver in the nation. I have everything.
Gotta pack my cheese if I want to travel to that town. A LOT of Cheese.
So they can be considered R.O.U.S.?
Mmmm...wererats
comment
First!
congratulations, did you have any questions, anecdotes about wererats, thoughts about the video, requests for monsters or environments for me to cover in future videos?
SECOND! Maybe you should do an overview of creature subtypes; the various spices you can put on top of other creatures.
Far creatures like Dryad, Pixies, and Satyrs. The Undeads you missed like ghouls, ghasts, wights, death knights, reverants, and wraiths. Underdark creatures like Grimlocks, Trogs, Hook Horrors, Druegar, and Deep Gnomes. Lizardmen, Merrow, Sahuagin, and Yuan-ti. Hydras, Manticores, Harpies, and Cockatrice.
+kingstewy Fae
So.. do all the monsters? :) I do really need to get back and do some more Undeads.
Not to insult anyone.
Some of the descriptions of the wererats and their behavior are similar to how people stereotype Jews.'greed, money, scheming, chosen people'. (just an observation)
it's kinda funny.