Now I'm imagining that scene from the thing where they all agree to test their blood one by one, but with the villagers all being pressured into agreeing to line up and take a cut from a silver dagger, one of them just sweating bullets as the PCs get closer
Where they're all tied together!? That scene would be AWESOME with a werewolf who starts horrifically transforming rather than allow themselves to be tested and the remaining villagers all start panicking and freaking out!
Wait, why silver? If wounds from a silver weapon heal at the same rate for both Therianthropes & ordinary Humanoids, wouldn't that only prove that you are stabbing everyone with silver? Would it not make more sense to use a steel weapon to see who heals immediately?
Regarding the whole Werewolf fast healing being played for horror: I feel like Werewolf the Forsaken does a great job at it. The book has a whole description about how the healing process is horrifying, with bones hissing as they melt to get back together, tendons lashing out to reconnect, and so on. The process is apparently so disturbing to witness they have to avoid going to the hospital to not cause everyone to panic, and it's stated to be rather painful even to them.
Separating silvered and magical damage is practically a standard for me at this point; if a statblock says non-magical only then only magical weapons bypass, if it says non-silvered or non-magical then it should be only silvered weapons that bypass. On the topic of werewolf regeneration, I never played White Wolf's werewolf games (I was more a Vampire person), but I recall reading them refer to a werewolf's regeneration as 'clearly supernatural'. Flesh writhes as it reknits. Blood lashes back to the body. Pretty much body horror healing.
Loup Garou a boss super werewolf added in van richans guide has an interesting take on the silver weakness. ALL damage can hurt a loup garou, BUT they gain regeneration and will always gain 10 hp at the start of their turn if they arent killed with silver. this means a party of all casters is screwed. the martials who were gonna fight with just magical weapons? ao screwed. they need to go out of their way to do the old prepare a silverbullet to kill it.
I played Country Gangrel who's back story that they only come into cities during winter months for educations and to gossip, otherwise it is to sleep off the season on the bottom of a lake or river. So for background writing a 7months story of running for my life from werewolves or making far arm allies with them, and running from and fighting werewolves woodland forest spirit monstrous enemies and learn fairy Fae blood magic contracts. As an offhand joke at the start of a given game I said, " What my gangrel back story was that when he was 7 years old a coyote gangrel turned him on an animal impulse whim and left him buried like a chicken with his feet in the air cover in hay ! " Everyone in the shop yell for me to flip a coin for that outcome. When the coin landed another player declared he has a Puppy ! So I ended up PC a ten year old vampire gangrel with an 8year old mental state that acts like a talking dog blood bond to another player's vampire PC. The amazing coyote dog boy. Normally my game shop ran Sabbat war packs, play Star Wars smugglers or Sithlords, and plays lawful evil to neutral evil D&D characters. We tried PCing .. good .. characters but we were a bunch of under handed and pragmatic players. So we put on our PC sheets alignment, Neutral evil with lawful contract intentions with good helpful leanings. Remember helping a lawful evil Baator devil, and favor given is a favor that needs to be return someday. How to plead for your life with a devil, " Common on, you can't kill me like this ! Using me as cannon folder against the Abyss demons is one thing but this is just wrong and a waste of resources."
I think a great angle for a character who has lycanthrope is that they figure out that transforming without feeling the mind shattering pain of the transformation keeps them from being raging feral death machines. So how that person feels towards others in human form its echoed in its werewolf form. I feel like this makes sense especially considering how every setting where the werewolf is a horror trope it's depicted as insanely painful. And it seems to hurt all the way transformation. So it starts with the suffering of the person, then the suffering is passed to the werewolf. No animal reacts well to intense pain. Even around their kin. But what I've noticed also is that when a person feels intensely they have a strange focus on someone or something after shifting. So after the intense pain loved ones are remembered but often it becomes the werewolf's target. And when they hate someone and are enraged before turning their focus is 100% on that person or thing. But if there was some way to prevent the suffering and the werewolf form comes to with their friends around or their friends in danger, they would be able to focus. Could be similar to how the Hulk shifts. Where Bruce Banner starts with being miserable and suffering, but as he goes on he learns to put it in it's place and his understanding of the Hulk becomes friendly. Then the Hulk becomes more like a friend with his friends. And then in finding himself he realizes he is the Hulk and they become one instead of two split personas.
That's a really good point. Like, seriously interesting. Mechanically speaking I could see maybe being able to heal them as they're transforming, or granting them temp HP, maybe even a numbing poison, to force the effect that you describe. Or, taking them through a ritual or series thereof that the party had to uncover, or find a resource for maybe. Like an ancient long lost method or the like.
About the silver: in my campaign we once had a nice twist on this. Silver (as the "metal of the moon") didn't hurt the werewolves, because in the campaign the moon is the allied of the werebeasts. It was gold (as the "metal of the sun") that caused the permanent damage. It took the players quite a while to understand this - and they were pretty horrified during their first encounters when their great silver weapons did nothing. ^^ Initial assumptions were that they had been given a useless silvery alloy, that the silver coins melted and applied afterwards were not pure enough, that the weapons had to be consecrated on top of everything else, etc. :-D Eventually they found evidence, piece by piece, that the claim about the silver had been spread by the nobility of the country in earlier times to make the antidote unaffordable for ordinary people so that they could consolidate their political power, because the common people were not able to afford it.
On a similar but different note. I usually have special types of royal metals that do the damage. If my party is fighting were wolves, not only do they need to have pure silver it has to be a special holy or sanctified silver. The same goes for celestials (solar gold) deamons and devils (bronze or brass) and spirits (cold iron). There is a lot of fun to be had when using magical metals and alloys
@@albusvoltavern4500 It also always offers the opportunity to incorporate side quests when the question of procurement arises. If the main campaign is already full, the material will be easier to obtain, but if it makes sense from a background point of view and is beneficial to the current campaign flow, then the procurement will be scarcer and the players will have something to do before they can obtain the weapons against the main opponent. For example, apart from simple unavailability on the local market, the BBEG may have found out that they are preparing the same and have attacked the blacksmith who was supposed to process the material for them and stolen the unfinished weapons and sent them away, so that they now have to chase after them and get them back. It doesn't have to be anything terribly difficult, but it keeps the party on their toes and fills up an evening, so the final battle feels a bit more earned than just buying a few silver blades round the corner for a few gold pieces and then getting on with it.
In my world, werewolves have formed into nomadic tribes after being ousted from society. They move with the local wolf and direwolf packs. They follow heards of cattle. They go on hunting parties every full moon, but otherwise they keep to themselves and try to stay away from civilization. Think of native siberians or mongols
Also factor in other than raising cubs which motive them into hunting deer or cattle, lone wolves feed/snack one field mice and other some game. Locations in the USA along with the northern US cities over the past twenty years found out, when they clear out all the stray dogs and coyotes that come into the cities to hunt the streets in the middle of the night. The rodent and raccoon populations goes off the charts. So unless they get into trouble with the environment water pollution from trying to poison all of the rats, they just try to manage the coyote population instead to take care of the rodents and raccoons. In the US southwest the Red Wolves and cross breed coyotes are for the past 15years are making themselves at home in the cities of the rodents and easy trash to eat. That being said, any neutral align pack of werewolves would keep the rodent population under control for any farming village.
I always like the idea of World of Darkness Garou. The Guardians of Earth, while werewolves in DnD are usually the villains. I like to think PC werewolves would be like the Garou. Maybe even the Villains can be like Circle of Druids who seek to defend nature itself from civilization. It'd be a nice twist for a Dark Fantasy to find out after you wipe out the pack, you realize they were the good guys and you just ensured the real bad guys won.
@@caileancampbell7498 I’ve been running a variation of the red talons (the ones mothers warn their children about) and silent striders (werewolves in my world travel a lot as protectors. Pick the one(s) you like and go with it. I doubt you’ll be disappointed 😎
@@ThorneMD The only reason I haven't instituted any of the tribes as playable yet is because I want to make sure the Black Spiral isn't too OP. I've also been a little confused of how to convert the totems to 5e without making them just another fae creature. The whole tribal mechanic of the Garou nation makes it a little difficult to convert.
So going off my research into old fairy tales, myths and lore ( as well as playing WTA and older supplements of D&D), I can definatly say that if a werewolf ends up being a pc/ NPC/ GMPC they would have a few different things going for them in an augmented rules scenario. I'd run it as the following: • Cold forged iron ( cold worked iron), silver, and silver tinned (coated) weapons affect lycanthropic characters and creatures by cutting off the magical energy needed for transformation and regeneration, rendering them able to heal like a normal person. • Aformentioned amalgamate metals would not sizzle or burn a lycanthrope outside of it's transformed state. They would cause swelling or rashes though, like if people had an allergic reaction. Tinctures of silver and rust if damaged would cause 1D4 damage if ingested or applied as a topical. (In the case of ingestion, 1D4 poison damage). • Rangers, Barbarians, Druids, warlocks, Sorcerers and Fighters would be most acceptable PC classes for lycanthrope characters, followed by rogues and monks. • lycanthropy could be contracted by birth, bite, exchange of bodily fluids, and by spell/ curse ( or cursed artifacts). • full moons dont turn you into blood thirsty monsters, failed intelligence checks and wisdom saves do. • Animal handling is 50/50. They either like you or they LOATHE YOU OUT OF TERROR. Note: you can spread lycanthropy to similar species akin to your breed of lycanthrope. • if lycanthropic players investigate hard enough, they could find a place run by clerics and druids who will assist them with the " domestication of one's feral soul" that provide shelter and counseling. The buisness is a place in the mountains known jokingly as "The Werehouse". The graduates help out the local rangers and druids in the area with culling problematic monster flora and fauna, acting as road and game wardens.
In my campaign, The god of lycans and the hunt has currently made it so currently the bite of a Lycan does not transfer the curse. New lycans must be created through rituals. Some speculate this is for balance or maybe he wants to become more powerful forcing more followers if one wishes to become a Lycan and be one with their wild side. One with the hunt.
Werewolf Alpha, huh? I like the Loup Garou from Van Richten's Guide 5e better. Bonus action transformation and a lycanthropy curse that sticks for a month. But hey, I see the merits of a free pdf.
I think the problem with lycanthropes in general is having to figure out rules for when someone gets infected with it. Now you have to figure out what type of rules you want to put in. There is really very little in actual 5e books to help you with how to do so.
We actually provide fully fleshed out rules for monstrous transformations in Grim Hollow: The Campaign Guide, including Vampires, Liches, and of course; Lycanthropes!
@@GhostfireGaming I've seen the ads for it. It looks like a pretty useful book. As far as lycanthropes go, when I put them into my game a while back I was running out of the abyss and my party eventually got infected by their own party members passing it around. So I had to scourer the internet for info that the books didn't have. Basically had to homebrew after research. Would have been nice if I had the option of using Grim Hollows rules at the time.
@@TheFirstTriplefife dunno how using the rules have gone for you, but I found that lycanthropy was the biggest letdown of the book. Everything else is super cool though
Bless them with the gifts of eldritch gods. They deal extra psychic damage on hit, inflict madness or frightened conditions as an AoE DC Save, and grasping tentacles for grappling/restraining.
The first example of a werewolf being weak to silver was in 1800s Spain when a infamous wild dog that had been killing livestock was killed, it was killed with a gun. Its story was romanticised in the 1930s by an author who said that the bullets used to kill it were melted down from a silver statuette of the Virgin Mary
I've been thinking of how to make werewolves more of a threat in my home games (mainly because I prefer werewolves to vampires; vampires are boring). One way I've thought of is to give individual werewolves Blood Frenzy, granting them advantage on attacks against damaged opponents. That could create an effective horror moment as the werewolf's eyes flash with primal hunger upon smelling fresh blood, and it attacks with renewed savagery.
I like the idea of quite a mystical werewolf. So...the hounded soul: Some people hide frustration, pain, and fury deep inside. For them sometimes the moon 'blesses' them. During the night their fury rises apart from them as a spirit beast venting all they won't or can't. The moon's metal silver can harm them. All other weapons pass through like they are smoke. However they are bound to the moonlight so you may hide in the shadows. Some of the more powerful ones may be formed of a whole town's anger. And until its soul connected person or people are slain, calmed, or satiated it will return, even if killed, after the new moon passes.
The best way to make them formidable is two simple changes: the leader has total control at all times so you have a thinking general commanding the pack, and he/she can take levels. Those two changes can make a lvl 3 monster shoot up as far as you need for so long.
I always felt like the immunity should be converted to more of a resistance and that they have some form of regeneration against non silver/magical weapons. Cause the immunity makes me think that a werewolf could just shrug off a building collapsing on them or being completely impaled in the head by a spike the size of a small tree. It gets ridiculously after awhile when you think about it. Also, do werewolves need it to be night to be able to transform, especially naturally born ones? Or do they need it to be at least night time? So far I’ve drawn the conclusion that the whole full moon thing is just mainly when lycanthropy just goes completely out of control and for those cursed and resisting it.
You are a great speaker, this video is very distinguished from other D&D videos I have looked at in a while. I can proudly say you have earned my subscription!
I agree on the magic weapons thing and its actually a rule I enforce. If its a magic protection, like the silver would be, then its not removed by a magic weapon.
Agreed - Rather than complete mundane weapon immunity, I prefer to give lycanthropes super-fast regenerative abilities for most wounds, including magical weapon damage, but possibly not including fire. This also means that if a party can do enough damage, regardless of type, they could feasibly stop a lycanthrope - a huge explosion, conflagration or similar could finish the fight and prevet regeneration through dismemberment. Body horror-tastic. I also like the ideas from the old "Chill" RPG, where silver worked against werewolves but different species had different sensitivities - such as flint weapons for were-jaguars, for example. This can lead to a degree of sleuthing to work out just what the PC's are up against and how to beat it...
When it comes to lycanthropy i prefer using weresharks and wererats since my usual campaigns are pirate focused or nautical based. But i enjoyed this video
man. I'm so glad I backed grimhollow and discovered ghostfire gaming.... your videos are sooooo good and i've learned so much about DMing from your vods.... Thank you
Over a year old of a video but have to state a thought that hit me. Thinking of homebrewing a werewolf with the rogue's subclass trait of hair-trigger. A werewolf confronted by hunters, wont wait as one says softly 'easy boy..' - its going to leap and attempt to maul before anyone has a moment to react.
I play a moon druid/beast master ranger who received lycanthropy through the acceptance of a gift that she didnt know was Harkon's Bite. Immune to mundane non-silver weapons, she is also immune to any monsters using physical damage attacks (that arent considered magical), people that use silver or magical weaponry can be disarmed and/or mauled by the primal companion and the conjured animals that she summons. As the video creator said, unless there is signs a werewolf is involved, people will not automatically pull out their silvered weapons.
Depending on the setting I use them either as cursed people, creatures that cannot control the need to hunt and kill. The curse can stem from either a bite, a cursed object (I used a ring of protection made by the elves to turn men into beasts to hunt men - in order to protect nature from humankind) or a cursed bloodline (similar to a tiefling). In other settings I use them as a manifestation of nature to protect itself from civilization (similar to the World of Darkness take on werewolves). But no matter what kind of setting I use - were creatures shouldn't be just humans with some kind of extra power. Power comes at a cost. No matter how much you try to stay "human" this existence will ultimately make you into a sociopath - somebody unable to live in society (not necessarily evil - just not fitting in).
I'm planning on running a "comedic dark fantasy" campaign were lycanthropes play a big role and I think this video has a pretty good help for that, but a pretty hard disagree on the action to transform thing, at least in my setting, since I feel like having it be an action fits better with my plan of having lycanthropes to shift An American Werewolf in London style I feel like it would take an entire action to tortuously crush and stretch your entire body into a wolf form and it would also feel much more like a boss fight when to the players when the bad guy spends the first round powering up like a DBZ villain My current plan for werewolves is that, much like real wolves, they're actually pretty chill even in wolf form but need to pass a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take non-magical 8d6 bludgeoning damage taking half on fail every time they transform and it takes a while before they get the non-silver damage immunity thing So while most people think they're howling at the moon and have completely lost themselves, really they're wailing in agony and flailing about in terror
Like any teenager or college adult that just got done playing football or having a wrestling met, they are Hungry .. very .. very .. HUNGRY .. ! I had dogs, and coyotes growing up, and know people that had wolves and mountain lions, after a big games of playing Chase the Ball ! They binge eat and sleep half the rest of the day, all over the house. They get up and move to a new spot nearly every 30mins. Half way in and out the door when open. On your feet as you sit at the kitchen table, on the air vent, on and off the couch. One everyone's bed in the house, follow with the porch swing and on the rest of the furniture. Then in the sun, after they dug a shallow pit in the yard to fit the curve of their spine to sun their belly. Then they just have to snuggle, then rearrange themselves to snuggle in a different position. A great Dane will push you off the couch or out of bed when they stretch, then snuggle with you on the floor or nose you back into bed to snuggle some more. Werewolves in animal forms have to make wisdom rolls to resist acting like the given type of animal they are. In human form they tend to pace like dogs/wolves and pant like a dog watching someone.
I like Kieth Bakers werewolf silver weakness of how weapons can still cut pieces off the werewolf but unless it's silver it doesn't really do anything, they heal at a faster rate than humanoids but still carry unnatural wounds
Silverbloods, blackbloods, natural, inflicted, bite, ritual, corruption, control, lunar impact, supernatural curse, gift. There are so many ways lycanthrope can occur. I absolutely love the range of variance and use the variety in so many ways over 30+yrs of DMing so many games. Use them all. Happy gaming.
It's ironic that werewolves are labeled chaotic evil, considering real wolves, despite being carnivores, are very social creatures, similar to humans. If I ever run a campaign, I'd likely depict werewolves as just another creature in the world, the curse of lycanthropy being something that can be detrimental for folks who can't get a grip on it.
something added pretty recently to dnd is the "Loup Garou" which is a boss super werewolf. and they make for a good improved werewolf for when a normal one doesnt cut it.
AD&D2ndE Ravenloft monstrous compendium had Loup Garou as being lowland/rolling hills effected by Pure silver and not silver coated weapons and highland/foothills and mountains being affected by pure gold. Otherwise a +2 weapon only does 2pt dmg and coated weapons had to be Bless or carry an +1 or better enchantment to do half dmg. Otherwise coated weapons only do 1/4th dmg. AD&D2ndE Ravenloft Van Ricthen guide to Werebeasts carries more/ better information on werewolves and other shape changers in Ravenloft setting. During the early 1990's AD&D came out with the Ravenloft Van Ricthen guides when Whitewolf/World of Darkness (WoD) vampire and werewolf d10 RPGs. Any way those super werewolves been in D&D lore fore around 25 years already. In AD&D2ndE, monsters normally ran on 1d8 for HD, so to bring WoD werewolves and vampires into D&D we just took the rules from the DMG on Creating Your Own Character Class to modify the Bard class and added full thief skill and up graded the HD to 1d8 and ran werewolf or vampire PC that way and cost x3 Xp award to advance to the next level. Dealing with the super werewolves was just taking a pound of silver or gold and making a rail road spike and treating it as a light pickaxe. I mostly still think along the lines of WotC 3.5e and haven't the time or the money to deal with 5e or bother with the outcoming One D&D.
Regarding magic, perhaps making full immunity to spells below a certain level can reduce the magic issue. I think the Rakshasa has something like this.
It does, and it's great! Especially when the party don't know its a Rakshasa, try to cast Zone of Truth, and have no idea the creature is completely able to lie - or walks out of a fireball entirely unharmed!
@GhostfireGaming point of order: when you cast Zone of Truth, you know if anyone managed to avoid the effect, unless they have Glibness, an 8th level spell.
I always thought it was a misfire for werewolves to revert back to human form in death when the skin could be salvaged for a coat that could offer boons. And different boons depending on the difficulty level. Maybe fangs are boons too. In my manuscript for a weird western I'm writing, lycanthropy (I call them lycaons in the story) no one really knows the origin. There are many theories and myths but no actual consensus. But it is a genetic phenomena by now, and there are at least six known strains of it. It's fun to push and remix the mythology
The Greek king didn't serve the Gods human flesh to test them. He did it because his beloved son was the only thing he could think of being worthy to offer them. The moral lesson is that just because you think an action will be appreciated, doesn't mean it actually will.
I'll make an educated guess and say that was probably added by Ovid, a Roman peot with beef against authorities, which gods were stand in for in his works. Because if acient Greece had some big no-no-s it was murder of a family-friendly member and canibalism.
Something I like to do is replace different lycanthrope weakness with Gemstones that relate to the animal so Werewolfs are moonstone and Weretiger are Jade etc. I find this to make the mystery more of a mystery and if they try to use silver and see it doesn't do anything the shock factor is crazy.
In my campaign I created a potion that when taken can transform you into a lycanthrope for 1 hour. but the more often you take the potion the longer the transformation lasts and it eventually is permanent
You described witch-hunts for werewolves in a village. Perhaps the villagers could kill the werewolf in a hollow, silvered statue that has an inside that gets increasingly smaller
Shapeshift as a bonus action. Give them class abilities from druid and or barbarian levels. Legendary actions and lair actions if theyre alone or high level/high magic party
Another interesting approach is to go for the less well known aspects fo werewolf mythology. Perhaps more powerful werewolves, like the Loup Garou originally from French mythology and featured in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, cannot be slain by silvered weapons alone. Maybe the party learns that only silvered weapons treated with a toxic oil decocted from the Monkshood plant - also known as Wolfsbane - can stop the most powerful type of werewolves from regenerating. This would most likely not be common knowledge, requiring research to learn how to dispatch the ravening beast. If you go with the idea that the first and most powerful werewolf afflicting a region was created by a curse cast as a punishment, you could ask why that curse was cast. As an example, imagine if a regional ruler was a pious man whose piety curdled over time into ruthless fanaticism. He persecuted those he saw as ungodly, perhaps including local witches or a passing Vistani caravan. His cruelty and savagery hidden behind a mask of pious righteousness caused one of his victims, or someone who cared about those he victimised, to curse him such that his body would at times be warped to reflect the monstrous savagery within his soul, and so he became a werewolf, doomed to prey upon the very community he believed he was protecting rom evil. Perhaps he is so far into denial that he cannot even consciously accept wat he himself is, or otherwise cannot remember his transformations as a side effect of the curse, blacking out on the full moon and then when he comes to believing that he is doing all he can to hunt down the monster responsible for the horrors he himself committed in his altered state, which only serves to further drive him toward ever more extreme acts of repression, burning suspects at the stake on no real evidence beyond whispered paranoia and generally causing further death and misery. Perhaps he has a second in command who is fanatically loyal to him, so much so that they keep his secret from everyone, even from the afflicted man himself, so as not to cause him pain. Maybe they have used their authority to seize all the silver from the local community under the pretence of a tax to pay for hunters to destroy the beast, and has seized all stocks of Monkshood from local herbalists on the basis that such poisons should not be available to the criminal underworld, thus ensuring that no weapon that can do lasting harm to the lord they adore can be made (since a magical weapon, spell effect, or other attack is not enough on its own for this beast), and presenting the party with something of a problem once they realise the monster they are hunting is a werewolf and yet discover that no silver and Wolfsbane is readily available to use to destroy it. Should they discover that the town ruler is the werewolf, what do they do? Do they try to confront him with the truth? Would he believe them, or would he think they are trying to discredit him and call for his guards? Even if he is convinced, what effect might that have? Could it even trigger his transformation then and there?
Another amazing video. I tend to have at least 3 types of Lycanthropes; a regular bite, when your health is at half your maximum or lower, will only turn you into a Partial Lycan (like say an Order of the Lycan Blood Hunter), a bite that results in you having to make death saving throws will transform you into a standard Werewolf (True Lycan) or equivalent upon revival and only beings born of two Lycanthrope parents (Pureblood Lycans, NPCs only) can become Alphas as adults, perhaps by means of surviving a special mystical ritual that also could render them immune to aging and disease.. Silvered weapons should be extremely rare and hard to get. A weapon might also have to be both silvered and magic or silvered and wielded by someone who loves the Lycan to have full effect. Thus, if a True or Pureblood Werewolf's immunity to a certain type of attack is overcome by a magical weapon (not silvered), they are still resistant to that damage type unless the weapon is specifically enchanted to slay their type of Lycanthrope. Likewise, a weapon this is only silvered (non magical) and not wielded by a loved one would only do half damage to a Lycan. Another possibility is to allow Lycans to treat their alternative forms as Wild Shapes so they can expend all their hit points in animal form and then change back to human and keep fighting at full health. Obviously they should be limited to once per day or at most a few times per day and perhaps only be a feature for the most ancient and powerful Alphas.
I'm making a campaign based on Rule of Rose! This gives me an idea to make the final boss more interesting! In the game, Stray Dog is some dude who just acts like a dog and is psychologically manipulated by an orphan girl into murdering her whole orphanage as revenge. With this, I can say that her pretending to be his long lost son was so psychologically damaging that he's now got the curse and can turn on her command!! The whole campaign takes place in the main character's mind, so the rule of cool can be in full effect here 😎
My werewolves are ALWAYS uncontrollably horrorific things. Lycanthropy is never a boon. If a player becomes a werewolf, they may retain some memory of their human sides, therefore hunt the easy prey... Non silver will harm, but it will heal hastily. Like you described.
I tend to portray therianthropy as a contagious polymorph curse. The original curse is cast on one person but meant to be spread among their community via violence, intentionally creating panic & confusion for some additional cruelty. The original target is trapped in the form of an ordinary wolf for the rest of their life, as intended, but magic is not an exact science & the effect can vary from victim to victim. Some can be lucky enough to turn Teen Wolf-like at will while retaining their intelligence. Others become hulking hybrids that lose themselves to instinct & rage every night. Who did this? Hags? Gods? Mad Archmages? All of the above? There are a bunch of different types of Therianthrope out there, so why not?
How I'd do it is werebeasts constantly regenerate, but only in beast or hybrid form. Critical hits and silver weapons negate this, but they have no outright immunities. Also, the natural weapons of any werebeast are treated as silver despite obviously not being that. This would allow them to hurt each other, as well as devils and certain undead. Come to think of it, I recall vampires were weak against silver in 3.5.
The issue with D&D is that it doesn't take into the sheer differences in mass. The hit point system doesn't help for making things scarier; D&D, as a system, is built for heroic power-fantasies. When death and injury is so abstract. . .
I created what I call blessed lycanthropes. As the name suggests they are lycanthropes that got blessed by a god or similar entity resulting in the curse being changed a little. Blessed lycanthropes have full control over their transformations which are a bonus action. Blessed lycanthropes have a 10 hp regeneration instead of immunity to non silver weapons. The regeneration is stopped by silver or magic spells. Depending on what CR I need determines what level spell slot needs to be used to stop the regeneration. The ability score boosted by the lycanthropy is increased by one. Example, normal werebears strength is 19 while blessed werebears have a strength of 20. They have curse resistance which allows them to have advantage on saving throws against curses, can re-roll saving throws against curses they failed against, and can end attunement of cursed magic items without a remove curse spell. The bites are considered to be magic and silver with the type of lycanthropy adding an additional effect and condition to spread the lycanthropy. Some examples: Werewolve bites deal double damage to creatures at full health with humanoids that were at full health needing to make the save against contracting lycanthropy. Werebear bites deal an additional 5 points of force damage with humanoids that are reduced to 0 hp having to make the save (done before death saves are rolled), stabilizing upon contracting lycanthropy. Wereravens have the same way of spreading their lycanthropy but their bite does an additional 2 points of necrotic damage instead. Wererats can only spread their lycanthropy to humanoids that have a disease. Should the humanoid not have a disease then for the next 24 hours that humanoid has disadvantage on saving throw against disease. All diseases the humanoid has are cured upon contracting lycanthropy. Also the wish spell is the only way to cure or end blessed lycanthropy.
will there be a loupe Garoua video on how to properly play them like how to portray them in a dark fantasy and how to describe them and differentiate them from the typical werewolf
A nice way to deal with the silver thing is easy. Silver is not enough, it must be heirloom silver. The silver must have sentimental value, it must be sacrificed with the intent of hunting the werewolf. This can really confuse players if no one catches on that part of how the first werewolf was killed when someone smelted down some silver into a blade. The part about how it was done in desperation as all the steel had already been used. The silver used was a family heirloom, but the rest of the Smith's family was already dead and the smith forged the blade with thoughts of vengeance and sorrow at their family's death. Hell at this point you could use ANY precious metal, or other material so long as it wasnt intended as a weapon originally, has sentimental value, and is sacrificed to make a weapon for the purpose of hunting the specific werewolf.
Why does the Grim Hollow book also make the transformation an Action? You specifically mentioned that in the video that it SHOULD be a Bonus Action, but yet it's written like the vanilla 5E ruleset.
Anyone else Just get An idea for an adventure. Where the players arrive in a village. And the villagers are morning the death of somebody. They mistakenly killed. Thinking they were Thinking they were infected with some diseayes or possiplay just a, which however they died. And the villagers. Now want the party. To help perform something special, right? That involves Going Out Into the Woods. The journey Takes a While And when they rest for the night, the corpse is gone. And something is hunting them
Stabbing a werewolf with a silver dagger to see if it damages them would be the same result as stabbing a normal person with a normal dagger or stabbing a normal person with a silver dagger. The result is the same. In your example stabbing a werewolf with a normal dagger would be the test.
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Now I'm imagining that scene from the thing where they all agree to test their blood one by one, but with the villagers all being pressured into agreeing to line up and take a cut from a silver dagger, one of them just sweating bullets as the PCs get closer
Where they're all tied together!? That scene would be AWESOME with a werewolf who starts horrifically transforming rather than allow themselves to be tested and the remaining villagers all start panicking and freaking out!
Haha omg I'm imagining the freakout of being tied to a raging wearwolf..
Wait, why silver? If wounds from a silver weapon heal at the same rate for both Therianthropes & ordinary Humanoids, wouldn't that only prove that you are stabbing everyone with silver?
Would it not make more sense to use a steel weapon to see who heals immediately?
@@damonmealor9701 You could have a red herring in that case: Another villager who can magically heal for completely different reasons.
@@TheEndKing You cut with normal weapons.
If it heals directly you test with the silver one
Regarding the whole Werewolf fast healing being played for horror: I feel like Werewolf the Forsaken does a great job at it. The book has a whole description about how the healing process is horrifying, with bones hissing as they melt to get back together, tendons lashing out to reconnect, and so on. The process is apparently so disturbing to witness they have to avoid going to the hospital to not cause everyone to panic, and it's stated to be rather painful even to them.
Werewolf the Forsaken is too good for this sinful world
My favourite lore for becoming a werewolf is you gain the curse by drinking rainwater out of a wolf's pawprint in the woods.
Very mystical! That’s great.
Separating silvered and magical damage is practically a standard for me at this point; if a statblock says non-magical only then only magical weapons bypass, if it says non-silvered or non-magical then it should be only silvered weapons that bypass.
On the topic of werewolf regeneration, I never played White Wolf's werewolf games (I was more a Vampire person), but I recall reading them refer to a werewolf's regeneration as 'clearly supernatural'. Flesh writhes as it reknits. Blood lashes back to the body.
Pretty much body horror healing.
Loup Garou a boss super werewolf added in van richans guide has an interesting take on the silver weakness. ALL damage can hurt a loup garou, BUT they gain regeneration and will always gain 10 hp at the start of their turn if they arent killed with silver. this means a party of all casters is screwed. the martials who were gonna fight with just magical weapons? ao screwed. they need to go out of their way to do the old prepare a silverbullet to kill it.
I played Country Gangrel who's back story that they only come into cities during winter months for educations and to gossip, otherwise it is to sleep off the season on the bottom of a lake or river. So for background writing a 7months story of running for my life from werewolves or making far arm allies with them, and running from and fighting werewolves woodland forest spirit monstrous enemies and learn fairy Fae blood magic contracts.
As an offhand joke at the start of a given game I said, " What my gangrel back story was that when he was 7 years old a coyote gangrel turned him on an animal impulse whim and left him buried like a chicken with his feet in the air cover in hay ! "
Everyone in the shop yell for me to flip a coin for that outcome. When the coin landed another player declared he has a Puppy ! So I ended up PC a ten year old vampire gangrel with an 8year old mental state that acts like a talking dog blood bond to another player's vampire PC. The amazing coyote dog boy.
Normally my game shop ran Sabbat war packs, play Star Wars smugglers or Sithlords, and plays lawful evil to neutral evil D&D characters. We tried PCing .. good .. characters but we were a bunch of under handed and pragmatic players. So we put on our PC sheets alignment, Neutral evil with lawful contract intentions with good helpful leanings. Remember helping a lawful evil Baator devil, and favor given is a favor that needs to be return someday.
How to plead for your life with a devil, " Common on, you can't kill me like this ! Using me as cannon folder against the Abyss demons is one thing but this is just wrong and a waste of resources."
I think a great angle for a character who has lycanthrope is that they figure out that transforming without feeling the mind shattering pain of the transformation keeps them from being raging feral death machines. So how that person feels towards others in human form its echoed in its werewolf form. I feel like this makes sense especially considering how every setting where the werewolf is a horror trope it's depicted as insanely painful. And it seems to hurt all the way transformation. So it starts with the suffering of the person, then the suffering is passed to the werewolf. No animal reacts well to intense pain. Even around their kin. But what I've noticed also is that when a person feels intensely they have a strange focus on someone or something after shifting. So after the intense pain loved ones are remembered but often it becomes the werewolf's target. And when they hate someone and are enraged before turning their focus is 100% on that person or thing. But if there was some way to prevent the suffering and the werewolf form comes to with their friends around or their friends in danger, they would be able to focus. Could be similar to how the Hulk shifts. Where Bruce Banner starts with being miserable and suffering, but as he goes on he learns to put it in it's place and his understanding of the Hulk becomes friendly. Then the Hulk becomes more like a friend with his friends. And then in finding himself he realizes he is the Hulk and they become one instead of two split personas.
That's a really good point.
Like, seriously interesting.
Mechanically speaking I could see maybe being able to heal them as they're transforming, or granting them temp HP, maybe even a numbing poison, to force the effect that you describe.
Or, taking them through a ritual or series thereof that the party had to uncover, or find a resource for maybe. Like an ancient long lost method or the like.
About the silver: in my campaign we once had a nice twist on this. Silver (as the "metal of the moon") didn't hurt the werewolves, because in the campaign the moon is the allied of the werebeasts. It was gold (as the "metal of the sun") that caused the permanent damage.
It took the players quite a while to understand this - and they were pretty horrified during their first encounters when their great silver weapons did nothing. ^^
Initial assumptions were that they had been given a useless silvery alloy, that the silver coins melted and applied afterwards were not pure enough, that the weapons had to be consecrated on top of everything else, etc. :-D
Eventually they found evidence, piece by piece, that the claim about the silver had been spread by the nobility of the country in earlier times to make the antidote unaffordable for ordinary people so that they could consolidate their political power, because the common people were not able to afford it.
On a similar but different note. I usually have special types of royal metals that do the damage.
If my party is fighting were wolves, not only do they need to have pure silver it has to be a special holy or sanctified silver. The same goes for celestials (solar gold) deamons and devils (bronze or brass) and spirits (cold iron).
There is a lot of fun to be had when using magical metals and alloys
@@albusvoltavern4500 It also always offers the opportunity to incorporate side quests when the question of procurement arises. If the main campaign is already full, the material will be easier to obtain, but if it makes sense from a background point of view and is beneficial to the current campaign flow, then the procurement will be scarcer and the players will have something to do before they can obtain the weapons against the main opponent.
For example, apart from simple unavailability on the local market, the BBEG may have found out that they are preparing the same and have attacked the blacksmith who was supposed to process the material for them and stolen the unfinished weapons and sent them away, so that they now have to chase after them and get them back.
It doesn't have to be anything terribly difficult, but it keeps the party on their toes and fills up an evening, so the final battle feels a bit more earned than just buying a few silver blades round the corner for a few gold pieces and then getting on with it.
In my world, werewolves have formed into nomadic tribes after being ousted from society. They move with the local wolf and direwolf packs. They follow heards of cattle. They go on hunting parties every full moon, but otherwise they keep to themselves and try to stay away from civilization. Think of native siberians or mongols
Also factor in other than raising cubs which motive them into hunting deer or cattle, lone wolves feed/snack one field mice and other some game. Locations in the USA along with the northern US cities over the past twenty years found out, when they clear out all the stray dogs and coyotes that come into the cities to hunt the streets in the middle of the night. The rodent and raccoon populations goes off the charts. So unless they get into trouble with the environment water pollution from trying to poison all of the rats, they just try to manage the coyote population instead to take care of the rodents and raccoons. In the US southwest the Red Wolves and cross breed coyotes are for the past 15years are making themselves at home in the cities of the rodents and easy trash to eat.
That being said, any neutral align pack of werewolves would keep the rodent population under control for any farming village.
Imagine the mongol invasion, which was horrific and crazy in itself and now you add to them being werewolf's. Shit just got to another level😂😂.
I always like the idea of World of Darkness Garou. The Guardians of Earth, while werewolves in DnD are usually the villains. I like to think PC werewolves would be like the Garou. Maybe even the Villains can be like Circle of Druids who seek to defend nature itself from civilization. It'd be a nice twist for a Dark Fantasy to find out after you wipe out the pack, you realize they were the good guys and you just ensured the real bad guys won.
Imagine what the pack was keeping at bay...
I actually converted the Black Spiral Dancer to replace the standard 5e stat block. I'm on the fence about making the other tribes as a PC race/class.
I think they explored this notion with the Dimensional Seals in the Eldeen Reaches and Shadow Marches in Eberron. It's a worthy story to tell.
@@caileancampbell7498 I’ve been running a variation of the red talons (the ones mothers warn their children about) and silent striders (werewolves in my world travel a lot as protectors. Pick the one(s) you like and go with it. I doubt you’ll be disappointed 😎
@@ThorneMD The only reason I haven't instituted any of the tribes as playable yet is because I want to make sure the Black Spiral isn't too OP. I've also been a little confused of how to convert the totems to 5e without making them just another fae creature. The whole tribal mechanic of the Garou nation makes it a little difficult to convert.
So going off my research into old fairy tales, myths and lore ( as well as playing WTA and older supplements of D&D), I can definatly say that if a werewolf ends up being a pc/ NPC/ GMPC they would have a few different things going for them in an augmented rules scenario. I'd run it as the following:
• Cold forged iron ( cold worked iron), silver, and silver tinned (coated) weapons affect lycanthropic characters and creatures by cutting off the magical energy needed for transformation and regeneration, rendering them able to heal like a normal person.
• Aformentioned amalgamate metals would not sizzle or burn a lycanthrope outside of it's transformed state. They would cause swelling or rashes though, like if people had an allergic reaction. Tinctures of silver and rust if damaged would cause 1D4 damage if ingested or applied as a topical. (In the case of ingestion, 1D4 poison damage).
• Rangers, Barbarians, Druids, warlocks, Sorcerers and Fighters would be most acceptable PC classes for lycanthrope characters, followed by rogues and monks.
• lycanthropy could be contracted by birth, bite, exchange of bodily fluids, and by spell/ curse ( or cursed artifacts).
• full moons dont turn you into blood thirsty monsters, failed intelligence checks and wisdom saves do.
• Animal handling is 50/50. They either like you or they LOATHE YOU OUT OF TERROR. Note: you can spread lycanthropy to similar species akin to your breed of lycanthrope.
• if lycanthropic players investigate hard enough, they could find a place run by clerics and druids who will assist them with the " domestication of one's feral soul" that provide shelter and counseling. The buisness is a place in the mountains known jokingly as "The Werehouse". The graduates help out the local rangers and druids in the area with culling problematic monster flora and fauna, acting as road and game wardens.
In my campaign, The god of lycans and the hunt has currently made it so currently the bite of a Lycan does not transfer the curse. New lycans must be created through rituals. Some speculate this is for balance or maybe he wants to become more powerful forcing more followers if one wishes to become a Lycan and be one with their wild side. One with the hunt.
I would think of the damage and regeneration of the Immortal Hulk for example, for a really dark and disturb werewolf
Werewolf Alpha, huh? I like the Loup Garou from Van Richten's Guide 5e better. Bonus action transformation and a lycanthropy curse that sticks for a month. But hey, I see the merits of a free pdf.
I think the problem with lycanthropes in general is having to figure out rules for when someone gets infected with it. Now you have to figure out what type of rules you want to put in. There is really very little in actual 5e books to help you with how to do so.
We actually provide fully fleshed out rules for monstrous transformations in Grim Hollow: The Campaign Guide, including Vampires, Liches, and of course; Lycanthropes!
@@GhostfireGaming I've seen the ads for it. It looks like a pretty useful book. As far as lycanthropes go, when I put them into my game a while back I was running out of the abyss and my party eventually got infected by their own party members passing it around. So I had to scourer the internet for info that the books didn't have.
Basically had to homebrew after research. Would have been nice if I had the option of using Grim Hollows rules at the time.
@@TheFirstTriplefife dunno how using the rules have gone for you, but I found that lycanthropy was the biggest letdown of the book. Everything else is super cool though
Bless them with the gifts of eldritch gods.
They deal extra psychic damage on hit, inflict madness or frightened conditions as an AoE DC Save, and grasping tentacles for grappling/restraining.
The first example of a werewolf being weak to silver was in 1800s Spain when a infamous wild dog that had been killing livestock was killed, it was killed with a gun. Its story was romanticised in the 1930s by an author who said that the bullets used to kill it were melted down from a silver statuette of the Virgin Mary
I've been thinking of how to make werewolves more of a threat in my home games (mainly because I prefer werewolves to vampires; vampires are boring). One way I've thought of is to give individual werewolves Blood Frenzy, granting them advantage on attacks against damaged opponents. That could create an effective horror moment as the werewolf's eyes flash with primal hunger upon smelling fresh blood, and it attacks with renewed savagery.
I like the idea of quite a mystical werewolf. So...the hounded soul: Some people hide frustration, pain, and fury deep inside. For them sometimes the moon 'blesses' them. During the night their fury rises apart from them as a spirit beast venting all they won't or can't. The moon's metal silver can harm them. All other weapons pass through like they are smoke. However they are bound to the moonlight so you may hide in the shadows. Some of the more powerful ones may be formed of a whole town's anger. And until its soul connected person or people are slain, calmed, or satiated it will return, even if killed, after the new moon passes.
Me: write that down, write that down!
(Low-key screenshotted it and everything)
The best way to make them formidable is two simple changes: the leader has total control at all times so you have a thinking general commanding the pack, and he/she can take levels. Those two changes can make a lvl 3 monster shoot up as far as you need for so long.
I always felt like the immunity should be converted to more of a resistance and that they have some form of regeneration against non silver/magical weapons. Cause the immunity makes me think that a werewolf could just shrug off a building collapsing on them or being completely impaled in the head by a spike the size of a small tree. It gets ridiculously after awhile when you think about it.
Also, do werewolves need it to be night to be able to transform, especially naturally born ones? Or do they need it to be at least night time? So far I’ve drawn the conclusion that the whole full moon thing is just mainly when lycanthropy just goes completely out of control and for those cursed and resisting it.
You are a great speaker, this video is very distinguished from other D&D videos I have looked at in a while. I can proudly say you have earned my subscription!
I agree on the magic weapons thing and its actually a rule I enforce. If its a magic protection, like the silver would be, then its not removed by a magic weapon.
Agreed - Rather than complete mundane weapon immunity, I prefer to give lycanthropes super-fast regenerative abilities for most wounds, including magical weapon damage, but possibly not including fire. This also means that if a party can do enough damage, regardless of type, they could feasibly stop a lycanthrope - a huge explosion, conflagration or similar could finish the fight and prevet regeneration through dismemberment. Body horror-tastic.
I also like the ideas from the old "Chill" RPG, where silver worked against werewolves but different species had different sensitivities - such as flint weapons for were-jaguars, for example. This can lead to a degree of sleuthing to work out just what the PC's are up against and how to beat it...
When it comes to lycanthropy i prefer using weresharks and wererats since my usual campaigns are pirate focused or nautical based. But i enjoyed this video
man. I'm so glad I backed grimhollow and discovered ghostfire gaming.... your videos are sooooo good and i've learned so much about DMing from your vods.... Thank you
Over a year old of a video but have to state a thought that hit me.
Thinking of homebrewing a werewolf with the rogue's subclass trait of hair-trigger.
A werewolf confronted by hunters, wont wait as one says softly 'easy boy..' - its going to leap and attempt to maul before anyone has a moment to react.
Lots of really good ideas in this video, well done! I'm sure these can be easily adapted to Pathfinder (MK 1, my favorite system), further.
I play a moon druid/beast master ranger who received lycanthropy through the acceptance of a gift that she didnt know was Harkon's Bite. Immune to mundane non-silver weapons, she is also immune to any monsters using physical damage attacks (that arent considered magical), people that use silver or magical weaponry can be disarmed and/or mauled by the primal companion and the conjured animals that she summons. As the video creator said, unless there is signs a werewolf is involved, people will not automatically pull out their silvered weapons.
Depending on the setting I use them either as cursed people, creatures that cannot control the need to hunt and kill. The curse can stem from either a bite, a cursed object (I used a ring of protection made by the elves to turn men into beasts to hunt men - in order to protect nature from humankind) or a cursed bloodline (similar to a tiefling). In other settings I use them as a manifestation of nature to protect itself from civilization (similar to the World of Darkness take on werewolves). But no matter what kind of setting I use - were creatures shouldn't be just humans with some kind of extra power. Power comes at a cost. No matter how much you try to stay "human" this existence will ultimately make you into a sociopath - somebody unable to live in society (not necessarily evil - just not fitting in).
I'm planning on running a "comedic dark fantasy" campaign were lycanthropes play a big role and I think this video has a pretty good help for that, but a pretty hard disagree on the action to transform thing, at least in my setting, since I feel like having it be an action fits better with my plan of having lycanthropes to shift An American Werewolf in London style
I feel like it would take an entire action to tortuously crush and stretch your entire body into a wolf form and it would also feel much more like a boss fight when to the players when the bad guy spends the first round powering up like a DBZ villain
My current plan for werewolves is that, much like real wolves, they're actually pretty chill even in wolf form but need to pass a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take non-magical 8d6 bludgeoning damage taking half on fail every time they transform and it takes a while before they get the non-silver damage immunity thing
So while most people think they're howling at the moon and have completely lost themselves, really they're wailing in agony and flailing about in terror
Like any teenager or college adult that just got done playing football or having a wrestling met, they are Hungry .. very .. very .. HUNGRY .. !
I had dogs, and coyotes growing up, and know people that had wolves and mountain lions, after a big games of playing Chase the Ball !
They binge eat and sleep half the rest of the day, all over the house. They get up and move to a new spot nearly every 30mins.
Half way in and out the door when open.
On your feet as you sit at the kitchen table, on the air vent, on and off the couch. One everyone's bed in the house, follow with the porch swing and on the rest of the furniture. Then in the sun, after they dug a shallow pit in the yard to fit the curve of their spine to sun their belly.
Then they just have to snuggle, then rearrange themselves to snuggle in a different position.
A great Dane will push you off the couch or out of bed when they stretch, then snuggle with you on the floor or nose you back into bed to snuggle some more.
Werewolves in animal forms have to make wisdom rolls to resist acting like the given type of animal they are.
In human form they tend to pace like dogs/wolves and pant like a dog watching someone.
I like Kieth Bakers werewolf silver weakness of how weapons can still cut pieces off the werewolf but unless it's silver it doesn't really do anything, they heal at a faster rate than humanoids but still carry unnatural wounds
Huge fan of Keith. I like his suggestion on how to handle the mental aspects of lycanthropy.
Silverbloods, blackbloods, natural, inflicted, bite, ritual, corruption, control, lunar impact, supernatural curse, gift. There are so many ways lycanthrope can occur. I absolutely love the range of variance and use the variety in so many ways over 30+yrs of DMing so many games. Use them all. Happy gaming.
I make lycanthrope template to extract the ability to use any natural creature as a lycanthrope.
The Loup Garou from Van richtens is the best Star block I’ve seen for a werewolf
Love this series! You should definately do one on Hags. They're one of my favourite monsters in dnd.
Whenever I think of lycanthropes all I can think is Rhys Darby’s quote we’re werewolves not swearwolves.
🤣 I love that movie!
It's ironic that werewolves are labeled chaotic evil, considering real wolves, despite being carnivores, are very social creatures, similar to humans.
If I ever run a campaign, I'd likely depict werewolves as just another creature in the world, the curse of lycanthropy being something that can be detrimental for folks who can't get a grip on it.
something added pretty recently to dnd is the "Loup Garou" which is a boss super werewolf. and they make for a good improved werewolf for when a normal one doesnt cut it.
AD&D2ndE Ravenloft monstrous compendium had Loup Garou as being lowland/rolling hills effected by Pure silver and not silver coated weapons and highland/foothills and mountains being affected by pure gold. Otherwise a +2 weapon only does 2pt dmg and coated weapons had to be Bless or carry an +1 or better enchantment to do half dmg. Otherwise coated weapons only do 1/4th dmg.
AD&D2ndE Ravenloft Van Ricthen guide to Werebeasts carries more/ better information on werewolves and other shape changers in Ravenloft setting. During the early 1990's AD&D came out with the Ravenloft Van Ricthen guides when Whitewolf/World of Darkness (WoD) vampire and werewolf d10 RPGs. Any way those super werewolves been in D&D lore fore around 25 years already.
In AD&D2ndE, monsters normally ran on 1d8 for HD, so to bring WoD werewolves and vampires into D&D we just took the rules from the DMG on Creating Your Own Character Class to modify the Bard class and added full thief skill and up graded the HD to 1d8 and ran werewolf or vampire PC that way and cost x3 Xp award to advance to the next level.
Dealing with the super werewolves was just taking a pound of silver or gold and making a rail road spike and treating it as a light pickaxe.
I mostly still think along the lines of WotC 3.5e and haven't the time or the money to deal with 5e or bother with the outcoming One D&D.
Regarding magic, perhaps making full immunity to spells below a certain level can reduce the magic issue. I think the Rakshasa has something like this.
It does, and it's great! Especially when the party don't know its a Rakshasa, try to cast Zone of Truth, and have no idea the creature is completely able to lie - or walks out of a fireball entirely unharmed!
@GhostfireGaming point of order: when you cast Zone of Truth, you know if anyone managed to avoid the effect, unless they have Glibness, an 8th level spell.
My werewolf is in the party.... He's a natural born werewolf though so that will be fun to play with as things go forward
I always thought it was a misfire for werewolves to revert back to human form in death when the skin could be salvaged for a coat that could offer boons. And different boons depending on the difficulty level. Maybe fangs are boons too.
In my manuscript for a weird western I'm writing, lycanthropy (I call them lycaons in the story) no one really knows the origin. There are many theories and myths but no actual consensus. But it is a genetic phenomena by now, and there are at least six known strains of it.
It's fun to push and remix the mythology
The Greek king didn't serve the Gods human flesh to test them. He did it because his beloved son was the only thing he could think of being worthy to offer them. The moral lesson is that just because you think an action will be appreciated, doesn't mean it actually will.
I'll make an educated guess and say that was probably added by Ovid, a Roman peot with beef against authorities, which gods were stand in for in his works.
Because if acient Greece had some big no-no-s it was murder of a family-friendly member and canibalism.
Something I like to do is replace different lycanthrope weakness with Gemstones that relate to the animal so Werewolfs are moonstone and Weretiger are Jade etc. I find this to make the mystery more of a mystery and if they try to use silver and see it doesn't do anything the shock factor is crazy.
In my campaign I created a potion that when taken can transform you into a lycanthrope for 1 hour. but the more often you take the potion the longer the transformation lasts and it eventually is permanent
You described witch-hunts for werewolves in a village. Perhaps the villagers could kill the werewolf in a hollow, silvered statue that has an inside that gets increasingly smaller
Shapeshift as a bonus action. Give them class abilities from druid and or barbarian levels. Legendary actions and lair actions if theyre alone or high level/high magic party
Another interesting approach is to go for the less well known aspects fo werewolf mythology. Perhaps more powerful werewolves, like the Loup Garou originally from French mythology and featured in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, cannot be slain by silvered weapons alone. Maybe the party learns that only silvered weapons treated with a toxic oil decocted from the Monkshood plant - also known as Wolfsbane - can stop the most powerful type of werewolves from regenerating. This would most likely not be common knowledge, requiring research to learn how to dispatch the ravening beast.
If you go with the idea that the first and most powerful werewolf afflicting a region was created by a curse cast as a punishment, you could ask why that curse was cast. As an example, imagine if a regional ruler was a pious man whose piety curdled over time into ruthless fanaticism. He persecuted those he saw as ungodly, perhaps including local witches or a passing Vistani caravan. His cruelty and savagery hidden behind a mask of pious righteousness caused one of his victims, or someone who cared about those he victimised, to curse him such that his body would at times be warped to reflect the monstrous savagery within his soul, and so he became a werewolf, doomed to prey upon the very community he believed he was protecting rom evil. Perhaps he is so far into denial that he cannot even consciously accept wat he himself is, or otherwise cannot remember his transformations as a side effect of the curse, blacking out on the full moon and then when he comes to believing that he is doing all he can to hunt down the monster responsible for the horrors he himself committed in his altered state, which only serves to further drive him toward ever more extreme acts of repression, burning suspects at the stake on no real evidence beyond whispered paranoia and generally causing further death and misery. Perhaps he has a second in command who is fanatically loyal to him, so much so that they keep his secret from everyone, even from the afflicted man himself, so as not to cause him pain. Maybe they have used their authority to seize all the silver from the local community under the pretence of a tax to pay for hunters to destroy the beast, and has seized all stocks of Monkshood from local herbalists on the basis that such poisons should not be available to the criminal underworld, thus ensuring that no weapon that can do lasting harm to the lord they adore can be made (since a magical weapon, spell effect, or other attack is not enough on its own for this beast), and presenting the party with something of a problem once they realise the monster they are hunting is a werewolf and yet discover that no silver and Wolfsbane is readily available to use to destroy it. Should they discover that the town ruler is the werewolf, what do they do? Do they try to confront him with the truth? Would he believe them, or would he think they are trying to discredit him and call for his guards? Even if he is convinced, what effect might that have? Could it even trigger his transformation then and there?
Another amazing video.
I tend to have at least 3 types of Lycanthropes; a regular bite, when your health is at half your maximum or lower, will only turn you into a Partial Lycan (like say an Order of the Lycan Blood Hunter), a bite that results in you having to make death saving throws will transform you into a standard Werewolf (True Lycan) or equivalent upon revival and only beings born of two Lycanthrope parents (Pureblood Lycans, NPCs only) can become Alphas as adults, perhaps by means of surviving a special mystical ritual that also could render them immune to aging and disease..
Silvered weapons should be extremely rare and hard to get. A weapon might also have to be both silvered and magic or silvered and wielded by someone who loves the Lycan to have full effect. Thus, if a True or Pureblood Werewolf's immunity to a certain type of attack is overcome by a magical weapon (not silvered), they are still resistant to that damage type unless the weapon is specifically enchanted to slay their type of Lycanthrope. Likewise, a weapon this is only silvered (non magical) and not wielded by a loved one would only do half damage to a Lycan.
Another possibility is to allow Lycans to treat their alternative forms as Wild Shapes so they can expend all their hit points in animal form and then change back to human and keep fighting at full health. Obviously they should be limited to once per day or at most a few times per day and perhaps only be a feature for the most ancient and powerful Alphas.
I'm making a campaign based on Rule of Rose! This gives me an idea to make the final boss more interesting! In the game, Stray Dog is some dude who just acts like a dog and is psychologically manipulated by an orphan girl into murdering her whole orphanage as revenge. With this, I can say that her pretending to be his long lost son was so psychologically damaging that he's now got the curse and can turn on her command!!
The whole campaign takes place in the main character's mind, so the rule of cool can be in full effect here 😎
My werewolves are ALWAYS uncontrollably horrorific things. Lycanthropy is never a boon. If a player becomes a werewolf, they may retain some memory of their human sides, therefore hunt the easy prey...
Non silver will harm, but it will heal hastily. Like you described.
I'm running a game where the world is trying to take over civilisation, and there's an invulnerable werebear attacking a town on behalf of the forest
I tend to portray therianthropy as a contagious polymorph curse. The original curse is cast on one person but meant to be spread among their community via violence, intentionally creating panic & confusion for some additional cruelty.
The original target is trapped in the form of an ordinary wolf for the rest of their life, as intended, but magic is not an exact science & the effect can vary from victim to victim. Some can be lucky enough to turn Teen Wolf-like at will while retaining their intelligence. Others become hulking hybrids that lose themselves to instinct & rage every night.
Who did this? Hags? Gods? Mad Archmages? All of the above? There are a bunch of different types of Therianthrope out there, so why not?
How I'd do it is werebeasts constantly regenerate, but only in beast or hybrid form. Critical hits and silver weapons negate this, but they have no outright immunities. Also, the natural weapons of any werebeast are treated as silver despite obviously not being that. This would allow them to hurt each other, as well as devils and certain undead. Come to think of it, I recall vampires were weak against silver in 3.5.
Nice!
The issue with D&D is that it doesn't take into the sheer differences in mass. The hit point system doesn't help for making things scarier; D&D, as a system, is built for heroic power-fantasies. When death and injury is so abstract. . .
I created what I call blessed lycanthropes. As the name suggests they are lycanthropes that got blessed by a god or similar entity resulting in the curse being changed a little. Blessed lycanthropes have full control over their transformations which are a bonus action.
Blessed lycanthropes have a 10 hp regeneration instead of immunity to non silver weapons. The regeneration is stopped by silver or magic spells. Depending on what CR I need determines what level spell slot needs to be used to stop the regeneration.
The ability score boosted by the lycanthropy is increased by one. Example, normal werebears strength is 19 while blessed werebears have a strength of 20.
They have curse resistance which allows them to have advantage on saving throws against curses, can re-roll saving throws against curses they failed against, and can end attunement of cursed magic items without a remove curse spell.
The bites are considered to be magic and silver with the type of lycanthropy adding an additional effect and condition to spread the lycanthropy. Some examples:
Werewolve bites deal double damage to creatures at full health with humanoids that were at full health needing to make the save against contracting lycanthropy.
Werebear bites deal an additional 5 points of force damage with humanoids that are reduced to 0 hp having to make the save (done before death saves are rolled), stabilizing upon contracting lycanthropy. Wereravens have the same way of spreading their lycanthropy but their bite does an additional 2 points of necrotic damage instead.
Wererats can only spread their lycanthropy to humanoids that have a disease. Should the humanoid not have a disease then for the next 24 hours that humanoid has disadvantage on saving throw against disease. All diseases the humanoid has are cured upon contracting lycanthropy.
Also the wish spell is the only way to cure or end blessed lycanthropy.
will there be a loupe Garoua video on how to properly play them like how to portray them in a dark fantasy and how to describe them and differentiate them from the typical werewolf
Ah, see there's the problem. You're using fifth edition werewolves.
And you forgot to mention the Wolfwalkers from Celtic myth that turn into wolves when they sleep.
A nice way to deal with the silver thing is easy. Silver is not enough, it must be heirloom silver. The silver must have sentimental value, it must be sacrificed with the intent of hunting the werewolf. This can really confuse players if no one catches on that part of how the first werewolf was killed when someone smelted down some silver into a blade. The part about how it was done in desperation as all the steel had already been used. The silver used was a family heirloom, but the rest of the Smith's family was already dead and the smith forged the blade with thoughts of vengeance and sorrow at their family's death. Hell at this point you could use ANY precious metal, or other material so long as it wasnt intended as a weapon originally, has sentimental value, and is sacrificed to make a weapon for the purpose of hunting the specific werewolf.
All werewolves should be at least challenge 8, 9 or maybe even 10
Why does the Grim Hollow book also make the transformation an Action? You specifically mentioned that in the video that it SHOULD be a Bonus Action, but yet it's written like the vanilla 5E ruleset.
Anyone else Just get An idea for an adventure.
Where the players arrive in a village. And the villagers are morning the death of somebody.
They mistakenly killed. Thinking they were Thinking they were infected with some diseayes or possiplay just a, which however they died.
And the villagers. Now want the party. To help perform something special, right? That involves Going Out Into the Woods. The journey Takes a While And when they rest for the night, the corpse is gone. And something is hunting them
What was that werewolf cinematic with the woman and man fighting them?
Still waiting for an invite to your gaming table. :(
Vorpal sword…
Stabbing a werewolf with a silver dagger to see if it damages them would be the same result as stabbing a normal person with a normal dagger or stabbing a normal person with a silver dagger. The result is the same. In your example stabbing a werewolf with a normal dagger would be the test.
Can we do doppelganger next?
5e has destroyed most monsters, werewolves included.
The word Woman has the word Man in it, the phrase Mankind does not exclude Women.
"humankind" lacks poetic aesthetic and the beauty.
I like your content but what is DND is it a type of game. I don't see any gameplays😢
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