-	-	Lycanthropes	-	AD&&D
Character Classes	-	-	-	DMG

There have been many different approaches to the disease of lycanthropy.
Many are too complicated to understand or are structured so poorly that the werecreature dominates the game.
Lycanthropy as a form of player character should be discouraged in AD&D.
This can be done by promoting the human attributes instead of the beast’s, thus making lycanthropy undesirable (as it should be).

Some players may not realize that any damage of over 50% of hit points sustained by bites in a fight with a lycanthrope may cause them to be afflicted by the disease.
When this happens it may be months after the first night of the change before the character begins to suspect that lycanthropy
has taken hold of his or her being. After that first night all that will be
remembered is that the character was very ill and extremely tired. In the
morning the townspeople will quite possibly be combing the countryside
looking for a rampaging lycanthrope. The player character may join in the
search for the werebeast, not realizing that he or she is the lycanthrope.
After a few months of changing, the adventurer will (or should) begin to
suspect that something is wrong. On the nights before the full moon the
lycanthrope will become withdrawn and a bit edgy, preferring his or her
own company to that of others - including family. It may be the torn and
shredded clothes he or she wakes up in or the mud and scratches on the
character’s arms and legs that trigger the realization that he or she may be
the werebeast the townspeople are searching for. If at all possible, the DM
should try to moderate the campaign so that the players don’t know for
several months of game time that the character is now a lycanthrope.

Any human PC (humans are the only beings able to contract lycanthropy<1>) bitten for 50% or more of his or her natural hit points has a 100% chance of becoming a lycanthrope of the same type that attacked him or her.
If the player eats any belladonna within an hour after being
bitten, there is a 25% chance the disease will not manifest itself, and thus
the character will not be afflicted by it. If not, then a 12th or higher level
patriarch must be found to administer a cure disease within three days
after being bitten. If the adventurer is only able to find a patriarch of a
high enough level after the initial three days, he or she may elect instead
to have the priest attempt a remove curse. This spell must be performed on
the player character when he or she is in wereform. The beast will need to
make a monster’s saving throw against magic, and while in wereform the
creature will fight violently to put as much distance as it can between it
and the patriarch performing the spell. If all this fails, there is still
hope . . .

At this point, if the player wishes to remain a lycanthrope the two charts
given later should be consulted in handling the lycanthrope as a player
character. If the adventurer decides to be cured and the methods
mentioned thus far have been unsuccessful, he or she may take refuge in
a holy/unholy place such as a monastery or an abbey. There the clerics
can administer to the afflicted one holy/unholy water laced with a goodly
amount of wolfsbane and belladonna prepared by the spiritual methods of
that particular religion. This potation is to be consumed by the victim at
least twice a day from a silver chalice. No adventuring may be done by the
character while he or she is being treated by the clerics. After a month or
more (depending upon how advanced the disease is) the player character
should be cured and somewhat poorer in the purse, as this procedure is
very costly. The clerics will charge for the cost of the herbs and the
holy/unholy water as well as for the services rendered. The DM may also
wish to include the level of the priest as well as the adventurer into the
cost of this treatment.

If the character has died in a fight with a lycanthrope and is resurrected,
the disease will be 100% certain if the cleric raising the adventurer is unaware
of the disease or fails to follow the proper procedure to eradicate it.
The aforementioned cure will work on the werestricken adventurer who
has been resurrected. The cleric can use a cure disease (if there is still
time) or a remove curse (if there isn‘t) on the dead adventurer before employing
the resurrection spell. If the cleric doesn‘t take the above safety
measures, then it will be necessary to wait until the adventurer becomes a
lycanthrope to try to remove curse or use the cure with the herbs and
holy/unholy water.

If the character opts to remain a lycanthrope, many things will need to be
taken into consideration, such as the mental anguish caused by the act of
changing. Other things, like conflicting alignments between the character
and his or her lycanthrope nature, and what his or her family and friends
will do once they discover that their friend and loved one is the werebeast
that might have been terrorizing the countryside on the nights of the full moon,
will have to be determined.
The more extreme the difference in the alignments of the adventurer and the beast,
the more mental anguish the character will be prone to suffer.
For example, a lawful good paladin is bitten by a werewolf,
which is a chaotic evil creature.
He doesn't discover he has the disease until it is too late.
His mental torment is great,
especially when the moon is waxing full,
up to the time it is full and then for several days afterwards.
(The DM may wish to select a mental disorder from the section on Insanity for the character to suffer from to reflect the anguish caused by the disease.)
The paladin,
even after being cured,
is no longer a paladin because he is no longer pure enough for that honored state.
The DM can elect to have the gods send the paladin on a quest in order to restore him to his paladinhood,
but it is not recommended.

No experience points may be gained by a player character while in lycanthrope
form. If the character is a fighter/lycanthrope, the fighter will
be able to gain levels only as a fighter, never as a lycanthrope. This
applies to all classes. The only way a lycanthrope will ever be able to
control the change from man to beast is with time measured by full moons.
There will be no control of the change into a werebeast for two years of
game time and it will be another year before any control will be gained
for the change back into a human. On the nights of a full moon all lycanthropes
with less than three years experience as a werebeast will change
into their wereform and remain that way from the rise of the moon till
dawn.

There are other factors besides the full moon that can cause the release of
the werecreature in a person afflicted with lycanthropy. One common
cause is stress during a melee. If the character has lost more than one-third
of his or her natural hit points during the fight, there is a 50% chance that
the werenature will emerge, causing the player character to be disoriented
for 1 to 2 rounds (characters with more than two years of experience
as a lycanthrope will not suffer this disorientation). During this time,
the lycanthrope will be unable to engage in combat. He or she will also
sustain damage from the change as shown on the appropriate table given
below. Spells used in the vicinity of a lycanthrope such as monster summoning
Ill-Vll, conjure animals, and animal summoning III might cause the
werenature to be released. It will be up to the DM to decide what spells or
magic items could trigger the beast inside the afflicted adventurer. Arguments
with other player characters as well as fear could cause the change
from man to beast.

All lycanthropes will fight and do damage as described in the MONSTER
MANUAL regardless of how long the character has been a lycanthrope.
The diseased adventurer will eventually acquire the alignment of the lycanthrope
form (if it isn‘t the same already) within 2 to 12 months.

While in wereform the character will not be interested in any of his or her
belongings and will leave them where the change took place. This
includes armor and weapons (except for wererats, who will carry swords).

Question: Under the Lycanthropy section of the DMG it states that a paladin caught the
disease. Paladins can’t contract disease. Please explain why
you said this.
Answer: Lycanthropy is not a disease, but it is often called one. To
become a lycanthrope you must contract it like a disease even though it
is a curse. If it were a real disease, a Remove Curse would not work on
it, and a Cure Disease would not have a three-day time limit on it.
Lycanthropy is very complicated, and paladins are not exempt from it.
Paladins already have it pretty good; we can’t let them have everything
rosy.

Q. If a character already suffering from
lycanthropy (after being attacked by,
say, a were-bear) is badly wounded
by another type of were-creature,
what form will the disease take?
A. If the wording in the DMG is taken
literally, then the 2nd attack by a
were-creature will have no additional
effect because it states that only
humans are afflicted by lycanthropy
-- and lycanthropes are not truly
human any more.  If this line of
argument is followed, then the
2nd type of  lycanthropy will have
no effect.
(Imagine #19)

Change Table For Lycanthropes:

This table will aid the DM in determining the percentage chances of a
player character lycanthrope changing into and out of wereform. After six
years of experience, lycanthropes will be able to control their change at
will.
 

WANING MOON	1-2 years	3	4	5
Full	100%*	75%	50%	25%
Half	75%**	25%	15%	5%
Quarter	50%	5%	-	-
New Moon	25%**	-	-	-
-	-	-	-	-
WAXING MOON	-	-	-	-
Quarter	50%	-	-	-
Half	75%**	30%	20%	10%
Full	100%*	80%	55%	30%

* There is no chance for voluntarily changing out of wereform.

** There is only a 25% chance for voluntarily changing out of wereform.

Damage Table:

This table shows how much damage a character takes from armor constriction
(before the straps burst and it falls off) during sudden change to lycanthrope form.
 
 

Armor Type	Werebear	Wereboar	Wererat	Weretiger	Werewolf
No Armor	0	0	0	0	0
Leather/Padded	1	1	0	1-2	1
Studded Leather/Ring Mail	1-2	1-2	1	1-3	1-2
Scale Mail	1-3	1-3	1-2	1-4	1-3
Chain Mail	1-4	1-4	1-2	2-4	1-4
Splint Mail/Banded Mail	2-4	2-4	1-2	2-5	2-4
Plate Mail	2-5	2-5	1-3	2-5	2-5

<Extend damage table for Foxwoman, Seawolf (Greater), Seawolf (Lesser), Wereshark>
<Extend damage table for Bronze Plate, Field Plate, Full Plate>

<1>
1. The DMG notes "humans are the only beings able to contract lycanthropy".
2. The MM notes "any humanoid creature".

As a DM, I have often wondered how to
handle a PC affected by lycanthropy. PCs often
tried to seek help after falling victim to the
disease, but I prohibited this [because] I doubted
that a werewolf would want to be human any
more than a human would want to be a werewolf.
(I tried to keep in mind what the actual
character would want, not the player.) Thus, I
encountered the following problem: Should I
consider the character no longer a PC, or
should I allow the player to continue playing the
character?

For the sake of the character, I decided to
prolong his life by continuing with the game.
What next? The rules did not go into great
detail on the subject. Therefore, I allowed the
character to receive help, but not consciously.

For instance: A PC wereboar is chasing a
cleric down the street. The cleric ducks into a
magician?s shop and ambushes the boar, injuring
him badly. Later, the local mage (being of high
level) comes upon the unconscious wereboar
and, in sympathy, heals him of his lycanthropy

Brent Silvis
Corry PA
(Dragon #130)
 

In issue #130, Brent Silvis asked how he
should handle characters who catch lycanthropy,
but who want to be free of its curse. He
seemed to think that once a person had the
curse, he would not want to be free of it, so the
DM is forced to resort to all sorts of strange
methods to free the PC from the curse.

I feel, however, that this is unnecessary. While
it is true that eventually a lycanthrope will not
want to be ?cured? of the curse, at first there
will be no noticeable change in the PC?s temperament
or alignment while in human form.
While the physical changes happen almost at
once, the mental changes take far longer. The
terrible pity of such stories is created not just
because a man turns into a ravening beast, but
because he regrets the change. In all the classic
werewolf films, the hero is filled with horror
when he realizes what has happened to him.

It is with the passage of time that these feelings
of horror fade as the character?s mind
changes to accept the physical changes. One of
the best examples of these changing attitudes is
the unnamed narrator of Lovecraft?s ?The
Shadow Over Innsmouth,? whose horror at his
transformation slowly turns into delight at his
new-found powers. So, too, would a PC react if
he discovered he was a lycanthrope. At first
there would be horror and revulsion at the
terrors he inflicts on the innocent, but as time
passed he would come to accept the new state
as something wonderful, making him superior
to common man. During the earlier time, however,
a character could seek treatment. The DM
should set a time limit in which the character
must act in order to gain help; otherwise he will
resist such help to the best of his abilities.

Furthermore, by having a needy character
seek out a temple for help, he could be exposing
himself and his group to the world of church
politics.  Instead of taking gold as payment for
the anti-lycanthropy treatment, a cleric might
ask a healed character to perform some sort of
quest for his church, which could lead to all
sorts of adventures as the 1-time lycanthrope
falls afoul of the enemies of the church he is
serving.

Paul Astle
Larchmont NY
(Dragon #134)

Quote:
Originally Posted by A'koss
Whoa, I didn't realize I was such a rebel AD&D player! <stick out tongue>
All I can say is...

AARGH! Blasphemy 
 

I once allowed someone's subdued and charmed ogre servant to become a werebear-ogre after it was bitten but survived a fight with a werebear, and that was pretty much the omega of that sort of thing <paranoid>

Cheers,
Gary