Post/Author/DateTime	Post
drakkonflye 12-28-06, 02:11 AM	Hopefully you guys can help me out. Before I start writing up stats for my editor regarding avian lycanthropes, does anyone know if there are already some out there besides the wereraven in Ravenloft and Forgotten Realms? I'm most curious about eagle, falcon, hawk, owl, and similar raptors. I most certainly am not interested in werecanaries or wereparrots (except maybe as a spoof for an April Fool's Day event). My editor is very particular about trying to avoid making "duplicate" monsters. Thanks in advance!
Galeigh 12-28-06, 03:09 AM	Hopefully you guys can help me out. Before I start writing up stats for my editor regarding avian lycanthropes, does anyone know if there are already some out there besides the wereraven in Ravenloft and Forgotten Realms? I'm most curious about eagle, falcon, hawk, owl, and similar raptors. I most certainly am not interested in werecanaries or wereparrots (except maybe as a spoof for an April Fool's Day event). My editor is very particular about trying to avoid making "duplicate" monsters. Thanks in advance! The lycanthrope template in the MM gives the specs to create your own lycanthrope. You could create your own avian lycanthrope.
drakkonflye 12-28-06, 10:53 AM	That's what I'm planning to do. I just need to be sure they don't already exist in a published work somewhere before I do so. Trying to avoid copyright infringement.
The Vorpal Tribble 12-28-06, 11:04 AM	I'm pretty sure there aren't, though if there was I'm not certain any copywrites would actually pose a problem. However, keep in mind that the majority of standard D&D birds are only tiny sized, meaning only Small-sized players could be a lycanthrope of one. The eagle would be a good choice as its considered Small sized, thus a medium fellow could take it. I also believe the Dire Vulture (from Sandstorm) is Large sized, so it could also be taken by a standard Medium-sized creature. I've always wanted to do a giant/roc lycanthrope...
drakkonflye 12-28-06, 11:33 AM	Oh come on, we all know by now that size doesn't matter :P Seriously though, using the size advancement tables, I can advance the Small birds to Medium or even Large sizes as needed to acount for a humanoid taking on an avian form, and the avian form might be confused with a dire or giant (as in magical beast variant, a la giant eagle) bird. On the other hand, the transformation could be more magical in nature such as presented in the movie Ladyhawke, or per swanmays, allowing a considerable size change. In this case, perhaps the humanoid form also undergoes a slight size change, not neccessarily actually going from a Medium-sized humanoid to a Small-sized humanoid, but losing enough height and/or mass to be noticeable to others familiar with the cursed being? Hmmm...:thinks: I'll have to pull out a few books and check out my options. As for copyright, we're just a small-time publisher (isn't everyone these days?) with only a few creature suplements out; we just want to make sure we're not stepping on any of the big guys' toes. Bad enough I did up a template for one of our first booklets, and 4 months after we published it, WotC came out with something similar in one of their supplements. Can I help it if I've been playing the game so long I'm thinking like these guys? :P