A more active werewolf [Archive] - Wizards Community

A more active werewolf [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Mr_Hackman
10-14-06, 01:00 AM I have a player in my group playing a lvl4 ranger natural werewolf (ECL 9) and they were all psyched up to play a werewolf because frankly werewolves are awesome. The problem is, she never has him change form, unless it's for a strength bonus to bust down a door or something. She has even mentioned that because of his backstory (lots of discrimination, kicked out of his village, blah blah blah) he's hesitant to use his werewolf form, and suggested some big fight to "shake him out of it". The rest of the party is a lvl 9 elf sorcerer, a lvl 9 half elf cleric, and a 8 rog/1 shadow dancer Halfling. Any suggestions for such an encounter?
Note: the pronouns may be confusing, but the player is female, the character is male. Just FYI.
Sildatorak
10-14-06, 01:26 AM If he is a natural werewolf, then I assume his parents were as well, and with the trauma inflicted on him in his youth I assume they were absent from his life. Perhaps a chance to fight his deadbeat dad might be enough to bring out the beast within.
David_Roben2
10-14-06, 11:10 AM That was the idea I had for my own character as well. A quick thing about werewolves to remember. RAW says that a werewolf's claws and bite (being natural attacks) do NOT get iterative attacks for a high base attack bonus. Got to be using a manufactured weapon to get multiple attacks. By the same token, you cannot apply weapon feats to them either (i.e. two weapon fighting). I'm sure everyone and their brother knew this already, but it blew me away when I found out. *mutters something about always being out of the loop*
Hydryh
10-14-06, 04:20 PM The deadbeat dad thing sounds good to me, too, as well as a couple of other things.

First off, are you giving the pc DR when he's in human form? That sounds like a nice, comfy reason not to shift to me, but if you read the fine print in the stat blocks for the base werewolf, they don' get DR in their non-were form.

As for shaking "him" out of it, perhaps a battle with another werewolf, one who does take full advantage of his were-powers. Ideally you'd have him drop the other party members as quickly as possible, ignoring the werewolf (seemingly by chance). Heck, you could have him start in full-wolf form, so they might think he's just a dire wolf or the like, then shift to halfbreed form to mock them. In fact, if in the first fight (where he will flee for some reason--npcs running in, tide of battle turns, etc) he never shifts to base form, that can make for a mystery as the PCs try to find out who he is, since he'll keep harrassing them.

In fact, having him be the deadbeat dad gives him a reason to bug them again and again.
Mr_Hackman
10-14-06, 08:37 PM i like it, even more so because since (forgot to mention before) he never knew his parents, when he finally meets his dad the dad can be all along the lines of "face the wolf within" or something like that, or maybe the dad can be terrorizing a town, an THEN gets him alone and forces him to fight him. If it works i could even pull a "luke-i-am-your-father" or they both only realize it at right as one dies.
thanks for the help.
Sildatorak
10-14-06, 10:26 PM maybe the dad can be terrorizing a town, an THEN gets him alone and forces him to fight him
If you want to keep it party-focused but still give the spotlight to the werewolf character, I'd recommend having a pack of werewolves with the father as a leader. This lets the father offer a "join us" arc that may allow the party to come to an RP solution to the town's werewolf issues rather than a combat one. The PC's can still choose to fight, and if they do they will have a party based challenge to overcome instead of some of them sitting around watching you play with only one PC.

If he does decide to ally with the wolves (keep it as an option that doesn't require him to leave the party), you could even bring in some adventures based on intrapack conflict. 3e hasn't ever published rules on it, but in 2e if a human and a true werewolf had a child, there was a 50% chance it was human, 25% chance true lycan, 25% infected lycan. Perhaps his mother was a human lover of his father's, and one of the up and coming werewolves in the pack killed her while the PC was still an infant. That rival was beaten down, but is now on the rise to power in the pack and wants to finish off the rest of the leader's kin.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Mr_Hackman 10-14-06, 01:00 AM	I have a player in my group playing a lvl4 ranger natural werewolf (ECL 9) and they were all psyched up to play a werewolf because frankly werewolves are awesome. The problem is, she never has him change form, unless it's for a strength bonus to bust down a door or something. She has even mentioned that because of his backstory (lots of discrimination, kicked out of his village, blah blah blah) he's hesitant to use his werewolf form, and suggested some big fight to "shake him out of it". The rest of the party is a lvl 9 elf sorcerer, a lvl 9 half elf cleric, and a 8 rog/1 shadow dancer Halfling. Any suggestions for such an encounter? Note: the pronouns may be confusing, but the player is female, the character is male. Just FYI.
Sildatorak 10-14-06, 01:26 AM	If he is a natural werewolf, then I assume his parents were as well, and with the trauma inflicted on him in his youth I assume they were absent from his life. Perhaps a chance to fight his deadbeat dad might be enough to bring out the beast within.
David_Roben2 10-14-06, 11:10 AM	That was the idea I had for my own character as well. A quick thing about werewolves to remember. RAW says that a werewolf's claws and bite (being natural attacks) do NOT get iterative attacks for a high base attack bonus. Got to be using a manufactured weapon to get multiple attacks. By the same token, you cannot apply weapon feats to them either (i.e. two weapon fighting). I'm sure everyone and their brother knew this already, but it blew me away when I found out. mutters something about always being out of the loop
Hydryh 10-14-06, 04:20 PM	The deadbeat dad thing sounds good to me, too, as well as a couple of other things. First off, are you giving the pc DR when he's in human form? That sounds like a nice, comfy reason not to shift to me, but if you read the fine print in the stat blocks for the base werewolf, they don' get DR in their non-were form. As for shaking "him" out of it, perhaps a battle with another werewolf, one who does take full advantage of his were-powers. Ideally you'd have him drop the other party members as quickly as possible, ignoring the werewolf (seemingly by chance). Heck, you could have him start in full-wolf form, so they might think he's just a dire wolf or the like, then shift to halfbreed form to mock them. In fact, if in the first fight (where he will flee for some reason--npcs running in, tide of battle turns, etc) he never shifts to base form, that can make for a mystery as the PCs try to find out who he is, since he'll keep harrassing them. In fact, having him be the deadbeat dad gives him a reason to bug them again and again.
Mr_Hackman 10-14-06, 08:37 PM	i like it, even more so because since (forgot to mention before) he never knew his parents, when he finally meets his dad the dad can be all along the lines of "face the wolf within" or something like that, or maybe the dad can be terrorizing a town, an THEN gets him alone and forces him to fight him. If it works i could even pull a "luke-i-am-your-father" or they both only realize it at right as one dies. thanks for the help.
Sildatorak 10-14-06, 10:26 PM	maybe the dad can be terrorizing a town, an THEN gets him alone and forces him to fight him If you want to keep it party-focused but still give the spotlight to the werewolf character, I'd recommend having a pack of werewolves with the father as a leader. This lets the father offer a "join us" arc that may allow the party to come to an RP solution to the town's werewolf issues rather than a combat one. The PC's can still choose to fight, and if they do they will have a party based challenge to overcome instead of some of them sitting around watching you play with only one PC. If he does decide to ally with the wolves (keep it as an option that doesn't require him to leave the party), you could even bring in some adventures based on intrapack conflict. 3e hasn't ever published rules on it, but in 2e if a human and a true werewolf had a child, there was a 50% chance it was human, 25% chance true lycan, 25% infected lycan. Perhaps his mother was a human lover of his father's, and one of the up and coming werewolves in the pack killed her while the PC was still an infant. That rival was beaten down, but is now on the rise to power in the pack and wants to finish off the rest of the leader's kin.