Lycanthrope
+1(2?) to nature skill checks
+1(2?) to insight/perception to recognize other lycanthropes
You can weakness 5 to alchemaic silver weapons
You gain the shapechanger keyword
And the at-will power
Shapechange
move action
You change into you animal form, depending on your animal heritage you gain the following weapon. Only attacks using the martial power source may be used in animal form. You retain all bonuses to defense from armour and shields.
Cat-Claw +3 1d6(8?)
Wolf-Bite +3 1d6(8?)
Bear-Claw +2 1d8(10?)
suggestions comments?
this is just off the top of my head, others are probally kicking ideas around to so any commentary is appreciated.
So, what does the Vampire Heritage have (again, don't need the actual stats, I know that would be wrong, but at least a template).
)Vampiric Heritage grants you a bonus to Perception and Insight checks to notice undead and other dhampyr, makes you count as a vampire for things that affect vampires, and gives you an encounter bite attack power that does minimal damage to a living creature you have grabbed and lets you spend a healing surge.
I like the majority of what you have Cyvaris, but I have a few proposed changes to present.
1. I would remove the vulnerability to silver. Gaining a weakness from taking a feat seems counterproductive to me, even if it is in there for balance. The lycanthropes in the MM don't have a vulnerability, silver only negates their natural regeneration; Regeneration which the character does not have.
2. Instead of limiting them to only martial powers, limit the character to only making melee attacks while in beast form. That way it limits the powers the character can use, not the classes that can benefit from the feat (i.e. Barbarian, Warden, Paladin, Cleric, Swordmage, etc.).
3. I would probably change the At-Will Change Shape into a Minor Action. Most of the other similar powers (Lycanthropes, Doppelgangers, Druids) are all minor action.
4. Rather than choosing, I would probably grant the lycanthrope both of the following as natural weapons
2 Claws: +3 proficiency, 1d6 damage, light blade, off-hand property (short sword stats)
Bite: +3 proficiency, 1d8 damage, heavy blade (longsword stats)
The only problem here is they will not get magical bonuses to increase hit modifiers and damage at they level up like the character’s other weapons.
1) As Consul Vido pointed out, it doesn't match the MM lycanthropes. And since 4e is geared more towards not penalizing players for their choices, I'd probably drop it.
2)
Only attacks using the martial power source may be used in animal form.
This makes the wizard and cleric very saaaaad were-pandas
3)
You change into you animal form, depending on your animal heritage you gain the following weapon.
...
Cat-Claw +3 1d6(8?)
Wolf-Bite +3 1d6(8?)
Bear-Claw +2 1d8(10?)
Two issues with the natural weapons.
First, theoretically if you're in the 3e mindset, a lycanthrope could be of any omnivorous or carnivorous species. So what happens when a player comes to you wanting to play a were-Tasmanian tiger? It would probably be easier to chose one set of mechanics for all lycans to use.
Second, these weapons are going to see less and less use since there is no way to apply a enhancement bonus to attacks. I suggest either giving them a built in enhancement progression (like the dragonborn's dragon breath ability, for example), or simply use the enhancement bonus of the primary-hand weapon the character was holding when switching forms. And I second giving the natural weapons a weapon group, which would make them actually useful to classes that favor specific weapon groups, like Fighters and Rogues.