Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 81 - Lycanthropy and Inflicted Transformations

Episode Date: July 11, 2021

Oops.  One of your PCs was just bitten by a werewolf and have begun the transformation into a howling, flesh-devouring monster.  How do you handle this as a GM?  Does the PC automatically become an NPC?  Tune in and find out. Now with an introduction recorded by Suzysays  on Fiverr.  She did amazing work.  Get her help with your voice over project at https://www.fiverr.com/suzysays/

This week on the Taking20 Podcast. There are all sorts of mechanical reasons why a player may want his character to have lycanthropy. But before you decide to allow that to happen, you need to understand what lycanthropy is in your game. Welcome to episode 81 of the Taking20 Podcast. This week about lycanthropy and other afflicted transformations. This week's sponsor, well I thought this was appropriate, wolves. If you're looking for a wolf in nature, they can be found close to their favorite tree, the lupine. I hear your groans, by the way, and they are delicious. Please follow us on Facebook.

I occasionally post stupid pictures to social media, so maybe you'll get a laugh or two out of it. By the way, the new voiceover work you heard was from consummate voiceover professional Susanna. She's Susie Says over on Fiverr. S-U-Z-Y-S-A-Y-S. She did amazing work. She was fantastic to work with,

and I cannot recommend her enough. Susanna, thank you for lending a touch of class to this little podcast. Also, I have a lot of content for DMs, but I need to know if you'd like to see more episodes dedicated to players. If you're willing, please send me an email to feedback at taking20podcast.com. That's taking20podcast.com. I want to give you the content that you want, so please let me know if you'd like to see more or maybe less content for players. I started my research for this episode on lycanthropy, but I quickly discovered other afflictions that I wanted to talk about briefly at the end of the episode. So we're going to talk about multiple afflictions, but let's start out

talking about my original topic, lycanthropy. What is it? Pathfinder has the best definition that I've found. Lycanthropy is a curse that? Pathfinder has the best definition that I've found. Lycanthropy is a curse that gives humanoids the ability to turn into animals and animal-humanoid hybrid shapes. Natural lycanthropes are born with this ability and have perfect control over their shape-changing. Afflicted lycanthropes contract this ability like a curse or a disease from another lycanthrope. They sometimes change form involuntarily. The most common example that we've run across in media is werewolves. A humanoid can change into a wolf or a hybrid between a wolf and a human, like a furred, well-muscled humanoid body

with a ravening wolf's head on top of it. Examples from movies and literature there are a ton. American Werewolf in London, the Underworld series has an entire species known as the Lycans, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Necroscope series, the Goosebump series, the Wolfman novel by Nicholas Pequiro. There are tons of shows, movies, and books that can help you understand what it's like to have this affliction. But how is it spread? Most commonly, you contract lycanthropy through close contact with someone who already has it. You're attacked by a werewolf or a wereboar or weretiger or werebear or any other were-whatever. Except a warehouse. That's not a lycanthrope unless you want it to be. A woman

who gets bitten by a three-bedroom, two-bath Cape Cod mansion and transforms into a lovely home every full moon. You know what? Fuck it. I'm statting it up. Being scratched or bitten by a lycanthrope means you have to make a constitution saving throw in 5e or a fortitude save in Pathfinder, otherwise you become the newest lycanthrope. It should go without saying that if you're attacked by a werewolf, it can only turn you into a werewolf. A werewolf can't turn you into a were-rat. However, sometimes a curse by a powerful creature or spellcaster can also afflict a PC with lycanthropy. The effects are similar, just the type of lycanthropy can be more varied. So what happens when a PC contracts lycanthropy and he can't get rid of it? In short answer, it depends. It depends on the game system, what the player wants to do,

and how the GM wants to adjudicate this curse. In 5th edition, the character mostly retains their existing statistics. The exceptions include the movement speed and non-humanoid form changes. They gain immunities, traits, and actions that don't involve equipment. They also increase one statistic if they're under the minimum cap for that value. Their alignment may change at the DM's discretion, and they may gain abilities like keen smell, keen hearing, pounce, charge, and others. It depends on the type of lycanthrop that they turn into. PCs can resist the curse or embrace it. If they resist

the curse, then the PC keeps their alignment and personality in humanoid form. Most of the time, the beast is buried within you. You're strong enough to keep it at bay, but when the moon is full, the curse can't be resisted and the PC transforms into its beast or hybrid form. It keeps it until the moon wanes and the PC can regain control. However, if the PC embraces it, over time they can learn to master the curse and change form at will. They may even be able to stop themselves from becoming bloodthirsty evil monsters that see weaker humans as prey. If the PC doesn't know that they're infected, they may not remember the transformation or what they did while transformed. You as the DM can play on this,

however, and give the players nightmares of violent deaths at the PC's hands. Pathfinder's a touch different mechanically, but the concept's the same. Lycanthropy is a corruption more than a curse. It affects the PC in stages. In stage one, the first time you lose control, you kill a defenseless small animal like a bird or a rodent or maybe a dog. At stage two, however, the second time you transform and lose control, you kill something bigger, like a horse or a cow or a pig. And then the third time it happens, you kill a nearby sentient humanoid, at which point the corruption becomes incurable, and you are doomed to live a life of lycanthropy,

forever turning evil and being an NPC under the GM's control. Players will be tempted to try and cheese your game, by the way, if you've never heard that phrase meaning exploit the rules, by trying to take advantage of being a werewolf or a wereboar or whatever type of lycanthrop it is, and try to diminish the negative effects. Being a were-whatever has huge mechanical advantages. Your damage increases, you gain a natural attack with claws and a bite, you have a strength increase or some other ability score that goes up. There are all sorts of mechanical reasons why a player may want his character to have lycanthropy. But before you decide to allow that to happen,

you need to understand what lycanthropy is in your game. Is it a curse or a blessing? Are there good lycanthropes in your game? Is it a curse or a blessing? Are there good lycanthropes in your world? If so, are there colonies where lycanthropes can go to not be hunted like animals? The Pathfinder world of Galarian is a town called Wolf's Ear where afflicted people can go and live out their lives without persecution, but they keep the existence of this town a secret from outsiders. Lycanthropes are viewed as monsters in most worlds and most game systems. PCs, if they want to remain lycanthropes, should have to go to great lengths to make sure their

existence as a shape-changing humanoid stays a secret. If their secret gets out, they'll likely be shunned, expelled from society, or maybe even hunted by people they used to depend on, or maybe even loved. There should be some negative effects for PCs who contract this curse. PCs could still kill humanoids they didn't intend to harm while they're transformed. There could be alignment changes for PCs, if that's critical in your game. They're sensitive to silver, they lose control of the character temporarily or permanently, or at least at a minimum when they transform into this monstrous form a few times. And the clothing budget. Unless you prepare ahead of time, you're losing one outfit per month,

minimum, as you just shred them as you transform. PCs should have to live with the fact that they could inadvertently give the disease to others around them. I mean, lycanthropy, as I said earlier, has a ton of combat mechanical advantages, but it has social disadvantages. If your campaign is combat heavy, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks unless the PCs lose control of their characters. You need social encounters. They become so much more important so that you can challenge these PCs. They're not just overwhelmingly strong at combat. Otherwise, they're just going to laugh as they roll over every combat challenge you throw in their way.

To counter these mechanical advantages, you may need to revamp a lot of the encounters and bring more spellcasters against the party. Spells like Firebolt, Acid Splash can still hurt lycanthropes, even if regular weapons can't. So in 5th edition, lycanthropes are immune to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from non-magical attacks that aren't silvered. That's ridiculously overpowered, especially below about level 6 when magic weapons are rare. It's not like every town is stocked up on silver weapons just in case a wereboar shows up. Consider slowing its effects on PCs, maybe to give them time to find a cure. In Pathfinder, I'm just going to say don't let players play full-on lycanthropes. The rules of lycanthropy explicitly state that at stage 3, the player loses control of the character.

PCs with lycanthropy are extremely unbalanced, especially at low levels. However, they did add an ancestry called Skinwalkers in first edition. It gives the flavor of being a lycanthrope without the seriously powerful immunities. As of this recording, there's not a similar Ancestry in Pathfinder 2nd Edition, but with the sheer number of books announced for the next 12 months, I'd be surprised if one doesn't show up shortly. Regardless, encourage your players to come up with cures. They can use herbalism so plants like Wolf's Bane and Belladonna can help. They can use spells like Remove Disease, Heal, and Remove Curse.

Another thing that's mentioned is slaying the source of your corruption at the height of the next full moon, and then as soon as you do that, you consume one dose of Belladonna per two manifestation levels you have all at once. So you have to chow down on a giant salad right after you track down the werewolf, which may be tough, meet them during the next full moon, also tough, and then chomp down on salad like a sheep with an eating disorder.

DMs, I'm encouraging you to find creative cures for lycanthropy in your game world. In conclusion about lycanthropy, once you introduce it to your PCs, it can cause changes that spiral out of control. In a good roleplay-heavy table, it's so much fun to watch players come to grips with their actions when they lose control and kill an innocent, or kill out of control. In a good roleplay heavy table, it's so much fun to watch players come to grips with their actions when they lose control and kill an innocent or kill someone they know and love. Mechanically, it makes the PCs very powerful, so be sure that the social and societal downsides are visited upon the PC who embraces this bestial nature and tries to use it to cheese game mechanics.

Okay, let's move on to other transformational issues. I've talked a lot about lycanthropy already, so the rest of this episode I don't have time to go as in-depth as I would like, but there's still effects to consider. Certain effects transform a creature at least temporarily, but maybe permanently. Petrification was covered in Episode 71, but it's worth mentioning here as well. It's the ultimate debilitating condition, and it's a potential major transformational issue. They were once flesh and blood, now they're a highly detailed statue as they've turned to stone. If the players turn to stone,

they are effectively in suspended animation, in 5th edition and Pathfinder 1st and 2nd edition. They are unaware of their surroundings, so they can't see or hear what's going on. The jury is out, and there's a hot debate over whether they experienced the passage of time at all. I generally say no. If someone was petrified in June and they came out of it in December, they'd be confused as hell by all the holiday decorations. Most game systems use the word unconscious, so that's my justification for the fact that they don't experience time the same way a non-petrified person does. That being said, if any part of a statue is broken, the same part would be gone if they were returned to flesh. These are horrible ideas, by the way, and we could go to a very, very dark place talking about this, but just know that if you're trying to save someone and

they're currently a statue, just make sure the statue is whole before you cast that stone to flesh spell. Otherwise, they might have their arms removed, or only half a person, or I'll leave the rest of it to your imagination. There are also post-death transformational issues of the PCs slain by certain creatures, especially certain undead. Shadows, for example, PCs slain by a shadow rise as a new shadow after a period of time, whether that's 30 seconds in Pathfinder 1st edition or a few minutes or a period of time in 5th edition. Ghouls and gas can give someone the disease ghoul fever, which causes them to rise from their grave like a ghoul if they die from it. Hey, we went back to town for a resurrection scroll, time to go resurrect

Greala. Wait, where is she? She died right here. The issue here is that the corpse may have reanimated and wandered off somewhere. Generally, the character is lost at that point unless the party can find that one ghoul that used to be Greala. And maybe that's a mission unto itself. It could be an interesting little side quest where the PCs have to find the one ghoul they're looking for in an entire undead army. Like looking for a needle in a stack of needles. I almost used the audio clip from Saving Private Ryan here where those exact words are uttered, but if I watch that clip, I have to watch the whole movie again, and if I watch the whole movie again, the ending is going to feel like a punch to the gut all over again. So, nope feelings,

not today. Depending on your game system, there are other creatures that could kill your character and transform them into something else. Some oozes, jellies, and other shapeless creatures will turn you into more of the same when they kill you. In situations like this, the creature description will usually read something like, The player can only be returned to life using a greater restoration, limited wish, wish, or miracle. Your players aren't going to be running around as player character ochre jellies at that point, so they've lost their PC. There are also spells and spell-like effects that could force a character's transformation in some way. Classic example are curses and cursed items. 5th edition doesn't have any hard and fast rules for curses, so it's up to DMs on how to

handle them, but they do have rules for cursed items and lots of examples. Pathfinder has stuff like mummy curses and the bestow curse spell and contains mechanics for them. But one of the curses in either game system could be about changing in form. In some game systems, lycanthropy is a type of curse because it causes you to change form. But the curse could rapidly age the character or make them younger, could make them unable to lie, could change their ancestry or race, make them hungry or thirsty but unable to eat or drink enough to make the feeling go away. A curse could change their personality. These could all dramatically affect the way the character plays. So curses and cursed items can harm the fun at your table because it forces them to wear

or use or be something that they didn't want. Other types of things you might run into are things like polymorph spells, especially Baleful Polymorph can take a character completely out of the game. Bam! You failed the saving throw? You're a sheep now. What? No, you can't go into combat with a dagger duct-taped to your right hoof.

While it sounds hilarious, the spell removes the character from the player's control entirely, because they are, in effect, a sheep. So let's now get some tips. Transformations that force a condition on a player, force a player to accept permanent change, permanent disfigurement, or disability, or forcing them to become an NPC should be used with caution. Now I want to pause the episode here and make sure I state something very clearly. There's nothing wrong with any person having a disability. They are not lesser creatures worthy of our pity or scorn. They are different, and different is what makes us better. The intent of using the word disability on characters like this is the potential issue

of forcing a player to roleplay a character that they didn't want to play. So, nothing against players with disabilities, this is just changing a character against the player's will. Should these types of transformations or these types of curses be removed from the game? No, they're there for a reason. However, some care should be used as they can ruin the fun for players who are attached to their characters and want to play them a certain way. I generally save these effects for veteran players in campaigns where I'm explicit that death is a possibility. But even then, when they happen, I always have a one-on-one with the player to find out how they feel about their character losing a limb, having a minus six to strength, or being turned to stone. If they're unhappy, I work with them to make a new

character they want to play either until their original character can be saved or for the rest of the campaign. Make sure you communicate with players about potential transformational effects in your game. Even if my players just bomb their knowledge checks to learn about what a Medusa is, I still let them know that legend has it they can turn people to stone. If you bestow an effect on a player that transforms them, curses them, or changes them in some way, have a way for them to remove the item, cure the curse, or transform back to the way they were. It doesn't have to be easy, but at least let them discover a way to return to their original body. Get that dexterity score back. Cure the barbarian who's now a cute little baby llama.

Aw, isn't he... Careful. He still spits. Ugh. God, it smells like cabbage and feet had a baby who just crapped its diaper. Ugh. Anyway, tune in next week where I'll talk about how to end a campaign. Oh god, it's so sticky. Please like, subscribe, and rate, and hit that notification bell if you're listening on YouTube. Once again, don't you do it again. I want to thank our sponsor, Wolves. They're really good at video games because they're so good with their paws. This has been Taking 20, Episode 81, all about lycanthropy and transformations. My name is Jeremy Shelley, and I hope that your next game is your best game. The Taking 20 Podcast is a Publishing Cube Media Production.

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