Dungeons & Dragons Monsters — Lycanthropes! Wererats, Wereboars and Werewolves, Oh My!
When it comes to Dungeons and Dragons Monsters the lycanthropes are a diverse lot. Not as much as demons and devils, but there are a lot of them. Basically if there is animal someone has turned it into a werecreature. The core werebeasts are- wererat, wereboar, werewolf, weretiger, and werebear. Then from there I’ve seen everything from wereseals to weredragons.
Your lycanthropes really can fill nearly any niche or role in your gaming world. Whether you need dungeons and dragons monsters to skulk and sneak, be savage and brutal, or benign and gentle werebeasts really do have you covered.
Dungeons and Dragons Monsters|Lycanthropes Baring Their Fangs and Sharping Their Claws Video
I’m kind of partial to the wereboar and now I want use the idea I threw out there in the video for a society aristocratic wereboars. The truth is lycanthropes tend to be as varied as humans. Heck many of them are humans afflicted with a terrible curse or perhaps they see it as a blessing. One of the easiest to build a campaign or series of adventures around is the wererat. Especially in an urban setting.
I really believe to properly use werecreature it is all about building suspense and misleading your players.
Even throwing in an adventure where they believe they’ll be going up against a lycanthrope and it turns out be a total red herring.
So when you actually do throw them against a pack of werewolves or a clan of wererats they’re just not sure.
Or go the other way let them figure out they are going up against werewolves right way and maybe more than one. Introduce the idea at a level where they can’t possibly hold their own against that sort of threat. Let the threat hang over their heads for a couple levels. Keep them dealing with the aftermath of the attacks or with trying to figure out how to keep themselves and towns folk from getting eaten.
You could literally hold your group hostage for several sessions with them not knowing if their going to survive. OK this isn’t the kind of game you’d want to run on a group more than once, but if done carefully it could be that adventure series that players talk about for years to come.
Dungeons and Dragons Monsters- Werecritters by the Numbers.
Levels 1-3) The hint of moonlight threats. Or perhaps a friend has been afflicted with this curse and they need help constructing a chamber to hold them when they change. Or perhaps a new gang or thieve’s guild has moved into the city and crime is going through the roof as turf wars begin.
Levels 4-6) The threat is reveled and must be
dealt with werewolves, wereboars, or weretigers. A quest to break the curse of your afflicted friend now that they have their secure chamber to keep the town safe. Your players try to end the blood shed that is now spilling into the streets only to find the threat is worse than anyone even imagined a plague of wererats is upon the city.
Levels 7+) Players start clear out the werebeasts only to discover there is a werebeast lord that isn’t happy about having his followers killed off. The players return with the means to break their friends curse only discover he’s broken out and has gone on a rampage. Now there is political and legal battles for the players to over come. The wererats have infiltrated the nobility and are wielding political influence like sword against the players.
These are only a handful of suggestions for the use of werecritters in your campaign. Feel free to give us your were creature stories down in the comments.
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