Half Lycanthrope

[The Souljourner]

Here's an idea I had while trying to figure out how I could have a character that had the ability to change into an animal form but without all the extra abilities of a lycanthrope.


Half Lycanthrope

Half Lycanthropes are the result of a mating between a natural lycanthrope and a human or giant who is immune to the effects of lycanthropy. The resulting offspring is not considered a lycanthrope, but retains a few of his lycanthropic parent's abilities.

Half Lycanthrope is a template that can be applied to any Humanoid or Giant.

-Type: Same as the base creature, but gains the shapeshifter subtype.
—+2 Wisdom.
—Size: same as the base creature.
—Low-light vision in any form.
—Scent in any form.
—Alignment: same as the base creature.
—Special Qualities: Alternate form - This is treated just like the druid's wildshape ability, except there is no limit to the number of times the half lycanthrope may change in a day, and he may only transform into a single animal. If the animal's hitdice are greater than the base creature's, the ability to transform is latent, and will emerge only when the half lycanthrope has gained enough hit dice to be equal to the animal's. Half Lycanthropes do not have a hybrid form.
—Automatic Languages: As base creature.
—Favored Class: Same as the base creature.
—Level adjustment: Same as the base creature +1


So what do people think? Is this balanced? Too good? Not good enough?

Basically I just took the Lycanthrope template and stripped out a bunch of the abilities, and made the transformation into a wildshape type ability.

-The Souljourner

 

[Ferret]

I likey. Maybe a +2 la, but that is debateable.

 

[The Souljourner]

+2? Yeouch. I think that would be overkill by far. Compare it to an Aasimar, who effectively gets alertness, +2 to two abilities, is a native outsider and therefor immune to a bunch of stuff, resistance 5 to cold, acid, and electricity, and darkvision instead of low light vision.

What do I get? One feat (for being human), the abilty to turn into a single animal with hitdice no greater than mine (whoopee), scent, and low light vision. Granted, scent is cool, but man, that's a lot to balance out scent.

For reference this template is going to be added to a ranger, and the animal is going to be a Panther. I guess it could be a lot better if you picked something more powerful, like a polar bear.

Also, my DM ruled that since lycanthropes don't keep meld their equipment into themselves when they change, neither would I, which makes it even less powerful. Not that it doesn't make sense, but still...

It's actually starting to sound a little weak for a +1 race, especially given that aasimar as so good.

-The Souljourner

 

[Coredump]

I think that +1 sounds about right. (and I am a tightwad about these things.) My only concern is for flying creatures. Being able to transform into a 2 HD flying creature is worth a lot at low level, but is almost a hinderance at high level.

For simplicity, I would make it only land creatures, and pretty closely regulate which ones.... just to be sure.


What would the HD/HP/saves/etc be??

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[candidus_cogitens]

I don't like it. Another strange misbread. Stick with the archetypes!

 

[The Souljourner]

The HP, HD, etc are all based on the base creature. It's a template not an actual race by itself.

My DM and I decided upon this - +2 Dex, +2 Wis, scent, low light vision, ability to turn into a normal panther at will, as per the lycanthrope ability (no hybrid). However, since my equipment won't change with me, we decided the panther would always have hitdice equal to my own, becoming large at 6 hitdice, huge at 13, with all the benefits and drawbacks the size changes entail.


I don't think turning into a bird at low levels is all that powerful... you don't meld your equipment in with you, and therefor you can scout, but you have to go back to where you started get your equipment.

My DM is allowing me a special minibag of holding that my panther will be able to wear, which will be just big enough to fit my equipment in (no hauling treasure around in it).

-The Souljourner

 

[Witness]

In OA, their is a ECL +1 race of shapechangers. Might want to take a look at that...

While I understand the bonus to Wisdom as it relates to Wisdom based skills, neither animals nor lycanthropes have particularly good Wisdom scores, so I don't think a bonus to Wisdom is really justified.

Also, rather than Scent , give them the only the special sensory abilities of their animal form. So for instance, a Wolf-Half-Lycanthrope gains scent because wolves have scent, but an Owl 1/2 Lyc would not because Owl's don't. You might also give the situational bonuses to skills in either form such as the Owl's +8 bonus to Spot in dusk or darkness, or the Tiger's +4 bonus to Hide in tall grass or undergrowth.

 

[DreamChaser]

I was about to say, the hengeyoki are non-lycanthropic animal shapechangers. they are naturally animals who can assume a human shape. They are limited to how many times they can change in a day (I'm not sure why).

they are ECL +1

DC

 

[The Souljourner]

While I understand the bonus to Wisdom as it relates to Wisdom based skills, neither animals nor lycanthropes have particularly good Wisdom scores, so I don't think a bonus to Wisdom is really justified.

Check out the lycanthrope template - all lycanthropes gain +2 wisdom.

Also, rather than Scent , give them the only the special sensory abilities of their animal form.

All lycanthropes gain scent and low light vision in all forms. I really did just scale back the lycanthrope template a whole lot. Everything I gave in the initial post is directly from the lycanthrope template.

I had forgotten about the OA shapechangers. I'll definitely take a look at them tonight.

Still, I'm happy with what I have so far.

-The Souljourner