Leopardwere Working Draft
Leopardwere
Medium Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 5d10+15 (42 hp)
Initiative: +8
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares), climb 20 ft.
Armor Class: 17 (+4 Dex, +3 natural), touch 14, flat-footed 13
Base Attack/Grapple: +5/+9
Attack: Claw +9 melee (1d4+4)
Full Attack: 2 claws +9 melee (1d4+4) and bite +7 melee (1d6+2)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Command cursed wereleopard, curse of therianthropy, hamstring, improved grab, pounce, rake
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 10/silver, fear of storms, low-light vision, scent, wereleopard empathy
Saves: Fort +7, Ref +8, Will +3
Abilities: Str 19, Dex 19, Con 16, Int 11, Wis 12, Cha 6
Skills: Balance +12, Climb +12, Handle Animal -2*, Hide +11*, Jump +16, Listen +8, Move Silently +11, Spot +8
Feats: Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Improved Initiative, Iron Will (B), Multiattack (B)
Environment: Warm plains and mountains
Organization: Solitary, pride (2-8) or tribe (2-8 and 1-10 wereleopards)
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually lawful evil
Advancement: 6-9 HD (Medium) or by character class
Level Adjustment: +5
An athletic, muscular humanoid with the head, claws and tail of a great cat. Its skin is entirely covered by a thick spotted coat of fur.
Leopardweres are a race of ferocious pack hunters who roam stark mountains and hot deserts. Leopardweres were once normal leopards, but an unknown evil force transformed them into monsters. They may look like the hybrid form of a wereleopard, but they are not "proper" lycanthropes and possess no shapechanging ability. Their behavior is very catlike; a leopardwere spends most of its day grooming itself, sleeping, and lounging in tall trees. They enjoy lazing in the sun and rolling in the grass like a kitten, but their greatest pleasure is to hunt and kill.
The bite of a leopardwere transmits a supernatural contagion that can transform humanoids and giants into bestial, cursed wereleopards. Leopardweres can compel these bestial wereleopards to do their bidding.
A leopardwere is a strict carnivore who prefers its meat freshly killed. Their favorite food is the flesh of humanoids. A leopardwere pride usually eats any humanoid it catches, but some victims are "saved" for transformation into cursed wereleopard slaves. These wereleopards are used as laborers and cannon-fodder. Any wereleopard slave who tries to flee, or who become useless, is gleefully devoured by the pride.
A leopardwere is 5 to 6 feet tall and weighs 125 to 200 pounds. Female leopardweres usually have black fur with slightly lighter spots, males have orange fur with black spots.
Leopardweres speak their own language. They disdain the languages of humanoids and will not learn them. Leopardweres use their wereleopard empathy to order their cursed wereleopard slaves about.
COMBAT
Leopardweres normally try to hamstring opponents at the first opportunity, then pounce upon their hampered foes. They will attempt to split up enemy groups and kill them one at a time, only feasting when all their prey have been slain. Leopardweres love to cruelly toy with weak victims, and may chase fleeing prey for hours, to prolong the pleasure of the hunt. If they encounter a powerful enemy, they will force their wereleopard slaves to attack them rather than risk their own skin.
Command Cursed Wereleopard (Su): Wereleopards created by the curse of therianthropy must obey the orders of its leopardwere pride (the leopardwere that created it and all other leopardweres of its creator's pride). This functions like a command spell (no save).
Curse of Therianthropy (Su): Any humanoid, giant, or leopard hit by a leopardwere's bite attack must succeed on a DC 15 Fortitude save or contract a form of lycanthropy.
Humanoids and giants transform into cursed wereleopards. The curse reduces their minds to little better than beasts and puts them in thrall to the leopardweres that created them. A cursed wereleopard has a -6 racial penalty to Intelligence, is unable to make Control Shape checks, and can be affected by a leopardwere's command cursed wereleopard ability (see above). It is otherwise identical to a standard afflicted wereleopard.
Leopards who contract the curse of therianthropy transform into leopardweres.
Fear of Storms (Ex): Leopardweres have a terrible fear of lightning. A leopardwere that is confronted by lightning must succeed at a Will save (DC 20 for natural lightning, DC of spell or supernatural attack for magical lightning) or become frightened for 1d6 rounds. A shocking grasp or other low-level electrical spell will not frighten a leopardwere, it takes at least a lightning bolt or call lighting spell to trigger its fear of lightning.
If a leopardwere hears thunder, it must succeed at a Will save (DC 20 for a natural thunderstorm, DC of spell or supernatural attack for magical thunder), or become shaken for 1d6 rounds. Loud noises that resemble thunder, such as a shout spell or a dragonne's roar, may also cause a leopardwere to become shaken for 1d6 rounds, but the leopardwere gains a +4 bonus on its Will save.
Hamstring (Ex): A leopardwere can damage the tendons in an opponent's legs if it makes a successful bite attack against an opponent it has flanked or flat-footed. Hamstring attacks cannot affect creatures with external skeletons, such as most vermin. Creatures with immunity to critical hits are immune to being hamstrung.
The opponent must succeed on a DC 16 Fortitude save or be hamstrung. The target's speed drops by one-half and its Dexterity suffers a -4 circumstance penalty. A hamstrung creature can not take the Run action. The save DC is Dexterity-based.
A damaged hamstring normally takes 1d4+2 weeks to heal naturally (half that time if DC 15 Heal checks are used to provide long-term care), but can be instantly cured with a cure moderate wounds or higher-level healing spell.
Improved Grab (Ex): To use this ability, a leopardwere must hit with its bite attack. It can then attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. If it wins the grapple check, it establishes a hold and can rake.
Pounce (Ex): If a leopardwere charges a foe, it can make a full attack, including two rake attacks.
Rake (Ex): Attack bonus +9 melee, damage 1d4+2.
Wereleopard Empathy (Ex): Communicate with leopards and wereleopards, and +4 racial bonus on Charisma-based checks against leopards and wereleopards.
Skills: A leopardwere has a +8 racial bonus on Balance, Climb and Jump checks and a +4 racial bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks. It can always choose to take 10 on a Climb check, even if rushed or threatened.
*In areas of tall grass or heavy undergrowth, the Hide bonus of a leopardwere improves to +8.
In Ravenloft
Many leopardwere prides in Ravenloft serve a race of shapeshifting feline humanoids called the paka. Leopardweres native to Ravenloft speak the paka's language as well as their own.
