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Special Conversion Thread: Lycanthropes and their ilk
- Thread starter Shade
- Start date
Cleon
Legend
Let's think...
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. Some learn Common, the better 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.
Cleon
Legend
Well they like to eat cursed wereleopards, who have been reduced to bestial minds by their lycanthropic curse. That suggests they don't restrict their love of humanoid flesh to intelligent ones only.
Updating Working Draft with previous background text.
Cleon
Legend
There's several mentions of the Paka I left out:
"They tend to keep to themselves until led by the paka, an intelligent race of humanoid cat people. Under the influence of that evil race, they are often involved in sinister acts against the folk of the realm."
"Wereleopards speak their own language, a growling tongue almost impossible for men to learn, as well as that of the paka. They disdain the languages of men and never learn them."
Hold on, the "they disdain the languages of men and never learn them" conflicts with the current "Some learn Common, the better to order their cursed wereleopard slaves about."
I will modify the Working Draft with:
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.
Shade
Monster Junkie
This should cover it nicely.
Cleon
Legend
It's already been covered.
What about an "In Ravenloft" explaining they usually serve the Paka?
Any preferences for the Level Adjustment? I'd be happy to make it "—".
Shade
Monster Junkie
Good idea.
I'd peg 'em at +4 or +5. I think we should have one, since seawolves have one and they have some "by character class" advancement.
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