Who You Were and What You Are
Base RaceThe Animal WithinIron WillIron WillIron WillIron WillIron WillIron WillIron Will[/spoiler]
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As an aside[spoiler]
Some guides say that you have to take every feat that the animal has. I say that this is a lie. As Dungeonscape specifically talks about feats to give monsters to help boost their effectiveness in replacement for ones they already have, I see no reason that the animal HD of a lycanthrope can't be treated the same way. However, as I've been in multiple debates about this subject, I'll leave all of the animal feats in the statblock with bonus feats listed as such. Note, also that you gain Iron Will as a bonus feat from the template, so any creature with the feat loses out (Any animals with Iron Will will have the feat listed in
Bold Red text to make it stand out).
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For those who enjoy statistical analysis[spoiler]
Pellanor on 339 made a spreadsheet
here with a comparison of different animals. Although I do not believe that you can make a lycanthrope using a templated animal, Pellanor's spreadsheet includes pages with templates for those who do.
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Savage Progressions[spoiler]
Savage Progressions for:
WerewolfWeretigerWereboarWererat[/spoiler]
Things to remember about making a lycanthrope:[spoiler]
o Animal hit dice are never your first hit dice. That means you have to take them, you can't replace them with a class level.
o Minimize your animal HD. They have cleric BAB and 2+Int skills per level, making them suboptimal.
o Make the animal the same size as you. This will let you wear the same armor and use the same weapons in your hybrid form.
o A hybrid gains two claws and one bite as natural attacks, regardless of what natural attacks are available to the animal form. These do 1d4 and 1d6 damage for medium creatures, respectively.
o Hybrid form gains the ability score increases, just like animal form.
o Hybrid form gains DR 5 or 10/silver, afflicted and natural types respectively.
o Hybrid form DOES NOT GAIN THE BASE ANIMAL'S SPECIAL ATTACKS. It does keep the base creature's special attacks, however. This means, among other things, that the wolf's Trip attack and any of the big cat's Pounce attack cannot be used by the hybrid form. They can be used, however, by the animal form.
o Hybrid form retains all the special qualities of both base creature and base animal... which means a lycanthrope woodling animal would, indeed, gain all those kickass special qualities in whatever form he took.
o A hybrid form has movement speeds as the base creature, and DOES NOT GAIN THE MOVEMENT SPEEDS OF THE BASE ANIMAL. Even if the animal can fly (which a lycanthrope can do as well, in animal form), the hybrid form cannot fly.
o As of the MM errata: "A creature cannot use alternate form to take the form of a creature with a template." So goodbye templated base animals.
o Additionally: "The creature loses the natural weapons, natural armor, and movement modes of its original form, as well as any extraordinary special attacks of its original form not derived from class levels (such as the barbarian's rage class feature)." The natural armor isn't a problem since the Lycanthropy template specifically overrides that, but the extraordinary special attacks section is something to remember.
o Lastly: "Apply any changed physical ability score modifiers in all appropriate areas with one exception: the creature retains the hit points of its original form despite any change to its Constitution." On the plus, less math. On the minus, less hp for the high con animals.
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