You are using werewolves wrong in D&D. Let me tell you what I do.
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Transcript
Here's my adventure. Hey everybody, [snorts] another I I promised this video and I I to be fair, I took some time to think about what I wanted to say. I didn't just dive into it right away. So, um, and I actually did a a little bit of research. Uh, so, you know, and I think, man, if I just had like the time or if I like relied on my YouTube channel to like feed myself and feed my family, I would probably put so much effort uh into these things. Um, [clears throat] but you know, like cool effects and and and whatevers, you know, and instead of just me um yakking at at at the at at the at the microphone here. But regardless, if you're watching this, thank you very much. Take a take a moment, do those things where you comment or subscribe or like or whatever. Um, that would be cool. Uh, if not, oh well. Uh, and I'm going to talk to you now about how I use lychenthropes in my D&D campaigns, my D&D sessions. And this is going to be
like a way backtrack, right? Cuz I've been playing D and D since the 70s, uh, cuz I'm old. and uh and I I started running uh D&D campaigns for my older brother and my friends and my older brother and his friends uh probably in 1980 was like when I started I would have been 9 years old uh and in the last you know I'm going to turn 54 here very shortly so if my math is correct um that is 40 44 years, 45 years. In the last 45 years, I've been playing D and D pretty much non-stop, constantly, and my ways of running um uh D&D and other RPGs for that matter have definitely evolved over time. All right. So, anyway, Lykan throws, uh, I think they are easily one of the most misused slash underused monsters slash big bad evil guy enemies uh, in in in lots of D and D campaigns.
And I think it's just because for lack of a better um for lack of a better reason, they aren't as cool, right? Um they aren't as neat as a a dragon flying overhead or a troll that can regrow its arms or uh you know, the evil necromancer secretly plotting uh within within his evil domain. You know, we tend to think when you think of werewolves and and and and when you think I mean that's a good question, you know, and maybe put that in the comment below. Uh when you think Lyanthrope, does your mind immediately go to werewolf? Does it go like me? I think of where rats and I'll talk about where rats here in a little bit and why my mind goes to wear rats. Uh do you I mean or do you think of some of the others? I mean, we started off, you know, back in the day in this book. Um, we started off with with five of them, right? Uh, w werewolves, were rats, were bears, where bo and tigers. Um, inside this book as well, man, this such a great book. I mean, take check this out, right? This is my original uh monster manual, and I never removed the the price. What is this? $11.99.
$11.99 probably bought at a at a Walgreens or no uh a Benjamin Franklin. Remember those? I think it was bought at a Benjamin Franklin actually. But anyway, um regardless to any of that, uh the um you $1.99 and like 1980s dollars, that must have been a million bucks or something. Anyway, uh they had like jackal wares in there. And if you don't know what a jackalware is, a jackalware is a weird really, really smart jackal that can turn into a human. It was like the reverse. It wasn't a human that turned into an animal. Anyway, I'm already suber and I want to stay I want to try to stay on topic here. Um, okay. So, we started off with five and then we got a bunch more. Right? If it's an animal uh that we thought would be cool that a human could turn into, we made that a thing. You know, wear lions, uh wear sharks. Wear sharks are cool, though.
I'll give you I I had a I had a campaign once where there was this old lighthouse um where this guy had secluded himself in this old lighthouse and and that was his job. And and I remember one of the very first adventures my my the party that went on, they were told to go check on that guy in the in the old lighthouse. We haven't heard from him in a while. And they went out there and of course he had been fishing and he had gotten bitten by a were shark and had turned into a were shark and and now he just didn't feel right about coming back to town cuz he was worried he was going to kill people. But and they ended up becoming friends with the guy and they didn't really know he was cursed at all for a long long time. But anyway, totally all over the place here. Where sharks are cool. Um I think uh I mean then there's like I said, if there's an animal that it would be cool if they could turn into like a human could turn into it, we've made a wear type of creature. I had a friend, again, total subset here.
I had a friend who always named his characters where we e r e and I it was like and I because he just loved the idea of lyanthrop so much uh which was weird because I would see it and like his charact your character's name is were no it's where that then but I get it right you was just what do you liked um so we started off with those five we've got a bunch more now um and definitely the the the creature has the creatures have changed a great deal. um from the beginning uh like I love the rules that were in the original Monster Manual uh that if your character took 50% or more of your total hit points actually the way it's written is actually great cuz this is like back in the day like we would never we would never write things like this now because well I mean I'm sure there's things out there that um uh I'll do exist as far as uh the way they're written, but for the most for the most part like we would never write uh a monster here. I'm I'm turning to my like it says here any humanoid creature bitten by a lyanthrop for damage equal to or greater than 50% of its total potential.
Not hippo. It's just what is your what is your potential uh mercenary jack swordsman? Oh, my potential is to become king of the land. Okay. How do I do 50% damage to that potential? H anyway, uh but not actually killed and eaten is infected by the disease of lyanthropy. If the person is carrying Belladonna, there is a 25% chance that this will cure the affliction if eaten within 1 hour. Note that this infusion will incapacitate the person for 1 to four days and there is a 1% chance of the poison in it killing the creature. Otherwise, look at this. This is how tough it was to get rid of this. Otherwise, a cure disease spell from a 12th or higher level patriarch like this just great must be placed upon the creature within 3 days or it will become a lyanthrope in 7 to 14 days. Uh and then it even says here uh there are some other forms of lyanthropes but these are very rare in the extreme. So it has the five and then um yeah so there you go.
Uh anyway, and then there's rules. I remember there was like deeper dive rules. I'm not going to dig out all my old rule books here. Uh I'm not but there were deeper dive rules about like how often you change and whether or not you kept your mind and everything like that, but you can see like in the old monster manual. Um oh my gosh, like the if you got bitten I mean it just happened, right? I mean, I can remember an old AD and D game I was playing and I had this cleric um who uh like took a ton of damage in a fight with all of these werewolves. And after all was done, the DM said, "Well, how much damage did you all take?" And the thing about I remember he actually said like one of the werewolves in was it who was in wolf man form like the standing wolf guy. He had a sword and he was just hacking away at my at my uh at my my cleric and I took it like I almost died and uh and he was like, "Well, you took a bunch of damage." And then I had to remind him, "Hey, uh" and the sword turned out to be like super magical, which was kind of neat. Uh but uh I I said, "Uh no, no, no, no, no. He did not bite me. The that wolf was like stabbing me with the sword over and over." And he was like, "Oh, yeah, that's right." So I didn't have to roll. There was no chance of me turning into a werewolf. We did have uh one of the characters, however, uh did take a bunch of damage and they and
then we actually had to eat the Belladonna. Like we actually like you'd have rules like that all over the place in in AD and D. It was crazy. Uh but you'd always have characters that be like, "Well, I'm going to buy some Belladonna. You never know when I'm going to run into a thing." And then there was also Wolf Spain. You remember Wolf Spain? So, the wolf's bane, I think it was spelled uh I mean you you'd run into it spelled with a U or an O for the wolf or wolf. Um you'd run into that all the time. And what that was was that if you could take it and hit a wolf with this herb or whatever like uh it would cause the wolf the werewolf to run away like they they had to run away. Uh, which was cool, which was important obviously because Lykan throats can only be damaged by magic weapons or silvered weapons, which is why like that little silver dagger was always on that list and why everybody spent like the 20 gold or whatever eventually just to have just in case you have a silver dagger or uh silver tipped arrows. That was the other thing too, right? like you had to make sure that you you just had something that could fight them. Uh because if you played D and D the way it was supposed to be played, magic items and magic swords and stuff like that were supposed to come out. They were supposed to you were supposed to find them kind of slowly, if you will. Now, that changed. And I'm not going to get into that at all, but you know what I mean. Uh, and there were lots of times when we were when we would be playing
and like you'd run into something that could only be hit by a magic weapon or a silver weapon and you would just say, "Uh, I run," right? Or you try to get get back to I remember one time I was fighting a gargoyle and I couldn't hurt it at all. I mean, it wasn't like back in the day it didn't have like damage resistance, you know, like if you could just do enough damage, you could still do some damage. Or I know like in more recent versions of the game they actually specify that like you can uh if you can do enough damage you or the damage that you do with like that isn't a silver weapon or whatever uh is like non-permanent damage like it heals quicker or things like that. So that like and I get that we kind of put our mittens on a little bit in in later editions, but again, I'm not here to talk about edition wars or anything like that because I think those conversations are kind of dumb and stupid. Um, they're they're fun thought they are very fun thought experiments, if you will, but they just don't they don't work really well as far as cuz it's stupid.
like the the the the the commandment of there's no wrong way to play D and D as long as everybody at the table is having fun, which can be applied to anything, right? There's no wrong way to play this board game as long as everybody's having fun. There's no wrong way to, you know, watch a movie as long as every So, it just that golden rule uh is in place constantly. But anyway, the whole point of this is I'm trying to get to the point of why uh lyanthropes kind of just don't get used a lot or I don't hear them referenced a lot. Obviously, because like vampires are cooler than them, liches are more cooler than them. Um, as I said, evil necromancers, evil wizards in a tower somewhere are so much more cool uh on on its face as as as a werewolf. Now, I don't think that I think they're really cool. And I'll tell you why. And and the reason why is that I change them a lot. Uh I make them uh be way cooler in my mind. Um and I I kind of do these um there there are a few things that I I I make sure that I that I do. And I and I'm going to I'm going to kind of go through this list.
Now, the first thing I do is I I I turn the whole thing on its ear a little bit. And I don't have the person that is the werewolf or the were rat or the werebear or whatever in human form. I don't make them look like a were bear or a werewolf or a were rat. Like you always have the thing where it's like, "Oh, it's a werebear, so it's got to be this big gruff mountain man guy that this giant beard, you know, and uh that that obviously if like he turned into a bear, you'd be like, "Yeah, that makes sense. I don't do that. You just you just make them normal freaking people that are just walking around. I don't make my were rats little sniveling greasy cowards like hiding in the corner nibbling on cheese, you know? I don't I don't I don't I don't broadcast it to to the party like that these things uh are are obviously weird in some way, right? You just make them normal people roaming around in the normal world. I was in a campaign once where I was playing a character. My buddy Craig was running it and one of the people in the village like was a wear creature and it turned out to be like kind of a demon wear creature. But regardless, it was somebody that was transforming a night and killing somebody in town. And we were trying to track this guy down in the entire like and all all over the the village and trying to figure out exactly what was going on. And then when we
finally had it kind of narrowed down to like one guy, uh, you know, we had this super spooky moment of like chasing him down in the middle of a corn field and like trying to track him down and and and getting into a fight with him or whatever. But um, regardless, it was it was it was cool. And like that led that that was a clue that led to the this demon infestation and whatever. But anyway, he didn't make that guy like look like a werewolf. He was he was like helpful. He was kind. He was nice, you know. He if I remember correctly, he was like um the local like leather worker or something like that. And and and he just and he was always like super helpful and and and cool and whatever thing like that.
And he he just hid his ability. Um, which kind of goes into the whole thing of when they are in their human form, I I I make mine to be um uh I I almost like not evil, if you will, cuz you never know when you're going to have a paladin wandering through just saying, "Detect evil. Detect evil. Detect evil." You know, just like and which I've always thought is a dumb stupid dumb stupid uh uh thing to have. And I've always in my campaigns, and this is a little bit of an aside, I've always made it be when they're detecting evil, like it is a uh even though it is a show, right? It is it is like it isn't like casting a spell. I mean, casting a spell should never be like,
you know, casting a spell like casting a spell should be I cast fireball, you know, and and I do the same thing with detect evil as a paladin. like the paladin you you have to clutch your holy symbol hold it open and it's just like you know by crumb find the one that is you know and that is among us that that wants to do us harm you know something like that where like if you do that when you're standing before the king and and and you're detecting evil in the room they're going to have a problem with it right or if the person is evil they're going to be like uh hey stop that you know you you don't get to do that or they're going to have some sort of ward. So anyway, the whole point is is that sorry about that aside, but little hint like if you run into problems where you have a paladin that just basically is always like I'm I detect evil. Oh, I detect evil. I detect evil through that door. I you know, make it make it more difficult, you know, like uh so it isn't so easy. But anyway, so if they do say to like my wear creature that's hiding within like the town and they say, "Do you mind if I detect your true intentions?" You know, by all means, go ahead. And they detect evil. And because they're not in their werewolf form, you don't you don't actually see them um as as their as the werewolf or whatever. So that's something uh that I I I like I I like to do as far
as that goes. uh make them a little bit tougher uh to figure out. Uh the second thing I do is I make their uh their animal form like I'm talking about their true animal form. I make their true animal form um when I can I make it seem docel. I make it seem normal. And the reason I do that is uh if you if your party is walking across a meadow and and they see a big giant direwolf, they're like, "Oh my gosh, that's that's a wolf. Like that's that's huge and it has slavering jaws and it's going to eat us. Uh we need to shoot with arrows or something like that and and then it gives it away, right?" But if you say like, "Oh yeah, you see you see a pack of wolves like on the outskirts of the forest as you're walking across this meadow and they all are just kind of eyeing you and taking a look at you and and they they seem to like, you know, just be keeping like as if they maybe they aren't interested.
They're not like going to charge and attack or anything like that, but they're just keeping their eye on you. You know, how many are there?" Oh, there's like two or three. They're just sitting there and they're like, "Okay, you know, and and nine times out of ten the party's going to be like, well, how far away are they?" Oh, you know, they're probably about, you know, 200 250 feet away. They're just going to say, "All right, well, as long as they keep their distance, you know, no big deal." And they just move on with their lives. And and so you can present a a wolf in or werewolf in that way. You can present a bear in that way. Oh, you you can see like there's a bear like rubbing up against a tree scratching its back, you know. You know, don't play him stupid, I guess. And there is one thing that I I I I one of the reasons why I really really like were rats is the fact that um and this was a rule and I I don't know.
I think it was 3.0 did this in D&D and or maybe Pathfinder um did this uh I I I you know, Pathfinder first edition Pathfinder rules. Uh I think that where rats were able to turn into a normal rat, which I have absolutely loved and I have incorporated in every single edition of every single D and D campaign I've ever played since then. Now, normally a were rat turns into a giant rat, right? Giant rats are like the one of the most common early monsters your your players run into. They you you you you run into a rat uh the size of a large dog with big yellow teeth and and disease foaming at the mouth, you know, and you're like, "Ah, you know, kill it." So, and and and they love uh uh taking out giant rats. And giant rats, you know, by nature, they they tend to want to kill and eat uh low-level parties. It's just it's it's it's it's ubiquitous and it's it's a beautiful thing. Um, but regardless, tiny rats, like just a normalsized little brown rat that's like maybe, you know, maybe 6 to9 in long, big giant weird fleshy tail, you know, uh, you know, happens to be, you know, in a room with the party as as they're uh they're checking out a
mystical statue trying to figure out. And there's just a couple of rats in the corner, maybe gnawing on a bone or something. Nobody's gonna care. They're not going to be like, "Oh, kill the rats." They're going to be like, "Oh, a rat. Okay, you know, whatever." Uh oh. You see a rat in in the in in the village cemetery running around. Yeah, it's it's it's a freaking cemetery, you know. It's like rats are going to be in here. They're going to have burrows. are probably I mean they're probably burrowing into the the caskets and and gnawing on the putrid flesh of the people that we're burying. Not much we can do about it, right? But if you talk about giant rats like oh yeah, they're going to be like kill the giant rats. But if you talk about Oh, yeah. and you happen to like as you're walking down the alleyway, you see little rats, you know, squeal as you approach and run off and in into the uh into like little holes in the walls of the buildings around you or as you're like going through the tunnels of of whatever dungeon that they're walking through. If you see rats um you know, squeal at the sight of your your torch and run down run down the hallway, the players aren't going to care. They're not going to notice. They're not going to even It's just It's It's window dressing. But what you're doing is you're like, "Those are the spies. Those are the were rats." Like this handful of three to five to six were rats that work for the big bad evil guy in that dungeon or they work for the uh the thieves guild within that city or whatever. They
are the ones that are keeping the eye. They're keeping their eyes on on the party and reporting back as to what's going on. And then you have a plot line, you have a reason, you have a you have a a a setup where when the party does try to like break down the door or whatever of of the thieves guild, you know, you know, main uh you know, area where where where all the thieves have been like, you know, where the Society of Assassins or whatever the they are well prepared and ready to go because they have known that the party has been running around in the sewers. for like the last half a day trying to locate them and they're ready and they are going to just give the heroes exactly what they deserve for breaking into their home and it makes and they're like, "Well, how is that possible? How did it happen?" And then you just make sure in that combat uh that um like a few like there's a like you have a rats like kind of run behind the the that they don't really notice, you know, because oh yeah, you open the door and there's a room full of all these thieves who immediately shoot crossbows at you and rats squeal when you run in and they run off into the shadows and then like round four or five of the combat as you're as the [clears throat] as the wizard spellcaster is preparing a big spell all of a sudden like right behind behind him there's two, you know, giant rat like creatures, h the hybrid rats stabbing him in the back uh and and disrupting
his spells and they're like, "Oh my gosh, those rats, they were aware were rats the whole while." Obviously, he can't go to the well constantly with that, you know, because the characters are going to catch on, but it works for a very, very long time. You can use that. Um, I also try to make it so my wear creatures aren't just necessarily evil, like flatout evil worst of all. And and that goes with any creature like shades of gray instead of just super evil. Yes, there's monsters that you can just make. Yeah, it's just evil. It and so it's it's it's it's just a you discover the troll uh and your your characters can just oh, get the torches, boys, you know, and and go to work. Uh there are creatures like that that have that, but these are ultimately things where these these humans these and and another aside, do you remember as little as I do like back in the day like they said if an elf got lyanthropy, they just died. They they like they couldn't turn into a werewolf or were bear or whatever. They they just up and died. That was just how it happened. But anyway, um, backing up a little bit, these are by and large going to be people, humans, dwarves, elves, whatever, depending upon the addition of what you decide to your campaign that they have had the unfortunate situation of running into a wolf that almost killed them, uh, a
tiger that that that, you know, ripped them apart but left them live for some reason. um a shark that that happened to uh bite you when you went for a went for a midnight swim by your lighthouse for some reason. You have these situations where all of a sudden now you're cursed and you once every month during a full moon, you maybe just don't control yourself perfectly. uh and and you turn into something that is, you know, pretty horrible, but for the most part, you're able to control it and you're able to control it and you're able to control yourself and and you don't have to, you know, be that evil thing every single time. So what I like about that is I like being able to say, "Yeah, you know, think about that where ultimately maybe because of their where they are in in the world, I mean, they can't really they have to live on the outskirts, right? Because they don't want to kill their families, they don't want to kill their friends." And then that that anger over their life turning like this um maybe eventually does kind of turn them evil and and dow and uh maybe a little selfish and frustrated or whatever. and and and maybe, you know, them finally, you know, being brought to an end by uh uh by the party is something that uh you
can uh uh have a little bit of a catharsis moment there, if you will. uh the the the classic uh moment of when the party manages to uh finally kill the werewolf and and and as he or she uh slowly reverts to human form uh with their last breath uh looks at the players and and and thanks them for bringing an end to their torment o over this curse that has afflicted them for years. Um, and maybe it's one of those things where here's an idea for your campaign. I did this once where I had a really, really freaking evil werewolf who would go from town to town.
And he was also a spellcaster. And so he was able to basically uh either put a town's person to sleep or uh, you know, you know, basically uh hold them or paralyze them in some way and then turn into his wolf form, nearly kill them and then uh and then leave, right? And so that they would heal from their wounds and then a couple weeks later uh without really knowing what's going on, they would turn into werewolf and they would start murdering the people in their town. And and then the the PCs like were called like saying, "Oh my gosh, this this guy went crazy in the town. He he murdered his family of seven and and and he fled into the forest, you know, and now like sheep are are vanishing." So they go and and they and they they tracked him down and they killed him cuz they knew he was a werewolf. And when uh uh they went through his stuff or whatever, they found that he was keeping a journal and he talked about this this mysterious man in in in black that that had come to his farmstead and and and you like generosity. They had given him, you know, uh you know, a place to stay. And in turn, that guy repaid it by being malevolent and and and cursing this guy.
And then they were like, "We got to keep our eyes open for that guy." and then I just dropped it. And then two or three sessions down the road, um they heard about this other adventuring party they knew who came in and said, "Yeah, there was like this thing where like these two sisters were turning into werewolves and like slaughtering people in in this village." And uh and then when we uh we managed we killed one and then we captured the other and she said that there was this mysterious man in black that uh you know had uh had had infected them with lyanthropy and and you're like and then all of a sudden the players go that guy we got to find that guy and then you like and then it kind of repeated like that slowly but surely and then they eventually tracked him down and they were able to put an end to this like this this person that like just basically this this mage who had gotten infected by a werewolf had um he himself like killed his party members and uh he was so mad and angry like like something went off in his brain and he just decided well I'm going to just send the world into chaos you know whatever and and it was just and it was something so they finally tracked that guy down and and he was pure malevolent at that point right he deserved to die. He was doing things to kill innocent people just to sow chaos. And it and it gave again it gave the party this wonderful moment of catharsis when they were able
to put that guy down. And he didn't thank them for ending his torment, you know. He he he was to the bitter end. He was like, I didn't deserve this. I, you know, this is not my fault, you know, and like as they were like, you know, stabbing him with their their silver daggers as as they put him down, which, you know, I gave them I gave the players that I gave them the like, okay, that felt good. That was justified and and it felt good to to to hack that that that person into pieces. But anyway, uh, and that's the thing, right? I mean, so instead of using your werewolves and were rats and were wear creatures or whatever as just a monster in a room in a dungeon, um, there's so much more, right? Because they're humans. They're they're they're a they're a humanoid.
They even if it's an orc or or uh and that's a good idea. Like I remember I had a I had a a like in the one campaign I ran years and years and years ago there there was this huge hobgoblin army and and there was this elite troop of hobgoblins that you know were wear tigers and and like they talked about oh the you know the striped region the striped legion you don't want to run into the striped legion and like they they talked about and then and then like wherever the players heard about it it's like oh yeah the striped legion you know it's They they descended on that village and they just raised it to the ground. They didn't lo Nobody died. Not they couldn't kill one person in that in that in that that legion, right? Because they didn't turn into were wear tigers. They just they were just they went in there, but weapons couldn't hurt them. So they would just go in and they just wipe out a village because like people were like stabbing them with pitchforks and stuff.
And so there was whole this whole story about like weapons don't hurt these guys. You can't do anything. You can't you can't burn them. You can't you can't stab them. you can't there's nothing you can do, you know, and so that was another thing like you just play with it. Don't just put and this can kind of go with a lot. I mean, again, there are monsters that just work perfectly as a guy sitting an ogre sitting in a room with a bag of gold. That's fine. It's it's it's straightforward and your players will enjoy that. They'll enjoy just the the the satisfaction of okay, here's a here's a big giant tall 12 foot smelly thing with a club. Let's let's let's kill it and take his 500 gold. There's something wonderful and simple about that. But don't just put a werewolf sitting in a room waiting to die. Make something cool with it. Change it up. Alter it. Cuz they they're humanoids. They're people that are smart. They're they're crafty.
they have feelings, you know, make it feel real and then your players will buy into it. Anyway, so I kind of was all over the place there. Uh, I appreciate you watching the video before this when I uh reviewed uh this book. So, if you want to go check that out, that was the video before this one. Um, go ahead and check that out if you want to hear about uh werewolf uh fiction, horror fiction. Um, but if you've ever done anything cool with a wear creature in your D and D campaigns or if you played any of the D and D campaign that had something cool like that, um, post it, tell me about it. Love to it. I love stealing other people's ideas and feel free to take any of the ideas I've just had or I've explained to you here. Use them in your own uh campaigns as as you see fit. Um, until next time, thank you very much.
Have a great weekend. Uh, take care. This is the end of King. Bye.