Lycanthropy is Broken in D&D 5e! - Ultimate Guide to Werewolves

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Kobold reading a scroll art by Novatonix:

[Superdonko]

Step 1: Summon Couatl
Step 2: Planar Binding
Step 3: Ask it to shape change into a werecreature, assuming the humanoid form of that creature.
Step 4: Cast Magic Jar, and possess it.
Step 5: Cast magic jar again and possess your original body
Step 6: Bring the first vessel more than 100’ away from the unconscious werecreature, and destroy it.
Step 7: Walk back to the second vessel and destroy it.

Result: You now permanently have all the abilities of a Couatl, in addition to your class levels.

Now hurry up and cast clone before your DM can change their mind about this.

[SymbioteMullet]

The alignment thing is a holdover from 3.5e, where alignment played a much greater role. Bears were LG, for example.

Here's some relevant text from the Lycanthrope template:

Alignment: Any.
Noble creatures such as bears, eagles, and lions tend to produce good-aligned lycanthropes. Sinister creatures such as rats, snakes, and wolves tend to produce evil-aligned lycanthropes. This is a reflection of how these animals are perceived, not any innate quality of the animal itself, so the alignment of the animal form can be arbitrarily assigned.

[leosklein]

"if you click on this video you're a furry"

Damn. Getting called out by kobold is wild

[awesomemantroll]

7:33
"Gator that was a joke"
Gator: "Oh, ok" *dematerializes*

[SamuelDancingGallew]

"Being a Furry is optimal in D&D"

Furries: "We Ride at dawn!"

[TheZombieOfDrake]

There's another shady method of obtaining lycanthropy, that can be obtained as early as level two. In Infernal Machine Rebuild, there's a *non-magical* poison called Blood of the Lycanthrope that can turn you into a wererat, werewolf, or wereboar. If you've somehow seen the poison before (for example, via the Haunted One background), you can summon the poison as a level 2 Conjuration wizard.

[Red_Regalia]

I actually played a human monster hunter ranger in Curse of Strahd that got turned into a wereraven during the campaign. On top of already being the strongest damage dealer in the party, I was now basically unkillable. It was super fun because, while the fear of dying was almost totally gone for my character, he slowly realized after a few really hard combat encounters, that his friends were still vulnerable to all the things he was now protected from. His fear of death was replaced by the fear of his whole party dying and him being trapped in Barovia alone forever with the guilt of their deaths weighing on him. That combined with the other general Barovian flavor of existential fear, eventually drove him a bit mad until, in a final moment of clarity, seeing others he had grown to care about in danger, he made a final stand against Strahd Von Zarovich himself.

As overpowered as it was, it was great. A man who feared monsters and sought to slay them in order to protect himself became a monster himself for the same purpose only to realize that his fears changed along with him and also became stronger. I love optimizing my characters, and when doing so also has a great narrative impact, I thing it makes it infinitely more satisfying.

[JAECEP]

A werehouse/warehouse sounds like a hilarious mimic curse

[seanmckelvey]

Lvl 3-7 campaign focusing on a shoreline struck by pirates. The final boss is a local pirate lord who is a wereshark who accidentally gave lycanthropy to the party's marshal

[redrum]

"I wish I knew a werebat who was lawful evil so that I can become one" is the single most insane sentence I would hear if taken out of context

[drewforchic]

Fun Fact: there exist in D&D lore were-dinosaurs, and Meepo, the legendary kobold hero, went on to become one himself

[CivilWarMan]

I was in a Curse of Strahd campaign where our Druid was going to get willingly turned into a Wereraven and join the Keepers of the Feather, though the campaign broke up before we could actually do it.

One aspect of 5e lycanthropy that wasn't brought up here is that they all come with a stat boost, which can be huge for MAD characters. A Paladin becoming a werebear, for instance, is amazing, since becoming a werebear instantly raises their strength to 19. If the Paladin prioritized Charisma, and only put in enough Strength for heavy armor, that's an instant +4 stat boost. They basically get 2 free ASIs.

That's the most extreme case, but even the lycanthropes that only raises a stat to 15 or 17 can be a big boost to a character that doesn't necessarily need that stat, but it'd be nice to have. A strength-based martial becoming a Wereraven or a wererat, for instance, gets a nice instant bonus to initiative and can get the most out of medium armor without having to dilute their primary attributes.

[donavandunn]

Fun idea: if you play divination wizard and you can get some Werebear blood, you can infect yourself with the blood. You can use Portent to fail the save, and now you are a were bear for combat. After combat is done you just cut your hand bleed into a vial, cast remove curse on yourself and you're back to normal. You can now be a werebear whenever you damn well please. (DnD shorts came up with this idea)

[ItsAvarus]

Wow I was literally just given the option to be a wererat at the table thank you for the video!!

[Leonardo-wlpu]

Yes, I agree. I have been playing curse of Strahd and during a mission I was cursed with werewolf lycanthropy: the thing is I was a spellcaster so I had a way to deal magic damage, all the other werewolves in the dungeon didn't...My chaotic evil character wrecked that dungeon.

[MachineWraith]

Barbarian would probably want wereraven, I suppose. They get flight and regen, and can rage for resistance anyway.

[arianall]

Omg you have made me realize

Last session of the waterdeep dragon heist i played i was attacked by a werebear bite attack and had a nat one on a con save which i had no idea what is was for but which the dm went “hmm, intriguing” we took a break for Christmas and have the game starting in a week, i now know what if going to be happening

[Captainnsaneo]

"How do I become a were-house?"
High strength and lots of bags of holding.

[Itachi]

Gaining the were trait is awesome most of the time if not all features but all I know is this is fun I wanna try this as a player

[geoffreysherman]

Immunity to physical damage is really interesting, table depending. More builds can have a stronger use of flight, but I think being able to ignore "common" damage is really strong. Different weretypes work for different builds better. Rogue wererats and Oath of the Ancients werebears etc. etc. etc. I think how viable it is heavily depends on the table.