How do you balance werewolves?

How do you balance werewolves?

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Too broad a statement. Widely depends on the ruleset.

I'm assuming you mean players being werewolves.
I'd say in general you make it an ability that just enhances stats (whereas other characters get other useful abilities) or you make it so you have to roll for willpower/etc. or the gamemaster has a say in what you do. That goes for any 'transformation' based creature.

Really big kitchen scale.

Does a werewolf get heavier when it transforms, or do they retain their weight even as a human?

The former, but only because they retain the weight of your average waterfowl.

Int -2. You know, a dumb beast that only want to slaughter

As in having it a logically powerful enemy encounter. While vastly different, most Werewolves are depicted as the apex of predatory savagery. A manslaughtering beast with the raw muscle power to rip and split metal vehicles apart. And yet, due to balancing reasons, in most games they're easily disposable cannonfodder that can easily be taken down by a mid-level party. I want Werewolves to be fearsome and extremely dangerous, but not to Medusa-levels of frustrations.

However, I do like the idea of implementing a willpower check to see if the players even manage to stay on their shakey legs after seeing one of these glorious beasts in person.

I do not. Werewolves are force of nature, on par with earthquakes, tsunamis and hurricanes. You can run, but you can't fight. When you hear snarling, growling and howling, you just know that shit hit the fan.

Do we have to? They have tails for that.

they lose control, they may be strong, fast and tanky but they fight to their own detriment and can hurt allies. they also can be sent into a murderous rage just by someone punching their face exposing them to the humans. old world of darkness had werewolves done right.

also silver weapons fuck werewolves up.

With a balanced diet and long walks.

you could go the MonsterHearts route and put them in a social game, they still have power due to the threat of violence being a useful social tool, but it's not overwhelming as they're still possible to deceive or manipulate and their lack of self-control frequently works against them

Very carefully.

What about them is broken? They uncontrollably turn into monsters and slaughter everyone directly around them. I guess they get stronger and tougher but you turn into a mindless monster.

I would give the big bad boss a few things, namely; regeneration, Resistance or outright invulnerability to non silvered weapons and resistance to all types of magic except holy, which would cut or severely hamper the regeneration.

If you want the fight to last, throw in a few(3) fledgling werewolves same as above with less hp and less potent resistances, and throw in some regular wolves as cannon fodder

Pit it against the players at a low level. The town and the players are holed up in the castle because a full moon is coming. If the players have fought against a werewolf in a previous game with higher level characters they might know they can't face it at level 1-2, depending on the players of course. No one has silvered weapons and there is wither no smith in town or there is no silver. They could try to find a dead ranger who was killed by the werewolf with a pair of silvers shortswords and arrows. They hear rumors of a werewolf stalking travelers in the woods, attacking while they sleep, easily tearing away a tent to get at those within. When the werewolf encounters stronger individuals it attempts to pin and infect rather than kill and those infected serve the werewolf so it's going after the party, resulting in many of them becoming infected. The only cure is to slay the infector but it always waits till the curse has thoroughly run through the victims veins.

Or did you just want combat improvements?

I get it's popular but I'd love to do some kind of werewolf RPG that doesn't automatically peg them as unreasonable rage beasts or spiritual hippie/druids.

Also wolves can be quite friendly goofs as well as being deadly dangerous predators, wish that side would get a little attention too.

Is supernatural regeneration a common werewolf trope? Also I'm not sure about the holy magic thing. WW to me don't seem inherently "evil", or "unholy", but rather as forces of nature, brutal beasts or the aspect of the wild and unkept (blood)lust.

I'm taking any tips regarding combat (crunch) and story-telling (fluff) balancing. I'm also not the biggest fan of material-based resistences, but I know that silver weaponry is a big staple of fighting fey/unnatural monsters so for the sake of respecting traditions (and not irritating my players too much), I'll probably have to give players the ability to acquire something that'll help them fight off Werewolves, not necessarily just silver.

I'm not sure whether or not Werewolves would be afraid of fire (such as torches). On one hand, they're were-ANIMALS. On the other hand, they're WERE-animals, so fear of fire simply may not apply to them.

They only care if *you* cast two or more/no spells last turn, not any player. Adjust stats accordingly.

Disease is uncurable
Disease is also sexually transmitted
Race determines breed- non-human races result in non-humanoid werewolves based on fantasy wolf variants- Orcs Become WereWorgs/Pitbulls
Spring is breeding season, nothing but nonstop fucking, holes owner be danmed, hormones and phermones simply too strong
Habits of lycan cross over into human form- increased body hair, TEST, wanderlust, will never shit in any form but squatting and stealth pisses everywhere.
Can be tamed during downtime periods if approached in the correct manner- still high chance of getting mauled irregardless
Subject to canine based parasites and diseases
Is stupid enough to fall for the Frozen blood knife trick in youth.
Final stages in the transformation make the beast synonymous with the older human half, transformation is voluntary, can only be killed by silver bullet to the head, said bullet also having cold iron inside of it, as the Lycan is basically a Fey now, and even in human form, has a Dog-cock.
Dog/man tongue hybrid, increased saliva due to sweat pores added to tongue
Hard Palms in human form- hairy palms later
Larger Prostate gland
Hair texture and makeup change- closer to fur, but not quite- Pubes are fairly pleasant opposed to feeling outright plastic/stringy
Requires large food portions, more of a carnivore and is capable of eating raw meat and carrion- can eat veg and cook, but is incredibly inpatient with preparation.
Familial by nature to pack
Increase 1-2FT in height- wolves are fucking huge after all
Transformation conditions have various triggers and manifestations- as well as symptoms leading up to a change- the beast will manifest according to how much of a person's more primal natures are left unsatiated.
Is most dangerous during winter, irratavle and antagonized.
Due to dogshit, will ruin vegetation thanks to it being rancid.
Cross-breeding/constant sexual engagement can result in hypersexualization- will lose moral compass due to this.

those are pretty standard options for a Werewolf user

and I'd make it Fire and Holy as an extra weakness

I like the idea of having ferals (i.e. attack on sight) and disciplined werewolves, who can actually talk and, under normal circumstances, control themselves.

However, you gotta be very careful with the disciplined ones lest they become just another cheesy Worgen/Fursona/Fetishbait shtick.

Lastly- mind is numbed due to trauma caused by transformation, there's a limit to how much ones bones break and contort- high frequency of them being hyper aggressive beasts if they're conscious for the transformation, human half experiences this as a stage of fast-unexpected desensitization where they appear unsympathetic/empathetic to stimuli that would evoke this- also grants them pain tolderance and a loss of feeling of touch- not much, but enough that a smooth surface of a marble becomes less input based to a thumb for example.
Awful back pains/relief if one is particularly tightly knotted up from muscle stress due to literally bursting out their skin.

I tend not to worry about people sexualizing stuff because people sexualize everything, better to just enjoy yourself and not worry about it.

Other than heavily editing some WoD stuff I don't think there's really much option for trying to run something like that, though any ideas would be appreciated.

Honestly it's to the point for me where it'd be far more interesting to just have a character who's a fairly normal adventurer and treats the fact that he can turn into a big fangy beast as a personal quirk rather than anything to angst about or some huge spiritual deal. Would leave more room for personal development than just being boxed into certain corners.

For a second I thought you said werepugs and was completely on board.

Not accessible to players.

>increased TEST

But user, there's a popular theory that describes as the wolf being a symbol of unbound female sexuality

Bears

You don't.
Weerewolves are not the enemy thought to be balanced against something else, or pose a challenging threat.
Werewolves are best represented when they're fucking unstoppable murderbeasts that nobody can hope to defeat alone, and require a good amount of planning and a strong group to bring down

DEPENDS ON THE SYSTEM

underrated post

You don't. Why the fuck would you even have werewolves if they're not OP?

This. When it's Werewolf season, you don't fucking leave your room.

I was tinkering with idea of an ancient Europe inspired setting, think Romans and Germanic people. With the only reason the native tribes not being conquered and assimilated into the empire due to the fact that these backwater, high-density forests contain the breeding and hunting grounds for feral werewolves. These aren't in any way shape or form organized or even related to one another, it's just that even tiny packs of werewolves by themselves are enough to rampage through not!Roman camps at night, or even severely damage entire companies of well trained soldiers. Mostly just due to their physical might and ferocity, but also the fact that these "civilized" soldiers have never encountered such beasts. The native folks fear and revere these monsters and only manage to still co-exist due to monthly sacrifices and staying the fuck indoors when they hear them coming, and praying, they don't burst their cabin-doors open in the middle of the night.

>halfway through
>realize it's erotica

If you couldn't tell it was this dude's fap fiction at "sexually transmitted", I don't know what to tell you.

>Larger Prostate gland

I got until "Larger Prostate gland" before I know something was up.

>When you dumbfuck 5enigger brainlets have never read into 2e ravenloft
KYS

>Is supernatural regeneration a common werewolf trope?

Its more like supernatural resilience, it all comes from the legend of the Beast of Gevaudan which was interpreted as a werewolf attack by some

>but I know that silver weaponry is a big staple of fighting fey/unnatural monsters so for the sake of respecting traditions

I link the silver weakness to their connection with the moon, they are weak to it for different reasons than unholy beings, also, fey are weak to iron not silver

>I'm not sure whether or not Werewolves would be afraid of fire (such as torches).

They would probably be wary of it anyway, assuming they depend on their regeneration burns are much difficult to heal than most wounds

>kitchen scales
user, we're not trying to weigh them.
The right answer is a really big see-saw!

Werewolves are just gateway furries to begin with, so make a Fursecutioner ranger conclave.

Always evil.

Turn into a particularly large, monstrous wolf, not an anthro-creature.

Require an animal skin and magic ointment to transform, or cursed belt of beast hide, no immediate bursting from skin or magic shifting. They get these items either from the Devil, analogous evil entity or from the Master of the Forest (like the supposed Beast of Gevaudan claimed he did).

If it's science fiction or a more realistic setting, generally keep the law of conservation of mass. If the setting is super fantastical or phantasmagorical, fuck physics.

>Unironically using the word fursecution in 2017

The redditor is strong in this one.

Without knowing your System OP, I'm hesitant to give mechanical advice. However this might be useful,
>latorra.org/2012/05/15/a-16-hp-dragon/
It's not a system specific thing either. The Werewolf doesn't need to roll to send every animal downwind of them scattering and braying. Nobody dares leave the house, if you're outside you're a dead man. Hell, they might even try to shoot you with arrows through arrowslits incase you get into someones house, turn and bite them. The Werewolf brings out the worst in everyone as they fight to survive.

And when the Werewolf does attack, you don't get to fight back. This is an Animal, and it's cunning. It will hunt you, and once its blood is up it will rip you limb from limb. And when it's maw is filled with scraps of flesh, it will turn and track someone else. A Werewolf Hunter is a supremely foolish moron with a deathwish. You need 8 people to bring this monster down, 8 people with silver threaded nets, fire, beartraps and keen blades. Those that return won't get any gratitude, they're covered in blood and not all of it is the Werewolves.

Did you know that werewolves are good singers and dancers?

youtube.com/watch?v=eA2u4bw8r74

against mimes

Putting something of the same weight in the other dish.

I find the centre of weight of werewolves and locate them so that it's directly above the point of support of werewolves.

Oh hey, a subtle fetish thread.

I'm looking for books that don't suck ass, or otherwise books that least cater to men. Right now looking at Haven, which if nothing else is a gender swapped twilight clone. The sheer volume of by women for women fetish books is impossible to sort through.

*at least cater to men
As in, most catering to men.

The trash novel market would make you think this subgenre is exclusive to housewives.

If lycanthopy is an STD, and wolves are rapey, the only way to remain human would be to hate them and be super protective of womanfolk.

Make them intelligent. There's a man underneath all that fur and twisted flesh, so make it act like it. Single out the isolated members of the party. Hit and run tactics. Wear them down. One bite can wreak havoc and cause immense mistrust.

On my dick.

With wifwolves

>wifwolves
Mah linguistical urban afro-american friend

Do enlighten us, user.

>When you like werewolves but furfags will never not ruin any creative discussion about them

I would say holy magic is eh, but more light magic to affect it, the moon or moonlight is the trigger of traditional were animals, and transform back in the day, so it could be argued false sunlight could weaken the were animals power

Other way around. A werewolf becomes heavier in both werewolf and human forms. That's one way of finding a werewolf that's disguised, they weight far too much for how they look.

>Frozen blood knife trick
? explain?

In folklore, it's said that freezing blood on a knife would trick a wolf into licking it, but would lacerate its tongue causing it to bleed to death.

wolfsongnews.org/news/Alaska_current_events_2577.html

I like the not!Romans fighting not!Celts and/or not!Germans who can turn into big wolves

Bloodborne

For every wherewolf add an equal and opposite re-werewolf.

huh...

>balance
How I've come to hate that word. That every advantage in a game must be diluted to uselessness or countered by a disadvantage that comes with it. God forbid something be advantageous with no strings attached. The irony is that for all the whining about fairness and balance you're playing a game that relies on dice rolling.

Well there needs to be an King of Wearwolves who happens to be a Southern Gentleman with a knack for killing monsters dead. He should also be head of a guild devoted to Monster Hunting.

Give him a chance to attack or otherwise hinder his allies while in beast-mode. The chance of this happening should be equal to his stat-buff above the other players.

Got a source on this?

Nope, saved it from a thread not an hour ago.

The Order: 1886 was a pretty good """game""" that I thought handled lycans pretty well.

A werewolf hardly seems OP to me and doesn't need to be balanced

>Supernatural regeneration
It goes back to Universal's Larry Talbot who couldn't kill himself and Monster Squad whose werewolf was so OP he got chunked and the chunks just went back together.

>Don't seem inherently evil or unholy

Good. Because in the Universal movies "Even a man whose pure of heart and says his prayers at night..."

I've always wanted a villain that's Hannibal Lector but a werewolf. He could be really fun.

Bloodborne was only a werewolf game for like five minutes then it was all lovecrap all the time, which is a shame.

But making it a weird west setting where this guy shows up.

they'd have like hyper dense musculature and skeletal structures, aversion to chocolate, naturally occurring anti-septics in their saliva and sharper canines. thats how you tell if a werewolf is one in human form.

Why can't more werewolves be like Jon? Focus that rage and energy into something positive.

At least point us to the thread, dummy

it's the one about mermen

Didn't it go Werewolf>Vampire>Lovecrap?

NGL if someone comes out with a soulsborne-style wherein you play as a Belmont or even Van Helsing, I'd be all over that shit

The early bosses being Clerical Beast, Blood Soaked Beast, and Vicar Amalia made the very early game sort of Werewolf focused. But after Amalia it takes a hard plunge into Lovecrap and then an even harder one after Rom.

Sucks that Amalia was the best boss in the game until German and My Little Ludwig.

>Spoiler

I'd kill for a Castlevania souls game where you can do sick ass moves on giant monsters using the whip. It would really expand the "tactical takedown" aspect of souls games if you could so say choose whether to try and make the giant monster direct his punch into something by wrapping your whip around its wrist or use it to grapple up to its neck or use it to trip an ankle and get the monster to stumble.