My PC was bit by a werewolf now what? (3.5srd)

[Heydees]

So my PC is a small size homebrew race and I was recently bit by a werewolf.

We are playing 3.5srd but just using a homebrew world and races.

I know the incubation period for it but what I am having trouble understanding is exactly what changes occur to my character. I've only been playing for a few months so everything is still slightly overwhelming.

Lil backstory to start off. A necromancer killed my mom and stole my sister for her innate druidic powers. I ran into 2 werewolves and through the grape vine I knew they were powerful and I could become one so I accepted the bite in hopes of gaining more power to defeat the necromancer. I am a rogue/swash aiming at assasin.

Is lycanthrope a buff or a debuff in the long run?

Is the alignment change immediate?

Can I be bit by a weretiger or werebear down the road to replace werewolf?

Besides the HD from the animal what else increases?

How exactly does control shape work? Do I put points in it? Is it a spell?

Do I get the hybrid form if I am not a natural lycanthrope?

Oh I also succeeded a bluff with my party and told them I resisted the disease thought the surprise would be fun :D

[Maximum Carnage]

I recently created 3 NPCS werewolves to combat my party, and making them was no easy feat. It's a inherited template so you get many bonuses in the form of natural armor, WIS increase, and many others. You will DEFINITELY have to look at the template yourself to figure out exactly how it will affect your character. That being said. With a slight adjustment LA +1, you are gaining RIDICULOUS benefits. With only a few cons to go with it. As far as being bitten by a different kind of lycanthrope, I don't think that would negate your current form of lycanthropy, but ultimately I believe that would be a decision for your DM. When it comes to the Shapechanger feat, there is a special table that will give you the DCs of your shapeshifting abilites. Such as trying to turn on a full moon. Hybrid form is gained simply for inheriting the template. So yes, that means you should be able to take advantage of that, if you wish.

I hope this helped, and will edit my response as I come up with interesting tid bits for you.

MC

[noob]

Short term it is great but the RHD you get adds to your ecl too so you have a gigantic ECL meaning that the party will catch up to you and then be stronger.
If the campaign was going to end soon anyway it is a good idea.

[Necroticplague]

Is lycanthrope a buff or a debuff in the long run? Debuff. Benefits from class level >benefits from template. There are some very few exceptions if you have very precise monsters as your Alternate Form, but it's unlikely you have one of those if it was hoisted on you by the DM.


Is the alignment change immediate? Your animal form has the alignment immediately. Your other forms only get that alignment once you fail a Will save after coming to be aware of your condition.
[quoe=srd]
Thereafter, the character is subject to involuntary transformation under the full moon and whenever damaged in combat. He or she feels an overwhelming rage building up and must succeed on a Control Shape check (see below) to resist changing into animal form. Any player character not yet aware of his or her lycanthropic condition temporarily becomes an NPC during an involuntary change, and acts according to the alignment of his or her animal form.

A character with awareness of his condition retains his identity and does not lose control of his actions if he changes. However, each time he changes to his animal form, he must make a Will save (DC 15 + number of times he has been in animal form) or permanently assume the alignment of his animal form in all shapes.[/quote]



Can I be bit by a weretiger or werebear down the road to replace werewolf? Nope, nothing stopping you from multiple type of lycanthropic affllictions.



Besides the HD from the animal what else increases?
While in Animal or hybrid forms, you add 10-Animal's even scores and 11-animal's odd scores to your physical stats and gain DR 5/silver in hybrid and animal forms, you gain +2 wisdom +2 NA and scent and low-light vision in all forms


How exactly does control shape work? Do I put points in it? Is it a spell? It's a Wisdom-based skill. You make checks with it to resist involuntary changes (full moon and injuries), or to intentionally change.


Do I get the hybrid form if I am not a natural lycanthrope? Make a DC 15 control shape check as a standard action.

[Gildedragon]

As a DM I'd not implement the alignment change if one controls shape
Yes you get a hybrid form
As your DM if you can take the template class

[Telonius]

When you get the Lycanthrope template (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/lycanthrope.htm), you gain what's called a Level Adjustment, as well as some "racial hit dice." (Think of racial hit dice like, "levels in Monster" instead of "levels in Fighter." They give skill points, hit points, and feats for every third level, just like class levels). Basically, you just leveled up twice from the racial hit dice. Plus, you have a Level Adjustment of +2. So you're effectively 4 levels higher than you were before, for purposes of gaining XP in the future.

So is it a buff or a debuff in the long run? Mainly debuff. How bad it is, depends a bit on whether you're a caster or not. Spellcasters really, really don't like losing caster levels. If you're a Wizard, Sorcerer, Cleric, Druid, or whatever other caster, you have just been hosed, badly. When the rest of your party is level 20, you'll be casting as a 16th-level character. You do get some nice goodies, and some stat bumps, but it's mostly not worth the Level Adjustment. There's one particular build (Warshaper) that can turn you into a real terror for natural attacks, but that would require the DM to rule favorably on how many natural weapons it's intended to grant. For a Rogue/Swashbuckler .. eh, not so great. You're going to have to work a lot harder to fit in Assassin, and those skill points aren't coming back. Regardless, it will be a long time before you level up.

There's a famous/infamous way of getting around racial hit dice: getting level drained and voluntarily failing the save. Prepare to have rulebooks thrown at you if you suggest this.

Alignment change is more of a case-by-case thing, so you'd need to ask your DM how they're going to rule it. From the 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.

But also:


When a character contracts lycanthropy through a lycanthrope’s bite (see above), no symptoms appear until the first night of the next full moon. On that night, the afflicted character involuntarily assumes animal form and forgets his or her own identity, temporarily becoming an NPC. The character remains in animal form, assuming the appropriate alignment, until the next dawn.

The character’s actions during this first episode are dictated by the alignment of its animal form. The character remembers nothing about the entire episode (or subsequent episodes) unless he succeeds on a DC 15 Wisdom check, in which case he becomes aware of his lycanthropic condition.

Thereafter, the character is subject to involuntary transformation under the full moon and whenever damaged in combat. He or she feels an overwhelming rage building up and must succeed on a Control Shape check (see below) to resist changing into animal form. Any player character not yet aware of his or her lycanthropic condition temporarily becomes an NPC during an involuntary change, and acts according to the alignment of his or her animal form.

A character with awareness of his condition retains his identity and does not lose control of his actions if he changes. However, each time he changes to his animal form, he must make a Will save (DC 15 + number of times he has been in animal form) or permanently assume the alignment of his animal form in all shapes.

Once a character becomes aware of his affliction, he can now voluntarily attempt to change to animal or hybrid form, using the appropriate Control Shape check DC. An attempt is a standard action and can be made each round. Any voluntary change to animal or hybrid form immediately and permanently changes the character’s alignment to that of the appropriate lycanthrope.


Multi-lycanthropes: I would say no, personally. And if the DM says yes, you will want to avoid getting bitten by another were-critter at all costs. You already have 2 RHD; you do not want any more. If you're cured of lycanthropy once and get bitten by another were-critter later, you could regain the template with a different base creature.

Here are the changes for Lycanthropy:

Lycanthrope characters possess the following racial traits.

+2 Wisdom. Physical abilities are increased by the animal form’s ability modifiers when a lycanthrope changes to its hybrid or animal forms.
Size same as the base creature or the base animal form.
Low-light vision in any form.
Scent in any form.
Racial Hit Dice: A lycanthrope adds the Hit Dice of its animal form to its base Hit Dice for race, level, and class. These additional Hit Dice modify the lycanthrope’s base attack bonus and base saving throw bonuses accordingly.
Racial Skills: A lycanthrope adds skill points for its animal Hit Dice much as if it had multiclassed into the animal type. It gains skill points equal to (2 + Int modifier, minimum 1) per Hit Die of the animal form. Any skills that appear in the animal’s description are treated as class skills for the lycanthrope’s animal levels. The lycanthrope’s maximum skill ranks are equal to its animal form Hit Dice + its racial Hit Dice (if any) + its class levels + 3. Any racial skill adjustments of the lycanthrope’s base race and its animal form (but not conditional adjustments) are added to its skill modifiers in any form.
Racial Feats: Add the animal’s Hit Dice to the base character’s own Hit Dice to determine how many feats the character has. All lycanthropes gain Iron Will as a bonus feat.
+2 natural armor bonus in any form.
Special Qualities (see above): Alternate form, lycanthropic empathy, curse of lycanthropy (in animal or hybrid form only).
Afflicted lycanthrope: damage reduction 5/silver (in animal or hybrid form only).
Natural lycanthrope: damage reduction 10/silver (in animal or hybrid form only).
Automatic Languages: As base creature.
Favored Class: Same as the base creature.
Level adjustment: Same as the base creature +2 (afflicted) or +3 (natural).

Control Shape is a skill. You can put skill points into it, just like any other skill, on level-up as soon as your character realizes he has the disease.

You can assume Hybrid Form as long as you make the required Control Shape check.

[DrMotives]

Everyone covered pretty much everything, but the multiple forms of lycanthropy at once could be clarified. It's impossible under 3.0 due to type restrictions, but in 3.5 it's completely RAW legal, although I've never seen it specifically addressed. It is mentioned in 2e's "Van Ritchten's Guide to Werebeasts" where it is specifially mentioned as something that can happen. In fact, a character could be infected with one form and have a different from hereditary lycanthropy. It's confusing, but RAW legal.

[noob]

I wonder: what do happens when a pc bite a werewolf?

[Telonius]

I wonder: what do happens when a pc bite a werewolf?

They can become the dreaded Were-Human.

[mastermisha1]

They can become the dreaded Were-Human.

Only if it was a natural human that bit them. Also, wouldn't they become a were-pc?

[KillianHawkeye]

Just a note: you can only contract lycanthropy if the size of the animal form is within one size category of your own, so you can never become a were-tiger because they're too much bigger than your homebrew Small-sized race. For a were-bear form, you'd be limited to the Medium-size black bear rather than the brown bear version listed in the MM/SRD.

[Firest Kathon]

Is lycanthrope a buff or a debuff in the long run?
One thing to keep in mind is that as an afflicted lyanthrope, you have to make a Control Shape check whenever you are damaged in combat, and you cannot voluntarily return to your own form until the next morning unless you succeed on a Cange Shape check. This may be quite inconvenient, especially when near settlements (they tend to be afraid of werewolves for some reason).


Can I be bit by a weretiger or werebear down the road to replace werewolf?
This should not be possible, as you are already affliced with lycanthropy and should not be able to contract it again. Also, you should not be able to get the same template more than once. However, I was not able to find that rule (concerning diseases or templates), so I may misremember.


Besides the HD from the animal what else increases?
If you want to stay a lycanthrope, consider asking your GM if paying off the level adjustment (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/reducingLevelAdjustments.htm) is on the board. This would mean that you get more on par with the rest of your party over time.


Oh I also succeeded a bluff with my party and told them I resisted the disease thought the surprise would be fun :D
As per the rules, your character should not be aware of the disease as it shows no symptoms until the next full moon (which is also when you get the template).