Balancing Lycanthropy: Treating Lycanthropy as a Magic Item

[Osrogue]

I really do love Lycanthropy as a concept. A vicious, nigh unkillable monster is hidden among the common folk. They probably don’t even know what they are doing. It’s a pretty fun concept for intrigue, involving an opponent that rewards planning and should be fun for fighters to hit (if they brought a silver weapon), and a nice little moral dilemma can be built around it too. Determining the source of the werewolf can lead to more fun adventures.

My 1 issue is Lycanthropy. It’s pretty strong, and has almost no downsides aside from a mandatory alignment change which doesn’t really mean anything. I want to instead try balancing it by treating the cursed bite as a cursed magical item that uses an attunement slot, being fluffed as a blessing from a moon god or whatever.

What properties should this magical item have? The litem” should be rare or very rare. I’ve never tried to make a magic item before, however, so I don’t know how to balance it to end up within that range.

I’m thinking that it should allow for a 1/day transformation for up to 1 hour. On nights of the full moon, this transformation is automatic and lasts 8 hours. It confers damage resistance to piercing/slashing/bludgeoning and a vulnerability to silver. Its natural weapons are +1 magic weapons with a 1d4+1 piercing damage. If 1 or more creatures is reduced to less than half their hit points within 30 feet of the lycanthrope, they have to make a DC 10 wisdom saving throw or immediately use their reaction to move and attack the nearest bloodied creature.

Any recommended alterations would be appreciated.

[iTreeby]

For the curse part, I would definitely recommend using the curse from the berserkers axe (a +1 rare item with drawbacks) the tougher part is the damage resistance, the only thing comparable is the armor of invulnerability, which has much better resistances and is legendary. I don't think the natural weapons really factor into the balance because they are basically just magic daggers. I feel like you can get away with this item being very rare.


Mostly I'm just confused about why you want a lesser lycanthropy in the first place? It detracts from lycanthropy which is balanced by the fact that the DM can make you lose control of your character while you are transformed. Lycanthropy is worse than a cursed magic item.

[Unoriginal]

Magic items aren't balanced either.

[MagneticKitty]

What about....
Ring of the waxing moon
rare / requires attunement
As an action you may assume a lycan form, growing +1 claws that deal 1d4 + str slashing damage. Transforming breaks concentration on spells. Your gear either falls to the ground or merges with you. You retain your stats. Your hands are not human enough to handle gear, weapons, or somatic components, nor is your voice useable for spells or speech. Bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage that you take from non-magical, non-silvered weapons is reduced by 3. You have a natural armor of 12 + dex and may not use armor or shields.
Whenever you land a crit, are hit by a crit, are under the light of the full moon for the first time during the night, or someone tries to persuade you to remove the ring you must make a DC (20 minus your proficiency modifier) wisdom saving throw. When you fail this saving throw you transform invollunterily (if you are not already transformed) and are forced to attack the nearest target for the remaining duration of your transformation or until the target is dead. You may repeat this save at the end of each of your turns to regain control of your transformation. You can transform a number of minutes x your proficiency modifier x 10. Each transformation must last a minimum of 10 minutes, and uses up transformation time in multiples of 10. Once attuned the wearer cannot willingly remove the ring unless remove curse or banishment is cast on the ring. You resume humanoid form if your hit points drop to 0. If you are attuned to the ring but not in possession of the ring, you must try your best to regain the ring.

So equivalent to two magic daggers and a feat.. with clear draw backs. Because it's not a lycan without the loss of control. Thoughts?

[Doesnt]

Just make them vulnerable to silver damage, and strip away the ridiculous immunity to physical they get in the monster manual. People don't like lycanthropes; anyone non-chaotic who finds out is going to be an enemy, even if all they're capable of doing is hiring adventurers or the guard to put down the monster among them. Said hitmen will be equipped with silver, and probably won't be polite to the rest of the party if they are knowingly harboring a werebeast.

Not everything needs to be balanced for the battlefield; in the case of lycanthropy, you're getting a mild benefit to combat ability in exchange for a massive social weakness. Also the whole losing your mind thing; if you change your alignment to deal with that you're probably gonna have to find some new friends.

[JoeJ]

I've always thought that the biggest drawback to lycanthropy is not the alignment change per se, but that you periodically wake up to discover that you've just murdered a bunch of innocent people.

That said, a magic wolf skin that you wrap around yourself like a cloak in order to change is fairly common in folklore. You could make the skin cursed, so it's hard to get rid of. Maybe the owner has to periodically make some sort of save to keep from using it, with a penalty that increases over time until they finally fail and it resets.

[furby076]

Magic items aren't balanced either.

Sure they are.

[Angelalex242]

Make lesser and greater versions.

The lesser version gives a nerfed version of Lycanthropy.

The greater version gives Lycanthropy as described in the Monster Manual, even the stat boosts...but also comes with the downside of straight up monster manual lycanthropy. Then again, since this is basically the same as getting bit, it's kinda redundant unless it can be taken off or something.