Lycanthrope Magic Items

[Sir_Chivalry]

So my crusader got bit by a wererat a little while ago and I've been counting the days down until the next full moon. Character is oblivious to the danger currently.

Planning for the worst, getting stuck with being a lawful evil wererat for the rest of the campaign, I'm considering my options to be able to do my stuff and possibly even shore up some things

Does anyone know any magic items, weapons, armour, wondrous items etc that might help a wererat be the best wererat he can be? Things that can help him make the most of the situation

Beastskin armour's hard to use without wildshape but luckily I'm medium and so is the hybrid form so armour stays on. Weapons don't need resizing.

[Fizban]

The Dragon Mag 3.5 update for Oriental Adventures fixes Shapeshifting armor, making it exactly the same as Wild but in regards to alternate form and change shape abilities- which incidentally, means it probably also works for Wild Shape and Polymorph spells, which eventually settled on saying they're based on the alternate form ability. Same +3 cost though, so far from cheap, and rat form is not something you really care about- though since maneuvers don't care about form you can of course Mountain Hammer bite your way through anything even in rat form.

You don't change alignment unless you voluntarily change form. I would say the DM using lycanthropes without providing sufficient room for the character to be cured is poor form, since the template rather wrecks your character, particularly if you've decided not to take the assigned alignment changes. That said, curing it isn't that hard, just a basic 3rd level Remove Curse under the full moon and a DC 20 Will save. There is little reason you should have to deal with this for the rest of the game, unless you're under time constraints and so can't wait a few months to get it removed.

Since the main benefits of lycanthropy are boosted natural armor and DR, rats in particular gaining dex, and you're already a Crusader, just keep being tanky. There aren't any special "were-blades" that I've ever heard of that are better for lycanthropes or something. You could get some sort of magic item to summon rats for scouting since you can communicate with them I guess? Except the rat summoning item Pipes of the Sewers requiring perform skill and would prevent you from "speaking," already allows telepathic communication, and requires there to be rats in range to begin with. You could get some items to boost stealth to add to your animal form's natural abilities and offset your lack of ranks, but you'd still be playing catchup to an actual stealth character. You could try to get a custom item that boosts Control Shape checks for obvious reasons, though those usually require the crafter to already have a bunch of ranks.

The only particularly noticeable combat ability I see on a were-rat is the rat form's climb speed, which could technically be used with various "dragoon" items, feats, and abilities. None of which are going to be more impressive in rat form than just being an armed and armored crusader in hybrid form.

Were-rats are a common enough choice of for low-mid stuff, one of those bridges between basic classed humanoids and actual monsters, which can be legitimately spammed without bringing up questions of where they all came from because they just infected people. And are also kindof a terrible choice since they can then infect players, who even if interested in lycanthropy would almost certainly want any other form besides Small Rat. So I find them rather annoying.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

If you don't want to be Evil, hire a spellcaster to cast curse of lycanthropy (the good one, not the stupid one that creates sapient creatures ex nihilo with a mid-level spell) to turn you into whatever type of lycanthrope you want. Note that nothing prevents multiple types of lycanthropy at once, and I think only the initial change causes you to change alignment, so use that to your advantage. Plus, nothing says you have to play an alignment a specific way. Even Evil characters can still care about those close to them. I've had LE characters that got along reasonably well with even the Good characters in the party. They were useful, and it behooved me to behave around them. I mainly vented my sadistic needs on enemies in combat, doing things that made them suffer more than necessary while I taunted them, but I treated allies and neutral parties fairly well.

As far as equipment goes, rats have very dextrous paws, and a human-sized rat with human intelligence shouldn't have problems using human tools.

[Sir_Chivalry]

Well I had been assuming the Break Enchantment/Remove Curse cure was on the first set of full moons, but it seems I was wrong and it can be done on any month. So likely if there's even a problem at this point my party of a bard, a druid and cleric will have me cured before this really needs to go too far. We are 12th level, you see.

It's a shame there's nothing that fits my needs but I can't really say I'm surprised. I will stop devoting time to figuring out how to roll with this considering there's an "any time" solution at this point.

Fizban- There is a will save to not change alignment when you transform after damage or in the full moon, so you CAN change alignment without voluntarily choosing too.

In defense of my DM, we've had adequate time (about 20 days) between the bite and the next full moon, as the previous full moon was during a key moment in the campaign (Age of Worms, the Champion's Belt takes place on the Summer Solstice, all months are 28 days long in Greyhawk, all equinoxes and solstices are full moons) it's just that we as players don't know. I know I failed the save, but my other players don't know because the filth fever save and the lycanthropy save happened at the same time alongside a poison save and a corruption save. I built this npc for my DM (adding Blackblood Hunter levels to Draen the whisper gnome wererat from Exemplars of Evil, then tweaking his feats to make him challenging), I didn't intend to be the one who got bit but my party mostly assumed my crusader was fine because the bite was such a minor attack in a large fight.

Frankly I'm just happy to be playing Age of Worms with Tolstoff Keep added in :smallamused: plus that Worm that Walks stuff from Elder Evils.

[Fizban]

There is a will save to not change alignment when you transform after damage or in the full moon, so you CAN change alignment without voluntarily choosing too.
Huh, so there is. And with a rapidly ever-increasing DC. The 3.0 entry lacked such a check (though it wasn't entirely clear whether the alignment change while involuntarily shifted was permanent or temporary), and the part of the 3.5 entry that says voluntarily assuming animal form immediately and permanently changes alignment is enough to make it sound like that's the part that does it. But yeah, they've got an extra screw you clause in there, nice job 3.5.