Lycnos,Truly Natural Lycanthrope (3.5 race)

[boomwolf]

The Story Behind:

While most consider Lycanthropy as a curse, few knows the truth behind the curse. the original lycanthropes were not cursed and could not curse anyone, the truth is that the curse of lycanthropy is based off an elder race of shapeshifters who called themselves lycnos.

Long ago, during the years after the rise of mankind to their status as the most dominant race in the world the lycnos were feared by the humans and a war has begun between the two races, each believing the other wants to destroy him.

Needless to say, the humans had the upper hand.

The creation of the curse of lycanthropy is actually the work of an evil lycnos sorcerer who decided that the only way to save his kind from this losing war is to turn the human leaders into lycnos themselves, he created a powerful curse that can turn any humanoid into a lycnos, the curse however was far worse then intended, major side effects came into the creation. not only the victims turned into mindless beasts who desire nothing but blood, the curse spread on. dooming the lycnos by turning the entire world against them.

Today few lycnos still live, but the untrained eye cannot tell the difference between a lycnos and a cursed lycanthrope, the only who can tell for sure are the lycnos themselves and lycanthropes, also upon death it is possible to discern between the two, although not everyone understand the sign.
The few who roam the world are still attached to the tribe life their ancestors have lived, although few seek the path of adventure, the others think of them as troublemakers.

Lycnos, other then lycanthropes have no "human" form, only such of an animal or a hybrid of man and beast. and as the lycnos is a shapeshifter he cannot conduct the curse of lycanthropy. while the human-like form is considered "hybrid", it is actually their true form, and the animal is jest an alternate.


Lycnos Traits:

Lycnos comes are one of four kinds: Wolf, Rat, Snake, and Tiger-each has slightly different traits.

Traits to all kinds:

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Type: Shapechanger.

+2 wisdom.

+2 natural armor in any form.

Damage Reduction 5/silver in any form.

Low-Light Vision in any form.

Scent in any form.

Each lycnos in hybrid form has two claws as natural weapons.

Each lycan gains all extraordinary abilities and all bonus feats of their animal form in their hybrid form as well.

LA +2

Special: all 4 kinds of lycnos are the same race and can breed between themselves as normal, when a lycnos is born, regardless of his parent's types, his own is determined in random.

Wolf Traits:

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Size Medium.

Str +2, Dex +4. Con +4.

2 Racial animal HD. (with all that comes with it.)

Alternate Form (Su): a wolf lycnos may assume the form of a wolf and return as a standard action, if he dies in his wolf form he reverts to his hybrid form.
Unlike curse lycanthropes, a lycnos' shapeshifting ability is under complete control and bear no side effects. Armor enchanted with the "beastskin" ability turns into armor fitting the current form of the user as thought as it was a wild shape ability used by a druid.

Favored Class: ranger.

Rat Traits:

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Size Small.

Dex +6, Con +2.

1 racial animal HD (with all that comes with it), unlike most races this HD is not replaced when the lycnos takes his first level but stacks with it.

Alternate Form (Su): a rat lycnos may assume the form of a dire rat and return as a standard action, if he dies in his dire rat form he reverts to his hybrid form.
Unlike curse lycanthropes, a lycnos' shapeshifting ability is under complete control and bear no side effects. Armor enchanted with the "beastskin" ability turns into armor fitting the current form of the user as thought as it was a wild shape ability used by a druid.

Favored class: Rouge

Snake Traits:

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Size Medium.

Str +6, Dex +6, Con +2

3 racial animal HD (with all that comes with it.)

Alternate Form (Su): a snake lycnos may assume the form of a medium constrictor snake and return as a standard action, if he dies in his constrictor snake form he reverts to his hybrid form.
Unlike curse lycanthropes, a lycnos' shapeshifting ability is under complete control and bear no side effects. Armor enchanted with the "beastskin" ability turns into armor fitting the current form of the user as thought as it was a wild shape ability used by a druid.

Favored class: Monk

Tiger Traits:

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Size Large.

Str +12, Dex +4, Con +6.

6 racial animal HD (with all that comes with it.)

Alternate Form (Su): a tiger lycnos may assume the form of a tiger and return as a standard action, if he dies in his tiger form he reverts to his hybrid form.
Unlike curse lycanthropes, a lycnos' shapeshifting ability is under complete control and bear no side effects. Armor enchanted with the "beastskin" ability turns into armor fitting the current form of the user as thought as it was a wild shape ability used by a druid.

Favored Class: barbarian.

And that's the lycnos, give a different feeling then a cursed lycan when played with, and also played differently. personally I like the snake the most, can be a nice build as a RHD3,Mnk2,Ftr2(or Brb2) and going to reaping mauler. nothing like a grapple expert when you deal damage when grappling.

Any comments? suggestion on how to make this a bit more readable? (I know its a bit confusing), balance? anything? I will love to hear it.

Made this race mainly because I wondered, if lycanthropy is a cuse, what kind of idiot will invent a curse you cannot control and makes people stronger? its more of a blessing unless you are from opposing alignment, and considering that making the transfer by an attack is rather pointless.
This race is the conclusion of all I thought off. mainly in the fluff area, but it has different crunch too.

I believe the race truly shine in his "random offspring" quality, considering each has another favored class each can serve another purpose in a tribe-like life. having a fair share of hunters (wolves), warriors (tigers), stealth strikers (rats) and "jailers" (snake's abilities make them perfect for capturing opponents alive.)

[Silence]

Way overpowered for +2LA.

[boomwolf]

Care to explain how so? because saying "way overpowered" jest dosen't really seem to let me know whats wrong.

After all, nobody ever complained about the cursed lycan template being broken.

[arguskos]

The cursed lycanthrope template isn't broken... because of the curse that lycanthropy brings. Your template, though I love the intent, is just really powerful. NA, multiple stat bonuses (wolf gets +2, +2, +4, +4, and no penalties), DR, shape-shifting that's perfectly controlled.... etc. Even with 2 HD, that means a starting wolf lycnos is level 4. One of these things could probably SLAUGHTER a party at level 4, and give level 5's a pretty good run I bet. Maybe, crank the LA up two points?

NOTE: race balancing isn't my stitck, so I may not be terribly helpful. Hope I am though!

-argus

[brian c]

It's a bit strong, but I think it would be fine with another 1 LA; maybe even just one more racial HD for the wolf, since the rest of them should be fine as-is.

I like the general idea; I'm probably doing something similar for lycanthropes in my setting (although it'd still be a curse)

[boomwolf]

Glad you like the idea, but I have a hard time seeing why the wolf is too powerful, he is very similar to a cursed lycanthrope...I jest cant see it.

Nobody has any comments on the flavor? (any anything on the crunch other then "too strong", details FTW?)

[Averagedog]

werewolves were balanced in the fact that they were unplayable in dnd campaigns that restricted the alignment of the player to good. spellcasters would never ever want any of this but as for melee... maybe.

If the book selection for making characters were severely limited but this was allowed, I'd do it pronto. but because having more books gives more options that can better optimize, it just simply is not worth it to trade away 4 levels to essentially become a werewolf without alignment restrictions.

[Cipher Stars]

LA needs to be higher, maybe around two higher.

+12 str on the Tiger, +6 con.

these are rather high.

not to say I dislike it, quite the opposite. I've always loved lycans. a lycan with no human form feels more original. not unique, I mean like... the origin of lycanthropy. its a fun feeling.

[Lord Vukodlak]

Even with 2 HD, that means a starting wolf lycnos is level 4. One of these things could probably SLAUGHTER a party at level 4, and give level 5's a pretty good run I bet. Maybe, crank the LA up two points?

NOTE: race balancing isn't my stitck, so I may not be terribly helpful. Hope I am though!

-argus

Doubtful, especially if one of them as a silvered weapon, and with only 2HD he's fodder vs a simple color spray,

In my own campaign world there is an island called Lycanthral which is utterly dominated by tribes of lycanthropes. So this appeals to me in some ways. I actually limited the field of lycanthropes to humanoids only. I gave them a culture and society ways of their own which can vary from variety to variety.

LA needs to be higher, maybe around two higher.

+12 str on the Tiger, +6 con.

these are rather high.

not to say I dislike it, quite the opposite. I've always loved lycans. a lycan with no human form feels more original. not unique, I mean like... the origin of lycanthropy. its a fun feeling.

A tiger has 22 strength and 16 con, thus its ability score mods are +12 and +6 on those stats respectively.

Essentially he took the template and turned it into a race in its own right, a natural lycanthrope has an LA of +3, it stands to reason if you remove the base racial stats it be one less.

[Fizban]

I really don't see what the problem is: as of this writing, he has literally just taken the template and made it into a race (actually, the hybrid form is missing it's bite attack). The racial bonuses are the exact same benefits a Lycanthrope has in hybrid form, which is the only form a Lycanthrope will ever be in during combat. Did anyone else notice the racial hit dice on top of a base +2 LA? So what if you have +12 strength when you're 8 levels behind everyone else. That's 5 feats for a Fighter, or 8 levels of any other class progression. Even a martial adept will still be 5 behind on initiator level and have fewer maneuvers known.

Just like the normal Lycanthrope template, this race is very dependent on the game it's played in, and the player making full use of it's abilities. In a straight hack 'n slash with melee combat against non-magical enemies, it can easily be good. In a game where their opponents know how to use silvered weapons, ranged attacks, and magic, they can't rely on their racial abilities all the time, and the player must be able to optimize the few class levels they have in order to be effective.

I just want to repeat that this isn't any more powerful than the Lycanthrope template. Lycanthropes aren't balanced by the "curse", or anything else like that: they are balanced by the fact that level adjustments and racial hit dice suck, and if anything make them unplayable rather than overpowered.

[Kurtmuran]

remaindsme the shapechangers of worl of darkness