Lycans and armor

[poignant123]

I'm trying to make a lycan character for my friend's campaign but I'm not sure whether the hybrid lycan forms can wear armor. And also what about the animal form, which I didn't think so.

SRD only btw.

Sorry if question seems stupid>_>, so what happens to armour when lycans transform? Do I still apply ac bonus ?

[TheCountAlucard]

It doesn't retain the armor bonus to AC in animal form because it can't wear the armor. However, unless the lycanthrope changes a size category when transforming, they should still be able to wear armor in hybrid form.

Keep in mind, that's just my opinion.

[Worira]

Thrope. Finish your words.

[bosssmiley]

@OP: by 'Lycans' do you mean werewolves and the like, or do you mean the dog-boy furry race from the OD&D "Mystara" setting? The latter were reprinted as a playable race in a late number Dragon issue (*yawn* @ non-evil gnolls).

As for lycanthropic characters. For a higher level character with the gp to spare there's an armour property (or a related wondrous item) that obviates the damage of shapeshifting (and allows you to keep the armour bonus when shifted) in 3rd Ed. The Complete Druids Handbook thread on gleemax.com should be your 'go to' guide here.

I remember old editions of AD&D had rules about the damage lycanthropes took for shapeshifting in armour. Ah, good times.

[Iudex Fatarum]

Well, I checked the SRD. Check out the AC of characters. people arn't going to take off armour unless they need to. So if we take that assumption then they cannot wear armour in hybrid form as none of the lycanthropes in the SRD do so. Almost all in humanoid form wear armour but their AC drops a ton when they go hybrid (even though they gain natural armour)

[leperkhaun]

Well i cant think of anything specific to lycanthropes, however there are two things that would be reasonable to apply to their shifting.

In MIC, there is the wild armor property (+3 i think) that allows armor to stay when wildshaping, also there is the wildling clasp (4k i think) that allows items to stay on while wildshaping.

Even though both of those say wildshaping, it is not unreasonable to have similar items made or have those also effect a lycanthropes shifting.

[InkEyes]

If you don't loose weapon proficiency -- and you obviously don't because a lot of the hybrids are running around with different martial weapons-- you shouldn't loose armor proficiency. Plus, there's nothing in the Lycanthrope entry that says you loose proficiency in whatever armor you have, so I'd say the only thing restricting the wearing of armor is whether or not your other forms are a different size or drastically different shape from your standard shape.

[poignant123]

Thanks a lot guys. I noticed the wild armour ability and it would be helpful for the animal form. The hybrid form technically counts as a humanoid shape though, so I don't see any reason why armour doesn't stay on. Just to be safe thuogh, wild armour.

So does the same apply to magic items in hybrid form? Because a hybrid's shape would allow it to wear most of the stuff that a human could wear.