Last week I posted a rant about the difficulty of creating lycanthropic stat blocks in 3rd Edition. The short version is this: Creating lycanthropes require you to create three separate stat blocks simultaneously while pulling information from both the base creature and the animal form. You end up juggling five stat blocks and if you discover that you need (or want) to make an adjustment on any one of them during the creation process you have to backtrack the change through all the other stat blocks.

Werewolves suck.

I know what you’re thinking: “Justin, you’re obviously confused. Vampires suck. Werewolves bite.”

But lycanthropes seriously suck in 3rd Edition.

I’m not one of those who generally subscribes to the theory that 3rd Edition stat blocks are horrendous. (Although I did revise them to improve the usability of the actual block itself.) Prepping stat blocks usually represents only about 5% of the time that I spend prepping for a game.

But lycanthropes? I hate the little bastards.

I can generally whip out even the most complex stat blocks with templates and class levels and fancy equipment in 15 minutes or so. But I just spent more than two hours prepping the stat block for a single wererat, and I’m still pretty sure that I’ve screwed up the math somewhere. Probably a minor screw-up (the sort of thing that wouldn’t bother me in a private campaign); but since this is for a professional project it’s driving me insane.

It’s not the multiple stat blocks that bug me. I don’t actually have any problems using a lycanthrope straight out of the book. And I’ll frequently whip up multiple stat blocks for the same NPC in order to facilitate temporary effects (different equipment, rage, buffs, etc.).

The problem is that the rules for creating lycanthropes require you to create all three stat blocks sort of simultaneously while pulling information from both the base creature and the animal form. So you end up juggling five different stat blocks, and if you discover that you need to make an adjustment on any one of them you have to backtrack the change through all the other stat blocks.

On the one hand, I’m kind of looking at the rules for werewolves in 2nd Edition and 4th Edition and wondering if there’s any reason we can’t adopt that simplicity into 3rd Edition: Just give me one stat block and let me apply a simple template (“add bite attack”) when the were-creature enters hybrid form.

On the other hand, having gotten the rant out of my system, I’m beginning to suspect that the real problem isn’t necessarily the rules, but rather the organization of the rules. It seems like what the system needs is a clear order of progression:

(1) Create base creature.

(2) Apply lycanthrope template to create humanoid form.

(3) Apply hybrid template to the humanoid form create hybrid form.

(4) Apply animal form template to the humanoid form to create animal form.

And while it’s nice to have the generic “use any animal” guidelines, it would probably be easier in practice to have separate templates for each of the established types of were-creatures. Here’s a stab at what the wererat templates would look like:

WERERAT TEMPLATE
Apply this template to the base creature to create the wererat’s humanoid form. This template can be added to any humanoid or giant.

Size and Type: Creature gains the “shapechanger” subtype.
Hit Dice and Hit Points: Add 1d8 hit die to the base creature.
Armor Class: +2 bonus to natural armor.

Special Qualities: alternate form, lycanthropic empathy, low-light vision, scent

Base Save Bonuses: Fort +2, Ref +2, Will +2
Abilities: Wis +2, may gain an ability score increase due to additional hit dice
Skills: +8 racial bonus on Climb and Swim checks. Gains (2 + Int modifier) skill points, treating Climb, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Spot and Swim as class skills.
Feats: Alertness, Iron Will, Weapon Finesse

Challenge Rating: +2

WERERAT HYBRID TEMPLATE
Apply this template to the wererat’s humanoid form to create the stat block for its hybrid form.

Size and Type: Small or the size of the base creature, whichever is larger.
Armor Class: +1 bonus to natural armor (if better than the base creature’s natural armor bonus)
Attacks: Gains 2 claw attacks and 1 bite as a secondary attack (-5 penalty).

Special Attacks: curse of lycanthropy (Fort DC 15); cannot cast spells with verbal components
Special Qualities: DR 5/silver for afflicted lycanthropes; DR 10/silver for natural lycanthropes

Abilities: Dex +6, Con +2

WERERAT ANIMAL FORM TEMPLATE
Apply this template to the wererat’s humanoid form to create the stat block for its animal form.

Size and Type: Small
Speed: 40 ft., climb 20 ft.
Armor Class: +1 natural armor (if better than the base creature’s natural armor)
Attacks: Replace all attacks with a bite attack (1d4 plus disease).

Special Attacks: curse of lycanthropy (Fort DC 15); cannot cast spells with verbal, somatic, or material components
Special Qualities: DR 5/silver for afflicted lycanthropes; DR 10/silver for natural lycanthropes

Abilities: Dex +6, Con +2
Skills: Can choose to take 10 on Climb checks even if rushed or threatened. Can use their Dex modifier for Climb and Swim checks.

I think that should produce 100% rules-accurate stat blocks with less hassle.

(Pardon me for a moment while I wander away from my HTML editor…)

And the proof is in the pudding: Despite forgetting to apply the old age template to my base creature’s stats (so that I had to start over while I was half-way through the hybrid stat block) and taking extra time to design a custom magic item from scratch, it only took me half an hour to put together three wererat stat blocks for a 4th-level orc barbarian. And I’m far more confident of the result than I was of the mess I managed to generate after 2+ hours of struggle this morning.

(This, of course, is the point where one of you will point out some egregiously idiotic mistake I made in those templates and send me crying back to my drafting table.)

LYCANTHROPE WEEK
Wererats
Werewolves
Dire Werewolves

More startling even than that diabolic chuckle was the scream that rose at my very elbow from the salt-compounded sand – the scream of a woman possessed by some atrocious agony, or helpless in the grip of devils. Turning, I beheld a veritable Venus, naked in a white perfection that could fear no scrutiny, but immersed to her navel in the sand. Her terror-widened eyes implored me and her lotus hands reached out with beseeching gesture.

The Abominations of Yondo, Clark Ashton Smith

The honeytrap is a roper-like creature which relies on deceit and camouflage to trap its prey. The upper half of its body bears the appearance of a beautiful young maiden, but this beauty is wrapped around a mass of tentacular horror. The honeytrap’s favored tactic is to secrete a corrosive chemical capable of rendering even solid rock into a quicksand-like liquiesence.  When its prey draws near, the honeytrap will cry in terror and plead for their aid. It will wait until they are at their most vulnerable before striking: Its sternum will part into a ravenous maw, exuding a half dozen coiled tentacles which will burst forth and wrap themselves lethally around the honeytrap’s would-be saviors.

The honeytrap prefers to lure its victims into a danerous mixture of complacency and chivalry before striking, but those seeking to flee a ravenous honeytrap may be shocked as it wrenches itself free from its muck-ridden hunting grounds and pursues them with great speed upon a second tumultuous mass of tentacles extruding from its “maiden” waist.

HONEYTRAP                                                     CR 8
CE Large Magical Beast
Senses: darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Listen +13, Spot +13
Init: +5 (+1 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative)
Languages: Common, Elven

AC: 24, touch 10, flat-footed 23 (-1 size, +1 Dex, +14 natural)
Hit Points: 85        HD: 10d10+30
Fort +10, Ref +8, Will +8

Speed: 40 ft.
Melee: bite +13 (1d6+6)
Ranged: 6 strands +11 ranged touch (drag and weakness)
Space: 5 ft.            Reach: 5 ft. (30 ft. with strand)
Base Atk: +10      Grapple: +14
Special Actions: quicksand liquiesence
Metamagic Feats: (spontaneous casters only)

Str 19, Dex 13, Con 17, Int 12, Wis 11, Cha 17
Special Qualities: darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision
Feats: Alertness, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Weapon Focus (strand)
Skills: Climb +12, Hide +10*, Listen +13, Spot +13
Treasure: Standard
Advancement: 11-15 HD (Medium); 16-30 (Large)
Level Adjustment: —

Drag (Ex): If a honeytrap hits with a strand attack, the strand latches onto the opponent’s body. This deals no damage, but drags the struck opponent 5 feet closer each subsequent round (provoking no attack of opportunity) unless that creature breaks free, which requires an Escape Artist check (DC 23) or a Strength check (DC 19). (The DCs are Strength-based, and the Escape Artist check includes a +4 racial bonus.)

Drag and Bite: A honeytrap can draw a creature within 5 feet of itself and bite with a +4 attack bonus in the same round. A strand has 10 hit points and can be attacked by making a successful sunder attempt. However, attacking a honeytrap’s strand does not provoke an attack of opportunity. If the strand is currently attached to a target, the roper takes a -4 penalty on its opposed attack roll to resist the sunder attempt. Severing a strand deals no damager to the honeytrap.

Drag and Drown: A honeytrap who has drawn a victim into its quicksand will often try to drown them. A honeytrap can draw a creature 5 feet and attempt to drown them by making an opposed grapple check. If the check succeeds, the victim is pushed below the surface of the quicksand.

Strands (Ex): A honeytrap can extrude up to six strands at once, and they can strike up to 30 feet away (no range increment). If a strand is severed, a honeytrap can extrude a new one on its next turn as a free action.

Quicksand Liquiesence (Ex): A honeytrap can turn a 10 ft. radius of earth, dirt, or stone into quicksand in 1d4 minutes by excreting a powerful, acidic chemical. If a honeytrap is slain, moves, or stops excreting the chemical, the ground will re-solidify within 1d4 hours.

Quicksand requires a Survival check (DC 8′) to spot. The momentum of a running or charging character will carry them 1d2x5 feet into the quicksand. Characters in quicksand must make a Swim check (DC 10) every round to simply tread water in place, or a DC 15 check to move 5 feet in whatever direction desired. If a trapped character fails this check by 5 or more, he sinks below the surface and begins to drown whenever he can no longer hold his breath (see Swim skill). Characters below the surface of a bog may swim back to the surface with a successful Swim check (DC 15, +1 per consecutive round of being under the surface).

Pulling a trapped character out of quicksand often requires a branch, spear haft, rope, or similar tool to reach the victim with one end of it. The character performing the rescue must make a Strength check (DC 15) to pull the victim out, while the victim must succeed at a Strength check (DC 10) to hold onto the branch, pole, or rope. If the victim fails to hold on, he must immediately make a Swim check (DC 15) to remain above the surface. If both checks succeed, the victim is pulled 5 feet closer to safety.

Weakness (Ex): A honeytrap’s strands sap an opponent’s strength. Anyone grabbed by a strand must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 18) or take 1d8 points of Strength damage. The DC is Constitution-based.

Skills: *Honeytraps have a +8 racial bonus to Hide checks if they are submerged in quicksand or similarly concealed.

This material is covered by the Open Gaming License.

From “The Tale of Satampra Zeiros” by Clark Ashton Smith:

The basin, I have said, was very large; indeed, it was no less than six feet in diameter from the floor. The three legs that bore it were curved and massive and terminated in feline paws displaying their talons. When we approached and peered over the brim, we saw that the bowl was filled with a sort of viscous and semi-liquescent substance, quite opaque and of a sooty color. It was from this that the odor came — an odor which, though unsurpassably foul, was nevertheless not an odor of putrefaction, but resembled rather the smell of some vile and unclean creature of the marshes. The odor was almost beyond endurance, and we were about to turn away when we perceived a slight ebullition of the surface, as if the sooty liquid were being agitated from within by some submerged animal or other entity. This ebullition increased rapidly, the center swelled as if with the action of some powerful yeast, and we watched in utter horror while an uncouth amorphous head and dull and bulging eyes arose gradually on an ever-lengthening neck, and stared us in the face with primordial malignity. Then two arms — if one could call them arms — likewise arose inch by inch, and we saw the thing was not, as we had thought, a creature immersed in the liquid, but that the liquid itself had put forth this hideous neck and head, and was now forming these damnable arms, that groped toward us with tentacle-like appendages in lieu of claws or hands!

I’m going to have to start using more water elementals!

If you wanted to get fancy, you could certainly pimp out the stats of a large water elemental to represent some of the creature’s other abilities from the story (knicking the stench ability from the troglodyte as we go):

Speed: 40 ft., swim 90 ft.

Frightful Presence (Ex): Characters with less than 8 HD who perceive the malignant shape-shifting of the elemental water terror must succeed at a Will save (DC 14) or become either panicked (50%) or paralyzed with fear (50% chance) for 2d4 rounds. Even characters who succeed on the saving throw are shaken, but those who succeed on their saving throw are immune to the creature’s frightful presence for the next 24 hours.

Stench (Ex): The sooty admixture of the elemental water terror’s primordial form exudes an unsurpassably foul odor. All living creatures within 30 feet of the elemental water terror’s must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 18) or be sickened for 10 rounds. Creatures that successfully save cannot be affected by the same elemental water terror’s stench for 24 hours. A delay poison or neutralize poison spell removes the effect from the sickened creature. Creatures with immunity to poison are unaffected, and creatures resistant to poison receive their normal bonus on their saving throws.

But even this isn’t really necessary: All you need is a water elemental’s stat-block and that beautifully lurid description and you’ll have an encounter far more terrifying than that provided by any ordinary water elemental..

(Tip for adapting the description: Insisting that the characters stand stock still for more than 6 seconds watching the slow, inexorable emergence of their doom is, quite rightfully, frustrating to the players. You’re taking control of their characters away. But if you simply prelude with “time seems to slow for a long moment as” then you can achieve the same effect without taking control of the PCs away from the players.)

I also recommend “The Tale of Satampra Zeiros” quite highly. It reads like a prototypical D&D adventure with a couple of thieves for the main characters and is a little like reading a mash-up of Lord Dunsany’s lyricism and Robert E. Howard’s primitive adventurism. It can be found in The End of the Story, which is Volume 1 of The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith. Smith deserves a place alongside Lovecraft and Howard, but is oft forgotten. Although he is not listed in AD&D’s Appendix N of recommened reading, Smith’s influence feels immense.

The roper has a phenomenal reach (50 ft. with its tendrils), but remains excessively vulnerable to the “back off and plink it to death with ranged attacks” tactic. This isn’t really a huge problem, but I have had a couple of roper encounters that landed with dull, wet thuds.

So when I was taking a peek at the artwork from the 4th Edition Dungeon Master’s Screen and spotted this particular roper hanging out evocatively perched next to a fiery lava pit, I suddenly realized what ropers need: Big piles of skulls from their previous victims.

That they can throw.

In 3rd Edition this easy enough: A +11 ranged attack (1d6+4 points of damage) that can be used interchangeably with their normal strand attacks. A typical roper has 4d6 pieces of skeletal ammunition at hand, although particularly successful ropers may have accumulated larger bone piles while younger ropers or one new to a hunting location may have far fewer.