Best Ways to Werewolf in D&D

Do you hear the call of the wild? Is there something monstrous beneath your skin? Do you want to play a werewolf in D&D? Believe me, we all do! So what’s your next step? Crack open the Monster Manual and you’ll find out that building your werewolf character isn’t as easy as it should be. The core rules of 5th edition don’t support curses well, much less lycanthropy. And what if you don’t think of your wolf side as a curse anyway?

Here are the best ways to play a werewolf character in your D&D game, including official options and some brand new Mage Hand Press rules!

• Get Cursed
• Use a Subclass
• Take a Feat
• Take an Auxiliary Level
• Use a Magic Item

Get Cursed

Find yourself a werewolf in your game and do your best to look delicious! The 2014 Monster Manual gave the option for player characters as lycanthropes on page 207. Any humanoid character who fails the appropriate saving throw could be cursed with lycanthropy, becoming inhabited by the beast within the lycanthrope that attacked. As a player, your character gains the lycanthrope’s speeds in non-humanoid form, damage immunities, traits, and natural attacks, such as its bite or claws. 

There are a lot of reasons why this isn’t a satisfactory answer for most players. First, damage immunities are a nightmare to balance, which may be why Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft and Monsters of the Multiverse gave lycanthropes the Regeneration trait instead. Second, too many other balance questions are left unanswered. How often does the cursed character “wolf out”? Is the transformation voluntary? How do they treat their fellow adventurers? Third, lycanthropes are second-tier monsters at best and the curse doesn’t “level up,” meaning at some point your hard-earned werewolf powers might become obsolete.

So the Monster Manual’s werewolf curse shifts the work of designing a satisfying werewolf character to the players and the GM. And when you can cast a 3rd-level remove curse to get rid of all anyway, the best answer in terms of player experience may just be to avoid or remove the curse in the first place.

Use a Subclass

If you want to work with the beast within, you can build a werewolf character for 5E with a subclass instead of a curse. Your werewolf features scale with your level, keeping your character fierce, threatening, and surprising all the way to level 20. Here are a couple of well-designed options we trust.

Ranger, Beastborne

Warriors who get their power from nature are the most likely to be exposed to a werewolf curse. This subclass for the classic ranger gives you a bestial aspect whose features scale with the damage you give and take on the battlefield, evoking the growing bloodlust of a beast just under your skin. You can play this subclass straight from our blog, or find it in Valda’s Spire of Secrets!

The Beastborne ranger is now on Foundry VTT!

Bloodhunter, Order of the Lycan

The internet’s most beloved dungeon master, Matthew Mercer, gave werewolf characters to the world with the Order of the Lycan for his Bloodhunter base class. It’s been played to great effect by Travis Willingham as Chetney Pock’o’pea, the gnome werewolf in Critical Role’s third campaign. Bloodhunters of this order unleash their werewolf in a temporary transformation and use their own hit points to fuel additional attacks and spells on the battlefield. It’s a perfect option for fans of the Witcher or Underworld series.

Barbarian, Path of the Beast

Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything gave us the official sendup of werewolf player characters from Wizards of the Coast, using the barbarian’s rage feature to balance and implement the transformation. With tail, claw, and bite attacks giving you a variety of options for defense or raw damage output, this is a simple but satisfying way to play a lycanthrope character using official material!

Take a Feat

While using a subclass to play a werewolf does give you control of your character’s progression rather than relying on your dungeon master, it also makes being a werewolf into your character’s Entire Thing™. If you want to tell a story where the werewolf transformation is only a part of your character, then you might consider taking a feat instead. 

There’s no werewolf feat in 5e’s core rules, but the druid’s Wild Shape ability gives us a great place to start. The Martial Adept and Magic Initiate feats in the Player’s Handbook are great templates for creating this version of a werewolf feat. 

Wild Shape Initiate (Feat)

Prerequisite: Wisdom 13 or higher

You learn how to transform your body according to the ways of druids. You gain one use of the Wild Shape feature. Once you use this feature, you must finish a long rest before you can use it again.
      When you take this feat, choose one Beast you have seen before as your Beast Shape. Your choice must abide by the limitations in the Beast Shapes table, except you use your character level instead of your druid level to determine the max CR and its limitations. When you use Wild Shape, you can only use the chosen Beast Shape.
      Whenever you gain a level, you can replace your Beast Shape choice with another Beast you have seen that abides by the limitations in the Beast Shapes table (using your new character level instead of your druid level).

Or you could take a feat that embraces the monstrosity of the werewolf transformation. The main advantage here is there’s no time limit on your transformation as in Wild Shape, letting your character truly live in two worlds.

Werewolf (Feat)

You are infected with werewolf lycanthropy. You can use your action to polymorph into a wolf, a wolf-Humanoid hybrid, or back into your true form.
      Your statistics, other than your Armor Class and Strength score, are the same in each form. You cannot speak while in wolf form. You can’t cast spells, and your ability to speak or take any action that requires hands is limited to the capabilities of your form. Your equipment doesn’t change size or shape to match the new form, and any equipment that the new form can’t wear is destroyed by the transformation. You revert to your true form if you die.
      While in wolf form or hybrid form, you gain the following traits: 

• • Keen Hearing and Smell. You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell.
  • Lupine Speed. Your walking speed becomes 45 feet.
  • Lupine Strength. You gain a Strength of 15 if your score isn’t already higher.
  • Natural Armor. When you aren’t wearing armor, your base AC equals 13 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield’s benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.
  • Natural Weapon. You gain a Bite, which is a natural weapon that you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with it, you deal piercing damage equal to 1d8 + your Strength modifier instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.
  • Silvered Weakness. Whenever you take damage from a silvered weapon, you take additional damage equal to one roll of the weapon’s damage die.

Once you return to your true form, you must finish a short or long rest before you can use this feature again.

Take an Auxiliary Level

Auxiliary levels are one-level classes that represent a character’s skill and choices. With your GM’s approval, you can gain an auxiliary level whenever you gain a level after 1st, instead of gaining a level in your current class. It’s a variant of multiclassing we introduced as part of the must-have, colossal expansion for D&D that is Valda’s Spire of Secrets. 

Auxiliary levels give more robust customization options than feats and multiclassing, meaning we can finally address all of the Monster Manual’s unanswered questions about playing your werewolf character.

Lycanthrope (Auxiliary Level)

You carry the curse of lycanthropy in your blood, and you have learned to use it. The beast within you grants you its senses and occasionally trades places with you.

Prerequisites: 3rd level
Hit Dice: 1d12
Hit Points: 1d12 (7) + your Constitution modifier
Skills: Nature

Animal Senses

You gain the following abilities:

Darkvision. You gain darkvision out to a range of 60 feet. If you already have darkvision from your race or other features, its range increases by 30 feet.
Keen Hearing and Smell. You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell.

Animal Transformation

Choose one of the following Beasts: bear, boar, rat, tiger, or wolf. You can use your action to polymorph into that Beast, into a bestial hybrid, or back into your true form.
      Your statistics, other than your Armor Class and Strength score, are the same in each form. You cannot speak while your Beast form. You can’t cast spells, and your ability to speak or take any action that requires hands is limited to the capabilities of your form. Your equipment doesn’t change size or shape to match the new form, and any equipment that the new form can’t wear is destroyed by the transformation. You revert to your true form if you die.
      While transformed, you gain the following traits: 

• • Bestial Speed. Your walking speed becomes 45 feet.
  • Bestial Strength. Your Strength and Dexterity scores each increase by 2, to a maximum of 22.
  • Natural Armor. When you aren’t wearing armor, your base AC equals 13 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use your natural armor to determine your AC if the armor you wear would leave you with a lower AC. A shield’s benefits apply as normal while you use your natural armor.
  • Natural Weapon. You gain a natural weapon appropriate to your Beast: a bite or claws, which are natural weapons that you can use to make unarmed strikes. You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the attack rolls of your unarmed strikes made using your bite or claws. If you hit with them, you deal damage equal to 1d8 + your Strength or Dexterity modifier (as appropriate to the attack roll), instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike. This damage is piercing for a bite attack and slashing for a claws attack.
  • Bestial Attack. When you take the Attack action, you can make an attack using your natural weapon as a bonus action.
  • Silvered Weakness. Whenever you take damage from a silvered weapon, you take additional damage equal to one roll of the weapon’s damage die.

Once you return to your true form, you must finish a short or long rest before you can transform again.

Possession

The Beast within you gains more control over you each time you call on it. Your Beast’s influence is represented by a Curse Level, which begins at 1. Immediately after you use your Animal Transformation feature, roll a d20. If the roll is higher than your Curse Level, increase the Curse Level by one. If the roll is equal to or lower than the Curse Level, you lose control and become possessed by your Beast.
      When you become possessed, you immediately transform into your Beast or hybrid form (no action required). The GM chooses which form you assume and determines your actions while you are possessed, acting only according to your animal nature. You might see your allies as potential sources of food, obstacles to your freedom, or rivals for territory.
      The possession ends at the next dawn, or when you fall unconscious, drop to 0 hit points, or die. When the possession ends, you return to your normal form and the Curse Level resets to 1. You have no memory of what happened while possessed.

Get 12 new auxiliary levels in Valda’s Spire of Secrets!

Werewolf Magic Item

Some stories like those in Celtic tradition suggest that a werewolf transformation isn’t the result of a bloodborne pathogen or magical curse, but rather from a magic item, usually a pelt worn around the waist. It should surprise no one that we’re big fans of the Harry Dresden novels, so read Fool Moon for a great contemporary look at how this might work. Netflix’s The Order (2019) gave us sentient pelts, inhabited by the spirits of primeval beasts and passed down by centuries of champions. So here’s a magic item for werewolf characters based on that template.

Hexenwolf Hide

Wondrous item, rare (requires attunement)

This tanned wolf hide can be worn as a cloak or a belt, and magically changes size to fit either use. As an action, you can clasp the cloak or buckle the belt, transforming yourself into a werewolf (animal or hybrid form only) for up to 1 hour. The transformation otherwise functions as the polymorph spell, but you can use a bonus action to revert to your normal form.
      Curse. This hide is cursed with the spirit of an ancient werewolf, and becoming attuned to it extends the curse to you. Until the curse is broken with remove curse or similar magic, you are unwilling to part with the hide, keeping it within reach at all times.
      The third time you use the hide, and each time thereafter, you must make a DC 15 Charisma saving throw. On a failed save, the transformation lasts until dispelled or until you drop to 0 hit points, and you can’t willingly return to normal form. If you ever remain in werewolf form for 6 hours, the transformation becomes permanent and you lose your sense of self. All your statistics are then replaced by those of a werewolf. Thereafter, only remove curse or similar magic allows you to regain your identity and return to normal. If you remain in this permanent form for 6 days, only a wish spell can reverse the transformation.
      Sentience. The hide is a sentient, lawful neutral wondrous item with an Intelligence of 11, a Wisdom of 13, and a Charisma of 14. It has hearing and darkvision out to a range of 30 feet, and it communicates by transmitting emotion to the creature attuned to it. It is wrathful and irritable, and seeks to become the only monstrous creature within your sphere of influence (usually by violently eliminating all others).

And those are the best ways to werewolf in D&D! Which one would you pick for your game? What do you think of the balance on these options? Let us know in the comments or join our Discord to chat with the Mage Hand cult community about it!