Jackalwere

A jackalwere moves at will among three forms and favors none of them: an ordinary jackal, a 6-foot upright jackal-headed hybrid, and a human whose exact looks it chooses. Its human guise is indistinguishable from a real person.

As a jackal it has a normal jackal's statistics, though an alert observer may notice it is far more aggressive than its kin. In hybrid form it can bite or use weapons and, craving human and demihuman blood, bites whenever it can, though it will use weapons if they guarantee a win. In human form it fights only with weapons, preferring ones that cut and rend, and some have eaten fallen foes without changing shape.

In every form its gaze puts an unsuspecting victim to sleep, exactly as the sleep spell, unless he saves vs. spell. People who are already alarmed, angry or excited do not count as unsuspecting. Also in every form it can be harmed only by cold iron or +1 or better magical weapons. Slain, it reverts to jackal form.

A sly master of deceit, it lives to kill, eat and rob humans and demihumans, wandering as jackal or human. Spotting a victim, it takes human form and approaches, often posing as someone injured or in need to win trust until its gaze can work. If the ruse fails and it meets real resistance, it judges its foe's strength and either flees or presses on. In 20% of encounters it runs with 1-6 ordinary jackals, which become hunters under its influence instead of scavengers.

It mates only in jackal form, with a true jackal or another jackalwere, and only pure-blooded young are jackalweres; mixed litters are ordinary but unusually vicious jackals. After a five-month pregnancy, 1-4 pups are born, identical to jackal pups but starting at 1 Hit Die and gaining another each year. They are stuck in jackal shape for two years, reaching full jackal size at three. At two they gain the hybrid form, and at three a human form that looks about nine years old and ages three times as fast as a real child. A parent caught in human shape with its litter often passes the pups off as pets.

Jackalweres serve only the vilest humanoid masters, and only when that service offers more human and demihuman victims than they could find alone.