Werebear [Lycanthrope]

Werebears are humans who can become big bears, usually brown, though some are blond, reddish, black or ivory, the last common in icy lands. As humans they are tall, thickset, powerful and hairy, with heavy hair matching their bear coat; men usually grow beards. They wear plain cloth and leather that is easy to shed, mend or replace.

In human form a werebear fights with whatever is at hand, preferring axes and knives, tools that earn their keep in the woods. Attacked by day, it generally stays human unless it is in mortal danger, since changing leaves it helpless for a round. The bear swipes with two claws and bites; if both claws hit, the next round it can hug for 2d8, and that damage repeats automatically every round after.

Its defenses apply only in bear form, where only silver or weapons of +1 or better can harm it. A werebear can call 1d6 brown bears from within one mile, arriving in 2d6 turns. It heals three times as fast as a human and, if it chooses, can cure another creature's disease over 1d4 weeks. A dead werebear turns human again in one round.

Werebears are mostly loners who build cabins deep in the forest beside good water. They do not marry, though they may keep favored mates they see only now and then. Mothers give birth in human form to 1-2 children, sturdy and fast-growing, who reach adolescence and gain the power to change by age eight. Soon after, she sends them away and looks for a new mate. Older werebears quietly help the young along.

For all their independence, werebears have a strong sense of kinship: they never fight one another and will help any werebear menaced by another lycanthrope. They feel kinship with rangers, druids and nature priests, avoid villages, and enter cities only in a crisis or to aid good folk, especially against evil lycanthropes. They hate wererats and werewolves.

Each claims 1 to 4 square miles, though fishing spots are shared, and watches over the land and its animals like a game warden. They seldom travel; only a rare, usually young, werebear joins adventurers, typically as a well-paid guide on a job it approves of.

Treasure tends to be small and valuable (gold, platinum, gems, jewelry), hidden near home rather than carried, along with scrolls, potions and other magic often received as payment. Any item designed to affect lycanthropes or bears is destroyed so it cannot be turned on them.

They eat fish, small game and a honeyed mead so strong it can floor an ordinary human. Few creatures threaten them; their chief foes are the werewolves that share their wild country.