Wereboar [Lycanthrope]

Wereboars are humans who take on a part-human, part-boar shape, and their temper is every bit as ugly as their looks. As people they are thick-bodied, strong, of middling height, with short bristly hair and simple clothes that are easy to strip off, patch or replace. The boar form is a little taller but hunched so the head juts forward. It has a true boar's head with short tusks, a torso twice as thick, a stubby neck, hoof-like feet and a hide of black, wiry bristles.

The wereboar uses hands and tusks together. It grabs a foe, hauls it in, rams its tusks home, then wrenches the victim one way while jerking its head the other to rip the wound wider, before flinging the body aside and moving on. It enjoys plunging into the middle of a crowd of enemies and hacking its way back out. In human form it uses any weapon handy, preferring axes, maces and other chopping or crushing arms over blades, spears and bows. Whatever its shape, only silver or magical weapons can hurt it; anything else leaves scratches that close almost at once.

Wereboars are surly, quick to anger and nearly as likely to turn on their few friends as on enemies. As humans they are coarse, rude and vulgar, yet superb allies in a brawl. Friendship comes hard, but once given it is a bond the wereboar will never break; the trouble is telling whether it is being friendly or about to attack.

They like thick forest far from towns, living in caves or cabins like werebears, though their homes are filthy. A wereboar never fixes anything; it just gets a new one. Families are tight despite all this. Litters number 1d4+2, tiny but strong newborns who crawl within hours, grow quickly and gain the power to change at adolescence, around age eight. Fathers seem cold but will fight any threat to the family regardless of odds; mothers defending young gain +2 to hit, and neither parent ever checks morale while protecting offspring.

They eat small game, vegetables and mushrooms, above all truffles, which they can smell several feet underground even as humans. Gardening means scattering seeds and bulbs over a cleared patch and hoping, and cooking means charred meat and stew. They avoid ordinary pigs and boars, distrust strangers and assume everyone means harm. In human form they may let an intruder strike first, but in boar form there is a 75% chance they drive trespassers off and attack anyone who fights back.

Wereboars make or offer almost nothing of value; mostly they just want to be left alone, and they guard their territory against all comers. They fit into orc society about as well as human society, sometimes aid or ally with orc warbands, and can put up with half-orcs.