Werejaguar [Mystara]

These werejaguars are the dread of the tropical jungles, lone and supremely skilled hunters with three forms: fully human, a jaguar-human hybrid, and a jaguar whose eyes glow red. As humans they are lean and athletic, long-limbed, with very keen ears, and their mood swings between quiet watchfulness and a cold, contained predatory fury. They grow restless and irritable in cities.

The hybrid has long, heavily muscled legs and a human but bulked-up torso. Its forearms end in grasping claws rather than hands, and its feet are clawed as well for raking. It can walk upright or lope on all fours, and its jaguar head can still speak and show human expressions. The pure jaguar cannot talk but keeps its human mind along with a cat's hunting instincts; only the glowing eyes betray it.

Werejaguars never charge blindly. They trail prey through the wilds and wait for a weak moment to pounce. As jaguars they climb trees and cliffs with a 95% chance, like a thief scaling walls. Their stealth and jungle camouflage impose -2 on opponents' surprise rolls, and pouncing from above grants +1 on the first attack.

In both hybrid and jaguar form, if both front claws hit in a round, it automatically rakes with its hind claws for 1d6. It can call 1d2 jaguars, which arrive in 1d4 rounds, and in 25% of encounters 1d4 jaguars are already with it. Like other werebeasts, it is harmed only by silver weapons.

They neither seek nor cooperate with their own kind. Each keeps its own territory and almost always ignores another werejaguar in distress. True werejaguars mate only once; the pair parts after a litter of 1d8 kittens, which the female raises for a year.

Whatever folklore says, true werebeasts change whenever they wish and ignore the moon, and only the infected are forced to change at the full moon. A born werejaguar is beyond any cure. Some jungle tribes dread them as servants of evil gods, and stories tell of savage werejaguars who cast priest spells, acting as witch doctors in hidden villages and devouring victims for their dark masters.

They hate weretigers fiercely and will not share hunting grounds with another feline lycanthrope. They love to hunt at dusk, taking anything from animals to people.