Werewolf [Lycanthrope]

Werewolves are humans who become wolfish beasts, not to be confused with wolfweres, wolves that take human shape; the two kinds hate each other. In human form a werewolf has no telltale features, and its beast form varies. Many become an upright hybrid about a foot taller and stronger than the human, furred, short-tailed and wolf-legged, with a head blending human and wolf in varying measure. Others take a more lupine hybrid that runs on all fours like a big wolf but can stand and use humanlike hands. About 20% become a wolf the size of a bear with no human traits except, perhaps, eyes that glow red in the dark.

Human-form werewolves use whatever weapons suit their everyday human life and class. In beast forms they bite, and forms with hands may seize prey to bite more effectively. In wolf form only silver or +1 or better magic can harm one; other wounds close too fast to matter.

They hunt in packs, and families fight hardest. A male whose mate is attacked gains +2 to hit and deals full damage with every blow; if the cubs are attacked, the female gains +3 and full damage. Cubs at 60% of full growth attack at -4, at 70% at -3, and so on, and all deal 2-5.

Packs range the wilds after humans and other quarry. Born werewolves are usually nomads, while infected ones often keep their old lives. They den up in winter and during the years females raise helpless cubs. They build no houses as humans but may seize existing ones, sometimes a victim's. In the wild they use caves and burrows, bare places for sleep and for storing human belongings. Many families travel the countryside by wagon like wandering caravan folk, which has brought suspicion on innocent travelers.

Packs are bloodline families: five to eight members means one mated pair with three to six cubs aged six to nine. Younger cubs stay in hidden dens and are never met by hostile humans. A pregnant female withdraws with her mate and an elder female to serve as midwife to a remote den that will house mother and cubs for six years. Litters number 5-10, born in hybrid form like furry babies with wolf faces, and 2-4 per litter die before 60% growth. Cubs grow like humans for five years, reach 60% size and gain their other forms in the sixth, add 10% each year after, and are adults at 10.

A werewolf's child by a human woman is fully human but takes after the father: violent, quarrelsome and mentally unstable. From adolescence on it has a 10% chance each year of suddenly becoming a true werewolf.

Werewolves blend human and wolf natures strangely: merciless killers who are utterly loyal to their tight families. They are hostile to lycanthropes who oppose them, werebears above all.