Evil Fighter Catches Lycantrope from a Were Bear... during the night of the first...


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


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When the Evil fighter spends his first night as a werebear, does he end up doing Lawful Good things?


I always figured were-creatures did neutral things, since they're animals.


all lycanthropes in the bestiary are evil, except for the were bear which is Lawful Good


The prototype for the were-bear is Beorn from the Hobbit, hence LG.

In general, were-creatures are evil (think Lon Cheney).

And, yes, just as Lon Cheney did evil things under the spell of the full moon, so would were-Beorn do nice things....


Sweet... Nice things


What an interesting setup.

So as the dm will you describe him being bombarded by LG thoughts and the LG worldview, while being a wandering bear? Please have him find honey and consider orderly giving it to all those he knows.

The opposite is done for werewolves (pulls to being vicious and evil).


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Note that were-bears are LG, not necessarily cuddly. He might find a group of Orcs and eat them...


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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

So very tempted to make a "Only you can prevent forest fires... OR ELSE!" joke.

Actually, from what I understand, werebears have a built in tendency/personality towards solitary woodsman/frontier type existences. So the the evil fighter may end up dropping whatever nefarious deed he might have been doing and go set up a lair/den or something far in the woods, perhaps going so far as to become the warden/protector of the nearby area. pad300 is right in that they're not hesitant in throwing out evil humanoids from the areas they protect.

Of course in PF, not all lycanthropes have a set in stone alignment. The werebear entry describes some werebears as "angry and violent", "not afraid to put an axe in a trespasser's face or eat someone who pushes them too far."


pad300 wrote:
Note that were-bears are LG, not necessarily cuddly. He might find a group of Orcs and eat them...

with honey


So would this be a case of Evil by day, Good by Moon?


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You could have some fun with this.

Imagine an evil character laying out elaborate plans and setting up a network of minions to carry them out. Only every full moon, the werebear (who knows everything the evil character knows) goes and eats all the minions, foiling his plans.


hehe. yeah, I think it will be.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I think a theme to play up is a dark mirror/ironic twist/parody of the whole "Lycanthropy makes you EVIL!" story- imagine an evil werebear hunter in denial when he actually becomes a werebear and, upon coming to grips with his fate, angsting over doing acts of GOOD! Oh the horror!


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"Wakes up to the horror of realizing he donated all his money to an orphanage"

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!


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Dreaming Psion wrote:

So very tempted to make a "Only you can prevent forest fires... OR ELSE!" joke.

Actually, from what I understand, werebears have a built in tendency/personality towards solitary woodsman/frontier type existences. So the the evil fighter may end up dropping whatever nefarious deed he might have been doing and go set up a lair/den or something far in the woods, perhaps going so far as to become the warden/protector of the nearby area. pad300 is right in that they're not hesitant in throwing out evil humanoids from the areas they protect.

Of course in PF, not all lycanthropes have a set in stone alignment. The werebear entry describes some werebears as "angry and violent", "not afraid to put an axe in a trespasser's face or eat someone who pushes them too far."

By day I am an evil murder hobo mercenary, by night I am a protector of the woods.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

It's not clear to me that lycanthropy affects alignment at all:

Quote:


Lycanthropy
A creature that catches lycanthropy becomes an afflicted lycanthrope, but shows no symptoms (and does not gain any of the template's adjustments or abilities) until the night of the next full moon, when the victim involuntarily assumes animal form and forgets his or her own identity. The character remains in animal form until the next dawn and remembers nothing about the entire episode (or subsequent episodes) unless he makes a DC 20 Will save, in which case he becomes aware of his condition.


They forget their identity, so the temperament and alignment of the creature they change into is very relevant. So I see it.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Okay, but most animals are neutral.

Dark Archive

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I think alignments for lycanthropes were dumped in Pathfinder. That doesn't mean you can't have fun with this...

So LG werebears are those with natural lycanthropy, the standard werebear. Yours could be thoroughly evil. Ofcourse, the idea of the villain ruining his own plans and then forgetting about it is priceless. Having the party raid the villains lair, followed by them witnessing how a bear is mauling everything inside (except for them) is awesome. Turn him into a recurring NPC, or let the villagers tell stories of how the big bear saved little Timmy.
Sounds like an awesome encounter.


the David wrote:
I think alignments for lycanthropes were dumped in Pathfinder. That doesn't mean you can't have fun with this...

They're not part of the generic lycanthrope template, but the individual lycanthropes are still aligned traditionally. And, of course, the generic lycanthrope template is generic, so it doesn't distinguish between werewolf, werebear, weresquid, and werebirdOfParadise....


Thus indicating the importance of fluff. The change has to mean something to have any sort of meaning for the game.


What happens if a low level paladin gets the curse.


His alignment stays the same, so it doesn't matter. Evil in the day, evil at night. The only difference is that he has no control over his character when changed. Unless he makes that will save...

Grand Lodge

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Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

If he accepts the change as opposed to fighting it, he changes his alignment to Lawful Good.


Valantrix1 wrote:
His alignment stays the same, so it doesn't matter. Evil in the day, evil at night. The only difference is that he has no control over his character when changed. Unless he makes that will save...

Hmm there have been many times in the histories where the paladin due to a curse from a werewolf falls because of his inability to control the beast. The paladin had to seek redemption.


It also talks about how the inflicted forgets their identiy. so...if they forget who they are, then in my opinion the base alignment of the lycanthrope takes over.


Rogar Stonebow wrote:
Valantrix1 wrote:
His alignment stays the same, so it doesn't matter. Evil in the day, evil at night. The only difference is that he has no control over his character when changed. Unless he makes that will save...
Hmm there have been many times in the histories where the paladin due to a curse from a werewolf falls because of his inability to control the beast. The paladin had to seek redemption.

Except that goes against the explicit wording of the Code. Remember, a Paladin only falls due to WILLINGLY committing an evil act.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Lycanthropes don't have base alignments in Pathfinder. That was totally true in 3e, but in Pathfinder, lycanthropes vary in alignment. Even werewolves vary in alignment:

Quote:


this isn't to say that good-aligned werewolves are unknown, but they're certainly a minority among their kind, and most werewolves are evil murderers who delight in the hunt and the succulent taste of raw meat.

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