Been running a Pathfinder game in an older Paizo product that I had laying around (Shackled City Campaign). The players have reached level 3, are running through Chapter 2, and just finished the were-rat encounter. Unfortunately, two of the four characters got hit with bites (and failed the accompanying Fort saves), so lycanthropy will be rearing its ugly head.
The official rules are a little light on the specifics of affliction, and wanted to get some feedback and insight on how to "officially" run this.
1) Cures.
*SRD states Belladonna is a possible cure, if taken within one hour of contraction. STR-damage poison.
*Wolfsbane is the "traditional" cure for lycanthropy, but has CON-based damage, which would make the DC15 save vs Lycanthropy a little difficult.
*No statement that you HAVE to take poison damage to get the additional save, although that is has been mentioned on various other threads I have read. No time limit has been mentioned that the poison has to be consumed to get the additional save.
*A remove disease or heal spell cast by a cleric of 12th level or higher cures the affliction, provided the character receives the spell within 3 days of the infecting lycanthrope's attack.
No real mention of methods to remove lycanthropy after the 3 days have passed, although Wish would likely do it, and other high-level spells should be possible.
2) Character options.
If the character does not know to take a cure before the disease onset, a character could be unaware of their affliction for up to 40 days (incubation period of 10 days, 30 day "months"). if a character wants to "use" this affliction, there are no real information provided on what the exact level adjustment is for the template. CR is +1, but I don't think that is the equivalent of the LA.
The closest information on a character progression is on the old Wizards website for the web-"enhancement" for Savage Species:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20030912a
But this states that the full progression for an afflicted character would be 2 "levels" of were-rat, plus a single monster level of dire-rat. Yes, you get quite a bit in those three levels, but I am not absolutely certain it is worth 3 levels of a character.
Good stat-bumps, +2 all saves, several feats, but only 1d8 HP, 2+INT skill points, and no +BAB for three levels.
And if I figure Level Buy-offs, is that two buy-offs, or just one? I am assuming it is the template, not the DireRat level that could be bought off, since the DireRat comes with a HD.
Goblin Squad Member
