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I'm rounding up some friends for a Carrion Crown game, but I have one friend I'm a bit nervous about. He's OBSESSED with werewolves. Almost every character he ever plays is some kind of wolf-man or lycanthrope or something even slightly wolfy. And the minute I mention a horror campaign to him where werewolves are one of the creatures we'll encounter, he'll almost immediately start salivating. He's a great guy, and when he roleplays he can be a real sweetheart. Puppy dog, if you will (Pun totally intended, I REGRET NOTHING!). He just has this really narrow obsession when it comes to characters.
How does one deal with the player who REALLY REALLY wants their PC to be a werewolf, despite the grim fact that it sends their power through the roof (especially given this person prefers melee-based warriors above all else) and that generally speaking most of the werewolves in Broken Moon are bad news.
Even if he started as a normal person he'd probably ask to join The Prince's Wolves as soon as they revealed themselves. Is there a way to let him have what he wants without throwing any pretense of balance out the window? Or let him down gently? Or is this an instance where a GM should explicitly say NO?
Say no.
OR steer him towards a few classes and shift the fluff to match. Shapeshifter werewolf, a Barbarian that "shifts" when he Rages, a Ragechemist/Beastmorph Alchemist with Werewolf characteristics when he drinks his Mutagen. Any number of other things really.
But as for playing a full werewolf? Definitely not. MAYBE with level adjustment (1 or 2 levels) but even then I'd be wary of it.
If you're looking for a way to say yes, you could define the tribe that he's from and give him social obligations within it.
What do you want to do?
Would it make it less fun for the other players? For you?
The mechanical changes for the werewolf template aren't that big of a change and would hardly make him outshine the other players (alternatively they could get some more gear to make up for it).
As an afflicted lycanthrope he would also have to deal with constitution checks to change shape.
If he wants to play it I would bring up the topic in the group and decide from there.
In my campaign one of the PCs suggested that everyone should become vampires, but one PC didn't like the idea so they didn't follow up on it.
Your choice.
If you want to provide the template, first see this link for a comparison on what you gain in hybrid form. For base form changes, you get +2 Wisdom and -2 Charisma and low-light vision. The link also explains the actions required to shift forms too, which is pretty rough.
If the player wants to join the werewolves, then I'd say go for it. He has to agree to the cost of transforming and he'll have to live with being different. Also indicate that it counts as some of the party treasure (then remove some items from future fights that his character would normally get). It'll have to be guess work to figure out the value of the template. If grants a bunch of stat bonuses, DR 5/silver, secondary bite attack, low-light vision... so not a small set of things.
You can use the event at the Stairs to have Desna help bind the character's nature so that he won't just become a mindless CE killing machine on the full moon. You could also use this to give the entire party a variety of boons (stat boosts and such) of similar benefit so that the relative power levels remain equal.
Ultimately this isn't a major change. Remember, as the GM, you can make fights harder than the book has them, so it really doesn't matter how powerful the characters get.
There's a kickstarter going on right now for a book which will be releasing support for lycanthrope PCs. There will even be stuff in there which should help with players who become infected lycans, and in theory will help keep their power level in check.
The main issue (aside from this being a 3rd party book) is that it isn't out yet. So, whether or not the book will help you depends on how soon your party is going to run into werewolves.
Murphy makes a point I was coming back around to make.
If everyone in the party gets a little somethin' extra to boost their power by the same amount (though not necessarily in the same way) it won't be an issue.
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Also be sure the press home the horrific aspects of contracting lycanthropy: losing control, posing a significant danger to their companions and innocent townspeople alike, potentially shifting their alignment to CE, the fact that EVERYONE fears, hates, and suspects werewolves which means that if they are found out to be one then they'll have to contend with an angry mob.
...And an angry mob in Ustalav is hardly a surprise. Very likely, silversheen is in tall supply here.
Go Team Jacob!!