The lycanthrope template states the following (bear in mind I'm paraphrasing):
1. A lycanthrope's base animal must be within one size category of its base creature
2. A lycanthrope's size in hybrid form is the same as the base creature or base animal, whichever is bigger
3. A lycanthrope gains the natural attacks of its base animal
The werebat seems to violate these. Either the werebat entry is wrong and it becomes a dire bat, not a bat (meaning its hybrid form is large, not medium), or it violates rule 1 by having a diminutive base animal. It also seems to violate rule 3 by having claws, when no bat has claws.
The claws aren't a problem for me, though I am curious. So my question is: do werebats become dire bats (meaning a large hybrid as well), or some sort of advanced, small-sized bat?
According to the text they become a bat. Only 2 bats in the beastiary. Thats definitely not within 1 size of a human! And bats definitely don't have claws.
Exactly. Is this a typo or are werebats just an exception? Even applying the giant template just makes the average bat tiny. Personally I'd like to say its a typo but that would mean the entire creature entry for the werebat's hybrid form is wrong.
Where is the werebat listed? I don't see it in B1,2, or 3.
-S
Its not in the beastiaries. Its from Adventure path #45 Broken Moon. Probably not a big deal.
Given all the abnormalities (extra attacks, odd ability scores in hybrid form, the odd size, etc.) I'm inclined to believe that rather than a mistake- this is actually just creative license on the part of the author.
If it wasn't intentional then the editor had a really really bad day.. or was in great need of a caffeine IV. :)
-S
So what should I do to make one as a character? Just change the base creature and adjust the hybrid form as appropriate but use it as written otherwise, or rebuild it using the core lycanthrope rules and maybe dire bat as the base animal?
My GM is planning an especially brutal campaign and letting me be a lycanthrope to compensate.
I'd talk to your DM about that.
The only big difference I can see between the two would be whether you get claw attacks or not. And depending on your build that may not matter anyway.
If the DM doesn't care then I'd pore over the differences and see if there are any minutia that matter to you. (does one give NA and the other doesn't, or whatever).
-S
Spoke with my DM and she just stuck the giant template on a bat twice to make it small: building my werebat from that.
On a side note, can a lycanthrope use special abilities in hybrid or animal form? Like, could my werebat bard use spells in hybrid form, or bardic performance in animal form? (Come see the amazing Giant Singing Bat!)