So last night in session, one of our players contracted Lycanthropy from a Werebear so the GM and I did some reading.. And it seems a little too strong. You get the physical stats of the creature (21 str, 13 dex, 19 con) or yours, whichever is higher, and then add +2 Str/Con.. All while in Hybrid or animal form. On top of that, it gives you the Nat. AC bonus of +6, and then add another +2. Plus low light vision and scent. And bite/claw/claw.
What do you think would be a more appropriate CR+ for this template? The player would really really like to keep her newly found werebearness. And yes she does realize she turns into a bear under GMs control under the full moon.
Why would a PC have any control over their changes as an infected lycanthrope? Remember it's a curse of lycanthropy.
There are mechanics for controlling shifting. Whether they're in PF I don't know, but I seem to remember there being mechanics in 3.x and I know there were in 2e.
Generally, if a template comes into play at our table, usually rather than holding back the freshly templated character we usually just give out something equivalent to the rest of the party to keep it balanced. It may not be as exotic and it's usually during the course of a session or two and character appropriate (the paladin gets gifted a powerful weapon from his church, the cavalier's mount is victim to a magical oops allowing it semi sentience, etc).
I'd much rather have all the PCs on the same playing field than have one powerful PC I have to hold back until everyone else catches up.
And yes, it is a *curse* so for the first long while, there should be a lot of issues with the PC trying to control themselves.
Feel free to have them wake up naked, bruised, covered in blood with scattered scraps of someone else's clothing and some bone shards... and not remember a thing.
The mechanics for changing shape in Pathfinder involve rolling Con checks. An improvement IMO where it was a skill.
Remember, if the player willingly shifts to bear or hybrid form once they're made aware of their condition they get smacked with an alignment shift. It's not as bad for werebears but it can put a damper on a player's ambitions for, say, the formerly-CN-now-LG rogue to suddenly start questioning every decision they've ever made.
Heh. I forsee your party losing a lot of horses. And of course werebears eat much more than normal humans.