I got the alien archive and I understand the most of the book was for new creatures and aliens (wish there was more of course). Giving you the tools to convert already existing monsters is nice but I mainly want to see updated races in cool sci-fi gear. But this led me into a "shower-thought". Assuming lycanthropy is a virus and virus's tend to be a thing science tries to cure... is Lycanthropy cured in Starfinder? I would like to hope that vampires and werewolves are still a thing because they are cool. Classic monsters. But what are your thoughts?
I'd assume vampirism is still around, as is lycanthropy. But without golarion's moon, perhaps it has different effects, or is canceled, or only triggers in the presence of part of that moon
Unless the respective fiend demigods were destroyed, I'd assume that there is always going to be new cases. Not to mention, someone could refuse a cure altogether.
Do you think they have a place to call their own? Tribe or spot on a planet? Would they be more/ less accepted? Maybe they evolved over the centuries. Maybe they look more in terms of the shifters from eberron? This might even look like the Ctarl-Ctarls from outlaw star?
Not to mention, someone could refuse a cure altogether.
"Not on my watch they don't. They either choose to be cleansed, or they shall be Cleansed!"
In hindsight though, this means that in an age of space travel,someone let a werewolf get into space before golarion disappeared. I feel this is highly unlikely given what it takes to get on a plane nowadays.
In hindsight though, this means that in an age of space travel,someone let a werewolf get into space before golarion disappeared. I feel this is highly unlikely given what it takes to get on a plane nowadays.
Well when going through an airport the scanner doesn't say what diseases you might have.
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In hindsight though, this means that in an age of space travel,someone let a werewolf get into space before golarion disappeared. I feel this is highly unlikely given what it takes to get on a plane nowadays.
That is in our world, not that of Golarion.
The people of Golarion weren't even able to keep an entire clan of goblins from getting off of Golarion while stowed away in one of their larger spacecraft.
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Not only do I not think it has been cured, but with more animals out there there can be more strains of Lycanthropy: Weresharpwings, Weresurnoch, Entothropic wereaspari. That said, it may not be as common as before, more remote relative to the main setting even.
Also, are we going to treat all of lycanthropy as disease? Im sure there could still at least be natural born lycanthropes, even if the condition when afflicted could be more readily cured.
Course, new animals also means new opportunities for fans of the Demon Mother's Mask, but thats a different matter.
In hindsight though, this means that in an age of space travel,someone let a werewolf get into space before golarion disappeared. I feel this is highly unlikely given what it takes to get on a plane nowadays.Well when going through an airport the scanner doesn't say what diseases you might have.
They also aren't magic.
Though admittedly I hadn't thought of stow aways
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also remember that there were at least 2 functioning portals from golarion. maybe they just wandered through.
Maybe they're still on Golarion. The planet still exists even if no one can find it.
Well it's what the gods say...and I'm not going to disagree with those guys.
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Maybe they're still on Golarion. The planet still exists even if no one can find it.
Golarion: A planet with no less than 3 great old ones and the one known Qlippoth true deity. A planet that suddenly ALL of the gods got together to hide it and wiped everyone's memory and records of an indeterminate amount of time, and took a vow of silence on it (or, worse, any uninvolved deities had their own memories wiped or were paying 0 attention to that area of the material plane for the time of the gap). A planet that a number of sentient races left, and even goblins had the sense to get out of dodge.
Considering the last time a number of these deities even remotely considered working together was to lock up Rovagug in the first place.. Are we sure that the planet is: A. Doing alright, and B. that we can without a doubt say that any specific type of creature (like Lycanthropes) still exist on it?
There are other Moons, a Lycanthrope would be in trouble if he visited a gas giant with multiple moons, don't you think? What if he landed on one, would he be a wolf all the time?
I imagine that at this point the "infected" were-animal curse is probably completely cured, in that anybody who has it can just go to a local hospital to get it cured for like, maybe 30 credits.
That just leaves the "Natural" were-animals, the ones who have mastered their curse and have no issue controlling their transformations, so reasonably even if they landed on the moon they would be fine.
In hindsight though, this means that in an age of space travel,someone let a werewolf get into space before golarion disappeared. I feel this is highly unlikely given what it takes to get on a plane nowadays.That is in our world, not that of Golarion.
The people of Golarion weren't even able to keep an entire clan of goblins from getting off of Golarion while stowed away in one of their larger spacecraft.
True, however once a month Goblins don't transform into large furry murder machines.
Additionally if the change is something that happens on Full Moon, which is something only observed on the ground, once in space, would not the sight of the moon trigger the transformation automatically since you are seeing it full all the time as the lunar cycle is non-existent. So in that regard would not all Lycanthropes be exposed as soon as they left the atmosphere which would allow for quick identification and extermination.
As for the Vampire issue, UV radiation would be pretty abundant in space, so if shielding was lost for even a moment would not the vampire die almost immediately, even though that would not be lethal to anything else. Or ships could have a protocol where everyone on the crew has to stand in the helm and face the ship to any local star to kill off the vampires.
It seems like, yes there could be, but it also make sense why they would be easy to eliminate, especially with the toss up of how Lycanthropy works when looking at the moon in space.
Additionally, for traditional werewolves, if I took my ship to a local moon and took a chunk of it, size is up for debate, and the showed it to the werewolf, would they transform? How much of the moon is required to transform them? If I used a space laser to cut the moon in half would they ever transform because it is no longer a "full" moon, if I cut a large chunk of the moon out, could I prevent any werewolves because no moon is complete?
For starters, I'm not sure where you're getting the "show it" thing from for Werebeasts. Pretty sure they just Turn on the Full Moon whether they're looking at it or not. Which gives me the idea that it's something to do with the amount of moonlight the moon is sending down, which would imply something about solar radiation reacts with lunar material and in certain concentrations could trigger the change. Which under this method (which is my method and should not be taken as fact) then leads to these answers to the werewolf questions:
>Additionally if the change is something that happens on Full Moon, which is something only observed on the ground, once in space, would not the sight of the moon trigger the transformation automatically since you are seeing it full all the time as the lunar cycle is non-existent.
Since the quantity of altered-solar-radiation you'd need to transform is the equivalent of full exposure of the moon, I'd say unless you are similarly in direct path (aka the moon is Full from where you're standing) or you're, like, on its surface, then no.
>Additionally, for traditional werewolves, if I took my ship to a local moon and took a chunk of it, size is up for debate, and the showed it to the werewolf, would they transform?
Unless you're bouncing something properly equivalent to the right solar radiation off it and it's high enough concentration to get that sweet spot, no.
>If I used a space laser to cut the moon in half would they ever transform because it is no longer a "full" moon,
Depends on where the cut is. If it cuts back on the amount of surface reflecting the light onto the planet, then possibly.
> if I cut a large chunk of the moon out, could I prevent any werewolves because no moon is complete?
As above, depends on where the cut is.
Just for restating though, this is just my personal off-the-top-of-my-head extrapolation of basic Lore, and while I may well use it in my games it is not Fact.
As for the Vampire side though... unless you strip away the very hull I don't think that you can "remove the shielding" enough to matter. At least, I don't *think* UV radiation passes through opaque solid objects. I've also got to imagine that even if the helm of a ship *does* have glass windshields for some reason (personally, I don't recommend having such a blatant weak-point, especially in the place where many of the ship's most important people are) it'll probably be shielded against UV Rays pretty damned well, that stuff causes issues to normal human bodies too (sunburns, cancer, premature aging, eye damage, the list goes on)
I checked "Blood of the Moon" and came up with another possibility: the curse of lycanthropy doesn't depend on the moon at all. They're related, and that mystical connection fuels quite a bit of magic, but they're independent. Instead, there's a "werewolf standard time" (WST) that syncs up with Golarian's full moon because that is when it was designed to sync up, the absence or presence of the physical heavenly body is not necessary to trigger that time. Sort of like how 0500 is going to come along with or without your alarm clock being turned on, WST triggers on whatever night the moon is supposed to be full, whether that moon is there to be full or you are on the proper planet to appreciate said fullness.
Some things that spring to mind: do other planes have their own WST? Or is there just one universal WST, except where another is imposed by the patron deity of that plane (for example, on Jezelda's home turf, it is always Werewolf'o'clock)? If so, how does this effect the drift, which has its own patron deity but also has random bits of other diety's planes?
For starters, I'm not sure where you're getting the "show it" thing from for Werebeasts. Pretty sure they just Turn on the Full Moon whether they're looking at it or not. Which gives me the idea that it's something to do with the amount of moonlight the moon is sending down, which would imply something about solar radiation reacts with lunar material and in certain concentrations could trigger the change.
If that is the case then it would require a werebeast to be under the light of the moon, because as you say here
Since the quantity of altered-solar-radiation you'd need to transform is the equivalent of full exposure of the moon, I'd say unless you are similarly in direct path (aka the moon is Full from where you're standing) or you're, like, on its surface, then no.
Then any werebeast who is inside a building or wearing a space suit with radiation shielding would not transform, which would mean werebeast would need to be in a location, under direct moonlight, without an object providing shielding to them. So on a ship or a space walk they would never transform and if they stayed inside a building that would prevent it as well.
Unless you're bouncing something properly equivalent to the right solar radiation off it and it's high enough concentration to get that sweet spot, no.
So if I built a machine that radiates lunar radiation then I could trigger the transformation of any werebeasts in say a few hundred mile radius, since fallout of radiation is pretty f@$&ing huge.
Depends on where the cut is. If it cuts back on the amount of surface reflecting the light onto the planet, then possibly.
Just straight in half, it's no longer a full moon at that point. Or if a sizable chunk is gone, then does that constitute a full moon if only that is remaining.
And to finally add to this, how exactly is the moon emitting radiation, and if it's just a reflection of solar radiation why would they not transform in daylight, unless something on the moon changes the solar radiation into something that affects werebeasts, but why not every night to some degree then.
While true that UV Radiation has low penetrative power, a translucent surface, not necessarily glass would be used at the helm, as in Starfinder the art of the ships do show Cockpits with a clear substance on them. Even though structurally it would be safer to just mount dozens of cameras on the outside of the ship and connect them to a live feed for pilots to see out of or just mind jack into and pilot that way. Off-topic.
Now with UV radiation having a low penetrative power, if it's just reflected off of the moon that transforms werebeasts then you could prevent that with a heavy coating of SPF50, which makes very little sense, though then why could not vampires do the same thing, at that point aren't all vampires just EXTREME!!!!!! albinos.
So everyone keeps talking about the moon but in the books werecreatures can change at will and don't need the moon.
Change Shape (Su)A natural lycanthrope can shift to any of its three alternate forms as a move-equivalent action. An afflicted lycanthrope can assume animal or hybrid form as a full-round action by making a DC 15 Constitution check, or humanoid form as a full-round action by making a DC 20 Constitution check. On nights when the full moon is visible, an afflicted lycanthrope gains a +5 morale bonus to Constitution checks made to assume animal or hybrid form, but a –5 penalty to Constitution checks made to assume humanoid form. An afflicted lycanthrope reverts to its humanoid form automatically with the next sunrise, or after 8 hours of rest, whichever comes first. A slain lycanthrope reverts to its humanoid form, although it remains dead.
So while reading the thread is pretty entertaining, debating about what is needed to change (moon or radiation) is kind of strange.
This text is almost word for word in all books that talk about werewolves. They aren't like the old monster movies where they can only change during the moon light. So natural werecreatures could be the mercenaries of space. Rivaling Vesk or Half Orcs in this category.
Wouldn't any moon from any other planet affect lycanthropes normally?
I mean, a moon's a moon. Golarion's moon doesn't have anything special. Dude, moonlight is simply reflected sunlight :P
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So in theory, if you're facing an army you know has afflicted Lycanthropes in it you could combine a Solarion's abilities and a shield painted in particular shades to simulate the spectrums of light reflected by the moon to try and Force a change so they go nuts & turn on the people around them?
Also because I haven't seen it before in this thread, "Jupiter has 17 moons and a MASSIVE werewolf problem."
Also because I haven't seen it before in this thread, "Jupiter has 17 moons and a MASSIVE werewolf problem."
Eberron had 13 moons... and each moon imposed a cumulative -2 penalty to svaes for lycanthropes to resist transforming.
What gets me isn't whether or not lycanthropy would still exist in the future of Starfinder. It's a magical curse that was pernicious and adaptable enough to spawn natural, non-afflicted lycanthropes who breed as true races/strains; I assume that the odds are very good it's likely still around.
Nope. What I want to see how the curse of lycanthropy has created new breeds of lycanthropes from non-Golarion (non-Earthlike) animals. What forms of afflicted and natural lycanthropes sprung up on the red deserts of Akiton or the frigid environs of Triaxus? What new forms of lycanthropy did the vesk unknowingly transport to the Pact Worlds? What new bestial shapes stowed away in infected kasathans aboard the Idari? What alien strain(s) might arrive via a comet? Could the Swarm hivemind weaponize lycanthropy or entothropy to infect Pact World inhabitants as "cattle" foodstock?
One word:
WereVesk.
No, the Vesk fear becoming wereskittermanders
One word:
WereVesk.
On one hand, that is funny.
On the other, mechanically it is like elves becoming weredwarves.
Vesk Weresharpwing however...
Having a were-template for Starfinder would be useful, anyone know where I could find one?
Having a were-template for Starfinder would be useful, anyone know where I could find one?
Just convert the werecreature from the paizo monster manual.
Just convert the werecreature from the paizo monster manual.
Said JetSetRadio, and many others, like it was the easiest thing in the world....
Just convert the werecreature from the paizo monster manual.Said JetSetRadio, and many others, like it was the easiest thing in the world....
Well, the Lycanthrope and Entothrope templates do convert with relative ease (at a glance it is just about fine as is, but 1/2 the bonuses to ability scores for use on monsters, because monsters just use modifiers, not scores). The big issue i see is you also have to convert the animal (or vermin), or only use those already in Starfinder.
Probably better to just ignore the stat mods altogether honestly, I've yet to really see where monsters even use mods and adjusting the table's numbers could lead to unexpected consequences.