
Lycar |

Uh... can we talk about werebeasts in PF2 for a moment?
I don't mind that weres no longer have any damage resistances (boo, hiss) because frankly, DR is a female doggy to deal with. Now they just get extra hurt by silver.
But the real kicker is: In PF1, only true weres could pass on the Curse of Lycanthropy, but not infected ones. It appears that in PF2, both true AND infected weres can create more weres by biting people.
This... is troublesome. Sure, werebeasts are a lot easier to kill now, what with no resistances and a vulnerability, but runaway infection scenarios are a thing now. Just think wererats and a mayor city with extensive sewer systems.
So... how does the world prevent to be overrun?

QuidEst |

PF1 Golarion would have been overrun by wendigos turning commoners into CR17 monsters. There's a certain amount of handwaving going on.
But, to get more werewolves, you'd need werewolves biting people and letting them get away. If they do that, there will be more werewolves. Most werewolves probably don't actually want to make more werewolves that are mad at them.

Lycar |

But a single werewolf, if inclined to do so, could easily turn a small hamlet in one night. And then would not need to stick around and just move on to the next and do it again.
Sure, the book explicitly mentions werewolves being very selective about who they bring into the family, but they are also Chaotic Evil, so being an irresponsible maverick is kind par for the course. Or one could argue that a campaign to infect as many humans with lycanthropy would be lawful behaviour I guess.
Still, a dedicated doomsday cult could do a lot of damage.
Then again, seeing how much easier it is to actually fight and kill weres, maybe they need that ability not to go extinct in short order, so there is that.

Malk_Content |
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But a single werewolf, if inclined to do so, could easily turn a small hamlet in one night. And then would not need to stick around and just move on to the next and do it again.
Sure, the book explicitly mentions werewolves being very selective about who they bring into the family, but they are also Chaotic Evil, so being an irresponsible maverick is kind par for the course. Or one could argue that a campaign to infect as many humans with lycanthropy would be lawful behaviour I guess.
Still, a dedicated doomsday cult could do a lot of damage.
Then again, seeing how much easier it is to actually fight and kill weres, maybe they need that ability not to go extinct in short order, so there is that.
Sounds like a fun mid level adventure

Tarik Blackhands |
PF1 Golarion would have been overrun by wendigos turning commoners into CR17 monsters. There's a certain amount of handwaving going on.
It basically applies to anything that makes spawn. My personal favorite x-apocalypse (in 1e anyway) is the Shadow one caused by an Ancient+ Umbral Dragon that spent some time amassing an arbitrary amount of controllable Shadows by just breath-weaponing bags of rats (or Greater Shadows if he took the time to hunt some 8+ HD critters or even set up a breeding program of em).

Kylian Winters |
Gravity of existential threat will incur a response. If easier to kill, dedicated Hunter Groups, profitable bounties, Holy Orders trained specifically for identifying and hunting weres, etc would crop up.
Necessity is the mother of invention. Would not be surprised, in lore, if a more efficient means of silver coating weapons became the norm, due to the increased desire for silver coated weapons, economies of scales could kick in. Magic research could turn toward spells that are sustained that basically light up a were creature.

Lightning Raven |

Some very nasty and well known incidents of outbreaks? Yeah, probably. Apocalypse level event? Hardly.
Physical contact is not the most efficient way of transmission and there's also a huge factor to take into account that there's less people inhabiting Golarion than the urban environment we live in. Also, any long term spreading would cause counter measures to be taken by everyone else, remove disease and other prevention would become more prominent.
So I don't think so. But it's very feasible, and interesting, to have a whole town infected. Sounds like a cool adventure.

FowlJ |

I think they have a bit of extra HP compared to similar level creatures, but not so much more that a party with silver weapons isn't going to ruin their afternoon.
EDIT: Ah, and the 'creating werecreatures' section gives them a respectable amount (equal to five times their weakness) - the stock werecreatures seem a little bit fragile for that amount, but not dramatically.

Draco18s |
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Meh. Shadowrun has had a similar problem (mechanically) for over 10 years and Seattle still isn't overrun with ghouls.
(Ghoul Fever was a "contact" vector disease that applied to the ghoul's bodily fluids. The resistance tests involved were so difficult that a troll with maxxed out body (CON) and professional hospital medical attention still had only about a 60% survival probability. All someone had to do to infect the whole city was run a ghoul through a wood chipper, pump the resulting slurry into a crop dusting aircraft, and spray the city).

Lycar |

I suppose, werewolves would be kinda contained by the fact that communities 'in the wild' tend to be pretty small and isolated. But wererats in a big city may be a different thing.
Besides, Cure Disease wasn't cutting it in PF1 either, lycanthropy is as much a curse as a disease and requires a Remove Curse spell. From a 12th level caster. Those don't grow on trees you know.
At least silver weapons no longer incur a damage penalty. At 440 silver they are not exactly cheap though. That seems to be quite the mark-up from PF1. Maybe it isn't that easy to keep entire hunting squads equipped with silver weapons?
And I guess many a thieve's guild will seek to relieve said hunters from their valuables...