Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Playable Lycanthropy?

Title says it all, though I doubt this late into development when the game has been fully released that we're likely to see it. Still, its something people have largely speculated on and hoped we would be able to have, with the most often cited type of Lycanthrope people want being the classic werewolf.

If Larian did decide to go on to make Lycanthropy a playable option (slim chance, but maybe!), I figure it would be a long time coming, with everything else they're having to look at and fix, with bug fixes, revisiting cut content, preparing console launches and dealing with the nightmare of Xbox compatibility, etc.

Lycanthropy is, of course, canon to the Forgotten Realms lore where Baldur's Gate is set. And while werewolf is the most popular, and the obvious choice, there are actually quite a few different strains of Lycanthropy that fall into the areas of other beast types as well (https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Lycanthrope). So I'm just going to go into the ones that I think would be the best choices in general if they were to do multiple "Lycanthrope" strains and how their utilities would be unique from one another.

The first one being Werewolf. I don't think there's much that needs to be said on that one. Perhaps similar to Astarion becoming a "modified" vampire thanks to the tadpole, the player-werewolf ends up gaining more control over their shapeshifting to some extent. Naturally though, if shapeshifted among "civil" company, NPCs that would normally be friendly or at least neutral to you would likely become hostile towards your shapeshifted wolfman form. They would have the ability to shapeshift into a wolf-human hybrid or a full dire wolf. Their advantages would be similar to a druid's wolf form (superior movement speed/distance, moderate strength, group rallies), but they would not be as nimble as other lycan forms and would have inferior tankiness to certain Druid shapeshifts (dire bear, owlbear, etc). The Werewolf would be more well-rounded and balanced in most of its attributes, with more of an advantage in a head-on brawler fight than the other three.

Second could be Werecats (https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Werecat).

Generally said to be just fine assimilating into urban society while hiding what they are, and form their own small groups with one another, it is said most are faithful to Selune and are rumored to hunt Shar and Loviatar cultists on full moons, as well as Wererats. Aside from making all the cat people happy, it could make some interesting and unique dynamics when interacting with characters like Shadowheart. They would have the ability to shapeshift into a cat-human hybrid or a full cat. They would have an advantage on jumping actions/distance and movement speed, with strong attacks but being weaker to damage/have a smaller HP pool than a werewolf, making them more of a glass canon/guerilla fighter rather than a brawler, but not quite as fragile as the Wererat and Wereraven, making it the 2nd choice of a direct brawl after Werewolf.

Thirdly, Wererats. Common to urban areas (like Baldur's Gate, for instance), tending to stick to sewers and seedier parts of civilization, where they could more comfortably steal, kill, and drink. While being one of the weakest lycanthropes, not much stronger than an average human, they are more nimble and cunning. Great for players leaning into more of a stealthy rogue playthrough. They would have the ability to shapeshift into a rat-human hybrid or a full dire rat. They would be one of the weakest in terms of how much damage they can take while Shifted (alongside the Wereraven), but have superior stealth and sneak attack related utilities, good evasion, as well as some additional disease debuffs they can apply to enemies.


Finally, and my personal favorite suggestion, the Wereraven (https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Wereraven). I really heavily want to see this one most of all because bird-people races are almost always excluded from playables in every game even where "beast races" are included, whereas werewolves, cat people, and reptile people are almost always utilized.
Uncommon, and arguably one of the more "good" aligned Lycanthrope strains, unlike Werewolves, Werecats, and Wererats, they prefer to use crafted weapons rather than claws and teeth, though their beaks could cause blindness. Their obvious advantage is their flight mobility, but generally aren't great at taking hits, so would want to attack from a distance using things like a crossbow or spells. They aren't particularly strong in inflicting damage or absorbing damage, but can make up for it by summoning a flock of/multiple Dire Raven familiars to aid in their battles and have high evasion rates. The main best playstyle of the Wereraven would be to snipe enemies down from a distance and overwhelm them/zerg them with numbers of weaker but numerous summons.









Thoughts?