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Lycanthrope is literally “wolf-man”. These would more appropriately be called a draconthrope. If you want to have real fun with the game, make any bite from a dracoform being transfer the disease that slowly changes the survivor into a draconic being. Any bite from a drake, wyvern, kobold, lizardfolk, Dragonborn or true dragon begins the transformation as part of the draconic breeding cycle. If they bite to wound, not to eat, they’re breeding. That would eliminate dragon eggs from your game from all but the youngest and lesser dracoforms, who still retain a little spark of whatever they were previously. The older they are, the more they have been bitten by older dragons in fights over territory. You could call that curse/disease Tiamat’s Kiss, since those that survive grow stronger with Tiamat’s blessing. It would definitely make any player leery of going anywhere near that winged kobold, wouldn’t it? That one is already on the path to true dragonhood after surviving many territorial disputes. That would also explain dragons wanting to kill over leaving any survivors. Any who live that they have bitten may grow to be competitors over a long enough time. Personally, I may use this just to add the drat to my games. The drat, or more appropriately the dracorat, is a rat bitten by a kobold and released into the tunnels to keep them free of vermin and to spread Tiamat’s Kiss. A kobold with a cage full of drats getting into the sewers of a major city would be devastating, as first rats, then cats and then dogs succumb to Tiamat’s kiss. Once the dracocanids start appearing, the city’s population is doomed, because they will act highly aggressive, like rabid dogs. Dracocanids are particularly dangerous because in the early stages, you can’t see the patches of scales under their fur. Yeah, I can work with this idea.
You might like this in world of Darkness the werebears have a hybrid form that is what sparked the myth of the Sasquatch in that world of course they also have a actual Sasquatch spirit what is kind of an everything in the kitchen sink type of setting
Oh, the Werecorpse video is going to rival my False Hydra video, or the tale of the Sletch... pure horror story! Yes, people who think these are just silly critters are in for a delightful Rug Pull.
Back in the times when I DM'd I had a long-running NPC who showed up in all of my games - D&D, Shadowrun, White Wolf, Cyberpunk, etc, etc, etc; always with the same name... The long-running joke with regular players was that Robert was a were-Mimic Warlock who's patron (the Lady of Pain) had him travel between the game-worlds themselves...
This was incredible! I had no inkling that this was homebrew until the end, it was so in-depth and full of story potential. I'm excited to see what comes next, particularly the ooze dragon you made mention of. Do keep up the great work.
Oh this is fascinating, I wonder if they could eventually transform into a drake form along with their hybrid form? It's interesting that only dragonic races are afflicted.
Does the curse make them really good at setting up traps? Man a kobold with an entire night to make traps and having immunity to non-silvered weapons could be really nasty
@AJPickett I was more thinking a proficiency in trap making than actual stat boosts. If the party can't wake up to find the clearing surrounded by a buttload of traps and all their gear missing cause they didn't set a watch during the full moon what's the point?
I have two things, one is something that may help, the other is a question: 1. Rather than using "were beasts", the word "therianthrope" is a good word that may help going forward! 2. You only covered a dragonborn being aflicted, but what about the other draconic racea you mentioned? I have a kobold PC and im amused at no end at the thought of a werekobold Kobold.
@@almitrahopkins1873 No, it's not. Therianthrope is the word I was after. That is why I specified it. Therianthrope is a broad term for any form of mammal based human/beast transformations. While it would not be applicable for this specifically due to it being a kobold, it is more generally used for any form of transformations rather than just saying "bear lycanthropy", "shark lycanthropy", etc. I mentioned it due to AJ stating his use of lycanthropy/were-beasts later in the video.
@@AJPickett You have to think of homebrew as tainting anything canon. If you add anything to it, you’ve personalized it into homebrew. Take the credit, AJ.
This sounds like something a black dragon would come up with. It’s long past time “little faithful scales” took their place. Elves are in retreat, giants have fallen to inbreeding, Dwarven souls are failing (Moradin himself confirms this one), perhaps its time for the old empire to rise again….😱
@@zacharyweaver276 forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Xorvintaal "Dragons who played xorvintaal were called taaldarax (pl. taaldaraxi). A dragon's head servant was known as their lovac (a term that could be translated as exarch or lieutenant), and their other servants were known as dokaal. The lovacs were agents bound to their masters thanks to a ritual that gave them special powers in return for their loyalty."
@@AJPickett I would see this as more of a Tiamat’s Kiss than part of the great game. I posted a comment above where I broke it down in a more detailed fashion.
This was very very well done AJ! As a long time listener I have to say I love the evolution of the sage’s voice. The content on this one is also another banger!
I'm gonna be honest this just sounds like... enhanced kobolds to me... aside from the forced subservience bit. Seems a dragon has found a way to "Perfect" the kobold and ensure loyalty. With transmission to boot so he doesn't have to wait for them to reproduce as much.
I disagree. Well, to a point at least. Remember this affliction doesn't affect "true draconic heritages" or regular races. Only those of "corrupted bloodlines" (in the eyes of dragons). Despite this limited transmission, it also essentially forces the afflicted to shift their loyalties (just like most lycanthrope curses), but unlike the normal ones, there is no option to "resist/embrace" said curse. Even Kobolds (players, specifically) can choose to simply not serve a dragon (be it too individualistic OR not the "right type" of dragon), werekobolds don't seem to have any choice as all forms of lycanthropy remove elements of freewill. Now gameplay wise, this might be an Enhanced Kobold, but story and lorewise, this has quite a few possibilities. Even better than my Grung Tonics idea (mixing their poisons to find a (as the alchemist put it) "cure to unGrungness".)
Alright, you twisted my mind- I’m going to try designing wereoozes- feels a bit more cursed to me, being locked into a goopy hybrid form & only reverting to the original form on full moons.
I am reminded of the Dravanian Heretics of Final Fantasy XIV. A drink of dragon's blood, and they turn into a horrid, mutated monster that is fanatically, religiously loyal to the dragons. They are also extremely violent and have no qualms about attacking civilians.
With how close communal bonds of Kobolds are, those must be the most civic minded werebeasts to their kind. Petty to the rest though. Would be interesting to see a Gnomish werekobold. Kobolds hate Gnomes so much even their god's symbol is a gnomish skull.
ok so . lemme think. the curse is tied to dragon blood, it's tied to their essence, some kind of elemental core to it maybe? maybe the answer lies in the elemental nature of dragons, but how however created it managed to restrain the target of infection?
Fairy Dragon and Dragon Turtle are true dragons and immune, the Dracolisk and Dragonne, not sure as I have not heard if any are in Murghôm, but also, I have not heard of any Non-humanoid shaped draconic creatures being afflicted, but, I can't say for sure if that is some sort of rule or limit (your table, your rules, and as this is homebrew, DOUBLY SO)
Speaking of weaponizing could you imagine say a small platoon maybe of 9 to 12 draconic bloodline sorcerer halflings werekobolts maybe give each of them a level 3 of rogue with the Assassin subclass if you could get a drop them right into the middle of a city that is under siege or even an enemy encampment in the middle of the night right before you're about to attack think of the chaos they could sew
Yeah, but how good are their mining and trap-creating abilities? Because 'actual-kobold' might still be a good bit nastier than 'were-kobold'. Pitfalls, collapsing ceilings, caltrops, etc. don't have any HP for you to chip away at.... Hmmm...are we sure we don't need a supreme kobold named 'Bruce', who marshals a vast organization of other kobolds and is a really good tactician?
Do black dragons value the cleverness of their kobolds or, do they want better front line cannon fodder? I took the black dragons motivation and nature into account. But. 50 points to house Ravenclaw for the Army of Darkness reference.,
Being tied to draconic essence, I'm wondering if a non-draconic character could potentially become vulnerable to this curse by drinking a dragon's blood, for instance. An unsavoury practice, to be sure (pardon the pun), but not unheard of. For example, dragon blood has been used on occasion by potion brewers to maximize the effects of their magical potions. 🤔
Drinking dragon blood opens the option tô become a draconic sorcerer, so you should get the curse, specially if you get a point in the sorcery. Not tô mention bathing in dragonblood turns u intu a half dragon.
@@Draconamus yeah I was running a campaign where everyone was a type of weredragons. And went into a rabbit hole of looking up draconic were-creatures. And found some old references about werewyverns. But the only stats and templates I could find on them was some homebrew rules. So they could just be homebrew monsters. Either way it was a fun thing to look up. Sadly I wasn't able to complete the campaign. Ah well maybe I'll find a group to run it for again.
@@ryu433 considering the dragon cult were looking for ways tô become weredragons you could find Intel with cultists, maybe a campaign going intu the jaezred chalssin tô look how the half dragons zekyl managed tô become full dragons would be a good hook, for People intu dragon stuff.
@@user-mb4vk9mw8m yeah I was already using the dragon cult in this campaign. When I started the campaign I didn't have the PCs start off as weredragons. I had them attending this circus that came to town in the first session. Then it was attack by dragon tooth soldiers(which I just used skeleton stats for them). The dragon tooth soldiers had taken some people. And the PCs followed them and found a kobold cultist was at a dragon burial mound for a black dragon. Wanting to sacrifice the villagers to sap the dragon power out of it's bones. And ascend into a half or full dragon. Wasn't to sure really it really depended on how I rolled the percentile. If the players didn't stop it in time. But either way if the player stopped it out not. They would of been cursed by the spell to become weredragons. And the campaign would of have a recurring villain for the players to hunt. Or trying to find a way to break the curse. While uncovering a greater plot being done by the cult. I really want to run it again. But I can't find a group that wants to play.
Wonderful content, as always! 😊 I wish that there was am "official" Patron option for Dragons; it ranks right up there with clockwork/Mechanus and Elemental as something I'd like to have. The idea of an aging dragon making a pact, and my fancy weapon, or book, being either an object from their hoard, or even just a shadow of such, since so few Dragons willingly part with anything, would be great! So, at the risk of being an ass, I'd like to ask you how YOU handle lycanthropes...particularly their loved/reviled damage mitigation? I used a pack of them in a game after it became so clear that the party could effortlessly thrash other encounters that were probably meant to be a touch more trouble than they proved to be, but then this turned to discontent, as they started assuming EVERY human was a shifter, and since mo one wanted to be unable to inflict damage, even so early in the campaign, they all became casters, to some degree, rendering the damage immunity moot. Later, when they encountered wereravens scripted to appear, this instead turned into an almost two hour argument for why I should let that player contract it, gaining both the damage immunity AND a flying speed. This tanking ability, to basically be a one man army, since most encounters don't just come with NPC casters, silvered weapons, etc., wasn't where I wanted the game to go, even if he loved the idea of just curb-stomping anything, after a week of work, and real life stress, and so this turned into "needlessly durable incidental encounters, avoiding using one particular of their attack options, as they seemed to be the only lycans NOT wanting to pass on their curse, where I was trivializing their choices to steer the campaign MY way." So, I'll be the first to admit I also made mistakes, but I've often seen convos, on sites like Reddit, where this sort of thing comes up, with early martial characters not enjoying ONE MORE instance of casters having an advantage, of DMs not wanting to lose the staying power of one more encounter, and of both arguing if players should ever have a "curse" that gives them such a boon, when mitigating shortcomings is literally a hobby of player parties? It works all the time; not just when they are raging, and transformed, whether mitigating damage, or fast healing from it, and doing things to subsequent encounters, to offset it, smacks of bad play. As someone confident in building monsters, running games, and with several edition's experience, how do YOU handle this aspect of lycanthropes?
Well, don't you find it odd that so many equipment lists have Wolfsbane listed, and yet, there are no game stats or mechanics for how Wolfsbane impacts Lycanthropes in 5E (or 4E.. maybe 3.5E?).. so, as with vampires and such, give them weaknesses, the five pointed star, the wolfsbane plant, silver, the light of the sun, something that ordinary peasant folk can use (for fey, they have Salt and Cast Iron, many colored string and wearing your clothes inside out or backwards), reward players who take the time to speak with NPCs and learn the wisdom of *Ye Olde Peasant Magicks of thee Hedge Wizzards*
I have a thought or a question. Maybe more of a paradox here. What would happen if a normal kobold got bit by a werekobold? I would think a kolbold would qualify as the non true dragon type dragon types that can get this disease.
There werekobold template is applied, essentially they gain more Koboldness, higher AC, Hit Points, not stronger, but more stealthy, more perceptive, more fanatically loyal to EVIL dragons.. its subtle, but basically.. it 'roids them up.
Is that like when Dave the Barbarian became a werecow, with the 'cure' being to bite himself, thus becoming a were-Dave, who would transform into himself?
@@tomkerruish2982 Van Richten's Guide to Monster Hunting mentions those infected with more than one form of the curse at the same time, which is possible, and in most cases the most recent curse inflicted is the form the victim transforms into, though some do become a nightmare blend of the two or more animal phenotypes and in all cases, they become savage terrors who are consumed by bloodlust.
Interesting how this is characterized as both a curse and a disease. I know that in earlier societies the two were used interchangably to some degree, but I imagine dragons know better. I'm assuming this would spread like lycanthropy, so it is certainly pathogenic, and not knowing more about how it targets those of draconic biology, I'm inclined to call this more of a disease than a curse. Thoughts, AJ?
Since it targets draconic essence, but not true dragons, there is no biological reason for such selective immunity, so, it is mystical in nature, there is no physical pathogenic organism or substance.
There is really not much to say about Ao, its mostly speculative anyway. You could say that Ao is... editorial and edition changes to the realms personified as a pseudo god.
@@AJPickettHe seems like he could be a relatively benevolent great old one. (The ones that left that vortex that prevents entities of the world from entering higher dimensions.)
