When werewolves meet vampires

[Sathien]

So I've been a fan of the Ravenloft setting for some time, especially with the variations on creatures like lycanthropes (wererays are just too awesome an idea) and vampires. I find that the vrykolaka, among all the various strains of vampirism presented, interests me the most. Given the subject of this thread you can probably guess where I'm going with this. In short, and mechanically speaking, can lycanthropy become the disease which animates these particular bloodsuckers?

Any creative ideas on this? Maybe spoiling the plans of Jacqueline?

[Ryan Naylor]

Technically no, because lycanthropy is a disease-like curse, not a disease.

But don't let that ruin your fun!

[Mortavius]

As an aside, I believe Mummy Rot is also a curse. But I like where you're going with this idea.

[Jimsolo]

It's close enough to a disease that I think you'd be justified in creating a whole new monster, one that arises when a vrykolaka would be animated by lycanthropy. It'd be a nice variation on the base model. You could have versions for mummy rot or devil chills as well. Very inventive.

[Dark Angel]

It's close enough to a disease that I think you'd be justified in creating a whole new monster, one that arises when a vrykolaka would be animated by lycanthropy. It'd be a nice variation on the base model. You could have versions for mummy rot or devil chills as well. Very inventive.

And depending on the experience level of your group, a unique monster (or variant) really puts the fear of god in them. My group fought those mountain loup garous that are really only harmed by gold and they were very put off when their magic items were not doing much damage.

[ScS of the Fraternity]

There was an episode of The Real Ghostbusters dedicated to this exact scenario. The results are far to awesome to describe.

[Sathien]

There was an episode of The Real Ghostbusters dedicated to this exact scenario. The results are far to awesome to describe.

I am well awere (get it?) of that episode. However, the problem with that is that those were regular/Barovian vampires; which are untemplatable as lycanthropes.

[vipera aspis]

What about Wolfweres?

[High Priest Mikhal]

What about Wolfweres?

Wolfweres are born what they are, not made. So a vrykolyka couldn't carry a "wolfwere disease," but a vrykolyka wolfwere? That's food for thought. Here, have a .

[The Lesser Evil]

Some vampire presentations in popular culture depict them not as undead, but rather a transformative disease. Perhaps you could create a "living vampire" sort of thing along these lines (having some of the features of the classic vampire but still being a living humanoid)

[Ryan Naylor]

There was an episode of The Real Ghostbusters dedicated to this exact scenario. The results are far to awesome to describe.

I am well awere (get it?) of that episode. However, the problem with that is that those were regular/Barovian vampires; which are untemplatable as lycanthropes.

In Pathfinder, any living creature can be a vampire. So you can apply the lycanthrope template and then the vampire/vrykolaka template. Or modify the vrykolaka template. Or whatever.

[Sathien]

There was an episode of The Real Ghostbusters dedicated to this exact scenario. The results are far to awesome to describe.

I am well awere (get it?) of that episode. However, the problem with that is that those were regular/Barovian vampires; which are untemplatable as lycanthropes.

In Pathfinder, any living creature can be a vampire. So you can apply the lycanthrope template and then the vampire/vrykolaka template. Or modify the vrykolaka template. Or whatever.

That's not what I have an issue with. That Ghostbusters scenario is broken within Pathfinder rules due to the lycanthrope templates only applicable to humanoids, which vampires being undead can't become.

FWIW, I am working on a specific template for this idea of mine. So far it looks like I'm going to name it the draugr, despite that word being very far-removed from Greek. My reason for the name is not so much deriving it from the ones in Skyrim; but more akin to the ones in folklore who were notable for growing to beastial sizes and inflicting something akin to the Delirium of Werewolf the Apocalypse upon mortals and some animals).

[brilliantlight]

Have the werecreature be preyed upon by the vampire turning him into one. He would be a werecreature first and a vampire second.

[Sathien]

Actually I've decided that the my draugr can manifest in one of two ways:
1.) Someone suffering from lycanthropy dies before their first transformation. When the first lunar phase associated with their particular variety occurs, the body reanimates as the draugr.
2.) An animal feeds on the dead body of case #1, where the latent lycanthropy passes on to them while simultaneously turning them undead since the meal came from a dead body (if only to spare myself the work of creating a second new creature).
As for the ability to change forms, I'm half-considering locking them into hybrid form.


Thoughts so far?

[Rock of the Fraternity]

There is some old mythology which states that when a werewolf died, it had a good (bad?) chance of rising again as a vampire. I think the underlying thought was that werewolves either were possessed by evil spirits, or that they used evil magic to create items that allowed them to turn into wolves, so if they died as werewolves, they died in Sin and their souls and bodies were corrupted.

Since originally, the werewolf was a person who turned into a wolf if given the right trigger (such as putting on a wolfskin belt charged with the appropriate magic) and vampires could turn into various animals (such as wolves), it probably wouldn't be too weird to just have any werewolf who is killed and does not receive the proper rites rise as a standard vampire -- or any other kind of vampire you choose.

It'd be a fine surprise for a party of PCs to be attacked by the same werewolf they killed a few weeks ago, one dark night, especially if the vampire is careful not to use any of his swanky new undead powers where they can see.