How the Loup Garou Alters 5E Werewolves

(Based on info from The Digital Dungeonmaster's page-through video)

 Loup Garou is the French term for Werewolf, but in D&D, it's historically been an option for a different type of werewolf that is generally tougher than your usual kind.

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft introduces the Loup Garou to 5th Edition, and for anyone who's wanted a scary werewolf that can't be easily bested by tier 1 characters, here's the basics:

First off, the Loup Garou is a legendary monster, and it's CR 13 - on par with the 5E Vampire. Like a werewolf, it's a humanoid who transforms into either a lupine hybrid monster or a full-on wolf, though in this case it becomes Large when it does so.

One of the key distinctions is that loup garou lycanthropy is not so easily removed. While a werewolf's bite can be dealt with using a simple Remove Curse spell, the rules of the Loup Garou variant are more complex: first, you need to kill the creature that turned the victim, and then you need to wait until a full moon. Then, you cast Remove Curse or Greater Restoration, and the victim has to make a DC 17 (I think that's the value) Constitution saving throw. On a failure, the curse remains, and you'll need to wait for the next full moon to try again.

Another key distinction is the way that the immunities work.

In the Monster Manual, lycanthropes are immune to damage from nonmagical weapons (except futuristic ones that deal radiant or necrotic damage) that aren't silvered. The issue I've always had with this is that in most campaigns, getting a silvered weapon is more trouble than it's worth, and by the time you can get one, you'll probably already have a +1 weapon anyway, which is magical enough to cut a god like Tiamat, and will do just fine against a werewolf. Plus, it means that a werewolf that's pinned down can be taken out by a level 1 wizard shooting Firebolt, which doesn't feel really great and impressive.

The Loup Garou changes the way in which silver weapons interact with them. Similar to the wereraven from Candlekeep Mysteries (which I think is being reprinted without changes in Van Richten's,) rather than having immunity to nonmagical damage, the loup garou instead has a regeneration feature. While the wereraven can still, I believe, be taken down by spells alone, the loup garou only loses its regeneration if it takes damage from a silver weapon.

So, you could be wielding a badass Holy Avenger and smite-crit the loup garou for over a hundred damage, but if you don't get some silver dagger, bullet, or fork stabbed into that monster, it's not going down.

Personally, I love this change, because I think a werewolf needs to have that immunity to everything-but-silver to make it an exciting monster. Any adventure involving a werewolf should involve hunting down the precious metal to fight the beast. Yes, silver's not exactly the hardest metal to find (players could melt down coins to coat their weapons,) but you could play around with that, especially in a Domain of Dread.

In fact, in a place ruled by a Loup Garou, I could imagine that the Darklord's minions are careful to hide away any bit of silver. Coinage comes in only gold and copper, and everyone's got pewter cutlery. Hell, maybe you can only scrounge up enough silver for one or two bullets, and while the party can wear the loup garou down to 0 hit points, they desperately need to make sure that they hit with that one shot or the whole thing will be for naught.

As always, with creatures whose invulnerability is based on regeneration, the Chill Touch cantrip poses a remarkable threat. I think a smart Loup Garou would be sure to go after whoever has that first and make sure they're dead or incapacitated before going after anyone else in the party. Luckily they have legendary actions that aid with mobility, and they hit pretty hard.