Readers of this blog might notice that the image in the background has always been my Worgen Warrior in World of Warcraft rocketing across the skies of Tanaris. I adore the Worgen, even though through the luck of when expansions came out means that the Worgen character I play is a bit far down the list of my alt-priorities.
But I think werewolves are really cool, especially if you can play a heroic one. (Maybe I'm just a dog person?)
Playable werewolves in D&D are kinda-sorta supported by the core rulebooks, but with some caveats. First off, if you get bitten by a werewolf (or any lycanthrope, but let's talk wolves specifically here - and also I guess ignore that the lyca in lycanthrope means "wolf," so a werebear really ought to be an ursanthrope) you have a chance to be cursed and become one yourself.
I think in practical game terms, this is a way to make them scarier - this is the sort of monster that can really remove a player from the party, because the curse alters their alignment. While a player character can be chaotic evil, usually the implication for running the game is that if a character's alignment is forcibly changed, it'll result in the character coming under the control of the DM. But it also leaves open the option that the player just gets some changed statistics.
There are a few reasons why making a player character a lycanthrope but also allowing them to stay in the party starts to be a little messy. Lycanthropes are immune to non-magic weapon damage that aren't silvered (unless you have a non-magic weapon that does unusual damage, like a laser pistol.) For a monster, that provides an interesting challenge. For a player character, it could be super-overpowered.
Instead, we have a couple of sort of half-options.
The Shifter race in Eberron is one of the playable races there that is clearly based on existing Monster Manual entries. Much as the Changeling is a playable Doppelganger and the Warforged are playable Golems, the Shifter is kind of a playable Lycanthrope.
In Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, though, we're also getting the Path of the Beast. While the Path of the Totem Warrior has a spiritual connection to various animals, the Path of the Beast has your rage manifest as an actual physical change, growing claws or sharp teeth.
Shifters generally have a bit of a bestial aspect at all times, but they can grow more animal-like briefly as they "shift."
Now, flavorwise, I don't think either is meant to look precisely like a full-on werewolf - more like a person who gets, well, sharp teeth, an extended muzzle, or furry.
But the beauty of D&D is that if the DM agrees to it (and the best DMs have internalized "Yes, and...", a core principle of improv) you can re-skin any rules-systems to match the story you want to tell with your character.
Indeed, I think using Path of the Beast to approximate a Werewolf works fantastically - the resistance you gain to physical damage might not be immunity, but is reminiscent of it. In fact, a brave player could even tell the DM that they will forgo that raging resistance if their foes are using silver weapons to lean into the fantasy (and a good DM would not take this as license to arm every foe the party faces with such weapons - but perhaps have a group of monster hunters chasing after the player character who do).
While lycanthropy is a curse (and, surprisingly, can be cured with a simple Remove Curse spell, though I'd recommend DMs make it a bit more complicated - perhaps only allowing it to succeed on a New Moon, when the lycanthropic power is weakest) I also think that the alignments as listed in the Monster Manual are more advisory - I believe there's even a chaotic good werewolf in Rime of the Frostmaiden, so I would not always assume that every werewolf is a brutal murderer.
Frankly, I'm tempted to roll up a Path of the Beast character right now. I'm thinking it would be Variant Human and then go with the Tough feat to make him just an absolute boatload of hit points.
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