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3e Werebeast Stats?

Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2019 2:54 pm
by Hell_Born
So, I was just researching the Werebat, considering it's one of the iconic Ravenloft-produced werebeast strains, and the Mistipedia doesn't seem to mention any 3e stats for the monster. Now, I learned from the Forgotten Realms wiki that Werebats appeared in the 3e splatbook "Monsters of Faerun", but I'm curious; did werebats received 3rd edition updates in Ravenloft supplements? Because several Ravenloft Gazetteers mention werebats as local monsters, and I don't think those are intending to tell you to look at the Forgotten Realms for stats.

In fact, what werecreatures did get statblocks in 3e Ravenloft sourcebooks? I know that Denizens of Dread has Werebadgers, Werejackals, Werejaguars, Wereleopards, Wereravens and Wererays, plus the Mountain & Lowland Loup-Garou variants of Werewolf, and the Ravenloft Gazetteer 1 has the Werefox.

...Actually, looking at Denizens of Dread, the end of the Lycanthrope section has a table listing the names, animal forms, ability score adjustments and bonus feats for each strain of lycanthrope... and Werebat is listed there, despite not having a monster statblock! I double-checked my copy of Denizens of Darkness, the 3.0 percursor to Denizens of Dread, and this same error happens there! So, what's the story? Was the werebat intended for the Ravenloft 3e MM equivalent but got dropped due to editing issues?

Re: 3e Werebeast Stats?

Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2019 8:58 am
by Gonzoron of the FoS
I suspect it was more of a licensing issue. Once the werebat was published in a WotC-published FR book, they couldn't or didn't want to publish it in a 3rd party licensed RL book (either with the same stats or conflicting ones). Luckily, IIRC, the basic lycanthrope template was flexible enough that you could construct a werebat from a dire bat relatively easily.

Re: 3e Werebeast Stats?

Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2019 11:08 am
by The Lesser Evil
In fact, 3e Ravenloft sources DO (or at least, Gazetteer IV's native monster sidebar for Borca, p. 14 and Verbrek, p. 67) refer you to Monsters of Faerun. I think Gonzoron's assessment of the licensing issues is probably right on the money.