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What alterations, or I suppose house rules; do you use for your lycanthrops?

For instance I use

-True werewolves can only be harmed permanently by silver or complete physical destruction. Magic weapon or not; it must be silver. Otherwise the have damage reduction 10/non-silver and regenerate at 5hp plus con mod per round. In the case of complete physical destruction it (ie. Acid Pool, Disintegration, Inferno, Lava, Magical Fire or a Wish spell) use logic to overrule.

I utilize the standard DR listed in the book. One of the salient powers I allow werewolves in Ravenloft to have is regeneration (with only silver or another appropriate material overcoming this). I'm a big fan of the 'silver-via-overkill' bit. Like in Gil's All Fright Diner, a silver bullet is the prescribed treatment, but a semi-truck doing sixty-five will do the trick. Any creative situations designed to cause massive damage will, at my discretion, work just as well.

I allow lycanthropy to be spread through other means than the bite, although nonstandard methods of transmission will grant bonuses to the Fortitude save. Some lycanthropes have been known to use their blood as an ingested poision (although cooking renders it inert), which gives a +4 bonus to the save. Weapons covered with blood or saliva can also do the trick, again with a +4 bonus. It can also be transmitted as an STD, with a +4 bonus. Finally, I allow it to be transmitted in any form, but attempts to infect others in human form gives an additional +4 bonus. These bonuses stack. (One of my PCs has contracted the services of a werebadger prostitute multiple times, unbeknownst to him. He's got a monstrous Fort save as it is, but with the +12 he's getting, ((+4 because he isn't a dwarf, +4 for sexual transmission, and +4 because she's in her base form)) he isn't in any real danger from her.)

I allow lycanthropes to take Scent as a feat. (I also allow half-ogre or half-orc PCs to take this as a feat, in accordance with the optional rule.)

I'm NOT a big fan of lycanthropes-as-extension-of-nature. Individual lycanthropes might ape the habits of natural animals (like werewolves running in a pack) but this is merely self-delusion on their part. (Wolfweres occupy that particular literary niche in my game.) Natural animals tend to hate and fear werewolves, and those who can control animals of their own kind are always magically dominating them. (PCs are allowed Knowledge checks or Animal Empathy rolls to detect that the animals are acting completely out of character for their species.)

I prefer to use lycanthropy as a metaphor for the darkness within people. Hence the lycanthrope brothel plot. (The women, who seem perfectly normal on the outside, are slowly spreading corruption throughout town, which serves as a supernatural metaphor for the damage caused by prostitution and adultery.) Infected lycanthropes are not as likely to go on a murderous rampage as they are to act on their darkest impulses, preferably in as savage a manner as possible.

As a humorous sidenote, my PCs (due to a failed Knowledge check) believe that merely ingesting aconite is a cure for lycanthropy. So now, after any fight involving lycanthropes, we get to have a hi-larious scene where everyone stands around eating aconite, failing Fort saves, and vomiting blood. Someone always tries to chicken out, and I get to see a live demonstration of how suicide pacts work. Nobody has died yet, but it's only a matter of time.

That the kind of thing you were looking for?

If I were to change werewolves for pathfinder, I'd include a minimum "werewolf spawn" that would be the equivalent to the vampire spawn, that is, a base line weakest entry. A werewolf commoner just doesn't seem as fearsome as it should to me.

I love the tale of the Wolf God and the birth of "true" lycans in Gaz4.

Yes, yes and yes. Solo I absolutely agree with the dark human nature aspect. It's brutal, malign and perverse. Ever spin it like it's a split personality with alternate goals and plans? It's a blast to run and goes perfectly with the "inner bestial and selfish desires". Starts off rather small but it begins to snowball after a few moons.
I also like too have the beast gain both additional and extended nights beyond the three as time progresses. Eventually the rolls may become reversed and the hero may find himself in a cage on the three nights of the new moon.

So lesser evil: would the commoner lycans be more for a low level party then or more like sleepers?

And I think we're all agreed: the tale of the wolf god and S's Verbrek was fantastic all around.

Loup du Noir, not withstanding, I've always hated the weak, weak nature of D&D lycanthropes. Every werewolf movie shows them to terribly strong and lethal, unlike the D&D versions since the beginning. I even ran an adventure with a 'home made werewolf' that was created using the Pathfinder barbarian archetype Invulnerable Rager, giving him a cursed ring that has him growing body hair during the full moon, and immunity to non-magical weapons. This barbarian seemed more like a werewolf than the monster and was far more sustaining in combat - and scared the Hell out of the party fighting it.

Adding some barbarian abilities to the infected would help out a LOT now that I think about it. Increased speed and barbarian rage would prove amazing. As would taking some ques from the care given by World of Darkness

Watching decent modern werewolf movies ups the bar a bit: Dog Soldiers or The Wolfman perhaps?

Have you seen the bloodlust ability in my reworking of the werewolf template in my Pathfinder thread? That might help you out a bit.

Something I learned last night (while reading up for prep to run Broken Moon, a great Pathfinder Lycanthrope module, BTW), I found that Pathfinder did something 4E did with lycanthropes in regards to DR.

In Pathfinder, only a +3 or better weapon counts as silver or cold iron. So the PC's can't just unsling their +1 weapons and go to town. 4E did something similar, which I really like.

Ryan you're too good

As for my ravenloft I run with BRP, mainly with stuff from dark ages: cthulhu. To me this solves the problem of them not being scary. a basic werewolf stat is 6d6 or an average of 21 for str in BRP

In my AD&D 2nd Edition games (usually MotRD rather than RL) I leave them mostly as they are-a ravening 4HD beast with immunity to non-silver, non-magic weaponry is enough to terrify ANY typical 0HD NPC, and the possibility of infection worries higher Level PCs enough for me. I can always upgrade a HD or two to make an 'experienced and cunning' Werewolf the same way we used to just scribble "Orc Chief-fights at 3+1 HD"...

One thing I will do is give partial immunity and powers to the mortal half of the monster...slightly heightened senses, less chance of surprise, and counting all mundane damage as Subdual-the PCs must kill the Beast in order to finish off the Man, otherwise they might get a vengeful creature pursuing them after escaping the Grave!

Adding these same abilities to an Infected PC after the first Change sends solid clues to the Player-and also gives him or her just enough benefits to possibly...delay...that Cure attempt another few days, or weeks etc. Surely a strong-willed PC can stave off that inexorable slide to Chaotic Evil just One More Month, right?

Has anyone ever played around with replacing their damage reduction with regeneration? (Or to give them both?) It would seem to fit a little better with your standard portrayal of a werewolf in television and cinema, and would certainly give them a bit more staying power.

I'm running my campaign in 2nd edition, and I discovered that I did need to make adjustments to the werewolves after one of the players became a lycanthrope. Instead of making her stronger, it was actually making her character weaker, and she was only at about level 7. So I gave the werewolves in my game fast regeneration powers, and gave them an additional 1d8 bite attack.

When the character first transformed the rule was that the werewolf either had to attack whoever was right next to them, or run away in the opposite direction. Later she gained control of her wolf form via a Vistani ritual.

I have a player who has become a werewolf in a recent game, so I can actually contribute a bit more to this thread. As time goes on, I may revisit this topic. So far, it doesn't really seem like he's losing anything, honestly. (I do use the lycanthrope template from the Monster's Manual rather than the Ravenloft Denizens of Darkness.)

The PC in question was infected by his NPC wife, who is serving as a sort of guide to him. The way she has spun the situation to him (and what she believes) is that lycanthropy is just a physical manifestation of the darker, savage part of someone's soul. Not the evil parts, necessarily, just the parts of the psyche that the civilized person has been taught to ignore. Lack of control over the condition stems directly from an inability to accept the savage urges (she claims) so the werewolves who are the most out-of-control are the ones leading the most civilized, virtuous lives outside their transformations.

She continues to encourage him to engage in his travelling heroism (since it is the calling of his heart, and therefore something he shouldn't deny) but also encourages to handle his affairs in a more direct manner, irrespective of laws, social mores, or the "artificial ethical constraints" that lawful societies place on themselves.

He's already put ranks in the Control Shape skill, and has already decided that one of his political rivals needed to fall victim to a tragic accident. A wolf attack seemed like the best idea to him, and so he and his wife ate her. (Well, more mauled, really.) I'm looking forward to seeing how he takes her interpretation of lycanthropy and what direction he goes.

That being said, I've stayed silent on just how correct Gwen (the wife) is and how much her philosophy is self-serving horsecrap.