My Life as a Werebear

(White Dwarf #17, re-published in Flipping and Turning #6)

The DMG (p.21) broached the idea of playing monsters, did their best to discourage it and left us to figure it out on our own. Writers for Dragon and White Dwarf were amateurs like us, though some aligned with Classic Adventure Game principles (as I understand them) more than others. Lew Pulsipher stands out as a writer with a solid grasp of the rules, and I tend to trust his articles. He wrote with authority, evoking a tone not unlike Gygax.

In this article, Lew outlines how to create Monster Classes, limiting them to the abilities listed in the Monster Manual. No 10-HD blink dogs here. Instead, the Monster Class is divided into levels, culminating in the fully realized monster. Once complete, you can’t add additional classes—you’re done.

Lew provides examples with the lammasu, werebear, stone giant, and blink dog (the latter working toward leading a pack). In the were-bear example Lew shows how to balance the immunity to normal weapons with a number of caveats and restrictions. Spellcasting monsters seem to me to have the most potential for play. Each example Monster Class feels underpowered, implying that playing one should be a challenge rather than an opportunity for powergaming.

What you don't want is an 'everyone is a monster' 5e style party. Limiting the number of monster class characters in a party to 1 sounds fine to me.

***

I took Lew's advice from his 'My Life as a Werebear' and created a playable orc for my Arden Vul game. One of the players requested an orc henchman. I think it captures the MM orc well without overshadowing the half-orc. Capped at 4 HD, I doubt anyone would want to play one as a character, but they seem fine as henchman. Their strength is grappling and overbearing - at least after a few levels - which calls back to Gygax's infamous dog-pile grapple/throat slit combat example (PHB p.105).