Daggerfall:Lycanthropy

Werewolf

Wereboar

In Daggerfall, you may become infected with one of two forms of lycanthropy: the curse of the werewolf or the curse of the wereboar. Being infected gives the player access to several unique abilities, but also gives the player several significant weaknesses.

Getting Infected

Werewolf Dream

Although lycanthropy is thought of as a disease, it is not affected by weaknesses and resistances like other in-game diseases; only vampires are truly immune to infection. When you are injured by a lycanthrope, there is a 0.6% chance that you will contract the disease. Level 1 characters cannot become infected.

Once you have been infected, the first time you rest after contracting the disease, a short scene will play while a voice says:

"You dream of the moon, and of a man who is less than a man."

For the next 72 hours, the disease can be cured using a potion, spell, or temple healer. After 72 hours have passed, your lycanthropy will become permanent.

Advantages

Attributes

• +40 to Strength, Speed, Agility and Endurance (these boosts will not raise your attributes past 100). These changes apply to your human form as well.
• +30 to Hand-to-Hand, Climbing, Running, Stealth, Swimming, Jumping and Critical Strike skills. These changes also apply to your human form. The 30% boost does not count toward level gains, though the skills can be increased past 100.

Spells

• Access to the ability Lycanthropy, which allows you to change between your normal and lycanthrope forms once a day.

Special Traits

• All lycanthropes are immune to diseases.
• Immunity to iron and steel weapons while in were-form. Since most humanoid enemies (especially guards) only attack with these types of weapons, you are immune to their attacks. You can still be harmed by spells and hand-to-hand attacks.

Disadvantages

• You will feel the need to hunt innocents at least twice a month (more specifically, every fifteen days; fourteen days plus the day you start counting). This means you have to kill at least one NPC or guard in a town every fifteen days. If you don't, your max health will gradually decrease until it bottoms out at 4 HP. Once you have killed a peasant or guard, your max health will return to normal until you feel the need to hunt again.
• During every full moon, you will automatically change into your were-form and be unable to change back for the duration of the day. However, you will not change into your were-form during fast-travel. You will not change back automatically on the next day; you must use the Lycanthropy spell in your spell book to return to your humanoid form. See the Calendar article to learn how phases of the moon are calculated in-game.
• Once a year, you will receive a letter from a werewolf hunter stating that he has marked you as his next target. He will give you an option to either cure yourself or be hunted by his henchmen, a group of Knights.
• You are unable to access your inventory or pick up items while in werewolf form.

Living as a Lycanthrope

If you arrive in a settlement while in were-form, the streets will be vacant; only when you transform back will the citizens reappear. The citizens will not vanish if you transform into your were-form while in town. You can still rent a room while in were-form, but you cannot buy or sell goods or talk to NPCs. Receiving any items while in were-form (i.e., quest rewards) will cause the game to crash.

Any crimes you commit in your were-form will not be charged to your player character; for the purposes of crime, your were-form is essentially a separate person.

The Hircine Ring

The Hircine Ring gives players all the benefits of lycanthropy with few of the negative consequences. The quest to acquire this artifact can be started by contacting a witch or the Glenmoril coven and having them summon Hircine. The Daedra Prince sends you on a quest to kill another lycanthrope, and offers the Ring as a reward for its completion.

The Hircine Ring will prevent the need to hunt innocents and stop you from involuntarily transforming during the full moon. It also allows you to shapeshift into your were-form as often as you like.

Curing Lycanthropy

At some point after you become infected with lycanthropy, you will be sent a letter offering you a chance to be cured. If you follow the instructions in the letter, you will be sent to get a sample of your blood to infect the last member of a hereditary family of lycanthropes with. For more information on curing lycanthropy, see the relevant quest page.

The Coven of Glenmoril also provides players with a chance to remove lycanthropy. Accepting their quest to deliver a potion and drinking it will remove the lycanthropic curse, though it will fail the quest and result in reputation loss.

After curing lycanthropy you can become infected with it again, whether werewolf or wereboar. You will also lose your immunity to vampirism and may contract that as well.

Quests Featuring Were-Creatures

The following quests involve were-creatures, useful should players seek to become infected:

Wereboar:

• Cure for Lycanthropy
• The Desecrated Temple
• A Great Errand
• Hircine's Quest
• Hunt for a Lycanthrope
• The Vanguard (only available for vampire characters, who can't be infected with lycanthropy)
• A Special Mixture
• Deadly Diplomacy

Werewolf:

• Clavicus Vile's Quest
• The Desecrated Temple
• Hunt for a Lycanthrope
• A Prized Herb
• The Rich Merchant
• A Special Mixture
• A Treasured Potion
• Valuable Pages
• The Vanguard (only available for vampire characters, who can't be infected with lycanthropy)
• The Beast

At lower levels, it is possible to randomly encounter were-creatures in dungeons and wilderness with some regularity. Upon reaching higher levels, they are much less common.

Exploits

• A slight delay between the automatic shift on a full moon means that one may use the Lycanthropy ability to shapeshift in order to loot enemies while in a dungeon.
• A lycanthrope's health will always be fully restored when changing into either form.
• Casting the lycanthropy spell will train the illusion skill.
• Attempting to access a loot pile while in lycanthropic form will reset the loot pile to the unviewed state, and Daggerfall doesn't roll loot until after you look at the pile. This means if you have the Hircine Ring, you can loot an item pile leaving just one thing in there, change shape, try (and fail) to access the pile, change back, then loot the item pile of all but one thing again, and get as much gold (or other items) as you can carry. You can also trigger this by dropping a single item as a humanoid, changing to lycanthrope form, trying and failing to access it, changing back to humanoid form, and picking up the brand-new loot pile.
• If you're holding an item with a magic skill boost in hand (weapon, shield) when you go from humanoid to lycanthropic form, the items will be unequipped, but the skill boosts won't go away - they become real skills (up to the natural skill limit of 100). This is repeatable.

Bugs

• Even when you are already a lycanthrope, you can be infected by vampirism. You will get the dream when you rest for the first time, but you will not turn into a vampire.