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I'm currently playing non-Unity Daggerfall and loving it, but Lycanthropy and Vampirism were giving me problems until I figured out how to avoid them.

My first character is toast, because I overwrote all of his saves back when I created my second character. I don't remember exactly why I abandoned him, but it had nothing to do with diseases; I think it was more about having messed up a quest and not having kept a save from before the quest. I don't even remember what class he was, but I kind of wish I'd saved him, because he was able to wear plate armor and neither of my current characters can wear anything better than chain armor.

My second character is a Nord Archer (chosen randomly using a spinning-wheel random picker website), and I was enjoying him even though he has only 24 spell points, but abandoned him because he was trying to rescue a child but couldn't find her anywhere in the dungeon.

My third character is a Redguard Bard (also randomly generated) who has nearly 3 times as many spell points as the Nord Archer, and I was having a lot of fun with him until he caught Lycanthropy and got stuck in Werewolf form but can't kill any innocents and doesn't have quite enough spell points to cast Lycanthropy and change back.

I managed to go back to my Nord Archer and complete his stalled quest-- it turns out the "kidnapped" child wasn't in the dungeon after all, but was squirreled safely away by the Fighters Guild for her protection-- but then he kept getting infected with either Lycanthropy or Vampirism.

Now that I knew to watch out for those diseases, I got into the habit of saving my game after fighting lycanthropes or vampires, and resting for more than 72 hours to see if I turned (because the corresponding dream didn't always occur). If resting that long inside the dungeon was too difficult, I'd leave and travel to a distant location in another county that took more than 3 days to reach. If I didn't turn, I'd restore and continue my quest. If I did turn, I'd drink a potion of either Cure Disease or Purification. (I only had a few of those on me in the dungeon, hence the need to avoid using them unnecessarily.)

Later, I managed to create and purchase a version of the Cure Disease spell which I'm able to cast despite having only 24 spell points, but it has an extremely low chance of succeeding, so my current procedure is to save after fighting a lycanthrope or vampire, and rest or travel for more than 72 hours. If I've caught either disease, I restore and cast Cure Disease, and keep restoring and casting until the spell succeeds. Otherwise I just restore and get on with my quest. So now I'm able to enjoy playing on my Nord Archer without having to worry unduly about catching lycanthropy or vampirism.

As for my Redguard Bard, I had a save from before he'd gotten infected, but he was trapped inside a dungeon and couldn't find his way out of a loop of magic portals. I did some searching on the internet and finally discovered how to access a magic portal that was covered up by a tapestry, so I was able to escape the dungeon, turn in the quest, and get back to playing on him.

I'm going back and forth between the Nord Archer and the Redguard Bard, but right now I'm mainly playing on the Nord Archer.

The Bard has completed the first several stages of the Main Quest, up to where the next stage is to go to the Isle of Balfiera, although he has no paper documents or quest journal entries that actually tell him what he's supposed to be doing next; I guess he's just supposed to take it upon himself to go to Balfiera without any further guidance or prompts, hopefully having remembered the name of the place on the isle that he was told about.

The Archer, on the other hand, hasn't done any of the Main Quest beyond the very first stage-- meeting with the lady who was going to be at the inn for a few weeks. I'm enjoying just improving his skills (I almost never use the trainers in Elder Scrolls games), working his way up through the Fighters Guild, Temple of Z'en, and Mages Guild, and exploring the world.

And avoiding lycanthropy and vampirism!

Great story and tactics! If you always leave a recall anchor (assuming you have the spell points to cast it) by the quest giver, who is surely in a town with a temple, then getting home to be cured is easier. I have more than once been watching the clock--knowing I was infected but hoping I could finish the quest and get home before turning completely.

Vampirism and Lycanthropy do add amazing abilities but the disadvantages are very hard to work with. That catch-22 you are running into with being a werewolf is particularly dreadful: you can't turn back until you kill an inocent, but all the innocents disappear because, you know, a werewolf is about! I feel like that was an oversight on the devs part, not enough testing to notice that particular headache. The vampirism headache where you cannot rest of fast travel until you have spillt blood is easier to contend with; you can always find or summon blood-filled enemies or guards to your location with a little crime.

A good while ago I played a Breton Spellsword who contracted Lycanthropy rather early on in the game. Since this was a bug-hunt playthrough -- I was hoping to contribute to the then-active DaggerXL project -- I rolled with it, and actually later on I was able to cure Lycanthropy after receiving the message from werewolf hunters.

At first, being a werewolf felt more like a cheat than inconvenience, since you retain all your bumped up stats in human form. I remember how I went into Scourg Barrow, still being something like level five or even below that, and just rampaged through it, clearing the whole place of all the undead and other creatures. A bit later I tried to stay on the ethical side, as I discovered that at first, it would suffice to only hurt town/city guards to sate the bloodlust, so I'd do stuff like clumsy pickpocketing to attract their attention, then give them a few scratches and run away. However, eventually this stopped working, but soon after I received the letter offering the cure.

I was at first confused by the Lycanthropy spell because I thought that it only worked with Hircine's Ring, and without the artifact you'd just change back automatically when the full moon has passed. I don't remember any problems with casting the spell to regain human form after the moon would pass.

One of Daggerfall's drawbacks is having only six save slots, and I'm not sure if I still have a save where I'm infected with lycanthropy but not yet stuck in werewolf form.

If I do have one I can go back to, I might see if I can create a spell from the same school of magic as Lycanthropy (if that's possible) which doesn't require more spell points than the character has. (IIRC, Lycanthropy costs 70-something points to cast, but my character has a maximum of 60-something points.)

If I can, I might be able to practice the cheaper spell until I can raise the skill enough to bring down the cost of Lycanthropy. I've done that sort of thing with my Archer who has only 24 spell points, so he can cast cheaper versions of Cure Disease, Levitation, Water Breathing, etc.

Another possibility might be to buy a potion or enchanted item to temporarily raise my Intelligence.

However, I'm happy to lose a small amount of character progression by sticking with the earlier save from before I became a werewolf. It's true that the elevated stats were awesome, and I probably waited too long while I enjoyed the benefits before thinking to plan for what to do after changing into Werewolf form.