Daggerfall:Lycanthropy

Werewolf

Wereboar

In Daggerfall, characters may be infected with two forms of lycanthropy: the curse of the werewolf or the wereboar. As of patch v2.12 you now become a werewolf if bit by one. Information, apparently from Bethesda itself, seems to indicate that before patch 2.12 the character could only become a werewolf in certain locations. One possible spot is via the Cyndassa's quest in which you must kill her brother, a werewolf. Another way to make werewolves appear is by accepting the "Deliver Potion" quest at a Witch Coven. During this quest you'll be ambushed at night by vampires and werewolves.

Quests where Were-Creatures may be Encountered

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 Werebeast

At lower levels it is also possible to randomly encounter were-creatures in dungeons and in the wilderness. Upon reaching higher levels you will encounter them very rarely.

Getting Infected

Strange Dream

When you are injured by a lycanthrope, there is a chance of 0.6% that you will contract the disease. Once you have it, the only warning you get is when you sleep for the first time after you were infected. A dream sequence will appear and a voice says:

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

72 hours after you have contracted the disease, you will turn permanently into a lycanthrope, until this point you can cure yourself using a temple's healer, a potion or a spell.

Living as a Lycanthrope

When you arrive in a settlement while in were-form the streets will be vacant; only when you transform back will the citizens show up again. The citizens will not vanish if you transform into your were-form while in town. You can still rent a room, or purchase services. However, no NPC will talk to you when you are in were-form, nor is it possible to purchase anything, since you can't access your inventory. If someone gives you something while you are in were-form (e.g. the reward for a quest), the game will crash.

It must be pointed out, that every crime you commit while in were-form is charged only to your were-form. Your humanoid-form will not be affected. In principle and also for the game-engine, you are two different beings. Therefore make sure you are always in were-form when you kill innocents to sate the hunger for blood.

Advantages

Attributes

• +40 to Strength, Speed, Agility and Endurance, but no score will go above 100. These changes apply to your human form as well.
• +30 to Hand-to-hand, Climbing, Running, Stealth, Swimming 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 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 need to hunt innocents at least twice a month -- more precisely, every fifteen days (fourteen days plus the day you start counting). This means you have to kill a peasant or a guard. If you do not do this, your hit points will decrease very rapidly, leaving you with at most four hit points. When you have sated your hunting instinct, you have fifteen days until you must hunt again, or run around with reduced health points.
• Whenever there's a full moon, the character changes into were-form, and will stay in that form for a full twenty-four hours. 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 shape-shift 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 the game.
• Once a year, you will get 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.

Magical Items

Hircine's Ring

As the Ring's description says, the Hircine Ring gives a character all the advantages of being a Lycanthrope with few of the disadvantages. The Hircine Ring quest can be started by contacting a witch, or the Glenmoril coven and having them summon Hircine. Hircine gives your character a quest to go kill another Lycanthrope and offers the ring as a reward for its completion.

Hircine's Ring will stop you from getting the need to hunt innocents and you won’t automatically transform during nights of a full moon. Plus you can use Hircine's Ring to shape shift as many times as you like instead of just twice per day.

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 a person who will give further details.

After following the instructions on 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. The shock of your infecting them will cure you. Unfortunately, when you get to the town where this person lives, you find that they have died, leaving behind them only a young child who will need to be infected in order to remove your curse. For more on curing lycanthropy by doing this quest, see its quest page.

If you are unwilling to take this route, the Coven of Glenmoril offers another chance at removing a character's lycanthropy. Accepting their quest to deliver a potion will instead give you the potion for removing the lycanthropic curse.

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 after shapeshifting to either mode.