# Werecreature

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Lycanthropy

@ wererat (human) 

Difficulty

3

Attacks

Weapon 2d4

@ wererat (human) 

Difficulty

3

Attacks

Weapon 2d4

Base level

2

Base experience

22

Speed

12

Base AC

10

Base MR

10

Alignment

-7 (chaotic)

Frequency (by normal means)

1 (Very rare)

Genocidable

No

Weight

1450

Nutritional value

400

Size

Medium

Resistances

Poison

Resistances conveyed

Lycanthropy

A human wererat:

 has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso.

 regenerates HP quickly.

 is poisonous to eat.

 is omnivorous.

 is not a valid polymorphable form.

 can change between human and animal forms.
 is a human.

 is normally generated hostile.

 can pick up weapons and food.

Reference

monst.c#line2113

r wererat (animal) 

Difficulty

4

Attacks

Bite 1d4 lycanthropy, Summon friends

r wererat (animal) 

Difficulty

4

Attacks

Bite 1d4 lycanthropy, Summon friends

Base level

2

Base experience

22

Speed

12

Base AC

6

Base MR

10

Alignment

-7 (chaotic)

Frequency (by normal means)

Always starts in human form

Genocidable

No

Weight

40

Nutritional value

30

Size

Tiny

Resistances

Poison

Resistances conveyed

Lycanthropy

An animal wererat:

 has no hands.

 regenerates HP quickly.

 is poisonous to eat.
 is carnivorous.

 is not a valid polymorphable form.

 can change between human and animal forms.

 is normally generated hostile.

 can be seen through infravision.

@ werejackal (human) 

Difficulty

3

Attacks

Weapon 2d4

@ werejackal (human) 

Difficulty

3

Attacks

Weapon 2d4

Base level

2

Base experience

22

Speed

12

Base AC

10

Base MR

10

Alignment

-7 (chaotic)

Frequency (by normal means)

1 (Very rare)

Genocidable

No

Weight

1450

Nutritional value

400

Size

Medium

Resistances

Poison

Resistances conveyed

Lycanthropy

A human werejackal:

 has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso.

 regenerates HP quickly.

 is poisonous to eat.

 is omnivorous.

 is not a valid polymorphable form.

 can change between human and animal forms.
 is a human.

 is normally generated hostile.

 can pick up weapons and food.

Reference

monst.c#line2120

d werejackal (animal) 

Difficulty

4

Attacks

Bite 1d4 lycanthropy, Summon friends

d werejackal (animal) 

Difficulty

4

Attacks

Bite 1d4 lycanthropy, Summon friends

Base level

2

Base experience

22

Speed

12

Base AC

7

Base MR

10

Alignment

-7 (chaotic)

Frequency (by normal means)

Always starts in human form

Genocidable

No

Weight

300

Nutritional value

250

Size

Small

Resistances

Poison

Resistances conveyed

Lycanthropy

An animal werejackal:

 has no hands.

 regenerates HP quickly.

 is poisonous to eat.
 is carnivorous.

 is not a valid polymorphable form.

 can change between human and animal forms.

 is normally generated hostile.

 can be seen through infravision.

Reference

monst.c#line212

@ werewolf (human) 

Difficulty

6

Attacks

Weapon 2d4

@ werewolf (human) 

Difficulty

6

Attacks

Weapon 2d4

Base level

5

Base experience

61

Speed

12

Base AC

10

Base MR

20

Alignment

-7 (chaotic)

Frequency (by normal means)

1 (Very rare)

Genocidable

No

Weight

1450

Nutritional value

400

Size

Medium

Resistances

Poison

Resistances conveyed

Lycanthropy

A human werewolf:

 has a head, a couple of arms, and a torso.

 regenerates HP quickly.

 is poisonous to eat.

 is omnivorous.

 is not a valid polymorphable form.

 can change between human and animal forms.
 is a human.

 is normally generated hostile.

 can pick up weapons and food.

Reference

monst.c#line2127

d werewolf (animal) 

Difficulty

7

Attacks

Bite 2d6 lycanthropy, Summon friends

d werewolf (animal) 

Difficulty

7

Attacks

Bite 2d6 lycanthropy, Summon friends

Base level

5

Base experience

61

Speed

12

Base AC

4

Base MR

20

Alignment

-7 (chaotic)

Frequency (by normal means)

Always starts in human form

Genocidable

No

Weight

500

Nutritional value

250

Size

Medium

Resistances

Poison

Resistances conveyed

Lycanthropy

An animal werewolf:

 has no hands.

 regenerates HP quickly.

 is poisonous to eat.
 is carnivorous.

 is not a valid polymorphable form.

 can change between human and animal forms.

 is normally generated hostile.

 can be seen through infravision.

Reference

monst.c#line248

Werecreature (or lycanthrope) is the collective name for a group of monsters which change back and forth between animal and human form.
The werecreatures in NetHack are:

@ / r wererat
@ / d werejackals
@ / d werewolves
Contents

1 Generation
2 Common traits
3 Strategy

3.1 Summonable monsters

4 Messages
5 History
6 Variants

6.1 SLASH'EM

7 See Also
8 Encyclopedia entry
9 References

Generation
Werecreatures are always generated starting in human form, and start with a dagger, spear, or knife.

Common traits
Werecreatures are considered human for the purposes of sacrificing and consumption; if you are a human, eating the corpse of a werecreature counts as cannibalism. All werecreatures have drain resistance, but are particularly vulnerable to silver weapons.
While in animal form, their bite has a chance of conferring lycanthropy, indicated by a fever. Lycanthropy is the condition that makes werecreatures change form at random intervals; you will become the same kind of werecreature as the one that infected you. Additionally, eating a werecreature's corpse will always infect you.[1] Werecreatures respect Elbereth only while in animal form; in human form, they can ignore Elbereth and will also wield weapons and wear armor, but are forced to shed and drop their armor and weapons upon shifting to animal form.
Werecreatures can summon their brethren for help - rats, jackals, or various kinds of wolves, depending on the monster. This will give a message based on whether or not said monsters spawn in your character's sight. If you are a werecreature, you can also summon such monsters with the #monster extended command; they are generated as pets and will remain tame even if your lycanthropy is cured.

Strategy
Once you find a silver weapon, it is a good idea to keep it on you at all times; even with restricted weapons the silver damage alone can usually dispatch a werecreature quickly, and you will want to do so before you are surrounded. Being pinned on all sides, even by rats, can lead to death fairly quickly without Elbereth. Pets can assist in dealing with werecreatures, as they will only call for help when attacking you; additionally, summoning is less immediately dangerous in hallways, as you can deal with the monsters one at a time while only having to fight two or three simultaneously. Even then, early characters will still want to kill the werecreature as soon as possible before finishing off their companions.
Most of the time lycanthropy is unwanted, so avoid engaging in melee combat with a werecreature in animal form where possible unless you have an effective way of removing the affliction. The eventual shift to animal form makes your character unable to carry any kind of load, wield weapons, use hand operated things (such as open doors), and wear armor; while in animal form, your HP is also generally considerably lower, as are many of your other attributes. 
To remove lycanthropy, one may pray (the effectiveness of which is dependent on the usual factors), eat a sprig of wolfsbane, or quaff holy water. See that article for more methods of curing lycanthropy and strategic applications for actually utilizing it (e.g. summoning tame monsters)

Summonable monsters
When a werecreature summons help, 1d5 monsters of the appropriate type are created about the werecreature. The monsters will be created with the probabilities in the following table:[2]

Werecreature

Summonable monsters

Probability

Wererat
Sewer rat
67%

Giant rat
22%

Rabid rat
11%

Werejackal
Jackal
86%

Coyote
10%

Fox
5%

Werewolf
Wolf
80%

Warg
10%

Winter wolf
10%

Messages
You feel feverish.
The player was bitten by a werecreature and infected with lycanthropy.
The werecreature summons help!
The werecreature summoned monsters of the same class to assist it.
You feel hemmed in.
As above, except one or more of the new monsters spawned outside of the player's sight, e.g. due to blindness.
You hear a 

<jackal wolf=""> howling at the moon.
A werejackal or werewolf is present on the current level, and has shifted form out of your sight.
The <werecreature> whispers inaudibly. All you can make out is "moon".
You chatted to a werecreature.
History
In NetHack 3.0.0, lycanthropes in their animal forms were called ratweres, jackalweres, and wolfweres. The -were suffix indicates animals that can take on human and sometimes hybrid forms, e.g. a wolfwere can shift from the base form of a wolf to that of a human or a "wolf man".

Variants
SLASH'EM
Main article: Lycanthrope (starting race)
In SLASH'EM, the Lycanthrope is a playable race, starting with (not hungerless) regeneration and lycanthropy (always a werewolf) which cannot be removed, but can eventually be controlled. They may only be chaotic, and any silver weapons in one's starting inventory (such as with Undead Slayers) will be reverted to their non-silver counterpart.
Additionally, there are several new lycanthrope monsters in SLASH'EM: werepanthers, weretigers, werespiders, and weresnakes.
A werecreature summoning help in SLASH'EM will generate 1d2 monsters, rather than the 1d5 in vanilla. This table displays the rates for the SLASH'EM specific werecreatures:[3]

Werecreature

Summonable monsters

Probability

Werepanther
Jaguar
80%

Panther
20%

Weretiger
Jaguar
80%

Tiger
20%

Weresnake
Snake
80%

Pit viper
20%

Werespider
Cave spider
80%

Recluse spider
20%

See Also
Lycanthropy
Silver damage
#monster extended command
Encyclopedia entry

In 1573, the Parliament of Dole published a decree, permitting the inhabitants of the Franche-Comte to pursue and kill a were-wolf or loup-garou, which infested that province, "notwithstanding the existing laws concerning the chase." The people were empowered to "assemble with javelins, halberds, pikes, arquebuses and clubs, to hunt and pursue the said were-wolf in all places where they could find it, and to take, burn, and kill it, without incurring any fine or other penalty."  The hunt seems to have been successful, if we may judge from the fact that the same tribunal in the following year condemned to be burned a man named Giles Garnier, who ran on all fours in the forest and fields and devoured little children, "even on Friday."  The poor lycanthrope, it appears, had as slight respect for ecclesiastical feasts as the French pig, which was not restrained by any feeling of piety from eating infants on a fast day.

[ The History of Vampires, by Dudley Wright ] 

References

↑ src/eat.c in NetHack 3.6.0, line 933

↑ were_summon in were.c

↑ were.c in SLASH'EM 0.0.7E7F2, line 119

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It may contain text specific to NetHack 3.6.4. Information on this page may be out of date.
Editors: After reviewing this page and making necessary edits, please change the {{nethack-364}} tag to the current version's tag or {{noversion}} as appropriate.

</werecreature></jackal>