v0.34:Werebeast

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v50.12 · v0.47 · v0.34.11 · v0.31 · v0.28 · v0.23 This article is about an older version of DF. More Info · V

Werebeasts are a variant of night creature that are procedurally created during worldgen. Deities may curse sentient creatures (including any animal man) to transform into an animal form on the night of a full moon. Creatures bitten by werebeasts are cursed to become werebeasts themselves.

Werebeasts may take the form of mammals or reptiles.

Werebeasts can take the form of an animal that does not exist in Dwarf Fortress.

The behaviour of vanilla werebeasts in worldgen (i.e. fleeing town upon being cursed and conducting raids from their new lair) appears to be caused by the cursed individual's beast form having the [NIGHT_CREATURE_HUNTER] tag; removal of this tag from a generated werebeast extracted from a world.dat file and jimmied into the standard raws caused those cursed to behave no differently from any other unnaturally-immortal individual.

Werebeasts in Fortresses

In some regions, the full moon will herald the attack of werebeasts upon your fortress (triggering a message similar to the one that is shown when a Megabeast attacks), or instead the unwilling transformation of your own citizens into their bestial forms. The cursed will attack anyone they can find for the duration of the full moon, spreading their affliction even further. Werebeasts of the same species will cooperate with each other and not normally fight, but those of different species will treat each other no differently than enemies.

Defending your fort against werebeasts

If you have not yet established a correct defensive perimeter and a steady, trained militia, it is quite likely that if a werebeast attacks, a dwarf will be attacked and bitten.

If a dwarf is attacked but not bitten, he will be just fine (if he survives the ordeal). If a dwarf has been bitten by a werebeast and survives, however, he will change when the next full moon comes.

There is no cure. To protect your other dwarves you should either keep the infected dwarf into an inaccessible pit so he does not infect your whole fortress, or if you do not want to take care of him, just kill him.

Infected dwarves will not die of old age, are sterile and do not seem to need food and drink. They may go mad, however, so if you want to make him work (or use him for a stupid dwarf trick) you should give him a bed, decoration, and maybe some alcohol (if he drinks it)

Or maybe you want something exceedingly more fun instead ? Try the latter.

Infecting your entire fort

Yes, it is possible. Having only infected dwarves does not end your game.

PROS

• Super-effective hospital service, your dwarves are fully healed once per month. No need for crutches or something.
• Nobody will die of old age... if your forts even go for this long
• No more pesky babies to be kidnapped
• Food and drink needs are reduced, if not negated
• When transformed, civilian dwarves are less vulnerable
• Go for were-elephants or were-badgers for extra dwarven points
• Fun

CONS

• Exceedingly difficult to set up, quite long as well
• May kill your most important dwarves
• When transformed, fortress activity grinds to a halt
• May WILL cause issues with military when transformed : military becomes generally far weaker
• May be exceedingly fun for Thought dwarven Tantrum sanity... but then again your are looking for fun firsthand

Werebeasts in Adventure Mode

In adventurer mode, werebeasts are usually found living in small lairs on the edges of civilization. Young adventurers will often be called upon to slay them, with instructions along the line of 'he assumes a bestial form' along with a description of what type of metal they are vulnerable to. However, as long as they are not visited on the night of their transformation, they are just common peasants, and can be dispatched easily. It would behoove these individuals to hide themselves among townsfolk, but what can ya do?

Werebeast Characteristics

All werebeasts are described as having glowing eyes of some random color, and are "crazed for blood and flesh" meaning they attack everything that is not their own race, including undead.

The transformation to a Werebeast seems to only affect physical attributes, mental attributes are not changed though the descriptions will be relative to the Wereform's average. A Werebeast never gets hungry, thirsty or drowsy, and will not drown when in Wereform. Werebeasts in Wereform are Building Destroyers, so doors and vertical bars will not contain them, however bridges or walls will.

When transforming to Wereform and back, all health regenerates, including missing limbs, although effects induced by insanity are not reversed. All carried items will be dropped as soon as the beast enters a fight, making only the natural abilities of the creature available for combat. These abilities differ from creature to creature (Claws/Hooves/venomous Bite etc.)

If you become a werebeast and transform in adventure mode, you can pick up your weapon and shield that were dropped in the transformation, but, seeing as werebeasts seem to have minimum body size of about 80000, armor will become too small for you to fit in. Hauled items will also be dropped on Fast Travel, potentially lost forever if traveling from a location that doesn't save.

Werebeasts also tend to change back into humanoid form at the worst moment, like when they are charging a group of axedwarves. Sometimes a werebeast's humanoid form is more dangerous than the werebeast form, most obviously for snake man werebeasts.

Even if the werebeast is dispatched while in animal form, werebeast kills are listed as being of the original race.

This article or section has been rated D for Dwarf. It may include witty humour, not-so-witty humour, bad humour, in-jokes, pop culture references, and references to the Bay12 forums. Don't believe everything you read, and if you miss some of the references, don't worry. It was inevitable.

Sometimes a werebeast arrives in humanoid form, and the game then announces the arrival of a normal, intelligent creature as if it was some terrible beast. The naked, confused creature usually runs away, probably scared by your dwarves' laughter.