VH: Cursed Gift of Zoanthropy

Werecreature

Description

This heritage follows the rules for Zoanthropy and how it can be contracted for Humanoid player characters. It is for characters that are born with the gift, and still wrestle with control since their transformation.

Roleplaying Info

Those that suffer from zoanthropy were once humanoid and sane. Through magical curse, heritage, or other supernatural powers; they are cursed to bear the burden of two worlds. Most of the time, they appear as ordinary people of their ancestry and cultures, living their lives to the best of their ability. But during periods of darkness, when the moon is full or when the blood is plenty; their true form comes forth.

You Might...

• Have an extremely sudden, and violent, reaction to metals or chemicals you didn't before.
• Revel with or fine kinship with creatures who you've shared forms with.
• Maybe searching for a way to finally control, get rid of, or unleash the beast within.

Others Probably...

• May not know what you are fully, or may not be able to fully grasp it like you can.
• Find you dangerous, even if you've gone out of your way to not hurt anyone.
• Think you're either a creature blessed by an ancient legend, or one scorned by anathema.

Base Talent(s)

You gain the following talents.

Zoanthrope Forms	You can change your shape, assuming a Feral or Hybrid form of your Attuned Animals for 10 minutes. When you gain this heritage, pick an Attuned Animal from the list at the bottom of this page. You that animal is the one that will be associated with this Heritage and all it's associated Talents going forward. You gain the Feras Form and Medius Form unique abilities. Both forms take 1 Action / ◈ to do, and for both forms your statistics are altered slightly. Transforming takes 1 Resource Point, but you can transform for free a number of times per Short Rest equal to CON + Half-Proficiency. As this talent is tied to a heritage, it cannot be regained or swapped, unless under specific circumstances.
Adaptive Strikes	Your natural and unarmed weapons from all sources (including your ancestry, your class features, and this heritage) adjust to the highest damage dice you have available. As this talent is tied to a heritage, it cannot be regained or swapped, unless under specific circumstances.
Anathema: Bloodlust	Every Zoanthrope is cursed to be caught up in the heat of battle. At the start of your turn, if you are Bloodied and/or you were struck by a weapon made with Sacred Metal on the round before this turn, you must roll a Concentration⚙️ check vs DC 20. If you fail, you move to and attack the nearest creature (friend or foe) immediately, and if you critically fail, you spend your whole turn and actions attacking that creature. You do not use any abilities or features for these attacks. You gain advantage on this check if you are 15th character level or higher, or have advantage on checks against the Compelled or Enthralled conditions. You suffer a Penalty Dice (base d4) for each 10 damage you took on the last round, for each time you were hit with a weapon made with Sacred Metal (triggering twice, basically), and for how many abilities you are concentrating on. As an example, A lvl 1 Werewolf Wizard with +5 CON but is not trained in the Concentration skill, is concentrating on 2 spells, and that takes 8 (2x4) damage from a Silver weapon once last round, must roll a d20+CON-1d8 or 3 stages of penalty dice vs DC 20. As this talent is tied to a heritage, it cannot be regained or swapped, unless under specific circumstances.
Anathema: Werecreature Weaknesses	Every Zoanthrope has a weakness to Sacred Metals, such as Cold Iron and Silver, along with other Weaknesses associated with your Attuned Animal. You have Damage Vulnerability to attacks made with weapons of Sacred Metals, taking double damage from the weapon and all effects associated with the attack (such as bonus damage, other elemental damage, etc). This bypasses all Resistances and Reductions. You also gain another Anathema, depending on your Attuned Animal. As this talent is tied to a heritage, it cannot be regained or swapped, unless under specific circumstances.

Heritage Talent Access

You also gain access to the following Ancestry Talents, gaining them as you would gain other Ancestry talents (every even character level or through other means). Some of them are exclusive to this Versatile Heritage.
Unlockable at Character level 1

Unlockable at Character level 3

Unlockable at Character level 5

Unlockable at Character level 7

Unlockable at Character level 9

Unlockable at Character level 11

Note: The Origin Customization rule allows you to swap any skill proficiency gained for another you don't have, if playing with traditional or other rules.

Zoanthrope Attuned Animals

Below is a list of Attuned Animals that Zoanthropes can turn into. Each Werecreature has an associated animal, with its own passives and problems. Each one will have the following.

• Attuned Animal
• The animal of which your Cursed Gift is attuned to. The most common being the Wolf
• Associated Natural Weapon(s)
• These weapons have Agile⚙️ and Finesse⚙️, are part of the Unarmed Weapon Group, and do 1d4 + Half-Proficiency damage.
• Their damage dice increases to 1d6 damage at 6th character level, 1d8 at 11th, and 1d10 at 17th level.
• This information will be repeated on every page, for ease.
• Merits
• The boons that come from being this kind of werecreature. Some only affect feral forms, but many affect both humanoid and animal forms.
• Flaws
• Weaknesses tied to the Attuned Animal outside of the Anathema.
• Anathema
• The major weakness tied to the Attuned Animal, often having to do with its lore or legend.