Werebat

Werebats were evil lycanthropes that required blood in order to survive. Most werebats came from goblin or drow stock.

Description
Werebats were typically created from goblins or drow, although they could be of other races. Their normal forms were typically pug-nosed and sharp-toothed, possessing oddly keen hearing and yet poor eyesight in the sun. Werebats could also transform into a giant bat. The most fearsome form of a werebat was their hybrid form, retaining a humanoid figure but with their arms extended into leathery wings, snouts pushed out from their face, and eyes that glowed when hit by light. Their teeth sharpened into fangs and their nails lengthened into pointed claws.

Behavior
Werebats in normal form were elusive and quiet. Most werebats preyed on humans but the attacks were not malicious in nature. They merely viewed humans as lower on the food chain.

Combat
Not all werebats possessed the ability to change between all three forms, with some being restricted to becoming either a bat or a hybrid. Those bitten by a werebat might become werebats themselves with the chances increasing the more they were bitten. The act of biting temporarily revitalized the werebat with the consumption of blood. They were capable of flight in both bat and hybrid forms and could easily scale vertical surfaces. Like all lycanthropes, they could not be harmed by weapons that were not magical or silver, with the damage done being instantly reverted. They had an acute sense of hearing, allowing them to use echolocation to sense the presence of things around them. This could be thwarted through the use of silencing magic.

Ecology
Werebats preferred to hide in dark areas like attics and caves that favored their nocturnal behavior. They resided in temperate climates within deserts, forests, or underground, in close proximity to ample supplies of prey. For every night spent without drinking at least a pint of blood, a werebat would grow increasingly tired, dying in just short of a week if starved of blood. Depending on how long they were starved, more blood was needed to recover with 6 pints needed to recover from the brink of death. Although they could subsist on cattle and other animals without passing on the curse, they preferred that of humanoids.

Like all lycanthropes, there were "true" members of the race and the infected, with the former being born as werebats who couldn't be cured, and the latter having been infected with the werebat curse. Infected were far more dexterous than they were as their original race. Werebats born from a union between werebats and other races normally resulted in a normal racial variant, but could also create a curable child or a true werebat. Young werebats stayed in true bat form until the age of three before maturing into adults within the next year fully grown. They became extremely ravenous during this time and could devour numerous villagers before being sated. Werebats also possessed a natural affinity with bats, with dozens to hundreds of normal bats and up to ten giant bats being present in their lairs all at the command of the adults.

Society
Werebats lived in familial groups consisting of two parents and up to four children. They were most commonly found in the Underdark and many were drow. Goblin werebats were shunned by other goblinoids because of their need for blood.

Notable Werebats

 * Thelossa, a wandering drow druid
 * Heskret, a male werebat from the High Forest

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage
 * Novels
 * Son of Thunder &bull; The Black Bouquet
 * Card Games
 * AD&D Trading Cards &bull; Spellfire: Master the Magic