A thing I've long wondered about is why we frequently see things like zombie apocalypses but never see *werewolf* apocalypses. Werewolves are infectious by bite and are far more "survivable" than zombies are, I could easily see a situation where a werewolf (or other werecreature - wererats in particular fit the "plague" vibe well) runs through a village biting each person and then a month later you've got a whole village of werewolves to deal with.
Probably because the main fear of werewolves is it could be anybody but zombies are pretty obvious when a threat. Not dissing your idea, would love a werewolf apocalypse media. Plus, in a lot of portrayals, werewolves maintain a lot of themselves (if not when transformed, when in normal form) so the fear of self being overwritten isn't as severe as zombies identity destruction. It would require twists on existing tropes but it's still viable.
How is a werewolf attack more survivable than a zombie's? Sure the bite isn't as lethal, but the creature itself is, and much more. That's part of the explanation for werewolves not spreading it as much, that and the usual intentional isolation they subject themselves to.
I get the feeling that 5e D&D was designed solely with the player's perspective in mind for this very reason. In pre-modern times, it was pretty rare for the random peasant to have silver, gold, and other precious materials in enough quantity to deal with creatures given damage immunities. I'm kind of reminded of how, in Westeros of GoT fame, the lordly Houses would have ancestral weapons of Valyrian steel. I do like the suggestion that in any feudal society, perhaps a silvered weapon is part of ennobling an individual and giving them a fief to manage. The silvered weapon can be represented as a mark of nobility or authority.
Agreed. Find yourself a brazier! Why would it cost 100 gp, just to gilt-silver a weapon (any size, any value)? Does the mere presence of silver within an edged, or piercing metal weapon dictate whether such creatures injure or not. Have a brazier make you silver bronze alloy arrowheads, javelin-heads, even a pike-head or short sword. Why would it cost more gold than you might see in your peasant lifetime, when silver is much less expensive to begin with? The economy, and numismatics of D&D is ludicrous. The coinage by fiat (not by weight) assumes an almost 10 silver to 1 gold. A peasant militia might even procure silver-bronze tridents (pitchforks), gogendags (Flemmish), or spiked flails ( Hussites ).
Triangular silver coins could be very common in that scenario. Just stack some of them on side of wooden club, and you got something in shape of Aztec obsidian sword.
I mean leg traps, poison, and fire might be more common too. Also, having a local champion(s) that deal with all monsters would likely be common too. Dude deals with threats and has a magical weapon. Get more magical equipment built up over time from fighting monsters or in wars. Magic weapons are incredibly common.
@@sidecharacter7165 I also have a "Local Champion(s)". Good way to make world more believable, makes monster seem stronger when killing Champion, and Champions with equipment built for generations is like that "LVL 20 Barbarian Shopkeeper" but in bare sight.
@@sidecharacter7165 on that note I've played a few campaigns where adventurers aren't just tough people who team up, but in fact are often part of independent organisations that can be contracted. Like a Witcher
I am thinking the currency would something like cold iron arrowheads alchemically plated in silver. That way you could go after unseelie fey as well as were things. They also might use salted and blessed dried garlic cloves and salt for undead. They might also carry little vials of holy water.
In my, homebrewed, game werecreatures are considered among the scariest things that exist. Families use silverware with a guest because the ability to eat with silver is proof that you're not a werecreature. The primary currency is silver, in part, because handling it proves you are not a werebeast. I've also homebrewed that gold has a similar effect, but it's too weak to use in weaponmaking and also just too valuable (think of 1gp = $100). However, the alloy electrum exists solely to out werecreatures. This makes paying someone in electrum offensive because it's saying that you think they're a were. Wandering merchants will have an electrum piece or two that they throw into a transaction to prove the safety of the stranger buying from them and then they'll buy back after the sale is done ("I'm sorry, I didn't mean to give you my lucky coin, I'll buy it back from you for 6 silver"). Of course, all these folk things are amusing or mildly irritating for the werecreatures. (I've also changed them to aligned however they want when they're in control.) While they aren't exactly happy to eat with silverware or handle electrum coinage, they can with only minimal training. Only a very new were or a rampaging out-of-control werecreature would be unable to handle holding silver, and they're not invited to dinner as they are trying to make peasants dinner.
Would be funnier and more belivable if all the stuff worked. A werewolf couldn't eat with silverware anymore than someone else could eat with burning fire ware, and paying for anything is a nightmare for them. Would give a whole new perspective on werewolf rage.
It's definitely interesting to see the normal villagers perspective in this, given I've never seen simple contact with silver causing the same burning effect likened to a vampire and being touched with a holy symbol. It may be mildly annoying but silvering a blade is more because it stops the regeneration and negates the damage resistance. Not that it burns like fire. But, this may be a homebrew thing. I'd certainly hate to be my good aligned werewolf Paladin in that culture. His full plate with silver inlay for his moon goddess might shatter their principles... Or depending on ur rules, act like someone case heat metal on his armor.
@@doncoyote68 I've described it to wereplayers as kind of like touching a van de graaff generator or something similar that's generating an electric field that will slowly pass into you. There's a kind of buzz that isn't painful but isn't really expected. If you're not ready you'd definitely drop the thing or pull your hand away. But if you expect it you can hold onto it for a while with slight discomfort but no actual pain. Similarly, like stabbing a were with silver, there are circumstances that can make the shock from that generator definitely hurt. I also wouldn't to eat with anything that felt like that. If nothing else, the things that you can touch with your hand and put in your mouth at and even a trained were would probably have issue eating with silverware.
@@ElderonAnalas Silvering a were's armor is just mean. I've never had a player have something like that happen. I've ruled that holding coins for a long time goes from slight discomfort to pins and needles to (eventually) numbness. There's no actual damage, but it's definitely something you don't want to do. Having that happen across your whole body would be pretty debilitating.
Two things I'd like to point out. 1. A fun economic fact. Is that using the loaf of bread method. In D&D 1 copper is equal to about $1. 1 silver = $10. Interestingly this means that a Short Bow is worth about $2,500. Which is on par with many rifles. 2. I believe that the method used for silvering weapons, is the silver nitrate method. Which used to be used to make mirrors. I believe that the price isn't so much for the silver itself, so much as the high-grade nitric acid used in the process.
How does the loaf of bread method work? In the setting I run when I dm, there is a city-state with a flat 20% income tax and people generally work 312 days in a year for calendar reasons I won't get into here. So someone making 2sp/day (minimum wage for "unskilled" labor) would have a take-home of 16cp, which they then have to spend on housing and food. Using the prices for those in the PHB and assuming they want to save something everyday they choose to rent a "Poor" residence and eat "Squalid" food, meaning they spend 1sp/day on housing and 3cp/day on food, saving 3cp/day. To afford the 25gp shortbow, they would have to live like this for 834 days, or about 2.67 workyears. This means that, most of the time, if you see someone with a shortbow or equivalently valued item and they're of that "lower class", it's an heirloom. Very interesting to think that silvered weapons aren't just shiny, they're mirror-level reflective!
@@wymbllbymbll6594 your word sounds interesting very well thought out. Anyway the loaf of bread method. Is based on the idea that generally you can compare currencies based on certain key staples. Since bread would be considered the most basic of foods, the relative cost of it generally tends to level out (excluding extreme circumstances like all the farmers dieing). And when I say cost I don't necessarily mean in coins. But more what the coins represent. Which is how much work you have done. Since barring outside forces the price of something is determined by the intersection of how much your time you put into making it is worth (determined by things like material your skill and the opportunity cost) and how much it is desired by others. Back to bread. Bread is something that generally doesn't change how difficult it is to grow and process that much. And it's something that just about everyone needs on a pretty non changing basis. Sorry I'm getting a little tangentially. Pretty much what it boils down to. Is that generally something like bread represents x number of labor units. And that number tends to be relatively consistent across time and place. So whether your loaf of bread costs $2:50 or 2 copper pieces. They actually represent the same amount of value. Anyway hope this helps. I believe this method was introduced to me via Game Theory. I know he's used it at least once. Also you might want to look up what the Laffer curve is.
@@rafibausk7071 Thanks for the response! And thanks for the complement, it means a lot! Also don't worry about going on tangents, I love tangents. Ok I've seen this before as well. An issue I have with the premise is that bread has definitely changed in the amount of effort it takes to create. From growing the wheat, to processing the flour, to baking the bread, everything has gone from needing to be done by hand to basically being automated. I think it's more useful to think about fictional economies based on their own currencies and values. The fact that it takes so long to afford a shortbow says something about the way the world works, it says that these unskilled workers are exploited for cheap labor while even the most basic of equipment for fighting back is barred behind impossible prices. It would take over 4 years of saving to afford basic healing magic (lesser restoration, 40gp), and this means sickness keeps workers exhausted and dependent on employers to subsidize their treatment. I do think, however, that it is possible to try relating irl conditions to dnd by thinking about how long it takes to afford things, which is why I just did and do lots of when thinking about my worldbuilding. The city-state takes heavy inspiration from the Gilded Age of America, and so has rampantly terrible conditions for workers and monopolization of basically every major industry. Its also a theocracy with "state clerics" that will resurrect workers that die on the job or at home, then subject them to indentured servitude in order to pay off the spellcasting service cost. I googled and got a surface level idea of the Laffer Curve. It's a curve that represents tax revenue on the y-axis and tax rate on the x-axis, showing that at 0% and 100% tax rate the revenue is 0, with the curve showing some optimal tax rate somewhere between those two values. If you're meaning that 20% is too high such that revenue will fall due to people avoiding taxes or ceasing work, I'd be curious how they'd do that? Taxes are taken straight out of the paycheck of a worker and they need to work in order to afford living expenses. Also I'd like to point out that many countries have tax rates higher than 20%. You could say that those countries often justify that by having universal benefits, and I'd like to clarify that taxes go to things like childcare and defense (the city subsidizes children because more citizens means more souls for the god that runs the place and my setting is extremely dangerous with rampant monsters). Also, because its a theocracy, tithes are lumped in, which are usually 10% of income from a quick google search, and so it's more accurate that 10% is taxes, and 10% goes to the church. It just so happens that the state and the church are the same entity and so get both amounts.
@@wymbllbymbll6594all good points. And I will admit me bringing up the laffer curve was kind of weird, and kind of a gut reaction. I reiterate your world sounds well thought out and interesting. But something to note about pricing. I don't think the cost of equipment is necessarily meant to reflect things in the world so much. Some of the pricing is really wonky and clearly based more off of game factors then real life/story ones. Like for example a longsword cost 10 gold less than short bow. Despite the fact that the bow is made out of a much more common material, would have more people who knew how to make them (pretty shore carpentry is a much more common skill than blacksmithing), and was used by many people for hunting. Some quick research bears this out. Apparently in medieval England. Your average longbow cost between 2-6 Shilings, which was anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks worth of pay. While something like a longsword was 1 Pound or 20 Shilings. Also I believe my bread thing holds true. But I could be completely off. But consider this even though yes it has become significantly easier to produce. You also have significantly fewer people producing it. Back in the medieval period the vast majority of people were dedicated to producing food 80-90% according to one thing I saw. Compare that to nowadays when it's closer to 25%. Say better technology allows 1 man to do the work of 4. If all four men were to stay in said job then, supply would skyrocket, and prices would fall drastically. But if 3 of those 4 leave to go do other things, then the supply and demand haven't really changed. I'm not saying this keeps it always the same but something to consider. Also even though I personally don't think it's correct to do so in this case. Pulling story and narrative ideas out of weird things like pricing is really creative. And if you want to make that the reason in your world go ahead :) Sp, the place you describe almost sounds like it could be one of the city-states in Dark Sun.
@@rafibausk7071 I do admit the pricing is wonky and more in line with prices created solely for game balance. I've been meaning to go through and rework things to make more sense because I value verisimilitude over balance. I'd still want to preserve the narrative things I took from the original pricing. For instance, a longsword might be more expensive than a bow but it would still take a long time for the average commoner to afford either of them, especially because I imagine the equipment in the PHB to represent adventurer-quality things that are more resilient and are of higher quality than the average historical version. Something else with the bread is that 2cp as $2 for a loaf of bread isn't really comparable either because $2 for bread means you'd be able to afford 6 loaves/hr on $12/hr (about the minimum wage in my state after tax), but 2cp for a loaf of bread means only about 1/hr assuming an 8 hr workday for someone making the 2sp/day minimum for unskilled labor (20cp / 8hr = 2.5cp/hr). At this point the "$1" represented by the copper piece is not the modern dollar (at least in the US) and not really a useful comparison if you're just looking at bread. Also something I forgot to clarify, the equation I use for spellcasting service cost is this (I remove the "* 10" for rituals): ([Spell Level]^2 * 10) + ([Consumed Material Cost (gp)] * 2) + ([Unconsumed Material Cost] * 0.1) = Cost in gp
I was just about to say this. I actually think it’s kind of smart that D&D Snake Haired Gorgons are called Medusa, because that’s more known in pop-culture, and allows you to use other traditional Gorgan as well.
I've always thought that, in such settings where silver is necessary to fight certain creatures, silver would be worth way more than gold, which, in turn, would make it harder to come by. PS: I agree with the Medusa/Gorgon annoyance.
In my D&D inspired novel, werewolves are wounded by normal ammunition and weapons, but they Wolverine the wounds fast, but when shot or damaged by silver wounds are permanent and lethal. Of course, some damage like a bear trap and losing the whole ass foot is going to remain, exploding a werewolf with a black powder explosion where it's turned into bloody gore and pulp will probably kill it permanently, as explosions are wont to do with most things
In my setting, the main mint of coinage is silver, this is mainly to stop the descendants of a dark god from owning anything as they are said to be harmed by silver. They arent evil inherently but the people are of course highly superstitious and suspicious of them
Excellent video! I love thinking about the ramifications of dnd’s rules on the common folk. Something else to think about is the usage of golems in warfare. I think it’s reasonable to say that most soldiers in a dnd world would not be using magical or Adamantine weapons, so just one golem would be a formidable force on the battlefield. Consider the following: A Manual of Golems is a very rare magic item and the cheapest golem (flesh) cost 50,000 gp to create. Assume the spellcaster creating the golem also creates the manual. In Xanathar’s, a very rare magic items costs 20,000gp to create. I choose not to count payment for workweeks to make the manual and golem or any costs associated with getting the special ingredient because I’m proposing a situation where the spellcaster themself wants a golem, so nobody’s paying them to do this. The total cost is 70,000gp, or the equivalent of equipping ~44 knights (plate armor + greatsword + heavy crossbow). It’s also comparable to the minimum wages of ~96 skilled hirelings for a year at 2gp/day. I’d consider soldiers with even a guard statblock to earn this because they use proficiencies for their job, the criteria for earning this in the PHB. If you consider a hypothetical where a lord or other ruling body collects an average of 1 copper/day from each citizen in taxes, it would only take a little over 19,000 citizens to earn 70,000gp over the course of a year. TLDR: The costs associated with golem creation sounds like a lot from the perspective of an individual, but they’re much more manageable from the perspective of someone already fielding armies or running a state.
@@KevinWarburton-tv2iyI do believe you just discovered one of those paradigm shift weapons technologies. Once one nation starts fielding them, everyone who wants to be considered a peer has to as well.
Werewolves are a good way to use electrum, a few towns with werewolves problem uses electrum instead of silver coins, people who go to these towns are forced to trade in their silver at customs as the town uses the silver to line the edges and tips of swords and spears, make arrow heads etc. it’s a good way to use an overlooked currency
_"One silver a day... "_ Yes! Finally someone with a clue about medieval economics! One silver piece (about the size of an American dime) was a typical day's wage for a skilled laborer. And yes, clipping or shaving the currency was _always_ a capital offense. In my games, even minor magical items are worth a king's ransom, and would normally only be traded for other artifacts, instead of being available in every shop, like household appliances. Imagine that having to produce a coffee maker required following a schematic, laid down by Archimedes, or Leonardo DaVinci. Then forging the metal, getting the exact number of copper windings correct (by hand, of course), and powering it with a series of ancient Greek vinegar batteries. The amount of labor and technical skill involved would be astronomical. This is the level of skill it would conceivably take any wizard to create a single magic item.
I would have thought that the approach used to "test for werewolves" would involve spilling some blood in a bowl, and then dipping a silver knife into it. If the blood boils, that there's a werebeast!
Rather than torches, flasks of oil. If you target a space, any creature that starts its turn in that space takes 5 damage automatically, no rolls required, no save, no to hit. Much more effective than a torch, but also good in combo with them. Mobs of people using the "help" action on each other to grapple and trip also work better than attacking with weapons. Nets are good. Whips have reach and many peasants have them to control animals they work with. Apply manacles and chains once the creature is tripped prone and grappled.
@15:00 I have also had this problem since forever. Ditto having to explain to my schoolfriends that mythologically, the basilisk and cockatrice are held to be the same creature. I personally cannot abide the "ghosts can be hurt by normal weapons" rule; it's only there to make Ethereal less gamebreaking, and I promptly homebrewed it out. As one meme put it, the angry furry should not be immune to harm while the restless undead spirit can be beaten to death with a stick. Someone else noted the "lycanthropy as plague" problem, but I'd like to add further context: lycanthropy is a *curse* that behaves like a disease. That's why they go on rampages when they transform: it's not a druid's connection with nature, it's a malevolent supernatural *condition* . Less Taylor Lautner, more Lon Chaney. What this means is, if you *don't* ferret out the lycanthrope among you quickly, none of your defensive plans are going to help. It's going to *know* where the traps are, where any of the silvered weapons are kept. Who it has to kill first to hamstring an organized response. And depending on how they were infected, the 'carrier' may NOT even know they're a danger. Everything else becomes a consideration for the *scale* of fantasy in your setting. Are wizards common enough for golems to be 'common'? Then every nation-state might have at least one as a crude WMD-equivalent. Are arcanists in general very *rare* ? Because in a Low Fantasy setting, any creature like the Yeth hound is *truly* terrifying. CR starts to mean different things when the 'easy' solution to any given creature is nowhere to be found.
This makes me thinh that time period and technology level are also a consideration,because fighting à werewolf in the stone age where silver was probably not an option would be an absolute hell and a half
"it's not a druid's connection with nature, it's a malevolent supernatural condition" A druid's connection with nature *IS* a malevolent supernatural condition... At least that seems to be what historical medieval and renaissance era people felt. Just some food for thought really.
No, malevolent supernatural condition from the perspective of ancient people was something like literal madness; the reason for the execution of people who draw power from “nature” relies on Deuteronomy chapter 18, not that the people in general think it to be malevolent, but rather that the person using such power is violating the hierarchy of men that God established. However, ironically, a D&D player with D&D Druid powers in ancient Israel would actually be counted as a “prophet” via a technicality: that if you can call down fire on top of a mountain, then you are accepted as having the same level of authority as Elijah (as per 1 Kings 18:24).
In a world with such dangers in the woods I imagine every town would have a fletcher by necessity, free arrows n bows for protection because while it loses them money they'd rather the loss on the bows than the loss of villagers.
I like looking at things from the common folk. Its a nice take :) In regards to constructs, one sort that might actually be a guardian for farming communities might be the Scarecrows, Yes typically evil monsters but I don't like alignment. What I do like is peasants coming to the players to ask them to bring the ingredients to the wizard in the woods and come back with their scarecrow guardian. Of course if you want to use them as a monster, scarecrows are perfect spooky autumnal monsters. With Werebeasts, even if not running Ravenloft, I use the ravenloft stuff in regards to them. Namely that by and large the different werebeasts have their own herbal bane and material bane. Thus its not always Silver and Wolfsbane. For example Wereboars need oaken weapons and are repuslsed by things with camphor. So instead of metal weapons the local towns guard might use ironwood spears sharpened from oak, perhaps they grow camphor trees and if the adventurers come into town with exotic spices, they might pay extra for those with camphor. This can go for a lot of different types of werebeasts. The one interesting ravenloft werebeast are the WereRats. Wererats don't have a set bane, either chemical or material. Each wererat is different though groups might share similar ones. What make things a lot more unpredictable.
Realistically a town could deal with a werewolf pretty easily by getting it in a pit trap with kindling and pitch at the bottom and just chucking a torch down after they catch it in the trap. They can drop in kindling to keep the fire going too. Also as per 5e rules boiled water deals fire damage, so you could just splash it with the water from a soup pot to deal 1d4 fire damage. Every house would have a pot, and if you had a blacksmith you could invent a siege weapon that holds boiling water and has it insulated and on wheels. You could have a cap on front and a piston in the back, and you could fire the boiling water like a spray
This is excellent thinking, but it also requires that the werewolf not be *among* the townsfolk when the plan is enacted. The boiling water is a more solid plan, or oil if you can be sure of safe-ish use of it, especially in the absence of Fast Healing. At that point though, you get to "how fast did they figure this out, versus how bad is the infection getting how quickly?" These are the kinds of plans that are either generational knowledge, or are enacted after you maybe *lost* a neighboring town.
One issue with pitch is that it would have a very strong scent for anything like a werewolf, most likely giving away the pits. Not to mention the difficulty of getting them to go into and not over or around that one pit area.
Lol. No. Siege engines are absolutely fucking terrible to hit moving targets. And everything you described is way above of what a village smith could make. In fact if your village has a smith, it's already a pretty well off large village, isn't it? Also you conveniently glossed over the "catch a werewolf in a trap" part. Hell if you can do that, you don't need boiling anything, just water. You don't even need a trap as long as you can force the werewolf to suffocate. But either option means they have to catch said werewolf who is a hyper-aggressive, high intelligence creature that can tear through commoners like a pitbull goes through a retirement home. You'll end up with people dead the rest panicking and one or two of them being infected with the curse. So I'm guessing that for every werewolf slain by commoners and basic guards, 2 more are created at the very least. The actually feasible option is to station a veteran, retired adventurer, etc. around, give them an estate (if the village is part of feudal hiearchy) and at least one silvered weapon (likely a spear)
@@Limrasson No adventurer who lasts long enough to become a veteran would hunt a werewolf alone so they will need people they have trained. While the adventurer is set up with all this they might as well guard the town from other dangers as well rather then waiting around till a magic monster shows up and protect the town that provides for him Wait isnt that just a baron
To add to what others have pointed out, in order to have enough hot water to reliably injure a werewolf by splashing it, you'd need a very big and very heavy pot. And have you ever tried to move around a pot full of hot water? It's incredibly easy to scald yourself, and water is heavy besides.
I immediately thought of the idea of village wardens, or even roadwardens. Soldiers trained under an order to hunt werewolves and other nightly creatures, that wield silvered blades and wear heavy plate so as not to be bitten themselves. These would likely also be covered in scripture or symbols of gods of the sun or light, think warhammer grey knights for inspiration on the style. They would probably be feared as much as respected, as their presence meant you were seeing an extremely capable warrior and experienced monster slayer, yet also meant that werebeasts were around, and this was your last hope arriving.
I imagine these roadwardens would have a central, highly religious order, that would send them out to various villages. This could also be used as a plot hook, as these wardens are likely to be paladins or clerics, and would likely come into conflict with governmental officials and red tape, or even be in direct opposition of the government. This would also be an institution ripe for corruption
D&d assumes a feudal economy more so than a consumer based one, so a farmer is not buying food, clothes, or weapons so much as making them himself. This is why basic weapons like spears, arrows, slings, and clubs were the default most of the world over. Sure, they would have to buy metal goods, but that was largely a barter system or property of your lord that he would give you in leu of coin. There is a lot of historical record of local currencies being a token or a note written by a scribe to allow the bearer a resource. Heck, Roman legionares were paid in salt and food rations and received a "gift" from the senate in the form of a parcel of land for a sucessful military campaign. A feif is a thing given to a knight for service, and that can be land, a sword, armor, a horse... whatever the lord and the knight agree on. This is most likely how most weapons were distributed to individuals, if you are playing in a European fantasy world. A paladin or fighter probably have gotten their sword and armor for protecting a village or serving in an army or some such. Towns usually had communal weapons (usually kept in the lord's armory) that were communal property, so any able bodied man who can bear arms goes to get them in an emergency (much like modern armies and police). The idea of a silvered sword is not that far off from how real medeval areas treated crossbows, cannons, and other expensive weapons. I am not sure a small town would treat a creature like a werewolf like an especially deadly creature given a troll might kill a dozen common people before they manage to kill it. It does not really matter if you are being attacked by an invulnerable creature rather than an unbeatable one; you are dead either way. The myth about Wolf's bane is based on the real life hunting practices of Eastern European; wolf's Bane is used to make a poison that paralyzes mamals when it enters the blood stream. This is how they used to hunt real wolves, and werewolves in d&d do not have poison immunity. If a farmer were tasked to kill a werewolf, poison and traps would be used more, I think. The traps most likely there to immobilize the beast till they starved or the farmer could come back to make a bonfire, pour boiling oil and set it on fire, or just keep it there till it starved or died of thirst. Even if you cannot kill the creature, capturing it would be possible with a large enough group, too. Earlier editions of d&d had "man catchers" which where hooks on poles that people used to wrangle criminals while being out of arm's reach (think a shepherd's crook with sharp bits meant to hook into flesh). You could have that be their response to a werewolf attack; subdue and cage the beast and just let it starve or die of thirst. Real mideval lords often sentenced criminals to die in stockades or gibbits (small cages hung from poles only big enough for your torso) and just let them die while being on display; Roman crucifixion or Japanese binding from a tree are similar thoughts to this. It might even be especially cruel for a werewolf as they might just trap one paw and they cannot gnaw it off sense mundane piercing does no damage. The game is written with the 3e assumption to kill everything because that is what gives you the most exp, but real life, the town just wants the monster dead, so it does not matter if the death does not grant any of the mob exp.
I'm glad you finished on the point of commoners paying outsiders in silver. Because as I was listening it popped into my head that the best way to determine whether someone is a were-creature or not is to put a silver coin in your palm ( unknowingly to the other person) and shaking their hand. It's a great way to catch someone off guard and you arnt doing any damage to someone who isn't affected by a curse or lycanthropy or such
In the trial to see if someone is a werewolf, I could image that the person would be coved before hand in oil to make it easier to burn them, just in case they where a werewolf
there are somethings i find off about your assessments. 1. things like bows are that cost to adventurers. to the common person it would be much cheaper but lower quality. adventures can pay and are paying for craftsmanship and comfort. a commoners bow would likely have less power and durability, be less comfortable to shoot and less accurate but still usable. 2, it would be relatively easy to keep stocks of silver tipped arrows if there is any fear or history of creatures needing that to deal with. even if the arrow is broken after use they can reuse the tip in the making of new arrows, 3. anything harmed by fire could also be harmed using things like oil that can be lit so towns like that would keep extra stock with the means to weaponize it.
Your videos don't miss! They're such a breath of fresh air in the endless tide of repetitive, mediocre D&D content. Every single one brings fresh perspectives and sparks new ideas. Keep it up! I suspect there's much well-deserved success coming your way.
The lords need their serfs, surely they'd keep a few silvered spears for emergencies, and in the cities I'd expect the same of the guard. In game I don't know if the spears would be less expensive than the sword, but IRL you could make about 15 spears with the same amount of metal as one longsword, and you don't have to worry about recovering ammunition, and you have reach, there's a reason spears were the most commonly used weapon in every society before firearms.
This is exactly one of my favorite things about worldbuilding. Taking what the system gives you, and figuring out how taking that seriously affects the setting, all the ramificationsand consequences of it
In the 5e monster manual, were-creatures have a variety of alignments; ie were-bears are chaotic good and were-boars are chaotic evil. I do not think there are any lawful alignments, but the levers are there already.
@@robertbemis9800 I am talking about default rules of the official setting and the official lore. Sure you can do what you want whenever you want, but the whole point of this video was under the assumption that you are using the official rules that werewolves a) exist and b) mechanically conform to the stat block so the implications of that can be explored. This is an utterly useless video if, for instance, you make werewolves have no special immunities and make them the good, virtuous protectors who the village would never think of harming. The givens in the topic are you are working in the framework of the given monster stats. Your statement has as much relevance to the topic at hand as saying, "werewolves do not exist in the real world; why talk about them?" As it does not engage in the topic or the context of the topic. Your game, you can do what you want, sure; more power to you. Rules changes are off topic, though.
I have 3 gods associated with nature in my setting, 1 good, Neutral and evil, and they all grant lycanthrophy. So the attitude and alignment of the lycanthrope depends on which God granted them said lycanthropy. If it was due to infection, well usually only evil lycanthropes try to pass on the Curse, so most of them tend to resort to evil by circumstances till they gain control. Good lycanthropes actively hunt down evil ones.
I just want to say that this has been highly inspirational for designing a low level campaign. I appreciate the early game, and wish it wasn't rushed so frequently.
This reminds me if an idea for a mustery one shot with two figures of authority. One of which is gathering all silver in the area to arm and army against werewolves, the other buying out all the garlic stocks because of reports of vampites in the area. The assumption is that they are each arming to fight against the other, but instead they are each working to remove threats against them from the economy, and don't intend to fight at all.
This video is a treasure trove of story points, based on solid foundations that allow the DM to improvise. The content, together with your voice makes this really special. Great job
Fantastic video, as always. Things like this in mind, I feel like silver would be the more valuable currency (by weight) in a setting like this, barring some similar magical/protective properties in gold that I'm not recalling off the top of my head. This would mean that commonly traded silver coins may be very light, with nobility still trading in higher weight silver.
4:01 While silvered ammo or a silvered sword / large cutting weapon is likely more expensive. You could argue with your dm that. Pikes Spears And war axes. Pole arms with a place to affix a steel a spike/small blunt point. Would take less silver to complete the job. Thus a community could have these on hand. Vs ammo, swords, or cutting weapons.
Idea: Have your silver coins in the shape of an arrow head. If there is fear of a wear creature roaming around, you can quickly fashion you silver into useful weapons Extra Idea: Have a type of mercenary called "Silver swords". These mercenaries specialize in the use of silver weapons and fighting werecreatures. They usualy accompany merchant caravans and most nobles have one or two of these mercenaries on their court.
I had a campaign background that after a major magical civil war rent the continent centuries back, and unleashed many monsters, successor kingdoms were established where the basis for legitimacy was that the king or the king's knights were capable of dealing with the otherwise invulnerable monsters that plagued the land. Magical weapons were the marks of legitimacy of many great families. And so when the party gets legally recognized ownership of magical weapons liberated from ancient ruins they get the status (and perhaps the duty) of knights.
To be fair, the bows poor rural dnd people would have are going to be the easy to make bushcraft bows and slings are even simpler and more easily hidden.
The idea that every community, or every lord, would have One (1) silver weapon for self-defense against the supernatural is compelling to me. I'd expect it much more likely to be a polearm than a sword-a spearhead is (disregarding D&D economics) much cheaper to silver than an entire blade, and since it's an implement that's only brought out for special use, you don't need to worry about it being convenient to carry (the main benefit of the sword over the spear). Good video.
I prefer this title to the "Creatures players can't kill" one Also, I feel like half of this is just that DnD's economy is a mess and players make way too much so things that should cost only a little, cost an average person a month's salary. Of course, I also think that the average village may have other solutions to unkillable monsters. Maybe they drive wood or iron posts through the body of a were-beast with cross beam on the top., it won't die, but it's been anchored to the ground and can't free itself. If you have enough desperate militia members, they can absolutely pin down a creature stronger than any of them alone.
Another absolute banger! These thought provoking videos are ✨premium✨brain food for pre-existing and aspiring dungeon masters, let alone world builders and fantasy writers period. I cannot express how much I love love LOVE your work, Grungeon Master. Happy halloween! Cheers!
There is actually a reason it’s called a Medusa and not a Gorgon. When D&D was being made in the 80s a lot of the monsters were based on one specific book called The History of Four-Footed Beasts, which describes a gorgon as being very similar to the one found in the monster manual. So it was actually because another guy made the mistake in his book first… it’s still infuriating though
I wanted to raise another interesting question. there's another way that Werewolves can be weakened besides Silver, that being Wolfsbane. I would imagine in a fantasy setting it works the same way Garlic does for vampires. as well, I could see people, instead of getting their hands crushed by a wagon or being cut by silver, would instead have to eat wolfsbane (although I don't know if Wolfsbane is actually poisonous, it could be as far as I know and would become an issue) still, thought it would be interesting to mention
Real wolfsbane is poisonous even to touch. That would make it good to put on weapons so the folk law makes sense. The hard to kill affect had a real historic event. The founder of one of the Greek city states was said to be a werewolf .went out of his way to become one. Created the city years after being a werewolf. After killing hundreds in wars personally
Wolfsbane is Aconitum which is the same as Monkshood. It can slow the heart and cause stomach pains. It may have halucinogenic qualities, as well, as it is said to be one of the ingredients in witches' flying potions. It can leech through the skin, so people handling this in large quantities should wear gloves. Its poison can also enter through a cut or other wound. So, people forced to eat a wolfsbane salad are just as likely to die horribly as the average werewolf. Thus not a very good "proof" that one isn't a werewolf.
@@Lionrhod212 that's actually a good point, maybe a thing to consider is that maybe on top of it's usual effects, making it already dangerous, it could also have additional effects for werewolves, maybe relating to how it was used for witches flying potions. But yeah, I wasn't aware of how dangerous actual wolfsbane is, so thx
Not in D&D. Medusas are a species of monster. Gorgons are a separate type of monster. It's a make believe fantasy world. It doesn't have to mimic real world mythology, which is also just make believe fantasy. Even in Greek mythology there is another type of gorgon that's a monstrous goat.
@@d-brothers3112 Ehhh, I think dumb would be complaining about someone's fantasy make believe game not conforming to someone else's fantasy make believe terminology
Great video! Some good ideas on the impact of such creatures on day-to-day life that I'll have to use in my own campaign. My house rules also say that silver is at least a contact irritant to lycanthropes, leaving visible weals or even blisters on their skin, depending on the length of direct contact.
Silver coins with a hole in the middle, like ancient chinese coins. Take a good strong leather cord and string it through a couple dozen, tie it to a handle, and you have a servicable silver flail without defacing anything.
16:32 The way I view this is more of a superstition Due to exaggeration.If I were to make a world, werewolves would definitely be weak to silver as it would inhibit they are regeneration, but they’d still be perfectly fine to touch it
I think a lot of it revolves around creative thinking, sure, adventurers can Beowulf their way out of combat encounters but folk would probably adopt more clever tactics like traps, baits… (pretty common in mythology, tricking a monster you can’t defeat) you may not be able to harm an iron golem, but you can run to the pottery shop and have it step on the clay pit. A werebeast might necesítate silver to be killed but if you bait it into a wolf trap a pit or inside a house, you can wait till morning and “deal” with the problem.
Your mentionn of the torch-wielding mob being afraid of getting too close made me immediately think of flaming arrows. Dip the tips in pitch (pots of which, complete with pre-dipped arrows, could be kept around the perimeter of the settlement), and give the militia orders to use them in the face of creatures that seem to shrug off normal arrows. Sure, 1 hp a hit is going to be a slog, but as you already noted, it's a numbers game at that point, and at least no one has to get close enough to be shredded. Of course, when the werewolf attacks the town during a drought, things could get a bit dicey, as all those missing fire-headed arrows fall down in the dry, kindling-filled woods....
I have a Wild West setting for my DnD campaign, and sure werewolves don’t take much from non silver attack and can heal that off. But they won’t be healing if they get bullets pumped through the heart and brain
Some fun sayings could come from this. "Be sure to keep your forty-pence" or "They didnt keep their forty-pence" as a saying to indicate always being prepared for the worst, or not being prepared for the worst. 40 pence in this case meaning 40 triangular silver coins, which would be the recommended amount to fit into a club to have it work as a makeshift silvered weapon. Another good one would be an eponym of silver swords or black swords. Calling someone a silver sword would be a compliment of their proficiency with any common weapon, or something the locals in a town might call a group of individuals who are known to be the most skilled local swordsmen. This of course coming from the tradition of only the most talented swordsmen being allowed to wield the very limited supply of expensive silver swords. A black sword on the other hand would refer to a legendary swordsman of some kind, given how rare adamantium is. Or at the very least it could indicate the very best swordsman in town/in the region.
Big fan of these types of videos. I love to take the rules of a system and world build around the implications that would have on said societies within. You come up with interesting stuff that mechanically resonates and feels very specific. Please keep these coming.
Trying to make Economics make sense in DND Me: "Just Don't." My universe lore would be that weapons that are made for adventures are not the same as weapons given to non-adventures. How and why this is the case can be dependent on your narrative setting. For example, the concept of durability is an important requirement. A normal, common weapon / tool would be expected to last someone's life if maintained correctly. An Adventurer's item of the same type would last far longer even without maintenance. As it is expected to be used in a harsher environment. That, and you can alter the process of weapon or tool creation based on its usage. Ergo, an in universe DND Crafting system.
I always thought this for this world to exist would need for some monsters to have a set territory; like say invulnerable monsters have to be near places of dangerous high magic. Another would be as you said a lord having the responsibility to deal with these monsters. Perhaps a hunter team is created to actively hunt these things before they trouble villagers
You're thinking about bows wrong. The average villager knows how to make a crude shortbow the same as the average goblin can. It doesn't require much intelligence and they get handed down through family lineage. Shortbows still aren't uncommon in D&D. A bow may cost so much gold at a shop but that's for someone who doesn't live off the land or someone who is banned from living off of nature and trees.
It probably wouldn't be too hard to fashion a silver coin into a basic arrow head or spear tip, a bit of hammering, cutting, and sharpening and you're good, sharpen the edges of coins and wedge them into some wood and you've got one of those obsidian or shark-tooth weapons in case anyone's crazy enough to go toe-to-toe with a were-beast.
This made me realize an interesting potential of silver not just having the capacity to hurt certain things but working similar to a "hot knife through butter" at least on flesh. Normally though silver isn't durable enough to hold up against the harsh impacts of real combat, which is why d&d always had silvering weapons be so expensive. Instead of weapons fashioned of it it's plated with it so it has the underlying durability of whatever other material, and the mystical contact with silver.
How effective would it be for villages to only trade in silver coins as a protective measure? And if one of these creatures happens to attack, a good dosen slings full of silver quarters might come in handy.
I just had an idea for a twist in a murder mystery: One of the suspects is secretly a werewolf and cannot give an alibi for that night 1 without revealing their true nature and incurring the wrath of the other townsfolk, and 2 because they can't remember. The method of murder might be one that a crazed lycanthrope could not have committed, such as poison or a bloodied dagger left behind, or maybe the fact that the lock had been picked and subsequently relocked.
I love this idea of silver being a way to fend against wear creatures. Silver "coins" could indeed be lead slingshot amunitions coited in silver. Making them unique amongst the money. Allowing people to fend for themselves at the price of a sum of money.
The ideas in this video are absolutely awesome. Can't wait to have an NPC yell at my PCs that they should be showered in silver after doing something supernatural - and explain to them why that's actually an insult. Pointed silver pieces, land owners inheriting silvered weapons - all great ideas that can be used immediately to make the world deeper and more interesting for the players to explore. I still think that your melodramatic over-emphasizing of every single word is a bit over-the-top at times, so if you could tone that down a smidge, it would be nice... :)
Can you imagine a d&d townie having a massive panic attack and crying about a Gold Wraith coming after him and the party sets up an ambush but it turns out to just be a tax collector
Thank you so much for your really insightful and illuminating videos! The way you approach and explain topics always makes me think more about my own setting in a new light. This one had me going back over how currency is handled in my setting and why.
I think what you would do is have the locals hire a mercenary. It just doesn't make sense to keep silvered weapons in every town, so when fearsome creatures like this are discovered, you call up that one guy in the region who's a dedicated werewolf hunter.
Counterpoint to the silver coins: it could go the other way entirely where silver coins don't exist at all with the demand for silver for weapons taking up the available supply. We see silver and gold used in coinage precisely _because_ they had no other practical usage. Historically, we actually don't see much use of coins in the middle ages. Elaborate credit systems, tally sticks, marked tokens of personal credit, etc were the norm for most people. Adventurers would likely be pressed into using coinage when available (because who wants to extend credit to someone so likely to die), but there may not actually be that much in circulation.. Alternatively (or additionally), trade in silver could take the form of high denomination silver daggers (note: solid silver, not the more expensive silvered) designed such that they could also be afixed to spear shafts. (Daggers/knives as a form of currency does have historic precedent, btw). A stout short silver point on the end of a stick is the most cost effective way to get the biggest damage die per amount of metal and sidesteps the mechanical problems with trying to make a sword out of solid silver that leads to the more expensive silverED weapon manufacturing process to allow things like swords that need the flexibility of tempered steel to not fold over or snap on impact. (You could rule that they have a -1 damage penalty if you really wanted) It may even be a legal requirement that every household must keep a silver spear or pike which would likely lead to the giving of a silver spearhead to be part of the wedding ceremony. Just some food for thought.
Now, as a Feudal Lord, the last thing I want is a bunch of my serfs running around well armed. I have troops to protect them, and rather than wasting my soldiers, better to hire an adventuring party to deal the the local Were creature. As for the Golem, attack the Wizard that created him, you know, surround and burn down the tower.
In Europe weapons were removed from us about 200 years ago. So though the real medieval and renaissance period weapons were common. Shakespeare had a friend die in sword fight in a pub. Victorian gentalmen carryed sword cans legally 100 years ago.
Also we’re do you think your 1000 strong conscript army comes from to fight off the Earl you insulted last month and the Barron you shafted last summer in a trade deal? Real medieval army’s were 80% peasants and your serfs not knights. DND makes armed peasants a certainty not less.
@@BeachandHills-hb2pq When I conscript an army, that is different. Don't want an armed rabble during peace time. And who told you about the Barron?! It's a damn dirty lie! As for the Earl, I was merely truth telling. Everybody knows...
Silver covered door handles. Or silver inlayed doors and books. having a silver ring and shaking the hand of a stranger would be another test. After all a true hand shake is a firm gripped hand held for a few minutes, not a loose quick jiggle. Or take silvered salt with ground brick and lay it on the seals/entrance-ways of the business or home. Even just adding silver to the well. In the real world we have silvered water that is drank for medical reasons, why not have it as the towns well. Though that could cause argyria, so who knows how far desperate or paranoid people would take it. Though if you had argyria you would be clear of any suspicion of being a wereperson. Added bonus you would actually be poisonous to them.
Man I absolutely love your videos As a fellow lorecrafter, you always hit on something I’ve thought about in passing but have never really went into detail with Always inspirational 😄👍
Damn, Grungeon Masters videos go DEEP into Fantasy Lore. it's quite educational and thought provoking. Makes me realize how much Real History and D&D as well as Tolkien made a big impact on the whole genre. With Anime and others making it the gold standard.
This gives me an idea for world building. Part of the ritual of becoming of age has the father of the new adult gift a silver dagger to his sons and daughters. Expensive yes, but it'd make sense with were creatures and would also be traditional to do so anyway. Upon marriage however, the bride and groom reforge their silver daggers together to form a sword, symbolising the unity of Husband and Wife, and is the means by which, the husband would defend his home and family. Upon death however, the sword would be reforged into it's final shape. A pair of small silver stakes to drive through the heart on burial, to ensure that both husband and wife can rest eternally
Torches are a pretty good weapon for such cases. Yeah they’re immune to mundane bludgeoning slashing and piercing but no immunity to fire. If it’s particularly dangerous perhaps use flasks of oil in conjunction with the torches. Other alternative damage types like perhaps acid would also be potentially useful in such cases.
I remember playing curse of Stradh a long time ago. We did something to provoke an attack from the vampire's forces, and my character being a battlemaster fighter and an army deserter along with our ranger who knew a thing or two about monsters decided to organize a militia in the town, so we collected all of the silver pieces and elements from around the town and we were able to make some spearheds from them. Those spears were given to the volounteers whom my character was training in proper formation and combat tactics. We managed to fight off the attack by the skin of our teeth and launched a less succesful counter attack afterwards
I think in many cases you might have a lot of traps or weapons designed to immonilize the creature, possibly while it's in human form, and then while it's unable to escape, you can decide how to go about containing it long term, executing it, or perhaps curing it.
Maybe there would be a tradition of giving a small silver coin or trinket to people who newly enter your town or city. It was common for pilgrimage sites to sell pins or water bottles, often made of lead alloys. Maybe a tiny silver broach could be lent to someone during their stay in town as a badge to show they've been checked?
In such a setting most villages will have some sort of quick intervillage beacon or signalling system to call for aid in dealing with attacking Gollums or WereCreatures.
I actually made silver much higher value than gold in my worldbuilding project for the effect it has on almost all monsters there (either some vulnerability or one of the only things that can do damage. This is not for games, there are no exact mechanics behind it). Gold actually doesn't have much value because there is no use for it beyond ornamentation or pretty jewellery. Silver is at the centre of all commerce pretty much universally because of its immediate practical value.
If I was a random villager and I suspected someone of being an undercover werecreature, I would make them eat a few small silver coins. I don't think it would harm a normal person that much, but it would really mess a werecreature up. If we are talking about Medusa vs Gorgon, what is way worse IMO is the Lamia.
The heavily Fae focused setting I'm making has the whole obsession with Silver but with Cold Iron instead. Which is kind of hard to properly weaponize because making a hunk of iron be combat-ready without ever heating or forging it is very hard. XD
I like the idea that these things are only scary to us because of how unusual these things are. Meanwhile your average peasant boy in a fantasy setting has realistically, probably beaten a Roper to death with a shovel, and their goo stuff has some sort of medicinal application that you need occasionally. Because that's what we did with all the weird and unusual things in real life.
General advice for werebeast be armed with a ranged weapon with specifically an semi acidic or poison material on it, and or ammunition that can burn like an arrow with a burning cloth on it and pacifically get into an area the Were-beast in question can’t get to this point is very important. I’ve seen many a novice Hunter assume they can outrun the were-creature in question and get turned into a statistic because of it.
I love this, granted I changed lycans to regenerate if not hit with silvered and are resistant to non magical attacks, magic by passing the resistance but not regeneration. This will be great fun great vid!
Thank you, this video helps breathe more life into Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. As a DM, I was already thinking about incorporating vampires, but seeing what you are getting at will really up some more of the horror elements. I already knew where you were going with silver being a culture. That would make sense but also still be intriguing.
In my games, I had made some modifications to werecreatures, namely making them only resist non-silvered attacks and only in their hybrid or animal forms. I did this because I found the full immunity threw off their CR- if you didn’t have magical/silvered weapons, it didn’t matter what CR they were, you we’re screwed. If you did, their stats were weaker than one would expect for their CR and the immunity is moot. Lacking immunity/resistance in humanoid form made it more balanced for players to have while also making it easier to hide. In return, of course, I gave them all some new abilities to bring them back up to their original CR. But with all these interesting lore ideas… hmm. I’m wondering if that was the best course of action. Maybe I should take inspiration from the wereraven and make them regenerate instead? So they’re effectively unkillable without the aid of magic, but a party should still be able to take them down. But maybe I’ve had a bad perspective on the immunities this whole time- maybe there is no issue with keeping them. It just encourages some ingenuity, both on the players’ side to come up with solutions and on the DM’s to give them an environment they can manipulate… which is something I hadn’t thought about in regards to weapon immunities till my Curse of Strahd DM put us up against a werewolf very early in the campaign (probably level 3ish?). Of course, we didn’t have silvered or magic weapons that early on. Our blood hunter grappled and shoved it around in a river until it failed its save against the currents long enough, which carried it away and temporarily ended the fight- but we knew it wasn’t dead and it would be _pissed_ if it found us again. Hypothetically, we could have killed it if the blood hunter held its head under the water long enough, but she didn’t have the HP to withstand its claws for that long, so that temporary solution was the best course of action.
Most villages would be fortified structures in this world like many Villages in China are. These would also possess dedicated village watchmen who watch for suspected werecreatures hiding amongst them.
Real medieval towns were walled and guarded even to just 200 years ago. A famous French story set in the French Revolution had a hero climb over the Paris walls when they were locked. The walled city’s and towns lasted longer than most people think.
A thing I've long wondered about is why we frequently see things like zombie apocalypses but never see *werewolf* apocalypses. Werewolves are infectious by bite and are far more "survivable" than zombies are, I could easily see a situation where a werewolf (or other werecreature - wererats in particular fit the "plague" vibe well) runs through a village biting each person and then a month later you've got a whole village of werewolves to deal with.
Probably because the main fear of werewolves is it could be anybody but zombies are pretty obvious when a threat. Not dissing your idea, would love a werewolf apocalypse media. Plus, in a lot of portrayals, werewolves maintain a lot of themselves (if not when transformed, when in normal form) so the fear of self being overwritten isn't as severe as zombies identity destruction. It would require twists on existing tropes but it's still viable.
This is the plot of the ginger snaps movies or at least part of the plot.
1 simple thing my boy.... Garlic.. Grown in the peasents garden. 😊
How is a werewolf attack more survivable than a zombie's?
Sure the bite isn't as lethal, but the creature itself is, and much more.
That's part of the explanation for werewolves not spreading it as much, that and the usual intentional isolation they subject themselves to.
Also one of the underworld movies, with the backstory of the original werewolf.@@steeldrago73
I get the feeling that 5e D&D was designed solely with the player's perspective in mind for this very reason. In pre-modern times, it was pretty rare for the random peasant to have silver, gold, and other precious materials in enough quantity to deal with creatures given damage immunities. I'm kind of reminded of how, in Westeros of GoT fame, the lordly Houses would have ancestral weapons of Valyrian steel. I do like the suggestion that in any feudal society, perhaps a silvered weapon is part of ennobling an individual and giving them a fief to manage. The silvered weapon can be represented as a mark of nobility or authority.
In 3.5 plenty of creatures dr is at 10 or more, and their ac is sometimes 25 or even 40.
Or a sign of knighthood, in that only knights are generally skilled, armored, and armed well enough to fight such beasties
Agreed.
Find yourself a brazier!
Why would it cost 100 gp, just to gilt-silver a weapon (any size, any value)? Does the mere presence of silver within an edged, or piercing metal weapon dictate whether such creatures injure or not. Have a brazier make you silver bronze alloy arrowheads, javelin-heads, even a pike-head or short sword.
Why would it cost more gold than you might see in your peasant lifetime, when silver is much less expensive to begin with?
The economy, and numismatics of D&D is ludicrous. The coinage by fiat (not by weight) assumes an almost 10 silver to 1 gold.
A peasant militia might even procure silver-bronze tridents (pitchforks), gogendags (Flemmish), or spiked flails ( Hussites ).
Triangular silver coins could be very common in that scenario.
Just stack some of them on side of wooden club, and you got something in shape of Aztec obsidian sword.
I mean leg traps, poison, and fire might be more common too. Also, having a local champion(s) that deal with all monsters would likely be common too. Dude deals with threats and has a magical weapon. Get more magical equipment built up over time from fighting monsters or in wars. Magic weapons are incredibly common.
@@sidecharacter7165
I also have a "Local Champion(s)".
Good way to make world more believable, makes monster seem stronger when killing Champion, and Champions with equipment built for generations is like that "LVL 20 Barbarian Shopkeeper" but in bare sight.
Edit: I just got to the point where he brought it up...
The silver coins can be used as sling bullets as well
@@sidecharacter7165 on that note I've played a few campaigns where adventurers aren't just tough people who team up, but in fact are often part of independent organisations that can be contracted. Like a Witcher
I am thinking the currency would something like cold iron arrowheads alchemically plated in silver. That way you could go after unseelie fey as well as were things. They also might use salted and blessed dried garlic cloves and salt for undead. They might also carry little vials of holy water.
In my, homebrewed, game werecreatures are considered among the scariest things that exist. Families use silverware with a guest because the ability to eat with silver is proof that you're not a werecreature. The primary currency is silver, in part, because handling it proves you are not a werebeast. I've also homebrewed that gold has a similar effect, but it's too weak to use in weaponmaking and also just too valuable (think of 1gp = $100). However, the alloy electrum exists solely to out werecreatures. This makes paying someone in electrum offensive because it's saying that you think they're a were. Wandering merchants will have an electrum piece or two that they throw into a transaction to prove the safety of the stranger buying from them and then they'll buy back after the sale is done ("I'm sorry, I didn't mean to give you my lucky coin, I'll buy it back from you for 6 silver").
Of course, all these folk things are amusing or mildly irritating for the werecreatures. (I've also changed them to aligned however they want when they're in control.) While they aren't exactly happy to eat with silverware or handle electrum coinage, they can with only minimal training. Only a very new were or a rampaging out-of-control werecreature would be unable to handle holding silver, and they're not invited to dinner as they are trying to make peasants dinner.
That is genius
Would be funnier and more belivable if all the stuff worked. A werewolf couldn't eat with silverware anymore than someone else could eat with burning fire ware, and paying for anything is a nightmare for them.
Would give a whole new perspective on werewolf rage.
It's definitely interesting to see the normal villagers perspective in this, given I've never seen simple contact with silver causing the same burning effect likened to a vampire and being touched with a holy symbol. It may be mildly annoying but silvering a blade is more because it stops the regeneration and negates the damage resistance. Not that it burns like fire.
But, this may be a homebrew thing. I'd certainly hate to be my good aligned werewolf Paladin in that culture. His full plate with silver inlay for his moon goddess might shatter their principles... Or depending on ur rules, act like someone case heat metal on his armor.
@@doncoyote68 I've described it to wereplayers as kind of like touching a van de graaff generator or something similar that's generating an electric field that will slowly pass into you. There's a kind of buzz that isn't painful but isn't really expected. If you're not ready you'd definitely drop the thing or pull your hand away. But if you expect it you can hold onto it for a while with slight discomfort but no actual pain.
Similarly, like stabbing a were with silver, there are circumstances that can make the shock from that generator definitely hurt. I also wouldn't to eat with anything that felt like that. If nothing else, the things that you can touch with your hand and put in your mouth at and even a trained were would probably have issue eating with silverware.
@@ElderonAnalas Silvering a were's armor is just mean. I've never had a player have something like that happen. I've ruled that holding coins for a long time goes from slight discomfort to pins and needles to (eventually) numbness. There's no actual damage, but it's definitely something you don't want to do. Having that happen across your whole body would be pretty debilitating.
Two things I'd like to point out.
1. A fun economic fact. Is that using the loaf of bread method. In D&D 1 copper is equal to about $1.
1 silver = $10.
Interestingly this means that a Short Bow is worth about $2,500. Which is on par with many rifles.
2. I believe that the method used for silvering weapons, is the silver nitrate method. Which used to be used to make mirrors.
I believe that the price isn't so much for the silver itself, so much as the high-grade nitric acid used in the process.
How does the loaf of bread method work?
In the setting I run when I dm, there is a city-state with a flat 20% income tax and people generally work 312 days in a year for calendar reasons I won't get into here. So someone making 2sp/day (minimum wage for "unskilled" labor) would have a take-home of 16cp, which they then have to spend on housing and food. Using the prices for those in the PHB and assuming they want to save something everyday they choose to rent a "Poor" residence and eat "Squalid" food, meaning they spend 1sp/day on housing and 3cp/day on food, saving 3cp/day. To afford the 25gp shortbow, they would have to live like this for 834 days, or about 2.67 workyears. This means that, most of the time, if you see someone with a shortbow or equivalently valued item and they're of that "lower class", it's an heirloom.
Very interesting to think that silvered weapons aren't just shiny, they're mirror-level reflective!
@@wymbllbymbll6594 your word sounds interesting very well thought out.
Anyway the loaf of bread method. Is based on the idea that generally you can compare currencies based on certain key staples.
Since bread would be considered the most basic of foods, the relative cost of it generally tends to level out (excluding extreme circumstances like all the farmers dieing).
And when I say cost I don't necessarily mean in coins.
But more what the coins represent. Which is how much work you have done.
Since barring outside forces the price of something is determined by the intersection of how much your time you put into making it is worth (determined by things like material your skill and the opportunity cost) and how much it is desired by others.
Back to bread. Bread is something that generally doesn't change how difficult it is to grow and process that much. And it's something that just about everyone needs on a pretty non changing basis.
Sorry I'm getting a little tangentially. Pretty much what it boils down to. Is that generally something like bread represents x number of labor units. And that number tends to be relatively consistent across time and place.
So whether your loaf of bread costs $2:50 or 2 copper pieces. They actually represent the same amount of value.
Anyway hope this helps. I believe this method was introduced to me via Game Theory. I know he's used it at least once.
Also you might want to look up what the Laffer curve is.
@@rafibausk7071 Thanks for the response! And thanks for the complement, it means a lot! Also don't worry about going on tangents, I love tangents.
Ok I've seen this before as well. An issue I have with the premise is that bread has definitely changed in the amount of effort it takes to create. From growing the wheat, to processing the flour, to baking the bread, everything has gone from needing to be done by hand to basically being automated. I think it's more useful to think about fictional economies based on their own currencies and values. The fact that it takes so long to afford a shortbow says something about the way the world works, it says that these unskilled workers are exploited for cheap labor while even the most basic of equipment for fighting back is barred behind impossible prices. It would take over 4 years of saving to afford basic healing magic (lesser restoration, 40gp), and this means sickness keeps workers exhausted and dependent on employers to subsidize their treatment. I do think, however, that it is possible to try relating irl conditions to dnd by thinking about how long it takes to afford things, which is why I just did and do lots of when thinking about my worldbuilding. The city-state takes heavy inspiration from the Gilded Age of America, and so has rampantly terrible conditions for workers and monopolization of basically every major industry. Its also a theocracy with "state clerics" that will resurrect workers that die on the job or at home, then subject them to indentured servitude in order to pay off the spellcasting service cost.
I googled and got a surface level idea of the Laffer Curve. It's a curve that represents tax revenue on the y-axis and tax rate on the x-axis, showing that at 0% and 100% tax rate the revenue is 0, with the curve showing some optimal tax rate somewhere between those two values. If you're meaning that 20% is too high such that revenue will fall due to people avoiding taxes or ceasing work, I'd be curious how they'd do that? Taxes are taken straight out of the paycheck of a worker and they need to work in order to afford living expenses. Also I'd like to point out that many countries have tax rates higher than 20%. You could say that those countries often justify that by having universal benefits, and I'd like to clarify that taxes go to things like childcare and defense (the city subsidizes children because more citizens means more souls for the god that runs the place and my setting is extremely dangerous with rampant monsters). Also, because its a theocracy, tithes are lumped in, which are usually 10% of income from a quick google search, and so it's more accurate that 10% is taxes, and 10% goes to the church. It just so happens that the state and the church are the same entity and so get both amounts.
@@wymbllbymbll6594all good points. And I will admit me bringing up the laffer curve was kind of weird, and kind of a gut reaction.
I reiterate your world sounds well thought out and interesting.
But something to note about pricing. I don't think the cost of equipment is necessarily meant to reflect things in the world so much. Some of the pricing is really wonky and clearly based more off of game factors then real life/story ones.
Like for example a longsword cost 10 gold less than short bow.
Despite the fact that the bow is made out of a much more common material, would have more people who knew how to make them (pretty shore carpentry is a much more common skill than blacksmithing), and was used by many people for hunting.
Some quick research bears this out. Apparently in medieval England. Your average longbow cost between 2-6 Shilings, which was anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks worth of pay.
While something like a longsword was 1 Pound or 20 Shilings.
Also I believe my bread thing holds true. But I could be completely off. But consider this even though yes it has become significantly easier to produce. You also have significantly fewer people producing it. Back in the medieval period the vast majority of people were dedicated to producing food 80-90% according to one thing I saw.
Compare that to nowadays when it's closer to 25%.
Say better technology allows 1 man to do the work of 4. If all four men were to stay in said job then, supply would skyrocket, and prices would fall drastically.
But if 3 of those 4 leave to go do other things, then the supply and demand haven't really changed.
I'm not saying this keeps it always the same but something to consider.
Also even though I personally don't think it's correct to do so in this case. Pulling story and narrative ideas out of weird things like pricing is really creative. And if you want to make that the reason in your world go ahead :)
Sp, the place you describe almost sounds like it could be one of the city-states in Dark Sun.
@@rafibausk7071 I do admit the pricing is wonky and more in line with prices created solely for game balance. I've been meaning to go through and rework things to make more sense because I value verisimilitude over balance. I'd still want to preserve the narrative things I took from the original pricing. For instance, a longsword might be more expensive than a bow but it would still take a long time for the average commoner to afford either of them, especially because I imagine the equipment in the PHB to represent adventurer-quality things that are more resilient and are of higher quality than the average historical version.
Something else with the bread is that 2cp as $2 for a loaf of bread isn't really comparable either because $2 for bread means you'd be able to afford 6 loaves/hr on $12/hr (about the minimum wage in my state after tax), but 2cp for a loaf of bread means only about 1/hr assuming an 8 hr workday for someone making the 2sp/day minimum for unskilled labor (20cp / 8hr = 2.5cp/hr). At this point the "$1" represented by the copper piece is not the modern dollar (at least in the US) and not really a useful comparison if you're just looking at bread.
Also something I forgot to clarify, the equation I use for spellcasting service cost is this (I remove the "* 10" for rituals):
([Spell Level]^2 * 10) + ([Consumed Material Cost (gp)] * 2) + ([Unconsumed Material Cost] * 0.1) = Cost in gp
In Greek mythology, there were two different creatures named gorgon. One was a goat from the Titanomachy. It's hide was used to make the aegis shield
I was just about to say this.
I actually think it’s kind of smart that D&D Snake Haired Gorgons are called Medusa, because that’s more known in pop-culture, and allows you to use other traditional Gorgan as well.
I felt the way he does in this video for years till I learned that.
Now I think it is a bit brilliant.
Thanks for clearing that up, it used to bother me too. I didn't know about the goat monster.
Still does explain why gorgons look like bull in D&D.
@@enriquer.puricelli1437 apparently the bull-like monster was inspired by something from a late medieval bestiary that was called the Lybian Beast...
It wasn't a goat. It was still like Medusa, its name just meant "Goat" which can also translate be translated as "Stormy."
I've always thought that, in such settings where silver is necessary to fight certain creatures, silver would be worth way more than gold, which, in turn, would make it harder to come by.
PS: I agree with the Medusa/Gorgon annoyance.
In my D&D inspired novel, werewolves are wounded by normal ammunition and weapons, but they Wolverine the wounds fast, but when shot or damaged by silver wounds are permanent and lethal.
Of course, some damage like a bear trap and losing the whole ass foot is going to remain, exploding a werewolf with a black powder explosion where it's turned into bloody gore and pulp will probably kill it permanently, as explosions are wont to do with most things
In my setting, the main mint of coinage is silver, this is mainly to stop the descendants of a dark god from owning anything as they are said to be harmed by silver. They arent evil inherently but the people are of course highly superstitious and suspicious of them
Excellent video! I love thinking about the ramifications of dnd’s rules on the common folk. Something else to think about is the usage of golems in warfare. I think it’s reasonable to say that most soldiers in a dnd world would not be using magical or Adamantine weapons, so just one golem would be a formidable force on the battlefield.
Consider the following:
A Manual of Golems is a very rare magic item and the cheapest golem (flesh) cost 50,000 gp to create. Assume the spellcaster creating the golem also creates the manual. In Xanathar’s, a very rare magic items costs 20,000gp to create. I choose not to count payment for workweeks to make the manual and golem or any costs associated with getting the special ingredient because I’m proposing a situation where the spellcaster themself wants a golem, so nobody’s paying them to do this. The total cost is 70,000gp, or the equivalent of equipping ~44 knights (plate armor + greatsword + heavy crossbow). It’s also comparable to the minimum wages of ~96 skilled hirelings for a year at 2gp/day. I’d consider soldiers with even a guard statblock to earn this because they use proficiencies for their job, the criteria for earning this in the PHB.
If you consider a hypothetical where a lord or other ruling body collects an average of 1 copper/day from each citizen in taxes, it would only take a little over 19,000 citizens to earn 70,000gp over the course of a year.
TLDR: The costs associated with golem creation sounds like a lot from the perspective of an individual, but they’re much more manageable from the perspective of someone already fielding armies or running a state.
Best way to fight a Golem? Use your own Golem.
@@KevinWarburton-tv2iyI do believe you just discovered one of those paradigm shift weapons technologies.
Once one nation starts fielding them, everyone who wants to be considered a peer has to as well.
@Pyre Welcome to tanks
@@Speed001
Now, just follow me here, general, but what if we put a REALLY big gun on the golems shoulders?
Put a silver coin in a sling. Silver ammo, done.
Werewolves are a good way to use electrum, a few towns with werewolves problem uses electrum instead of silver coins, people who go to these towns are forced to trade in their silver at customs as the town uses the silver to line the edges and tips of swords and spears, make arrow heads etc. it’s a good way to use an overlooked currency
_"One silver a day... "_ Yes! Finally someone with a clue about medieval economics! One silver piece (about the size of an American dime) was a typical day's wage for a skilled laborer.
And yes, clipping or shaving the currency was _always_ a capital offense.
In my games, even minor magical items are worth a king's ransom, and would normally only be traded for other artifacts, instead of being available in every shop, like household appliances.
Imagine that having to produce a coffee maker required following a schematic, laid down by Archimedes, or Leonardo DaVinci. Then forging the metal, getting the exact number of copper windings correct (by hand, of course), and powering it with a series of ancient Greek vinegar batteries. The amount of labor and technical skill involved would be astronomical. This is the level of skill it would conceivably take any wizard to create a single magic item.
I would have thought that the approach used to "test for werewolves" would involve spilling some blood in a bowl, and then dipping a silver knife into it. If the blood boils, that there's a werebeast!
Rather than torches, flasks of oil. If you target a space, any creature that starts its turn in that space takes 5 damage automatically, no rolls required, no save, no to hit. Much more effective than a torch, but also good in combo with them.
Mobs of people using the "help" action on each other to grapple and trip also work better than attacking with weapons. Nets are good. Whips have reach and many peasants have them to control animals they work with. Apply manacles and chains once the creature is tripped prone and grappled.
@15:00 I have also had this problem since forever. Ditto having to explain to my schoolfriends that mythologically, the basilisk and cockatrice are held to be the same creature.
I personally cannot abide the "ghosts can be hurt by normal weapons" rule; it's only there to make Ethereal less gamebreaking, and I promptly homebrewed it out. As one meme put it, the angry furry should not be immune to harm while the restless undead spirit can be beaten to death with a stick.
Someone else noted the "lycanthropy as plague" problem, but I'd like to add further context: lycanthropy is a *curse* that behaves like a disease. That's why they go on rampages when they transform: it's not a druid's connection with nature, it's a malevolent supernatural *condition* . Less Taylor Lautner, more Lon Chaney.
What this means is, if you *don't* ferret out the lycanthrope among you quickly, none of your defensive plans are going to help. It's going to *know* where the traps are, where any of the silvered weapons are kept. Who it has to kill first to hamstring an organized response.
And depending on how they were infected, the 'carrier' may NOT even know they're a danger.
Everything else becomes a consideration for the *scale* of fantasy in your setting. Are wizards common enough for golems to be 'common'? Then every nation-state might have at least one as a crude WMD-equivalent.
Are arcanists in general very *rare* ? Because in a Low Fantasy setting, any creature like the Yeth hound is *truly* terrifying. CR starts to mean different things when the 'easy' solution to any given creature is nowhere to be found.
This makes me thinh that time period and technology level are also a consideration,because fighting à werewolf in the stone age where silver was probably not an option would be an absolute hell and a half
"it's not a druid's connection with nature, it's a malevolent supernatural condition"
A druid's connection with nature *IS* a malevolent supernatural condition...
At least that seems to be what historical medieval and renaissance era people felt.
Just some food for thought really.
No, malevolent supernatural condition from the perspective of ancient people was something like literal madness; the reason for the execution of people who draw power from “nature” relies on Deuteronomy chapter 18, not that the people in general think it to be malevolent, but rather that the person using such power is violating the hierarchy of men that God established.
However, ironically, a D&D player with D&D Druid powers in ancient Israel would actually be counted as a “prophet” via a technicality: that if you can call down fire on top of a mountain, then you are accepted as having the same level of authority as Elijah (as per 1 Kings 18:24).
In a world with such dangers in the woods I imagine every town would have a fletcher by necessity, free arrows n bows for protection because while it loses them money they'd rather the loss on the bows than the loss of villagers.
I like looking at things from the common folk. Its a nice take :)
In regards to constructs, one sort that might actually be a guardian for farming communities might be the Scarecrows, Yes typically evil monsters but I don't like alignment. What I do like is peasants coming to the players to ask them to bring the ingredients to the wizard in the woods and come back with their scarecrow guardian. Of course if you want to use them as a monster, scarecrows are perfect spooky autumnal monsters.
With Werebeasts, even if not running Ravenloft, I use the ravenloft stuff in regards to them. Namely that by and large the different werebeasts have their own herbal bane and material bane. Thus its not always Silver and Wolfsbane. For example Wereboars need oaken weapons and are repuslsed by things with camphor. So instead of metal weapons the local towns guard might use ironwood spears sharpened from oak, perhaps they grow camphor trees and if the adventurers come into town with exotic spices, they might pay extra for those with camphor. This can go for a lot of different types of werebeasts.
The one interesting ravenloft werebeast are the WereRats. Wererats don't have a set bane, either chemical or material. Each wererat is different though groups might share similar ones. What make things a lot more unpredictable.
I'd be interested in seeing the full list, tag me if you would?
Realistically a town could deal with a werewolf pretty easily by getting it in a pit trap with kindling and pitch at the bottom and just chucking a torch down after they catch it in the trap. They can drop in kindling to keep the fire going too. Also as per 5e rules boiled water deals fire damage, so you could just splash it with the water from a soup pot to deal 1d4 fire damage. Every house would have a pot, and if you had a blacksmith you could invent a siege weapon that holds boiling water and has it insulated and on wheels. You could have a cap on front and a piston in the back, and you could fire the boiling water like a spray
This is excellent thinking, but it also requires that the werewolf not be *among* the townsfolk when the plan is enacted.
The boiling water is a more solid plan, or oil if you can be sure of safe-ish use of it, especially in the absence of Fast Healing. At that point though, you get to "how fast did they figure this out, versus how bad is the infection getting how quickly?"
These are the kinds of plans that are either generational knowledge, or are enacted after you maybe *lost* a neighboring town.
One issue with pitch is that it would have a very strong scent for anything like a werewolf, most likely giving away the pits. Not to mention the difficulty of getting them to go into and not over or around that one pit area.
Lol.
No.
Siege engines are absolutely fucking terrible to hit moving targets. And everything you described is way above of what a village smith could make. In fact if your village has a smith, it's already a pretty well off large village, isn't it? Also you conveniently glossed over the "catch a werewolf in a trap" part. Hell if you can do that, you don't need boiling anything, just water. You don't even need a trap as long as you can force the werewolf to suffocate.
But either option means they have to catch said werewolf who is a hyper-aggressive, high intelligence creature that can tear through commoners like a pitbull goes through a retirement home. You'll end up with people dead the rest panicking and one or two of them being infected with the curse. So I'm guessing that for every werewolf slain by commoners and basic guards, 2 more are created at the very least.
The actually feasible option is to station a veteran, retired adventurer, etc. around, give them an estate (if the village is part of feudal hiearchy) and at least one silvered weapon (likely a spear)
@@Limrasson No adventurer who lasts long enough to become a veteran would hunt a werewolf alone so they will need people they have trained. While the adventurer is set up with all this they might as well guard the town from other dangers as well rather then waiting around till a magic monster shows up and protect the town that provides for him
Wait isnt that just a baron
To add to what others have pointed out, in order to have enough hot water to reliably injure a werewolf by splashing it, you'd need a very big and very heavy pot. And have you ever tried to move around a pot full of hot water? It's incredibly easy to scald yourself, and water is heavy besides.
I immediately thought of the idea of village wardens, or even roadwardens. Soldiers trained under an order to hunt werewolves and other nightly creatures, that wield silvered blades and wear heavy plate so as not to be bitten themselves. These would likely also be covered in scripture or symbols of gods of the sun or light, think warhammer grey knights for inspiration on the style. They would probably be feared as much as respected, as their presence meant you were seeing an extremely capable warrior and experienced monster slayer, yet also meant that werebeasts were around, and this was your last hope arriving.
I imagine these roadwardens would have a central, highly religious order, that would send them out to various villages. This could also be used as a plot hook, as these wardens are likely to be paladins or clerics, and would likely come into conflict with governmental officials and red tape, or even be in direct opposition of the government. This would also be an institution ripe for corruption
Hmm,sounds like Vigilants of Stendarr,Silver Hand and Dawnguard.
Badass idea, stealing, thanks
Make a township somewhere off the beaten path where the guards are werewolves and silver is potentially outlawed
D&d assumes a feudal economy more so than a consumer based one, so a farmer is not buying food, clothes, or weapons so much as making them himself. This is why basic weapons like spears, arrows, slings, and clubs were the default most of the world over. Sure, they would have to buy metal goods, but that was largely a barter system or property of your lord that he would give you in leu of coin. There is a lot of historical record of local currencies being a token or a note written by a scribe to allow the bearer a resource. Heck, Roman legionares were paid in salt and food rations and received a "gift" from the senate in the form of a parcel of land for a sucessful military campaign.
A feif is a thing given to a knight for service, and that can be land, a sword, armor, a horse... whatever the lord and the knight agree on. This is most likely how most weapons were distributed to individuals, if you are playing in a European fantasy world. A paladin or fighter probably have gotten their sword and armor for protecting a village or serving in an army or some such. Towns usually had communal weapons (usually kept in the lord's armory) that were communal property, so any able bodied man who can bear arms goes to get them in an emergency (much like modern armies and police). The idea of a silvered sword is not that far off from how real medeval areas treated crossbows, cannons, and other expensive weapons.
I am not sure a small town would treat a creature like a werewolf like an especially deadly creature given a troll might kill a dozen common people before they manage to kill it. It does not really matter if you are being attacked by an invulnerable creature rather than an unbeatable one; you are dead either way.
The myth about Wolf's bane is based on the real life hunting practices of Eastern European; wolf's Bane is used to make a poison that paralyzes mamals when it enters the blood stream. This is how they used to hunt real wolves, and werewolves in d&d do not have poison immunity. If a farmer were tasked to kill a werewolf, poison and traps would be used more, I think. The traps most likely there to immobilize the beast till they starved or the farmer could come back to make a bonfire, pour boiling oil and set it on fire, or just keep it there till it starved or died of thirst.
Even if you cannot kill the creature, capturing it would be possible with a large enough group, too. Earlier editions of d&d had "man catchers" which where hooks on poles that people used to wrangle criminals while being out of arm's reach (think a shepherd's crook with sharp bits meant to hook into flesh). You could have that be their response to a werewolf attack; subdue and cage the beast and just let it starve or die of thirst. Real mideval lords often sentenced criminals to die in stockades or gibbits (small cages hung from poles only big enough for your torso) and just let them die while being on display; Roman crucifixion or Japanese binding from a tree are similar thoughts to this. It might even be especially cruel for a werewolf as they might just trap one paw and they cannot gnaw it off sense mundane piercing does no damage. The game is written with the 3e assumption to kill everything because that is what gives you the most exp, but real life, the town just wants the monster dead, so it does not matter if the death does not grant any of the mob exp.
I'm glad you finished on the point of commoners paying outsiders in silver. Because as I was listening it popped into my head that the best way to determine whether someone is a were-creature or not is to put a silver coin in your palm ( unknowingly to the other person) and shaking their hand. It's a great way to catch someone off guard and you arnt doing any damage to someone who isn't affected by a curse or lycanthropy or such
In the trial to see if someone is a werewolf, I could image that the person would be coved before hand in oil to make it easier to burn them, just in case they where a werewolf
but what if it starts to rain?
would give them an easy escape route
@@manjoumethunder6282
Do it indoors 🤔
@@manjoumethunder6282 Rain won't put out an oil fire unless it's very heavy.
@@RayPoreon I was referencing the cover yourself in oil meme
there are somethings i find off about your assessments. 1. things like bows are that cost to adventurers. to the common person it would be much cheaper but lower quality. adventures can pay and are paying for craftsmanship and comfort. a commoners bow would likely have less power and durability, be less comfortable to shoot and less accurate but still usable. 2, it would be relatively easy to keep stocks of silver tipped arrows if there is any fear or history of creatures needing that to deal with. even if the arrow is broken after use they can reuse the tip in the making of new arrows, 3. anything harmed by fire could also be harmed using things like oil that can be lit so towns like that would keep extra stock with the means to weaponize it.
Your videos don't miss! They're such a breath of fresh air in the endless tide of repetitive, mediocre D&D content. Every single one brings fresh perspectives and sparks new ideas. Keep it up! I suspect there's much well-deserved success coming your way.
The lords need their serfs, surely they'd keep a few silvered spears for emergencies, and in the cities I'd expect the same of the guard. In game I don't know if the spears would be less expensive than the sword, but IRL you could make about 15 spears with the same amount of metal as one longsword, and you don't have to worry about recovering ammunition, and you have reach, there's a reason spears were the most commonly used weapon in every society before firearms.
Even during the burgundies era where guns were commonplace the battlefield spears became even more common
it's crazy that not devaluating your coins is a matter os national security in a D&D country!
This is exactly one of my favorite things about worldbuilding. Taking what the system gives you, and figuring out how taking that seriously affects the setting, all the ramificationsand consequences of it
I prefer to make werecreatures more neutral, not evil (they're part animal, not part demon or something). Otherwise, you do raise several good points.
I would go that way, but I would have the folklore framing wards as villians
In the 5e monster manual, were-creatures have a variety of alignments; ie were-bears are chaotic good and were-boars are chaotic evil. I do not think there are any lawful alignments, but the levers are there already.
@@rynowatcher
Monster manuals are suggestions
When your the dungeon master, your making your own rules
@@robertbemis9800 I am talking about default rules of the official setting and the official lore. Sure you can do what you want whenever you want, but the whole point of this video was under the assumption that you are using the official rules that werewolves a) exist and b) mechanically conform to the stat block so the implications of that can be explored. This is an utterly useless video if, for instance, you make werewolves have no special immunities and make them the good, virtuous protectors who the village would never think of harming. The givens in the topic are you are working in the framework of the given monster stats.
Your statement has as much relevance to the topic at hand as saying, "werewolves do not exist in the real world; why talk about them?" As it does not engage in the topic or the context of the topic. Your game, you can do what you want, sure; more power to you. Rules changes are off topic, though.
I have 3 gods associated with nature in my setting, 1 good, Neutral and evil, and they all grant lycanthrophy.
So the attitude and alignment of the lycanthrope depends on which God granted them said lycanthropy. If it was due to infection, well usually only evil lycanthropes try to pass on the Curse, so most of them tend to resort to evil by circumstances till they gain control.
Good lycanthropes actively hunt down evil ones.
I just want to say that this has been highly inspirational for designing a low level campaign. I appreciate the early game, and wish it wasn't rushed so frequently.
This reminds me if an idea for a mustery one shot with two figures of authority. One of which is gathering all silver in the area to arm and army against werewolves, the other buying out all the garlic stocks because of reports of vampites in the area. The assumption is that they are each arming to fight against the other, but instead they are each working to remove threats against them from the economy, and don't intend to fight at all.
I've always thought that Lycantropes can be an apocalyptic event for a rural area.
This video is a treasure trove of story points, based on solid foundations that allow the DM to improvise. The content, together with your voice makes this really special. Great job
Fantastic video, as always.
Things like this in mind, I feel like silver would be the more valuable currency (by weight) in a setting like this, barring some similar magical/protective properties in gold that I'm not recalling off the top of my head.
This would mean that commonly traded silver coins may be very light, with nobility still trading in higher weight silver.
4:01
While silvered ammo or a silvered sword / large cutting weapon is likely more expensive.
You could argue with your dm that.
Pikes
Spears
And war axes.
Pole arms with a place to affix a steel a spike/small blunt point.
Would take less silver to complete the job.
Thus a community could have these on hand.
Vs ammo, swords, or cutting weapons.
Idea: Have your silver coins in the shape of an arrow head. If there is fear of a wear creature roaming around, you can quickly fashion you silver into useful weapons
Extra Idea: Have a type of mercenary called "Silver swords". These mercenaries specialize in the use of silver weapons and fighting werecreatures. They usualy accompany merchant caravans and most nobles have one or two of these mercenaries on their court.
I had a campaign background that after a major magical civil war rent the continent centuries back, and unleashed many monsters, successor kingdoms were established where the basis for legitimacy was that the king or the king's knights were capable of dealing with the otherwise invulnerable monsters that plagued the land. Magical weapons were the marks of legitimacy of many great families. And so when the party gets legally recognized ownership of magical weapons liberated from ancient ruins they get the status (and perhaps the duty) of knights.
To be fair, the bows poor rural dnd people would have are going to be the easy to make bushcraft bows and slings are even simpler and more easily hidden.
The idea that every community, or every lord, would have One (1) silver weapon for self-defense against the supernatural is compelling to me. I'd expect it much more likely to be a polearm than a sword-a spearhead is (disregarding D&D economics) much cheaper to silver than an entire blade, and since it's an implement that's only brought out for special use, you don't need to worry about it being convenient to carry (the main benefit of the sword over the spear). Good video.
I prefer this title to the "Creatures players can't kill" one
Also, I feel like half of this is just that DnD's economy is a mess and players make way too much so things that should cost only a little, cost an average person a month's salary.
Of course, I also think that the average village may have other solutions to unkillable monsters. Maybe they drive wood or iron posts through the body of a were-beast with cross beam on the top., it won't die, but it's been anchored to the ground and can't free itself. If you have enough desperate militia members, they can absolutely pin down a creature stronger than any of them alone.
I remember reading that in the 1700’s silver coins would be cut into quarters and loaded into a blunderbuss to deal with vampires and werewolves
Another absolute banger! These thought provoking videos are ✨premium✨brain food for pre-existing and aspiring dungeon masters, let alone world builders and fantasy writers period. I cannot express how much I love love LOVE your work, Grungeon Master. Happy halloween! Cheers!
Flammable Weapons such as crude Molotov Cocktails would be widespread in this setting.
I feel like with this in mind any and all signet rings would have a silver band to prevent any critter from disguising itself as a lord
There is actually a reason it’s called a Medusa and not a Gorgon. When D&D was being made in the 80s a lot of the monsters were based on one specific book called The History of Four-Footed Beasts, which describes a gorgon as being very similar to the one found in the monster manual. So it was actually because another guy made the mistake in his book first… it’s still infuriating though
I wanted to raise another interesting question.
there's another way that Werewolves can be weakened besides Silver, that being Wolfsbane. I would imagine in a fantasy setting it works the same way Garlic does for vampires. as well, I could see people, instead of getting their hands crushed by a wagon or being cut by silver, would instead have to eat wolfsbane (although I don't know if Wolfsbane is actually poisonous, it could be as far as I know and would become an issue)
still, thought it would be interesting to mention
Real wolfsbane is poisonous even to touch. That would make it good to put on weapons so the folk law makes sense. The hard to kill affect had a real historic event. The founder of one of the Greek city states was said to be a werewolf .went out of his way to become one. Created the city years after being a werewolf. After killing hundreds in wars personally
Wolfsbane is Aconitum which is the same as Monkshood. It can slow the heart and cause stomach pains. It may have halucinogenic qualities, as well, as it is said to be one of the ingredients in witches' flying potions. It can leech through the skin, so people handling this in large quantities should wear gloves. Its poison can also enter through a cut or other wound. So, people forced to eat a wolfsbane salad are just as likely to die horribly as the average werewolf. Thus not a very good "proof" that one isn't a werewolf.
@@Lionrhod212 that's actually a good point, maybe a thing to consider is that maybe on top of it's usual effects, making it already dangerous, it could also have additional effects for werewolves, maybe relating to how it was used for witches flying potions. But yeah, I wasn't aware of how dangerous actual wolfsbane is, so thx
“A Medusa” is like calling vampires “a Dracula”
Good point
Not in D&D. Medusas are a species of monster. Gorgons are a separate type of monster.
It's a make believe fantasy world. It doesn't have to mimic real world mythology, which is also just make believe fantasy. Even in Greek mythology there is another type of gorgon that's a monstrous goat.
@@briancoolbreeze I'm aware, it's still dumb
@@d-brothers3112
Ehhh, I think dumb would be complaining about someone's fantasy make believe game not conforming to someone else's fantasy make believe terminology
Making it even worse is that the name of the card in the Deck of Many things with a picture of "medusa" is Medusa's sister.
Great video! Some good ideas on the impact of such creatures on day-to-day life that I'll have to use in my own campaign. My house rules also say that silver is at least a contact irritant to lycanthropes, leaving visible weals or even blisters on their skin, depending on the length of direct contact.
Every lvl 1 commoner knows to fear... *THE CAT.*
Silver coins with a hole in the middle, like ancient chinese coins. Take a good strong leather cord and string it through a couple dozen, tie it to a handle, and you have a servicable silver flail without defacing anything.
16:32 The way I view this is more of a superstition Due to exaggeration.If I were to make a world, werewolves would definitely be weak to silver as it would inhibit they are regeneration, but they’d still be perfectly fine to touch it
I think a lot of it revolves around creative thinking, sure, adventurers can Beowulf their way out of combat encounters but folk would probably adopt more clever tactics like traps, baits… (pretty common in mythology, tricking a monster you can’t defeat) you may not be able to harm an iron golem, but you can run to the pottery shop and have it step on the clay pit. A werebeast might necesítate silver to be killed but if you bait it into a wolf trap a pit or inside a house, you can wait till morning and “deal” with the problem.
Your mentionn of the torch-wielding mob being afraid of getting too close made me immediately think of flaming arrows. Dip the tips in pitch (pots of which, complete with pre-dipped arrows, could be kept around the perimeter of the settlement), and give the militia orders to use them in the face of creatures that seem to shrug off normal arrows. Sure, 1 hp a hit is going to be a slog, but as you already noted, it's a numbers game at that point, and at least no one has to get close enough to be shredded.
Of course, when the werewolf attacks the town during a drought, things could get a bit dicey, as all those missing fire-headed arrows fall down in the dry, kindling-filled woods....
I have a Wild West setting for my DnD campaign, and sure werewolves don’t take much from non silver attack and can heal that off. But they won’t be healing if they get bullets pumped through the heart and brain
Some fun sayings could come from this.
"Be sure to keep your forty-pence" or "They didnt keep their forty-pence" as a saying to indicate always being prepared for the worst, or not being prepared for the worst. 40 pence in this case meaning 40 triangular silver coins, which would be the recommended amount to fit into a club to have it work as a makeshift silvered weapon.
Another good one would be an eponym of silver swords or black swords. Calling someone a silver sword would be a compliment of their proficiency with any common weapon, or something the locals in a town might call a group of individuals who are known to be the most skilled local swordsmen. This of course coming from the tradition of only the most talented swordsmen being allowed to wield the very limited supply of expensive silver swords. A black sword on the other hand would refer to a legendary swordsman of some kind, given how rare adamantium is. Or at the very least it could indicate the very best swordsman in town/in the region.
Big fan of these types of videos. I love to take the rules of a system and world build around the implications that would have on said societies within. You come up with interesting stuff that mechanically resonates and feels very specific. Please keep these coming.
Trying to make Economics make sense in DND
Me: "Just Don't."
My universe lore would be that weapons that are made for adventures are not the same as weapons given to non-adventures. How and why this is the case can be dependent on your narrative setting. For example, the concept of durability is an important requirement. A normal, common weapon / tool would be expected to last someone's life if maintained correctly. An Adventurer's item of the same type would last far longer even without maintenance. As it is expected to be used in a harsher environment. That, and you can alter the process of weapon or tool creation based on its usage. Ergo, an in universe DND Crafting system.
I always thought this for this world to exist would need for some monsters to have a set territory; like say invulnerable monsters have to be near places of dangerous high magic.
Another would be as you said a lord having the responsibility to deal with these monsters. Perhaps a hunter team is created to actively hunt these things before they trouble villagers
You're thinking about bows wrong. The average villager knows how to make a crude shortbow the same as the average goblin can. It doesn't require much intelligence and they get handed down through family lineage. Shortbows still aren't uncommon in D&D.
A bow may cost so much gold at a shop but that's for someone who doesn't live off the land or someone who is banned from living off of nature and trees.
It probably wouldn't be too hard to fashion a silver coin into a basic arrow head or spear tip, a bit of hammering, cutting, and sharpening and you're good, sharpen the edges of coins and wedge them into some wood and you've got one of those obsidian or shark-tooth weapons in case anyone's crazy enough to go toe-to-toe with a were-beast.
This made me realize an interesting potential of silver not just having the capacity to hurt certain things but working similar to a "hot knife through butter" at least on flesh.
Normally though silver isn't durable enough to hold up against the harsh impacts of real combat, which is why d&d always had silvering weapons be so expensive. Instead of weapons fashioned of it it's plated with it so it has the underlying durability of whatever other material, and the mystical contact with silver.
How effective would it be for villages to only trade in silver coins as a protective measure? And if one of these creatures happens to attack, a good dosen slings full of silver quarters might come in handy.
I just had an idea for a twist in a murder mystery:
One of the suspects is secretly a werewolf and cannot give an alibi for that night 1 without revealing their true nature and incurring the wrath of the other townsfolk, and 2 because they can't remember.
The method of murder might be one that a crazed lycanthrope could not have committed, such as poison or a bloodied dagger left behind, or maybe the fact that the lock had been picked and subsequently relocked.
I love this idea of silver being a way to fend against wear creatures.
Silver "coins" could indeed be lead slingshot amunitions coited in silver. Making them unique amongst the money. Allowing people to fend for themselves at the price of a sum of money.
Gollums seem fierce but such a setting would encourage a nascent Acid industry to deal with Metallic Gollums such as Iron Gollums.
The ideas in this video are absolutely awesome. Can't wait to have an NPC yell at my PCs that they should be showered in silver after doing something supernatural - and explain to them why that's actually an insult. Pointed silver pieces, land owners inheriting silvered weapons - all great ideas that can be used immediately to make the world deeper and more interesting for the players to explore.
I still think that your melodramatic over-emphasizing of every single word is a bit over-the-top at times, so if you could tone that down a smidge, it would be nice... :)
Can you imagine a d&d townie having a massive panic attack and crying about a Gold Wraith coming after him and the party sets up an ambush but it turns out to just be a tax collector
Thank you so much for your really insightful and illuminating videos! The way you approach and explain topics always makes me think more about my own setting in a new light. This one had me going back over how currency is handled in my setting and why.
I think what you would do is have the locals hire a mercenary. It just doesn't make sense to keep silvered weapons in every town, so when fearsome creatures like this are discovered, you call up that one guy in the region who's a dedicated werewolf hunter.
Toss a coin to their witcher, so to speak.
Counterpoint to the silver coins: it could go the other way entirely where silver coins don't exist at all with the demand for silver for weapons taking up the available supply. We see silver and gold used in coinage precisely _because_ they had no other practical usage.
Historically, we actually don't see much use of coins in the middle ages. Elaborate credit systems, tally sticks, marked tokens of personal credit, etc were the norm for most people. Adventurers would likely be pressed into using coinage when available (because who wants to extend credit to someone so likely to die), but there may not actually be that much in circulation..
Alternatively (or additionally), trade in silver could take the form of high denomination silver daggers (note: solid silver, not the more expensive silvered) designed such that they could also be afixed to spear shafts. (Daggers/knives as a form of currency does have historic precedent, btw). A stout short silver point on the end of a stick is the most cost effective way to get the biggest damage die per amount of metal and sidesteps the mechanical problems with trying to make a sword out of solid silver that leads to the more expensive silverED weapon manufacturing process to allow things like swords that need the flexibility of tempered steel to not fold over or snap on impact.
(You could rule that they have a -1 damage penalty if you really wanted)
It may even be a legal requirement that every household must keep a silver spear or pike which would likely lead to the giving of a silver spearhead to be part of the wedding ceremony.
Just some food for thought.
Now, as a Feudal Lord, the last thing I want is a bunch of my serfs running around well armed. I have troops to protect them, and rather than wasting my soldiers, better to hire an adventuring party to deal the the local Were creature. As for the Golem, attack the Wizard that created him, you know, surround and burn down the tower.
In Europe weapons were removed from us about 200 years ago. So though the real medieval and renaissance period weapons were common. Shakespeare had a friend die in sword fight in a pub. Victorian gentalmen carryed sword cans legally 100 years ago.
Also we’re do you think your 1000 strong conscript army comes from to fight off the Earl you insulted last month and the Barron you shafted last summer in a trade deal? Real medieval army’s were 80% peasants and your serfs not knights. DND makes armed peasants a certainty not less.
@@BeachandHills-hb2pq When I conscript an army, that is different. Don't want an armed rabble during peace time. And who told you about the Barron?! It's a damn dirty lie! As for the Earl, I was merely truth telling. Everybody knows...
Silver covered door handles. Or silver inlayed doors and books. having a silver ring and shaking the hand of a stranger would be another test. After all a true hand shake is a firm gripped hand held for a few minutes, not a loose quick jiggle. Or take silvered salt with ground brick and lay it on the seals/entrance-ways of the business or home. Even just adding silver to the well. In the real world we have silvered water that is drank for medical reasons, why not have it as the towns well. Though that could cause argyria, so who knows how far desperate or paranoid people would take it. Though if you had argyria you would be clear of any suspicion of being a wereperson. Added bonus you would actually be poisonous to them.
Man I absolutely love your videos
As a fellow lorecrafter, you always hit on something I’ve thought about in passing but have never really went into detail with
Always inspirational 😄👍
Moon Druids and Lunar Priests could be popular priests in rural areas in a world with substantial lycanthrope attacks.
Damn, Grungeon Masters videos go DEEP into Fantasy Lore. it's quite educational and thought provoking. Makes me realize how much Real History and D&D as well as Tolkien made a big impact on the whole genre. With Anime and others making it the gold standard.
This gives me an idea for world building.
Part of the ritual of becoming of age has the father of the new adult gift a silver dagger to his sons and daughters. Expensive yes, but it'd make sense with were creatures and would also be traditional to do so anyway.
Upon marriage however, the bride and groom reforge their silver daggers together to form a sword, symbolising the unity of Husband and Wife, and is the means by which, the husband would defend his home and family.
Upon death however, the sword would be reforged into it's final shape. A pair of small silver stakes to drive through the heart on burial, to ensure that both husband and wife can rest eternally
Torches are a pretty good weapon for such cases. Yeah they’re immune to mundane bludgeoning slashing and piercing but no immunity to fire. If it’s particularly dangerous perhaps use flasks of oil in conjunction with the torches.
Other alternative damage types like perhaps acid would also be potentially useful in such cases.
The joker: “everything burns”
What do peasants fear the most? The tax collector. You are allowed to fight the undead you see.
Absolutely loving all your RP dives, these are amazing thought experiments to ponder even outside the world of campaign building.
I remember playing curse of Stradh a long time ago. We did something to provoke an attack from the vampire's forces, and my character being a battlemaster fighter and an army deserter along with our ranger who knew a thing or two about monsters decided to organize a militia in the town, so we collected all of the silver pieces and elements from around the town and we were able to make some spearheds from them. Those spears were given to the volounteers whom my character was training in proper formation and combat tactics. We managed to fight off the attack by the skin of our teeth and launched a less succesful counter attack afterwards
15:11 I agree it's a legit bug of the original version. And I am IN FREAKIN' LOVE with the original version!
I think in many cases you might have a lot of traps or weapons designed to immonilize the creature, possibly while it's in human form, and then while it's unable to escape, you can decide how to go about containing it long term, executing it, or perhaps curing it.
Maybe there would be a tradition of giving a small silver coin or trinket to people who newly enter your town or city. It was common for pilgrimage sites to sell pins or water bottles, often made of lead alloys. Maybe a tiny silver broach could be lent to someone during their stay in town as a badge to show they've been checked?
In such a setting most villages will have some sort of quick intervillage beacon or signalling system to call for aid in dealing with attacking Gollums or WereCreatures.
It’s crazy that a bow is 25 gp but a handmade chair which would be almost the exact same materials time and skill is probably 1 ep or so
I actually made silver much higher value than gold in my worldbuilding project for the effect it has on almost all monsters there (either some vulnerability or one of the only things that can do damage. This is not for games, there are no exact mechanics behind it). Gold actually doesn't have much value because there is no use for it beyond ornamentation or pretty jewellery. Silver is at the centre of all commerce pretty much universally because of its immediate practical value.
If I was a random villager and I suspected someone of being an undercover werecreature, I would make them eat a few small silver coins. I don't think it would harm a normal person that much, but it would really mess a werecreature up.
If we are talking about Medusa vs Gorgon, what is way worse IMO is the Lamia.
The heavily Fae focused setting I'm making has the whole obsession with Silver but with Cold Iron instead. Which is kind of hard to properly weaponize because making a hunk of iron be combat-ready without ever heating or forging it is very hard. XD
Fire damage can also be achieved by lashing a torch to a polearm. Given enough long sticks, a small group can fend off a werecreature for some time.
I like the idea that these things are only scary to us because of how unusual these things are. Meanwhile your average peasant boy in a fantasy setting has realistically, probably beaten a Roper to death with a shovel, and their goo stuff has some sort of medicinal application that you need occasionally. Because that's what we did with all the weird and unusual things in real life.
General advice for werebeast be armed with a ranged weapon with specifically an semi acidic or poison material on it, and or ammunition that can burn like an arrow with a burning cloth on it and pacifically get into an area the Were-beast in question can’t get to this point is very important. I’ve seen many a novice Hunter assume they can outrun the were-creature in question and get turned into a statistic because of it.
This could have been an entire video about the creative potential of silver coins. BTW, silver coin studded club is a must.
I love this, granted I changed lycans to regenerate if not hit with silvered and are resistant to non magical attacks, magic by passing the resistance but not regeneration. This will be great fun great vid!
Also *meanwhile, i sharpen the silverware of a noble on the smith to surprise a werewolf who tacticly stole all the silver weapons*
Stick and string: i am a low grade weapon that is 200$
Sling: am a weaved rope and some stones i go for 10$
Thank you, this video helps breathe more life into Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden. As a DM, I was already thinking about incorporating vampires, but seeing what you are getting at will really up some more of the horror elements. I already knew where you were going with silver being a culture. That would make sense but also still be intriguing.
In my games, I had made some modifications to werecreatures, namely making them only resist non-silvered attacks and only in their hybrid or animal forms. I did this because I found the full immunity threw off their CR- if you didn’t have magical/silvered weapons, it didn’t matter what CR they were, you we’re screwed. If you did, their stats were weaker than one would expect for their CR and the immunity is moot.
Lacking immunity/resistance in humanoid form made it more balanced for players to have while also making it easier to hide.
In return, of course, I gave them all some new abilities to bring them back up to their original CR.
But with all these interesting lore ideas… hmm. I’m wondering if that was the best course of action.
Maybe I should take inspiration from the wereraven and make them regenerate instead? So they’re effectively unkillable without the aid of magic, but a party should still be able to take them down.
But maybe I’ve had a bad perspective on the immunities this whole time- maybe there is no issue with keeping them. It just encourages some ingenuity, both on the players’ side to come up with solutions and on the DM’s to give them an environment they can manipulate… which is something I hadn’t thought about in regards to weapon immunities till my Curse of Strahd DM put us up against a werewolf very early in the campaign (probably level 3ish?). Of course, we didn’t have silvered or magic weapons that early on. Our blood hunter grappled and shoved it around in a river until it failed its save against the currents long enough, which carried it away and temporarily ended the fight- but we knew it wasn’t dead and it would be _pissed_ if it found us again.
Hypothetically, we could have killed it if the blood hunter held its head under the water long enough, but she didn’t have the HP to withstand its claws for that long, so that temporary solution was the best course of action.
Perhaps we should look into the origins of that steel bull that D&D calls a Gorgon
Most villages would be fortified structures in this world like many Villages in China are. These would also possess dedicated village watchmen who watch for suspected werecreatures hiding amongst them.
Real medieval towns were walled and guarded even to just 200 years ago. A famous French story set in the French Revolution had a hero climb over the Paris walls when they were locked. The walled city’s and towns lasted longer than most people think.