So last night, my 4th level artificer faced...I don't know, his 2nd or 3rd lycanthrope this adventure, this time a weretiger. My character, Alric Vown, future scion of House Cannith once he proves how valuable he is, charged in with his self-empowered morning star +1 of shapechanger bane.
A nasty swing to the head nearly killing the weretiger resulted in a retaliating claw, claw, bite routine which Alric promptly took to the face, nearly killing him in one savage round of attacks. The group prevailed over the creature, but little did Alric know, he was infected with that foul symbol of corruption, lycanthropy.
He had no idea until the next full moon, at which point he tore off his masterwork chain shirt (destroying it) and wandered the countryside doing whatever it is that weretigers do. Upon waking up the next dawn, his loyal homonculous, Custos, made him aware of his predicament, as well as Swift Gear, the group's steadfast warforged guardian, which mean the rest of his companions was aware of his sickness.
So now he has one day left of the full moon to find the components to scribe himself a scroll of Remove curse, or to accept his condition and live with being the evil, foul thing that he knows were-creatures to be for at least one more month.
So here is my issues:
I made an artificer to be a self-buffing tank, as a were-creature, I am quite a powerhouse, having gained 6 hit dice, making Alric effectively a 13th level character. But my character hates were-creatures, believing them to be sinful things. Even if my character "cures" himself, can he really consider himself to be free of the taint? If evil is a disease, and it can be cured, what right does he to "kill" evil beings as opposed to curing them?
Game-wise: Alric can now walk through the rest of the adventure single-handedly, he already was the arcane/divine caster for the group, now hes squarely in the "tank" category. For the balance of the group, and to make sure he gets experience one day soon (he is far higher level than any encounter he's likely to face for some time), he should cure himself.
BUT, if he cures himself, hes out of the gold he spent on his masterwork chain shirt, as well as the 400 something gold for the scroll of Remove Curse cast @level 3 (artificer ability). This puts him quite a bit behind the rest of the group in terms of wealth, still leaves him with his ethical issues, and takes away my only chance to legitimately play a were-creature.
So here are my options
1) Retire my character until the rest of the group catches up to him, then bring him back. This way I don't outlevel the group, I get to keep my legitimate were-tiger character, and I can role-play the concept of my character wandering the countryside "finding" himself. I'd most likely bring in a cleric since we don't have any kind of caster and a cleric is probably more useful than a wizard in terms of "just one caster in the group"
2) Spend the gold, suck it up, ignore the role-playing aspects of the affliction, and go on. This way I do get to see my artificer expand into the prestige class I have prepared for him, renegade mastermaker (he becomes a cyborg replacing bits of himself with war-forged components).
What should I do? Post your comments here