War-Wolf
A War-Wolf is a formerly human individual who's been deliberately inoculated with a synthetic form of lycanthropy, the product of several WW2-era super-soldier programs. While not as powerful as "natural" lycanthropes they also suffer less from their traditional weaknesses, with silver causing only minor allergic reactions and most of them able to retain their human intelligence even under a full moon. They do become much more violent and bloodthirsty both in and out of their were-form, making them dangerous and somewhat unstable allies. The War-Wolf infection is non-transmissible and requires a series of injections and weeks or months of incubation time for the full physical transformation to take effect. There may be a cure available, although finding someone who'll admit to having it may be difficult.
While no modern-day government admits to creating War-Wolves, they do crop up infrequently in the supers community, and small units of them have been encountered executing black ops and engaging in criminal activities worldwide over the last seventy-odd years. Very few War-Wolves operate alone, preferring to join villain teams or criminal organizations when they can't find others of their own kind to form a pack with. While sometimes dangerous to work with, they bring enough supernatural muscle and military training to be worth the risks.
Description: In their human form they tend to be tall, long-limbed, and leanly muscular regardless of gender or age. Their eyes (usually blue, sometimes yellow) reflect light, giving a hint of their true nature. In their lycanthropic form they grow a short coat of fur, a pronounced muzzle with powerful jaws and prominent teeth, wolf-like ears, and both hands and feet have short but dangerous claws.
Gender: Usually Male Age: 20-40 Height: Above Average Eyes: Reflective
Hair/Fur: Gray Shot Through With White Skin: Pallid Build: Rangy
Approach: Relentless Archetype: Bruiser
Health: 40 + (5 x H)
Powers: Synthetic Lycanthropy d10, Vitality d8, Awareness d6
Qualities: Self-Discipline d10, Alertness d8, Werewolf Soldier d8, Leadership d6
Status: Green Zone Health - d6 / Yellow Zone Health - d8 / Red Zone Health - d10
Abilities:
Cull the Weak (A) Attack and Hinder using Werewolf Soldier. If the target status die is d4 or d6, use your Max + Min dice. If target status die is d8, use your Max die. If target status die is d10 or d12, use your Mid die.
Mounting Rage (A) Attack using Synthetic Lycanthropy. If your current status is in the Green zone, use your Max die. If your current status is in the Yellow zone, use your Max + Min dice. If your current is in the Red zone, use your Max + Min dice against one target and your Mid die against a different target.
Supernatural Toughness (I) Reduce damage taken from physical or energy sources by 1/2/3 while you are in the Green/Yellow/Red zone.
Unrelenting (R) After making an Attack action during your turn, use your Mid die to make another Attack against one target of the initial Attack.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Group Fighter (I) +20 Health. When you take an action that lets you make an Attack, also make an Attack using your Mid die.
Master of Conquest (I) As long as you are in command of your own forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome to seize an area or capture civilians.
Tactics
A War-Wolf will usually adopt their lycanthropic form in a fight, relying on their supernatural durability and speed to close in for melee where their strength and dangerous bite and claws will serve them well. They prefer to use Cull the Weak combined with Unrelenting to pile damage on the most vulnerable foe first, switching to Mounting Rage when badly hurt or if they have no targets left with a d6 status die. Supernatural Toughness makes them harder to hurt than most, although they're vulnerable to exotic attacks and will either avoid or quickly disable foes with such attacks if possible. Battles with War-Wolves tend to be damage races, they hit hard and fast but have little in the way of active defenses.
With their upgrade they can put out damage even faster while taking a lot more work to put down. Their mastery represents their coordinated tactics, a combination of pack instinct and military training.
Their Synthetic Lycanthropy power grants them dangerous natural weapons, low-grade super-strength and enhanced speed and endurance. In human form they're still inhumanly resistant to injury and demonstrate greatly enhanced olfactory and auditory senses as well as low-light vision.
War-Wolves that are attempting to conceal their true nature will fight with conventional (usually military-grade) weapons, but may lose control and transform if hard-pressed. At that point the best way to keep their secret is likely to involving eliminating any and all witnesses.
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When you want to use a whole pack of War-Wolves (either alone, with more mundane minions, or alongside a major villain or two) treating them as lieutenants is probably a better approach. These lesser versions are still dangerous but much more prone to specific anti-lycanthrope measures.
War-Wolves d10 lieutenants
Description: They're wolf-men, as described above. Or possibly wolf-women, if they were created by someone who's less sexist than most deniable-asset military research programs are.
Cull the Weak: When you make an Attack action, also Hinder that target with the same die roll. You receive a +1 bonus to the roll if the target has a d8 status die, or a +2 bonus if the target has a d6 status die.
Supernatural Allergies: If you are Hindered by silver, wolfsbane, or magical effects specifically tailored to lycanthropes, increase the resulting penalty by 1. If Attacked by any of these, you are also Hindered using the same die roll with the same increased penalty effect.
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