>
> I have read the Silmarillion, the Hobbit, and the Lord of the Rings at
least
> once a year each for I guess over two decades now (the first book being
the
> hardest to get through); and all those years as an avid player of D&D (in
> its many forms) I have never once thought of Beorn as a Lycanthrope. He
> likes the daytime too much. ;-)
>
>


Just remember though D&D`s lycanthropes follow D&D rules, real world myths,
folklore and other fictions are not bound by D&D rules--he resembles a great
deal to me a Witchcraft Nomad (it being a modern "dark urban fantasy"
game--what some might call "horror" ) and Nomads are people who control the
change due to pacts made with great spirits centuries ago. Beorn in this
case is simply someone with an inborn "art" a magical gift, that belongs to
him /and his people/. Just as the Elves have their things of non-aging, and
craftsmanship in LOTR/Silmarillion. Trying to cram fictional characters into
game rules is in general a bad idea--because those fictions were written
with their own rules in mind. In Folklore there are good werecreatures--in
fact one saint was tuned into a wolf for several years IIRC, where he guided
lost travellers in the wilderness back to the roads.


D&D is a set of rules. It is not the /only/ set of rules by which games can
be played, its also has quite a narrow view on how creatures are built.
Dwarfs in many legends are highly magical in some fictions, completely non
magical in others. Trolls turn to stone in sunlight and do no regenerate at
all (they are more liked D&D`s Ogres)- D&D decided "this is how our
creatures work" thats fine, and well. But it in no way makes creatures from
other sources work remotely like D&D rules.

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