Werewolf (Skyrim)

"I'm telling you, I heard it! Howling! Those werewolf tales are true!"

- Hold Guards

Werewolves are the most commonly known type of lycanthrope found in Tamriel, where they can be found in every province. Werewolves are individuals who assume wolf-like characteristics during the full moon (or in rare cases, at will).

While first appearing in, werewolves are featured more prominently in. Werewolves also appear in. The Dragonborn may become one by completing The Companions quests and attending a ritual which involves drinking the blood of Aela the Huntress (when she is in werewolf form). From this point onwards, those carrying the gift (or curse, depending on whom one is talking to), will be able to change into a Werewolf once a day, which causes people nearby to retreat and yield or attack. The Dragonborn will also get a bounty if the transformation is witnessed by a citizen.

Members of the Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild/Nightingales, Stormcloaks, or Imperial Legion will not attack the Dragonborn in either humanoid or werewolf form (after joining).

Abilities
Werewolf-Mode affecting skills, perks, spells and abilities:


 * 1) Racial Abilities: Any of the various "Racial skills" do not affect the Werewolf, because Werewolf-mode changes the race. But spells or active abilities such as an Orc's "Berserk Rage" can be cast before transformation, saving the effect.
 * 2) "Skin" Spells: Werewolves are considered unarmored, therefore "skin" spells cast remain effective (such as Dragonhide), but cannot be recast while in Beast Form.
 * 3) One-Handed tree: There is a misconception that a werewolf's claws are considered one-handed weapons. However, such isn't normally the case. There is a bug in which a character's sword glitches into one's hand or forms inside it after transforming, which will cause attacks with that hand to carry any effects of that weapon, and increase One-handed experience.
 * 4) Tested on PC with Daedric Sword of Vampirism, Dawnbreaker and Silver Sword of Fiery Souls.
 * 5) In the Xbox 360 version, this can happen with most one-handed weapons.
 * 6) On PS3, enchanted glass weapons used in the right hand will almost always appear in the werewolf body's hand.
 * 7) Alteration: Perk abilities like "Atronach" still affect werewolves.
 * 8) Carry Weight: The base carry weight gained from Beast Form is 1,900 regardless of level, race, or sex. To find the maximum carry weight in Beast Form, add 1,900 to the max carry weight in normal form. This is a useful aspect to exploit as even if the Dragonborn is encumbered, transforming into werewolf form makes the encumberment effect inactive and so he or she may carry a large amount of loot without being slowed by the effect. This can be exploited even more if he or she has Hircine's Ring, meaning that the Dragonborn can travel back to towns around Skyrim a lot faster and deposit the loot in his or her house (if owned).
 * 9) Sleeping: As long as one has the "Blood of the Wolf" in effect, there are no resting bonuses.
 * 10) Disease resistance: All lycanthropes, in werewolf form or not, have 100% resistance to all diseases. In Skyrim, this is only true for Sanguinare Vampiris, while other diseases may (rarely) still be caught.
 * 11) Other abilities: All effects that are gained through quests and other methods but are not "racial", like spell resistance, still affect werewolves.
 * 12) Vampires: A vampire cannot drink the blood of a sleeping werewolf.

A Werewolf is very tall and fast, easily capable of ripping apart flesh and armor. They have very few weaknesses, besides Silver. Werewolves have the following abilities:

Weaknesses

 * No bonus is gained from sleeping.
 * Transformed werewolves cannot equip apparel, including armor.
 * When in werewolf form, the Dragonborn cannot pick locks or collect items/loot from corpses.
 * When transformed, they may be unable to fit through narrow dungeon doorways. Walking through such doorways backwards may fix this.
 * Increased vulnerability to Silver weapons.
 * People other than followers will attack a werewolf on sight.
 * If someone sees the Dragonborn transforming, they will recognize them as a werewolf even in human form, and may treat them like an outsider or attack on sight.
 * If the Dragonborn is seen transforming, they will incur a 1000 bounty and most NPCs will attack them.

Becoming a Werewolf
In, the only way to become a Werewolf is to complete the quest line for the Companions of Jorrvaskr in Whiterun, up until the quest "The Silver Hand". Within the Companions exists the Circle, an inner sub-faction. After some time, Skjor will lead the Dragonborn to the Underforge. There he will offer the opportunity to drink the blood of Aela the Huntress when she is in Werewolf form, and become a Werewolf.
 * Note: With the addition of, characters who already have the Vampire Lord power will lose it at this point, and it will be replaced with Beast Form.

Beast Form lasts approximately two and a half minutes, with only one use per day. Unlike in Morrowind, one doesn't change into a Werewolf at a set time, as it is a power. To be able to stay in Werewolf mode for a prolonged period of time, one must "Feed" off fallen human NPCs, which adds 30 seconds to the current time per feeding. Once returned to normal form, all items will have been unequipped and the Dragonborn will have to wait twenty-four hours to be able to use Beast Form again.

If the Dragonborn has obtained the Ring of Hircine, equipping it will allow the use of a separate power, "Ring of Hircine", which is identical to Beast Form and offers all the same benefits. The only difference is that it is not limited to once-a-day use, it is made available any time the Dragonborn equips the ring. Followers will not react to the Dragonborn's transformation. Due to the restrictions placed on werewolves interacting with objects and NPCs, one will not be able to interact with a follower while transformed (on Xbox 360, one can bypass this by using Kinect commands). A follower will become hostile if hit while the character is in Beast form, even if they are a companion.

Eorlund Gray-Mane will defend the Dragonborn if they transform publicly in Whiterun.

Wild wolves become non-hostile when one is in Beast Form, but wild werewolves, added on by Dawnguard, will still attack.

The Dragonborn can be killed while transforming, if facing a powerful enough foe.

Werewolf
The Werewolf skill tree includes eight perks [2] [5]. ( expansion only)



Known Werewolves

 * Skjor (The Companions)
 * Farkas (The Companions)
 * Aela the Huntress (The Companions)
 * Vilkas (The Companions)
 * Kodlak Whitemane (Harbinger of The Companions)
 * Sinding (Met in the quest Ill Met by Moonlight)
 * Arnbjorn (The Dark Brotherhood)
 * Farmer (Random Encounter in Wilds)
 * Hunter (Random Encounter in Wilds)
 * Majni (Leader of the Frostmoon Pack)
 * Akar (Frostmoon Pack)
 * Rakel (Frostmoon Pack)
 * Hjordis (Frostmoon Pack)
 * Sebastian Lort's daughter (mentioned only)

Enemy werewolves

 * Werewolf Vargr
 * Werewolf Skinwalker
 * Werewolf Beastmaster
 * Werewolf Savage

Werewolves kept secret in Skyrim
Before Skyrim released on 11-11-11, Bethesda attempted to keep the inclusion of Werewolves in Skyrim a secret. Spokespeople from the company answered questions on the subject with "no comment" or made statements implying that Werewolves were being considered, but probably wouldn't make it in the final game. A few weeks before Skyrim launched, Bethesda stated that werewolves would not be included in the game, but may appear in upcoming expansion packs. The secret was killed after video game critics, giving previews of the game, let it slip.

Trivia

 * If the Dragonborn is a Werewolf, Hold Guards may comment saying, "Is that fur... coming out of your ears?" or "I find your wolfish grin... unsettling."
 * Hold Guards will say "Is that fur... Coming out of your ears?" even if the Dragonborn is a Khajiit.
 * Pressing square for PS3 or X for 360 will skip most of the feeding animation. This can be useful when surrounded by enemies and the Dragonborn needs to recover their health immediately.