Deep dive on this lycanthropic species, including tactics and build advice.
Lupins are individuals that have been affected by lycanthropy, but where the curse hasn’t fully taken hold on them. They can’t transform between humanoid and beast forms, instead, they are stuck in a hybrid form; part humanoid, part wolf.
Interestingly, the lupin has no option to take on the bestial aspects of other lycanthropes like wereravens, werebears and weretigers. It’s wolf only.
If you play a Lupin , you should expect a heavily melee focused species that may suit unarmed builds more than anything else.
The Lupin is one of 4 species released in Ravenloft: The Horrors Within and the only brand new species. Below I dig into capabilities, optimisations and tactics for a Lupin character.
Is a Lupin the right species for me?
Choose a Lupin if you want to…
- Play a melee build
- Use unarmed strikes
- Debuff enemies with your howl
A Lupin might not be for you if…
- You are not built for melee combat
- Prefer to avoid the frontlines
- Don’t want the complications of a grapple and shove build
Lupin traits
| Creature Type | Humanoid |
| Size | Small or medium |
| Speed | 30ft |
| Traits | Darkvision, feral pounce, howl, werewolf instincts |
| Resistances | None |
| Proficiencies | Perception, stealth or survival |
| Darkvision | Yes |
| Innate spellcasting | None |
| Book found in | Ravenloft: The Horrors Within |
Tactics
Most of a Lupin’s features lean into melee combat. This primarily means martial builds are going to work best, especially unarmed builds.
Martial class: You’re likely not going to get the most out of the lupin unless you go for a martial build. This means fighters, barbarians, monks and paladins are your best options.
Unarmed specialists: I excluded rogues and some martial casters like blade warlocks and valor bards from my previous point. That’s because these all rely on weapon attacks, even if they don’t mind melee combat. However, a Lupin excels in unarmed combat.
You can combine the damage and shove options for unarmed strikes which allows you to either push 5ft away or knock prone. This can be really handy for hit and run builds, or even more for grapple builds.
Grapple builds are best: when you grapple a creature that is prone, they are stuck on the floor unable to stand up (as their movement is 0). This effectively means that they’re stuck with advantage on melee attacks against them and disadvantage on their own attacks.
It’s easy to get this too. You’ll just need the grappler feat when you reach level 4. You may also want to take tavern brawler and/or the unarmed fighting style for improved damage from unarmed strikes.
This is already pretty good, but it will also cost them their entire action to attempt to escape (which they might fail) whereas you have only used an attack to grapple them. You can even manage that while still dealing damage.
Howl is a serious debuff: It may only last a turn, but disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws for potentially multiple creatures is a nasty debuff that you get a few times per long rest. Coordinate with allied spellcasters to cause a load of saving throws or even just howl then shove and grapple as these are saving throws too in the 2024 rules and you’ll succeed at them more easily.
Choosing a class for your Lupin
Below I’ve scored how well each class works with a Lupin:
Artificer⭐⭐
Barbarian ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Bard ⭐⭐⭐
Cleric ⭐⭐
Druid ⭐⭐
Fighter ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Monk ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Paladin ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ranger ⭐⭐⭐
Rogue ⭐
Sorcerer ⭐
Warlock ⭐⭐
Wizard ⭐
*Star ratings scored out of 5
Best classes for a Lupin
As previously mentioned, your best class options are those that can capably use unarmed strikes. This means the following are your best options
All of these can easily have enhanced unarmed strikes either because they’re a monk or because they can take the unarmed fighting style. The exception is for barbarians who will need to grab tavern brawler or a multiclass dip for enhanced unarmed strikes. Paladins can now use smite spells with their unarmed strikes too so work with these builds.
Special mentions should go to the dance bard who can work well for an unarmed build as well as rangers who can build for unarmed combat, but it tends to be suboptimal and they end up trying to balance too many ability scores, but such a build can work.
Worst Lupin classes
Even if you’re not a melee build, that howl is pretty powerful, but you’ll still need to get close to make it work. This means you can do OK with hardier casters like clerics, druids and artificers (though be aware that you can’t use species traits while in wild shape form).
However, sorcerers and wizards will really struggle here and I’m not sure rogues stand to benefit as much either. At least they can grab stealth proficiency.
About Lupins
Appearance
A Lupin looks like the hybrid form of a werewolf. They’re bipedial with a wolf-like head, claws and fur. They tend to be strongly built and have a terrifying howl
Personality
Lupins don’t necessarily fit a certain personality, but you may want to consider your former species. From what have you been transformed into a Lupin?
You may also want to consider how your semi-lycanthropic transformation has affected you. You may not have the full curse of lycanthropy, but you may still possess bestial instincts and may feel shunned from your former community.
How to roleplay a Lupin
For a Lupin, you likely want to work out how your bestial form manifests itself. How might you react to strong smells, are you quicker to intense emotions, do you tend to deal with problems in a physical way rather than intellectually?
You might consider how you feel about the societies that have shunned you. Does this make you distrustful of other people for instance? You might even have developed some bestial habits like eating without hands or cutlery or make physical challenges.
It’s nice to finally get a lycanthropic playable species for D&D. It felt like a bit of an omission from Van Richten’s Guide at the time. On top of this, no other species combines for a grapple build as well as a Lupin does which gives it a unique space among playable species. What do you think about the Lupin? Let me know in the comments below.
Other D&D 2024 playable species guides
Not sure a Lupin is the right species for you? Why not check out one of our other species guides for D&D 2024.
