D&D Monsters: Lycanthropes

In the real world, "lycanthrope" is just another word for "werewolf"; the word literally means "wolf-man" in Ancient Greek. In D&D, and many other RPGs, however, it's meaning has been expanded to refer to a general class of shapeshifters, of which werewolves are merely the most common example. While others have appeared in supplements from time to time, there are four core types other than werewolves. All of these operate in the same general way, in terms of how the moon, silver, and so on, affect them, and how they pass on the condition, so that what I've already said about werewolves typically applies to all of them, too.

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1E

Wererats

Wererats as such appear to be an invention of D&D, although some other legendary creatures (such as vampires) or evil sorcerers have often been said to be able to transform themselves into rats or similar vermin. Non-shapeshifting "rat-men" do predate D&D, but even they are a 20th century invention, appearing in stories by, among others, H.P. Lovecraft and Fritz Leiber. These are most likely the source of Gygax's inspiration.

Wererats are the lowest rung on the stepwise progression of 1E lycanthropes, although they already have the hit dice of a bugbear, the second highest creature in the 'evil humanoid' progression. Unlike the other lycanthropes they can, right from the beginning, transform into both rat and rat-man forms; the latter, unusually, retain human feet and regularly wield weapons. They live in communities of a dozen or so individuals and, according to 2E normally only breed with humans; the condition is passed on to the child only if the mother is the wererat (which makes sense for a bloodborne pathogen).