Weretiger 5e: The Stalker Among Lycanthropes

A weretiger is a CR 4 lycanthrope with AC 12, 120 hit points, darkvision, a longbow and a tiger's way of starting fights: from cover, at a run. The 2014 weretiger knocks targets prone with Pounce and bites them as a bonus action, and it is immune to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks not made with silvered weapons. The 2024 weretiger drops Pounce and the immunity and gains Prowl, a bonus action that moves it without provoking opportunity attacks and lets it hide afterward. Its alignment is neutral in both editions.

Table of Contents

• •Weretiger Stat Block (2014)
• •The Weretiger in the 2024 Rules
• •How Weretigers Fight
• •How Many Weretigers for Your Party?
• •How Players Beat Weretigers
• •Weretiger Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Weretiger Stat Block (2014)

The SRD 5.1 weretiger, in hybrid, tiger and human form.

AC is 12 in every form. Changing shape takes its action, and gear stays behind when it becomes a tiger.

Pounce (tiger or hybrid form): if the weretiger moves at least 15 feet straight toward a creature and hits it with a claw on the same turn, the target makes a DC 14 Strength save or falls prone. If the target is prone, the weretiger can bite it as a bonus action. That bite is the main way a 2014 weretiger spreads its curse, since Bite isn't part of its Multiattack.

The tiger form is for travel, not fighting. It has no Multiattack, so a tiger-form weretiger makes one attack a turn. The hybrid makes two claws and can still pounce. Run as a tiger, fight as a hybrid.

Keen Hearing and Smell gives Advantage on Perception checks that use either sense. With Perception +5 and darkvision 60 feet, it notices the party long before the party notices it.

The Weretiger in the 2024 Rules

The 2024 weretiger (SRD 5.2.1) is the most conservative of the lycanthrope updates. CR 4 (1,100 XP), AC 12, 120 hit points and the ability scores are all unchanged. Its tools are not.

Three things change the fight. The bite is in the Multiattack, so every hybrid or tiger turn can include a curse attempt. Scratch works in every form, and the tiger form now gets two attacks. The hybrid is Large, so it needs a 10-foot space and won't fit down a narrow alley without squeezing.

Like the other 2024 lycanthropes it is a Monstrosity, so Hold Person and Charm Person only work on the 2014 version.

How Weretigers Fight

The werewolf hunts with a pack, the wereboar charges and the werebear stands its ground. The weretiger waits. Its best turn is the first one, from somewhere the party didn't look.

Damage per round against AC 16 (claws and bite at +5 hit 50%; longbow at +4 hits 45%):

The 2014 Pounce row rests on this: Pounce triggers on any claw hit after the run, and at least one of two claws hits 75% of the time. A target with Strength save +2 fails DC 14 on 11 or lower (55%), so it ends up prone about 41% of the time. The bonus bite against a prone target rolls with Advantage (75% to hit), and so does the second claw when the first one did the knocking down. The bite then needs a failed DC 13 Constitution save (50% for Con +2) to curse: 41% × 75% × 50% is about 15%.

2014: use the run-up every turn. Pounce only needs 15 feet of straight movement. A weretiger that pulls back 15 feet and comes in again gives up an opportunity attack but gets another shot at a knockdown. Against a party with no silver, that trade is free.

2024: hit, prowl, hide. On its turn the hybrid attacks twice, then uses Prowl to move 30 feet (40 as a tiger) without provoking opportunity attacks and takes the Hide action. Hiding takes a DC 15 Dexterity (Stealth) check, which its +4 makes half the time, and needs Heavy Obscurement or at least three-quarters cover out of every enemy's line of sight. Tall grass, dense jungle, a dark warehouse full of crates. If it succeeds it has the Invisible condition, and its first attack next turn has Advantage.

Prowl or Shape-Shift, not both. Both are bonus actions. A 2024 weretiger that opens with the longbow in human form has to spend one turn's bonus action changing shape before it can prowl.

It's neutral, so it bargains. A weretiger at half hit points that can't hide anymore is a good candidate to take a deal over a death.

How Many Weretigers for Your Party?

A weretiger is worth 1,100 XP. For four characters, using the 2024 SRD 5.2.1 budget:

Tigers are CR 1 (200 XP). The 2014 column applies the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide group multiplier, as our encounter difficulty calculator does.

Terrain is worth more than numbers. One 2024 weretiger in heavy undergrowth plays harder than its Moderate label, because half its turns start with Advantage. One in an open courtyard is a 120-hit-point target with AC 12.

How Players Beat Weretigers

• •Take away the hiding places. Light, open ground and Faerie Fire shut down Prowl and Hide. Faerie Fire is a Dexterity save, and the weretiger's +2 fails DC 13 half the time; an outlined creature can't benefit from being Invisible.
• •Stay close together. A hidden weretiger picks the isolated character. Keep the party within 10 feet of each other and ready attacks for when it appears.
• •Use its low AC. AC 12 is the weakest of the SRD lycanthropes in 2024. Attacks with Advantage or high bonuses will land most of the time once you can see it.
• •Don't stand up into a second bite (2014). Getting knocked prone by Pounce gives it a free bite. Characters with good Strength saves should take the front.
• •2014: Hold Person and Moonbeam. It's a Humanoid with Wisdom +1, so Hold Person works. Moonbeam forces a shapechanger back to its true form on a failed save; in human form it has no claws or bite.
• •2014: magic or silver for damage. Magic Missile never misses, which helps when the target keeps disappearing.

Weretiger Encounter Ideas

The wheat at harvest. A farming village loses a reaper a night during the harvest. The fields are head-high wheat: Heavily Obscured from every direction. The 2024 weretiger hits, prowls and vanishes into the rows. The party can burn the field (and the village's winter), cut it down under attack, or find out which seasonal laborer arrived the week the deaths began.

The caravan scout. The party's caravan hires a quiet scout who never misses a shot and refuses to sleep near the horses. Three nights out, raiders attack, and the scout shifts to a tiger and kills two of them. The merchant knew all along. The question is whether anyone in the party was bitten in the confusion.

The noble's menagerie. A duke's private zoo has a tiger enclosure planted like a jungle. A guest was found dead inside, and the keeper says the tiger did it. The tiger is real. So is the keeper, who is a weretiger, and who goes into the enclosure every night.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a weretiger in 5e?

A weretiger is CR 4 (1,100 XP) in both editions, with AC 12 and 120 hit points in both.

How does Pounce work for a weretiger?

In the 2014 rules, if the weretiger in tiger or hybrid form moves at least 15 feet straight toward a creature and hits it with a claw, the target makes a DC 14 Strength save or is knocked prone. The weretiger can then bite a prone target as a bonus action. The 2024 weretiger has Prowl instead of Pounce.

What is a weretiger immune to?

The 2014 weretiger is immune to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks not made with silvered weapons. The 2024 weretiger has no damage immunities.

Is a weretiger evil?

No. Both SRD stat blocks list the weretiger as neutral. The werewolf, wererat and wereboar are evil and the werebear is neutral good.

How do you get weretiger lycanthropy?

A Humanoid bitten by a weretiger in tiger or hybrid form makes a DC 13 Constitution save and is cursed on a failure. Under the 2024 rules, a cursed creature that drops to 0 hit points becomes a weretiger under the GM's control with 10 hit points.

Stat blocks: System Reference Document 5.1 (2014) and 5.2.1 (2024), Wizards of the Coast, CC-BY-4.0. Tactics, encounter math and ideas are Loreify's own.