Lycanthropy

Lycanthropy is an intrinsic conveyed by being bitten by a werecreature - a werejackal, wererat, or werewolf. It is also conveyed by eating the corpse of one of the above. The message "You feel feverish" is displayed upon acquiring the intrinsic.

The intrinsic transforms you into the animal form at regular intervals. Quaffing a potion of unholy water will do the same. While in were form, you can summon jackals, rats, or wolves as pets. Polymorphing will toggle between forms.

Lycanthropy is generally considered intrusive as animal forms tend to get encumbered by inventory that was no problem before. Werewolves, in addition, will destroy their shirt, cloak, and body armor when transforming to animal form. To remove lycanthrophy, you can pray to your god, eat a sprig of wolfsbane, or quaff a potion of holy water. If none of these options are available, an amulet of unchanging or ring of polymorph control will keep the intrusive changes under control.

To prevent lycanthropy, you can wear a ring of protection from shape changers. Magic cancellation reduces the chance of catching lycanthropy when bitten.

Summoning fellow monsters

While in a changed form, you can use #monster command to call for help - summoning a few monsters of the same species as yours. The fellow monsters summoned by using the #monster command will remain tame after you have returned to human form, or if you become cured, effectively becoming your pets.

A very large number of pet jackals, rats, or wolves can be aquired by summoning help over the course of several transformations to the were form. These pets will be very weak, but you can polymorph them into an army of unstoppable monsters.

One thing to note is that calling for help with #monster requires some power - the same kind that the character uses for spellcasting - and if you don't have enough power, you get a "You lack the energy to send forth a call for help!" message and cannot summon any monsters. This can pose a bit of a problem for very low level characters.

Strategy

Lycanthropy can be beneficial as it confers drain resistance. If you have polymorph control (from wearing or eating a ring of polymorph control or in SLASH'EM choosing the doppelganger race and reaching level 9) you may choose not to transform into your were form, leaving no adverse effects.

SLASH'EM

New lycanthropes in SLASH'EM include werepanthers, weretigers, werespiders, and weresnakes.