I’m not normally a big PF1e guy. They have some cool stuff to add to the game, but they always ruin it by asking me to track rounds of rage as one of my 19 resource pools each round. Ironically, they made skills less fiddly, which was great, but everything else more fiddly. That said, there are some great things you can just use with 3e without conversion, or with minimal work.

My favorite thing they introduced was Entothropes. https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/entothrope-cr-1/ – AKA Were-bugs. You can be a half-man half-beedrill, and fly around stinging fools. It’s awesome. PF1 takes it a step further, by introducing a silly number of new creatures. Through the magic of combining weird shit in esotetic rulebooks that clearly weren’t written by the same guy, you can unlock some serious cool. That’s right. You can be a were-sea-urchin bard, or a were-mantis-shrimp boxer themed like Little Mac, or a were-starfish barbarian who regrows lost limbs and talks like Patrick. A were-jellyfish grappler? Come on. Toss in my Giant Slug mount and we have a game!

You see, the 3e devs dropped the ball. Rats are animals because we want were-rats, rat companions, and wild shape rat to be things that happen. But Vermin is a Type, not subtype. Rats are like, iconic vermin, but 3e decided vermin means bugs. More specifically, giant oversized bugs. That’s cool and all, and I can get over my desire to play a were-spider If I have to. I get it.

My problem? WoTC decided that sea creatures are all vermin. Why? probably exoskeletons. Weird line to draw, but alright. The unintended side effect though? I can’t wildshape into a crab. Fuck that. I can’t have a crab companion. I can’t be a were-crab. And I get it, you’re like “but Krusk? Aren’t there variant companions, or variant familiars to let you get a crab?” Sure. They let me get a tiny crab. But then they published stormwrack full of Dire Leeches, and Gargantuan Siege Crabs, and every third-party publisher has put out anemones in their water supplements. Let me get a combat monster crab as my companion. I want to ride it into battle on a sweet Howdah.

Anyway, WoTC even tried to fix this once, presenting “Entomathropes” in a web article they have since scrubbed from the web. And even scouring wayback machine, I can’t find it. (Link me if you can please!). Its basically were-vermin and probably solves it. I can find descriptions of what it said, but no actual text.

Here’s my version of were-vermin. Or Varminthropes. Which has the pro of sounding like Varmint but also ties into thropes. Which we’ve kind of decided means shapeshifter animal/monster man. I threw in some quality-of-life changes while I was at it, like dropping full moons, requirement for omnivores, or options for giants mechanically. If you don’t like it, you can add them back in without effort.

And yes, I’m aware I wrote rules for playing a Were-banana tree in my Florathropes guide. Guess what I’m into for my PCs? Yup, you got it. Human fighters /s.

Varminthropes

Varminthropes are a way for players to play a weird bug person. They aren’t afflicted by bites like were-seagull, and they aren’t born that way like Maybelline. Instead, this is a catch all for a variety of vermin-people. Maybe a wizard experiment went wrong, maybe they got cursed by a hag, maybe their dad had an unusual relationship with a sea-cucumber. That’s for your player to decide.

Creating Varminthropes

“Varminthropes” is a template that can be added to any humanoid.

Size and Type

The base creature’s type does not change, but the creature gains the shapechanger subtype. The Varminthrope takes on the characteristics of some type of creature of the Vermin type (referred to hereafter as the base creature).

This creature can be any creature whose size is within one size category of the base creature’s size. Varminthropes can also adopt a hybrid shape that combines features of the base creature and the base creature. A Varminthrope’s hybrid form is the same size as the base humanoid or the base creature, whichever is larger.

A Varminthrope uses either the base humanoid or the base creature’s statistics and special abilities in addition to those described here.

Hit Dice and Hit Points

Same as the base humanoid plus those of the base creature. To calculate total hit points, apply Constitution modifiers according to the score the Varminthrope has in each form.

Speed

Same as the base humanoid or base creature, depending on which form the Varminthrope is using. Hybrids use the base humanoid’s speed.

Armor Class

The base creature’s natural armor bonus increases by +2 in all forms. In hybrid form, the Varminthrope’s natural armor bonus is equal to the natural armor bonus of the base humanoid or the base creature, whichever is better.

Base Attack/Grapple

Add the base attack bonus for the base vermin to the base attack bonus for the base humanoid. The Varminthrope’s grapple bonus uses its attack bonus and modifiers for Strength and size depending on the Varminthrope’s form.

Attacks

Same as the base creature or base humanoid, depending on which form the Varminthrope is using. A Varminthrope in hybrid form gains two claw attacks and a bite attack as natural weapons.

These weapons deal damage based on the hybrid form’s size. A hybrid may attack with a weapon and a bite, or may attack with its natural weapons. The bite attack of a hybrid is a secondary attack. For a medium creature, the hybrid claws deal 1d4, and the hybrid bite does 1d6.

Damage

Same as the base creature or base humanoid, depending on which form the Varminthrope is in.

Special Attacks

A Varminthrope retains the special attacks of the base creature or base humanoid, depending on which form it is using, and also gains the special attacks described below.

A Varminthrope’s hybrid form does not gain any special attacks of the base creature. A Varminthrope spellcaster cannot cast spells with verbal, somatic, or material components while in animal form, or spells with verbal components while in hybrid form.

Special Qualities

A Varminthropes retains all the special qualities of the base creature and the base vermin and also gains those described below.

• Alternate Form (Su): A Varminthrope can assume the form of a specific vermin (as indicated in its entry). Changing to or from vermin or hybrid form is a standard action. A slain Varminthrope reverts to its humanoid form, although it remains dead. Separated body parts retain their vermin form, however. Changing form is a standard action.
• Damage Reduction (Ex): A Varminthrope in vermin or hybrid form has damage reduction 5/silver. (Change it to bronze if you’ve got a cool game. But that’s not super common)
• Lycanthropic Empathy (Ex): In any form, Varminthropes can communicate and empathize with normal vermin of their vermin form. This gives them a +4 racial bonus on checks when influencing the vermin’s attitude and allows the communication of simple concepts and (if the animal is friendly) commands, such as “friend,” “foe,” “flee,” and “attack.”
• Low-Light Vision (Ex): A Varminthrope has low-light vision in any form.
• Scent (Ex): A Varminthropes has the scent ability in any form.
• Mindless (EX): Varminthropes never gain the mindless feature of vermin. Even when in vermin form. This does not imply they may gain other Vermin traits, but is simply included for clarity.

Base Save Bonuses

Add the base save bonuses of the base creature to the base save bonuses of the base humanoid.

Abilities

When in vermin form, a Varminthrope’s physical ability scores improve according to its kind. These adjustments are equal to the vermin’s normal ability scores -10 or -11. A Varminthrope in hybrid form modifies its physical ability scores by the same amount. In addition, a Varminthrope may also gain an additional ability score increase by virtue of its extra Hit Dice.

Skills

A Varminthrope gains skill points equal to (2 + Int modifier, minimum 1) per Hit Die of its vermin form, as if it had multiclassed into the vermin type. (vermin is never its first Hit Die, though, and it does not gain quadruple skill points for any vermin Hit Die.) Any skill given in the vermin’s description is a class skill for the Varminthrope’s vermin levels. In any form, a Varminthrope also has any racial skill bonuses of the base creature and of the base vermin, although conditional skill bonuses only apply in the associated form.

Feats

Add the base Vermin’s feats to the base creature’s. If this results in a Varminthrope having the same feat twice, the Varminthrope gains no additional benefit unless the feat normally can be taken more once, in which case the duplicated feat works as noted in the feat description. This process may give the Varminthrope more feats than a character of its total Hit Dice would normally be entitled to; if this occurs, any “extra” feats are denoted as bonus feats.

It’s possible that a Varminthrope cannot meet the prerequisites for all its feats when in humanoid form. If this occurs, the Varminthrope still has the feats, but cannot use them when in humanoid form.

Level Adjustment

None. This is a bad mechanic. Varminthropes are required to take a number of racial hit die equal to the base vermin’s in the vermin racial class prior to taking levels in anything else. They must always take at least one vermin racial hit die.