I have a player in D&D 5e who is a Blood Hunter under the Order of the Lycan. He wrote a backstory, as all my players do, and in it said that after becoming a werewolf, he had a wife and child. I’ve researched through D&D studies and mythical lore, and found that the child he had could be born with lycanthropy. I am a very thorough DM and just want to know, without judgement or immaturity:
Can lycanthropy be sexually transmitted?
I just need to know if his wife became a werewolf, because it could affect the story later on.
Best Answer
Lycanthropy can be passed down to children, but isn't mentioned as sexually transmitted
The Monster Manual entry on lycanthropes (p. 206) says:
There is no mention of lycanthropy being passed on to sexual partners. In particular, the phrasing "if one or both of its parents are lycanthropes" suggests that sexual contact won't usually transmit the curse of lycanthropy, unless sex always leads to children on the first try - otherwise, both parents would be lycanthropes as a result of having sex, so it wouldn't be just one parent.
The only ways mentioned to pass on the curse of lycanthropy are:
A cursory online search (including the Wikipedia article for lycanthropy in D&D) indicates that these two methods are the only ways of passing on the curse as described in previous editions of D&D as well. (According to the Forgotten Realms wiki entry, the 4th edition Monster Manual has it only as a hereditary condition.)
Anything beyond what's stated in the quoted entry would be up to you as the DM. I don't think it'd cause any mechanical problems to have lycanthropy be sexually transmitted if you wanted it to be, though there might be some narrative consequences (lycanthropes might be reluctant to have sex for fear of passing on the curse - or they might only do so after revealing their true nature to their partner).