For all that they heal quickly, werewolves encounter a lot of things that can hurt them. Some of the most common are listed here.

 

Combat

Born to be Gaia’s warriors, the Garou engage in far more combat than most other creatures, and it’s the source of more injuries than anything else in the game.

Disease

Werewolves aren’t immune to most diseases, but they recover far faster than humans do. Diseases inflict a number of health levels of damage to the patient, either bashing or lethal depending on the severity of the disease. With proper rest and care, the disease runs its course, and the health levels heal slowly.

A werewolf’s healing abilities protect her from relatively minor ailments including the common cold and the flu — diseases that normally inflict bashing damage. Even truly debilitating or autoimmune diseases can’t inflict lasting harm, though the werewolf can still serve as a carrier after the illness as run its course. In order for a werewolf to notice a disease, it would have to be supernatural in origin — and thus deal aggravated damage.

Falling
Gravity doesn’t play favorites. Falling causes damage, even to creatures as hardy as werewolves. The Storyteller rolls one die of bashing damage for every 10 feet or 3 meters that your character falls before hitting something solid. This damage can be soaked normally. Landing on
sharp objects may change the damage to lethal at the Storyteller’s discretion.

A character who falls more than 100 feet (30 meters) reaches terminal velocity. At that point, the character takes 10 dice of lethal damage upon impact. Armor only provides half its normal protection against a fall of that distance, as it’s not designed to aid in soft landings.

Fire
Fire is primal and dangerous, but also a protector. It can burn away corruption or destroy everything around it — in many ways, much like a Garou. Damage from fire is always aggravated, and ignores armor. A werewolf can soak damage from fire as normal, but the difficulty varies
depending on the intensity of the fire. The amount of damage inflicted by the fire varies depending on the size of the blaze. A character suffers the full amount of damage for each turn that she’s in contact with the fire; she only stops taking damage once she leaves the area and/or
extinguishes the flames on her. Fire damage is automatically successful unless soaked — a character trapped in a bonfire takes two health levels of aggravated damage per turn, not two dice of aggravated damage per turn.

Soak Difficulty Heat of Fire
3 Heat of a candle (first-degree burns)
5 Heat of a torch (second-degree burns)
7 Heat of a Bunsen burner (third-degree burns)
8 Heat of an electrical fire
9 Heat of a chemical fire
10 Molten metal

Health Levels/Turn Size of Fire
One Torch; part of the body is exposed to flame
Two Bonfire; half of the body is exposed to flame
Three Inferno; all of the body is exposed to flame

If your character falls to Maimed, she suffers temporary scarring from the flames. Reduce her Appearance by one until her wounds recover to Bruised. If she is reduced to Crippled or Incapacitated by the fire, the burns cover the majority of her body, reducing Appearance by two. Scarring may become permanent if the character is Incapacitated and gains a Battle Scar from remaining active.

 

Poison and Drugs
Like diseases, few poisons or drugs have a noticeable effect on the Garou. Werewolves who wish to become intoxicated or to use drugs for recreational purposes must do so in their breed form, where their regenerative systems are less effective, or awaken the spirit of the drug
using the Rite of Spirit Awakening, which increases the substance’s potency.

 

The following examples cover the effects of various drugs on werewolves, either in their breed form, or once the drug has been awakened. It’s very hard for a werewolf to become addicted to any substance; her healing gifts prevent it happening in any but the most extreme  circumstances.
• Alcohol: Subtract one from Dexterity and Intelligence dice pools for every two drinks’ worth of alcohol. Reduce the penalty by one for every hour that passes after she stops drinking.
• Cocaine/meth/speed: The werewolf immediately gains a point of temporary Rage. For the rest of the scene, the character only needs three successes on a Rage roll to frenzy.
• Hallucinogens: All dice pools are reduced by 1–3 dice, as the character is unable to concentrate. The character’s perceptions of the world are altered, and his reactions will depend on what he believes to be happening. A character who takes hallucinogens before meditating
to regain Gnosis can regain up to two points per hour of meditation, rather than one. The effects last for (8 minus Stamina) hours.
• Heroin/morphine/barbiturates: Subtract two from Dexterity and all Ability dice pools for (10 minus Stamina) minutes. The character experiences a dreamlike state for (12 minus Stamina) hours, during which the difficulties of Rage rolls are increased by one.
• Marijuana: Subtract one from Perception-based dice pools and increase the difficulties of all Rage rolls by one. The effects last for about half an hour.

• Weak Poison: The character takes between one and three levels of lethal damage per scene. Poisons have a maximum amount of damage that they can apply, usually between five and ten levels of damage. If the character doesn’t regenerate this damage (due to being in breed form, or being human) subtract one from all dice pools until the damage is healed. A werewolf in a regenerating form burns through the poison’s effects in seconds and suffers no ill effects.
• Strong Poison: The character takes between one and three levels of lethal damage per turn. Poisons have a maximum amount of damage they can apply, usually between five and ten levels of damage. A werewolf can regenerate this damage normally, but until the poison has run its course and all the damage has been healed, subtract one from all dice pools. The only toxins to have a significant effect on werewolves are supernaturally enhanced, and as such deal lethal damage.

 

Radiation and Toxic Waste
Many of the Wyrm’s sacred locations on Earth are located on or near irradiated landscapes and toxic waste dumps. Also, some minions of the Wyrm use radiation based attacks. Damage from these sources is resolved the same as damage from fire, but takes twice as long to heal.
 

Silver
Silver, the lunar metal, is a werewolf’s great weakness. Most humans know from Hollywood movies or horror novels that a silver weapon can kill a werewolf. It’s difficult to fashion a weapon out of silver, but a skilled blacksmith or gunsmith can make such a weapon. Those who know of the Garou’s existence know to keep silver weaponry close. In addition to turning normal attacks into unsoakable aggravated damage (see p. 255), silver causes other problems for the Garou. Just touching silver causes one level of aggravated damage per turn of contact, unless the
werewolf is a homid or lupus who is in her breed form. Some Garou carry silver, usually in the form of weaponry such as klaives. Doing so, however, comes with a price. The Garou’s natural allergy to silver causes a reduction in his effective Gnosis. This loss remains in effect in all forms, including the character’s breed form.

 

If the Garou discards or stores the silver object(s), the effect fades after a day. For every five silver objects a pack carries, all its members suffer this reduction. In addition, carrying too many silver objects, especially bullets, may cause a loss  of Honor or Wisdom for the pack (not to  mention being rather difficult to obtain).
Object Gnosis Loss
Silver bullets 1 point/5 bullets
Klaive 1 point
Grand Klaive 2 points
 

Not everything called “silver” by humans contains enough actual silver to be spiritually pure enough to harm a werewolf. Sterling silver (over 90% silver) is certainly pure enough to be spiritually active. At the Storyteller’s discretion, “Jewelry Silver” (80% pure) may be enough to affect werewolves. Argentite and Horn Silver are compounds of silver and certainly not spiritually pure, nor are compounds with “silver” in the name, including silver nitrate, silver chloride, or silver iodide. Some items can be plated with silver, rather than being made entirely of
silver. These items deal damage as though they were silver weapons, but the plating is ruined after a couple of blows.
 

Suffocation and Drowning
Werewolves are living creatures, and need to breathe just like people and animals do. When immersed in water, or some other non-breathable medium, a character can hold her breath for a length of time determined by her Stamina. Changing forms once immersed doesn’t alter this
length of time — the character’s lung capacity changes, but the amount of air in her lungs does not.
 

Once her time runs out, the character can spend Willpower to keep holding her breath. Each point of Willpower spent in this fashion allows her to hold her breath for another 30 seconds.
Stamina Time
1 30 seconds
2 One minute
3 Two minutes
4 Four minutes
5 Eight minutes
6 12 minutes
7 20 minutes
8 30 minutes

During strenuous physical activity like combat, the character can hold her breath for a number of turns equal to twice her Stamina rating. Each point of Willpower spent in this fashion gives her one more turn of action. Once a character has run out of breath, she begins to
drown. She takes one health level of lethal damage each turn. A werewolf cannot regenerate this damage until she can breathe again. When she reaches Incapacitated, she reverts to her breed form, and will die in a number of turns equal to her Stamina.
 

Temperature Extremes
Werewolves can withstand temperatures far in excess
of human norms, but still have their limits. Extreme heat (above 200 °F or 100 °C) causes damage in much the same way as fire, at the Storyteller’s discretion. At −40 and below, subtract one from all Dexterity dice pools due to frostbite. For every 10 °F (6 °C) lower, subtract another die.