I'm very tempted to join, partially because of this:
Although I don't feel like making a super-powerful character, I do enjoy watching people get murdered in creative ways.
You could always roll up a normal character and make the DM feel bad for obliterating you from orbit.
Really?
You might actually survive longer as a result. You never know.
I'm currently considering either a very well-intentioned Samurai, a crazy-survivalist Expert, or a happy-go-lucky-yet-horribly-optimized absurd mish-mash of multiclassing.
EDIT: If I make a Lycanthrope who turns into an animal with less than 1 HD, do I still have to replace a class level with the animal HD? Or do I only have to spend the three levels for the template?
First: It would be nice if you went something melee, we really don't have anyone who's devoted to melee (Even though my Mino can melee pretty effectively with his 24 str, he's a rogue, so he's best with sneak attacks- it really helps if there's someone else in combat, also, ballista sneaks). Also, I'm leaning towards the Samurai, it would be interesting to see that roleplayed. But I'd like to know the classes suggested for the mish-mash one. I don't know enough about the expert to make a ruling for or against that.
Second, what animal were you planning on lycanthroping? If it's a wererat, they're based on dire rats, not regular rats. (Just so you know
They are tiny, so you'd have to be small to use them as your lycanthrope... You'd also get +5 dex in animal form... and that's it... that'd be a pretty pathetic lycanthrope.)
On a personal note to that, I really want to see a wereshark. Or a wereape. Or a wereelephant. But they might be out of the park for Racial HD (Well, the medium shark is only 3, But the Large would be so much better... I'll be quiet now)