After hearing rumors regarding were-bears coming in DLC I've been contemplating the pros of cons of them compared to wolves based on how we experience them through our general game-play in Skyrim.

Pros:

.Bears are bulkier and have more body fat compared to wolves to suit their climate meaning they are much more likely as players to be given a bonus resistance to frost.

.Higher body fat would also allow bears to hold more health than a wolf therefore bears are hardier creatures and can withstand more damage.

. (This is more personal speculation) Bears would be able to feed on any type of creature such as deer or cattle whereas wolves have just humanoid blood to feast upon. However feeding on these creatures rather than humanoids would not give as much health and stamina as normal races as these docile creatures are petty in meat and nutrients.

. With massive claws and a bonus to one-handed (alchemy knowledge of bear claws) bears would be able to deal more damage than wolves as their damage would scale with your own one handed skill rather than unarmed hits with wolves. This is more a stretched thought ill admit.

Cons:

. Larger body fat = slower movement. Not only in running speed but in combat also. If bears deal more damage - they would attack slower to balance. Thus bears would have a higher health to lower stamina ratio. Covering less distance and having to wait for stamina to regenerate more often.
Wolves can run extremely far extremely quickly as they have less fur and more muscle compared to bears.

. Snow bears have a weakness to fire(?) - so bonus resistance to frost perhaps might be balanced with fire weakness. Whereas wolves have neither bonus resistance or negative damage multipliers to any elements.

These are just my thoughts, feel free to say weather you would agree or dis-agree with any of them and give your own ideas as-well. Im not 100% about any of these, simply basing them on what would make sense with the developers and racial traits.

Ignoring gameplay, why would werebears even fight werewolves?

Other than competition from favor of Hircine? Clearly Hircine favors werewolves. He is always seen with a wolf, he hosts the Bloodmoon for werewolves, he hunts only with a pack of werewolves in his own realm.

I was thinking something along the lines of Mazken vs Aureal.

As much as i would love were bears I doubt they are in basically we can expect a good beef up on the current werewolves (possibly even having an individual look based on race) but I feel we're only getting a beef up on wolves due to the popularity of them.

Basically this is a vamp DLC WW's have been thrown in so fans of the beast form don't whinge.

As such you'd think something like a new beast form would get its own quest something I doubt we'll get in dawnguard.

I vote for the man bear pig. It always wins.

Were?

We're not discussing combat between them, we're comparing the stats we might get as werebears.

Werebears will more than likely be the inverse of werewolves, giving them better strength, but lower stamina.

There's a whole main quest and a skill tree dedicated to the new beast form, just to let you know.

With werebears, I think it would be like a two handed mace compared to a one handed sword in terms of both attack power and speed, possibly their roar acting like unrelenting force instead of a fear thing, or maybe even paraylsis for the roar but directional.

If you think that an angry bear is slower than a wolf, then you really need to watch more nature programs, lol. Werebear > Werewolf in just about every way conceivable.

Werebears?Where?Bears? Men that are bears?

Werebears, by a long shot. Bears in real life are bigger,stronger, and can use their forelimbs in disputes. Wolves have better stamina(bears also have decent stamina) and they can run 40mph(which is 5mph faster than the average bear).

I just want people to talk about werewolf attacks in cities. That would be so legit, just create your own story based only nightly feasting xD

Strength in numbers. No way a bear would travel in a pack, they are solitary creatures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_948763&src_vid=ctTVcKNx8Rk&v=zsGnFExpup8&feature=iv

Even in packs, wolves tend to lose their kills to large brown bears.

True but these aren't just bears and wolves. Im sure two werewolves could easily dispatch one werebear.

They are basically the same creature to me. The only were creature I care to see is weretiger. If only Khajiits had more big cat abilities like strength, speed and agility.

I was assuming man+wolf vs man+bear would be the same as wolf vs bear. I guess they could be scaled different then their real life counterparts.

Bears are not Werebears. Two completely different things. Werebears are just as blood thirsty as Werewolves and must kill humanoids in order to survive. That is their purpose. As for social tendencies, bears may not be social creatures but the humanoid races are. They are not one or the other and I would go on a limb to say that they are something else entirely. Werebears have been seen hunting in packs and in cooperation with Werewolves. They are "siblings" in a way.

There are no known "weretigers". There are Werelions that are known to inhabit the mid to southern parts of Tamriel, including Elsweyr, the home Province of the Khajiit. There are Tiger Men known as Ka Po' Tun on the continent of Akavir but they are not Werebeast. There is a difference.

Well while the werebear and the werewolf are fighting, a wereboar can walk over from High Rock and proceed to kill both of them.

If Werebears are introduced to the game, then I really hope werewolves get sneak. Werebears are likely much more powerfull, leaving were werewolves a bit in the dark. (no pun intended)

I agree, werewolves should be more like swift powerful assassins and werebears should be more like tanks.

I remember watching the GameJam vid with a prototype Werebear in it. It was interesting, watching it barrel through a phalanx of guards.

Dunno if that'll make it into the final version, if they're included at all, but it seemed a more effective means of crowd control than that of the Werewolf's howl power.

Someone hasn't read the TES book. It wasn't werewolves that were giving chase, but werebears!

But werebears had to step aside once Hircine announced himself with a pack of werewolves.