Can Remove Curse be used offensively against lycanthropes?

Question

My question isn't whether lycanthropy can be cured by Remove Curse. This question How can lycanthropy be cured? has already answered that. I'm wondering about the logistics of what would happen if a player decided to use the spell against an enemy lycanthrope.

In the spell text, there doesn't seem to be a save for unwilling creatures:

At your touch, all curses affecting one creature or object end. If the object is a cursed magic item, its curse remains, but the spell breaks its owner's attunement to the object so it can be removed or discarded. - PHB p271

I know it is contingent on the lycanthrope not being born with the curse, so the DM could always say that is the case, but that seems a bit too harsh to say this every time, and the DM could have set up a situation where it is already known when the lycanthrope was afflicted.

If, assuming the DM said yes it works, the spell was successfully used to cure the lycanthropy, what would happen to the creature's statblock? Obviously it would lose the features like the ability to shapechange, natural weapons, immunities and so on. But would it retain its ability scores? Its hitpoint pool? Anything else I haven't mentioned?

Answer 1

How removing the curse affects the lycanthrope is up to the DM

If you cast remove curse lycanthrope that has not been born with the curse, you will remove the lycantrophy, there is no saving throw against it. (And if you cast wish on any lycanthrope, you achieve the same result).

If the lycanthrope was one that embraced the curse and aware you wanted to touch them to break it, they would want to avoid that, and you probably would need to succeed in an unarmed melee spell attack to be able to touch them, but the spell does not cover that aspect, so you are already getting into ruling territory.

What happens to the lycanthrope once it loses the curse is entirely not defined. Other than the Half-Dragon, which is a template that you apply to a base creature, the lycanthrope is just its own stat block. The DM will have to make a ruling on it.

---

Options for Rulings

If the victim of the curse was something like a commoner before the curse, then the stat block differs a lot in terms of basic attributes like hit points. It would be up to the DM, if they wanted to replace the entire lycanthrope stat block with that of the pre-curse creature -- it may be difficult in particular because it may not be clear what the base creature was, if it is not stated in the adventure.

Alternatively the DM could remove lycanthrope-specific traits (as suggested by the changes that get applied to PCs with lycanthropy): lower Strength or Dexterity, remove the alignment change, remove the damage immunity to non-silvered weapons, and remove the traits. As the traits include the shapechanger trait, this will also remove the access to the special movement modes and attack actions the hybrid and animal forms have. Probably also lower their hit dice and resulting hit points. The lower phycial attributes and CR also would reduce the to-hit and damage for the weapon attack and could lead to reducing the proficiency bonus for a werebear by one.