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So, back to werewolves for a bit. Given that they're as intelligent as humans and have several enemies, they'd most likely try to become more adept in combat, one part of that is martial arts.

Now, moves that don't aim to kill will most likely not, but the ones that do will definitely want to include jaws into their repertoire.

Werewolves are digitigrade and upright humanoid creatures that usually stand at around 190 cm. Other than the legs, most of their difference in anatomy are their thicker necks and head that resembles that of the canis lupus lupus but obviously scaled to fit the proportions.

Werewolves possess strong core muscles. Their muscle fibers are uniformly made up of type 2a and type 1 across the body, giving them better endurance and more options for moves, but making them weaker per unit mass than vampires, who only have type 2a in their legs and only type 2b in the arms and core muscles.

The vampire bit is just extra info, it won't come up in this question.

So, now with that info dumped on your head, how exactly would werewolves use their jaws in combat? My main interests are grappling, killing blows and what limitation/weakness would the jaws have. These aren't separate questions, more like bullet points in an outline that affect one another quite a bit.

The opponents are going to be humans who might or might not have plate armor.

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    $\begingroup$ i think this can help How would humanoid creatures with powerful jaws, claws, and a tail efficiently use their anatomy in barehanded combat? $\endgroup$
    – Li Jun
    Apr 5, 2020 at 12:52
  • $\begingroup$ unless you want to include weapon use or armed martial arts using jaw, something like zoro from onepiece........ $\endgroup$
    – Li Jun
    Apr 5, 2020 at 12:53
  • $\begingroup$ The Sampson method? first kill yourself an ass.. $\endgroup$
    – Pelinore
    Apr 5, 2020 at 18:21
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    $\begingroup$ If you WANT the werewolf biting people for various reasons, have them be wrestlers more than karate experts. The goal would be to pin an opponent where neither person could move a whole lot, then kind of chew on them. $\endgroup$
    – DWKraus
    Apr 5, 2020 at 22:45

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Killing blows

The thing about jaws is that they are a very high-risk, high-reward weapon for a biped with longer forearms than neck. Jaws can inflict more damage in a single blow than fists or claws can (source: just about everything in nature), but they require getting your eyes and throat very close to your enemy. This means they can easily retaliate with more damage to your vital areas than you are dealing to them, even if they are just struggling in a panic. Having talked with people who work with mentally handicapped children, where biting is sometimes an issue, it's actually really easy to get out of a bite hold if that's all someone's doing and you keep cool. Just push backwards against the bite while pushing back on their face, which forces the jaws open enough for you to get free.

Given this, the best thing to do is to save biting for a final blow, after you've made it impossible for your opponent to retaliate and possibly after they're tired out and can't struggle very effectively, in order to finish them off.

Real wolves don't rely on their bites doing damage that much. They use shallow, slashing bites to wound the prey as they are chasing it as a pack, driving it to exhaustion before piling on and tearing it apart like stereotypical depictions of piranhas. Exhaustion of the prey is a bigger factor than any physical damage. If a bison or moose doesn't fall for the wolves' tricks and run, the wolves can't really do much to it. This is one reason why "lone wolves" don't work like they do in media, lone wolves are screwed because they can't hunt large prey by themselves and are forced to subsist on carrion or small game (rabbits, marmots, young deer etc.). The "threat factor" from wolves comes from their numbers, and individually they are much less impressive in combat than cats, bears, and even hyenas.

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  • $\begingroup$ If the furry humanoid got jaws, it still got the issues that plague other animals. Naming a few; losing teeth, you need to breathe while holding the prey, getting your mouth ceiling hurt with bones. All common on vet practice. $\endgroup$
    – Gustavo
    Apr 6, 2020 at 17:17
  • $\begingroup$ @Gustavo That's why the throat would be the best target. Soft with few bones other than the hyoid. If they're werewolves that can transform they'd also be regenerating teeth due to the way teeth grow. Teeth can't change shape the way bones or muscles can, the mineralized part is mostly dead (unlike bone), instead teeth are only able to change from wear combined with growth from the base like a rodent or by having new ones pop in like a shark. So if you're a werewolf you'd have to spit out all your human teeth to grow new wolf ones all the time, and vice versa. $\endgroup$
    – user2352714
    Apr 6, 2020 at 20:54
  • $\begingroup$ The calorie intake would be unreal and the osteoporosis would be rampant unless you ingest minerals like it's going out of style. $\endgroup$
    – Gustavo
    Apr 6, 2020 at 23:04
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    $\begingroup$ @Gustavo I mean, shapeshifting in general is kind of unrealistic due to that very fact. Even just rearranging existing tissues and staying the same mass would take a lot of energy, take a long time, and leave you very vulnerable, as shown by tadpoles and holometabolous insects. If you're warping your whole body every time growing teeth is nothing, most vertebrates normally replace teeth anyway. Nevertheless, hyenas and bone-eating carnivores excrete most of the minerals they eat in their poop, suggesting if the werewolves ate bones they could get lots of minerals easy. $\endgroup$
    – user2352714
    Apr 7, 2020 at 1:10

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