In the single player version of Don't Starve Woodie fulfills the role of both a resource collector and a fighter, however in the multiplayer version, Don't Starve Together, his role as a fighter has been severely diminished. The changes to Woodie's character has caused his play style to resemble that of Maxwell's play style due to their average combat abilities, easy sanity restoration, and superior resource collection. On top of that there are a few problems that Woodie imposes on the group he is being played in, which I will also address.
The keystone that these tweaks are based around are not only the aforementioned goals, but also the solution to many of the problems: being able to benefit from hats in werebeaver form. Hats allow the Werebeaver to retain his defensive ability, hinder his sanity loss, or protect him from the environment as the Werebeaver is now susceptible to it. Hats would lose durability just as they would when worn by a normal character, however once a hat is destroyed the Werebeaver must transform back into Woodie in order to equip another hat.
In all my time playing Woodie I have found that a key part of the Beaverness stat, starving at zero, only happens to me on full moons, if I let it. This is why I propose the following to make more use of this feature and to sort of "nerf" the armor as the Werebeaver can benefit from hat armor. The Werebeaver's 25% armor bonus would be replaced with the Beaverness meter diverting 25% of damage to it, requiring resource management during combat. To make up for this the Werebeaver would also be able to gain 1 Beaverness from gnawing mobs like he does with objects. Finally, the transformation would only begin at 10 Beaverness rather than 25 in order to allow the player more time in werebeaver form and to make them more vulnerable to starving. (Lucy would require her warnings to change accordingly and full moons would drop Woodie to 10 Beaverness also.)
Moving onto the subject of Sanity, the Werebeaver would lose 75 Sanity a minute instead of 90 a minute in order to further allow the Werebeaver form to be utilized. This would allow the Werebeaver about 20 more seconds before going insane from max Sanity. This concept goes into tweaking Woodie to be less like Maxwell. Pine Cones, Birchnuts, and Twiggy Tree Cones would replenish 3 sanity per plant instead of 5. I have found that this method of restoring sanity was quite powerful as it, like Maxell, made it so that I would rarely need any other Sanity restoration items.
Now for the problems Woodie can cause to the group. Tree Guards and Poison Birchnut Trees are frequently spawned as a result of Woodie's mass deforestation. Due to this, Woodie should be better suited for fighting these monsters. Lucy would deal 27.2 damage, normal axe damage, and the Werebeaver would deal 51 damage, the damage value in single player, to all tree monsters. (I'm aware that not all players see Treeguards as a problem, however they easily can be for other players.) The player can always use a spear instead of Lucy, but I believe that the option of using Lucy should still be there. The next problem that Woodie imposes on the group is fairly minor. Some people find Lucy annoying to a high degree, so reducing her in-game voume by 25% can assist this issue. After all, she is only a small axe, she doesn't need to speak as loud as she currently does.
Due to a greater focus to combat it is important to be ready at a moments notice if possible. Living Logs are rarely used to restore a player's Beaverness and have better uses as Woodie only requires five logs to equal this value, stuff that is also easier to obtain. This is why Living Logs would remove 50 Beaverness rather than replenish it. This makes sense to some degree too, the source of Living Logs are Sanity depleting, so it would make sense that these logs induce a Sanity depleting form, the Werebeaver. Boards would replace the use that Living Logs previously fulfilled by restoring 25 Beaverness instead of 15. Boards would still be less efficient material-wise when compared to Logs, however they would now be more efficient inventory-wise. In addition to this cut grass would no longer be edible and twigs would restore only 3 Beaverness. Cut grass isn't wood and is only ever eaten on accident with its +1 bonus anyways. It makes zero sense for a single twig to be worth half of a log despite its availability in comparison.
TL;DR Tweaks
Positive:
The Werebeaver can benefit from hats.
The Werebeaver can gain 1 Beaverness from gnawing mobs
The Werebeaver would lose only 75 Sanity a minute
Lucy would deal 27.2 damage to tree monsters
The Werebeaver would deal 51 damage to tree monsters
Boards replenish 25 Beaverness
Neutral:
Transformation begins at 10 Beaverness and drops to 10 on full moons (With Lucy's warnings adjusted accordingly)
Lucy's in-game volume would be reduced by 25%
Living Logs remove 50 Beaverness
Negative:
25% of damage taken is diverted to Beaverness rather than a flat 25% armor bonus
Pine Cones, Birchnuts, and Twiggy Tree Cones replenish only 3 Sanity per plant
Grass is not edible
Twigs restore only 3 Beaverness
Conclusion:
These tweaks would provide Woodie a similar experience to his single player variant and lessen the similarities between his play style and Maxwell's. They would also provide him an option for dealing with the environment, as he is now vulnerable to it in the multiplayer version. Finally, problems that Woodie imposes on the group are easier to deal with or lessened.
Please do share your thoughts on the changes I have proposed for Woodie, whether they are fair changes, or if they may be flawed in some way.