Buy me a coffee“Owlbear, the Apex Hybrid”
“Meet the Owlbear: The terrifying fusion of predator and prey thatâs straight out of your worst woodland nightmares!”
The Owlbear is a fearsome hybrid creature combining the robust physique of a bear with the sharp avian features of an owl. Its hulking body is covered in thick, coarse fur interspersed with feathers, providing both protection and camouflage. Its head is distinctly owl-like, with large, glowing yellow eyes capable of piercing through darkness and a sharp, hooked beak designed to tear flesh. Muscular limbs end in razor-sharp claws, ideal for climbing and rending prey. Its plumage often matches its environment, varying between brown, white, or black hues, allowing it to blend seamlessly into its surroundings.
Behavior
Owlbears are fiercely territorial and highly aggressive, attacking anything that encroaches upon their domain, often without provocation. They are nocturnal hunters, leveraging their exceptional night vision and acute hearing to track prey silently. Known for their tenacity, an owlbear will pursue prey far beyond what most predators would consider worthwhile. Despite their solitary nature, mated pairs fiercely protect their offspring and may cooperate in defending their lairs.
Habitat
Owlbears inhabit dense forests, mountainous regions, and occasionally caves or ruins, preferring areas with ample cover and prey. Their lairs are typically crude dens made of branches and scavenged bones, located in secluded spots such as hollow trees or caves. Owlbears often mark their territory with shredded bark and clawed-up ground as a warning to intruders.
Modus Operandi
Owlbears hunt using stealth and brute force. They rely on their silent movement and camouflage to close in on prey, often launching devastating ambushes. Once engaged, they employ a combination of crushing bites and powerful swipes with their claws. An owlbearâs strategy is straightforward: overwhelm and incapacitate with raw power, then drag its kill back to its lair to feast. Despite their size, they are surprisingly agile and can climb trees or swim to pursue prey.
Motivation
Primarily driven by instinct, they are motivated by survival, hunger, and the defense of their territory. They show little interest in wealth or material goods, but they may inadvertently hoard shiny objects in their dens, drawn by an owlâs natural fascination with glimmering things. Mated pairs are deeply protective of their young, and any perceived threat to their cubs is met with unrelenting ferocity. For adventurers, the motivation of an owlbear is simple: it sees you as food or a threat to its domain.
Owlbear 5e
Owlbear 5e
Owlbear Pathfinder
Owlbear
Large monstrosity, unaligned
Armor Class: 13 (Natural Armor)
Hit Points: 59 (7d10 + 21)
Speed: 40 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 (+5) | 12 (+1) | 16 (+3) | 3 (-4) | 12 (+1) | 7 (-2) |
Saving Throws: Strength +7, Constitution +5
Skills: Perception +5, Survival +3
Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., Passive Perception 15
Languages: â
Challenge: 3 (700 XP)
Traits
Keen Sight and Smell.
It has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight or smell.
Relentless Hunter.
If the owlbear takes the Dash action to chase a creature, it has advantage on its next melee weapon attack against that creature.
Actions
Multiattack.
It makes two attacks: one with its beak and one with its claws.
Beak. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
- Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) piercing damage.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
- Hit: 17 (2d10 + 5) slashing damage.
Special Abilities
Territorial Fury (Recharge 5â6).
The owlbear lets out a bone-chilling screech, a mix of a roar and an owl’s shriek. Each creature of its choice within 30 feet must make a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or be frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the save at the end of its turns, ending the effect on a success.
Savage Pounce.
If the owlbear moves at least 20 feet straight toward a creature and then hits it with a claw attack on the same turn, the target must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If the target is prone, the owlbear can make one beak attack against it as a bonus action.
Tactics
- In Combat: It is a relentless and brutal combatant. It starts combat by using Savage Pounce to knock down enemies and follow up with devastating attacks while they are prone. Against groups, it uses Territorial Fury early to scatter or frighten weaker opponents, giving it time to focus on priority targets.
- Chasing Prey: If an enemy tries to flee, the owlbear uses Relentless Hunter and its high Strength to pursue, cornering its target and ensuring it gets close enough for its claws and beak to do their grisly work.
- Defensive Behavior: When injured or protecting its territory, the owlbear fights savagely to the end, using its darkvision and keen senses to gain an advantage in dimly lit areas.
Legendary Variant: Owlbear Alpha (Optional Upgrade)
Armor Class: 15 (Thickened Hide)
Hit Points: 102 (12d10 + 36)
Speed: 40 ft., climb 30 ft.
CR: 5 (1,800 XP)
Legendary Actions:
The Owlbear Alpha can take 2 legendary actions, choosing from the options below.
- Swipe: The owlbear makes a claw attack.
- Intimidating Screech: Each creature within 10 feet must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or have disadvantage on attack rolls against the owlbear until the end of its next turn.
- Hunting Leap (Costs 2 Actions): The owlbear leaps up to 20 feet to an unoccupied space it can see. Each creature within 5 feet of where it lands must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take 10 (3d6) bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone.
Owlbear
An amalgam of fur and feathers, this bizarre half-bear, half-owl monstrosity raises its huge, ursine claws in anger.
Large monstrosity, unaligned
Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
Hit Points 59 (7d10 + 21)
Speed 40 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 (+5) | 12 (+1) | 17 (+3) | 3 (-4) | 12 (+1) | 7 (-2) |
Skills Perception +3
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages â
Challenge 3 (700 XP)
Special Traits
- Keen Sight and Smell: The owlbear has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight or smell.
Actions
- Multiattack: The owlbear makes two attacks: one with its beak and one with its claws.
- Beak: Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 10 (1d10 + 5) piercing damage.
- Claws: Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) slashing damage.
Owlbear
An amalgam of fur and feathers, this bizarre half-bear, half-owl monstrosity raises its huge, ursine claws in anger.
The origin of the owlbear is a subject of great debate among scholars of the monstrous creatures of the world. However, most concur that at some point in the distant past, a deranged wizard created the original specimens by crossing an owl with a bearâperhaps as proof of some insane concept about the nature of life, but possibly out of sheer lunacy. Whatever the original purpose of such a freakish creation as the owlbear, the creature bred true and has become quite well-established in woodlands across the world, where it plays a key role in a regionâs ecosystem as an apex predator.
They are notoriously bloodthirsty killers, well known for their short tempers, aggression, and savage nature. They tend to attack without provocation, slaughtering any living creatures that cross their paths. Many scholars that have encountered these creatures in the wild have noted that they all have red-rimmed eyes that roll about wildly when they close in for an attack. This is sometimes presented as a sign of madness, suggesting that all are born with a pathological need to fight and kill, but more level-headed researchers believe that itâs simply part of the way the massive bird-beastâs keen eyes are constructed.
They generally inhabit desolate areas of the wilderness, making their messy lairs within wild forests or inside dark, shallow caverns. They are equally adept at hunting during the day and at night, depending upon the prey available near their lairs.
Adults live in mated pairs, and hunt in small groups, leaving their young behind in their lairs while they search for prey. A typical lair contains 1d6 juveniles, which can fetch a price of up to 3,000 gp apiece in many city markets.
While it is considered impossible to truly domesticate them due to their feral natures, they can still be used as guardians if contained within an area but allowed to roam and hunt freely there. Professional animal trainers charge up to 2,000 gp to rear or train an owlbear into a serviceable guardian that can obey simple commands (DC 23 for a juvenile creature; DC 30 for a fully grown adult).
A full-grown male can stand as tall as 8 feet and weighs up to 1,500 pounds.
Owlbear CR 4
XP 1,200
N Large magical beast
Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, scent; Perception +12
DEFENSE
AC 15, touch 10, flat-footed 14 (+1 Dex, +5 natural, â1 size)
hp 47 (5d10+20)
Fort +10, Ref +5, Will +2
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 claws +8 (1d6+4 plus grab), bite +8 (1d6+4)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
STATISTICS
Str 19, Dex 12, Con 18, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 10
Base Atk +5; CMB +10 (+14 grapple); CMD 21 (25 vs. trip)
Feats Improved Initiative, Great Fortitude, Skill Focus (Perception)
Skills Perception +12
ECOLOGY
Environment temperate forests
Organization solitary, pair, or pack (3â8)
Treasure incidental
Variants
Further magical experimentation and a few accidental mutations have resulted in several new types of owlbear.
Arctic Owlbear: These creatures have white fur and feathers (+12 racial bonus on Stealth checks in snowy areas), and are at home on ice, snow, and even near-freezing water (swim 30 feet).
Pale Owlbear: While most of them look like those on the surface, nearly a third have blue or pink eyes and white or pale yellow fur and feathers, much like other darkness-adapted creatures that lose their coloration. Some of these pale ones have darkvision to a range of 120 feet, while others are eyeless and navigate with scent and tremorsense. Whether normal or albino, pale owlbears are commonly often used by the drow as guards or beasts of burden (pacified by charm magic).
Fruss Owlbear: These hollow-boned, magically bred owlbears can fly, though it is difficult and inefficient for them. Easily distinguished from common owlbears by their thicker shoulder muscles and longer forelimb feathers, fruss can fly at a speed of 30 feet (poor). Flying or gliding for a minute or more causes the owlbear to become fatigued. Though strong overall, theirâ flying muscles are weak, and they cannot carry more than 50 pounds when flying. A fruss can use improved grab while flying, but must immediately land if its opponent weighs more than 50 pounds.
Great Hook-Clawed Owlbear: These variants have developed huge claws to enable them to climb endlessly deep dungeon shafts (climb speed 20 feet, base claw damage 1d8).
Screaming Owlbear: Native to the Maelstrom, these creatures are warped by exposure to chaos energy. Stripped of their base natures as animal-like predators, they are now more like chaos beastsâhorrors whose forms are governed by their anger. These varients are immune to critical hits and transformation magic.
Siege Owlbear: Bred primarily by orcs from the heftiest owlbear stock, siege owlbears represent the largest and most brutal of their kin. Such grotesque beasts tend to be used as stud creatures by orcs and are much prized by chieftains. The siege owlbear is bred for battle, fed a special diet of magically and alchemically augmented meats from a very young age, and trained to tolerate riders or gear such as small ballistas or catapults.
They have to be controlled by a rider and tend to be unpredictableâoften setting off in a direction that suits the mount more than the handler. Even when dealing with the best-trained siege owlbear, a Ride check (DC 20) is required for every new instruction the rider wishes his mount to carry out, failure resulting in the owlbear doing what it wants (which may include rolling onto its back to dislodge the rider so the beast can attack him); once the owlbear is out of control this way, it takes a DC 30 Ride check to get it to obey again.
Sleeyk Owlbear: Magically bred for speed and agility at the expense of strength, a sleeyk owlbear looks thinner and ganglier than a typical owlbear, though still muscular. A sleeyk has a speed of 40 feet, and Strength 19, Dexterity 18, Run as a bonus feat, and evasion.
Slime Owlbear: This monsterâs feathers are coated with a green slime that didnât harm the creature.
Sloth Owlbear: Though these monsters donât grow quite as large as normal owlbears, they are still as ferocious as their land kin. Their claws are long and curved, allowing them to hang underneath strong branches and drop on prey. Sloth owlbears are slower than common ones (speed 20 feet) but are strong climbers (climb speed 10 feet).
Spectral Owlbear: A pack of ghostly owlbears called occasionally emerge from deep forests on snowy nights. If slain, their bodies vanish at dawn, and many believe these are actually undead, though they may be a magical variant with the power to enter the Ethereal Plane.
Lore
Characters with ranks in Knowledge (arcana) might know something about them. When a character makes a successful skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs.
| DC | Result |
|---|---|
| DC 14 | This bear-like creature with a head like an owl and feathers covering its entire body is in fact the vicious owlbear. This check reveals all magical beast traits. |
| DC 19 | It attacks its prey with its deadly claws, latching onto an opponent. They then bite and claw until the victim falls dead and is devoured. They attack any prey on sight, and consider anything larger than a mouse prey. |
| DC 24 | Its said to be the result of a mad wizards attempts to crossbreed a giant owl with a bear, they are deadly hunters and their young are incredibly valuable. When captured they are often trained as wandering guards by the wealthy. |
Section 15: Copyright Notice
Pathfinder Chronicles: Dungeon Denizens Revisited. Copyright 2009, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Authors: Clinton Boomer, Jason Bulmahn, Joshua J. Frost, Nicolas Logue, Robert McCreary, Jason Nelson, Richard Pett, Sean K Reynolds, James L. Sutter, and Greg A. Vaughan.
Monster Lore from WOTC Community Forums â Monsters and Races â Monster Lore Compendium. Copyright 2007-2008, Authors: Eric Cagle, âDracomortisâ, John W. Mangrum, âEvandar_TAybaraâ