Owlbear

Owlbear

Characteristics
Alignment	Neutral
Type	Magical beast
Image	Wizards.com image
Stats	Open Game License stats

The owlbear is a type of fictional monster for player characters to encounter in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.

An owlbear is depicted as a cross between a bear and an owl, which "hugs" like a bear and attacks with its beak, and was considered a magical beast in the game's third edition.

Gary Gygax created the owlbear, which was inspired by a plastic toy made in Hong Kong, and introduced the creature to the game in the 1975 Greyhawk supplement; the creature has since appeared in every subsequent edition of the game, including the game's first edition, second edition, third edition, and fourth edition. Owlbears, or similar beasts, also appear in several other fantasy role-playing games.

Publication history

The owlbear is among the earliest monsters in Dungeons & Dragons and like the bulette and the rust monster, was inspired by a Hong Kong-made plastic toy purchased by Gary Gygax for use as miniature in a Chainmail game.^[1]

Dungeons & Dragons (1974-1976)

The owl bear was introduced to the game in its first supplement, Greyhawk (1975).^[2] It is described as a horrid creature which "hugs" like a bear, and deals damage with its beak.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition (1977-1988)

The owlbear appears in the first edition Monster Manual (1977),^[3] where it is described as a horrible creature that inhabits tangled forest regions, and attacks with its great claws and snapping beak.

Dungeons & Dragons (1977-1999)

This edition of the D&D game included its own owl bear, in the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (1981 & 1983).^[4][5] The owl bear was also later featured in the Dungeons & Dragons Game set (1991), the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia (1991),^[6] the Classic Dungeons & Dragons Game set (1994), and the Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Game set (1999).

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition (1989-1999)

The owlbear appears first in the Monstrous Compendium Volume One (1989),^[7] and is reprinted in the Monstrous Manual (1993).^[8]

The owlbear appeared for the Dark Sun setting in the adventure Black Spine (1994).

The owlbear was detailed in Dragon #214 (February 1995), in "The Ecology of the Owlbear", which also included the arctic owlbear and the winged owlbear.^[9] These variants were later reprinted in the Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume Three (1996).^[10]

The greater owlbear' appeared in an adventure in Dungeon #63 (July 1997).

Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 edition (2000-2002)

The owlbear appears in the Monster Manual for this edition (2000).^[11]

The owlbear appeared on the Wizards of the Coast website for the Chainmail game, in 2000.^[12]

The winged owlbear appeared in Dungeon #84 (January 2001).

Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition (2003-2007)

The owlbear appears in the revised Monster Manual for this edition (2003).^[13]

The ancient owlbear appeared in Dungeon #107 (February 2004).

The Ankholian owlbear appeared in the Dragonlance Bestiary of Krynn (2004) and the Revised Bestiary of Krynn (2007).

Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition (2008-)

The owlbear appears in the Monster Manual for this edition (2008), along with the winterclaw owlbear.^[14]

Description

Owlbears are approximately eight to ten feet (2.5–3 meters) tall and resemble a cross between an owl and bear. Owlbears are carnivorous creatures famed for their aggression and ferocity^[15]; they live in mated pairs in caves and hunt in packs^{[citation needed]}, attacking any creature bigger than a mouse^[15].

The actual origin of the owlbear has never been definitively revealed, but the various Monster Manual editions indicate it is probably the product of a wizard's experiments. The lich Thessalar claims to have created them, but his insanity and egomania put the accuracy of this claim in doubt.^[16]

In other media

• The owlbear was card #107 of 750 in the 1991 TSR trading cards factory set, and card #117 of 495 in the 1993 TSR trading cards factory set.

• The owl bear was also a card in the DragonQuest game (1992).

• The owlbear was depicted in the webcomic The Order of the Stick, where it was presented as a pointless cross between an already dangerous creature (the bear) and a harmless animal (the owl).

• An owlbear also appeared in the webcomic Goblins, a adventure taking place in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, but from the perspective of the creatures that inhabit it, not the players.

Other games

Various kinds of owlbears appear as mobs in the MMORPGs EverQuest and EverQuest II.

Owlbears can be found in the roguelike computer games NetHack and ADOM. It also appears in a text-based MMORPG BatMUD.

An enemy named OWL BEAR appears early into the Sega Master System game Phantasy Star.

In Wildtangent's FATE,Owlbears were enemies in the game's first version.However,they were replaced by a similar monster called Shrike.

In PlayStation 2 game Wild Arms 5 Owl Bear appears as a common enemy.

There are also Owl Bears as enemies in Final Fantasy XII.

Owlbears in the Warcraft Universe

Adaptations of the Owlbear appear in the Warcraft universe in two forms:

• As NPCs known as wildkin in Warcraft III^[17]
• As both NPCs (known as owlbeast or wildkin) and players of the Druid class (known as moonkin^[18]) in World of Warcraft

References

1. ^ Greenwood, Ed. "Ecology of the Rust Monster." Dragon #88 (TSR, 1984). Account was later re-printed in the Ecology of the Rust Monster article in issue #346.
2. ^ Gygax, Gary and Robert Kuntz. Supplement I: Greyhawk (TSR, 1975)
3. ^ Gygax, Gary. Monster Manual (TSR, 1977)
4. ^ Gygax, Gary, and Dave Arneson [1974], edited by Tom Moldvay. Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (TSR, 1981)
5. ^ Gygax, Gary, and Dave Arneson [1974], edited by Frank Mentzer. Dungeons & Dragons Set 1: Basic Rules (TSR, 1983)
6. ^ Allston, Aaron, Steven E. Schend, Jon Pickens, and Dori Watry. Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia (TSR, 1991)
7. ^ Cook, David, et al. Monstrous Compendium Volume One (TSR, 1989)
8. ^ Stewart, Doug, ed. Monstrous Manual (TSR, 1994)
9. ^ Richards, Jonathan M. "The Ecology of the Owlbear." Dragon #214 (TSR, 1995)
10. ^ Pickens, Jon, ed. Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume Three (TSR, 1996)
11. ^ Cook, Monte, Jonathan Tweet, and Skip Williams. Monster Manual (Wizards of the Coast, 2000)
12. ^ Battle Sheets!
13. ^ Williams, Skip, ed. Monster Manual: Core Rulebook III v.3.5 (Wizards of the Coast, 2003)
14. ^ Mearls, Mike, Stephen Schubert, and James Wyatt. Monster Manual (Wizards of the Coast, 2008)
15. ^ ^{a b} Owlbear in the d20 SRD
16. ^ Jacobs, James. "Into the Wormcrawl Fissure." Dungeon #134 (Pazio Publishing, 2006)
17. ^ "Wildkin". Mojo StormStout's Warcraft III Strategy Guide. Blizzard Entertainment. http://www.battle.net/war3/neutral/wildkin.shtml. Retrieved 2006-12-09. 
18. ^ "Balance talent tree of the Druid class in World of Warcraft". Blizzard Entertainment. http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/druid/talents.html. Retrieved 2008-06-04.