Owlbear

Large monstrosity, unaligned

Armor Class
13
natural armor
Hit Points
59
7d10 + 21
Speed
40 ft.
  • STR +5
  • DEX +1
  • CON +3
  • INT -4
  • WIS +1
  • CHA -2
Skills
Perception +3
Senses
darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13
Challenge 3 700 XP · Proficiency +2

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.

How to run it

Two attacks at +7 for 10 and 14 is 24 damage a round against a single target, with no rider, no save and no cleverness. The owlbear is a wall of damage that walks at 40 feet a turn, and it will kill a level 3 character in two rounds of focus.

It is an animal. It does not target the caster because the caster is dangerous; it targets whoever is closest or whoever hurt it. That predictability is what makes it fair despite the damage.

Building the encounter

One owlbear is a solid encounter for a party of four at level 3, and genuinely threatening at level 2. Two is a hard fight at level 4.

It is a wilderness creature and works best where the party cannot easily retreat: a den with one entrance, a ravine, dense forest that blocks line of sight. Its speed of 40 means running away is not usually an option.

What to pair it with

It rarely needs a partner, and that is part of its appeal at this tier. If you want one, a druid or a beast-tamer who has it on a chain turns a monster fight into a scene with stakes.

A mated pair with a nest and eggs gives the party a reason not to fight at all, which is the most interesting owlbear encounter available.

Reskins

A large, fast, stupid animal that does enormous single-target damage. Reflavour as a bear of any kind, a dire boar, a chimeric thing from a wizard's failed experiment, or something with too many limbs in a swamp.

The owlbear is beloved enough that reskinning it usually loses more than it gains. Consider keeping it and changing the situation instead.

Commonly played wrong

Multiattack is one beak and one claws, not two claws. The claws attack is the bigger of the two, and running it as two claw attacks nearly doubles the damage. This is a common slip because the claws entry sits second.

It has no ranged option at all. An owlbear that cannot close is an owlbear doing nothing, so parties that break line of sight and kite are playing correctly, not cheating.

Compared to others at this CR

At CR 3 the owlbear is the pure damage option. The wight commands undead, the werewolf resists your weapons, the basilisk turns you to stone; the owlbear just hits you very hard twice a round.

It is the creature to reach for when you want a fight that tests hit points and healing rather than tactics. That is a legitimate thing to want, and there is no better CR 3 choice for it.

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