Why owlbears?

[Jeivar]

I've been asking myself this question ever since finding out about this particular beastie.

There's no mythology about a bear/owl hybrid, and the whole idea is just... odd. If it was a bear with wings, that would be of note, but instead it's just a really aggressive bear with a beak.

Can someone explain to me why this thing even exists?

[Brookshw]

I've been asking myself this question ever since finding out about this particular beastie.

There's no mythology about a bear/owl hybrid, and the whole idea is just... odd. If it was a bear with wings, that would be of note, but instead it's just a really aggressive bear with a beak.

Can someone explain to me why this thing even exists?

Because Gygax bought a bag of cheap toys to use in his game, one kinda looked like an owl/bear, so he created owlbears.

[Zyzzyva]

Because Gygax bought a bag of cheap toys to use in his game, one kinda looked like an owl/bear, so he created owlbears.

Same bag that the rust monster came from!

[Thrudd]

It was based on a weird plastic toy from a cheap pack of "prehistoric creatures" that they used to represent monsters when Gygax and friends were inventing D&D. Same with a number of other original D&D monsters, like the Bulette. Not all of D&D is about existing myths and fantasy stories, a good chunk of it is original creations or so loosely inspired by other things that it might as well be original. It is probably helpful to think of D&D as its own unique fantasy setting (or series of related settings) rather than something that is meant to emulate other settings/stories or mythology.

[Nifft]

It is probably helpful to think of D&D as its own unique fantasy setting (or series of related settings) rather than something that is meant to emulate other settings/stories or mythology.

D&D respects mythology in the same manner that English respects foreign vocabulary.

[Slipperychicken]

Same bag that the rust monster came from!

WotC really ought to put this explanation in the next Monster Manual they print. It'd be good for a few laughs, and help quiet the minds of any fans wondering which specific combination of drugs and mythology resulted in these monsters.

[Draken]

Same bag that the rust monster came from!

I had those when I was a kid.

Specifically, I had the rust monster, the bulette, the feathered pteranodon and the two red thingies on the sides.

[PrismCat21]

Why not Owlbears?!?
They have the right to exist. Leave them cute, cuddle, scary critters be. :)

[GunDragon]

I always thought Owlbears originated in World of Warcraft and then D&D adapted them to their game. But I guess it was the other way around.

I thought of a weird backstory for such a creature: Long ago before the time of man, there was a great owl spirit and a great bear spirit. Their "children" the bears and the owls were being hunted and killed by the elves and other predators in the forest, and were losing their position in the food chain. So the bear spirit and the owl spirit combined themselves into one super being, creating the first owlbear. The owlbear and its newly-formed children were filled with rage and slaughtered a bunch of elves and other creatures of the forest.

An elven druid witnessed this massacre and declared the owlbear an aberration of nature, because it was disturbing the balance and natural order of things. So she teamed up with the other druids of the forest and banished the owlbears far away into another plane of existence, such as the Feywild or the Far Realm. The owlbears can be summoned by evil or chaotic druids now, but normal owls and bears remain on the Material Plane just fine.

[The Glyphstone]

Owlbears exist specifically because no one ever stopped long enough to ask 'why owlbears?'.

[Yuki Akuma]

I always thought Owlbears originated in World of Warcraft and then D&D adapted them to their game. But I guess it was the other way around.

You're aware D&D is older than WoW by like two decades, right..?

[The Glyphstone]

You're aware D&D is older than WoW by like two decades, right..?

Those time travelers, man...

[Malphegor]

/goes up to the podium/

/shuffles notes/

A wizard made it. (probably)

/drops microphone, leaves/

[M Placeholder]

/goes up to the podium/

/shuffles notes/

A wizard made it. (probably)

/drops microphone, leaves/

Why is it always the Wizards that get the blame? Why not Clerics, Druids or Shamans?

[GunDragon]

You're aware D&D is older than WoW by like two decades, right..?

Yes, I'm aware of that. I played WoW when it first came out (and Warcraft 3 before that). There were owlbears in both games. I didn't start playing D&D until years later.
Even so, I have never ever seen anyone actually use owlbears in any of the D&D games I have played in, and I have played a lot in the past 10 years.

[GunDragon]

Why is it always the Wizards that get the blame? Why not Clerics, Druids or Shamans?

Wizards tend to be more curious and tend to experiment with magic more? Idk

[Yora]

When I used D&D for my campaigns, I had owlbears simply be a type of feathered dinosaur.

The skulls of protoceratops fossils made ancient people think of a bird, so they assumed it had feathers, which led to the invention of gryphons. (And these fossils are really quite common in the region where the greeks believed gryphons to live.)

And now we know that some dinosaurs did have feathers. Owlbears aren't that unbelievable. They just are neither owls nor bears. But all awesome.

[Black Jester]

/goes up to the podium/

/shuffles notes/

A wizard made it. (probably)

/drops microphone, leaves/

That's the 'turtles all the way down' answer. The question then becomes "Why did the wizard do it?"

A few possible answers:

• The bears were cursed with owl-dom.
• Monster Trainer Tournament Breeding Program.
• owls represent bad luck, bears stand for economic decline - it is all symbolism, man
• "I will have my own gryphon, but with ursines and nocturnal birds."
• "All I wanted was a flying teddy bear - where did it all get wrong?"
• The owls were cursed with bear-butts.
• bears are physically impressive, but have relatively bad eyesight and aren't exactly silent death on four legs - by transmogrification with an owl, we can compensate their greatest weaknessesto create the ultimate super predator!

[The Glyphstone]

That's the 'turtles all the way down' answer. The question then becomes "Why did the wizard do it?"

A few possible answers:

• The bears were cursed with owl-dom.
• Monster Trainer Tournament Breeding Program.
• owls represent bad luck, bears stand for economic decline - it is all symbolism, man
• "I will have my own gryphon, but with ursines and nocturnal birds."
• "All I wanted was a flying teddy bear - where did it all get wrong?"
• The owls were cursed with bear-butts.
• bears are physically impressive, but have relatively bad eyesight and aren't exactly silent death on four legs - by transmogrification with an owl, we can compensate their greatest weaknessesto create the ultimate super predator!

• Extensive quantities of alcohol

[hamishspence]

• Extensive quantities of alcohol

That was the explanation given in Craig Charles's Red Dwarf book The Log, for future genetic engineers making creatures like the chimpanzebra, the grizzly gerbil, and the cricket bat (which had only been created to get a cheap laugh out of the name).

[Concrete]

I kinda like it. If you saw it, it'd first be a huge hulking kinda scary bear.

And then you see the owl face, and it gets kinda funny.

But then you realize that an owl that size would be terrifying without being half bear.

And then you hear it hoot, and it gets silly again.

And then it tears your barbarian in half.

It's kinda the perfect weird wizard amalgamation monster.

[Thrudd]

I kinda like it. If you saw it, it'd first be a huge hulking kinda scary bear.

And then you see the owl face, and it gets kinda funny.

But then you realize that an owl that size would be terrifying without being half bear.

And then you hear it hoot, and it gets silly again.

And then it tears your barbarian in half.

It's kinda the perfect weird wizard amalgamation monster.

And you follow it around and pick through the human-sized regurgitated owl pellets that have gold and magic items mingled with the hair and bones.

[The Glyphstone]

And you follow it around and pick through the human-sized regurgitated owl pellets that have gold and magic items mingled with the hair and bones.

Now that's a question that needs answering - does an owlbear poop like a bear, or regurgitate pellets like an owl?

[Nifft]

Now that's a question that needs answering - does an owlbear poop like a bear, or regurgitate pellets like an owl?

Neither -- the owlbear compresses refuse & excrement into solid diamonds, which it stores inside its body, and the diamonds grow in size and number over the owlbear's life as it increases in CR.

[Haldir]

I actually think Owlbears are completely and totally legit if you don't consider them to be "mammalian" like a bear, but instead a dinosaur descendant. Think about it like a feathered theropod who evolved to hunt and run and dig with four legs like a bear rather than evolving for flight like most theropods did.

this actually lead me to design a "true owlbear" with more lizardlike/komodo dragonlike features for a module I will be publishing shortly.

[Deophaun]

That's the 'turtles all the way down' answer. The question then becomes "Why did the wizard do it?"

No, the 'turtles all the way down' answer is "A wizard made the wizard do it."

[Luccan]

No, the 'turtles all the way down' answer is "A wizard made the wizard do it."

"Behind every great wizard stands yet another great wizard... and a pile of the corpses of every fighter that kept the fool alive."

It was based on a weird plastic toy from a cheap pack of "prehistoric creatures" that they used to represent monsters when Gygax and friends were inventing D&D. Same with a number of other original D&D monsters, like the Bulette. Not all of D&D is about existing myths and fantasy stories, a good chunk of it is original creations or so loosely inspired by other things that it might as well be original. It is probably helpful to think of D&D as its own unique fantasy setting (or series of related settings) rather than something that is meant to emulate other settings/stories or mythology.

Incidentally, I only recently found out it's supposed to be pronounced "Boo-lay" because French was really popular at the time and they wanted to make fun of its popularity. But I still refuse to pronounce it that way.

[Thrudd]

Incidentally, I only recently found out it's supposed to be pronounced "Boo-lay" because French was really popular at the time and they wanted to make fun of its popularity. But I still refuse to pronounce it that way.

It's not pronounced like that, it would be "Boo-let" if you were doing it in French- it's spelled like a feminine noun. Though presumably, like other animal names, you could have a masculine and feminine form. The masculine form would be spelled "bulet" and pronounced as you said. So "la bulette" would be a female of the species - maybe "les bulets" aren't dangerous and/or nobody sees them too much, so the manual doesn't mention them *lol*

[Celestia]

• bears are physically impressive, but have relatively bad eyesight and aren't exactly silent death on four legs - by transmogrification with an owl, we can compensate their greatest weaknessesto create the ultimate super predator!

Those are both false. Bears have eyesight comparable to us and, in fact, have far superior night vision. This is a myth born in a similar fashion to the idea that bats can't see. Because bears have such an amazing sense of smell, people just assumed that their vision must suck, as if real life operated on some sort of balanced scale.

Bears are also surprisingly sneaky for their size and have been known to stalk hunters from as close as 100 yards away undetected. Think about that next time you go hiking: a bear could be within charging distance of you, and you may not even know it. One minute you're minding your business, and the next minute your internal organs have become distressingly external.

Bears are fricken' scary, man. The only saving grace is that they often choose to ignore us.

[The Glyphstone]

I was doing research for a story once, and came across an anecdotal report of a ranger tracking a bear that was following the scent trail of a potential mate. At one point, the female actually had doubled back and essentially walked right by the male, who saw her then went back to following the scent trail. It wasn't that his eyes were bad, he was just wired to trust his sense of smell so completely that it took priority.