D&D General The Owlbear Druid: How Would You Do It? (A Poll)

The Owlbear Druid: How Would You Do It?

  • I wouldn't. It's against the rules, full stop.

    Votes: 6 4.3%
  • I'd change the druid's Wild Shape ability to allow owlbears.

    Votes: 6 4.3%
  • I'd change the druid's Wild Shape ability to allow all Beasts.

    Votes: 4 2.9%
  • I'd change the druid's Circle of the Moon subclass to allow owlbears.

    Votes: 14 10.1%
  • I'd change the druid's Circle of the Moon subclass to allow all Beasts.

    Votes: 9 6.5%
  • I'd create a whole new druid circle just for owlbears (Circle of the Owlbear)

    Votes: 6 4.3%
  • I'd create a whole new druid circle for all Monstrosities (Circle of Monsters)

    Votes: 21 15.1%
  • I'd change the owlbear's creature type to Beast.

    Votes: 50 36.0%
  • I'd do something else (see my comment)

    Votes: 23 16.5%

OB1

Jedi Master
I'm fine with Owlbears being beasts in the next MM
I'm fine with Owlbears being monstrosities (as in having a magical origin) and DMs allowing Druids to wildshape into them as they see fit
I'm partial to a Circle of Monsters subclass that specifically allows this - Just because it seems like such a fun design space for a circle

I'm absolutely unconcerned about why the Druid in the movie can do it, cause it was way too enjoyable to watch (almost as much as watching the Barbarian chuck armored soldiers around like rag-dolls... maybe more, I can't decide which moment I like better).
 

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tetrasodium

Legend
Supporter
I've long allowed druids to wear metal & wildshape into most true breeding beastlike creatures (owlbear/hellhound/blinkdog/winterwolf/etc). Basilisk & cockatrice has never come up so I haven't had to consider them. The vast majority of the beast-like not-beasts are pretty poor choices for wildshape unless the party needs that beast's gimmick like a winterwolf making an ice bridge/elementals/etc.

edit: I say "most" just to leave an out where I can look at something & say no if it seems crazy
 


I can think of at least two ways to pull it off legally in 3.5e. I'm pretty sure there are a couple more that I'd be able to figure out with more research.
 



I thought you could only polymorph into beast with polymorph, not monstrosities.
That's correct - wildshape lets you turn into a beast you've seen before, polymorph lets you turn into a beast of HD equal or less to your class level, but doesn't have the '...that you've seen' restriction.

edit: I should add, at least in 5e and most versions of the game that I've played; note that I haven't played every edition. From the 3e PHB:
Screen Shot 2022-07-22 at 5.33.40 PM.png

From the 2e PHB:
Screen Shot 2022-07-22 at 5.36.00 PM.png

...that being said, I'll admit that it was a cool moment in the trailer.
 
Last edited:

Umbran

Mod Squad
Staff member
I thought you could only polymorph into beast with polymorph, not monstrosities.

By the time you get polymorph, you can already take the form of a CR 7 Giant Ape, and are one level away from being a CR 8 Tyrannosaurus Rex.

It would seem to me that the absolute smallest rule change available to us to allow it would be to allow Polymorph to handle a CR 3 owlbear.
 


Yaarel

Mind Mage
Yeah, agreeing with @Vaalingrade and @Crimson Longinus.

The statblock for the Owlbear doesnt deserve the Monstrosity creature type.

Obviously, the monstrosity concept comes from the lore that a crazy Wizard did it. But in 5e, this lore is officially uncertain. There is alternative official lore, that elves already knew about the owlbear from thousands of years earlier − implying that it is a natural Beast, like the duckbill platypus. An other alternative origin is it is a fey creature. But the statblock lacks the Fey creature type, which means it is just a normal animal surviving in the material plane, in other words a Beast.

The movie has the Druid "wildshape" into an owlbear. Therefore, according to the setting of the movie, which is the default 5e setting, Forgotten Realms: the owlbear is a Beast. The movie has semi-official status because of its ongoing coordination with the 5e designers.

The best and simplest solution is: the owlbear is a beast. A Druid can do it.
 

DND_Reborn

The High Aldwin
Sorry, @CleverNickName but to me druids are "nature", not "natural", so they get beast-form and I've even added plant-form for my home games. :)

While many monstrosities are "natural" to a world perhaps, they are not of "nature."

Yeah, I get it, it "looks" cool, but the "Rule of Cool" has never been a thing in my games and never will be.

You want to turn into an Owlbear, wait until you can prepare shapechange. :)
 

DND_Reborn

The High Aldwin
The best and simplest solution is: the owlbear is a beast. A Druid can do it.
If anything, it should be Fey, not Beast IMO:

1658528955305.png


Perhaps their is a Circle of Fey or something in a book? I don't have all the new ones so it might already be out there. 🤷‍♂️
 

CleverNickName

Limit Break Dancing
Nope, wouldn't allow it. (I just wanted to be the first to vote that. :D )
Sorry, @CleverNickName but to me druids are "nature", not "natural", so they get beast-form and I've even added plant-form for my home games. :)

While many monstrosities are "natural" to a world perhaps, they are not of "nature."

Yeah, I get it, it "looks" cool, but the "Rule of Cool" has never been a thing in my games and never will be.

You want to turn into an Owlbear, wait until you can prepare shapechange. :)
There are no wrong answers.
There are no wrong answers.
There are no wrong answers.
feels breaking dawn GIF
 

el-remmen

Moderator Emeritus
At first I was gonna ask, how do we know he didn't just dispel his polymorph spell? But looking up the spell for the first time I see it too is limited to beasts. Boring.
 



Yaarel

Mind Mage
If anything, it should be Fey, not Beast IMO:

View attachment 254850

Perhaps their is a Circle of Fey or something in a book? I don't have all the new ones so it might already be out there. 🤷‍♂️
Actually, that was my original intention to answer the poll.

But when I doublechecked the Monster Manual statblock, I saw that this 4e fey owlbear is officially uncertain in 5e.

So the idea that the owlbear is fey, might not even be true. And even if there are owlbears in the Feywild, they can just as easily be natural beasts in the material plane, who unwittingly crossed over into the Feywild where the veil between planes was thin.

The most coherent answer is, the owlbear is the Beast creature type.
 



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