Owlbear

An owlbear was a large magical or fey beast that looked like a cross between an owl and a bear. "Once the wolves and owlbears catch your scent, they'll follow you. If you can't keep ahead of them, they'll eat you. Slowly, if it's an owlbear that catches you. They like cruel sport with their food."

- Florin Falconhand

Description
Owlbears were monstrous beasts with the bodies of bears covered in thick shaggy coats of both fur and feathers, ranging in coloration from yellowish brown to a brownish black. Their heads were avian, like those of owls, with large round red-rimmed eyes and a hooked or serrated beak of a dull ivory hue. Those who'd had run-ins with them and lived often described bestial insanity in its eyes. A fully grown male specimen stood high and weighed.

Behavior
These creatures were incredibly aggressive and were famous for their ferocity and foul temper. They would go so far as to attack any almost anything that moved—anything larger than a mouse and anything it thought it could kill—without any provocation  and would fight to the death.

Owlbears could be either diurnal or nocturnal, according to the habits of the local prey. Diurnal owlbears hunted from around sunset to sunrise. They hooted or screeched to declare their territory and to flush prey into their hunting grounds. Owlbears also screeched as a way to attract a mate. When an owlbear successfully caught its prey, it tended to consume part of it on the spot, before dragging the rest back to its lair to be stored. The scent of flesh that emanated from an owlbear's lair often attracted creatures and, therefore, more prey.

Abilities
An owlbear had a keen sense of scent and could use it to track prey.

Combat
An owlbear fought with both its beak and its claws. They would try to slash and grab prey with one or both their claws and bite it and rend it in twain. They simply targeted whatever was closest.

If wounded in a fight, they were known to screech so loudly it stunned nearby creatures, which the owlbear would then advantage of.

Ecology
Living in temperate climes and forested areas, owlbears established their lairs in tangled woods and in near-surface caves.

Adult owlbears dwelled together as mated pairs, and had up to six young, which they kept in their lairs while they went hunting. They could be encountered alone, in mated pairs, or in packs of up to eight.

Cormanthor
The owlbears of the Starwood area of the Cormanthor forest quickly ate through their food supply of wolves, rabbits, and snakes. As food became scarce, their population began to decrease, until they came across a supply of harvester termites and found that they were edible. They quickly learned how to maintain their own termite colonies by managing their wood supplies, and therefore effectively grew their own food.

As a side effect of this practice, horses were drawn to the scent of the termite shells mixed with owlbear saliva, and the owlbears took to hiding and waiting for horses to arrive, before pushing them into a termite pit and then devouring them. Pyrolisks were also drawn to the scent, but owlbears would abandon a pit if a pyrolisk turned up, rather than risk being incinerated.

Usage
Owlbear leather was a quality material used in the crafting of armor and in reinforcing weapons.

Owlbears were impossible to domesticate, but they could be charmed or trained to a degree, with professional trainers demanding 2,000 gp to rear or train one. A young owlbear could be sold for 3,000 gp in civilized places were the market existed for them. Trained owlbears were typically used as free-ranging guardians in strategic areas, which they saw as their territory. They tirelessly chased after all trespassers.

History
How the owlbear came to be was a long-running argument among scholars. The mostly widely held theory was of course that the first owlbear was the product of a demented mage crossing a bear and a giant owl. However, the oldest elves recalled that owlbears had been around for many millennia and a few fey claimed owlbears had always been found in the Feywild. If this was correct, owlbears had originated as Feywild predators before somehow finding their way into the material world in ancient times. In fact, owlbears were brought into being by one of the creator races, most likely the aearee.

During the Silver Age of Netheril, Netherese human colonists led by the Terraseer eradicated the 3,000-strong population of owlbears of the Savage Frontier so they could not trouble their caravans, in the so-called Caravan War in. They established the Old Owl Well outpost there and named it for the owlbears.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Under Illefarn • Dungeon #14, "Masqueraider" • Dungeon #28, "The Pipes of Doom" • The Sword of the Dales • The Twilight Tomb • Fang, Beak, and Claw • Lost Mine of Phandelver • Princes of the Apocalypse • Storm King's Thunder
 * Comics
 * Neverwinter Tales
 * Video Games
 * Curse of the Azure Bonds • Gateway to the Savage Frontier • Neverwinter • Lords of Waterdeep • Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms • Baldur's Gate III
 * Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation
 * Gamebooks
 * Spawn of Dragonspear
 * To Catch a Thief
 * Card Games
 * AD&D Trading Cards •
 * Board Games
 * Lords of Waterdeep • Battle for Faerûn • Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Begins
 * Organized Play & Licensed Adventures
 * A Fool's Errand &bull; When the Lights Went Out in Candlekeep
 * Organized Play & Licensed Adventures
 * A Fool's Errand &bull; When the Lights Went Out in Candlekeep