"You mean his platypus-bear" _No it just says bear_ "Certainly you mean his pet skunk-bear" "Or his armadillo-bear" "Gopher-bear" _Just... Bear._ ... "This place is weird..."
The only undead creature an owlbear could be is a skeleton or zombie, neither of those things have a mind of their own so they wouldn’t “think”. Mindless undead are driven to kill the living without any thought or reason unless commanded into service by an unholy will, they never devour flesh unless told to.
Owl bears are nocturnal, so the eyes probably are dilated to hide the red rimming. Pupils expand to see in the dark. The picture probably shows them as fully expanded for a night hunt.
DM: "And congrats, the owl bear is at 0 hp." Players: "Yes!" Also DM: "In a fury it picks up the mage and begins crushing and pecking him." Players: "WHAT?"
I also would run an Owlbear encounter like this. The owlbear can grapple and then Crush and peck its "victim". if the owlbear downs a player it will keep attacking unless someone else attacks it. if the hp hits 0 I would roll a d20 if it is a 1 the bear is DEAD, every hit the players do I roll again, every round I change the die to a: (d10, d8, d6, and finally a d4)
what you said about climbing trees reminded me of the Grizzly Bear flavour text from Magic the Gathering: "Don't try to outrun one of Dominaria's grizzlies; it'll catch you, knock you down, and eat you. Of course, you could run up a tree. In that case you'll get a nice view before it knocks the tree down and eats you."
7:50 it looks purple because it’s drawn in cool lighting. Anything will look blue under the right or wrong light. It’s probably meant to be grey/black.
The Owlbear is a strong, vicious, and cunning creature that can kill me in a second without breaking a sweat and look at his wittle ears, and his floofy feathers, I wuv him.
May I offer nice 3rd party material in this trying time? Pathfinder's Dungeon Denizens Revisited has had a number of unusual owlbear variants, including hollow-boned flyers and titanic siege owlbears, and you can find their description on d20pfsrd. It wouldn't be too hard to convert to any edition.
Well I can think of a couple fun ideas for variations: Dire Owlbear, is to the Owlbear as Dire Bears are to regular bears.... Pygmy Owlbears: An experiment in Eugenics by Gnomes to bread smaller easier to handle Owlbears as tracking companions.... Last note found in the journal of those responsible reads as follows..... "Well it seems our attempt to create smaller Owlbears has proven succesful, they're about the size of a large dog when fully grown now..... They've managed to trap us in the loft.... My college just asked me if they can climb, I told him not to be stupid, that owlbears can't climb. Turns out they can climb." (The page is then splattered with blood stains.")
I got Bearhawks from capcom dungeons and dragons owl bears. They are definitely hawks and not owls. I figured if there’s owl bears and bear hawks then in the tropics they have bear-rots!
I dont see it as hate, im new to D&D and i feel like knowing more about the older renditions of monsters allows you to blend them all together into a deeper more comprehensive monster. It does allow you to shore up the "short comings" of the 5E books, that arent really short comings because if they were to put everything about everything in a single book it would be a whole series of encyclopedia.
do remember that all of this informtion is often spread out over multiple editions, books and dragon magazine articles. Gathering it all in one video shows you how much lore these creatures have, but often this lore is scattered over multiple decades
You also don't need to accept and use the lore as is, especially when you don't play in the Forgotten Realms. As a DM, owlbears are natural animals in my games and everyone knows it, fuck the book's origin story. I even retype them to beasts instead of monstrosities.
The situation presented to the Players: The local eco-system is heavily disrupted, some apex predator is killing most life and really scratching up tree trunks. Player's Ranger: Is the disrupter able to climb and almost flawlessly hunt and kill all life? DM: No. Player's Ranger: It's an Owlbear. They are almost like a wizard's housecat made giant but not quite as good as an apex predator... size-relative. Hey, at least Owlbears are not as much of a natural disaster as a giant house cat, so there is that. Also, please take note of what I am about to explain about them. They are more dangerous than they should be, even for their size.
"The only thing good about owlbears is that the wizards who created them is probably dead" That has got to be the funniest quote from the monster manual.
The eyes of owl’s determin’s when they hunt. I know orange eye’s hunt at dusk or dawn. But i always mess up the red or yellow. I believe yellow is day hunters and red is night hunters. I have to check my books on that. If you want my credentials i am a trained animal caretaker from The Netherlands
I'd love it if you would look that up and edit it in properly, because then Mr. Rhexx might pin it as a great fact about Owls, for those who are looking for that extra special touch.
There are many websites that claim this, but unfortunately it is not true. There are plenty of owls that hunt exclusively at night and yet have yellow or orange eyes.
The theory about owl eye color comes from comparing species such as the Barn Owl to the Great Gray Owl or the Snowy Owl. Great Grays are known for occasionally being quite active during the day. Snowy Owls perhaps even more so. The Great Gray and Snowy Owls have yellowish eyes. The Barn Owl has been observed performing amazing feats in near-total darkness and has been assumed to be one of the best night-time hunters among all owls. Their eyes are very dark orange-brown. Someone incorrectly made this assumption that dark eyes meant night vision, or camouflage, and yellow eyes meant daytime vision or activity, with orange being somewhere in between. However, Barn Owls are also quite often actively hunting even in daylight or crepuscular hours (especially during winter months in their northern ranges). They also do not seem to rely on dark eyes as camouflage, since they are suspected to use their pale colors to startle prey with a flash of brightness. Great Horned Owls have big yellow eyes and while you may see them in the evenings sometimes, they hunt almost exclusively in the dark of the night. Many of the smaller species of owls hunt carefully at night to avoid larger owls who kill them, and yet look at the eye colors of Screech Owls and Saw-Whet Owls. Barred Owls, among the most commonly diurnally active owls in North America, have dark brown eyes. And I did this just using species in North America, and even the same species they most often cite as evidence of eye color indicating activity. It just doesn’t hold up at all.
You may have heard of my exploits. they’re whispered, whispered in places were evil gather. Where monsters and demons try & thwart mankind. Criminals and monsters, they are superstitious, timid and two of the worlds greatest predators the Owl and the Bear. While frightening strike no where near as much terror as that alliance between them. I am known as The Owlbear
70% of the "Owlbears are..." statements can be replaced by "Owls are...", 20% can be replaced by "Bears are..." and 10% of them are unique owlbear traits.
My gnome druid saved one of these guys from a band of outlaws that had been starving it for use in blood sport by basically telling it that as long as it didn't attack his friends it could get both revenge on the ones that had locked it up and all the food it could eat. It turned out that after unlocking the door the hardest thing to do was keeping the poor dear quiet for long enough to cast some defensive spells. Then a barkskin protected demigod of vengeance rampaged through the brigands ramshackle fortress, dismembering and maiming as it went. We still tell tales of Periwinkle Greenbeard and his faithful companion Fluffy the owlbear.
Older writing styles, which D&D sometimes emulates or echoes, use "evil-tempered" for creatures like particularly aggressive or violence-prone horses. It's not literally supposed to assign a moral alignment to its motivations, more to anthropomorphize it by describing its temper through the lens of its behavior and the effects of it on nearby human beings.
As someone who has met a horse who one would definitely describe as "evil tempered," it's not about morality, it's just viciousness and intractability.
Me and another user actually came up with concepts for 30+ different variations of the Owlbear in DM Lair's comment section a while back. Sadly, my original account was swept up in the quarterly UA-cam bot purge, so all those glorious Owlbear variants got flushed down the memory hole, with the exception of Atrox'Gula, the Devouring Apocalypse, a Dire Tarrasque level endgame monster i was trying to stat out in Discord.
@@DragonGunzDorian In the words of the Necromongers "We live, we die, we live again!" I remember most of our Owlbear variants, I'm just a bit salty all of it was nixed out of existence because UA-cam/Google customer support wouldn't restore my fucking account. Anyway, I (re)draw from the Deck of Many Owlbears, the Illithid Owlbear, with its grasping shoulder-tentacles and spring loaded spear tongue-tentacles. I also draw, the Draco-Owlbear, an Owlbear that consumed the leftover carcass of a dragon and its wyrmling brood, all recently hunted and (poorly) scavenged by a group of adventurers who weren't very good at their job, aside from killing their target. The Draco-Owlbear gains resistance to and thebreath weapons of the element of the dragon they consumed, as well as natural armor, a damaging aura, and natural spell casting.
@@demiurgusgodofform8589 that sucks, although my comments should still be there, meaning mine still exist at least.. Also I was wondering what happened to you, I noticed all your comments were gone and I was a little worried something happened to you there. Btw, did you ever named out the details of the demons fights at atrox gulas hearts? I recall them having godly synergy. Ok, here's an idea for an owlbear, though I don't have a name. Working off of your draco owlbear, what about a dracolich owlbear that's ate the corpse of something draconic, and happened to be the closest thing to a slain dracolich, therefore it was possesed by said dracolich. It could gain a fear aura, and have to eat to maintain a breath weapon. Btw, it's good to see you again dude, I thought of you immediately when I saw this video posted. Lol.
Damn, from the picture i was hoping i was going to hear "coincidentally, many Griffin's make their nests near or within owl bear territories, which allows their babies to play together" 😆
What they don't tell you about owlbears as well: By the magic of homebrewing, I let my group adopt a female owlbear cub, which due to a mutation potion became an adult druid owlbear very fast, an owlbear with antlers and even some selfmade druid powers suitable for a natural creature like an owlbear. But there's even more: Our campaign, running 2 yrs now, has said druid owlbear with a crafted armor, functioning as a mount, and has a bonding to her foster mother, the group's high elf wizard. That bonding lets her talk single words to her and recently starts to talk to the ranger. The wizard is able to use a special magic, called symbiose, with which, the druid owlbear becomes bipedal humanoid with the weapon of the wizard, talking, while the wizard becomes the current state of the owlbear. Current state, you ask? Yes. Because of the druid mutation, the druid owlbear can adept elemental appearances and powers. She already has water and earth. And she even can talk in her way as elemental. So, in fights, only during the fight, that symbiose makes it possible that the wizard can turn into the druid owlbear's current state, which makes for fun encounters. But they aren't overpowered at all! Because I as a DM also love to put effort into the enemies they happen to meet, so they still have issues with certain enemies, but get strategical advantages. And, as the cherry on the cake, in our world, there even exists the rare language owlbearish. It isn't easy to get, because speaking with animals can't get it. So you have to buy vocalin elixirs, but owlbearish is hard to get. Talking about getting creative!
3:30 mark, owls have some of the best hearing in the world (theittle hairs that help with hearing constantly regrow with them so they don't loose their hearing over time). Their face is also designed to be a big microphone to pick up sound. So uea, i can see them haveing advantage on perception
So UA-cam just suggested this video to me and I was happily watching it but then was stunned when at 6:30 my art was on screen. I am surprised, I didn't think I would ever see my art in a video ever. Thank you for showing it off MrRhexx!
gotta say, my favorite moment of any DnD campaign i’ve heard of is Bran the Barbarian, from Node’s Call of the Wild, wrestling an Owlbear to the ground and pinning it in like 2 rounds
@@anthonyplaysgames3676 this speaks to my soul running a game with a goliath fighter. He just wants to tame the strongest thing. he has more pets then the damn ranger LOL
I once had a Barbarian character who took the head of an adolescent Owlbear and had a helmet fashioned out of it. His name was Ogg and he only had an Intelligence of 4. The DM said "Okay." Apparently I must also have an Intelligence of 4 because I just realized why the DM kept having the party running into Owlbears and why they always attacked my character over all others.
One detail about DCs in 3.5 : as with many other numeral values, 3.5e had it much more generous. An "impossible task" was approximated at a DC40 in that system. In the 3.5 campaign at my table, lvl10 PCs regularly score past 30 on skill checks. I would sniff a DC30 in 3.5e at around 24 or 25 in 5e.
The range of DCs in 3rd edition is actually higher than the range in 5e. In 3rd edition its 1-40 and in 5e it is 1-30. That makes the taming of a young owl bear DC 17-18 and the taming of a fully grown owl bear DC 22-23 in 5e, if you scale it purely by numbers not the descriptions of the DC in 3e. Nice video though. :) source: rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/167407/converting-difficulty-class-dc-of-checks-from-dd-3e-to-5e
This is actually a pretty good question. My guess is you need to cook them long and hot, because bear meat and bird meat are both very finicky and have parasites and other pathogens in them. Their meat is probably really fatty and greasy, too, you’d have to trim a lot of fat. Good for making oil and lard, though!
Since he says the body is way more owl than bear I'd say it's probably not very good. The meat of raptors is generally pretty bad to eat. It's that way for most things that are strictly carnivorous.
I'm thinking a long stint in the Crock Pot will be best for my first try. That should take care of the toughness. I'm going to trim the brisket pretty close and go with that. To tide me over, as it cooks a full 24 hours, I will probably make Kabobs with the Tenders. Now I just have to figure how to kill this thing without the neighbors calling the Cops.
Note about training owlbears: back in 3.5e your skill bonuses got way higher than what they can in 5e due to how proficiency worked, an level 20 druid could have 23 ranks in the animal handling skill, and then when you add to that bonuses from your wisdom modifier and from feats you could go even further, and you could also spend double the time to make your roll Always result in a 10 instead of Rolling, so it is not nearly as impossible as it seems
"Owl bears are unique in that their ears are asymmetrical, one ear is higher than the other which makes it easier for them to pinpoint where a sound is coming from" This is true of humans too you know.
Loved The Video, I think an owl bear may be my new spirit animal lol Also I’m so glad I didn’t click away when you said it was done, all your Patreon supporters names were the icing on a very enjoyable cake :)
I have a legend in the group of friends about a player's encounter with an Owlbear. He was at level 1 and we were playing the 3.5 edition. In an unbelievable way, with a sequence of seven consecutive critical attacks (and terrible rolls for Owlbear), the player killed the beast. Norris, the dwarf barbarian is remembered to this days.
I really like all the cute art you showed in the video. The idea of this aggressive creature being so cute is actually kind of funny to me. would love it if those where official depictions of the creature.
We really need a MrRhexx Monster Manual that contains every creature you're covered in your videos, and more lore about them, plus updated statblocks that includes stuff that was omitted from the 5e bestiaries. Oh that would be such an amazing book.. like... actually having a manual that follows the lore... removing stuff from 5e that just came from nowhere and made no sense, adding skills, senses, traits etc that they really do have but not in the stat block, and so on.. and ofc with actual accurate art for every creature. Damn that would be so awesome!
What they never told you about owlbears is that they were once the most intelligent and sophisticated beings in the multiverse. They had their own civilization, their own magic, and their own science. They had colonized every plane of existence and were considered unstoppable by the youngest of the elven races...but then, something went wrong. The books never say where the plague came from. Maybe it was created by angry gods, maybe by the elves, or maybe just a fluke of nature. Whatever it was, it hit hard, and it hit everywhere. Overnight the owlbears went from a thriving civilization of culture and knowledge to a bunch of lowly animals living in caves and sleeping in their own dung. Don't worry though, because the owl bear has been getting smarter and smarter with every passing generation. Soon, they'll be able to throw down the younger races and reclaim their empire!
the only non-carnivorous thing they do is eat honey? I would like to point you in the direction of the FDA's classification of honey as raw meat substance.
I have been subscribed to your channel for some time but this is the first video I've actually watched....I think. Well done! I love to learn about the ecology(ies) of DnD creatures. I miss the old days of "Elminster's Ecologies" in the print editions of Dragon magazine. Learning the lore, habits, etc. of a creature, in my opinion, gives the DM more to work with when planning encounters. Even the fine details such as eye color, etc. I look forward to watching the rest of your series! Thanks again!
I just want to point at the obvious. The art of the growing up of the owlbear & griffon art IS JUST AWESOME & WHOLESOME Have a most wonderful day, morning, evening, night or bon appétit !
TL;DR Owlbear can be a very good survival horror monster if used right and not just as an encounter. Man, been revisiting your videos lately and binge-watching your content. Owlbear has a really special place in my heart. This video takes the cake due to me being a former zoologist, I decided that it was it for me because of my group encounter with a mother bear and her cubs. It did not end well due to young interns deciding they know better than us veterans and provoked a bear, A MOTHER BEAR at that, turning the encounter into a survival horror story, 3 of my coworker are crippled for life. Because guns, yeah that won't help much, a mother bear can be a rampaging demon and keep on charging, it's not uncommon for that to happen, especially a nursing mother bear. Our group sometimes plays a one-shot campaign, years after we had recovered from that incident our DM talked to us players to make sure not to trigger any PTSD by running a survival campaign. Everyone has recovered and has no problem but it still hammers in that great fear into us, and boy the DM went all out and dropped us an owlbear. Things went visceral, we were nearing the exit and would be home free from the dreadful forest, no more cannibalistic tribe, no more dinos, but one last thing blocked our freedom, a massive Owlbear the size of a D&D Alosaurus. DM went really detailed, it was heart-pumping, and at the end of the campaign we all were shaking, the DM even went further by providing professional help in case anyone is triggered and has a physical PTSD reaction. All things said, we agreed to it so if anything happens it falls into us the players since we said yes to the idea even after the DM told us there would be a bear specifically Owlbear and it would be visceral. All things considered tho, it was the best survival horror one-shot for us especially knowing just how utterly terrifying a bear can be IRL. DM was also part of our group that got mauled, he is among the few that are crippled so when I said "all were shaking" that includes our DM.
I kinda like the idea of owlbears not being literal owl-bear hybrids but a beaked, bear-sized creature like in 1st edition. Kind of like a hedgehog is not really a bushy pig.
My 8 year old who plays D&D in my campaign created a variation for her 1st grade Geometry/art project - "Sir Owlbear" had golden triangle horns coming from its back and would swallow PCs on a natural 20. #ProudDadMoment :D
My dragon born character has a pet owlbear named fluffbottum. He’s had him ever since he was a tiny baby. But now that he’s full grown he’s pretty temperamental,stubborn,aggressive,short tempered,reckless,occasionally disrespectful and a really trouble maker. But he’s a very loyal and trusted friend he’s even the royal pet.
I'm right there with you about the art not always representing various monsters correctly. When I get some time to do a little pro bono work, I'd like to redraw a few different Monsters.😈😈 Great Vid Rogue Sage Mr. RHEXX 😁
The owlbear having its entire eye in just be the iris in depictions is probably just how the owlbear appears in darkness, they eye completely open to let in as much light as possible.
I like the idea that owlbears have always naturally existed but long ago a mad wizard created owls and bears.
10/10 idea, submit it to the council.
The bard/druid got drunk one night.
Sort of like how hamsters are meant to be mini versions of the Space hamsters created by a wizard.
Just like a real owl, an owl bear is another beast everyone wants but shouldn’t have for many, many reasons why not.
Or a real bear
This isn't true at all. Owls aren't good pets, but they are quite intelligent and friendly to those who rehabilitate them to return to wildlife.
@@ninjabreadman22 "Owls in the Family", a book by Canaadian author Farley Mowat, based on the owls he kept as pets in his youth.
You know that you can have both a pet owl and bear
@@wyattdevine4909 next you only need either a wish spell or a lot of alchohol and romantic music
Is that a baby owl-bear, play-fighting with a baby griffon? That's adorable.
I dont think they are playing
I want an owlbear baby now qwq
Yeah that picture is from the Baby Bestiary by metal weave games
I was laughing at how the baby Griffin's wings were featherless
@@thomasallen9974 Yes they are.
What they don’t tel you about owlbears: Anything. Literally anything at all.
best comment ever
Because one day They knew that Mr. Rhexx would exist, and They wanted this video to be made.
Well there is a lot more lore in the monster manual for the owlbear than for many other monsters
@@defensivekobra3873 thats what he's getting at lol
Only tbat they are OwlBewrs about to fight one today
"You mean his platypus-bear"
_No it just says bear_
"Certainly you mean his pet skunk-bear"
"Or his armadillo-bear"
"Gopher-bear"
_Just... Bear._
...
"This place is weird..."
I feel like this is from the last airbender.
@@ConvictedHeart It is indeed good sir- in reference to the second greatest monarch in that universe, the Earth King of Ba Sing Se
The first greatest is the Emperor of Man, right?
I get that reference
This makes me question how many half bears there are in TLAB (or just how many mixes there are)
Imagine a undead owlbear who still consumes animals thinking it is starving and has a unending need to devour
Well, that idea is going in my next adventure.
what is exactly difference compared with normal owlbear with its unending need to devour?
@@drarsen33 one has meat on its bones and the other lost it, thats about it lol
@@bloodydove5718 could've just said the coolness factor
The only undead creature an owlbear could be is a skeleton or zombie, neither of those things have a mind of their own so they wouldn’t “think”. Mindless undead are driven to kill the living without any thought or reason unless commanded into service by an unholy will, they never devour flesh unless told to.
Owl bears are nocturnal, so the eyes probably are dilated to hide the red rimming. Pupils expand to see in the dark. The picture probably shows them as fully expanded for a night hunt.
DM: "And congrats, the owl bear is at 0 hp."
Players: "Yes!"
Also DM: "In a fury it picks up the mage and begins crushing and pecking him."
Players: "WHAT?"
dm also explains the owlbear is practically skinned, still is angry and attacking.
I also would run an Owlbear encounter like this.
The owlbear can grapple and then Crush and peck its "victim".
if the owlbear downs a player it will keep attacking unless someone else attacks it.
if the hp hits 0 I would roll a d20 if it is a 1 the bear is DEAD, every hit the players do I roll again, every round I change the die to a: (d10, d8, d6, and finally a d4)
what you said about climbing trees reminded me of the Grizzly Bear flavour text from Magic the Gathering:
"Don't try to outrun one of Dominaria's grizzlies; it'll catch you, knock you down, and eat you. Of course, you could run up a tree. In that case you'll get a nice view before it knocks the tree down and eats you."
Hey! I have that card!
love that card :D
7:50 it looks purple because it’s drawn in cool lighting. Anything will look blue under the right or wrong light. It’s probably meant to be grey/black.
thx ty-ty.
My first character death came from an owlbear, my poor Gnome paladin got claw-slapped into another dimension
Was your Gnome Paladin from the Ocean Dub of DBZ? Where "Another Dimension" was a euphemism for death.
Ah. My player's encounter with one, had a barely alive NPC impaled through the chest with the thing's beak, being used as a meat shield.
Had my head bitten off by one, once.
Never listen to the Animal/Nature Domain Clerics. Shoot first, ask later.
Greatsaiyakirby Sad that the gnome ended up in the Home For Infinite Losers.
I had four pet owlbears. Two males, two females, all very sweet.
The Owlbear is a strong, vicious, and cunning creature that can kill me in a second without breaking a sweat and look at his wittle ears, and his floofy feathers, I wuv him.
they didnt tell me they were so cuuuuuteeee dawwwwww
Look up baby owlbears... So darn adorable. I would tame them just for that.
I know right? Did you see the winter Owlbear!? He looked so round, like a giant white pear!
They also have the keen owl sight of a bear.
Blame Taliesin Jaffe.
@@GZilla311 leave it to Talesin to play the least ragey barbarian.
@@sandeman1776 He was mostly rogue with a hint of barbarian in his actions.
My party: "Does nothing"
Owlbear: "charges towards us"
Owlbear/Barbarian: COME AT ME BRO!!!
Isn’t that how a barbarian Reacts to anything
@@BerserkJess yes
My players had an epic improvised chase sequence with one. It impaled one of the NPCs in the chest and used his body as a shield.
@@patrickdees5256 that sounds...awesomely terrifying.
@@draconicdemigod9696 it was. Especially when said owlbear jumped onto their wagon, in an improvised chase scene.
My favorite monster in D&D, although I wish it had more variations. Also can’t wait for a hobgoblin video.
It's been a running joke what is near by if the party hears WHOAR in the forests
May I offer nice 3rd party material in this trying time? Pathfinder's Dungeon Denizens Revisited has had a number of unusual owlbear variants, including hollow-boned flyers and titanic siege owlbears, and you can find their description on d20pfsrd. It wouldn't be too hard to convert to any edition.
We are getting snowy owlbear in Rime of the Frostmaiden
Well I can think of a couple fun ideas for variations:
Dire Owlbear, is to the Owlbear as Dire Bears are to regular bears....
Pygmy Owlbears: An experiment in Eugenics by Gnomes to bread smaller easier to handle Owlbears as tracking companions.... Last note found in the journal of those responsible reads as follows..... "Well it seems our attempt to create smaller Owlbears has proven succesful, they're about the size of a large dog when fully grown now..... They've managed to trap us in the loft.... My college just asked me if they can climb, I told him not to be stupid, that owlbears can't climb. Turns out they can climb." (The page is then splattered with blood stains.")
I got Bearhawks from capcom dungeons and dragons owl bears. They are definitely hawks and not owls. I figured if there’s owl bears and bear hawks then in the tropics they have bear-rots!
Oh boy, I knew the second I clicked on this video it would be a hoot!
Sorry about that joke, you'll have to bear with my comment.
I don't know, I think it was a bit too much to bear
This isn’t much of a hoot, but I guess I could bear it.
Let me draw you the door
these puns are unbearable
I was going to complain about everyone using the same puns.
But I guess bears of a feather...
I dont see it as hate, im new to D&D and i feel like knowing more about the older renditions of monsters allows you to blend them all together into a deeper more comprehensive monster. It does allow you to shore up the "short comings" of the 5E books, that arent really short comings because if they were to put everything about everything in a single book it would be a whole series of encyclopedia.
To be entirely fair though, I'd also love an entire series of encyclopedia, especially if they were as in detail as Rhexx videos.
do remember that all of this informtion is often spread out over multiple editions, books and dragon magazine articles. Gathering it all in one video shows you how much lore these creatures have, but often this lore is scattered over multiple decades
You also don't need to accept and use the lore as is, especially when you don't play in the Forgotten Realms. As a DM, owlbears are natural animals in my games and everyone knows it, fuck the book's origin story. I even retype them to beasts instead of monstrosities.
+
@@rafaelbordoni516 how does that work with druids?
The situation presented to the Players: The local eco-system is heavily disrupted, some apex predator is killing most life and really scratching up tree trunks.
Player's Ranger: Is the disrupter able to climb and almost flawlessly hunt and kill all life?
DM: No.
Player's Ranger: It's an Owlbear. They are almost like a wizard's housecat made giant but not quite as good as an apex predator... size-relative. Hey, at least Owlbears are not as much of a natural disaster as a giant house cat, so there is that. Also, please take note of what I am about to explain about them. They are more dangerous than they should be, even for their size.
My party: we're owl exterminators
Owlbear: bring it on ......
screeeeeeeeee
Yes!
Ironically that's an owlbear's natural way of greeting people
Futurama. Nice reference.
Then you will have no problem EXTERMINATING THIS OWL...BEAR.
Owlbears are basically honey Badgers, huh.
Nah
They are not resistant to poison
Owlbear don't care.
Owlbear don't give a shit
They are worse, you can contain a honey badger, owlbears not so much
@@the24thcolossusjustchillin39 Are you sure about that? :Ü™
My party tamed an owlbear like a year or two ago. That campaign is still going.
So somebody is riding an Owlbear into battle or has something killed the pet?
@@TheKing-qz9wd our owlbear is still alive and our cleric is the one that is riding them into battle. (Are cleric was the one to tame the owlbear.)
Mine attempted to. At level 2. They died. Very, very fast.
@@hellfire286 hope you have better luck next time.
how can a campaign go for that long i mean what even is there to do so much that takes up a year or 2?
"The only thing good about owlbears is that the wizards who created them is probably dead" That has got to be the funniest quote from the monster manual.
The eyes of owl’s determin’s when they hunt. I know orange eye’s hunt at dusk or dawn. But i always mess up the red or yellow. I believe yellow is day hunters and red is night hunters. I have to check my books on that. If you want my credentials i am a trained animal caretaker from The Netherlands
I'd love it if you would look that up and edit it in properly, because then Mr. Rhexx might pin it as a great fact about Owls, for those who are looking for that extra special touch.
Yellow eyes: Day hunters
Red/Orange eyes: Dawn and dusk hunters.
Black eyes: Night hunters.
The black eyes help hide the owl during the night.
There are many websites that claim this, but unfortunately it is not true. There are plenty of owls that hunt exclusively at night and yet have yellow or orange eyes.
@@SuperDaveP270
Do you by chance know which species those specific variants are?
The theory about owl eye color comes from comparing species such as the Barn Owl to the Great Gray Owl or the Snowy Owl. Great Grays are known for occasionally being quite active during the day. Snowy Owls perhaps even more so. The Great Gray and Snowy Owls have yellowish eyes. The Barn Owl has been observed performing amazing feats in near-total darkness and has been assumed to be one of the best night-time hunters among all owls. Their eyes are very dark orange-brown. Someone incorrectly made this assumption that dark eyes meant night vision, or camouflage, and yellow eyes meant daytime vision or activity, with orange being somewhere in between. However, Barn Owls are also quite often actively hunting even in daylight or crepuscular hours (especially during winter months in their northern ranges). They also do not seem to rely on dark eyes as camouflage, since they are suspected to use their pale colors to startle prey with a flash of brightness. Great Horned Owls have big yellow eyes and while you may see them in the evenings sometimes, they hunt almost exclusively in the dark of the night. Many of the smaller species of owls hunt carefully at night to avoid larger owls who kill them, and yet look at the eye colors of Screech Owls and Saw-Whet Owls. Barred Owls, among the most commonly diurnally active owls in North America, have dark brown eyes. And I did this just using species in North America, and even the same species they most often cite as evidence of eye color indicating activity. It just doesn’t hold up at all.
You may have heard of my exploits.
they’re whispered, whispered in places were evil gather.
Where monsters and demons try & thwart mankind.
Criminals and monsters, they are superstitious, timid
and two of the worlds greatest predators the Owl and the Bear.
While frightening strike no where near as much terror as that alliance between them.
I am known as The Owlbear
I'm starting to believe!
*Stunning Strike*
70% of the "Owlbears are..." statements can be replaced by "Owls are...", 20% can be replaced by "Bears are..." and 10% of them are unique owlbear traits.
'I hate being a hater.'
Good, good. Let the hate flow through you! *evil emperor laugh*
Nobody:
MrRhexx: Female owlbears have no nipples
Frankly that question has kept me awake since 1981.
I should hope not, imagine a baby with an equally dangerous beak to the parent latching on. If they did have a nipple they wouldn't for very long.
But do they lay eggs?
I gotta be honest, the longer this conversation goes on, the less physically attracted to Owl Bears I become ☹️
@@storytellingsnek5255 yes
My gnome druid saved one of these guys from a band of outlaws that had been starving it for use in blood sport by basically telling it that as long as it didn't attack his friends it could get both revenge on the ones that had locked it up and all the food it could eat. It turned out that after unlocking the door the hardest thing to do was keeping the poor dear quiet for long enough to cast some defensive spells. Then a barkskin protected demigod of vengeance rampaged through the brigands ramshackle fortress, dismembering and maiming as it went.
We still tell tales of Periwinkle Greenbeard and his faithful companion Fluffy the owlbear.
Moments like those make a man consider using copious amounts of poisons to cull the monster.
Wait, do Owlbears count as Beasts? I’m not sure if Speak with Animals would work on them. (I’m assuming that’s what you used.)
give the Owlbear the owl's 120ft darkvision & its almost unbeatable stealth, & you have a terrifying apex ambush predator.
I think it's closer to an omniscient barbarian. Something like "there's one" *immediately charges in*
@Matthew Grandy Move over Nargacuga, there’s a new Bird Beaked predator in town. (I know Owlbears existed before Nargacuga, but shush.)
Anyone else just hear Taliesin say "The Owlbear!" every time Mr. Rhexx said Owlbear?
Is there another way to hear it?
"Evil tempered?!" I thoguht owlbears were true-netral or unaligned, like wild animals? Albeit, verry dagerous wild animals.
I think he just means that they attack everything and anything for food
Older writing styles, which D&D sometimes emulates or echoes, use "evil-tempered" for creatures like particularly aggressive or violence-prone horses. It's not literally supposed to assign a moral alignment to its motivations, more to anthropomorphize it by describing its temper through the lens of its behavior and the effects of it on nearby human beings.
As someone who has met a horse who one would definitely describe as "evil tempered," it's not about morality, it's just viciousness and intractability.
@@Heartdrive that sounds like my D&D party
Evil tempered just means bad tempered
Me and another user actually came up with concepts for 30+ different variations of the Owlbear in DM Lair's comment section a while back. Sadly, my original account was swept up in the quarterly UA-cam bot purge, so all those glorious Owlbear variants got flushed down the memory hole, with the exception of Atrox'Gula, the Devouring Apocalypse, a Dire Tarrasque level endgame monster i was trying to stat out in Discord.
word of advice, write stuff like that down in actual notes.
I remember my owl bearclaw not getting a laugh, and my abyssal owlbear with madness effects. BEHOLD THE DECK OF MANY OWLBEARS RETURN!
@@DragonGunzDorian
In the words of the Necromongers "We live, we die, we live again!" I remember most of our Owlbear variants, I'm just a bit salty all of it was nixed out of existence because UA-cam/Google customer support wouldn't restore my fucking account.
Anyway, I (re)draw from the Deck of Many Owlbears, the Illithid Owlbear, with its grasping shoulder-tentacles and spring loaded spear tongue-tentacles. I also draw, the Draco-Owlbear, an Owlbear that consumed the leftover carcass of a dragon and its wyrmling brood, all recently hunted and (poorly) scavenged by a group of adventurers who weren't very good at their job, aside from killing their target. The Draco-Owlbear gains resistance to and thebreath weapons of the element of the dragon they consumed, as well as natural armor, a damaging aura, and natural spell casting.
@@demiurgusgodofform8589 that sucks, although my comments should still be there, meaning mine still exist at least.. Also I was wondering what happened to you, I noticed all your comments were gone and I was a little worried something happened to you there. Btw, did you ever named out the details of the demons fights at atrox gulas hearts? I recall them having godly synergy.
Ok, here's an idea for an owlbear, though I don't have a name. Working off of your draco owlbear, what about a dracolich owlbear that's ate the corpse of something draconic, and happened to be the closest thing to a slain dracolich, therefore it was possesed by said dracolich. It could gain a fear aura, and have to eat to maintain a breath weapon.
Btw, it's good to see you again dude, I thought of you immediately when I saw this video posted. Lol.
@@demiurgusgodofform8589 you ever get my last reply?
Damn, from the picture i was hoping i was going to hear "coincidentally, many Griffin's make their nests near or within owl bear territories, which allows their babies to play together" 😆
I like that. Seems plausible.
@@draxthemsklonst well now its "head canon"
Imagine riding the Griffin into battle, firing arrows or lightning bolts as your owl bear is just tearing through the enemy ranks
@@anthonyrowlodge5357 teamwork makes the dream work
@@miloselfesteem2326 why is it that whenever I read headcannon I think of a cannon that fires off flamming skulls ?
💥💀🔥
You can tell the owlbear was a source of inspiration for the Shrike and Skraev in Dauntless. One of the most fun monsters in the game.
Vicious, ravenous, aggressive, and...
Super duper adorable with their soft feathers and plushy-like stature
What they don't tell you about owlbears as well:
By the magic of homebrewing, I let my group adopt a female owlbear cub, which due to a mutation potion became an adult druid owlbear very fast, an owlbear with antlers and even some selfmade druid powers suitable for a natural creature like an owlbear.
But there's even more:
Our campaign, running 2 yrs now, has said druid owlbear with a crafted armor, functioning as a mount, and has a bonding to her foster mother, the group's high elf wizard. That bonding lets her talk single words to her and recently starts to talk to the ranger.
The wizard is able to use a special magic, called symbiose, with which, the druid owlbear becomes bipedal humanoid with the weapon of the wizard, talking, while the wizard becomes the current state of the owlbear.
Current state, you ask?
Yes. Because of the druid mutation, the druid owlbear can adept elemental appearances and powers. She already has water and earth. And she even can talk in her way as elemental.
So, in fights, only during the fight, that symbiose makes it possible that the wizard can turn into the druid owlbear's current state, which makes for fun encounters.
But they aren't overpowered at all! Because I as a DM also love to put effort into the enemies they happen to meet, so they still have issues with certain enemies, but get strategical advantages.
And, as the cherry on the cake, in our world, there even exists the rare language owlbearish. It isn't easy to get, because speaking with animals can't get it.
So you have to buy vocalin elixirs, but owlbearish is hard to get.
Talking about getting creative!
3:30 mark, owls have some of the best hearing in the world (theittle hairs that help with hearing constantly regrow with them so they don't loose their hearing over time). Their face is also designed to be a big microphone to pick up sound. So uea, i can see them haveing advantage on perception
So UA-cam just suggested this video to me and I was happily watching it but then was stunned when at 6:30 my art was on screen. I am surprised, I didn't think I would ever see my art in a video ever. Thank you for showing it off MrRhexx!
So many facts and yet he fails to answer the most pressing question: Are owlbear young called cubs or chicks?
Cublet
Probably something like chubs or cicks. Personally I like chubs
@@placeholder_name280 I second chubs. Clearly the superior choice.
I switch between Cub and Hatchling
They have eggs, so chicks.
OMG, what a vivid picture. Can you imagine a creature with a beak like that nursing? Thank goodness for well thought out consistency.
gotta say, my favorite moment of any DnD campaign i’ve heard of is Bran the Barbarian, from Node’s Call of the Wild, wrestling an Owlbear to the ground and pinning it in like 2 rounds
Wizard:hmm yes bears aren't deadly enough i want to be in constant fear every time i go outside
GEM DRAGOOOOOONS!!!!!! Please for the love of all that is D&D!!!!! Cover them and SARDIOR!!!
"What the Monster Manual doesn't tell you about Gem Dragons: They exist."
Agreed.
Me: “ an owl bear comes out of the forest.”
My monk: “I don’t think so.”
My Goliath Fighter: that... that will be my new pet
@@anthonyplaysgames3676 this speaks to my soul running a game with a goliath fighter. He just wants to tame the strongest thing. he has more pets then the damn ranger LOL
@@whosthere8658 in our campaign he's like "I like that thing", "I want to fight that", or "that will be my dinner
@@anthonyplaysgames3676 basically
How to tame Owlbears:
-Tackle the fuck out of it.
-wait till it gives up
-Headpat
I once had a Barbarian character who took the head of an adolescent Owlbear and had a helmet fashioned out of it. His name was Ogg and he only had an Intelligence of 4.
The DM said "Okay."
Apparently I must also have an Intelligence of 4 because I just realized why the DM kept having the party running into Owlbears and why they always attacked my character over all others.
this does not seam like a 5e hating session, it is just an informal, helpful documentary almost. thatks for this man, I'm really enjoying it.
One detail about DCs in 3.5 : as with many other numeral values, 3.5e had it much more generous. An "impossible task" was approximated at a DC40 in that system. In the 3.5 campaign at my table, lvl10 PCs regularly score past 30 on skill checks.
I would sniff a DC30 in 3.5e at around 24 or 25 in 5e.
Yaaaay more cute baby creature thumbnails, I’d love to hear about griffons next
I've never felt bad for an owlbear until the last picture in the video. Slaughtered owlbear surrounded by a devastated forest? The feels T.T
Who else thought that this wasn't going be a creature Mrrhexx showed us
Keep it up
Wow, I've DMd 5E for a while now and didn't know about that +5 if they have advantage rule. You learn something new every day. Thanks MrRhexx.
I learned about it from YT comment section not long ago as well lol.
The range of DCs in 3rd edition is actually higher than the range in 5e. In 3rd edition its 1-40 and in 5e it is 1-30.
That makes the taming of a young owl bear DC 17-18 and the taming of a fully grown owl bear DC 22-23 in 5e, if you scale it purely by numbers not the descriptions of the DC in 3e.
Nice video though. :)
source: rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/167407/converting-difficulty-class-dc-of-checks-from-dd-3e-to-5e
Pelor's dirty sock drawer, it's basically a giant Honey Badger.
Feel better, Rhexx.
Fun hearing that my theories about the Owlbear were actually correct. Great video!
"Whats the worst that could happen?" Casts enlarge creature on owlbear
Best monster in D&D, and the symbol of the Science Outreach + Pop culture Journal, the Journal of Geek Studies!
Best monster for the best Journal out there!
Love the art at 9:25 depicting a Friendship of a Owlbear with a Gryphon over their time, at leas it looks so from what i see.
Owlbear art is either cute or scary as hell
Both… Seeing a baby owlbear might be the cutest thing you ever see. And the last thing because the mother is probably already charging at you.
"Local Bear literally too angry to die."
How do they taste? What is the best way to cook them? These important questions remain unanswered.
They taste fowl, but just bearly.
This is actually a pretty good question. My guess is you need to cook them long and hot, because bear meat and bird meat are both very finicky and have parasites and other pathogens in them. Their meat is probably really fatty and greasy, too, you’d have to trim a lot of fat. Good for making oil and lard, though!
Since he says the body is way more owl than bear I'd say it's probably not very good. The meat of raptors is generally pretty bad to eat. It's that way for most things that are strictly carnivorous.
In D&D you don't eat the owlbear, owlbear eats you.
I'm thinking a long stint in the Crock Pot will be best for my first try. That should take care of the toughness. I'm going to trim the brisket pretty close and go with that. To tide me over, as it cooks a full 24 hours, I will probably make Kabobs with the Tenders. Now I just have to figure how to kill this thing without the neighbors calling the Cops.
Note about training owlbears: back in 3.5e your skill bonuses got way higher than what they can in 5e due to how proficiency worked, an level 20 druid could have 23 ranks in the animal handling skill, and then when you add to that bonuses from your wisdom modifier and from feats you could go even further, and you could also spend double the time to make your roll Always result in a 10 instead of Rolling, so it is not nearly as impossible as it seems
"Owl bears are unique in that their ears are asymmetrical, one ear is higher than the other which makes it easier for them to pinpoint where a sound is coming from"
This is true of humans too you know.
Loved The Video, I think an owl bear may be my new spirit animal lol Also I’m so glad I didn’t click away when you said it was done, all your Patreon supporters names were the icing on a very enjoyable cake :)
I have a legend in the group of friends about a player's encounter with an Owlbear. He was at level 1 and we were playing the 3.5 edition. In an unbelievable way, with a sequence of seven consecutive critical attacks (and terrible rolls for Owlbear), the player killed the beast. Norris, the dwarf barbarian is remembered to this days.
I really like all the cute art you showed in the video. The idea of this aggressive creature being so cute is actually kind of funny to me. would love it if those where official depictions of the creature.
Its soooo cuteee
We really need a MrRhexx Monster Manual that contains every creature you're covered in your videos, and more lore about them, plus updated statblocks that includes stuff that was omitted from the 5e bestiaries. Oh that would be such an amazing book.. like... actually having a manual that follows the lore... removing stuff from 5e that just came from nowhere and made no sense, adding skills, senses, traits etc that they really do have but not in the stat block, and so on.. and ofc with actual accurate art for every creature.
Damn that would be so awesome!
Perfect cover story to infiltrate anywhere -
We're owlbear exterminators!
Yes. Futurama reference.
“Their main strategy in actually defeating enemies. They bear hug you.”
OH NO AFFECTION! MY ONLY WEAKNESS-
I made my whole party’s jaw drop when I killed an owlbear in a single turn with my level 3 ranger, dm hated me for it too 😂
The owl bear is so damn cute! Look at that big fluffy beaked face!
They're actually manbearpigs
I thought they were women-chicken-duck things
Around 5:40 man near pig looks autistic
Half man, half bear, and half pig...that's first edition math if I ever saw it.
With the release of Baldur's Gate 3: Everyone thinks owlbears are the cutest thing ever.
just commenting to increase the likelihood that more people will watch this . . .
Let us pray to the UA-cam algorithm gods . . .
...?
684k subs,.. thank god youre here to help with exposure lol
Shoutout to my group encountering owlbears yesterday and today and this video coming out between both
What they never told you about owlbears is that they were once the most intelligent and sophisticated beings in the multiverse. They had their own civilization, their own magic, and their own science. They had colonized every plane of existence and were considered unstoppable by the youngest of the elven races...but then, something went wrong. The books never say where the plague came from. Maybe it was created by angry gods, maybe by the elves, or maybe just a fluke of nature. Whatever it was, it hit hard, and it hit everywhere. Overnight the owlbears went from a thriving civilization of culture and knowledge to a bunch of lowly animals living in caves and sleeping in their own dung. Don't worry though, because the owl bear has been getting smarter and smarter with every passing generation. Soon, they'll be able to throw down the younger races and reclaim their empire!
Breaking news: local owl bear literally too angry to die!
Uploaded 5 minutes ago.
Me: Oh boy! I have a chance at being an early commenter!
Also me: I see multiple people have already commented....
wakes up at midday and goes to sleep at midnight? i am an owlbear
Six views, 30 likes, seems legit
Never was interested in owlbears. But you are just so great narrator, so listened with interest. Thanks
the only non-carnivorous thing they do is eat honey? I would like to point you in the direction of the FDA's classification of honey as raw meat substance.
I have been subscribed to your channel for some time but this is the first video I've actually watched....I think. Well done! I love to learn about the ecology(ies) of DnD creatures. I miss the old days of "Elminster's Ecologies" in the print editions of Dragon magazine. Learning the lore, habits, etc. of a creature, in my opinion, gives the DM more to work with when planning encounters. Even the fine details such as eye color, etc. I look forward to watching the rest of your series! Thanks again!
Sorry to hear you've been sick. I hope you feel better soon. Love your videos.
The body of a bear, the head of an owl and the behaviour of a honey badger ;)
That's the long and short of it
I just want to point at the obvious.
The art of the growing up of the owlbear & griffon art
IS
JUST
AWESOME
&
WHOLESOME
Have a most wonderful day, morning, evening, night or bon appétit !
I feel like there's a good portion of this information that should scare a person, yet, all it accomplished was making me love owlbears more.
TL;DR Owlbear can be a very good survival horror monster if used right and not just as an encounter.
Man, been revisiting your videos lately and binge-watching your content. Owlbear has a really special place in my heart.
This video takes the cake due to me being a former zoologist, I decided that it was it for me because of my group encounter with a mother bear and her cubs. It did not end well due to young interns deciding they know better than us veterans and provoked a bear, A MOTHER BEAR at that, turning the encounter into a survival horror story, 3 of my coworker are crippled for life. Because guns, yeah that won't help much, a mother bear can be a rampaging demon and keep on charging, it's not uncommon for that to happen, especially a nursing mother bear.
Our group sometimes plays a one-shot campaign, years after we had recovered from that incident our DM talked to us players to make sure not to trigger any PTSD by running a survival campaign. Everyone has recovered and has no problem but it still hammers in that great fear into us, and boy the DM went all out and dropped us an owlbear. Things went visceral, we were nearing the exit and would be home free from the dreadful forest, no more cannibalistic tribe, no more dinos, but one last thing blocked our freedom, a massive Owlbear the size of a D&D Alosaurus. DM went really detailed, it was heart-pumping, and at the end of the campaign we all were shaking, the DM even went further by providing professional help in case anyone is triggered and has a physical PTSD reaction. All things said, we agreed to it so if anything happens it falls into us the players since we said yes to the idea even after the DM told us there would be a bear specifically Owlbear and it would be visceral. All things considered tho, it was the best survival horror one-shot for us especially knowing just how utterly terrifying a bear can be IRL. DM was also part of our group that got mauled, he is among the few that are crippled so when I said "all were shaking" that includes our DM.
Fun fact when a bear is chucking into a bee's nest they're not in it for the honey, they're in it for the larva that's inside.
I love that the tactics of an owlbear is Hugs and Kisses to Death.
Ive been playing these videos whenever I come across an enemy in BG3 ... thanks for your hard work!!
I kinda like the idea of owlbears not being literal owl-bear hybrids but a beaked, bear-sized creature like in 1st edition. Kind of like a hedgehog is not really a bushy pig.
I known its pretty much impossible but a DND AAA game would be the coolest thing ever
My 8 year old who plays D&D in my campaign created a variation for her 1st grade Geometry/art project - "Sir Owlbear" had golden triangle horns coming from its back and would swallow PCs on a natural 20. #ProudDadMoment :D
That thumbnail is CUTE! CUTE!
My dragon born character has a pet owlbear named fluffbottum. He’s had him ever since he was a tiny baby. But now that he’s full grown he’s pretty temperamental,stubborn,aggressive,short tempered,reckless,occasionally disrespectful and a really trouble maker. But he’s a very loyal and trusted friend he’s even the royal pet.
dude thank you so much for making this video, it's a big help for some owlbear designs I'm working on for a vid!
I'm right there with you about the art not always representing various monsters correctly. When I get some time to do a little pro bono work, I'd like to redraw a few different Monsters.😈😈 Great Vid Rogue Sage Mr. RHEXX 😁
this was very helpful as always. and i will be adding some owlbears to my games now that im more informed.
The owlbear having its entire eye in just be the iris in depictions is probably just how the owlbear appears in darkness, they eye completely open to let in as much light as possible.