Owlbear I

Owlbears are almost certainly the work of a deranged wizard who, given how deadly his creation is, probably did not survive it. They blend giant owl and bear, covered in a thick mix of feathers and fur from brown-black to yellow-brown, with yellow to ivory beaks and terrible red-rimmed eyes. Males stand 8 feet tall, weigh 1,300 to 1,500 pounds, and are darker and a little bigger than females. Their language is a series of deafening screeches of varied pitch and length.

An owlbear is savage and short-tempered at all times. It attacks prey the moment it sees it and fights to the death, ignoring morale. It strikes with two claws and a beak. A claw hit on an attack roll of 18 or more pulls the victim into a crushing hug for 2-16 damage per round until one of them dies; while hugging it can still bite but cannot claw. The victim gets a single bend bars/lift gates attempt to break free. If 18 is not enough to hit the victim's Armor Class, the hug fails and does no damage.

That ferocity is also the owlbear's weakness. It will chase a target into anything, so a clever party can lure one off a precipice or into a pit, if one is handy.

Owlbears live in dense temperate forests and in underground mazes, lairing in caves or hollow stumps. Mated pairs defend one or two square miles fiercely against every intruder. A lair has a 25% chance of 1-6 offspring, eggs 20% of the time and young otherwise. The young are 40-70% grown, fight as 3 or 4 Hit Die creatures with hit points to match, claw for 1-4 each and bite for 2-8, and their hugs are easier to escape, granting +20% to the bend bars/lift gates roll.

Owlbears live about 20 years and are egg-laying, warm-blooded mammals. They eat anything from rabbits and snakes to bears and trolls. Most prefer temperate lands, though some thrive in subarctic regions. Their mixed heritage gives them odd hours: they wake at noon, hunt day creatures in the afternoon and night creatures in the evening, and sleep at midnight. They are active through summer and hibernate in the cold months. Tales of white arctic owlbears, crossed from polar bears and arctic owls, remain unconfirmed by any captured specimen.

They gather no treasure, though shallow pits near the lair may hold the belongings of past meals. Wizards pay 2,000 silver pieces for an egg and 5,000 for a hatchling. Owlbears can never be tamed, but they make fierce guardians, and wizards plant them at important sites as a blunt 'keep out' sign. An owlbear in a dungeon or ruin was nearly always put there by someone.