Per Larian Gazette; Owlbear Form confirmed for Druids

[firelilly]

Just received the latest Larian Gazette and as a tie in with the Dungeons and Dragons Honor Among Thieves movie; they are confirming that owlbear will be a druid wild shape form in the final release version of the game on August 31st.

[magickblog]

So they still find a way to dip into the hype of a dnd movie too.

[Hobocop]

Yeah, it got teased in one of the recent trailers and they tweeted about it a few days ago as well.

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

One more reason to play a Moon Druid (as if I needed another).

[(つ P_P )つ Give DIRETIDE]

Originally posted by magickblog:

So they still find a way to dip into the hype of a dnd movie too.

Owlbears are one of the the most icionic D&D creatures and the game already had them included since launch.

Also if you are going to go through the effort to create the model you may as well allow your players to shift into it anyway.

[magickblog]

Originally posted by (つ P_P )つ Give DIRETIDE:

Originally posted by magickblog:

So they still find a way to dip into the hype of a dnd movie too.

Owlbears are one of the the most icionic D&D creatures and the game already had them included since launch.

Also if you are going to go through the effort to create the model you may as well allow your players to shift into it anyway.

I was more expecting them to allow us to shift into as elemental creatures.

[(つ P_P )つ Give DIRETIDE]

Originally posted by magickblog:

Originally posted by (つ P_P )つ Give DIRETIDE:

Owlbears are one of the the most icionic D&D creatures and the game already had them included since launch.

Also if you are going to go through the effort to create the model you may as well allow your players to shift into it anyway.

I was more expecting them to allow us to shift into as elemental creatures.

Does anyone really care about elemential shifting for druids though?

People playing druids tend to want to be beasts and beast adjacent creatures 95% of the time.

Sorcerers and Clerics to to be more of the elemental minded players land.

[Hobocop]

Moon Druids get Elemental Wild Shape at 10th level.

Owlbear being available at 6th level lines up with the 6th level CR increase to their forms that Moon Druids get normally.

TBH, as nice as elemental wild shape is mechanically, they just don't have the character or flavor an owlbear or a displacer beast does.

[magickblog]

Originally posted by (つ P_P )つ Give DIRETIDE:

Originally posted by magickblog:

I was more expecting them to allow us to shift into as elemental creatures.

Does anyone really care about elemential shifting for druids though?

People playing druids tend to want to be beasts and beast adjacent creatures 95% of the time.

Sorcerers and Clerics to to be more of the elemental minded players land.

I just think, on my experience in solasta inside, druid transformed into any animal seems to be not very practical (even in bg3, animal form seems to be only when a high hp "sandbag" existence). But the elemental creatures summoned by the mage are quite useful.

[Spoonardo]

This game is supposed to be using the rule set from D&D 5e. Druids can only transform with Wild Shape into animals in the D&D 5e system (with the exception of moon druids into elementals at level 10). Owlbears are monstrocities and not animals...

*Larian throws the rule books out the window*

[Yojo0o]

Originally posted by xBrutalitopsx:

This game is supposed to be using the rule set from D&D 5e. Druids can only transform with Wild Shape into animals in the D&D 5e system. Owlbears are monstrocities and not animals... :Owlcat_suspecting:

*Larian throws the rule books out the window*

Owlbears are available to druids in the Onednd play test, so it stands to reason that this matches the direction dnd is headed.

[Hobocop]

Originally posted by xBrutalitopsx:

This game is supposed to be using the rule set from D&D 5e. Druids can only transform with Wild Shape into animals in the D&D 5e system. Owlbears are monstrocities and not animals... :Owlcat_suspecting:

*Larian throws the rule books out the window*

That ship has sailed from day one when they allowed Speak with Animals to work with owlbears.

And really, why not? There's nothing outstanding about owlbears mechanically that isn't just basically a CR 3 entry of the bear family.

[Spoonardo]

Originally posted by Yojo0o:

Originally posted by xBrutalitopsx:

This game is supposed to be using the rule set from D&D 5e. Druids can only transform with Wild Shape into animals in the D&D 5e system. Owlbears are monstrocities and not animals...

*Larian throws the rule books out the window*

Owlbears are available to druids in the Onednd play test, so it stands to reason that this matches the direction dnd is headed.

That's not the system the game is supposed to be based off of according to Larian, and that ability is not official yet. So my comment stands.

[ExcaliburV]

Originally posted by (つ P_P )つ Give DIRETIDE:

Does anyone really care about elemential shifting for druids though?

Ah-hem.... *raises hand*

[Yojo0o]

Originally posted by xBrutalitopsx:

Originally posted by Yojo0o:

Owlbears are available to druids in the Onednd play test, so it stands to reason that this matches the direction dnd is headed.

That's not the system the game is supposed to be based off of according to Larian, and that ability is not official yet. So my comment stands.

Your comment is technically accurate, yes. I don't agree with your "throws rules out the window" conclusion, though. DMs have always had the privilege of bending the rules to make the game better, and owlbears are fun.

[Cirrus]

Originally posted by xBrutalitopsx:

This game is supposed to be using the rule set from D&D 5e. Druids can only transform with Wild Shape into animals in the D&D 5e system. Owlbears are monstrocities and not animals... :Owlcat_suspecting:

*Larian throws the rule books out the window*

Those same rulebooks have rule that DM can change any rules.

Wizzard has written article that approves owlbears (with dm approval)
https://dnd.wizards.com/news/what-is-owlbear#druid