Why owlbears?

[Ettina]

WotC really ought to put this explanation in the next Monster Manual they print. It'd be good for a few laughs, and help quiet the minds of any fans wondering which specific combination of drugs and mythology resulted in these monsters.

To be fair, it just kicks the question over to "WTF were those toymakers smoking?"

[oudeis]

I just go with the interpretation that 'owlbear' isn't a literal description so much as a name that got hung on the beast by the first party to encounter one and survive. The 'bear' part of the name is due to the huge, shaggy-looking outline it presents when it fluffs out its plumage in confrontational situations. It's a massive, ground dwelling bird of prey that regained or re-evolved prehensile forelimbs, either through natural or magical means, typically in excess of 2.5 meters (8 feet) tall and weighing on average 150 kilos (330 pounds). Tales of its aggressiveness are somewhat exaggerated. While it will attack unrelentingly if it is hungry or threatened, if given a safe distance it is no more dangerous than any other predator.

[Telwar]

All I know is that next time I run a relevant game, like say 13th Age, I'm going to make me some bearodactyls.

[JNAProductions]

All I know is that next time I run a relevant game, like say 13th Age, I'm going to make me some bearodactyls.

Swearing warning, for the link. It's funny, but includes content not appropriate for this forum.

[Misereor]

It was based on a weird plastic toy from a cheap pack of "prehistoric creatures" that they used to represent monsters when Gygax and friends were inventing D&D. Same with a number of other original D&D monsters, like the Bulette. Not all of D&D is about existing myths and fantasy stories, a good chunk of it is original creations or so loosely inspired by other things that it might as well be original. It is probably helpful to think of D&D as its own unique fantasy setting (or series of related settings) rather than something that is meant to emulate other settings/stories or mythology.

Probably for the same reason our GM in one AD&D oneshot sandbox adventure introduced the young, adult and ancient Pepsi (25, 50, and 150 centilitres respectively).

[Eldan]

There was an article I once read online, where they hired a dozen or so fantasy artists and told them to make a bear-owl hybrid, and go wild. The results were amazing and weird, but seems to be offline now, sadly.

[tomandtish]

• Extensive quantities of alcohol

The owl woke up with a splitting headache. "How much did I drink last night?" he said as tried to blink away the spots in front of his eyes. He couldn't remember anything after his third fermented mouse blood.

A grumbling snore caused him to rotate his head 180 degrees. What the owl thought was a warm blanket was actually the arm of a very large grizzly bear.

"9 Hells!" thought the owl as he carefully extricated himself from the owl's embrace. A sudden snort caused the owl to freeze but, after a minute, the contented, baritone snores resumed.

As the owl crept out the front door into the blinding, morning light, he thought "I hope nothing bad comes of this."

Certainly better than the other way around.....

We generally joke/half-joke(it's often canon) that most weird combi creatures are indeed the product of one or more "crack-wizard", who routinely produce these things throughout the world just to see if they can. The owlbear is merely one such creature.

BATS

"I’ll tell you – let me know how I do. You made these bats stronger – more intelligent – and carnivorous!"
"No! – omnivorous!"
"But why would you do that?"
"Because I’m a scientist. That’s what we do."

I heard he originally made a dire bear, an awful bear and a grizzly bear.

And a silly old bear, who was the scariest of all......

[Tyrrell]

I had those when I was a kid.

Me too, and now I can guess your age within a few years.

[Berenger]

To be fair, it just kicks the question over to "WTF were those toymakers smoking?"

Plastic fumes, among other things?

[FathomsDeep]

Had to chime in on the owlbear thread. Playing D&D back in the early '80s, I avoided using the owlbear for encounters. It just seemed ugly and nonsensical to me at the time. Decades later, playing NWO, an owlbear mount was introduced, and I absolutely fell in love, both with the interpretation, and with the very concept. Owlbear is best bear.

I later played WoW and encountered the Moonkin. I'm unsure of the connection, but a dev who played a lot of D&D seems a likelihood.

[johnbragg]

Yes, I'm aware of that. I played WoW when it first came out (and Warcraft 3 before that). There were owlbears in both games. I didn't start playing D&D until years later.
Even so, I have never ever seen anyone actually use owlbears in any of the D&D games I have played in, and I have played a lot in the past 10 years.

In 3rd edition, it was trivially easy to slap a Half-Fiendish template on the humble owlbear, creating a flying greater owlbear with a bunch of other bonuses thrown in (AC +1, DR 5, DR 10 vs a bunch of elements, spell abilities.)

[johnbragg]

To be fair, it just kicks the question over to "WTF were those toymakers smoking?"

Probably chainsmoking packs of "whogivesadamn". Kids'll play with anything.

Can't find a good Martin Short Toy Executive clip. Maybe it was a different first-generation SNL guy?

[Joe the Rat]

Late to the Bulette discussion (as usual), but how you say it determines which jokes you make.

Fancy-way, you can have the dread monster of northern climes, the Woolly Bulette.
Otherway, you can refer to immature bulettes as "Small Caliber".

[johnbragg]

Late to the Bulette discussion (as usual), but how you say it determines which jokes you make.

Fancy-way, you can have the dread monster of northern climes, the Woolly Bulette.
Otherway, you can refer to immature bulettes as "Small Caliber".

Huh. I had always pronounced it as if they were the cheerleading squad for the Bulls, the Bull-ettes.

[Personification]

English doesn't borrow from other languages. English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them over, and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.

This is a bit off topic by now, but I never got a yes/no on if I could sig this.

[PhoenixPhyre]

This is a bit off topic by now, but I never got a yes/no on if I could sig this.

That's not an original statement as it's a quote from James Nicoll: https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Nicoll

[halfeye]

That's not an original statement as it's a quote from James Nicoll: https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Nicoll

Thus it is currently in copyright, and you need permission from the original author before you can use it.

[JNAProductions]

Thus it is currently in copyright, and you need permission from the original author before you can use it.

Then wouldn't that wiki site be illegally hosting it?

I think you need his permission to PROFIT from it. So unless you're making a mint off your GitP signature, you're probably okay.

[halfeye]

Then wouldn't that wiki site be illegally hosting it?

I think you need his permission to PROFIT from it. So unless you're making a mint off your GitP signature, you're probably okay.

They could have permission.

If you're not profiting, it's not worth suing you. Technically, you need permission, IANAL, it's probably a lot more complicated. There's also the thing of quoting small parts of a greater whole, but if you only know the quote, then I think you need permission, there's also the issue of the TOS of the site hosting the quote, if they claim copyright on things posted there, it may be they get to repost for free. Copyright is a mess, and getting messier.

[Nifft]

Thus it is currently in copyright, and you need permission from the original author before you can use it.

Nah, a quote that small is easily within the scope of Fair Use.

Additionally, there's no basis for suing as long as you (a) attribute the source, and (b) don't profit from the work -- the original quote was on USENET, and USENET isn't a work for sale^{[citation needed]}, so there's no loss of income which could be stipulated as the basis for a C&D filing.


The reason we ask permission to quote is pure civility & politeness, not some fear of legal repercussions.

[Personification]

That's not an original statement as it's a quote from James Nicoll: https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Nicoll

True, but I specifically want to sig the paraphrased form, therefore I wanted the paraphraser's permission to do so.

[Maelynn]

The intent was not to get French speakers to pronounce it that way, but to get pretentious English speakers to pronounce it that way. In that sense, it succeeded.

If only they succeeded to that degree on the pronunciation of melee ('muh-lay'. emphasis on the second syllable, since it comes from French mêlee). I've heard it mutilated to 'melly' or mee-leey' so often and it still makes my spleen twitch in agony...

[Personification]

If only they succeeded to that degree on the pronunciation of melee ('muh-lay'. emphasis on the second syllable, since it comes from French mêlee). I've heard it mutilated to 'melly' or mee-leey' so often and it still makes my spleen twitch in agony...

I always thought it was may-lay, with emphasis on both syllables.

[Keltest]

I always thought it was may-lay, with emphasis on both syllables.

That's how ive pronounced it too.

[hymer]

it still makes my spleen twitch in agony...

May I suggest you consult a doctor?

The word was nicked by English in the mid 17th century. How the French pronounce it (or spell it, for that matter) these days is pretty irrelevant to what would be the proper pronunciation in English, then or now.

[Jay R]

To be fair, it just kicks the question over to "WTF were those toymakers smoking?"

They were thinking, "If we make these, people will buy them." Toymakers aren't interested in realism, except when it impinges on that crucial fact.

I always thought it was may-lay, with emphasis on both syllables.

Correct. It is a spondee, not a trochee or an iamb.