I kinda actually like the Owlbear...I can't decide if it's because I genuinely think it looks kind of cool or whether it's just one of those things that are so stupid that I can't help but unconditionally love it.
I think he hasn't got owlbear right, being made via a magical experiment and despite looking freaking awesome, an obvious failure, therefore not having keen ears but having keen smell, is an example of that fact, then add in the fact that Elves tend to use Owlbears as guards, so they are trainable. An elven ranger whose companion is a freaking owlbear! Your telling me that roleplaying a derpy owlbear who would barely know what end of the beak to bite with wouldn't be funny and the history of the owlbear not being 100% clear and the experiment being claimed by a mad mage. I think he got it wrong.
I have to agree that esper has a weird sense of style. According to him, the creature with the lowest style is the Giff, which is clearly one of the highest.
@@freefromnuts7889 I used owlbear in adventure, where he was created by maniacal mage as many others. He was first encounter simple, yet i put some details on twisted nature of monster, especially during autopsy. So it can be used well. But it is painfully limited.
"The only good thing about owlbears is that the wizard who created them is probably dead." -Xarshel Ravenshadow, gnome professor of transmutative science at Morgrave University ^from the D&D 5e Monster Manual
So long story short we had to clear out a fortress full of yuan-ti and they had way too many to take on in a straight on fight not to mention the advantage of a well fortified position. Earlier on we had stumbled on a tribe of friendly(ish) werewolves who had (sort of) domesticated owlbears so I floated the idea of getting them to help us out. Problem was due to an earlier ... misunderstanding we were pretty sure they wouldn't be happy about seeing us so we started brainstorming ways on how to not get brutally eviscerated the second we showed our faces. Then I had an idea: what we did was tie a message and a map to an arrow warning the yuan-ti of a "enraged werewolf clan out for yuan-ti blood over here", shooting it into their fortress and getting the hell out of there before they could react. After a couple of close calls and a lucky backstab from our rouge we managed to get away undetected so we got ourselves comfy and waited. Eventually we spotted a patrol leaving the fort headed directly toward the werewolf encampment. We followed at a discrete distance and when got close to their camp we snuck off downwind where we could still see the action. The werewolves saw the yuan-ti and the air suddenly became thick with anger and tension. A group of three broke off to confront the yuan-ti. "What are you doing here snake-men" growled one. The leader of the yuan-ti ignored him. "your tribe seems to have done quite well for itself, your numbers look to have doubled since the last time I was here" "Our numbers are of no concern of yours snake man, now what are you doing here!" The yuan-ti ignored him again. "One could almost believe you're preparing to attack us. But that would be preposterous, after all that would mean you're thinking of breaking the treaty between us". That did not make the wolves happy. "You dare accuse us of treachery! How dare you!" the yuan-ti finally acknowledged the wolf. "Of course, my apologies for implying such a thing. Of course wolf men are incapable of thought" he laughed. A collective growl rose from the camp and a few of the inhabitants looked like they were ready to transform. Their leader raised his hand for calm however. "Provoke us all you like snake. We will not be the ones to break the treaty. Now leave" The yuan-ti looked almost disappointed. "A pity. Very well we shall depart, but we shall be watching you" At this point I whispered to our ranger "shoot one of the werewolves, don't kill him just hurt him". She grinned at me and let loose a shot... and the dice says headshot. A enraged roar came up from the camp and the yuan-ti leader turned to glare at us and yelled out "YOU FOOL!" before getting his throat ripped out by the werewolf alpha. We were confused at this for a second but then we stumbled onto a yuan-ti pureblood hiding nearby and then it made sense. A pitched battle erupts which the wolves win quite easily with us picking off purebloods on the flanks. After it was done we each picked up a yuan-ti corpse and marched into the camp. "I think that's all of them" our paladin said dumping his corpse at the werewolves feet. They were not happy to see us. One of the werewolves came up to us nose to nose and growled at us. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you where you stand" when our rouge (ever the smart arse) pointed out that we just helped them kill the yuan-ti who had attacked them unprovoked it actually did the opposite of help. "You lot were probably the ones who started this whole mess!" Not good. At this point I stepped in to save our collective bacon. "Listen, you have bigger problems at the moment. When this patrol doesn't return the yuan-ti will have all the excuse they need to attack in force as they've been planning to do all this time. We have a plan to take them all out in one swift brutal strike but we need your help to do it. Kill us if you want but ask yourselves how a war of attrition will end for your tribe" For a moment it looked like I had royally screwed up and the wolves were going to pick option "kill the outsiders" but luckily the alpha had a cooler head and called for a council. Warning us not to "make our decision easy for us". So they talked and we sat there contemplating our seemingly rapidly declining lifespans when they finally reached a decision. "we do not trust you, but we trust the snake men even less. We shall help you, but afterwards if we so much as catch your scent in this forest again we will take great delight in sucking the marrow from your bones". We waited for nightfall, snuck into the fortress, unbarred and opened the gate. Sadly the screaming of the rusty hinges alerted the yuan-ti who quickly started flooding into the courtyard only to see a whole pack of pissed off riders atop angry owlbears charging full pelt at them, spears aimed directly at their chests. The yuan-ti attempted to stop them with arrows but to no avail. The owlbears crashed into the first rank and started mauling them, the riders sunk their spears into the second rank using the momentum of the charge to pole vault behind the lines (transforming into their hybrid form in mid air). Avoiding the fubar of death we made our way through the fort to the leaders quarters and ended him. We briefly considered sticking around to help the werewolves/search for treasure but this was vetoed on the grounds of 1. getting in the middle of a pitched fight which involves multiple owlbears and werewolves is monumentally stupid and 2. the definition of "afterwards" the alpha gave us was disturbingly vague. P.S. I suck at making long stories short
Alston Harris cheers, if there's enough interest I'll tell the story about how we found the werewolf tribe and the unfortunate incident that forced us to engineer the break in the non-aggression pact.
> We can't just put a cat head on a crocodile body. Speak for yourself! I shall have my wizard create...THE CATOCROCK! BEHOLD! Look upon that wonder, ye mighty, and DESPAIR!
What I really dislike about the owlbear is its boring design. I made 2 new owlbears in my 5e book and quite enjoyed them, as they have unique features and interesting abilities.
Honestly these rankings videos are my favorite videos. I'm not even a DM anymore and likely not for quite some time, but these always give me some great ideas!
My Fighter has a history with monstrosities. After an Owlbear nearly ripped out party apart, he skinned it and got a coat that he kept until his death. Also was obsessed with Anhkegs, tried to raise one from an egg but our Rogue destroyed it in his sleep. Said Rogue was then chokeslammed through a three-story building. Never piss off the Gnoll Fighter when you're just a little Halfling.
Honestly I think Esper may like the owlbear from Pathfinder 2e. It is CR4 and includes a Bloodcurdling Screech that frightens creatures within 80 feet that hear it. The screech has a will DC of 20 and even a success on this causes adventurers to be frightened 1. A creature who gets a result of less than 10 on their save runs as far as possible from the source during their next round and has a frightened 3 status. It can even do this screech as it runs covering a huge area of its territory. Note: Frightened causes all rolls to have a minus x where x is the number included with the status. It decreases by one after that characters turn Not only this but as it attacks an adventurer with its claws the owlbear is capable of grabbing them and then attempting to disembowl them while striking with their beak causing 1d12 + 6 damage and sickening the poor soul in their grasp, that is in addition to the 1d10 + 6 from the claw attack when they grabbed the adventurer.
No joke. I've always liked the Owelbear's look. I agree it could use more skills and some juicy law would be nice, but sometimes you do just want some monstrous creature to savage the party. Now I can see how some don't appreciate the look, but some of the art you showed was great. Then you have game appearances like those in Dragon's Crown the looked great... Although everything down to the food looked fantastic in that game. XD Then you also have appearances like the Shrike from Dauntless that has that freaky glowing eyed horror look to it. I'd say its a taste thing more then a bad combination design.
i actualy made a campain with a quest that featured a giant owlbear that the players needed to run from, this owlbear was around four times bigger than a normal owlbear (it also shot fireballs)
I have always loved the idea of Displacer beasts, and always thought they required... something extra... So when I am DM'ing they get something extra.... Little things like an INT of 10 (though no speech), dual claw and a bite attack as well as the tentacle attacks, they can split the tentacle attacks but the claw and bite attacks have to go into the same target. If both claws strike they get a rake attack (with their rear legs). Oh, they also get stealth, keen eyesight and keen hearing (so almost impossible to sneak up on), and Mirror Image three times a day (just because).... Oh, they lose the middle legs.... As I said, I have always loved the idea of those beasties, but as a Biologist the idea of six legged mammals offends me as they are so energy inefficient (biologically in animals with endoskeletons more than four limbs is an evolutionary downside due to the extra brain power and energy requierements for very little actual gain), in my games Displacer beasts get so many new toys to play with I am sure they do not mind losing one set of legs :D
The head, tail and skin of a crocodile on a feline body make for a suitably terrifying and surprisingly real monster: dinopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Kaprosuchus
Ah, the cavefisher. I remember playing a game where they popped up. We picked them out in the darkness with our lanterns and were going to avoid them but the minotaur in our party raised the important point that it had been a while since we had eaten in our explorations of these dark underground tunnels we were traveling through. So, after much inadvertent yo-yoing slapstick comedy and a few near deaths, we finally sat around a magically sustained fire feasting on crab meat coated in garlic butter and spices whilst an Otyugh sheepishly ate some crystals in the next room over, pointedly trying not to catch out attention. Good times, good times.
I haven't played D&D since AD&D. Now that I have time I'm getting back into it and writing my own campaign. The way you present things is really helping me write my story. I want my campaign to epic for my players.
No one: Literally no one: Esper: I HATE owlbears! (I love how many comments there are talking about their love of owlbears. Personally I love owlbears too, don't know why, just like their style I guess.)
Give Owlbears wings and they’d be way more bad ass, and I feel like there needs to be an official Winged Owlbear. Give some new flavor to a classic creature.
In the D&D movie the owlbear that the druid Wild shapes in to has winged arms tbh. Yes I know druids can't technically wild shape in to an Owlbear, but it's cool as hell
Besides the dumb design I think my main issue is that they are useless. The only real purpose they serve is to establish the setting, which you can do with just about anything else that isn't just two animals squished together.
Something you may find interesting, Esper: The new Mythic Odysseys of Theros book includes a whole little section about Chimerae, and making different combinations of them.
I cant really express how much these videos amuse me. I dont even play RPG, but just seeing you describing and rating all these creatures is well worth the trip. Keep up the good work :) (sorry for the bad english)
Love it. Excellent elucidation and expository, Esper! Also the NIN reference on the tier list itself caught me off guard but made me smile. The absolute best D&D channel on TH-cam.
Part 2 please!!!! Also I have a pair of Drow twins in a campaign. One brother is a Ranger. The other a Druid. The Druid managed to find and raise, essentially tame a litter of (pups?) (kittens?) young Displacer beasts. He trained like you train Dobermans and they guard our party while we travel
I LOVE the purple worm, there's just something really cool about a worm so massive it could eat a small town. It was the first miniature I ever got and it has a special place in my heart
Hey, Esper! Could you Rank the “Tome Of Beasts” and “Creature Codex” monsters by Kobold Press after you’re done with all the official D&D monsters by WOTC?
I do quite like Tome of Beasts (and I'm sure I'd like Creature Codex too).It has a ton of creatures, and many of them really rock. Someday, I just might have to do a video about those monsters.
Esper the Bard That would be amazing! I understand that cramming through all of the monsters will take a lot of work. So take all the time you need. Your videos a great. Keep up the good work!
Here before 1000. I love all of your videos dude and am so happy that I found the channel. And you left out my parties age old low level mount, the hippogriff.
Me and my brother always do little combat things were we both play as monsters and do like “who would win in a fight?” Scenarios. This really helped me kick his butt!
Thank you for the correction on the purple worm. I homebrewed a sandworm a la Dune based off the purple worm stat block, only with a breath weapon feature that triggers on the bite instead of the 2nd poison sting attack. Checked my MM and yeah I have a misprint there. More death!
I'm in a Fantasy Age campaign and our GM homebrew a variation of the displacer beast. In FA we use 3 d6 for ability checks and attack rolls, and one of the dice must be of a different color, and this different dice is used for extra combat feats. Everytime we did an attack against the beast, the DM asked what number we had on our different dice before stating if we hit or missed. It sparkled some doubt and fear at us, because sometimes an attack of 19 would miss and an attack of 15 would hit. And sometimes two sepparate attacks of 15 would hit and miss. It took us a few rounds to realize that odd numers on the different dice would always miss. It was definitely one of the most memorable encounters in our early game.
Please make more of these videos. I find them incredibly inspiring. I would also love to see you go in-depth on earlier edition monsters, especially 3.5
One argument I offer for the owlbear: It allows you to have an animalistic enemy in the vein of a bear or tiger where you don't have other options for dealing with it. A brown bear accomplishes the same role in a battle but your druid might be able to identify "Wait, hang on, there's a cub nearby, okay. Just back away slowly, I'll talk the mother down, we can be on with our lives." With an owlbear, it can be *just* a savage monster, something to throw at your players without anything to seriously worry about. Just a statblock and a moment of tension, maybe something to investigate if you've implied magical bullcrap, but ultimately a low-stress monster to fight.
I'd like to see more of the monstrosities, although I'd like to see you rank the Elementals, Constructs, or Humanoids first, but that's because I'm biased.
I think the best encounter I've had with a chimera was in Dragon's Dogma. I was walking through a forest at night, and a huge chimera lunged at me from the darkness. It took 20 minutes, 7 potions, and a few lucky strikes to bring it down. Climbing on it and slashing at its snake and goat heads was a thrilling challenge.
Considering the level that they should be encountered at as a major threat, that would make them untenable. Magic is one of the few ways for a low-level party to overcome an enemy that uses relatively overwhelming brute power.
@@davidsmith7752 Uhm, Black and Brown bears are your low-level bear enemies, Owlbears should be much higher and more magical, same with Displacer Beasts.
@@wesleyvalk9129 Owlbears aren't Fey in origin, though (at least, they aren't confirmed to be in lore). They are just some wierd hybrid beast combining the strengths of owls and bears, with their most likely origin being a Transmuter wizard either making a terrible mistake or deliberately making a fairly dangerous, brutish creature. There is no reason why they must have magical powers, since the most likely origin for them precludes that from having happened
@@wesleyvalk9129 Some monsters need to be of a less interesting origin, otherwise you end up with an incredibly uninteresting low-tier enemy list and an oversaturated high-tier enemy list.
Yes 5th ed has wussy monsters, my DM set our 5-6th lvl group against an adult red, I knew we should run. but everyone wanted to stay and fight, my pleas went unheard and we fought it. Well if that's an adult red dragon it was a wuss. A hatch-ling red dragon in 2nd kicked our butts, it took a long time to kill, it was smart had multi att, and innate spells the fort us, and we were not 5-6th lvl, we were all 10th. We easily destroyed this red. it had fewer attacks, a breath weapon that had to recharge. and no innate spell abilities. I did not feel proud or elated when we killed it, i was disappointed.
I read this and thought, "there is no way that's true," and looking at the 5e adult red dragon stats, I'd wager I'm right. Statistically speaking there is no way your level 5 or 6 party killed that dragon without the DM just straight nerfing the shit out of it or you possessing WAY too many powerful magic McGuffins for the fight. Ignoring the challenge rating of 17, as they can be misleading, its three attacks a turn with +14 to hit, plus frightening presence, plus legendary actions, is going to have little trouble dealing enough damage to take out a level 5 or 6 party. For example, a paladin with say a 16 in CON would have an average health of 54, and the dragon's bite attack does an average of 27 (2d10+8 piercing + 2d6 Fire) which is going to take that paladin down in two turns max without serious healing. Then this doesn't consider the fire breath attack. True it does have a recharge on its breath attack, but that breath attack can still come back just about every round if the DM rolls right on the recharge roll. Then looking at the damage again, the breath attack is doing an average of 63 damage, which is more than the average health of most classes. My guess is your DM either nerfed the dragon so you wouldn't die, or you did not fight an Adult Red Dragon.
as long as you role good on death saves or heal immediately after going down you can survive anything it's possible even at level 1 a 5th level paladin can heal 25 hp with lay on hands (so you can fall and get back up 25 times) you're also smiting for 5d8 + weapon and strength for each hit, basically hitting for 50 the dragon will go down in 5 attacks and if he has a group of 5 it will go down in the first round tactically you can keep out of the dragons reach with a few wands of ice storm wile on horseback but you don't really need to be tactical in 5e
Any fight can be easy if the dice decide it to be so. Even the strongest monsters can roll a 1, and even the weakest characters can roll a 20. That’s likely what happened with your dragon fight. It should be nearly impossible, but I’d wager the dice were heavily in your favor. Or they weren’t in the dragon’s favor at all.
This channel really has some of the most outlandish takes I’ve ever come across. Honestly I kinda wish someone else did a series similar to this that actually liked 5e at all because it gets increasingly obvious with every video I watch of this guy that he just doesn’t care for it. And like that’s fine but… I don’t know, I feel like sometimes he makes calls that are about as close as an opinion can get to just plain wrong.
I recently played a one shot and one of the encounters was a owl bear but I didnt just throw it at the party, I made it terrorize a small village, killing livestock, and injuring or killing villagers. It only attacked at night and I made it smart, it stalked its prey and could easily set traps for any unprepared adventurer.
I don't know why you rake on the owlbear so hard. When artists do it justice, it looks cool as all hell. Like don't tell me you think the owlbear at 7:30 looks goofy
I tend to agree with most of your listings, but their gorgon has its own reasons (though I do agree that it’s poor to use gorgon as a name) I actually LOVE it, because it’s a direct copy of the Catoblepas in core origin (and reminds me of the Castlevania Catoblepas Lol). Your name-origin discovery aside, it’s literally a Catoblepas. And it makes sense that it has natural metal scales, like a number of mythological beasties do. While I agree mostly, I feel like there was a lot of nitpicking for the “gorgon” entry, and not enough recognition of its true reference to the Catoblepas. On a tiny side note, as a 12-15 year GM/DM, RP capability is based on the DM. I feel like having source lore is great, but beasts and monstrosities shouldn’t have too much, because their more primal nature doesn’t really need it. And to me, would be more restricting, since a good DM should be able to craft a story for a, say, owlbear, without needing the book to hold their hand regarding who or what originally made the species and such. That came off way more opposing than I intended. :/
exactly. on some sorts of creatures, especially powerful or prevalent ones, lore is nice. Gives them a sense of power, history, and prestige to work from, though a good DM may chuck it out a window for thier own story. but on some creatures, like the owlbear, too much lore would be detrimental. that's for you to explain, or to never explain. it's an owl mixed with a bear, there's not much else you need to know.
I once end up having a purple worm as a "pet" right when i started my first dnd companion. I don't know how but I entered a cave alone for some Flint and Stone.(never split up!!!) Before that we had visited an alchemist whom shop smelled terrible. So I had some kind of scent on me witch made this thing following me. (Gm said it was worm mating season???) As I said I was pretty new to d&d so I thought he wasn't that big. Like a small cow or those worms mobs in WOW. I mean the GM only said: A purple worm started to follow you. What do you like to do? Soo... I called her Salmonella and took her (It was a male) inside the Inn to my team who where terrified. Little did I knew that she took like all the room to stay in here. I think the GM thought it was funny so he let her for that reason inside the Inn, while I was totally ignoring the fact that this giant worm was following me. Yeah... The scent wore off while I was sleeping and Salmonella obligated the little village. The Gm was laughing and the team gave me the glare of: What have you done? Sadly I'm not allowed anymore to bring any kind of moving creatures back to where we stay. :
Interesting spin on chimera happens when the beast decides that gorgon over there looks particularly attractive, the result of such romance is a chimera but with gorgon breath and head instead of goat head, the good thing is that only one in three chimera cubs survives to adulthood.
It's been suggested that the origin of the Griffon may be related to people in antiquity trying to explain finding partial fossils of Ceratopsian type dinosaurs. Imagine a farmer trying to picture the animal that belonged to these strange bones they found one day while digging in their field. Bones of a strange animal with a large four legged body, an eagle-like beak and a mane (frill).
When picturing owlbear my mind 100% defaults to moonbear from WoW. And I'm wondering how any how anyone could have disdain for such a delightful and playfuly designed character. Is this not what owl bears are?
No offense man, but I hated that you complained about the Gorgon not being the one from actual mythology, cause not only did they already have a medusa in the MM but also decided to make it something that is at least somewhat unique and different. Aside from that, loved the vid as always!Keep up the good work!
While the 5e owlbear is just a beefy brown bear. They began the same in 2e, 3e, and 4e but ended up with improved versions in each edition. There have been gargantuan, flying, undead, skeletal versions as well as owlbears with breath weapons.
I love ancient myths. They're so random. Look at this Cockatrice, his gaze will petrify you and his claws will bring instant death. You must defeat it by throwing an egg over his house, a few weasels would be good too. They're his only predator.
In old editions I think the owl bear used to survive 3 more rounds after his go dropped to 0, in older editions they had a grappled attack where they crushed you and bike you. I personally have it on my list of favorite monsters I wish my dm let me had them as a pet.
I think I might homebrew a flying owlbear that lets out a horrible scream yet has the ability to fly silent, almost invisible before diving down crashing on to its prey with 2 attacks biting and talons
"Ferataur" I think that is a brilliant idea, especially with the variant breath weapons, I think it should be odd breath weapons though, like Petrifying, Poison, and Necrotic.
honestly, the owlbear, least in 5e, the artwork makes it look cool and blends them well, especially the pic in the monster manual, as for the keen smell, likely comes from it's bear half, not it's owl half
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Huh. This Tier Zoo episode is pretty wild.
Outside must be glitched again, I did love playing as the roc tho.
Cant disagree on ya there mate these critters are pretty wild
Yep
I think it's tips for "Inside" DLC.
@@MrSimonmshannon I preferred the bulette I tunneled away a full city in a week causing a collapse
More rankings in general, not just monstrosities(but also monstrosities)
I'm planning on more for sure. Monstrosities part 2 is next.
@@esperthebard AWWWW YES, take your time because as far as I can tell the longer they take the better they are.
I agree with this human.... Unless they aren't human, if they aren't human then I become confused.
Mr Vry Dapper Ferret I still want Esper to rank the Hags.
Owlbears should have keen sight, keen hearing, spider climb, dark vision and move completely silently.
Plus a roar or screech ability. As is, they only have plain basic attacks.
@@esperthebard a fear induced screech.
you should see the Bearowls
I'm with you on everything but spider climb. What's the logic on that one?
@@howlingarmadillo well you see the bear is sort of like the spider of the ground and the owl is like the a spider of the sky
I kinda actually like the Owlbear...I can't decide if it's because I genuinely think it looks kind of cool or whether it's just one of those things that are so stupid that I can't help but unconditionally love it.
I think there cute
owlbear kind of got stuffed in 5e there's nothing mentioning its fighting style of grapple, crush, then peck.
It’s really dumb and pointless in my opinion just another “let’s do it because we can” ideas.
a lot of the more recent artwork of the owlbear gives it some justice but the old art was just plain goofy.
owlbears are just really creative
If owlbears aren't stylish, I don't know what is.
I think he hasn't got owlbear right, being made via a magical experiment and despite looking freaking awesome, an obvious failure, therefore not having keen ears but having keen smell, is an example of that fact, then add in the fact that Elves tend to use Owlbears as guards, so they are trainable. An elven ranger whose companion is a freaking owlbear! Your telling me that roleplaying a derpy owlbear who would barely know what end of the beak to bite with wouldn't be funny and the history of the owlbear not being 100% clear and the experiment being claimed by a mad mage. I think he got it wrong.
Literally everything else. It's a bear with an owl head.
I have to agree that esper has a weird sense of style. According to him, the creature with the lowest style is the Giff, which is clearly one of the highest.
@@freefromnuts7889 I used owlbear in adventure, where he was created by maniacal mage as many others. He was first encounter simple, yet i put some details on twisted nature of monster, especially during autopsy. So it can be used well. But it is painfully limited.
I know. He lost me with entry 1.
"The only good thing about owlbears is that the wizard who created them is probably dead."
-Xarshel Ravenshadow, gnome professor of transmutative science at Morgrave University
^from the D&D 5e Monster Manual
*Sigh* He gives the Owlbear crap, then talks up the worm version of a Malboro. I don't get you sometimes, Esper.
@Cheryl Plom To be fair, esper is only talking about the MMe5 Owlbear but I agree, Owlbears are awesome
You've cut a deep wound in me disrespecting the majestic and fierce Owlbear like that.
me to my DM: ok hear me out here... Owlbear cavalry charge
DM: ... go on
tell me more
So long story short we had to clear out a fortress full of yuan-ti and they had way too many to take on in a straight on fight not to mention the advantage of a well fortified position. Earlier on we had stumbled on a tribe of friendly(ish) werewolves who had (sort of) domesticated owlbears so I floated the idea of getting them to help us out. Problem was due to an earlier ... misunderstanding we were pretty sure they wouldn't be happy about seeing us so we started brainstorming ways on how to not get brutally eviscerated the second we showed our faces.
Then I had an idea: what we did was tie a message and a map to an arrow warning the yuan-ti of a "enraged werewolf clan out for yuan-ti blood over here", shooting it into their fortress and getting the hell out of there before they could react. After a couple of close calls and a lucky backstab from our rouge we managed to get away undetected so we got ourselves comfy and waited. Eventually we spotted a patrol leaving the fort headed directly toward the werewolf encampment. We followed at a discrete distance and when got close to their camp we snuck off downwind where we could still see the action. The werewolves saw the yuan-ti and the air suddenly became thick with anger and tension. A group of three broke off to confront the yuan-ti.
"What are you doing here snake-men" growled one. The leader of the yuan-ti ignored him.
"your tribe seems to have done quite well for itself, your numbers look to have doubled since the last time I was here"
"Our numbers are of no concern of yours snake man, now what are you doing here!" The yuan-ti ignored him again.
"One could almost believe you're preparing to attack us. But that would be preposterous, after all that would mean you're thinking of breaking the treaty between us". That did not make the wolves happy.
"You dare accuse us of treachery! How dare you!" the yuan-ti finally acknowledged the wolf.
"Of course, my apologies for implying such a thing. Of course wolf men are incapable of thought" he laughed. A collective growl rose from the camp and a few of the inhabitants looked like they were ready to transform. Their leader raised his hand for calm however.
"Provoke us all you like snake. We will not be the ones to break the treaty. Now leave" The yuan-ti looked almost disappointed.
"A pity. Very well we shall depart, but we shall be watching you"
At this point I whispered to our ranger "shoot one of the werewolves, don't kill him just hurt him". She grinned at me and let loose a shot... and the dice says headshot. A enraged roar came up from the camp and the yuan-ti leader turned to glare at us and yelled out "YOU FOOL!" before getting his throat ripped out by the werewolf alpha. We were confused at this for a second but then we stumbled onto a yuan-ti pureblood hiding nearby and then it made sense. A pitched battle erupts which the wolves win quite easily with us picking off purebloods on the flanks. After it was done we each picked up a yuan-ti corpse and marched into the camp. "I think that's all of them" our paladin said dumping his corpse at the werewolves feet. They were not happy to see us. One of the werewolves came up to us nose to nose and growled at us. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you where you stand" when our rouge (ever the smart arse) pointed out that we just helped them kill the yuan-ti who had attacked them unprovoked it actually did the opposite of help. "You lot were probably the ones who started this whole mess!" Not good. At this point I stepped in to save our collective bacon. "Listen, you have bigger problems at the moment. When this patrol doesn't return the yuan-ti will have all the excuse they need to attack in force as they've been planning to do all this time. We have a plan to take them all out in one swift brutal strike but we need your help to do it. Kill us if you want but ask yourselves how a war of attrition will end for your tribe"
For a moment it looked like I had royally screwed up and the wolves were going to pick option "kill the outsiders" but luckily the alpha had a cooler head and called for a council. Warning us not to "make our decision easy for us". So they talked and we sat there contemplating our seemingly rapidly declining lifespans when they finally reached a decision. "we do not trust you, but we trust the snake men even less. We shall help you, but afterwards if we so much as catch your scent in this forest again we will take great delight in sucking the marrow from your bones".
We waited for nightfall, snuck into the fortress, unbarred and opened the gate. Sadly the screaming of the rusty hinges alerted the yuan-ti who quickly started flooding into the courtyard only to see a whole pack of pissed off riders atop angry owlbears charging full pelt at them, spears aimed directly at their chests. The yuan-ti attempted to stop them with arrows but to no avail. The owlbears crashed into the first rank and started mauling them, the riders sunk their spears into the second rank using the momentum of the charge to pole vault behind the lines (transforming into their hybrid form in mid air). Avoiding the fubar of death we made our way through the fort to the leaders quarters and ended him. We briefly considered sticking around to help the werewolves/search for treasure but this was vetoed on the grounds of 1. getting in the middle of a pitched fight which involves multiple owlbears and werewolves is monumentally stupid and 2. the definition of "afterwards" the alpha gave us was disturbingly vague.
P.S. I suck at making long stories short
@@firestorm165 that is a great story
Alston Harris cheers, if there's enough interest I'll tell the story about how we found the werewolf tribe and the unfortunate incident that forced us to engineer the break in the non-aggression pact.
@@firestorm165 this was an excellent story!
> We can't just put a cat head on a crocodile body.
Speak for yourself! I shall have my wizard create...THE CATOCROCK! BEHOLD!
Look upon that wonder, ye mighty, and DESPAIR!
a Lynenodile ?
@@enragedmang A Felinedile?
No, that sounds more like some variant pokemon. You're right: Lynenodile is better.
A Croat
Imagine hating one of the most beloved monsters in D&D. It represents D&D so well with its fun and campy exterior yet fantastical/fantasy concept.
Imagine having an opinion that's not my own.
Which monster are you referring to? I'm guessing beholders?
Owlbear
@@yoboibeerus1387 Imagine Dragons
What I really dislike about the owlbear is its boring design. I made 2 new owlbears in my 5e book and quite enjoyed them, as they have unique features and interesting abilities.
Honestly these rankings videos are my favorite videos. I'm not even a DM anymore and likely not for quite some time, but these always give me some great ideas!
A bard is most pleased to see the inspiration spreading
My Fighter has a history with monstrosities. After an Owlbear nearly ripped out party apart, he skinned it and got a coat that he kept until his death. Also was obsessed with Anhkegs, tried to raise one from an egg but our Rogue destroyed it in his sleep. Said Rogue was then chokeslammed through a three-story building. Never piss off the Gnoll Fighter when you're just a little Halfling.
Yikes,, you really hate the owlbear. I've always loved the flavour of it
me too
It adorable
Wtf owlbears rock
Yeah I love the owlbear. I wish I could ride one into battle.
@@ghostguardian1858 and deadly
Owl bears are classics why would you say they are the lowest when their style is so high
Why would you say something so brave, yet so controversial.
I fell in love with the owlbear when I saw it for the first time.
Honestly I think Esper may like the owlbear from Pathfinder 2e. It is CR4 and includes a Bloodcurdling Screech that frightens creatures within 80 feet that hear it. The screech has a will DC of 20 and even a success on this causes adventurers to be frightened 1. A creature who gets a result of less than 10 on their save runs as far as possible from the source during their next round and has a frightened 3 status. It can even do this screech as it runs covering a huge area of its territory.
Note: Frightened causes all rolls to have a minus x where x is the number included with the status. It decreases by one after that characters turn
Not only this but as it attacks an adventurer with its claws the owlbear is capable of grabbing them and then attempting to disembowl them while striking with their beak causing 1d12 + 6 damage and sickening the poor soul in their grasp, that is in addition to the 1d10 + 6 from the claw attack when they grabbed the adventurer.
Honestly, they're my favourite monster in D&D
Hoot Growl!
When you mix an owl and a carebear, you get a monstrosity that will love you to death.
Yes! A part 2 is needed!
Coming soon ;)
Esper the Bard while you're at it, how about a rankings vid for the different types of mounts players can ride into battle on?
No joke. I've always liked the Owelbear's look. I agree it could use more skills and some juicy law would be nice, but sometimes you do just want some monstrous creature to savage the party. Now I can see how some don't appreciate the look, but some of the art you showed was great. Then you have game appearances like those in Dragon's Crown the looked great... Although everything down to the food looked fantastic in that game. XD Then you also have appearances like the Shrike from Dauntless that has that freaky glowing eyed horror look to it. I'd say its a taste thing more then a bad combination design.
i actualy made a campain with a quest that featured a giant owlbear that the players needed to run from,
this owlbear was around four times bigger than a normal owlbear (it also shot fireballs)
F-Fireballs? Somebody was doing something they shouldn't have been...
awsomesauceHD Sounds like a Crash Bandicoot level.
@@Im-Not-a-Dog it kind is
"kinda"
@@Im-Not-a-Dog woah
Ah the displacer beasts, also known by a few dnd players as Kitty whippens.
2themax or, Bigcat
I have always loved the idea of Displacer beasts, and always thought they required... something extra... So when I am DM'ing they get something extra....
Little things like an INT of 10 (though no speech), dual claw and a bite attack as well as the tentacle attacks, they can split the tentacle attacks but the claw and bite attacks have to go into the same target. If both claws strike they get a rake attack (with their rear legs). Oh, they also get stealth, keen eyesight and keen hearing (so almost impossible to sneak up on), and Mirror Image three times a day (just because).... Oh, they lose the middle legs....
As I said, I have always loved the idea of those beasties, but as a Biologist the idea of six legged mammals offends me as they are so energy inefficient (biologically in animals with endoskeletons more than four limbs is an evolutionary downside due to the extra brain power and energy requierements for very little actual gain), in my games Displacer beasts get so many new toys to play with I am sure they do not mind losing one set of legs :D
Monstrosities or not, the ranking videos are some of my favorite D&D content on TH-cam
Why no love for the Cat-o-Dile?
The head, tail and skin of a crocodile on a feline body make for a suitably terrifying and surprisingly real monster:
dinopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Kaprosuchus
@@RokuroCarisu Ambulocetus my man
Because everyone knows the Catigator is more dangerous.... that and the feared Crocoduck for Kirk Cameron
Me: OH SWEET, OWLBEAR!
*Sees it's in F tier*
WAFFLES NOOOOO!!!
Ah, the cavefisher. I remember playing a game where they popped up. We picked them out in the darkness with our lanterns and were going to avoid them but the minotaur in our party raised the important point that it had been a while since we had eaten in our explorations of these dark underground tunnels we were traveling through. So, after much inadvertent yo-yoing slapstick comedy and a few near deaths, we finally sat around a magically sustained fire feasting on crab meat coated in garlic butter and spices whilst an Otyugh sheepishly ate some crystals in the next room over, pointedly trying not to catch out attention. Good times, good times.
I haven't played D&D since AD&D. Now that I have time I'm getting back into it and writing my own campaign.
The way you present things is really helping me write my story. I want my campaign to epic for my players.
Owlbear is best monster ever 😻
Oh boy...
You should hug one.
giant hairy barf pellets
Just imagine finding a huge moist sticky ball of hair, bones, and partially digested bits of armor. That would be so fucking nasty.
I know, right? And they complain that that doesn't offer amazing role-playing possibilities.
No one:
Literally no one:
Esper: I HATE owlbears!
(I love how many comments there are talking about their love of owlbears. Personally I love owlbears too, don't know why, just like their style I guess.)
to be fair it makes sense for the chimera to have lower than expected speed do to the added bulk of dragon wings, 3 heads, and a draconic tail
Anyone else get really excited when Esper uploads a new tier list?
Thanks for uploading this! A part 2 is definitely needed and I look forward to it like it's GoT!
All my upvotes for the NIN tier nicknames. Your ranking videos are your best content IMO. Always entertaining, inspiring, and genuinely interesting.
I was a little shaken up by the Wichita footage, as i also live there and know exactly where that is.
Great video btw
Right on, cool to see another Wichitan here
The justification for Owlbears sense of smell may come from the bears, some of the best smell-ers in the animal kingdom.
Yes, but bears smell with their head, and that is the part that is missing.
Give Owlbears wings and they’d be way more bad ass, and I feel like there needs to be an official Winged Owlbear. Give some new flavor to a classic creature.
but then they'd be Griffins... and Griffins need to STAY cool... :-P
Guus van Voorst It would be similar to a gryphon, only silent when flying and much larger.
As an enchanted creature it wouldn't be hard to include a single extra feature
In the D&D movie the owlbear that the druid Wild shapes in to has winged arms tbh. Yes I know druids can't technically wild shape in to an Owlbear, but it's cool as hell
I just love those super silly first edition pictures of the monsters.
I legitimately dont know where all the owlbear hate came from. I know your reasons, I just heard you but I've never seen it as bad. I like em.
with a little bit more fixing i think the owlbear could be realy great
Besides the dumb design I think my main issue is that they are useless. The only real purpose they serve is to establish the setting, which you can do with just about anything else that isn't just two animals squished together.
Something you may find interesting, Esper: The new Mythic Odysseys of Theros book includes a whole little section about Chimerae, and making different combinations of them.
Dnd's gorgon is likely much like colossus from the X-men's mutant power which allows him to cover his entire body in an organic metal
I cant really express how much these videos amuse me. I dont even play RPG, but just seeing you describing and rating all these creatures is well worth the trip. Keep up the good work :)
(sorry for the bad english)
Love it. Excellent elucidation and expository, Esper!
Also the NIN reference on the tier list itself caught me off guard but made me smile.
The absolute best D&D channel on TH-cam.
Part 2 please!!!!
Also I have a pair of Drow twins in a campaign. One brother is a Ranger. The other a Druid. The Druid managed to find and raise, essentially tame a litter of (pups?) (kittens?) young Displacer beasts. He trained like you train Dobermans and they guard our party while we travel
Carrion Crawler was one of my favorite monsters and I had never even seen the previous art. This was a gift.
I LOVE the purple worm, there's just something really cool about a worm so massive it could eat a small town. It was the first miniature I ever got and it has a special place in my heart
Hey, Esper! Could you Rank the “Tome Of Beasts” and “Creature Codex” monsters by Kobold Press after you’re done with all the official D&D monsters by WOTC?
I do quite like Tome of Beasts (and I'm sure I'd like Creature Codex too).It has a ton of creatures, and many of them really rock. Someday, I just might have to do a video about those monsters.
Esper the Bard That would be amazing! I understand that cramming through all of the monsters will take a lot of work. So take all the time you need.
Your videos a great. Keep up the good work!
Here before 1000. I love all of your videos dude and am so happy that I found the channel. And you left out my parties age old low level mount, the hippogriff.
Thanks man! And yeah, I considered the hippogriff, but there are just so many monstrosities
Perhaps you should make your own version of the monster manual? I'm sure a lot of people agree with you on those points.
that is a time-consuming logistic problem at best or a legal impossibility at the most likely
I remember getting wrecked by Ankhegs playing Baldur's Gate 1. And using their shells to craft a pretty good armor. Sad to see them fall so low.
Me and my brother always do little combat things were we both play as monsters and do like “who would win in a fight?” Scenarios. This really helped me kick his butt!
Thank you for the correction on the purple worm. I homebrewed a sandworm a la Dune based off the purple worm stat block, only with a breath weapon feature that triggers on the bite instead of the 2nd poison sting attack. Checked my MM and yeah I have a misprint there. More death!
Your videos really help me remember creatures that I forgot all about. These videos are invaluable for DM's everywhere.
Hmmmm sounds to me like you've had some bad run-ins with Owlbears
i got this idea from tumblr but I am going to call the monster guides waifu catalogs
I hope whatever milk you get from that fish is spoiled and laced with molten metal.
Second time I've run into this today...not sure if that says something about me, the D&D community, or both. Both probably.
Same
"The only good thing about owlbears is the wizard who created them is already dead."
I'm in a Fantasy Age campaign and our GM homebrew a variation of the displacer beast. In FA we use 3 d6 for ability checks and attack rolls, and one of the dice must be of a different color, and this different dice is used for extra combat feats. Everytime we did an attack against the beast, the DM asked what number we had on our different dice before stating if we hit or missed.
It sparkled some doubt and fear at us, because sometimes an attack of 19 would miss and an attack of 15 would hit. And sometimes two sepparate attacks of 15 would hit and miss. It took us a few rounds to realize that odd numers on the different dice would always miss.
It was definitely one of the most memorable encounters in our early game.
A:
B:
C:
D: owlbear, displacer beast, cockatrice, griffon, carrion crawler, darkmantle, basilisk, cave fisher, chimera
F: grick, ankheg, bulette, gorgon, purple worm
Please make more of these videos. I find them incredibly inspiring. I would also love to see you go in-depth on earlier edition monsters, especially 3.5
I'm really loving the design of the Displacer Beast, might give it some tuning and much deserved love in my campaign...
Hey, I'm also from Wichita! Great to see such quality D&D content coming from my hometown. Keep it up!
Hello fellow Wichitan! Many thanks
I like the continual background lore we're getting about owl bears and his insistence that gnomes are the worst.
Wait, you're from Witchita, DUDE, I'm from Medicine Lodge about an hour SW from you.
One argument I offer for the owlbear: It allows you to have an animalistic enemy in the vein of a bear or tiger where you don't have other options for dealing with it. A brown bear accomplishes the same role in a battle but your druid might be able to identify "Wait, hang on, there's a cub nearby, okay. Just back away slowly, I'll talk the mother down, we can be on with our lives." With an owlbear, it can be *just* a savage monster, something to throw at your players without anything to seriously worry about. Just a statblock and a moment of tension, maybe something to investigate if you've implied magical bullcrap, but ultimately a low-stress monster to fight.
I'd like to see more of the monstrosities, although I'd like to see you rank the Elementals, Constructs, or Humanoids first, but that's because I'm biased.
Thank you for the suggestions good sir!
@@esperthebard Thank you very much as well, fellow good sir!
I agree that the gorgon would have been better as a construct and with a different name.
You can tell this video predates BG3 because the Owlbear cub is the most wholesome character of all time.
I think the best encounter I've had with a chimera was in Dragon's Dogma. I was walking through a forest at night, and a huge chimera lunged at me from the darkness. It took 20 minutes, 7 potions, and a few lucky strikes to bring it down. Climbing on it and slashing at its snake and goat heads was a thrilling challenge.
Everyone is complaining about the owlbear bashing while I'm all "yes it deserved a better ranking, but them NIN ranking song were so cool!"
I was digging through the comments to see if anyone got the NIN reference. I'm glad someone did.
How dare you. Owlbears are MAGESTIC.
Being a fey beast, Owlbears should have an magical aura of complete silence, making it somewhat of an anti-mage creature.
Considering the level that they should be encountered at as a major threat, that would make them untenable. Magic is one of the few ways for a low-level party to overcome an enemy that uses relatively overwhelming brute power.
@@davidsmith7752 Uhm, Black and Brown bears are your low-level bear enemies, Owlbears should be much higher and more magical, same with Displacer Beasts.
@@wesleyvalk9129 Owlbears aren't Fey in origin, though (at least, they aren't confirmed to be in lore). They are just some wierd hybrid beast combining the strengths of owls and bears, with their most likely origin being a Transmuter wizard either making a terrible mistake or deliberately making a fairly dangerous, brutish creature. There is no reason why they must have magical powers, since the most likely origin for them precludes that from having happened
@@davidsmith7752 Well, I find them boring this way, they aren't much different from real bears, they should make them fey.
@@wesleyvalk9129 Some monsters need to be of a less interesting origin, otherwise you end up with an incredibly uninteresting low-tier enemy list and an oversaturated high-tier enemy list.
Please give us a part 2 esper! Pretty please!
coming soon
Yes 5th ed has wussy monsters, my DM set our 5-6th lvl group against an adult red, I knew we should run. but everyone wanted to stay and fight, my pleas went unheard and we fought it. Well if that's an adult red dragon it was a wuss. A hatch-ling red dragon in 2nd kicked our butts, it took a long time to kill, it was smart had multi att, and innate spells the fort us, and we were not 5-6th lvl, we were all 10th. We easily destroyed this red. it had fewer attacks, a breath weapon that had to recharge. and no innate spell abilities. I did not feel proud or elated when we killed it, i was disappointed.
I read this and thought, "there is no way that's true," and looking at the 5e adult red dragon stats, I'd wager I'm right. Statistically speaking there is no way your level 5 or 6 party killed that dragon without the DM just straight nerfing the shit out of it or you possessing WAY too many powerful magic McGuffins for the fight. Ignoring the challenge rating of 17, as they can be misleading, its three attacks a turn with +14 to hit, plus frightening presence, plus legendary actions, is going to have little trouble dealing enough damage to take out a level 5 or 6 party. For example, a paladin with say a 16 in CON would have an average health of 54, and the dragon's bite attack does an average of 27 (2d10+8 piercing + 2d6 Fire) which is going to take that paladin down in two turns max without serious healing. Then this doesn't consider the fire breath attack. True it does have a recharge on its breath attack, but that breath attack can still come back just about every round if the DM rolls right on the recharge roll. Then looking at the damage again, the breath attack is doing an average of 63 damage, which is more than the average health of most classes. My guess is your DM either nerfed the dragon so you wouldn't die, or you did not fight an Adult Red Dragon.
as long as you role good on death saves or heal immediately after going down you can survive anything
it's possible even at level 1
a 5th level paladin can heal 25 hp with lay on hands (so you can fall and get back up 25 times)
you're also smiting for 5d8 + weapon and strength for each hit, basically hitting for 50
the dragon will go down in 5 attacks and if he has a group of 5 it will go down in the first round
tactically you can keep out of the dragons reach with a few wands of ice storm wile on horseback
but you don't really need to be tactical in 5e
Any fight can be easy if the dice decide it to be so. Even the strongest monsters can roll a 1, and even the weakest characters can roll a 20. That’s likely what happened with your dragon fight. It should be nearly impossible, but I’d wager the dice were heavily in your favor. Or they weren’t in the dragon’s favor at all.
This channel really has some of the most outlandish takes I’ve ever come across. Honestly I kinda wish someone else did a series similar to this that actually liked 5e at all because it gets increasingly obvious with every video I watch of this guy that he just doesn’t care for it. And like that’s fine but… I don’t know, I feel like sometimes he makes calls that are about as close as an opinion can get to just plain wrong.
I recently played a one shot and one of the encounters was a owl bear but I didnt just throw it at the party, I made it terrorize a small village, killing livestock, and injuring or killing villagers. It only attacked at night and I made it smart, it stalked its prey and could easily set traps for any unprepared adventurer.
I don't know why you rake on the owlbear so hard. When artists do it justice, it looks cool as all hell. Like don't tell me you think the owlbear at 7:30 looks goofy
Esper:low tier creatures aren't whorthless
Also Esper:owlbears suck
That's what happens in a complex game in which everything has multiple factors to consider.
Honestly i agree with you i just thought it was funny
after monstrosities part 2, maybe giants and giant-kin ranking?
also bears have very good sense of smell
However it has an owl head, not a bear head.
NIN Ranking makes this the best one yet!
2:49 - "Style-"
2:58 - "Lore-"
Fittingly, they're pics from Pathfinder. ; )
I tend to agree with most of your listings, but their gorgon has its own reasons (though I do agree that it’s poor to use gorgon as a name) I actually LOVE it, because it’s a direct copy of the Catoblepas in core origin (and reminds me of the Castlevania Catoblepas Lol). Your name-origin discovery aside, it’s literally a Catoblepas. And it makes sense that it has natural metal scales, like a number of mythological beasties do. While I agree mostly, I feel like there was a lot of nitpicking for the “gorgon” entry, and not enough recognition of its true reference to the Catoblepas.
On a tiny side note, as a 12-15 year GM/DM, RP capability is based on the DM. I feel like having source lore is great, but beasts and monstrosities shouldn’t have too much, because their more primal nature doesn’t really need it. And to me, would be more restricting, since a good DM should be able to craft a story for a, say, owlbear, without needing the book to hold their hand regarding who or what originally made the species and such.
That came off way more opposing than I intended. :/
exactly. on some sorts of creatures, especially powerful or prevalent ones, lore is nice. Gives them a sense of power, history, and prestige to work from, though a good DM may chuck it out a window for thier own story. but on some creatures, like the owlbear, too much lore would be detrimental. that's for you to explain, or to never explain. it's an owl mixed with a bear, there's not much else you need to know.
I once end up having a purple worm as a "pet" right when i started my first dnd companion. I don't know how but I entered a cave alone for some Flint and Stone.(never split up!!!) Before that we had visited an alchemist whom shop smelled terrible. So I had some kind of scent on me witch made this thing following me. (Gm said it was worm mating season???) As I said I was pretty new to d&d so I thought he wasn't that big. Like a small cow or those worms mobs in WOW. I mean the GM only said: A purple worm started to follow you. What do you like to do?
Soo... I called her Salmonella and took her (It was a male) inside the Inn to my team who where terrified. Little did I knew that she took like all the room to stay in here. I think the GM thought it was funny so he let her for that reason inside the Inn, while I was totally ignoring the fact that this giant worm was following me. Yeah... The scent wore off while I was sleeping and Salmonella obligated the little village. The Gm was laughing and the team gave me the glare of: What have you done?
Sadly I'm not allowed anymore to bring any kind of moving creatures back to where we stay. :
Interesting spin on chimera happens when the beast decides that gorgon over there looks particularly attractive, the result of such romance is a chimera but with gorgon breath and head instead of goat head, the good thing is that only one in three chimera cubs survives to adulthood.
>bulette low tier
How wrong can you be?
It's been suggested that the origin of the Griffon may be related to people in antiquity trying to explain finding partial fossils of Ceratopsian type dinosaurs. Imagine a farmer trying to picture the animal that belonged to these strange bones they found one day while digging in their field. Bones of a strange animal with a large four legged body, an eagle-like beak and a mane (frill).
The owlbear is a wild animal so I'm sorry Esper that it's not that smart. It's a cool creature and most of the people like the looks of the owlbear.
When picturing owlbear my mind 100% defaults to moonbear from WoW.
And I'm wondering how any how anyone could have disdain for such a delightful and playfuly designed character.
Is this not what owl bears are?
Exactly, my friend.
Yes! My aarakokra-wereowlbear demands more monstrosities rankings!
No offense man, but I hated that you complained about the Gorgon not being the one from actual mythology, cause not only did they already have a medusa in the MM but also decided to make it something that is at least somewhat unique and different. Aside from that, loved the vid as always!Keep up the good work!
While the 5e owlbear is just a beefy brown bear. They began the same in 2e, 3e, and 4e but ended up with improved versions in each edition. There have been gargantuan, flying, undead, skeletal versions as well as owlbears with breath weapons.
26:45 That man on the left has duck hands, must be fun at parties.
The Purple Worm and Bulette remind me of the Tremors film franchise.
"you won't see a campaign centered around bulettes"
Tell that to the Tremors series 😉
Cant help but notice most of your F and D tier are old school favorites, maybe a little salty for changes? Also "Ferroutaur", that sir is gold!
I love ancient myths. They're so random. Look at this Cockatrice, his gaze will petrify you and his claws will bring instant death. You must defeat it by throwing an egg over his house, a few weasels would be good too. They're his only predator.
Esper, everyone knows that the Gorgon in Wichita is the corpse of an ancient beast slain by the mighty J.R.Mead in God's year 1865.
In old editions I think the owl bear used to survive 3 more rounds after his go dropped to 0, in older editions they had a grappled attack where they crushed you and bike you. I personally have it on my list of favorite monsters I wish my dm let me had them as a pet.
Ever see the shrike from dauntless? It's basically a proper owlbear
I agree with the displacer beast,
It looks like such a threat and is so good but it's soooo meek
I think I might homebrew a flying owlbear that lets out a horrible scream yet has the ability to fly silent, almost invisible before diving down crashing on to its prey with 2 attacks biting and talons
I knew the gorgon bull looked familiar, haha my home town as well
"Ferataur" I think that is a brilliant idea, especially with the variant breath weapons, I think it should be odd breath weapons though, like Petrifying, Poison, and Necrotic.
honestly, the owlbear, least in 5e, the artwork makes it look cool and blends them well, especially the pic in the monster manual, as for the keen smell, likely comes from it's bear half, not it's owl half