We are teaming up with incredible indie creators to celebrate the arrival of the new Monster Manual and all the new storytelling opportunities it offers by gifting a collection of exclusive tokens, maps, animations, and one-shot adventures to players who purchase the D&D 2024 Core Rulebook Bundle on Roll20. This is week two of exploring what changes have been made to the four iconic creatures we’ve curated bonus collections around and chatting with the creators who have partnered with us on them. The newest bonus, available this week, is the Den of the Owlbear collection, which players have until February 18 to order and unlock.
The new Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual makes several significant updates to owlbears compared to the 2014 version – including the addition of a new variant! Let’s have a look at some of the mechanical differences in the 2025 version of this creature.
In the 2025 Monster Manual, the owlbear receives a few notable changes compared to its 2014 counterpart.
- Streamlined attacks: The owner’s multi-attack has been simplified from a choice between beak or claws to a simple rend attack that can be done twice. This is a part of Wizards of the Coast‘s effort to streamline stat blocks and make it easier to read and adjudicate your choices quickly in the heat of battle. With both attacks doing 2d8 damage +5 slashing damage, this has the potential to deal a bit more damage than its predecessor.
- Removed Keen Sight & Smell: The owlbear no longer has advantage on Perception checks.
A significant addition is the introduction of the Primeval Owlbear, a more formidable variant distinguished by several key features:
- Increased Size and Strength: The Primeval Owlbear is classified as a Huge creature, making it larger and more powerful than the standard owlbear. This size increase translates to greater physical prowess and resilience.
- Gliding Ability: The Primeval Owlbear possesses the additional ability to glide, but only over short distances.
- Enhanced Attacks: This variant features a Ravage attack that deals increased damage, especially when charging a target. Additionally, it can unleash a powerful screech that inflicts thunder damage and incapacitates opponents.
These updates not only elevate the baseline owlbear’s threat level but also enrich story telling opportunities at the table for parties prepared for a CR7 threat.
This book is just full of opportunities for Dungeon Masters to present to their players fresh challenges. Check back here after Feb. 4th for some stat block comparisons.
Owlbears are one of the most beloved creatures in Dungeons & Dragons, whether you imagine them as ferocious monstrosities or just plain adorable. We wanted to give you both a classic cave den for an owl bear encounter as well as a third interpretation of the owlbear to inspire a truly epic encounter in your adventures. Let’s dig into the details of each item, and catch up with their creators!
Heliana’s Guide to Monster Hunting: The Shining Shrine by Loot Tavern
This one-shot adventure is pulled from Heliana’s Guide to Monster Hunting, a collection of unique twists on classic monsters are divided into 11 easy-to-run monster hunt adventures, each playable at a variety of levels. This adventure features the Suneater Owlbear and allows players to investigate the creature to find its weaknesses, prepare a plan of attack in encounters tuned to three different difficulty levels, and craft several different magic items from its harvested remains! We’ll let Loot Tavern tell you more…
What inspired the creation of Heliana’s Guide to Monster Hunting?
Heliana’s Guide came from two places. First off, we were super excited to put unique twist on classic D&D monsters:
- An aboleth that uses genetic material from its surroundings,
- An mutagenic-enhanced gelatinous ooze that becomes immune to the last damage type it took,
- A dragon made of superconducting magnetite that loses its flying speed when heated
- A beholder that isn’t just born from dreams, but lives in them (the dreamholder).
This became a whole bestiary of unique twists on definitive monsters. But we wanted to do more. MORE! We wanted to build a bridge between normal D&D combat and the feeling of epic boss fights. We loved the Monster Hunter franchise, especially how you can research your quarry beforehand, and create the perfect strategy to beat it. We liked it so much, we call our adventures ‘hunts’, and adopted this rhythm: first the party learns about their prey; then they prepare their tactics, spells, and magic items; finally, they find the foe’s lair, and battle commences. Those preparations have visceral payoffs; in fact, if you don’t prepare correctly the fights are often beyond deadly. You will TPK if you don’t understand the clues! During the fight, the enemy’s tactics and environmental interaction evolve as the fight progresses. This multiphase battle forces players to adapt on the fly turning what might normally be a long-winded meat grinder into a fresh and rewarding story.
What new opportunities does Heliana’s Guide bring to D&D players?
Well… you can play a crazy raccoon-person possessed by an alien parasite (creating a Venom-esque Parasite Patron Rakin Warlock). You can live your dreams of being the very best by playing the pokemon-inspired Tamer class. You could become the party’s grandparent using the Cooking system to create potentially edible ability-augmenting magical meals. Then there’s a whole raft of new familiars like the sunsnacker owlcub, minimic, and rakitten. There’s definitely someting you’ll enjoy in there. Then there’s 10 dope monster hunts that you can drop into any game at any time. I mean… who doesn’t want to battle a mechanical koboldzilla powered by kobold belief!? For the more mechanically-minded, we added four systems to D&D: Tracking, Harvesting, Crafting, and Cooking. There are so many aspects that we love about RPGs. For example, the ability to harvest monsters and craft items that look and feel like the foe you just defeated; that was in well-loved videos games like Monster Hunter, Skyrim, and The Witcher, but hadn’t been implemented in a way we liked in D&D. We made a system that has optional features allowing you to make it as streamlined or detail-oriented as you wished. Spending an attunement slot on a magic item isn’t just a power boost, it can change how it feels to play your character.
What was your thought process when creating The Shining Shrine adventure within the Heliana’s Hunt collection?
It all began with the idea of merging an owlbear with a patoo (the goofiest of all birds, google it), and adding to it the idea of mimicry—the mechanism by which some animals look like others in order to gain an edge in their ecosystems. In this case the open mouth of the owlbear surrounded by the peacock like feather ressembles a beholder in the darkness of the twilight forest. Then we needed a motive—why did the party have to hunt this irascible yet beautiful monstrosity? We decided that the owlbear feasts on sunlight; a ready meal in the Fey Planes’ eternal sunset. Unfortunately it came over to the Material Plane during a solar flare, and the day-night cycle left this perpetually hungry snacker famished and hangry! I’ll admit there’s a little personal projection going on there… I suffer a -5 to Charisma, Intelligence, and Wisdom when I haven’t eaten recently. (modifié)
Do you have any particular memories or experiences with owlbears you want to share with the community from your own table?
We don’t want to give away any spoilers! My personal favourite bit is the second wave of the battle against the suneater owlbear: it’s a puzzle, and you already have the answer. But don’t take too long or the owlbear gets a short rest. In fact, **Attention all hardcore GM feel free to run an IRL 1 hour timer to see if you party can solve it in time! Regarding owlbears in general, we have a dyslexic biomancer in our canon who accidentally created an ‘owlboar’. It’s not pretty.
What things are you most curious and/or excited about as the new Monster Manual for D&D 2024 arrives?
I’m a layout and design nerd so everything from the new art to how they’ve restructured the lists at the book’s end (please have page references!). I imagine they’ll be updating all the old monsters from the 2024 book, but I’m curious if there’s anything new for us to enjoy!
What is your favorite Loot Tavern item you’ve listed on our Roll20 marketplace and why?
That’s like asking me to choose my favourite child. It’s Heliana’s Guide. The amount of positive feedback we’ve had about how it’s reinvigorated peoples’ love of the game made all the late nights and broken page references worth it.
Owlbear Cave Map Pack by The Reclusive Cartographer
This set of maps includes several variants across different biomes for the perfect classic owlbear encounter, no matter what climes your party is exploring! Let’s hear from The Reclusive Cartographer:
What was your thought process when creating this particular offer for the marketplace? –
I wanted a map that would work for a low level encounter, perhaps the PCs were sheltering from the rain or a fierce storm. Only to find that the cave was already occupied…
Do you have any particular memories or experiences with owlbears that you want to share with the community from your own table?
As any good druid would, one of my PCs must definitely try to befriend the Owlbear. A nat 1 soon put paid to that notion!
What inspired you to start creating maps/tokens?
I started DMing for a group of friends in about 2019 and I wanted to start drawing maps to help ground my stories and help me flesh out the world they were adventurering in. It was actually while lying next to a pool in Portugal during a holiday with my now wife that I drew my first map!
What do you think is unique about your style and what tone do you hope to set at the table?
I think the complexity and detail of my maps is something that really helps create an exciting gaming experience. I’m a huge fan of strategy games of all kinds, so having a lot of tactical choices while fighting on my maps is important
We hope you’ve enjoyed our second spotlight on the marketplace creators who have contributed to our bonuses for the D&D 2024 Core Rulebook Bundle.
Check back next week to learn about the next creature, bonus collection, and its creators. Until then, happy adventuring!