D&D: As If Owlbears Weren’t Bad Enough – ‘Monster Manual’ Preview Unveils Primeval Owlbear
A new video preview from WotC shows off the monstrosities that await you in the 5.5E Monster Manual, including the slow but inevitable Primeval Owlbear.
Owlbears are one of the finest examples of a D&D monster. They came about because of a weird plastic toy. Their entire existence can be summed up as “a wizard did it.” And they persist because people understand that owlbears are rad. We like bears. We like owls. Smash them together into something cantankerous and hostile, and a certain subset of the population will instinctively go, “Oh, he’s just a big softie”.
These are the kinds of people who dote on malefic cats with insipidly sweet nicknames and somehow survive. It’s a testament to sheer force of belief and scar tissue.
You’ll likely need both if you’re to survive the many monstrosities in the 5.5E Monster Manual, releasing February 11th everywhere as we got to see in a new video preview.
Monstrosities – What Are They Anyway
First things first, what is a monstrosity, exactly? It’s a relatively recent term, first coming about in 5th Edition. It replaced the old “magical beast” category, which included things like Blink Dogs and Displacer Beasts. And that descriptor isn’t a bad one to start laying the groundwork for the monstrosity category.
There are many beasts that are magical in nature. But not all monstrosities are beasts. There are plenty of intelligent, even sapient creatures in the ranks of the monstrosity category. This includes mythical creatures like Medusas and Yuan-Ti.
But all monstrosities do seem to have something magical in their nature. Whether it’s the dint of what they are or the possession of some kind of magical ability, or just an innate mythological quality, monstrosities bring in the vibes of myth and fantasy and storybook creatures. That quality may explain why the monstrosity category has expanded so much in 5.5E.
More Monstrosities – Old Friends And New Faces
And the monstrosity family is a big one this time around. There’s a nerf packaged in with all of this. You might not realize it – but it comes about due to the reclassification. Monsters like werewolves and kenku have been reclassified from humanoid to monstrosities.
And that reclassification carries with it mechanical implications. Namely, there are some spells that only target “humanoids.” These are your spells like Charm Person and Hold Person. They don’t work on creatures that aren’t humanoid by type, even if they are humanoid in shape. This means you can’t Charm or Hold a werewolf – or a kenku – with a low-level spell anymore.
But it’s not just reclassification that increases the number of monstrosities in the Monster Manual. There are plenty of new monsters as well. Sort of. As we’ve seen, the 4th Edition design principle of “have more varieties of one monster” is back in a big way. To that end, there are plenty more monster variants that showcase higher or lower level versions of familiar fanged faces from the Monster Manual.
Including and especially the Owlbear.
See That Owlbear? Make It Primeval
One of the biggest reveals in the monstrosity preview video, to my mind, is the existence of the Primeval Owlbear. These are an even higher level version of the extant owlbear, which would be bad enough on its own. However, with an increase in level, they also gain an increase in capabilities, including the ability to fly.
At a speed of 5 feet per round. Yeah. They’ll get you – eventually. But there’s more to it than just a slight increase in movement speed. It’s just the most hilarious thing about the primeval owlbear. Less hilariously, they are a Huge creature, and are tougher and hit harder than their standard counterpart.
They also gain a Ravage attack that deals even more damage if they charge a target. Or can unleash a powerful screech that damages and incapacitates creatures with heaps of thunder damage.
But Wait, There’s More
The primeval owlbear is just one example of the new monstrosities in the upcoming Monster Manual. Other monsters on display include a new, high level version of the cockatrice, the cockatrice regent. This creature, reputedly, has the single most powerful petrification effect in the game. So you might want to be especially careful when facing it down.
There’s also the new giant axebeak. This is, simply, a big version of the classic axebeak, a D&D version of a riding bird. We’ve already seen the bulette pup, but I’ll take literally any excuse I can get to run that picture again because it’s so dang cute.
We also looked at a new variant of Quaggoth, the suggested variant called a Thanat, which now exists as a distinct stat block. A number of other monstrosities also got an update.
A Fresh Look for Old Foes
Werewolves and the other lycanthropes (though technically it should be therianthrope, since lycanthrope is etymologically wolf – man but hey, you do you, WotC) got a pretty significant rework, centered around the “curse of lycanthropy,” which they pass along.
In addition to being made monstrosities from humanoids, lycanthropes of any kind will now have the specific kind of lycanthropic curse written up in their actual stat block. This means you have everything you need to ruin a player’s day in one place.
Driders, likewise, got an overhaul. According to Crawford and Wes Schneider, the Drider has been redesigned to be more of a threat. It should represent the power that Lolth invests in her failed but still chosen servants. Now, it can be threatening at both melee and range. This seems to be the path WotC is taking for many of their monsters, which previously had few ranged options.
Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the ultimate monstrosity, the highest CR creature in the game, the titan that is the Tarrasque.
This siege monster will be devastating up close and can also throw down at long range now. Hopefully, it can actually fight at its CR instead of being the joke it was – no high-level party was ever endangered by the tarrasque. But if WotC has fixed the CR system, maybe the tarrasque can hang with a level 20 party for at least a couple of rounds.
Look forward to these new monstrosities in the 2025 Monster Manual, releasing in about a month!
