well my party just started wispering carin and arnt at th owl bear yet. A druid in my party will proboly want to keep the cub. What do i do if she does.
I had the same problem, time for some quetes:
Druid: OOO, a cub! I wanna keep it and love it and it will fight for me!
Me: Um... arnt all mosterous animals considered abomanations to the druids way of defending the natural laws?
Druid: Here lil owlbear, daddys gettin you trained!
Me: *sigh* make a knowlage nature, *he roles 19* OWLBEARS ARE BAD AND YOU HATE THEM!
our clueless druid then started chasing it around with his quarterstaff also known as the ugly stick.
We just sold it to the entertainment distict place. The bazaar I think it was called. Made a pretty penny (2500gp). Our bard tried to argue for more but our DM and everyone else in the party, me included, tried to tell him that hey he was trying to argue up from an already spectacular price (considering it's such a lowly place like Diamond lake).
Oh. I forgot to mention something. I think it states it in the monsterous manual (don't have it with me though) that the owlbear can't be trained or something like that. That they're too feral. Oh well. You're the DM though.
Ya, i know, but this is the druid who sends his pet into combat first and has him killed in ever session...
Anyone found a druid pet loop hole yet?
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The 3.xE Arms and Equipment Guide has plenty of rules on how owlbears are trainable as a "pet" and as a steed. In short, it suggests that they are pretty close to useless as either, but the particularly stubborn/abusive controller could keep one in line most (75%) of the time. The other 25% of the time will likely get the PC doing time in the mines.
The group that found a buyer for the cub probably has found the best solution. SRP of 3,000 gp so getting 2,500 out the Emporium is good. I'd suggest that the owlbear somehow makes it way to the Free City and turns up during the Champion's Games as an adversary. If the PC was particularly nice to the owlbear, perhaps it will remember that...
can an owlbear be awakened like an animal, and if so would that make it easier to train as a pet/companion?
A druid can use wild empathy to affect the owlbear. That might make it friendly toward the party, but it's certainly not going to accept training and learn tricks.
Besides, animal companions are not weapons. They're scouts, hunters, watch dogs, and sometimes mounts. Unless it's a dire animal of some might, animal companions should be protected by keeping them out of heavy combat. Not all combat, though.
I say let the PC keep the owlbear cub. It shouldn't grow into anything close to combat viable for a while. And if the player abuses your generosity make it a hassle for the character. It's weak and defenseless and can't be left home alone, the druid's animal companions won't go near it without special training, someone from the menagerie or the gladiatorial games tries to steal it...Or you can just have it go rabid at some unfortunate time, and it attacks the party. Even trained animals maul their handlers. Look at Sigfried, or was it Roy?
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From Arms and Equipment Guide under "Guard Creatures":
Owlbear
Owlbears are theoretically trainable. Howerver, it is not necessary to train them to attack, and not very productive to teach them anything else. Owlbears are best employed by leaving them in an enclosed area and tossing in raw meat occasionally. Further interaction is usually pointless.
If raised from chicks, owlbears become very devoted to their trainers. They never transfer this devotion to anyone else, though, and continue to display their famously surly attitude to anyone who isn't the trainer.
The most useful trick to teach a guard owlbear is a version of "Alert" (see New Tricks sidebar), whereby it makes a distinct noise when it fights something besides another owlbear. Owlbears can be taught other tricks, but they always perform them sullenly and violently. Any time an owlbear is commanded not to attack, its master must make a successful Handle Animal check (DC 15) or it attacks anyways.
DC Young/Adult: 23/30; Young Price: 3,000 gp; Training Cost: 2,000 gp.
To start from the "Animal and Magical Beast Mount" section:
Owlbear
Only the brave or foolish ride owlbears. Foolishness, at least, is never in short supply.
The primary training method for owlbears is pain. Most good members of the common races consider the exercise cruel, even for owlbears. However, only repeated, excessive beatings have consistently been proven to work, first to train an owlbear not to attack its trainer, and eventually to allow a rider. Magic renders an owlbear docile for a short time. Unlike other creatures, though, when the enchantment ends, the owlbear reverts, forgetting anything it learned.
It goes on to state that even trained to accept riders, owlbears will turn on their riders at the first sign of weakness (15 hp damage taken). I think the above reference to magic is key to note.
Sure, Wild Empathy at a -4 penalty versus a Magical Beast may make an aggressive owlbear indifferent, it's not going to make an owlbear a party's mascot anytime soon.
In the original Age of Worms campaign, one of the participants (Erik or James or someone else) mentioned that "Beaky" hung around with the PC it attached to for awhile but eventually started nibbling on other animals, PCs, and eventually the bonded PC itself. "Beaky" should become a nuisance fairly quickly, more-so a burden in short order. If a young owlbear is listed as being worth 3,000 gp, sell the little fella for half that and you can at least afford some of the magical goodies in town. If you get close to that 3,000 gp, count your blessings (or your Diplomacy skill). I bet Auric could be helpful with getting the PCs connected to some his gladiatorial contacts, perhaps having the PCs meeting a representative of Loris Raknian before further plot elements develop. That would make for some interesting roleplaying later.
Here is a chart of things that should/could happen at least once a day if the baby Owlbear accompanies the party. Handle Animal and like checks may be able to change the creatures course of action if the DM wishs. (I first posted this in the now archived Owlbear Companion thread)
Roll d20
Baby Owlbear Calamity Chart
1 Bites/scratches someone (roll randomly for anyone around)
2 Destroys a random piece of PC equipment (looking for food, sharpening claws or just chewing on stuff)
3 Messes in an inopportune place
4 Refuses to move in the desired direction for d20 rounds
5 Heads off on own in random direction for d10 rounds then returns
6 Makes loud keening noise for d8 rounds
7 Goes berserk and attacks anything around for d4 rounds
8 Goes to sleep and can not be woken for d4 hours
9 Makes loud keening noises for d8 rounds or until fed
10 Barfs in random direction covering area with contents of its stomach
11 Bites a random PC (roll randomly for all PCs around)
12 Makes loud keening noise for d8 rounds or until scratched behind ear
13 Runs around crazily for d4 rounds circling the party and wrecking things in vacinity
14 Perks ears and stairs off in random direction for d4 rounds
15 Growls for no reason for d4 rounds
16 Inappropriately sniffs someone (roll randomly for all those around) for d4 rounds
17 Tries to climb highest thing around (tree, statue, stairs, furniture, pillar) for d4 rounds
18 Digs, or attempts to dig (if ground prevents digging) for d6 rounds
19 Falls asleep for d20 rounds. Tries to bite any who disturb sleep
20 Stops to preen for d8 rounds. Tries to bite/scratch any who interfere
ASEO out
My group played out the Owlbear incident...
The Barbarian wanted to kill it immediately...
The rogue wanted to keep it (it bonded to him), at least until it started rolling and eating a pile of horse dung.
He had the cleric (who was renting an apartment from Tidwoad's) watch it for the night (he succeeded with the diplomacy check)... He caused 45 GP in damages and kept the cleric from regaining spells...
So, they sold it for 1000 gp to the trapper (they didn't try to negotiate), causing the druid of the party to go into a rant of how screwed up the economy is in D&D (I think he's going to try to form the Brotherhood of Miners - Local 1 to demand better hours, employer supplied light sources, free health care, and at least a day off a workweek)
I would recommend slow-roasting with a nice basil-cream sauce.
::cracking up - at work, no less::
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I had the owner of the Emporium buy if for their menagerie.
The PCs got about 800 gold for it plus another 600 gold in "credit" from the Emproium.
Given the nature of the services provided by that questionable establishment, I may have a hard time ever persuading the PCs to actually leave Diamond Lake. :)
The druid in my group could not bring herself to kill the cub so she took it to the Lodge of Silvanus for them to decide its fate.
Just depends, if your comfortable DMing a party which will eventualy have an owlbear in with it, then let your party keep it. I'd say make them work for it, have them roll some handle animal checks when they notice it eying a small child in the city market (assuming their off enough to take an owlbear cub into the market), but don't allow them to have it and then punish them for it.
If on the other hand you don't like the idea of it, play up the knowledge some of the characters might have about how much the cub will be worth and how much of a problem it would be to keep it.
My initial suggestion would be pluck it, shave it and salt it, but twenty five hundred is a lot of money for a group of third level characters.