Owlbear Cub

Owlbear Cub is a Beast and a potential Camp Follower encountered in the Owlbear Nest with his mother during Act One.
== Involvement ==
The Owlbear Cub can be recruited as a pet Camp Follower and remains in the Campsite after being recruited.
=== Owlbear Cave ===
First, the mother Owlbear must be encountered in the Owlbear Nest in the Forest, near the Blighted Village. It does not matter whether the Owlbear mother survives the encounter, but the cub must be spared if he is to become a camp follower later. The principal scenarios include:
# Meeting the Owlbear mother in cut scene, and retreating without combat. After long resting, the party can return to the cave and find the Owlbear mother killed by a Goblin hunting party. The cub survives and reappears after the next long rest in the Goblin Camp.
# Meeting the Owlbear mother in cut scene, fighting and killing her. A second cut scene in which the cub begins eating its mother gives the party an opportunity to spare the cub. The cub survives and reappears after the next long rest in the Goblin Camp.
# Attacking the Owlbear mother from stealth, skipping the initial cut scene. In this case the second cut scene with the cub eating the mother is not triggered and the cub keeps attacking. To save the cub, it is necessary to flee from the combat while the cub is still alive, after killing the Owlbear. If disengaging while the cub is still alive, he survives and reappears after the next long rest in the Goblin Camp. Downing the cub, even with non-lethal combat, does NOT spare him for this purpose.
# If not in turn based mode, it is possible for the party to initiate a ranged attack, to be seen by the Owlbear, and trigger a cutscene before the ranged attack lands. In this case, the first cut scene ends when the ranged attack lands or misses and combat is initiated. When combat ends, the second cut scene with the cub eating the mother is triggered.
In Honor mode, the Owlbear summons the Owlbear Mate. During the scenario 2 described above, if the Owlbear mother is killed before the Owlbear Mate there is no second cut scene and the party must flee to save the Cub. If the Owlbear Mother is killed after the Owlbear Mate, the second cutscene plays normally.
=== Goblin Camp ===
If he has been successfully spared in one of the above scenarios, then after long resting, the Owlbear Cub can next be found in the Goblin Camp where the party is invited by to play the Chicken Chase game to earn a bit of money.
Playing Chicken Chase is not required to recruit the Owlbear Cub.
==== Chicken Chase ====
During the chicken chase game, the party can talk with the Owlbear Cub in an attempt to influence the game towards a victory:
===== Without Speak with Animals =====
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===== With Speak with Animals =====
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==== Saving the Owlbear Cub ====
Whether participating in Chicken Chasing or not, the party can talk to the Owlbear Cub to invite it to their camp.
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* (Speak with Animals only) 
However, before the Owlbear Cub can be freed, the goblins must be dealt with. They can either be killed, or Krolla can be convinced to let the party leave with the Owlbear Cub.
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* (500 gold)
If playing and winning the Chicken Chase and intimidating or convincing Krolla into giving the party their winnings, she does not have to be intimidated again to let the party leave with the Owlbear Cub.
The Cub does not seem to appear in the Goblin Camp if is killed before a long rest or if the Goblin Camp is poisoned through the Booze Tub. Should the party kill the entire Goblin Camp before encountering the owlbears, then the mother is killed by a Goblin hunting party and the cub shows up at the campsite after a couple of long rests.
If calling to participate in combat with the Goblin Camp exterior when the cub is present, then the Owlbear Cub becomes hostile to the three Ogres and by extension the party. If this happens, the party is likely locked out of recruiting the cub, as even if knocking him out using nonlethal attacks, he still disappears after a long rest, and it is difficult to prevent the Ogres from eventually killing him. A similar situation also occurs if sending and to fight with the Owlbear as they make the cub hostile even after his mother's death. In this case, knocking out Brynna and Andrick and then fleeing the combat while the cub is still alive can preserve the option of recruiting him later.
The final cut-off point for recruiting the Owlbear Cub is travelling to Baldur's Gate at the end of Act 2.
=== Camp events ===
As long as the cub is spared and not stuck in the goblin camp (i.e. the party freed him or cleared the camp before he was captured), the cub appears at the Campsite one evening. He can be fed, but he gets scared by another member of the camp and runs off.
He reappears after another long rest, but is injured. The party can attempt to heal the injury after which he becomes friendly and stays at camp for good:
==== Without Speak with Animals ====
If not a friend:
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Already a friend or after being calmed:
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==== With Speak with Animals ====
If not a friend:
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Already a friend:
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The cub quickly acclimates to camp life. At some point after recruitment, a long rest is interrupted by a noise. If is active, it is revealed that the cub had a nightmare, and is trying to calm him down. The cub also remarks that Scratch reminds it of his older brother. If asked about that, the cub says that he used to have an older brother, but his mother ate him.
=== Act Three ===
If the cub is a camp follower and survives till the game's finale, then the latter transforms the cub into a battle-ready beast before the group arrives in the Upper City. Dammon feeds the cub potions to accelerate his growth and outfits him with steel armour, and the cub's display name changes to Armoured Owlbear. The party can summon the owlbear to assist in the final battle using , though he is one of two major characters who can permanently die in this fight and be removed from the Epilogue, the other being .
=== Epilogue ===
If the cub survives the final battle, he appears at Reunion Party still as the Armoured Owlbear. The player character can pet him, tell him that it is good to see him (to which he becomes flustered) and ask what he is up to (though his answer is mistaken for dancing). If the player character knows , the cub reveals that he was never invited but instead followed the player character's pleasant smell to join the gathering. Speak with Animals casters can also comment on the cub being so much larger than his "big brother" Scratch and ask again what he has been up to, to which he shares that he made new cat, turtle, and kraken friends but attacked the kraken after the latter ate the cat. If the cub survived but was not upgraded by Dammon (due to not completing and / or Dammon is killed at any point), he still appears as a juvenile owlbear and shares the same story of what he has been up to. However, he lacks the enhanced strength or armor, so he says that he instead had to run away when the kraken ate his cat friend. Either way, the player then has the opportunity to let a former party member adopt the cub: either , (if she turned away from ), or the player character themselves (if they only romanced Halsin and / or Shadowheart in Act Three and went home with one of them). Regardless of who adopts him, the cub says that he likes the player character's choice and will go to them after the party.
==Combat==
=== Attacks and abilities ===
== Companion approval ==
* After killing the Owlbear in the Owlbear Nest:
:* Let the creature live.
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:* Attack.
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* The first time the cub comes to camp:
:* Feed the cub something from your pack
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:* Tell the cub to go away, or attack him (with Speak with Animals)
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:* Attack (without Speak with Animals)
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* The second time the cub comes to camp:
:* Nature, Medicine, or Survival check to heal him
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:* Scare him away (without Speak with Animals)
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:* Attack
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== Achievements ==
== Gallery ==
File:Armoured Owlbear Model.png|Fully grown and in armour
File:Owlbear Cub Model.png|Owlbear cub's Early Access model
File:Owlbear on a bench.PNG|Armoured Owlbear resting on a stone bench.
File:Owlbear Cub EA.webp|Early Access appearance
Bert-vanhengel-bert-vanhengel-bg3-owlbear-02.jpg|Render by Bert Vanhengel
== Notes ==
== External Links ==
Category:Beasts
Category:Characters
Category:Characters in the Goblin Camp
Category:Characters in the Forest
Category:Characters in Act One
Category:Beasts
Category:Camp Followers