Owlbear Cub: Difference between revisions

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 it is to become a follower later. The principal scenarios include:

# Party meets Owlbear mother in cut scene, and retreats 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 will survive and reappear after the next long rest (see below).

# Party meets Owlbear mother in cut scene, fights and kills her. A second cut scene in which the cub begins eating its mother gives the party an opportunity to spare the cub. The cub will survive and reappear after the next long rest (see below).

# Party attacks Owlbear mother from stealth, skipping the initial cut scene. In this case the second cut scene with the cub eating the mother will not be triggered and the cub will keep attacking. To save the cub, the party will need to flee from combat while the cub is still alive, after killing the Owlbear and grabbing any desired loot. If the party disengages while the cub is still alive, it will survive and reappear after the next long rest (see below). Beware that downing the cub, even with non-lethal combat, will NOT spare it for this purpose -- fleeing combat is the only way to preserve it for future story purposes.

If it 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 it can be freed by playing [[Krolla#Act_One|Chicken Chase]] or by persuading the goblins. The Cub does not seem to appear in the Goblin Camp if you've killed [[Devout Mezzka]] before you rest or if you have poisoned the Goblin Camp through the [[Goblin Camp#Booze Tub|Booze Tub]]. Should the player have already killed the entire Goblin Camp before encountering the Owlbear, the Owlbear Mother will be killed by a Goblin hunting party and the Cub will show up at your camp after a couple of long rests.

If the player chooses to call [[Lump the Enlightened]] to participate in combat with the Goblin Camp exterior when the cub is present, the Owlbear Cub will become hostile to the three [[Ogre (creature)|Ogres]] and by extension the player party. If this happens, the party will likely be locked out of recruiting the cub, as even if you knock him out using nonlethal attacks, he will still disappear after a long rest, and it will be difficult to prevent the ogres from eventually killing him. A similar situation also occurs if the party recruits Brynna and Andrick for the fight with the Owlbear as they will make the cub hostile even after its mothers death: in this case downing Brynna and Andrick and then fleeing combat while the cub is still alive can preserve the option of recruiting it later.

The cub quickly acclimates to camp life. At some point after recruitment, a long rest will be interrupted by a noise. If [[Speak with Animals]] is active, it will be revealed that the cub had a nightmare, and [[Scratch]] is trying to calm him down. The cub will also remark that Scratch reminds him of their bigger brother. If asked about that, the cub will say that he used to have an older brother, but their mother ate him.

{{SpoilerBox|If the [[Owlbear Cub]] is a camp follower and [[Dammon]] survived into the game's finale, the tiefling blacksmith will transform the cub into a battle-ready beast. He feeds the cub potions to accelerate his growth and outfits him with steel armour.  The cub's display name changes to '''Armoured Owlbear'''. The party can summon the owlbear to assist in the final battle using {{SAI|Gather Your Allies (Class Action)|Gather Your Allies}}.|act=3}}