The Baldur's Gate 3 Owlbear Cub is one of the cutest creatures in the game, but you can get it to come back to your camp and join the party? Fortunately... yes! The owlbear can be recruited as a pet/ally, and while it's not quite a companion on the level with the others, finding the nest and the creature's mother starts a little chain of events that can have impact all the way to the very end of the game. With that in mind, here's how to get the Owlbear Cub to join your camp and be a furry, feathered pet throughout Baldur's Gate 3.
How to get the Owlbear in Baldur's Gate 3
1. Find the Owlbear and its cub in the Nest, Northeast of the Blighted Village. If you fail the Animal Handling skill check, or if you fail to intimidate the Owlbear mother with your roar, you will instigate a fight to the death and be forced to kill the Owlbear mother.
2. Killing the Owlbear mother in Baldur's Gate 3 results in a choice: kill the cub and end its suffering, or spare it. If you want to recruit it, obviously you need to let it live. However, even if you walk away and the mother lives, it will be killed by goblins.
4. The owlbear cub is captured by goblins and will next show up at the goblin camp, on the left when you go through the main bridge entrance. You can buy it from the goblins or negotiate its freedom. It will flee when you do.
3. A few days later, the Owlbear cub will show up at camp, hungry. Feed it and show it kindness, and the little will come back several nights later, just like Scratch the dog - and always be around to be petted and played with. Now, you will be able to summon the Owlbear Cub in the final boss fight in Act 3.
Owlbear Cub location
The Owlbear Cub is in the Owlbear Nest, the entrance to which is just North of the Bridge West of Silvanus Grove and East of the Blighted Village, where you find the Necromancy of Thay in Baldur's Gate 3, as you can see on the map above. Once you cross the bridge and can see the entrance to the village, turn North into the forest and head down to the riverbank to find the opening to the cave at coordinates X:85, Y:444.
The cave, technically called the Owlbear Nest, is very small - it's basically the Nest itself and a little Baldur's Gate 3 Selune chest puzzle. To find the Owlbear Cub, simply follow the path to the right - though be warned, it's not alone.
Spare or Kill the Owlbear
Around the corner you'll go into a dialogue encounter with the Mother Owlbear, assuming it sees you (it won't if you successfully stealth about). If you do get spotted, the Mother Owlbear will make a show of intimidation to get you to back off. Things can go several ways here.
- If you pass the dialogue check, you can prevent combat with the Mother and Cub Owlbear. There's several ways to do this - animal handling is the main one, but the Speak with Animals spell can allow you to make a Persuasion or Intimidation check to calm it instead, and Animal Friendship will give you advantage on all these checks. However, they still want you to keep your distance even if you pass the check, so if you get spotted coming too close it automatically goes into combat after and before that interaction.
- If you fail the dialogue check, it goes to combat instantly. Both the Mother Owlbear and Owlbear Cub will attack, though obviously the Mother is the main threat. The combat ends instantly if you kill the Mother, with the Owlbear Cub going non-hostile.
If the Mother ends up dying, the Cub then eats her body, because… well, it's an animal and it's hungry. You'll have an option to put it down there and then if you consider it to be more humane, but you don't have to take it. Obviously, if you want the Owlbear Cub to come back later, you want to let it live.
If the mother survives, she actually dies later anyway, as the local goblins end up hunting her down after she goes on a bit of a killing spree. The Owlbear Cub will end up under their control, until he ends up at your camp looking for comfort.
Getting the Owlbear Cub in the Goblin Camp
At some point later after your first interaction with the Owlbears in their nest, you can find the Cub at the Goblin Camp west of the Blighted Village (it may take a couple of long rests). Here's the way to get it:
- Use social manipulation to enter the Goblin Camp as an ally, assuring the guards you're allowed inside.
- Immediately look left to find the Goblin Krolla, who runs Chicken-Chasing, and the Owlbear Cub!
- Tell Krolla you're leaving and taking the Cub with you.
- At this point you can attempt to persuade, intimidate, Illithid-mind-control or just bribe her (500 Gold) into allowing you to take the Cub.
- Talk to the Owlbear Cub and let it get your scent, so it can find your own campsite.
Alternatively, killing all the Goblins and their allies in the outside section of the Goblin Camp will allow the Owlbear Cub to escape, but obviously that's a tough challenge. Still, the end result is the same.
As mentioned above, the cub can still join your camp if you kill its mother. Just wait a few days, and the owlbear cub will make its way to camp and stick around if you are nice to it.
Finding the Owlbear Cub in your campsite
At some random point several days later, the Owlbear Cub will appear at the borders of your Campsite, watching wearily. To win it over, do the following:
- Pass a DC 10 Animal Handling Check
- Choose "Fetch a Piece of Food From Your Bag", then "Toss the Food to the Owlbear".
- At this point the Owlbear Cub will bolt into the forest - but it's clear it'll be back.
After this interaction, the Owlbear Cub will appear periodically and randomly in your campsite in the hope of obtaining more food.
Can you get the Owlbear as a companion?
The Owlbear cub is not a summonable companion with the exception of a single encounter at the end of the game that we won't spoil. However, if you have rescued and tamed this beast, you'll be able to talk to it just before the encounter, then summon it at any point during that fight.
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