Dire Bear (3.5e Monster)
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Low - Moderate - You may be looking for the Dire Bear from the SRD instead.
Note[edit]
This monster is balanced to fit in a high level of balance game. I have taken the liberty of not using the standard D&D rules for determining various statistics for this monster. As a result, it may seem a bit stronger (or weaker) than some SRD monsters of the same CR and that is fine. I think it will pose an appropriate challenge for characters of its CR.
Dire Bear[edit]
| N Huge Animal | |
| Init/Senses | +1/Low-light vision, scent; Listen +10, Spot +10 |
| AC | 26, touch 18, flat-footed 24 |
| hp | 100 (7 HD); DR 2/— |
| Fort/Ref/Will | +11/+8/+8 |
| Speed | 40 ft. (8 squares), climb 10 ft. (2 squares), swim 15 ft. (3 squares); Burst of Speed |
| Melee | +19 Claw (2d4+6 plus automatic grapple, see Maul) or |
| Melee | +19/+19 Claws (2d4+6) +17 Bite (1d6+6) |
| Space/Reach | 15 ft./10 ft. |
| Base Atk/Grp | +5/+12 |
| Atk Options | Maul, Bear Hug, Knockback |
| Abilities | Str 31, Dex 13, Con 19, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 10 |
| Feats | Run |
| Skills | Intimidate +10, Swim +10, Jump + 14 |
| Advancement | — |
| Maul (Ex) | Dire bears maul people much like regular bears. This is just a much more dire mauling. As a standard action, a dire bear can make a single claw attack to maul its opponent. If it hits, the opponent is grappled (but does not take any additional damage from the grapple being initiated since this does not use the normal grapple rules). |
| Bear Hug (Ex) | Whenever a dire bear deals damage to an opponent with an opposed grapple check (but not damage from initiating a grapple), it deals 4d4+12 damage as if it had hit with two claw attacks (this is bludgeoning damage, however). |
| Knockback (Ex) | As a standard action, a dire bear can make a claw attack that deals double damage. If it hits, the target is pushed back 1 square per 5 damage dealt and knocked prone. |
| Burst of Speed (Ex) | You can't outrun a bear. What makes you think you could outrun a dire bear? Once per minute, a dire bear can triple its movement for a round and gain a +15 bonus to jump checks, effectively getting a run movement of 600 ft. During this movement, the bear can switch between movement modes freely and still be considered running. Yeah. Maybe you should have thought of that before you tried picking it off with arrows.
It also turns out, this is a +45 to jump checks in total (including its base skill), which allows the bear to get around 15 feet in height on a jump. With its 10 ft. reach and its ability to climb trees, you'd better be pretty high up or else the bear is going to take you down. |
The omnivorous dire bear will not hesitate to rip apart anything that might contain something edible. Like you. It prefers the taste of meat to berries and honey and as a result, will actively hunt.
Strategies and Tactics[edit]
Dire bears tend to grab opponents with their Maul ability and then crush them to death with a bear hug.
If facing several enemies, a dire bear will use its knockback strikes to knock down close opponents and then use the opportunity to charge and grapple more frail enemies.
Treasure[edit]
The claws of a dire bear can be crafted into Knockback Bracers. They provide the gold cost and experience cost required to craft the item.
Dire bear claws are valued at 2,600 gp on the open market.
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