A tough Baldur's Gate 3 owlbear encounter
The owlbear encounter in Baldur's Gate 3 is the first real test of your early journey. You've gotten your feet wet, met some familiar faces, and explored the region of Amn. Now, you're ready to explore deeper into the darkness of the Caves of Ne. However, you aren't alone in this dangerous location, and you'll have to make some tough decisions if you want to survive this encounter.
This owlbear encounter is an optional event, but it has some of the best rewards in the game, including a rare Druid armor and a companion. Properly preparing for this encounter, as well as your dialogue choices, will make or break this tough fight.
How to get the Baldur's Gate 3 owlbear quest
You can start the owlbear encounter by being honest with the adventurers you meet at the start of the Caves of Ne or by recruiting them to fight against the owlbear. If you're looking for a peaceful solution to the problem, you can try to find a way to get the owlbear out of the cave without killing it.
The cave itself has multiple paths and options, giving you the chance for peaceful, sneaky, or combat approaches. If you choose to take the unique armor by casting Invisibility, be sure to drop invisibility if you take it so that you don't lose its benefits. If you take the owlbear egg, combat will be forced upon you.
If you're a Druid or have the "Speak with Animals" active, you'll have additional dialogue options and unique interactions. If you manage to spare the owlbear mother and leave the cave, you'll be able to return later to find that goblins have killed her. You'll have the choice to kill the cub or leave it to mourn its mother.
If you kill the owlbear cub, you won't be able to find the companion or the armor. If you spare the cub, however, it may join your camp later as a companion. It also appears that Paladins should consider sparing the cub for moral reasons.
The Oak Father's Embrace armor can be found on a skeleton near the owlbear's nest. This armor has a special effect that deals Radiant damage to undead creatures and beasts that strike the wearer. It's a great armor for Druids and has decent AC as well.
Baldur's Gate 3 owlbear mother combat tips
Once you've made your choice regarding the owlbear cub, it's time to take on the owlbear mother. This tanky, hard-hitting enemy has a rage ability and a Crushing Flight attack that can do a lot of damage if you aren't careful.
The owlbear mother can take quite a bit of punishment and dish out heavy damage as well. For this reason, it's important to use all four characters against her. Focus on dealing damage as quickly as possible, as her rage ability can cause her to deal critical damage with each attack.
No matter what damage types you use against the owlbear mother, they will work. We used a two-handed fighter, a ranged fighter, a cleric, and a druid against her, and we were able to kill her fairly quickly. The cleric and druid did most of the damage, as they were tossing out damage spells and their companion spells respectively.
If you're fighting from above, keep a melee character to guard against the owlbear jumping to the ledge. This only happened once during our fight, but it caused a lot of chaos until we were able to get a character down to be in the fight as well.
Once the owlbear mother is defeated, you can choose to spare or kill the owlbear cub. Sparing the cub will allow it to join your camp later, but you can't find the companion or the armor if you don't kill the cub.
That's everything you need to know to defeat the tough Baldur's Gate 3 owlbear mother. If you're looking for more tips, we have a list of essential gameplay tweaks to make the most of your early playthrough and some early talents to pick for your character.
