Bears, Werebears, and the North

Both bears and werebears are classic monsters that go all the way back to original D&D (1975). Werebears, directly inspired by Beorn from the Hobbit, appear along with wereboars, weretigers, and werewolves in “Monsters & Treasures.” A very early D&D variant, “Lycanthropy—The Progress of the Disease,” by Gregory Rihn in the Dragon 14 (1978) described using werebears as player characters.

Cave bears appear on the “Optional Mountains” table on page 19 of the “Underworld & Wilderness Adventures” booklet. They are not given specific statistics, but are instead covered under the general “Large Insects or Animals” guidelines along with other Pleistocene animals on page 20 of the “Monsters & Treasures” booklet.

From OD&D both monsters were carried forward into AD&D. The 1e Monster Manual (1977) had statistics for black, brown, grizzly, and cave bears. The Holmes basic set (1977) has werebears but doesn’t seem to include any sort of mundane bear; cave bears do show up as entries in the Monster & Treasure Assortment Sets One-Three: Level One-Nine product (1980) and are included in the Moldvay basic set (1981), along with black, polar, and grizzly bears. Second and third edition included plenty of bears as well as werebears, though in 3e the cave bear becomes a “dire bear.”

The Reaper Miniatures Bones 3 kickstarter set had both a werebear and a bear miniature. Both models could work on either Medium or Large bases, but I went Large in accordance with 3e convention. I enjoyed painting both of these model, but got a little carried away with dry brushing on the bear: I always find it hard to know just when to stop with that technique. The werebear in particular is a nice sculpt that I hope to use in an upcoming game.

Bears and Werebears in the North

Black, brown, and cave bears all roam the North and the Far Reaches and are given wide berth by the other inhabitants. The stone giants of the Boundary Mountains are said to keep cave bears as pets, while dwarves are known to train brown bears. The Sternfell dwarves of the Great Dungeon use these animals as guards to protect their halls.

Intelligent sylvan bears are said to live in the deep woods of the North, but such creatures are rarely encountered. The mysterious werebears are also native to the North, and lived alongside the Elves and Druids long before the Southrons arrived. These werebears tend to dwell in small, isolated communities just beyond the edge of civilization. They are gruff and retiring, but generally peaceful folk. A much more fearsome line of werebears originate from the Far Reaches, often living among the Berserkers.