The D&D Movie and an Owlbear Wild Shape

 So, that D&D movie has a trailer.

Adapting games into movies has had about the worst track record you could imagine - the result is almost exclusively terrible. Usually this is about video games. D&D is very different from video games, but I think it presents a lot of challenges - while the Forgotten Realms (which is clearly where this takes place) is a rich setting with tons of stuff to pull from, the diversity of threats and locations and factions makes fertile ground for DMs and players to tell all sorts of stories within it, but this can make it somewhat unfocused from a traditional fantasy story perspective.

But also, let's talk about the druid taking the form of an Owlbear.

Discourse surrounding the trailer has, in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way, revolved a great deal around Doric the Druid, played by Sophia Lillis (who you might recognize from the recent adaptation of Stephen King's IT,) and the scene that is in the trailer of her transforming into an Owlbear.

And those of us who get very pedantic about nerdy things all pushed our proverbial glasses up our noses and said "um, actually, an owlbear is a monstrosity, not a beast, and therefore she should not be able to use that form for Wild Shape."

But let's look at the Owlbear, because, hey, this is fun, right?

The Owlbear is a CR 3 monstrosity. Most Druids can never change into an animal form that is anything higher than CR 1, but we can assume that if she is using animal forms in combat, that she has probably gone Circle of the Moon.

(This is all also assuming we're using 5th Edition rules, just to specify.)

With Circle of the Moon, the limits on CR instead start at 1 when you pick up the subclass at level 2, and then subsequently are your druid level divided by 3, maxing out at 6 at level 18 (though you also get to turn into CR 5 elementals at level 10).

Thus, if Owlbears were beasts, a Circle of the Moon Druid would be able to take that form at level 9.

The Owlbear is a monstrosity, but its features are not terribly outlandish - it has the Keen Sight of an Owl and the Keen Smell of a Bear. (It doesn't have the keen hearing of an owl though).

The Owlbear's attacks include a Beak attack that does 1d10+5 damage and a Claws attack that does 2d8+5, with a +7 to hit. It has a 40 foot movement speed, 59 hit points, and an AC of 13.

There aren't a ton of CR 3 beasts, but if we compare it to an Ankylosaurus, the latter (the dinosaur) has 15 AC and 68 hit points (and is huge) but is slower at only 30 feet and only makes a single attack that deals 4d6+4 damage and can potentially knock the target prone.

So, honestly, I don't think that it's really overpowered for an Owlbear to be an option for a druid's Wild Shape. You could argue that Owlbears aren't natural, as they might have been created by ancient wizards, but they certainly seem quite like beasts, especially with their low intelligence and charisma. Owlbears are quite strong though, with 20 Strength - most monsters that aren't geared for high-level players don't max out any of their stats.

Ultimately, this is just a silly exercise.

The movie looks - well, I'm not going to expect it to be good. Chris Pine is a charming performer, and I actually love the fact that he speaks with an American accent (there's no reason why fantasy worlds should all be British). The trailer is basically one big series of references that D&D fans will recognize - Owlbears, Mimics, Displacer Beasts, Gelatinous Cubes, Red Wizards of Thay, Liches (including one that seems likely to be Szass Tam,) and probably more that have slipped my mind.

This kind of fanservice can be fun, but ultimately this movie is going to live or die on whether it can be charming without winking so hard it goes blind.