Bugbear

Volo's Guide to Monsters

Bugbears rely on stealth and strength to attack, preferring to operate at night. When they're not in battle, bugbears spend much of their time resting or dozing, and bully weaker creatures into doing their bidding. From the viewpoint of the rest of the world, their aggression and savagery are thankfully offset by their rarity and lethargy.

  • Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2, and your Dexterity score increases by 1.
  • Age. Bugbears reach adulthood at age 16 and live up to 80 years.
  • Alignment. Bugbears endure a harsh existence that demands each of them to remain self-sufficient, even at the expense of their fellows. They tend to be chaotic evil.
  • Size. Bugbears are between 6 and 8 feet tall and weigh between 250 and 350 pounds. Your size is Medium.
  • Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
  • Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
  • Long-Limbed. When you make a melee attack on your turn, your reach for it is 5 feet greater than normal.
  • Powerful Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
  • Sneaky. You are proficient in the Stealth skill.
  • Surprise Attack. If you surprise a creature and hit it with an attack on your first turn in combat, the attack deals an extra 2d6 damage to it. You can use this trait only once per combat.
  • Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Goblin.

Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse

Neither bugs nor bears, bugbears are the hulking cousins of goblins and hobgoblins. With roots in the Feywild, early bugbears resided in hidden places, in hard-to-reach and shadowed spaces. Long ago and from out of the corner of your eye, they came to the Material Plane, urged to spread throughout the multiverse by the conquering god Maglubiyet. Centuries later, they still bear a fey gift for lurking just out of sight, and many of them have sneaked away from that god’s influence.

They are long of limb and covered in coarse hair, with wedge-shaped ears and pointed teeth. Despite their formidable build, bugbears are quiet skulkers, thanks to a fey magic that allows them to hide in spaces seemingly too small for them.

  • Ability Score Increase. When determining your character’s ability scores, increase one score by 2 and increase a different score by 1, or increase three different scores by 1. You can't raise any of your scores above 20.
  • Creature Type. You are a Humanoid. You are also considered a goblinoid for any prerequisite or effect that requires you to be a goblinoid.
  • Size. Your size is Medium.
  • Speed. Your walking speed is 30 feet.
  • Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light. You discern colors in that darkness only as shades of gray.
  • Fey Ancestry. You have advantage on saving throws you make to avoid or end the charmed condition on yourself.
  • Long-Limbed. When you make a melee attack on your turn, your reach for it is 5 feet greater than normal.
  • Powerful Build. You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
  • Sneaky. You are proficient in the Stealth skill. In addition, without squeezing, you can move through and stop in a space large enough for a Small creature.
  • Surprise Attack. If you hit a creature with an attack roll, the creature takes an extra 2d6 damage if it hasn’t taken a turn yet in the current combat.
  • Languages. Your character can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for the character. The Player’s Handbook offers a list of languages to choose from. The DM is free to modify that list for a campaign.