Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.The owlbear controversy in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves can be easily explained and justified through the written rules of the game. The fantasy film has proven a hit with professional critics and general audiences alike, while also satisfying most gamers who play Dungeons & Dragons. Despite this, Honor Among Thieves has drawn fire from those who believe the film took too many liberties with the source material.
The first trailer for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves showed the druid Doric magically transform into a monster known as an owlbear, which resembles a feathered bear with an owl's head. The D&D movie owlbear transformation prompted controversy, as the written rules for the druid's Wild Shape ability in Dungeons & Dragons only allow druids to shape-shift into Beast-type creatures. Owlbears are classified as Monstrosities, which are unnatural creatures born of terrible curses and magical experiments. While some held Doric's owlbear change as proof that the writers of Honor Among Thieves did not do their research, her transformation is justified by a higher principle in the Dungeon Master's Guide.
D&D's Dungeon Master Rules Explain Why Doric Can Turn Into An Owlbear
There are many rules in Dungeons & Dragons, but first and foremost is the Dungeon Master's ability to redefine the rules. While various Dungeons & Dragons books outline the options for creating a character and establish a complex cosmology of worlds, it is the Dungeon Master who crafts the setting of the game and referees any disputes that might arise. In this, the Dungeon Master can be compared to the screenwriter and director of a film, organizing the grand vision of the campaign. The Dungeon Master is therefore granted the authority to alter the rules as needed and create new materials for the game.
Given that, Doric's ability to change into an owlbear could be explained as being born of the Dungeon Master's house rules in the game world of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. For instance, a Dungeon Master could decide that owlbears are naturally occurring creatures in their world. This would enable druids, whose power comes from a connection to nature, the ability to change into owlbears. A Dungeon Master might also devise a magical item that alters a druid's powers, or rewrite the druid class abilities from scratch. A Dungeon Master's innate power to define their reality offers them multiple avenues for justifying such a change to the basic rules.
Honor Among Thieves Already Told You The Owlbear Controversy Doesn't Matter
This point regarding the owlbear controversy was also made rather humorously by one of the final commercials for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, which featured the party from the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. When Eric the Cavalier complained about Doric breaking the rules for wild shaping after seeing a vision of her, the Dungeon Master pointed reminded him that "the first rule is, if I say it's okay, it's okay." While these exact words are not used in the Dungeon Master's Guide, the sentiment is echoed in the introduction, which advises new Dungeon Masters that "...the rules aren't in charge. You're the DM and you are in charge."
