Bug-Bear Juvenile

medium monstrosity, neutral

Armor Class: 15 (Natural Armor)

Hit Points: 45 ()

Speed: 30 ft, climb 20 ft.

		Mod	Save
STR	16	+3	+3
DEX	13	+1	+1
CON	16	+3	+3

		Mod	Save
INT	3	-4	-4
WIS	11	+0	+0
CHA	5	-3	-3

Skills: Stealth +3, Perception +2

Damage Resistances: bludgeoning, piercing, slashing

Senses: darkvision 60 ft., tremorsense 20 ft., passive Perception 12

Languages: —

CR: 2 (450 XP); PB +2

Actions

Multiattack: The Bug-Bear Juvenile makes two attacks: one with its Claws and one with its Bite.

Claws: Melee Attack Roll: +5, reach 5ft. Hit: 8 () Slashing damage

Bite: Melee Attack Roll: +5, reach 5ft. Hit: 7 () Piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the end of its next turn.

Bonus Actions

Aggressive: As a bonus action, the {{name}} can move up to its speed toward a hostile creature it can see.

Notes

Juveniles represent the awkward middle stage of a bug-bear’s life. Standing upright with half-formed claws and twitching antennae, they are faster and more aggressive than their larval forms, though still biologically unstable.
Juveniles serve as scouts and tunnel hunters, often sent ahead of an advancing hive to test defenses or retrieve corpses. They lack the heavy armor and stamina of full adults, but their growing instincts and berserker aggression make them dangerous in numbers.
They are often used as expendable shock troops when a hive pushes into new territory or faces a threat it cannot yet fully assess. Their short development time and moderate strength make them an ideal middle tier in the hive’s hierarchy.
A juvenile requires several months of steady growth, nourishment, and pheromonal conditioning before it can complete its transformation into an adult Bug-Bear full adult. This change occurs gradually as chitin hardens, muscles thicken, and the creature's instincts mature. During this period, juveniles remain active and dangerous, growing increasingly territorial and aggressive as their metamorphosis nears completion.

The Bug-Bear Brood

A grotesque fusion of insect and bear, bug-bears are hulking monstrosities born from ancient magical tampering in deep subterranean hives. Though they resemble no known natural species, their social structure and lifecycle parallel those of eusocial insects, with a powerful queen-like matriarch at the core of each colony.
Bug-bear hives operate with eerie precision. Each creature is bred for a specific function—larvae serve as helpless feeders and future soldiers, juveniles as scouts and expendable shock troops, and adults as frontline warriors and guardians. Despite their monstrous appearance, bug-bears exhibit surprising coordination and resourcefulness, often ambushing prey or enemies with hive-level tactics.
The colonies themselves are sprawling labyrinths of hardened resin and organic material, exuding warmth, pheromones, and a low ambient hum. Matriarchs anchor the colony from its deepest point, continuously birthing new larvae to feed and protect the hive. Other members of the species function as extensions of her will, guided by scent, vibration, and instinct.
Wherever bug-bears spread, local ecosystems are swiftly disrupted—predators avoid the area, carrion beetles and scavengers follow the swarm, and hunters speak in hushed tones about the tunnels breathing just beneath the forest floor.
Bug-bears are blind to morality, acting on biological instinct and pheromonal command. Their presence in a region often indicates a nearby hive, hidden in caverns, ruins, or even buried forests, where chitinous tunnels wind through the earth like a festering wound.

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