D&D Basic Monster: Polar Bear

 

The polar bear (Urus maritimus) is the largest living species of bear alive today. They inhabit the northern arctic region living off a diet of meat, mostly seals. Known by many names - ice bear, white bear or nanuuk, the polar bear was almost considered a mythical creature by many Europeans for most of the medieval and renaissance period.

In D&D the polar has been part of the game since the earliest editions, though often forgotten, overshadowed by the larger cave bear or dire bear. 5th edition D&D doesn't actually include stats for these types of bear, except as a "variant option" where the cave bear shares the same stats as the polar bear.

As a fun side note - the cave bear (Ursus spealeus), and extinct species of bear, roughly the same size as the polar bear, living in Europe and Asia up to about 24,000 years ago (so, co-existing with humans), probably lived off a diet the consisted largely of plants - meaning they might not have been quite as fierce as their size might have implied.