Polar Bear 5e: Stats, Tactics and How It Differs from a Brown Bear

The polar bear is a CR 2 Large Beast with AC 12, 42 hit points, a +7 to hit and two attacks a turn: in 2014 a bite and claws for up to 21 damage, in 2024 two Rends for up to 18. It's worth more than twice a brown bear's XP, and it swims (30 feet in 2014, 40 in 2024), which is where it's most dangerous. The 2024 version adds Stealth, darkvision and resistance to cold, so it can stalk a party across a snowfield at night.

Table of Contents

• •Polar Bear Stat Block (2014)
• •The Polar Bear in the 2024 Rules
• •Polar Bear vs Brown Bear
• •How Polar Bears Fight
• •Running a Polar Bear Encounter
• •How Players Beat a Polar Bear
• •Using a Polar Bear as a Wild Shape or Polymorph Form
• •Polar Bear Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Polar Bear Stat Block (2014)

The SRD 5.1 polar bear:

Strength 20 drives everything: +7 to hit (the brown bear has +5) and +5 damage on every attack. 42 hit points is a lot for CR 2. Keen Smell is the 2014 bear's only special sense; it has no darkvision.

The Polar Bear in the 2024 Rules

SRD 5.2.1 keeps the CR, XP, AC, hit points and attack bonus, and changes the rest.

The 2024 bear trades 3 points of damage for a better hunter: it sees in the dark, is harder to sneak past (passive 15), swims at full speed and can stalk a party itself. Cold resistance halves Ray of Frost and Cone of Cold.

Polar Bear vs Brown Bear

Same size, same 40-foot walking speed, different fights:

The polar bear is the tougher, more accurate fighter, and the gap is widest in 2024, where it has almost twice the brown bear's hit points. The brown bear climbs and (in 2024) knocks targets Prone; the polar bear swims. Put a brown bear in the trees and a polar bear on an ice floe or in a river.

How Polar Bears Fight

Pick one target and stay on it. Against AC 16 the bear hits on a 9 (60%). Two attacks a round average 12.6 damage in 2014 and 10.8 in 2024. A level 2 wizard with around 14 hit points goes down in two rounds, sometimes one.

Fight from the water. This is the polar bear's real advantage. Characters without a swim speed spend 1 extra foot of movement for every foot they swim, and underwater melee weapon attacks have Disadvantage for them. In 2014 that applies unless the weapon is a dagger, javelin, shortsword, spear or trident; in 2024 unless it deals piercing damage. The bear has a swim speed, so none of that applies to it. A bear that pulls the fight onto broken ice or into the water is a step harder than its XP says.

2024: hunt from the dark. With darkvision, Stealth +4 and white fur against snow, the 2024 bear can approach a camp at night. To Hide under 2024 rules it needs heavy obscurement or cover (a snowstorm or a pressure ridge in the ice) and a DC 15 Stealth check, which it makes on an 11 or better. If it succeeds, it has the Invisible condition and its first Rend has Advantage.

Hungry, not territorial. A wild polar bear is after food. Run it as giving up when the meal costs more than it's worth: below half its hit points (21), it breaks off.

Running a Polar Bear Encounter

A polar bear is worth 450 XP. With the 2024 budget (SRD 5.2.1) for four characters:

Under the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines (used by our encounter calculator), one polar bear is past Deadly for four level 1 characters, Medium at level 2 and Easy at level 3. Two bears at level 3 (900 × 1.5 = 1,350 adjusted XP) are Hard.

A single polar bear is a good level 2 or 3 fight. It also pairs well with other arctic creatures: a winter wolf pack fighting it over a carcass, or a frost giant hunting party that has trained one as a hound.

How Players Beat a Polar Bear

• •Stay out of the water. Fight on solid ice or land, where the swim-speed rules stop working in its favor.
• •Spread the damage. At 42 hit points and +7 to hit, it wins a slugging match against any single level 2 character. Pull a low front-liner out of its reach and let someone fresh take the next round.
• •Calm it. Animal Friendship works in both editions (Int 2 is under the 2014 limit of 4). Its Wisdom save is +1, so against a DC 13 it fails 55% of the time. Food also works: throw it a side of meat and walk away.
• •Take control. Dominate Beast makes it fight for you. Hold Person doesn't work because it isn't a Humanoid.
• •Use the right damage. Fire, lightning and radiant are fine. Cold damage is halved against the 2024 bear.

Using a Polar Bear as a Wild Shape or Polymorph Form

The polar bear is CR 2, so a druid can't take this form with Wild Shape in either SRD: the Beast Shapes tables top out at CR 1 at druid level 8. (The Circle of the Moon subclass that allows higher-CR forms is from the Player's Handbook, not the SRD.)

Polymorph is the usual way to get one. The new form can be any Beast with a CR equal to or lower than the target's CR or level, so any level 2+ ally can become a polar bear. In 2014 the target takes the bear's 42 hit points as a buffer. In 2024 they keep their own hit points and gain 42 Temporary Hit Points instead. In 2014, Conjure Animals can also summon one Beast of CR 2 or lower, which can be a polar bear.

Polar Bear Encounter Ideas

The ice-fishing camp. Six huts sit on a frozen lake, each with a hole cut for fishing. A 2024 polar bear has started surfacing through the holes at night. It's hunting fish, not people, but it treats the huts as part of its hunting ground and attacks anyone who's there when it comes up.

The whale on the beach. A dead whale has washed up near a northern town. Three polar bears are feeding on it and the town wants the blubber before it rots. The party can fight three bears at once (1,350 XP, a High encounter for four level 3 characters), drive them off one at a time, or set a fire on the windward side and let the smoke do the work.

The giant's hound. A frost giant hunting party moves through the pass with a trained polar bear on a chain. The party sees them coming. The bear smells them before the giants spot them, which gives the party one round to decide whether to hide, run or talk. If they run onto the river ice, the bear follows them into the water.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a polar bear in 5e?

The polar bear is CR 2 and worth 450 XP in both the 2014 and 2024 rules. It has AC 12 and 42 hit points in both.

Is a polar bear stronger than a brown bear?

Yes. A polar bear is CR 2 to the brown bear's CR 1, with more hit points (42 vs 34 in 2014 and 22 in 2024), +7 to hit instead of +5, and more damage. The brown bear climbs; the polar bear swims.

Can a druid Wild Shape into a polar bear?

Not with the SRD Wild Shape rules. Both editions cap Wild Shape forms at CR 1 at druid level 8, and the polar bear is CR 2. Polymorph or the 2014 Conjure Animals spell can produce one.

Is a polar bear resistant to cold?

Only in the 2024 rules, which give it Resistance to cold damage. The 2014 polar bear has no resistances.

How much damage does a polar bear do?

In 2014, 9 (bite) plus 12 (claws), 21 if both hit. In 2024, two Rends for 9 each, 18 if both hit. Both attack at +7. If your party remembers the bear better than the dungeon, Loreify's session recaps keep both.

Stat blocks: System Reference Document 5.1 (2014) and 5.2.1 (2024), Wizards of the Coast, CC-BY-4.0. Tactics, encounter math and ideas are Loreify's own.