This is the type of animal you should be able to have if you go Beast Master, not a swarm of rats or an eagle.

So in my campaign we got a dire wolf pup and our DM got WAY into figuring out how long this thing would take to grow etc. He based it all on the growth pattern of normal wolves, which are full grown in 1 year. And more than 60% of that growth occurs within the first 3-5 months. So this thing would need to go from birth to more than 300 lbs in the space of 100 days or so. Can you imagine adding 3 lbs A DAY to your body weight. And 9 ft long? Assuming at birth about 6-9 inches, that's almost an inch a day.

The DM figured we'd probably bankrupt ourselves just trying to feed it. And that the idea of there being packs of dire wolves in nature was flat out ridiculous unless the forest was wall to wall deer.

I have always thought of dire beasts as "half-monstrosities". They occur naturally, but aren't really common. So, I imagine them to only be in very large areas, with massive territories that they hunt through areas on the scale of 1000 square miles. They don't hunt the woods near Neverwinter, they hunt all of Neverwinter Wood. And, considering their size (and CR), I could see a pack to be just as likely to hunt owlbears as it is to hunt a typical deer.

That's not to say that dire wolves wouldn't have a massive impact on the forest. A pack would probably be enough to uproot most biomes pretty effectively if they stay for too long, but the fact that they exist proves that they aren't too prone to die off from starvation, so they probably don't have large amounts of pups and keep on the move, especially since their bodies seem to be built for it.

Quote from Abelhawk >>

Quote from RickAJr >>

In addition, you might want to allow them a Wisdom - Survival check to know the following:

 Wisdom isn't knowing facts; Intelligence is. Intelligence (Nature) would be better.

 If it were Int survival we'd have a lot of Barbarians having issues being barbarians because most of them aren't that smart.  Wisdom is for remembering that wolf = chompy dangerous ...also good as barbecue.

Could there be a Dire Bear?

So... it's a big wolf?

Quote from Eldemoras >>

Could there be a Dire Bear?

 Cave bear. Cr 2. Awesome.

Working on a Changeling Transmuter Wizard, and part of their subclass ability involves a free use of "Polymorph" without using a spell slot.

The only catch is, when not using a spell slot, the Challenge Rating on the beast must be no more than "1"...but that still means they can transform into a Giant Spider...Giant Toad...and, of course...a DIRE WOLF.

I add the "Mobile" feat, I can make this Wizard into a pretty decent striker when he shifts into a Dire Wolf form.

That's epic. Hope you and Wolfy have had good adventures together.

Just Here for Shadow Magic  Origin

To be fair, IRL dire wolves when they were alive were just wolves the size of a pony

How can we get the monsters (dire wolf ,etc) as pets? 

my level 2 ranger has one of these guys as a pet and I am totally riding this guy into battle while sniping enemies with my bow

Moon druids be like

Is there any chance a much bigger wolf type will be introduced? Thank you -Ryu

bigger doggo

Its like a normal wolf, but dire

Hey! I'm making my first campaign and I wanted to thank you for giving a bit of a helping hand!

Perfect for my Wild Shapes (:

I'm a Druid

If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.

So the Dire Wolf could knock prone any creature, no matter it's size? Even gargantuan creatures like a Tarrasque? That doesn't seem right to me... Especially since the regular rules for shoving a creature specifically state that:

The target must be no more than one size larger than you

Or am I missing something here?