Keen Smell. The hearth bear has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.
Multiattack. A hearth bear makes two claw attacks and a bite attack.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 5 ft., one target. Hit: (1d4+3) slashing damage.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attach: +5 to hit, range 5 ft., one target. Hit: (1d4+3) piercing damage.
Description
As humans have domesticated the dog, so too have the dwarves domesticated the bear. The hearth bear is the end result of countless generations of selective breeding. The dwarves have created about two dozen different breeds of hearth bears, which are just as varied as domesticated dogs. The dominant breeds are about three feet tall at the shoulder, and about as large as a large—though very stocky—dog. Hide color ranges from black, blonde, brown, white, and a host in-between.
Hearth bears are omnivorous and surprisingly gentle creatures. Specialized breeds exist for hunting, guarding, and even racing. Ever protective of their children, dwarves bred into the hearth bears the instinct to protect dwarven children. Legends of wild hearth bears raising human children in the wilds are common in some frontiers.
Hearth bears are trained to fight. They can stand on their hind legs to fight from as if they were bipedal creatures. They cannot wield weapons of any sort but fight with their claws and teeth. Dwarves unleash packs of hearth bears to hunt down foes that attempt to escape battle or otherwise bolster dwarven ranks.
A typical dwarven citadel will have at least a pair of hearth bears for every fifty dwarves, often more. The dwarves are extremely protective of their hearth bears, such that it is a hanging offense to sell a hearth bear to anyone other than a dwarf. Nevertheless, smugglers and thieves have introduced the hearth bears to ports all over the Known Spheres. They still remain rare beyond dwarven realms.