But... But... If the Giant Owls can't speak the Giant Owl language, who speaks it? Hahaha

They have it wrong here. Officially, it states the following:

• Languages Giant Owl, Understands Common, Elvish, And Sylvan But Can't Speak

So Giant Owls can understand and speak Giant Owl. However, they can only understand (not speak) Common, Elvish and Sylvan. The real question is... can they write in Giant Owl?

Ooooh, Thanks!

It makes a lot more sense! And who knows? I mean, they could "write" with some sort of scratch patterns on trees or something, so it's not entirely impossible, even without hands. I haven't seen the Giant Owl language listed anywhere, much less with the script used like Gnomish using Dwarven script. I imagine it's not something that comes up often in games though. I mean, the language itself doesn't seem like something that common, unless giant owls are a big part of the story, at which point I guess the DM could rule on that.

Might become more relevant now that the Eberron setting’s being playtested...

owl?

Lets say i use conjure animals and summon 8 Giant Owls, can my party ride them to wherever we want?

I read this the same way, then realized it can speak giant owl, and understands the others but cant speak them.  If you noticed how it's worded.

Quote from Crownguard2 >>

Lets say i use conjure animals and summon 8 Giant Owls, can my party ride them to wherever we want?

 

For 1 hour at a time... until you run out of spell slots... sure! (I wouldn't put it past your DM to make you roll some DEX to make sure you stay on the owls since they don't exactly come with saddles or riding gear. )

I can't get past the fact that giant owls have better stealth than regular owls. How is a large beast stealthier than a tiny version of it? 

As to the Stealth thing, I would imagine that they add intelligent technique to the stealth-perfect owl physiology. So they're just quieter hunters, essentially, because you still can't Hide unless you're obscured. That's still a lot easier for the smaller owls, so your regular variety is going to be stealthier in practice. Were this a super sophisticated system that tracked different modifiers for ground vs flying stealth and auditory vs visual stealth, I'm sure we'd see different numbers, but it'd also be Not 5e.

That said, I think the stealth mod for owls should be much higher in general; owls in the wild are essentially ghosts with talons, and I'd definitely homebrew a Giant Owl with camouflage (in their species' native terrain of course), some sort of silent movement, and a Surprise Attack like Bugbears have. Then a Bonus Action grapple. Plus a vicious beak attack, because giant owls should be terrifying demons of the wintry night, not flappy kobolds.

-Double-Nerdery courtesy of a bio student who thinks Dire-esque Beasts are super underpowered because nature is awesome.

Quote from Nitro_Nina >>

 
That said, I think the stealth mod for owls should be much higher in general; owls in the wild are essentially ghosts with talons,

I was thinking maybe owls have a proficiency bonus of +2 wanted giant owls are higher level and have +3... but that would mean giant owls would have +4 for perception and +5 for stealth...  🤨

Quote from NebulanKeltaz >>

Quote from Nitro_Nina >>

 
That said, I think the stealth mod for owls should be much higher in general; owls in the wild are essentially ghosts with talons,

Yes!

I was thinking maybe owls have a proficiency bonus of +2 wanted giant owls are higher level and have +3... but that would mean giant owls would have +4 for perception and +5 for stealth...  🤨

 I believe the Proficiency bonus is still +2, but they add double to perception checks, like a Rogue's Expertise.

I like that “giant owl” is a language, because it implies that these large owls speak a different language that regular owls, which is wild

My favorite use of this creature has got to be when our group met a lonely, horny Owl. Our Nature cleric was asking it whether it had seen someone specific within the last few days, but the Owl wanted to know if we'd seen any other Owls within the area. As soon as the DM said this I walked off, and turned into a Giant Owl. I then went like 2 minutes away at top speed, picked up s fully grown stag, and went to a tree nearby the main group. I then hooted as loud as I could as I started eating it

So if it has advantage on perception that means it gets a +5 on passive perception. is that part of its passive 15, or is it added after making it 20?

It isn't added yet, but I'm assuming that is because it doesn't have advantage on all perception checks. It would be 20 when it comes to sight and hearing. 

This is maybe the best animal companion if you, for whatever reason, ever decide to play a Beastmaster Ranger

Best sidekick.

Quote from Sl4pch0p >>

 The real question is... can they write in Giant Owl?

 Sure, but their handwriting is chicken scratch.

Quote from Sanyella >>

But... But... If the Giant Owls can't speak the Giant Owl language, who speaks it? Hahaha

 Giant Owls speak their own language. The text is poorly wording that they can *understand* common, elvish, and sylvan, but cannot speak those languages.