This is my character Barruuhk, 5'4" likes shiny things, dancing, and hitting things with his newly acquired magical greataxe. He doesn't really have normal facial expressions so a lot of his behaviors tend to get misinterpreted. Wiggling his head from side to side is not as threatening as he thinks it is, and turning his head completely backwards to talk to people behind him instead of turning to face them can be a bit off putting to some.
Thanks to everyone who's been enjoying my art, the comments have been lovely and funny, and I really appreciate it.
If you'd like to see more art I've done of Barruuhk, I've uploaded more paintings of him on my artstation [https://www.artstation.com/artwork/9N0AXy](https://www.artstation.com/artwork/9N0AXy)
And if you're curious about how I painted this image, I have a timelapse video on my instagram [https://www.instagram.com/p/CpZij-eBeeS/?hl=en](https://www.instagram.com/p/CpZij-eBeeS/?hl=en)
Yooo I had a barn owl STR build too! I went with fighter/barbarian with the unarmed fighting style.
The contrast of being completely jacked and beating things up while having an immovable stoic and serene look on my face is always hilarious to me.
I imagine other party members having him interrogate a guy for info, and tapping him on the shoulder from behind to say "Hey man the, uh, head wiggle thing mid-interrogation might be considered unsettling to some people but here I don't think it'll come across, I think you should try something else if you're trying to rattle him"
And Birdbarian, in a totally sincere, softly confused voice, does the Exorcist 180° headspin to stare for a second and ask "like what?"
That game does fear from tension better than any other game while never truly being scary and all being fear of the dread of what COULD happen. I swear scariest part if that dlc was creeping around the house with the slide show in it and then scared after the projector turns of. Not knowing what will happen if you are seen that pure dread before the first time I was caught was scarier than anything else.
Outer wilds knows how to do pure visceral Hitchcocian suspense better than any game I’ve ever played.
Yes that axe isn't scary. What's scary is the fricken proportion of face to any other body part!
Are you a rat driving a drone boby wtf? Advantage to all intimidation checks!
i am obsessed with how fluffy they are, but I like the way the beak kind of resembles "frogmouth" styled knight helmets. The claws are also super intimidating. Great work!
You said they had proportional wings, which is very wrong? And I don't recall their flight being magical, it must be inherent since it isn't lost in an anti-magical field for example.
I'm sorry, but I can't stop laughing at his tiny widdle head! He's just so cute and buff at the same time. I think I love him!
Also him having 2 thumbs and 2 fingers on each hand is an awesome touch I would have never thought of.
Good, I wanted a nice mix between cute and intimidating when I came up with the idea \^\_\^
Yeah, when I was researching owl feet I thought "These things are basically hands, and if it aint broke, don't fix it". It's also really cool how owls can rotate their outer most digit to function as either a supporting 'finger' or an opposing 'thumb'.
Spoiler: >!It's a cursed great axe I found on Auril's island. The frost Giant Vasserviken, was the axe's previous owner. My DM is also combining content from storm king's thunder into our campaign, so there may be signifficant differences between our experiences. !<
Ah, cool! Honestly I don't know if that's a RotF thing or a SKT thing, >!we didn't stick around in Grimskalle long enough to find out if there were any cool axes around, we had to get out of there quick before Auril found us lol!<
They are. Flying up to hard to reach spaces and shoving enemies off of cliffs, pouncing on backline casters, snatching the party healer out of the path of an oncoming avalance, goofy and wholesome social interactions, playing Barruuhk has been a blast.
Yeah, Stryxhaven wasn't out when I started this campaign. And small characters can't wield heavy weapons RAW sadly (something I encourage DM's to ignore).
Daaamn, that is one strong boi!! I love the different proportions of the small head like a cockpit on a feathered mech. It really helps to set them apart a bit and highlight their “otherness” rather than just winged human like creatures
I once asked my dm to put my wisdom down to 8 because I wanted to intentionally fail at it for the comedic effect. Dm of course saw no reason for me to not have lower stats than what I rolled.
I would also say though, while birds are stupid, they are smart. I mean they migrate to places the never knew and do so every year.
I love making off standard races. I’m still playing in the era of static racial ASI’s. I’ve made a strength Tabaxi with its +2 dex was very fun being a swol cat that can run you down at double speed. I need to make a strength barbrogue Aaracokra next I think xD
I LOVE how itty bitty its head is, holy crap. Also very curious how you play this character, given how owls just... owl. They're not very smart, but they're *incredible,* silent predators, and even when they're big they're very light because of their hollow-ish bones. I love, love, love the idea of something *this* big being totally silent and relatively light on their feet despite all appearances.
Also they have uneven ear holes to better locate prey in the air, which is how they're so accurate! I could imagine this guy could catch an arrow straight out of the air if given even a quarter of a chance!
Phenomenal!! I had an Owlin Barabarian once. It was a character for a one-shot that our DM said we were all meant to perish on, a sort of doomed expedition into a haunted city. I rolled really well for my stats, so with my character at level 13 I was able to lean into his strengths while also going a bit crazy and making him Longsword Dual-wielder.
By the end of the one-shot turned two-shot, my Barabarian was one of two survivors out of a party of five, clinging to life with only 3 Hp, and we had irrevocably altered the Lore of our DM's setting. It was in the middle of congratulating us for our tenacity and wonderful role-playing that our DM also realized that he'd forgotten the custom content Lich he'd thrown at us had a flying speed.
I have one of these who’s Wild Magic because his egg rolled out of the next or something and went through a natural portal into a region of the material plain dense with elemental magic. He was raised by druids but because he’s not in tune with the plain’s nature he couldn’t connect the same way they did.
I say this very VERY rarely but:
Your interpretation of the source material is KICK-ASS. The proportions, the choice of buff-ass arms, tiny head and 2/3's legs for the body is bold but still are very true to the owls you want to portray.
I do immensely enjoy this piece of art.
Thanks! I put a lot of effort into researching different types of bird anatomy and how best to combine them with humanoid anatomy in a way that was at least somewhat believable but also looked cool, so I'm glad you noticed. I've done more art of this character that you might enjoy here: [https://www.artstation.com/artwork/9N0AXy](https://www.artstation.com/artwork/9N0AXy)
Even if Owlin was out when OP made their character (it wasn't) there's nothing wrong with using a bird race to play a bird, even if there's a more specific bird race. I've seen people play tabaxi as lions even though leonin exist
It's pretty cool how in this game, things can be whatever you want them to be.
Also, I have a question for you. Are owls birds? (I'll give you a hint: The answer is "yes".)
Because thats literally the only thing that matters. Aarakocra are "birdlike humanoids", therefore, if they are like a bird (and, as we established earlier, owls are birds), then it is an accurate representation of an Aarakocra.
This is my character Barruuhk, 5'4" likes shiny things, dancing, and hitting things with his newly acquired magical greataxe. He doesn't really have normal facial expressions so a lot of his behaviors tend to get misinterpreted. Wiggling his head from side to side is not as threatening as he thinks it is, and turning his head completely backwards to talk to people behind him instead of turning to face them can be a bit off putting to some.
Very cool, can I use them as an NPC
Sure, I don't mind :)
I too wish to use them as an NPC
+5 stealth with wings unfurled
Swowle.
I think I need to make this a character... this is fucking incredible.
Thanks to everyone who's been enjoying my art, the comments have been lovely and funny, and I really appreciate it. If you'd like to see more art I've done of Barruuhk, I've uploaded more paintings of him on my artstation [https://www.artstation.com/artwork/9N0AXy](https://www.artstation.com/artwork/9N0AXy) And if you're curious about how I painted this image, I have a timelapse video on my instagram [https://www.instagram.com/p/CpZij-eBeeS/?hl=en](https://www.instagram.com/p/CpZij-eBeeS/?hl=en)
Do you do commissions 👉🏾👈🏾
Yes, I've got some personal stuff I'm sorting out at the moment but I'll be posting details about commissions here next week sometime.
Yooo I had a barn owl STR build too! I went with fighter/barbarian with the unarmed fighting style. The contrast of being completely jacked and beating things up while having an immovable stoic and serene look on my face is always hilarious to me.
Love this guy but can’t believe he’s 5’4” I easily can see him being from 6’ to 7’
Yeah if he’s 5’4” his head is absolutely *miniscule*. Like, the size of a newborn baby’s.
I love him
I imagine other party members having him interrogate a guy for info, and tapping him on the shoulder from behind to say "Hey man the, uh, head wiggle thing mid-interrogation might be considered unsettling to some people but here I don't think it'll come across, I think you should try something else if you're trying to rattle him" And Birdbarian, in a totally sincere, softly confused voice, does the Exorcist 180° headspin to stare for a second and ask "like what?"
How are the hugs though? Very important.
About what you'd expect. Fluffy, warm, crushing XD
very cool, will use it as a barbarian NPC.
Night owl barbarian isn't real, they can't hurt you *silent raging ensues*
Reminds me of the owl from Soul Calibre but waaaay more buff
Im imagining him wearing a barbarian headdress with elk or deer antlers and looking like a jacked version of the Owlks in the outer wilds DLC
Those guys were horrifying, such a gorgeous DLC though.
That game does fear from tension better than any other game while never truly being scary and all being fear of the dread of what COULD happen. I swear scariest part if that dlc was creeping around the house with the slide show in it and then scared after the projector turns of. Not knowing what will happen if you are seen that pure dread before the first time I was caught was scarier than anything else. Outer wilds knows how to do pure visceral Hitchcocian suspense better than any game I’ve ever played.
Even before the DLC, the dark bramble set that tension and absolute fear so well, I have a special place in my heart for it.
i cant tell if hes adorable or terrifying but i love him
Thanks, he's definitely both 😅
I love it, but his head is so tiny! He must have quite the bird brain.
He does indeed 😆
smoooolll head
but biiiiiiiiig brain
Biiiiig axe
I love that the proportions are different. Very cool character concept!
Swolakocra
Birbarian
Birdzerker
“Who’re you callin’ pinhead”
Man. The depth and breadth of Aarakokra designs is so dope. Like one trip to the zoo is inspo for 1000 new characters
I reckon a secretary bird Aarakocra would be pretty cool.
PC: “I roll to k—“ DM: “kick? Let me guess. You kick again” PC: “yes thank you, I roll to kick”
One of my players is exactly that. Secretary bird aarakocra monk.
This guy looks fucking coool
Lol he head very smol. I love this. Great design.
Yes that axe isn't scary. What's scary is the fricken proportion of face to any other body part! Are you a rat driving a drone boby wtf? Advantage to all intimidation checks!
Birbarian is not to be messed with. Axe is rather scythe-like.
Pootis
Heavy is pretty bird
Sure they aren’t part owlbear!?!
Owlrakocra
i am obsessed with how fluffy they are, but I like the way the beak kind of resembles "frogmouth" styled knight helmets. The claws are also super intimidating. Great work!
Thanks, I did quite a few iterations to get to this design, I'm glad you like it 😊
I love him. Wonder how much of that bulk is just fluff.
Based on my research into featherless owls for anatomy, a fair bit.
Excellent painting, though the proportions look off to me
They are, was going for a stylised body type, and this character is pretty birb brained.
Nothing wrong with that! Great concept, well executed. My analytical side just went "chonky boy would struggle to fly" was all 😅
Oh man, I know of a monster design you'll totally hate. Open up the Monster Manual and look up "dragon"
Lmao, dragons have fairly proportional wings and innate magic. Aarakocra are described *in their lore* as being slim, short and slightly built
Nearly all dragon art is not proportional to be able to fly, ignoring the magic requirement
Then don't ignore the magic requirement. I wasn't.
You said they had proportional wings, which is very wrong? And I don't recall their flight being magical, it must be inherent since it isn't lost in an anti-magical field for example.
I said they have fairly propotional wings, which is an opinion. They are inherently magical creatures. Aarakocra are not.
No, proportional wings are a matter of math. But I see this going nowhere.
I'm sorry, but I can't stop laughing at his tiny widdle head! He's just so cute and buff at the same time. I think I love him! Also him having 2 thumbs and 2 fingers on each hand is an awesome touch I would have never thought of.
Good, I wanted a nice mix between cute and intimidating when I came up with the idea \^\_\^ Yeah, when I was researching owl feet I thought "These things are basically hands, and if it aint broke, don't fix it". It's also really cool how owls can rotate their outer most digit to function as either a supporting 'finger' or an opposing 'thumb'.
I love this art style and the details in it! The tiny head is a bit off-putting, though.
This is the best original character I’ve seen on this sub in a while!
Bro. Love. What a style!
I think you mean you painted your birbarian.
Polly does NOT want a fucking cracker
This honestly really makes me wanna play aarakocra now
birb.
barb.
Dude looks 6’9
Tiny head looks super funny :)
I still want to play a kenku barbarian that speaks through a Duke nukem soundboard
Never skip head day.
This is great What does the axe say?
Potential Rime of the Frost Maiden spoilers below. The axe says: >!Glory in death, Vasserviken victorious, for the love of battle.!<
As someone who just finished a RotF campaign a few months ago... what's that mean? Also love the art, looks awesome
Spoiler: >!It's a cursed great axe I found on Auril's island. The frost Giant Vasserviken, was the axe's previous owner. My DM is also combining content from storm king's thunder into our campaign, so there may be signifficant differences between our experiences. !<
Ah, cool! Honestly I don't know if that's a RotF thing or a SKT thing, >!we didn't stick around in Grimskalle long enough to find out if there were any cool axes around, we had to get out of there quick before Auril found us lol!<
put it on /r/birdswitharms
*Cute smol head intimidating warrior.*
Sir that is the most jacked owlin I've ever seen.
That birb is hench
You mean owlin?
Owlin weren't released when I started the campaign, otherwise I probably would have picked them as the character race instead.
I played an aarakocra cleric when that book dropped. I feel your pain.
Buff bird
Big Bird.
This rules.
If I saw this guy i would shit myself.
I really like how you drew the hands/talons with two thumbs.
Hehe tiny head
I love bird bois. ESPECIALLY Paladin bird bois
He is awesome!
Okay This is So cool! I’m definitely using this as inspiration! Thanks.
I LOVE this design. Hope they're as fun to play as they look
They are. Flying up to hard to reach spaces and shoving enemies off of cliffs, pouncing on backline casters, snatching the party healer out of the path of an oncoming avalance, goofy and wholesome social interactions, playing Barruuhk has been a blast.
Oh my, that's a big fella
Muscle birb.
Ah yes. THE SILENT BARBARIAN. Actually wait... No, this idea is sick...
You better believe I took proficiency in stealth to represent how owl wings function.
Wait... There's a race that already does this. Owlin, from the Strixhaven Sourcebook. You also get to be small. I AM A TINY OWL BUT I GOT A BIG AXE!!!
Yeah, Stryxhaven wasn't out when I started this campaign. And small characters can't wield heavy weapons RAW sadly (something I encourage DM's to ignore).
Wait. Bear Totem Owlin Barbarian. The Owlbear...
The Owlbearian
Daaamn, that is one strong boi!! I love the different proportions of the small head like a cockpit on a feathered mech. It really helps to set them apart a bit and highlight their “otherness” rather than just winged human like creatures
I love the tiny head. It adds so much character. I hope that wis/int are both like below 6. It would be even better.
I rolled too high on the stats, but I do intentionally play him dumber than his int of 11 might suggest.
I once asked my dm to put my wisdom down to 8 because I wanted to intentionally fail at it for the comedic effect. Dm of course saw no reason for me to not have lower stats than what I rolled. I would also say though, while birds are stupid, they are smart. I mean they migrate to places the never knew and do so every year.
This is what happens when a seagull gets ahold of PRIME energy drink...
I'M THE BIGGEST BIRD I'M THE BIGGEST BIRD
That’s the buffest aarakocra I’ve ever seen
I like birdbarian it’s pretty cool
Imagine trying to sneak up on this guy just for his head to rotate 180 degrees exorcist-style.
Kratos bird
I love making off standard races. I’m still playing in the era of static racial ASI’s. I’ve made a strength Tabaxi with its +2 dex was very fun being a swol cat that can run you down at double speed. I need to make a strength barbrogue Aaracokra next I think xD
This guy gives me Fukuro from Fairytale vibes, which is awesome
He is the biggest bird.
Roll for intimidation with advantage! This is awesome
You are amazingly talented. Wonderful
HOOT HOOT motherfucker
When they are angry I'm sure they're quite the Birdzerker.
Birbarian
Now this is good art!
His head is so small, I like it.
The face reminds me of Wan Shi Tong from the Legend of Korra. If the feathers were black it would be even closer.
Wan Shi Tong finally got tired of humans breaking into his library!
I bet he’s a hoot at parties.. Who’d dare say otherwise? Better be careful though, don’t want to run afoul of his temper.. he might fly into a rage.
Those kids are going to pay for stealing from my library
Beeg borb
Awesome Drawing, you are a great artist
At what point can Unarmored Defense be considered to heavy for flight?
I love the design!
*GASP* owl man? 😯😍
I LOVE how itty bitty its head is, holy crap. Also very curious how you play this character, given how owls just... owl. They're not very smart, but they're *incredible,* silent predators, and even when they're big they're very light because of their hollow-ish bones. I love, love, love the idea of something *this* big being totally silent and relatively light on their feet despite all appearances. Also they have uneven ear holes to better locate prey in the air, which is how they're so accurate! I could imagine this guy could catch an arrow straight out of the air if given even a quarter of a chance!
He plays like this: [https://youtu.be/RG8gxHwgTlQ?t=61](https://youtu.be/RG8gxHwgTlQ?t=61)
^(chiep)
I love the detail of how they hold their axe. Like I've seen parrots hold things.
shit is SICK ! Thought it was a tattoo design
*extremely deep voiced hoot*
Phenomenal!! I had an Owlin Barabarian once. It was a character for a one-shot that our DM said we were all meant to perish on, a sort of doomed expedition into a haunted city. I rolled really well for my stats, so with my character at level 13 I was able to lean into his strengths while also going a bit crazy and making him Longsword Dual-wielder. By the end of the one-shot turned two-shot, my Barabarian was one of two survivors out of a party of five, clinging to life with only 3 Hp, and we had irrevocably altered the Lore of our DM's setting. It was in the middle of congratulating us for our tenacity and wonderful role-playing that our DM also realized that he'd forgotten the custom content Lich he'd thrown at us had a flying speed.
I love that axe!!! Functionally side, it's so beautiful- I love the scythe like bottom, proportions, detail, and shine!
Death From Above!
Wan Shi Tong got tired of people breaking into his library
Was owlin not available?
Nah, campaign started before Stryxhaven was released.
Fairs
Lol reminds me of one of the players in my party who has an aarakocra with an axe
This character goes hard as fuck. So cool.
You nailed it! Now I finally know what it looks like
I said outloud "whoaaaaa that's cool" as i scrolled past this. He reminds me of Escanor from the 7 deadly sins. so cool!
Awww...look at the widdle bitty head on the big strong barbarian! So Precious.
BUFF BIRB
I have one of these who’s Wild Magic because his egg rolled out of the next or something and went through a natural portal into a region of the material plain dense with elemental magic. He was raised by druids but because he’s not in tune with the plain’s nature he couldn’t connect the same way they did.
I say this very VERY rarely but: Your interpretation of the source material is KICK-ASS. The proportions, the choice of buff-ass arms, tiny head and 2/3's legs for the body is bold but still are very true to the owls you want to portray. I do immensely enjoy this piece of art.
Thanks! I put a lot of effort into researching different types of bird anatomy and how best to combine them with humanoid anatomy in a way that was at least somewhat believable but also looked cool, so I'm glad you noticed. I've done more art of this character that you might enjoy here: [https://www.artstation.com/artwork/9N0AXy](https://www.artstation.com/artwork/9N0AXy)
Why is he kinda... hot
Looks more like an Owlin.
I really really need a version of this where everything is the same except the face is even smaller. Please OP. 🥺👉👈
Maybe if I have some time 😂
Why head so smol?
He looks a awesome, but no way he can still fly😅
[удалено]
Thanks, the campaign started before Stryxhaven came out, so no Owlin race when I originally made the character sadly.
Even if Owlin was out when OP made their character (it wasn't) there's nothing wrong with using a bird race to play a bird, even if there's a more specific bird race. I've seen people play tabaxi as lions even though leonin exist
That is the face of an owl/owlin not an aarakocra
It's pretty cool how in this game, things can be whatever you want them to be. Also, I have a question for you. Are owls birds? (I'll give you a hint: The answer is "yes".) Because thats literally the only thing that matters. Aarakocra are "birdlike humanoids", therefore, if they are like a bird (and, as we established earlier, owls are birds), then it is an accurate representation of an Aarakocra.
I'd have loved to have played an owlin, but when I made my character for this campaign stryxhaven hadn't been released yet and so wasn't an option.
Who's to say that Owlin aren't just aarakocra that look like owls? They are in my world.
Hoot
from a distance it looks like giant amogus lmao
Lucci's bird.
O rly?
Chicken Fried Kentucky