Gryphon races?

[Dairuga]

So, a friend of mine wishes to play a Gryphon in an upcoming game. This however, led me to wonder if there was any suitable gryphon-esque monster races that could fit to be played as a character. Does anyone here have any ideas?

The Griffon would be hard to work with, due to -6 to int, which is a huge downside, plus ten levels of progression to work with.

A hippogriff is not much better, for the player. Is there any races that would fit or that could be usable as a decent monstrous race, without too many RHD or LA or such?

[Essence_of_War]

So, a friend of mine wishes to play a Gryphon in an upcoming game. This however, led me to wonder if there was any suitable gryphon-esque monster races that could fit to be played as a character. Does anyone here have any ideas?

The Griffon would be hard to work with, due to -6 to int, which is a huge downside, plus ten levels of progression to work with.

A hippogriff is not much better, for the player. Is there any races that would fit or that could be usable as a decent monstrous race, without too many RHD or LA or such?

Some of the anthropomorphic animals from savage species have flight, and are a little less difficult to fit into games.

I might consider allowing this progression (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9074825&postcount=1170) for a griffon player. It integrates better into a game than the savage progressions.

[Waker]

Alternatively you could have your character take an avian race like Raptoran and apply the Weretiger (refluffed Werelion) template to it.

[dspeyer]

You could decrease str, dex and con by 2 each, increase int by 6, add the ability to speak, and handwave it as a nerdier subspecies of griffon. It'll be reasonably balanced, and keep the griffonic flavor.