Valravns

[Afgncaap5]

I'm trying to come up with a good quick-and-dirty substitute for a kind of monster called a Valravn (basically a cross between a raven and a wolf.) I need two Valravns to be teaming up with something roughly equivalent to the CR 2 "Murder of Crows" from Tome of Magic, and I'd like it to be a notable but not particularly challenging fight for a group of level 7 players (don't know how many I'll have exactly, so I'm guessing between 4 and 6). This'll be the last combat before fighting the one-shot's villain (a goblin magician who's going to curse the sun so that anyone caught in its light turns to stone) so I don't want to exhaust players, but I also don't want it to be a pushover.

With that in mind, I'm looking at stats to convert to Valravns, and the base Monster Manual's best options appear to be Griffons, Hippogriffs, and, curiously, Pegasi. Any thoughts on which ones you'd recommend using? Or, alternatively, are there better "flying-beast" monsters that you can think of using at this CR level?


[Now I'm considering using the half-dragon template to make Valravns capable of breathing fire. "Everyone knows Valravns can breathe fire, right?"]

[DrMotives]

A worg with 6 levels of Dragon Fire Adept (dragon magic) can fly with wings, breath fire (or cold, or acid, or slowness, etc). While per RAW you can't add the winged template (savage species) to an outsider, you could call DM's prerogative and apply it to a hellhound anyway, that'd be a lower power creature than the DFA 6 worg. Hellhounds can advance by either HD or class levels, so you have flexible options to bring them up to the power level you want.

[Afgncaap5]

A worg with 6 levels of Dragon Fire Adept (dragon magic) can fly with wings, breath fire (or cold, or acid, or slowness, etc). While per RAW you can't add the winged template (savage species) to an outsider, you could call DM's prerogative and apply it to a hellhound anyway, that'd be a lower power creature than the DFA 6 worg. Hellhounds can advance by either HD or class levels, so you have flexible options to bring them up to the power level you want.

If I was going for a higher-level Valravn I might go that route, but I'm aiming for something in the neighborhood of CR 6 to 8 and I really need there to be three "monsters" in the mix (two Valravns and a swarm of ravens/crows.) Hugin and Munin should be scary but not Advanced Hellhound or Worg With Class Levels scary. And their brother Joel... well, we all love Joel, and the fact that he's bringing a swarm of his friends to help in the fight means a lot, but... yeah... Joel...

Maybe instead of the full-on dragon template, just give a custom abilty. Something like...

Fire breath: once per day, Hugin and Munin can breathe a 15 foot cone of fire dealing 3d3 points of fire damage.

It's splashy but won't ultimately hurt the players too badly.

[Ruethgar]

A Lupin with Human Heritage and the Lucanthrope(Giant Raven) template can get you a base Valravn. Or a wolf/raven with the same if you wanted more bestial.

[MisterKaws]

Why not Two-Headed Winged Pyro-Wolves?

Maybe Direwolves with even more heads if you're in the mood to make some of your players drop dead.

[noce]

Wyvern seems appropriate CR.
Remove the sting and the poison and refluff to a raven/wolf.

Since you're losing a natural attack with poison and the feat ability focus, if you want to make them meaner you could add the trip special attack, like the wolf's one.

[Thurbane]

Wolf/Dire Wolf with the Winged template?

Alternatively, Kenku with Lycanthropy (werewolf)?