Good Template for a Corrolax opponent?

[Phaederkiel]

There is a guy my Players will encounter. As his protection, he has a corrolax buddy.
The guy will go down in one swing, but the corrolax will be trouble.

Trouble for me, that is, because I want him to be strong enough to be a semi-serious speedbump for 4 lvl 4-5 characters.

I switched out his weapon finesse against ability focus: color spray.
I made him magebred for +4 AC, +4 Dex, +2 Str, +2 Con
(this makes his defense AC 23, DR 5 Silver, spell resistance. Flight. Should be good enough.)

I wanted to give him Warbeast, but he is not medium. I do not know the advancing rules well enough to advance him, and do not know if that would be a good solution.

I think it would be nice to fit the weapon finesse back in, as well as give him some ability to actually hurt the players while they are stunned. 1d3-4 does not sound like usable damage.
(Somehow it seems very wrong to give a bird flaws...)

Perhaps some magic Items for the bird would be a solution.

Can the playground give me a hand?

[TheCorsairMalac]

You're dedication to making this creature a challenge in a rules-legal way is admirable. It can probably be done, but I recommend you not worry much about making an NPC creature by the rules.

I think I would bump up its hit point total, and give it a couple new abilities. As an example, maybe 30-40 HP, with Mirror Image and Magic Missile at will.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

It's a magical beast, so it gets +1 CR per 3 HD added. Since it starts at CR 1/2, it would be fair to add 5 HD and make him CR 2.

When advancing it, treat Magical Beast (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/typesSubtypes.htm#magicalBeastType) as a class that you're adding five 'levels' of. It gets 1d10+Con hit points per HD, like a Fighter. It gets BAB equal to its HD, like a Fighter. It gets good Fort and Reflex saves, like a Ranger (Magical Beast 6 has the same base saves as a Ranger 6). It has Int 2, so it only gets five more skill points for adding 5 HD, its class skills are Spot and Listen.

Its Color Spray is a supernatural ability, so the DC is 10 + 1/2 HD + Cha modifier, rounded down. So at 6 HD it would get +3 DC, and Ability Focus puts that at 18. It would also get two more feats (3rd and 6th HD), so it can keep Weapon Finesse, get Ability Focus, and I'd spend four of its extra skill points on two cross-class Spellcraft ranks and give it Mage Slayer (which doesn't affect supernatural abilities).

Have him give it a Potion of Mage Armor (50 gp, +4 AC, 1 hour) prior to the fight.

[Phaederkiel]

Thx for the good answers.

Advancing might very well be what I was searching for. The only problem: would the bird not get a lot bigger by doing that? I mean, a very fat bird sitting on my jewel merchants shoulder, parroting nonsense would be probably quite funny too, but I would rather like to keep the tiny parrot-theme.

edit: I just saw that the book says it stays tiny until 6HD, so that is no problem.

I think the bird should deal his damage via some Item. I read about enchanting his feathers as tree tokens, but that seems somewhat excessiv for my party, as well as above the inteligence of the bird.

I will am thinking about skipping the ability focus, as the bird has already a dc 16 color spray, that is very much enough to make a problem. Instead I would perhaps give it quicken SLA.

I am afraid that Weapon finesse and Flyby-attack are a given.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

It can't take quicken spell-like ability for color spray, because it's listed as a supernatural ability. This is actually an advantage, because it makes the DC based on its hit dice instead of the spell's level.

Flyby Attack is definitely a great choice, since that allows it to color spray at any point during its movement. You could drop Weapon Finesse and give it Dodge (or Expeditious Dodge in RotW) and Mobility, since it should be flying around a lot anyway.

For item-based damage, you can give it Gloves of the Uldra Savant in MIC (3,100 gp) which allows it to use Ray of Frost (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/rayOfFrost.htm) at will. There's also Gloves of Lightning in MIC (2,000 gp) that can make a ranged touch attack to deal 1d8+5 electric damage three times per day. Items that aren't weapons or armor automatically resize for the wearer, so they would probably be fingerless gloves suitable for it to wear on its feet.

[Phaederkiel]

I decided to take Weapon finesse, Flyby attack and diving charge. DC 16 Color spray was already really strong, and the party was lucky to have an unplanned second guy at already 5 HD. The challenge rating obviously belies the problem this guy poses.

The fight was exactly the drawn out, slightly boring mess I expected. Most of the party could not do anything. Which was kinda the effect I was going for, for a change.

I think it would border on TPK if you put anything immune to the colorspray on the ground for sustained damage. This kind of bird would also surely make for a mean animal companion...

Thanks for the help!