Feedback on possible mechanic for home brew monster

[Darth Credence]

I'm looking to make a home brewed monster, and I'm not sure which mechanic to go with from a balance perspective.

The monster concept is a giant cat like creature, agile, fast moving, and a huge damage dealer, but low hit points and no armor to speak of. It will rely on pouncing, and moving. If they corner it, I want it to be easy to hit, so I want the AC low. But I want it to have a decent shot of getting in and out without taking a hit. I have a couple of ideas.

First, would be to give it a bonus to its AC on attacks of opportunity. Something like +5 to the AC, which would bring it up to 18 for its AC for those attacks. Still definitely doable, but substantially less likely. The other is to allow it to use disengage as a bonus action - possibly only if it can climb away, if this would otherwise be too powerful.

Any thoughts on those, or any other possibilities, would be appreciated. Thanks!:smallsmile:

[JNAProductions]

I see nothing wrong with using either of those.

[BerzerkerUnit]

As an agile cat monster you could stage the battle in a forest with large trees, then give the cat Tabaxi traits and the mobility feat.

Then it can come down, attack a player, and zip back up a tree. If the trees provide total concealment due to dense leaves, it’s got a 50% miss chance and can hide during its recharge round for the speed boost.

If it downs a pc you should have it object interaction carry them into a tree.

[Darth Credence]

Thanks for the feedback, both of you! I absolutely intend for it to haul off dead or unconscious victims and generally be an ambush predator. Their home is forest regions, and climbing trees would be their ambush spot.
Some tweaks to it, and it should be ready to go by the next time they get to the forest.