Bichir

Often mistaken for a giant lizard, the bichir is an outsized lungfish, distantly kin to sharks. Its long, thick body is mottled tan, brown and cream. A flat, wide head holds powerful jaws of sharp white teeth and pupil-less black eyes, small scales make the hide feel smooth, and a ridge of fins runs to a broad, fanned tail.

Ashore it creeps forward like a snake, pausing often to sniff, then lunges and bites. However big its mouth, it never swallows prey whole.

Against a foe it cannot beat, or a kill that drags on, it can use entangle six times a day at a 60-yard range, otherwise as the priest spell, either to escape or to pin a stronger enemy. It resists magic naturally but dreads it; facing obvious spellcasters, it flees, or ambushes them if trapped.

Lungs and a swim bladder let a bichir live in water or on land. It swims with sweeps of its tail and moves ashore by dragging itself on its front fins like a seal, staying near water so its skin stays wet.

They form small schools, though hunters are usually met alone. Lizard men are their favorite food, but frogs, fish and insects fill out the menu, and they will bring down large animals or humanoids up to nine feet tall.

Underwater a bichir sees 80 yards (less in mud or murk) but only 20 yards in air. Its nose works the reverse way, smelling prey 90 yards off on land but only 20 yards in water. Submerged, it also feels tiny vibrations and has tracked one to a source half a mile away.

Bichirs breed when floods fill the swamps, as in spring runoff, and mates may travel far to meet. One to three young follow three to six months later. These newtlike juveniles usually have AC 8, move 3 on land and 12 in water, have 2 or 3 Hit Dice and bite for 1d4+1. They can entangle just three times daily but share their parents' full magic resistance.

With no language, bichirs still make a strange, far-carrying pant through open mouths, probably as a call between schoolmates or to draw a partner.