Draco-Sphinx

From the shoulders back this sphinx is a lion. Its head and front quarters belong to a red dragon, its long forelimbs end in keen dragon talons, and a mane of bright feathers frames its neck. It is a distant cousin of red dragons and speaks their tongue as well as common.

Draco-sphinxes are skilled wizards with a taste for illusion. Their spell selection equals a 9th-level illusionist's, though their casting level is 12th, using phantasms to lull prey into feeling safe before striking without warning.

In melee each claw rakes for 3d4 and the fanged bite deals 5d4. Once per turn it can breathe a cone of burning gas 100 feet long and 20 feet across at the end, dealing 8d10+8 fire damage, or half on a successful save vs. dragon breath.

Each draco-sphinx lives alone on a desolate cliff face and claims a range about five miles across, basking, hunting anything from small game to humans, and now and then traveling in pursuit of obscure knowledge. It drives out rival predators: dragons, people, hieracosphinxes, which outnumber it in these highlands, and the odd wyvern. Its creed is simple: cleverness and might earn survival, while cowards and weaklings earn their fate.

It knows that humans who come to talk often intend to kill it, so it enjoys stringing them along with riddles and banter, then lunging when they least expect it. Over any long meeting it will probably attack at least once, prizing strength almost as much as wit. Visible weakness, poor leadership or any sign of fear nearly guarantees an assault. A group that shows strength and handles the attack well, though, finds the beast far more willing to share lore, and someone who knows for certain that a particular item lies in its hoard and describes it exactly can force the sphinx to hand it over. A defeated draco-sphinx that survives usually leaves its territory to find another.

It admires cunning in others. Weak but clever prisoners may be released in return for a service, typically fetching a magic item or a piece of lore. Learned captives are kept as long as they have something new to teach, one day per experience level, after which each day requires an Intelligence check to keep the creature interested; once bored, it usually kills and eats them. Like dragons, it hoards coins, gems and other riches.

A draco-sphinx mates only once. The female flies off and lays three to five big brown eggs, burying each in a different spot because the young would devour one another. Newly hatched young measure about a foot and can already hunt small animals, and reach nearly adult size within a year. They live around 600 years and can be tamed only by magic.