Giant Strider

Giant striders are big, flightless, featherless birds roughly ostrich-sized, with lumpy, dusky red skin and dimly glowing red eyes. People often mistake them for lizards.

A strider bites forward for 1d8 or kicks backward for 1d10, but not both in one round, and it usually strikes toward whichever side was last attacked. A duct beside each eye can shoot a small fireball once per hour, so two per hour in total; each has a 20-yard range and a 10-foot burst, and anyone caught must save vs. breath weapon or take 1d6.

Magical fire cannot harm a strider, and it gets +2 on saves against all magical attacks. Strong heat or flame actually works on it like cure light wounds, at most once every three rounds, though a fireball or similar intense blast has the effect at once. Cold, on the other hand, deals an extra 1d6+1, any cold liquid splashed on it typically does 1-2 at the DM's discretion, and drinking water poisons it. Fearless by nature, striders add +4 to morale.

Striders are wholly adapted to hot volcanic lands, living on the few plants and animals found there. They absorb the surrounding heat directly to power their bodies and grow cold and sluggish without it; ordinary conditions are a danger to them.

Otherwise they act much like other flightless birds. Each spring cocks court hens with elaborate dances punctuated by bursting fireballs. A hen lays 1d4 eggs in a scraped hollow, and chicks emerge after five or six weeks, standing about 6 inches, then grow quickly, 6 inches a month. They can breathe fire at six months and are full-grown at a year.

Firenewts rely on them as their main mounts, and a single tribe can maintain as many as 100. The saddle sits over the hips, and riders steer by kicking the bird's flanks or jabbing it with spears, since its sharp teeth would chew through any bridle.

A wild strider can live 10 to 20 years, though most die sooner. Firenewt mounts are usually slaughtered and eaten at about 15 years.