Manticore

A manticore is a true monster: a lion's body and legs, batlike wings, a man's face and a tail studded with iron spikes. It stands 6 feet at the shoulder, runs 15 feet long, and has a 25-foot wingspan. The lion parts wear tawny hide and a brown-black mane, the wings are dark brown and thinly haired, and every head looks like a human male's, with the mane forming long hair and a heavy beard.

It begins by flinging 1-6 spikes from its tail, each dealing 1-6 damage at up to 180 yards, with the range of a light crossbow. The spikes grow back fast, allowing four volleys a day. Then it closes to rake with its front claws and bite. Outdoors it tries to stay airborne to avoid being hit, but it is a clumsy flier and cannot bite while flying.

Humans are its favorite meal, so manticores live wherever people do, in any climate, though warm lands suit them best. A territory spans 20 square miles or more, always holds one or more human settlements, and often overlaps with those of other manticores, dragons and man-eaters.

Mates pair for life, and the male hunts for the female while she carries their 1 or 2 cubs. Cubs start at 1 Hit Die, gain one a year, and reach adulthood in five years. First-year cubs cannot fly but are small enough for a parent to carry in its forelegs, and a female's lair has a 20% chance of holding such cubs. Cubs up to two years old deal 1 per paw and 1-2 with the bite; at 3-4 years, claws deal 1-2 each and the bite 1-6.

They usually eat where they kill, though males sometimes carry kills home or drag living prey back for cubs to practice on. Trained cubs can serve evil humans, but training is risky, and 80% of tame adults eventually revert to the wild. No manticore will ever accept a rider. Wild adults may ally with evil humans who keep them well fed.

They hoard their victims' valuables, perhaps from curiosity, imitation of other monsters, the scent of humans on them, or because people will come looking for them. Lacking hands, most cannot use magic items, but those allied with humans may wear items made for them, such as enchanted collars or bracelets that work like outsized rings.

These far-ranging carnivores thrive wherever humans live, above ground or below, making terrible foes and priceless allies under the right conditions. Wearing a manticore pelt marks the mightiest hunters and warriors, and a complete cured hide, wings intact, sells for 10,000 gp.