Pteraman

At a distance pteramen pass for lizard men, though up close they prove bigger and leaner, with tiny smooth scales like a snake's over torso and limbs, ranging from olive or forest green to tan. Long hands end in sharp nails for tearing, and clawed feet help them climb. Their most startling trait is a pair of webbed, leathery wings that they can make appear or vanish at will, often springing them on enemies mid-plunge.

Effectively they have three shapes: a tailless lizard man, the same with wings, and, through a natural polymorph ability, a miniature pteranodon with a 15-foot wingspan. Their attacks and damage are the same in every form.

They have little use for clever tactics, though they sometimes plan raids on small villages. Instinct drives them to swoop down and seize the advantage fast. Small groups fight with claws and teeth; larger, better organized bands carry weapons such as big barbed spears. They often circle a group, striking from all sides so it cannot form a defensive line.

Their signature move is the swoop: climbing to 100 feet or more, then diving to slam into a target, claws or weapon first. A hit does twice normal damage, and the victim must pass a Dexterity check or be knocked off his feet. Goblins, rivals for jungle territory, are their favorite targets.

Scholars think they are an early form of lizard man that some group failed to evolve past, while adventurers who have met them suspect enchanted kin of the pterodactyl. Both camps agree they are nastier and crueler than lizard men, selfish and loyal only to their own tribe.

Bands of 10 to 30 have no ruler, just a chaotic pecking order under the loudest and strongest, and other pteraman groups steer clear to avoid their petty squabbles over food, loot and property. Larger tribes are better organized, usually copying the social structure of the nearest humanoid tribe. Every settlement looks alike: huts perched high in thick-trunked trees and so hidden by foliage that they are hard to spot from the ground. A hut holds one to four pteramen; more than one means a mated pair and their young. They mate for life and raise their children until they can fend for themselves, then send them off to find another tribe, since parents do not want offspring competing for food and treasure.

Though omnivores, they prefer fresh meat, and they count titanothere, balucitherium and axebeak as delicacies, flying great distances in pteranodon form, their best shape for long journeys, when scouts spot such game. They also eat jungle fruit and certain roots, barks and flowers. Ironically, the real pteranodons and pterodactyls of the remote southern jungles often hunt small groups of pteramen.