Raven/Crow

Big, black and endlessly opportunistic, ravens and crows rank among nature's chief scavengers. Superstitious country folk read them as bad omens, and many faiths cast the raven as an evil sign and the crow as a trickster.

The birds have a simple language of their own. Some huge ravens and most giant ones master up to 100 common-tongue words and combine them into meaningful speech, depending on intelligence. Between that, their talent for guarding, and their habit of eating garbage and vermin, they make excellent household pets.

Thanks to their scouts, a flock cannot be surprised in daylight. In a fight, the feet clutch and flap to keep balance and blind the victim, while the beak does all the actual damage, a grab-and-peck style of attack.

Being clever, they aim for the eyes: each successful hit has a 10% chance of landing on an eye, and the victim loses it. They happily gang up on a single target, and every extra bird raises the odds of blinding it. Use the normal multiple-attacker rules.

These birds live anywhere from cool temperate lands to the tropics, always in flocks. A lone bird is a scout. When it spots a possible threat it raises a warning cry, keeps out of reach and shadows the intruders, reporting back with loud calls. Ravens and crows make few friends in their lives but are fiercely loyal to the ones they have.

Though mainly scavengers, they eat almost anything and readily raid crops, nests and unguarded food. Stories of giant ravens carrying babies off from cradles are probably scare tales, but the birds could do it.

They love anything that glitters, and a nest has a 25% chance of holding a few gems, trinkets and bits of shiny metal; bigger birds and bigger flocks mean better finds. Some trainers have taught them to fetch such things, and more than one humble bird handler has retired rich on a pile of minor magic rings and precious stones, the training methods kept strictly secret.

Huge ravens are mean-spirited and often serve evil masters, though a raven familiar takes its alignment cue from its master, so not all are wicked. Giant ravens are quarrelsome but easy to raise from fledglings, so they serve as guards and messengers. Too small to carry anyone but faerie folk or someone under a potion of diminution, they can still lift a grown halfling. Such flights are usually rough pranks, since giant crows dislike eating prey that still squirms, but many a halfling or gnome has been left stranded on a barn roof or mountain ledge to the delight of friends.