Skinwing

Picture a bat with no fur, covered in grimy brown scales and showing its reptile ancestry. The bare wings look like tough leather and span roughly 3 feet per Hit Die, dwarfing a body only about 1 foot long per Hit Die. Its big black eyes see well in both bright and dim light.

A skinwing can bite for 2d4, but only by landing or slowing almost to a hover, and it is AC 7 only while doing so. More often it swoops in, drags its claws across a target's back or shoulders, and wheels away before the victim can strike back. A flock usually picks one target and every member takes a pass at it, a tactic that can bring down big animals.

If both claws hit and the victim weighs less than half the skinwing's carrying limit, it lifts the victim into the air and deals 2d4 points of damage each round after.

One that has lost half or more of its hit points cannot fly again until fully healed.

Orcs often keep them as mounts, and scalewardens sometimes ride them too, though they prefer giant bats. Each Hit Die lets a skinwing carry about 30 pounds, so a 4 HD beast can bear 120 pounds, and it needs a drop-off to launch. It can manage a rider only over short hops, saving vs. paralyzation every half hour or landing at once from exhaustion, and it cannot attack while ridden. Air above about 1,000 feet is too cold for it.

Training one is very difficult, but the result is an excellent mount that anticipates its rider and gains +1 to morale. Untrained skinwings avoid man-sized or larger prey, and a flock attacks such creatures only when starving.

They can live nearly anywhere but prefer warm regions, roosting in caves, dark buildings or dense forest and feeding in daylight hours, their busiest time.

Skinwings hunt and scavenge, eating insects and carrion. Their cured wings make leather of very high quality.