Featured Creature: Raven

NOTE: These stats have been edited to conform to the rules revisions posted on 9/8/15.

At a reader's request!

Raven

Ravens feed on carrion and gather in isolated, abandoned places.  For this reason, they are often seen as dreary or spooky by other beings, despite their great aptitude for play.  They also have a reputation for pointless thievery, often taking great risks to collect meaningless shiny objects from the places they visit. Nonetheless, ravens are highly intelligent and social beings, and the best tool-users among all of bird-kind.

A raven's favorite food is the eyes of the dead.   They feel it honors the fallen by passing their dying sight onto another, becoming the basis of stories that will perpetuate memories of the dead long after they are gone.  Many ravens claim to experience visions or prophetic dreams after eating the eyes of the dead, though whether these visions are genuine or just mad rantings is any non-raven's guess.

     AC 7
     AT (Dam): Bite (1d3); talons (1d2; this is a single attack with both feet at once)
     Beginning HP: 3 
     Habitat: Temperate
     MV: 3; 20 flying
     SZ: Tiny   

Species Traits:

• Bauble-Snatcher's Curse: All ravens carry their mythical hero's curse, and find shiny trinkets of any or no value almost irresistible.  Whenever you encounter such a trinket -- be it well-guarded or not -- you must succeed at a Challenging Charm save, or be compelled to try and steal the object from whoever possesses it.  Luckily, you  get a +2 bonus on your Trickster lore check when attempting this larceny. This bonus does not apply in circumstances where you succeeded on your saving throw.
  
• Eye Peck: On any unmodified attack roll of 19 or 20, you can pluck out or otherwise damage one of your enemy's eyes (provided the enemy has eyes, that is).  This attack blinds her in that eye, imposing a -2 penalty on all further attack rolls, or lore checks that rely on paw-eye coordination.  If you manage a second such attack against the same opponent, she is permanently blinded, a condition that can only be healed through magical means.
• Flyby Attack
• Low-Light Vision
• Tool-Use: You gain a +2 bonus on all Scout lore checks to use tools or decipher the function of simple longpaw devices.
• Ultravision
• -4 penalty on all lore checks involving feats of strength.
• +3 bonus on Runner or Trickster lore checks that involve flying stunts
• Suitable Niches: Familiar, Guardian, Herbalist, Magic-User, Runner, Scout, Seer, Trickster.