Cockatrice

Challenge Rating: 3

Size: Small

Type: Magical Beast

Initiative: +3

Defense

Hit Points: 27 (5HD)

Armor Class: 15, touch 15, flat-footed 11 (+3 Dex, +1 dodge, +1 size)

Saves: Fort +4 Ref +7 Will +2

Weaknesses:

Offense

Speed: 20ft, fly 60ft (poor)

Base Attack: +5

Melee: bite +9 (1d4–2 plus petrification)

Special Attacks:

Statistics

Abilities: STR 6, DEX 17, CON 11, INT 2, WIS 13, CHA 8

Skills: Acrobatics +4, Athletics -2, Awareness +4, Endurance +0, Knowledge N/A, Persuasion -1, Spellcraft +2, Survival +1, Thievery +3

Talents: Dodge, Investigator, Weapon Dexterity

Special Qualities: Scared of Normal Chickens

Ecology

Environment: Temperate Plains

Organization: solitary, pair, flight (3–5), or flock (6–12)

Treasure: none

Petrification

A cockatrice’s bite causes flesh to calcify and harden—multiple bites can cause a living creature to fossilize into stone. Each time a creature is damaged by a cockatrice’s bite attack, it must succeed on a DC 12 Fortitude save or take 1d4 points of Dexterity damage as its flesh and bones stiffen and harden. (This slow petrification does not alter a bitten creature’s natural armor.) A creature that is reduced to 0 Dexterity by a cockatrice’s bites immediately turns completely to stone, as if petrified by a flesh to stone spell. Every day, a creature petrified by a cockatrice in this manner can attempt a new DC 12 Fortitude save to recover from the petrification, at which point the victim returns to flesh with 1 Dexterity (and thereafter can be restored to full Dexterity by natural healing or magic as normal)—but after a petrified creature fails three of these Fortitude saves in a row, the petrified state becomes permanent. A creature restored to flesh via magic has its Dexterity damage caused by cockatrice bites removed, but not any existing Dexterity damage from other sources. A cockatrice is immune to the petrification ability of itself and of other cockatrices, but other petrification attacks affect them normally.