Large flying animal below 8 HD?

[Genesist]

Does anyone know of a large or huge ANIMAL (it is important it not be a magical beast) from Sandstorm, the Monster Manuals (including II), or the complete books that can fly and is below 8 HD?

It has to be an animal because I plan on casting awaken on it. It will be my cohort from Leadership, and thus can still be used once awoken.

 

[xigbar]

Does anyone know of a large or huge ANIMAL (it is important it not be a magical beast) from Sandstorm, the Monster Manuals (including II), or the complete books that can fly and is below 8 HD?

It has to be an animal because I plan on casting awaken on it. It will be my cohort from Leadership, and thus can still be used once awoken.

Large Bat. And Pterodactyl, whichever book it's in.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Dire Eagle from Races of Stone probably comes in under 8 HD, but I forget. Great stats, though.

 

[Psychotic Jim]

Large Bat. And Pterodactyl, whichever book it's in.

Yeah, a dire bat's prolly gonna be your best bet there.

 

[Genesist]

Demodo guard bat seems a little better than dire bat. Thanks for the input.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

MM II p.66- Guard Bat.
Edit- NInja'd by the OP. dang.

Be sure to train the animal into the Warbeast template (MM II p.219) first so that they qualify for wearing armor.

 

[Genesist]

Already planned it . Gonna use mithril chain shirt. Just rolled him up, has 14 intelligence, not bad.

 

[Halivar]

Pegasus comes with Int 10 for your convenience. 4HD + 2LA.

Giant Eagle has the advantage that it scales to Huge at 9HD. That's a serious consideration if you're power-gaming your cohort selection. Crossing the size boundary adds some serious melee bonuses to your creature. 4HD + 2LA. (Note that the giant owl also crosses into Huge at 9HD).

Brass dragon wyrmlings are also 4HD + 2LA, but they aren't really all that potent, and they can't grow beyond their age categories in HD (unless your DM handwaves that, which would be an affront to all verisimilitude).

The pseudodragon is fun, but with a maximum potential of 4HD + 3LA, you're going to need to start stacking class levels on it pretty soon. Suggest rogue.

IMHXP, however, you will find that flying monstrous cohorts are never as cool as you thing they'll be. A non-level-adjusted druid with shapeshifting will do everything they can do, and heal you in the middle of a fight. Food for thought.

EDIT: I purposely listed only creatures with HD+LA <= 6 because the awaken spell automatically adds 2 HD, which can potentially push it past availability as a cohort.

 

[Sekhmet]

[MENTION=9327]Halivar[/MENTION] When a creature gains HD that would push it into the next size category by the MM listing, it does not actually increase in size. Larger sized creatures are just naturally larger, not regular sized creatures who gained a template (or whatever).

 

[Genesist]

@ Halivar, dire eagle unluckily is a book that is not allowed. Also slight character shift, it now has to be 4 HD. Which the bad still is, so good news there. Much of what you mentioned though is a magical beast, which is something I'm trying to not directly use (yes the bat does become a magical beast with awakened).