Thanks for the replies. The Wizard or Sorcerer really should have "Improved Familiar" to get the beast, with Neutral being the best alignment, and any Evil being contraindicated. I'll note that in the write up.
As to the paralyzation ability. There is a Save, and both a mechanical and a "fluff" limitation on its use. Please remember that the animal would much rather not use its paralyzation, since it can be used only so often. Thus it would much rather save the ability for hunting. It only paralyzes a non-prey animal when it sees no other course.
Unless the party is feeling particularly belligerent, this is not a combat encounter. Though finding one or more in your pack, in the middle of the night, scarfing on your trail rations could lead to interesting events.
Gaming Philosophy Bit: I hold to the opinion that not all encounters have to lead to fisticuffs, necessarily. You can call the Green Masked Basilisk a change of pace encounter, if you prefer.
Keep the feed back coming. And expect the first of the greater basilisks tomorrow.
Edit (Forgot about the CR): I decided to eliminate the CR since Challenge Ratings are so inconsistently applied. If you must have one, make it CR 1. It would much rather run than fight. True, it is a tough little critter, but it would much rather avoid trouble. Thus the low CR.
Overall, it has been my experience that the actual challenge provided by an encounter is determined more by the players and their DM. A well run band of kobolds can actually provide a greater challenge to an arrogant high level party, than to a cautious medium or low level group. So I'd rather go by Hit Dice, with adjustments for how well the characters handled the situation.
In other words, if a Ranger (for instance) manages to actually tame a Green Masked Basilisk, he should get full XP for "defeating" a CR 1 or 2 adversary (depending on how much effort he put into it. Can you say, "Roleplaying opportunity".
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