Hawk

A hawk is a scout, familiar, or ranger companion. It has Talons at +5 for 1 slashing damage and 1 HP. Don't field it in combat. Run it as a sensor with wings: Fly 60 feet, Perception +6, Passive Perception 16. It watches from altitude while the party walks below.

Out of combat, the hawk is one of the most useful allies at low CR. It scouts ahead, returns to a glove, reports what it saw. Use it to telegraph encounters without forcing Perception checks. The hawk circles, stoops, screams. The party knows something is on the ridge before initiative. That's a free pacing tool.

In combat, the hawk's job is to leave. 1 HP at AC 13 means any area spell, any incidental damage kills it. Use the 60-foot fly speed for utility: carry a note, lift a small item from a pouch, perch on a chandelier to watch negotiations. Don't roll it into melee. Beasts at Intelligence 2 don't make heroic stands, and the player whose familiar dies pointlessly will resent it all session.

Give the hawk one name and one quirk before the session. Players latch onto that single detail and repeat it forever. That's exactly what you want.

A hostile hawk solo is barely an encounter. A flock or trained raptor is different: a falconer's dive-bomber, a witch's familiar, a dozen wild hawks defending a nest. Solo, the hawk deals 1 damage and dies in one hit.

Run a trained raptor as a delivery system. It swoops, drops something on the party (acid, thieves' tools, a scrying feather), and leaves before initiative matters. Fly 60 feet and starting altitude put it out of range after the drop. The party loses one round to confusion, then the real encounter begins.

Run a wild flock as atmospheric pressure, not damage. Six hawks at 1 HP each screaming and stooping. Anyone climbing the cliff to the nest takes a hawk-interrupt that costs spell concentration. Failed Dex save means they slip 10 feet. The fight is the climb, not the birds.

Show the falconer's whistle before the dive. The party should always trace the hawk back to a handler, because the handler is the actual encounter.