Pseudodragon

A pseudodragon is the warlock's familiar, the wizard's perched companion, or the cat-sized scaled creature that befriended the ranger in chapter one and never left. It has Intelligence 10, understands Common and Draconic, cannot speak, and communicates by purring, chirping, and the body language of a small clever cat with wings. The bond with one specific PC is the entire scene. Treat the pseudodragon as a player-side NPC with strong opinions about anyone the party meets.

Use it for scouting and social judgment. Fly speed 60 ft., Stealth +4, and Passive Perception 15 with Blindsight 10 and Darkvision 60 mean it slips into rooms the party cannot. The Magic Resistance trait gives it Advantage against any spell or magical effect, so the enemy wizard's first Hold Person on the rogue's familiar simply does not land. The pseudodragon's better job is reading the room: it perches on a shoulder during the audience with the duke and the bonded PC asks for a vibe check after the meeting. A Passive Perception of 15 plus a draconic sense for who is interesting catches a lot of what NPCs are not saying.

Combat is where the pseudodragon should usually not be. It has 10 HP and AC 14, and one solid hit drops it. If a fight comes, open with Sting from the air at the highest-priority enemy: DC 12 Con save, 5 poison and Poisoned for an hour, and on a fail by 5 or more the target also drops Unconscious until it takes damage. That is one round of the enemy spellcaster being out of the fight. After Sting, retreat to the rafters. Multiattack with two Bite at +4 for 4 piercing each is for desperation, not strategy. The pseudodragon is a precision tool, not a frontline.

The exit is built in. Pseudodragons in the wild bond with one specific person and stay loyal for years. If the bonded PC dies, the dragon mourns and leaves. If the bonded PC turns evil enough, the dragon also leaves. Make the loyalty conditional and meaningful, and the players will feel the relationship.

Have the pseudodragon develop one specific opinion about each major NPC and signal it with one consistent behavior. A low rumble for liars. A turned back for the merchant who is hiding something. The party will start asking before every conversation.

A hostile pseudodragon is rare, since they default to Neutral Good and bond gladly. The setup that works is theft or grief: the party killed its bonded Humanoid, stole a clutch of eggs, or wandered into the territory of a feral pseudodragon that was never bonded and grew up in the wild treating intruders as predators. Sell the grievance for one scene before any sting lands. A pseudodragon with a reason to hate the party is a small tragedy, not a kobold-class encounter.

Open with Sting from ambush. Stealth +4 plus 60 ft. of fly and a Tiny silhouette mean the pseudodragon attacks from the rafters and the players never see what hit them. DC 12 Con save, 5 poison damage, Poisoned for an hour, and on a fail by 5 or more the target also drops Unconscious. That is the entire encounter most of the time: the PC with the lowest Con save is asleep in a corner, and the rest of the party is hunting a dragon-shaped blur in the eaves.

Once Sting is spent, the pseudodragon stays airborne and out of reach. Multiattack with two Bite at +4 is unimpressive at 4 piercing each, so the pseudodragon does not bother engaging in melee unless cornered. Magic Resistance keeps it alive against a cantrip caster who would otherwise blast it out of the air. With 10 HP, the dragon dies the first time anyone connects, so the play is to not be there.

Pseudodragons retreat the moment the threat is more than they bargained for. A feral one flies away. A bonded one with a vengeance grudge keeps coming back across multiple sessions, attacking the party in their sleep, poisoning their water, and warning every village ahead of them. The encounter is a haunting, not a brawl.

Have the pseudodragon's chittering carry across the inn's common room before the first Sting lands. Players who hear the laugh learn to look up.