Vulture

A vulture as an ally is a stretch and the brief is honest about that. The realistic frames: a druid's wild shape companion in vulture form, a desert ranger's scout bird trained to follow signal whistles, a familiar bound by a necromancer who finds carrion-eaters thematically appropriate. The vulture is not a combatant; it is a 50-foot fly speed and a passive Perception of 13 attached to a small, expendable scout.

Use the vulture for one thing: scouting from altitude. Fly 50 ft. with no actions means the vulture climbs to a thousand feet over a half-mile loop, the handler watches through a familiar's eyes or an Animal Friendship link, and the party knows where the bandit camp is before the sun is up. Perception +3 against a stationary camp at distance is fine for this purpose. Don't ask the vulture to fight, carry messages over long distance (5 HP and AC 10 means a single arrow ends the scene), or do anything the players' ranger could do better.

In an actual fight, the vulture stays high and out of range. If the players need a tactical contribution, narrate the bird circling over a specific square so the party knows where the hidden enemy is. That's the real value: a living spotlight that can survive a session if the players are careful.

Give the vulture a comically dignified name. The contrast between the carrion-eater's grace in the air and the bald, hissing thing on the ground is half the bit.

A vulture is CR 0, 5 HP, AC 10, with no actions and no traits. It is not a fight, it is a scene-setter. Use the vulture for atmosphere on the road, for foreshadowing a battlefield ahead, or for the moment in a desert crossing where the party realizes the circling birds have been overhead for two days. The stat block is a placeholder; the encounter design is the whole point.

If the party insists on attacking one (because a paladin player is bored, or a ranger wants the meal), it dies in one hit. Don't bother rolling initiative. Narrate the bird taking flight as the arrow leaves the bow, then a soft thump in the dirt. The other vultures wheel higher and wait. Vultures have walk 10 and fly 50, and a passive Perception of 13 with Perception +3, so they spot threats early and are functionally impossible to catch on the ground without a ranged attack.

In a flock, vultures become atmosphere as numbers. Six vultures over a road is a clear signal something has died nearby, and the party's tracker can use the orientation of the wheel to pinpoint a corpse within a quarter mile. That's the gameplay use: vultures as a passive Survival aid the party can read without rolling. If you want the birds to actually engage, have them descend on a wounded PC who is bleeding in the open, threaten to peck out an eye, and provide a tense beat for whoever has to swat them off. Even then, they flee at the first solid hit.

The right note for vultures is patience. Run them as if they expect to win by waiting. The party leaves a campsite, the vultures land, the camp is bare bones by sunset.

Describe the smell before you describe the birds. The vultures are the second sense, not the first.