Need some feedback on a homebrew monster

[Tahirah]

trying to come up with a new monster to toss at my players, but the main problem is I absolutely suck at monster creation, so I'll post it's numbers here and maybe someone better at this than me can tell me if I did anything wrong. Thanks in advance.

Veturheim Drake:

Veturheim Drake

Neutral Huge Dragon
Init +2; Senses Darkvision(60ft), low-light, scent; Perception +11

Defenses

AC 21, touch 10, flat-footed 19
HP 38
Fort +9, Ref +6, Will +2
Immune cold, paralysis, sleep

Offense

Spd 50ft, flight(100ft average)
Melee Bite +7(3D6+5), 2 claws(2D6+5)
Space 15ft, Reach 15ft
Special Attacks Breath Weapon(30ft cone, DC 17, 4D6 cold)

Statistics

STR 20, DEX 14, CON 20, INT 4, WIS 12, CHA 8
Base Atk +3; CMB +10; CMD 22
Feats Skill Focus: Perception, Weapon Focus: Bite
Skills Fly +5, Perception +11, Stealth +1

[wraithstrike]

What is the CR supposed to be?

[Tahirah]

Sorry it's CR is 4ish

[wraithstrike]

The AC is too high. It should be closer to an 17 or 18. The fort save is kind of high also, but only by 1 or 2. The damage is also on par with a CR 7 monster. Huge monsters are not normally CR 4. I would drop the base damage for the bite and claws down to 1d6, and just let him be large. I would also drop the breath weapon to 3d6

[soulofwolf]

the important thing to remember with making a monster specifically for your game is that cr's are only a guide line, knowing your party's strengths and weaknesses is more important. i've had a party of 3 lvl 7's easily take down a cr 12 and then 2 sessions later die to 2 cr 5's. the individual strengths and weaknesses are the important part. If your party is high melee that fight will be fairly easy though definately resource intensive as they'll go through a lot of hp's. your monsters average damage per round is 27 so that's something to keep in mind.

[The Leaping Gnome]

There's a Monster Statistics by CR table at the back of the Bestiary (pg. 291) that is a good reference when creating monsters. If you follow that guide, you should be fine.

I'm with wraithstrike about dropping the size down to large. For a huge monster, its Dex is fairly high and its Str is pretty low. A CR 4 dragon should have 5 HD or so.

Soulofwolf is absolutely correct as well; if you're tailoring this to your game, keep the party's strengths and weaknesses in mind.