Something of a Erhnam Djinn variant with a slightly more difficult casting cost. It's an interesting take on creature dependency that came back in the somewhat mechanically similar Emperor Crocodile. I like how in this case, it's little guys (humans, bears, etc) that kill it.

Keep in mind that at the time, there were not a lot of non Variable ColorlessRed burn spells that could singlehandedly kill a creature with 5 toughness. Perhaps these creatures were designed with such a serious drawback for that very reason.