
More into details, especially now that Nobanion in the Times of Troubles kicked Malar's rear in the Gulthmere Forest and pushing him away from his "domain". I think it could be a good concept for future druids in general too!
And if you want to give other stats instead, rather than the panther one, that's fine by me. Just bringing it up as it could be fun!
I link down here the Dire Lion and Lion stats from (what I think is) 3.5E manuals.
Lion:
https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/lion.htm
Dire Lion:
https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/direLion.htm