1) Dragons are out of this discussion for the time being, as I already stated that they are in horrible need of mechanical work. Not to mention that low level dragons have weak breath weapons. So yeah. I'm interested in a counter point example though. I don't think the ones done so far are too bad. Thoughts on those?
Okay, how about this: trying to make a nymph on that basis.
What we have now:
+7 LA
+6 Dex, +2 Con, +6 Int, +6 Wis, +8 Cha
Su abilities: Stunning glance (Gaze attack for stun, Fort Save, 2d4 rounds), Blinding Beauty (Looking directly at the nymph means making a Fort save or being blinded permanently), Unearthly Grace (Cha to saves and as a deflection bonus to AC)
SLAs: Dimension Door 1/day
Spells as a 7th-level druid.
What makes a nymph: being smokin' hot and graceful and using that hawtness as a weapon.
Obviously, Blinding Beauty poses a massive problem here. It's the equivalent of a 2nd-level spell but with a scaling DC, which is active ALL THE TIME. At the lowest levels, this is overkill - it's way too good for a feat you'd take on 1st level, since nymph isn't a template, but a creature. Unearthly Grace poses another problem as well, as it's more powerful than a class feature (the paladin WISHES he had this instead of his puny Divine Grace). Dimension Door can be tossed out the window, and as per your design, levels in druid cover the rest. That still leaves +15 points worth of modifiers to deal with (although I do wonder why they have high Int... maybe it's to avoid dumb blonde jokes. The Wis is justified from the Druid spellcasting).