If a fantasy writer created the Chimaera today, you might accuse them of laziness:
“Yeah, so the monster has a lion body and a lion head but it has goat hooves and the tail of a dragon!”
“So you just stuck different animals together? Is that it? And wouldn’t a lion be less dangerous if it doesn’t have claws?”
“Okay…okay, what about a lion with three heads, one is a goat head and one is-“
“Please stop.”
“a dragon head, and it has wings and the tail is actually a snake and…”
And yet, the Chimaera is a staple of fantasy and myth. It such a significant idea, that the word is used as medical and scientific jargon.
The basic premise is, as above, take a bunch of real-world (and sometimes fantasy) animals and jam them together, logic-be-damned. Just mush them together until you’ve got something that in the fictional world spells danger for all those nearby, but in reality would probably eat itself or die from internal complications.
Dungeons & Dragons has a Chimera. It’s the three-headed kind, an angry mess of a monster. The Fantastic Beasts Chimaera is a sleeker model, a hybrid of monsters as you travel down the body rather than across it. Both are incredibly dangerous foes, and both are understandably angry at the world that created them.
Chimera
The final product was a slightly weaker creature to the OG D&D Chimera. It makes sense, I think. That thing has three heads and can fly. Fantastic Beasts doesn’t actually state that the Chimaera can breathe fire, whereas the dragon head on the Chimera has fire for days.
That’s not to say that this new addition should be taken lightly. Not only would four level 4 adventurers find this a difficult fight, but without extra heads this monster is a quicker, more agile monstrosity. Instead of three angry heads all snapping and ramming at once, you have a faster hunting, leaping, savage fight on your hands.
Adding the aggressive and sure-footed abilities also make this a pursuer that is hard to get away from. For low level characters that turn and run, this angry chap is a scary concept.
Thank You For Reading
Do you think I’ve done the Chimaera justice. Or do you think they need to be deadlier? Maybe they should be fire breathers after all?
Gamer Peak 