Sometimes you just need a good, solid, challenging beastie to drop on your party… The Chimera fits that bill to a T!
The Chimera comes factory equipped with everything a DM wants when looking for a single creature to occupy a mid-tier party of adventurers:
Big ole bag of Hit Points? Check (Chimeras rarely get dropped in a single round)
Multi-Attack: Triple Check (When you get that turn you get to hit a bunch!)
Solid To-Hit bonus: Check (I see your plate mail and raise you two air born goat horns!)
Fly Speed: Solidly Checked! (60′ fly speed will keep your brawny melee builds swinging at nothing)
Need a bonus? Fire Breath! (PLUS you can use their breath weapon as one of their attacks in their multi-attack!)
Chimeras fit many of the classic bills for creatures to get beat on while they lay down some damage on the party: Guardian beast, minion monster for something more powerful, etc. etc. etc. But we have an unusually short list for you in this week’s PLAN-dom Ecounter:
Our 1 reason to use a Chimera in your game:
1) Sometimes you just need a good combat encounter! That’s it. Maybe you didn’t have as much time to prep for your game-night this week. Maybe it’s been a while and those min/maxing – dice slinging – combat loving players are bored to tears of chatting and Role Playing their way through the universe. Maybe your party has been grinding for XP and everyone just needs a few hundred more XP to level up…
Whatever YOUR reason for needing a good combat encounter the Chimera is certainly a winner in our books. Its a CR6 monster with triple digit HP. That means you can drop one from the deadly heavens and provide your table with a challenging combat encounter without having the book-keeping that comes with a stack of enemies tossed into the mix. Chimera aren’t overly intelligent creatures, but they do have a hint of draconic motivations. This means two important things for you as the DM: First; they ain’t too bright means you don’t need complex motivations for a Chimera to attack the party. Motivation – MMMM Elf tasty, that’s plenty. Second; a savvy player could find a way to RP out of the situation by appealing to reliable draconic greed. Of course, you could just ignore that – the bard has ruined your last 4 combat encounters with his silver tongue and this night it’s time for the Wizard with a CHA of 8 and the under-appreciated Arcane Archer to shine.
Again, some sessions you just need a good, fun combat encounter… if that’s your nail; Chimera can be your hammer!
TOTMrpg 