Illustration Copyright 2012 Capcom.

A chimera is nightmarish three-headed beast whose appearance in Gransys heralds the coming of the Dragon. It resembles a huge lion with a giant goat’s head growing out of its back and a monstrous snake in place of its tail. All three heads are extremely dangerous! Both the lion and the snake have very strong bites and have large enough jaws to grapple human-sized targets, with the snake being venomous as well. And while the goat doesn’t have a large range of motion, it can cast spells. This last fact is very often the last surprise any who dare face the chimera have in their lives, and is a sign that the monster is a lot more intelligent than its animalistic appearance would indicate. In addition to all of this, all three heads can act independently at the same time.

As heralds to the Dragon, chimerae guard the path to it, making their lairs in places one must cross to arrive at the Dragon’s chosen nest. They can also sometimes be found near lesser dragons as well.

GMs who use chimerae in their games are also encouraged to include Snake-Maned Lions as either a variant chimera or a related monster. You can never have too many freakish mutant lions in your game!

ST 24; DX 13; IQ 14; HT 12

Dodge 10; DR 1 (Tough Skin); SM +2

Will 14; Per 14; HP 24; FP 20

Speed 7; Move 7.

  • Lion Bite (15): 2d+2 cutting. Reach C. May grapple the target on a hit. Parried as a weapon.
  • Snake Bite (15): 2d+2 impaling + follow-up 1d toxic (HT-3 to resist; 5 cycles; 1 minute per cycle), Reach C-3. May grapple the target on a hit. Parried as a weapon.
  • Talons x2 (15): 2d cutting. Reach C, 1. Parried as a weapon.
  • Spells (-): The goat head can typically cast Daze-15, Sleep-15, Ice Slick-15 and Ice Sphere-15, using the chimera’s 20 FP.

Traits: 360-degree Vision; Combat Reflexes; Compartimentalized Mind 1 (Spellcasting only); Extra Attack 3 (claw/claw/bite/bite); Fearlessness 5; Magery 3; Night Vision 7; Penetrating Voice; Quadruped; Restricted Diet (Fresh Meat); Sadism (9); Terror 2 (Roar).

Skills: Brawling-15; Stealth-15; Wrestling-15;

Class: Hybrid.

Notes: Immune to Animal spells, but susceptible to Mind Control spells. The Chimera may attack with all three natural weapons and cast a spell during each of its turns.

Fighting the Chimera

Chimerae like to incapacitate targets either by grappling them with one of their biting heads, or by magically dazing them or putting them to sleep. They will then proceed to tear the helpless victim apart with their teeth and claws. Despite its size, the monster is fairly mobile and smart enough to try and avoid being surrounded. It’s most vulnerable to long-ranged attacks, but it’s also smart enough to be aware of this! When faced with a large group of opponents, a chimera might try to drag them away one at a time.

A chimera’s lion and goat heads can be incapacitaded by a single attack doing over 12 HP of injury (as if they were limbs). They each have all the hit locations you’d expect of a head: neck, face, eyes, brain. These can be targeted at the usual penalties. Killing a head prevents the chimera from performing the actions associated with that head. The lion head is the beast’s main head - it dies when the whole creature dies.

Chimera Variants:

The same variants described in the Snake-Maned Lion article are appropriate here, with the exception of Intelligent (which already applies to all chimerae). Gorechimerae are not only both Armored and Demonic, they also know more spells and have higher combat skills! No one has seen one of these in Gransys - the laws of nature would need to be completly broken for such a beast to cross the Rift.