Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast

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Another fantasy classic, these lion-eagle hybrids have a different spelling for their name in every source they appear in. D&D has always gone with “Griffon” and has featured them in its bestiaries since at least BECMI and AD&D 1st Edition. In Fourth Edition they appear only in the MM.

The Lore

A griffon is a large flying carnivore with the head, wings and foreclaws of a giant eagle, and the hindquarters of some non-flying beast. They’re strong enough to be used as flying mounts, though how easy they are to train depends on the exact variety you’re dealing with.

The most common variety is called simply a Griffon, and has a lion’s backside. They can’t be trained at all unless you start with a hatchling, but stories tell that some elves and eladrin can use magic to control them and ride them into battle. Griffon eggs fetch a high price on the open market (1000 GP) from people who want a shot at training them, or who think they have that eladrin magic figured out.

The ones you’re most likely to find as trained mounts are the Hippogriffs, who have horse backsides and a considerably more tractable temperament. This makes them the most common flying mount among the sapient people of the world. I’m pretty sure Nerath had whole regiments of hippogriff cavalry and that the practice survives in any post-imperial community of sufficient size.

Hippogriffs are brave enough that that they can readily be ridden into battle, and they actually breed true with normal horses as well as with each other. The offspring of a horse and a hippogriff will either be another hippogriff or a temperamental horse. They’re expensive enough to be a prime target for thieves, and there’s a thriving black market on young specimens.

Even the Elemental Chaos has its own griffon species in the form of the Rimefire Griffon, a formidable beast that the book describes as being sapient, unlike its natural cousins. It’s not exactly a genius at Int 4, but it still “allies” with ice archons or gets “pressed into service” by efreets instead of being “tamed”.

The Numbers

Griffons are Large Natural Beasts with the Mount keyword (the Rimefire Griffon is Elemental instead). They’re a bit slow on land, but are excellent fliers.

Hippogriff

The typical hippogriff is a Level 5 Skirmisher with 64 HP. It walks at speed 4 and flies at speed 10. Being a MM monster, it has a listed overland flight speed of 15, fast enough to outrun most dragons.

Its basic attack is a bite, and it can perform a Flyby Attack that works as expected: the hippogriff flies it speed, attacks at any point in the movement, and draws no opportunity attacks. It can also perform a Diving Overrun, a charge which does more damage than the bite, knocks the target prone on a hit, and lands the hippogriff adjacent to it.

As mounts, these creatures grant +1 to all of their riders’ defenses.

Hippogriff Dreadmount

An armored hippogriff that fights better on the ground. It’s a Level 5 Soldier with 66 HP and the same speed as the standard model.

Dreadmounts trade their usual agility for increased battlefield control. They fight with bites, and can do Wing Slams (Melee 1 vs. Reflex) against enemies who try to shift or move away from them. These attacks are interrupts, doing some damage and knocking enemies prone on a hit. They can’t be done while in the air.

Dreadmounts are also as stable as dwarves - they move 1 square less from forced movement effects, and can roll an immediate save to avoid being knocked prone.

Griffon

Classic griffons are Level 7 Brutes with 98 HP. They run with speed 6, and fly with speed 10.

Griffons fight with their claws, and they’re all about charging: charge attacks give them a +4 attack bonus instead of the usual +1. When acting as mounts, their charges allow them to make two claw attacks in addition to the rider’s attack.

When bloodied, griffons lose their shit: they become immune to fear, gain an extra move action, a +2 bonus to attacks, and a -2 penalty to defenses.

Rimefire Griffon

These are Level 20 Skirmishers with 186 HP. Their land speed is 5, and their flight speed 10. They have Resist 10 to both cold and fire.

Rimefire griffons have lion bits but fight more like hippogriffs, with a basic bite that does physical and cold damage and the same Flyby Attack power. They can also breathe fire (Close Blast 5 vs. Reflex), an attack that starts “uncharged” but recharges after the creature hits twice with a bite attack. When used as a mount, the rimefire griffon grants its elemental resistances to its rider.

The lore description for the fiery breath is fun: their bites absorb the target’s body heat, causing the creature’s prominent horn to glow red-hot. Once it stores up enough heat, it can release it as a blast.

Sample Encounters

The sample encounters emphasize the role of griffons as mounts:

  • Level 5: a human mage and 2 human guards riding hippogriffs.

  • Level 5: 3 warforged soldiers and their dreadmount-riding captain.

  • Level 6: 2 eladrin fey knights on griffons.

  • Level 20: 1 Ghaele of Winter riding a rimefire griffon, accompanied by a quartet of fire and ice archons.

I like them, particularly the emphasis on them being mounts. I get the feeling that investing in horses in D&D’s implied setting is a fool’s game. You have boar-riding dwarves, griffon-riding elves, human knights on hippogriffs, and I’m sure there’s a ridable drake somewhere. Warhorses are so last edition.