As with so many monsters of myth, the
Chimera was a one-of-a-kind monster. A singular, unique specimen generally held to be one of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. Now obviously, role playing games, video games and fantasy in general looked at this mismatched monstrosity and went 'Why is there just only one? Why not have a whole race of these things!'. Now a random chimera generator could easily be seen as a 'generate some animal hybrid' but, in the spirit of keeping chimeras somewhat thematically in line with the original greek portrayal, they will be limited to mixture which include at least one of the following: a big cat, a herbivore of some kind and a scaly beast, usually a dragon or a snake.
Where chimera come from in a world can be interesting to ask because where you can semi-rationalize dragons (they're magical reptiles, possibly with six limbs with two acting as wings) or even other chimeric creatures like griffin (they're just four-legged birds with two more limbs as wings, much like dragons) or even owlbear (they're ALSO birds, just land birds with clawed forelimbs....I'm in a bird mood right now, don't ask) the chimera is completely and utterly impossible in a setting attempting some form of naturalism to it's monsters. They have multiple heads which are of different, unrelated animals. There is no way to explain them aside as 'magic' or 'a god did it'. There is no rational explanation for their existence unless your world allows magical beasts to be really really 'out there' and even then chimera seem highly implausible as something which naturally developed in the world.
Vicious. Feral. Implausible. Chimera are hungry, vicious beasts and they are often associated with misfortune and cataclysm. But, maybe, it's easier to see them as catastrophes themselves, what with their size, multiple heads and impossible nature.
How much Hit Dice does it have?
| d6 | Hit Dice |
| 1-4 | It has the usual amount of HD for a Chimera. |
| 5 | More powerful than the rest of it's kind. +2 Hit Dice. |
| 6 |
A monstrous mismatched beast. +4 Hit Dice,
|
What is it's impossible shape?
| d6 | Body Shape |
| 1-4 | Chimera Classic: Four legged with three heads. Roll on the Chimera Classic table. |
| 5 | Chimera Remix: This chimera has some elements of the 'ordinary' chimera and some rather different. Roll on the Chimera Remix table. |
| 6 |
What The Hell Is That?: This creature is loosely related to Chimera and may be mistaken for a completely different beast at first glance. Roll on the WTH? table.
|
| d6 | Chimera Classic |
| 1 | This Chimera has four legs, two of which are clawed. It has three heads, a lion's head, a goat's head and a third head which is that of snake which is also it's tail. It can spit poison with it's tail at a range of 30'. |
| 2 | As number 1, but roll on the Big Cat table and replace the lion's head. |
| 3 | As number 1, but roll on the Herbivore table and replace the goat's head. |
| 4 | This Chimera has four legs, two of which are clawed. It has three heads, a lion's head, a goat's head and a third head which is that of dragon which is also it's tail. It has a breath weapon like that of a red dragon with a 360 range of motion, essentially using it's tail head as a goddamn flamethrower. |
| 5 | As number 4, but roll on the Big Cat table and replace the lion's head. |
| 6 | As number 4, but roll on the Herbivore table and replace the goat's head. |
| d6 | Chimera Remix |
| 1 | Like the Chimera Classic, but with wings. |
| 2 | This Chimera has the body of a lion and the matching head but it also has goat head. Rather than breathe fire from the dragon head, it breathe acid from the goat's head. There is a 50% chance it has wings. |
| 3 | As above, but re roll either (1d2) the body (Big Cat table) or the extra head (Herbivore table). There is a 50% chance it has wings. |
| 4 | This Chimera has the body of a goat and the matching head but it also has lions's head. Rather than breathe fire from the dragon head, it breathe fire from the lion's head. There is a 50% chance it has wing |
| 5 | As above, but re roll either (1d2) the body (Big Cat table) or the extra head (Herbivore table). There is a 50% chance it has wings. |
| 6 | This flying chimera is similar to the Chimera classic but it's forelegs are wings, not claws. Increase the damage of it's other attacks by one dice size category. |
| d6 | WHAT THE HELL? |
| 1 | This chimera has the body of a snake and two heads, one a lion and one a goat. Lower it's land movement speed by half but it can constrict it's preys. There is a 50% chance it has wings. |
| 2 | As above, but re roll either (1d2) the body (Big Cat table) or the extra head (Herbivore table). There is a 50% chance it has wings. |
| 3 | The chimera has the body of a goat but the head of a snake. A lion's head sit at the end of it's tail. There is a 50% chance it has wings. |
| 4 | As above, but re roll either (1d2) the body (Big Cat table) or the extra head (Herbivore table). There is a 50% chance it has wings. |
| 5 | Body of a winged dragon with 1d4 heads, either (1d2) Lion or Goat heads. Improve AC by 2 but no breath weapon. |
| 6 | Body of a six-legged goat with lion's heads on top of 2d4 snake necks. Improve AC by 2 but no breath weapon. |
| d6 | Big Cat |
| 1 | Tiger. |
| 2 | Lynx. |
| 3 | Jaguar. |
| 4 | Puma. |
| 5 | Sabre-tooth cat. |
| 6 | Oversized house cat. Meow? |
| d6 | Herbivore |
| 1 | Ram. |
| 2 | Pig. |
| 3 | Bull. |
| 4 | Hippo. |
| 5 | Elephant. |
| 6 | Rhinoceros. |
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