Advice for running a challenging chimera fight?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

My player characters are heading for a rumble with a white dragon chimera who now lives in an empty white dragon's lair.

Any advice on how to make this a memorable and challenging fight? It's the big pay off for the adventure, which has mostly been about roleplaying and gathering information for later in the campaign.

 

[Darklone]

Ice.

Seriously. Cover the whole ground in ice. The chimera can fly, the players will be in trouble. Build an icy labyrinth with several flying shortcuts and prepared cave-ins where the chimera can split the party.

 

[blargney the second]

What is the party composition? Races, classes, levels, and schticks that aren't evident from the former.

 

[pawsplay]

Well, one thing I've found is that the chimera has a weak breath weapon for its CR. I only later noticed the dragon head can independently breathe instead of biting! That's important.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What is the party composition? Races, classes, levels, and schticks that aren't evident from the former.

We've got a ranger, paladin/cleric, barbarian/druid and a fighter. They're all level 4, and all of them human except for the barbarian/druid, who's a dwarf. The druid and ranger both have animal companions.

I expect them to be at full resources when the throw-down happens, and don't want this to be a one-round ganking of the chimera. If anything, I want this to be their graduation ceremony from some of the lower level fights they've had before now, as the campaign is moving into middle level stuff now.

 

[rossik]

well, i dont know for post 2ed, but the chimera has a animal inteligence, right?
so theres no much plan-making for it, in my opinion.

but as the oter users said, you can make a dangerous ground.

also, in my game, the chimera hit both claw attacks in the same player, so i decided that the chimera grabs the pc, than breath weapon his face.

i add a little extra dmg fot this, and was very funny

 

[blargney the second]

It needs minions to keep from getting ganged upon. Two or three hungry medium-sized juvenile chimeras can do that and provide a little awkward morality to the situation.
-blarg

 

[Chimera]

I've got a black belt in Karate and a yellow belt in Aikido, but I'm 45 years old, about 40 pounds overweight and my left knee and right shoulder are crap.

Bring it on!

 

[rossik]

I've got a black belt in Karate and a yellow belt in Aikido, but I'm 45 years old, about 40 pounds overweight and my left knee and right shoulder are crap.

Bring it on!

what about your children?
they can flank the pcs

 

[Random Axe]

Ice.

Seriously. Cover the whole ground in ice. The chimera can fly, the players will be in trouble. Build an icy labyrinth with several flying shortcuts and prepared cave-ins where the chimera can split the party.

Cave-ins, and PITS. Pits that are covered over with a thin sheen of ice (-4 to REF saves when a PC crosses, due to increased difficulty in detecting the iced pit next to normal iced survace). Giant Icicles make for nice natural portcullises which will delay the party, in a nice cramped corridor, while the chimera breathes from the background.

Agreed there won't be any minions of an animal-intelligence creature -- but who's to say the chimera itself isn't a minion of someone else? If that is so, and if you don't want to spring the larger, more-intelligent boss on them, then pair up this chimera with another, more secret, equivalent-CR minion of that same boss. THAT will help to split the attentions and resources of the party to make for a memorable encounter.