Chimera Are Kind of a Mess

[phindar]

Chimera have two bite damages listed, 2d6+4 and d8+4, in addition to their gore damage of d8+4. The dragon head can choose to use it's breath weapon instead of biting, so on a round it does that, the chimera only gets a single bite in addition to it's gore. So, which bite damage does it give up?

The 2d6+4 bite is indicated to be it's primary attack, and the lion head seems to be the primary head, however in their MM entries the lion's bite damage is listed as d8 and a dragon's bite (at Large size category) is listed as 2d6. But that's just (wild) supposition, there doesn't seem to be anything in the monster description to indicate it. I guess if you apply the chimeric template (from MM2) to a lion you would end up at that result, but doing that would give you a chimera with Pounce, which brings me to my next question:

Is there any particular reason the chimera can't attack with all it's heads after a move action like the hydra? Granted, chimera aren't hydrae, but they are both multiheaded magical beasts; it seems odd to have a chimera swoop in and the dragon head bite somebody while the other two heads are checking their watch. If you give the creature Pounce (which it would have if you applied the chimeric template to the lion, which according to the template entry is supposed to be the "book" chimera is), it could charge and attack with all it's heads plus claws.

If it had the other lion abilities of Improved Grab and Rake it could not only initiate a grapple for free and possibly do the rake damage, on it's next round it could fly off with it's prey without even having to grapple to move (as per the Imp Grab ability). If you gave it Flyby Attack in addition to the lion Special Attacks, it would have the option of swooping in on a move action, biting and establishing a grapple, raking, and then flying off with it's prey all on the same action.

Editted for spelling

 

[pawsplay]

Is there any particular reason the chimera can't attack with all it's heads after a move action like the hydra?

It would seem a little insane. Multibiting is the hydra's thing. Honestly, I have trouble visualizing how it would bring its gore to bear in the same round as a bite, but I'm willing to accept it might be able to manage it every 6 seconds.

 

[phindar]

That's a fair point. The main option one has with hydras is the ability to attack and kill each head as though it were a separate creature. This is similar to a giant squid's tentacles, but there are very few creatures that work this way. You could apply the Sunder rules to beheading anyone, but since most creatures have one head this means 100% of their hit points are located there, and anyway, that way lies madness.

But I think the chimera being a multi-headed creature is similar enough to a hydra to invite some comparison. It's not that much different from giving it Pounce.

It's interesting (to me anyway) to look at the Multiheaded Template (which is meant to emulate the hydra) and the Chimeric Template (which, natch, is about the chimera). They work differently, even though I think the Chimeric Template should have been expanded to include extra heads from any creature, rather than just a dragon and a goat.

All of which begs the question, what it would look like if you made a Multihead Templated Chimera.

 

[moritheil]

All of which begs the question, what it would look like if you made a Multihead Templated Chimera.

It would be several lines of text on a computer screen.

If you mean what the creature would look like, presumably it would be a many-headed thing with all heads capable of independent motion.

Editted for spelling

Irony for the win.

 

[phindar]

I used to use "Editted fer Spellign", but I found it oversold the joke. (Although my previous post was actually a typo which I was too lazy to go back and fix.)

I actually like the idea of making a chimeric creature multi-headed more than making a multi-headed creature chimeric, but that might be splitting hairs a little fine. The way I'm reading it, a multi-headed creature made chimeric would have one dragon head and one goat head and 2 or more base creature heads. The base creature heads could be sundered and could attack independently of one another (as the hydra), whereas the dragon and goat heads couldn't. If you make a chimeric creature multi-headed, presumably you have 2 or more of each the dragon, goat and base creature, all of which can be sundered and can attack independently.

 

[Darklone]

I think the "reasoning" is that chimeras have several heads on rather short necks looking into one direction, while the hydra has several long snail like heads able to look everywhere with ease.

 

[Chimera]

Yeah well, it's not all my fault that I'm this way. Give me a break.



For the record, I've never liked any D&D Chimera. They're poorly done.

 

[azhrei_fje]

For the record, I've never liked any D&D Chimera. They're poorly done.

Ah, but with a little BBQ sauce and an open flame, that isn't necessarily so...