The Chimera Curse

The Chimera Curse

"I saved him."

"That's what I tell myself, anyway."

"But sometimes, when I look at him, I wonder if I saved him..."

"...or if I simply made sure neither of us could die alone."

The bond between a Ranger and their companion can be stronger than blood.

For some, that bond is sacred. For others, it becomes something more.

Something unnatural.

When your companion suffered a mortal wound, you refused to accept their death. Desperate to save them, you discovered an ancient ritual contained within forgotten shamanic texts. The ritual promised to bind the life force of two beings together.

You performed it.

It worked.

But the ritual didn't heal your companion.

It bound you together.

You are two beings. Two minds. Two souls.

But you share a single life.

Your wounds are theirs. Their wounds are yours.

And under enough pressure, the boundary between your bodies begins to fade.

The longer the bond persists, the harder it becomes to answer a simple question:

Where do you end, and they begin?

The Chimera Curse is a Ranger archetype centered around an unnatural bond between a Ranger and their companion. Rather than functioning as two entirely separate creatures, the pair share a single pool of life and suffer the consequences of one another's injuries and afflictions.

As the Ranger grows in power, the curse becomes increasingly difficult to control. Their companion begins to mimic their movements, expressions, and mannerisms, while the Ranger develops physical traits and instincts belonging to their companion.

What begins as a desperate attempt to prevent death slowly becomes something far more disturbing.

The two are not becoming one.

Not yet.

But the boundary between them is disappearing.

Two Minds as One

The ritual has begun to blur the boundary between your minds.

Not enough to merge them permanently, just enough to make things uncomfortable.

You can communicate telepathically with your companion while you are within 120 feet of each other.
Neither of you can read the other’s thoughts, but you can sense strong emotions.

This communication isn’t always in full sentences. Sometimes it’s: “Fear”, “Hunger”, “Danger”, “Friend”, “Run” or “Here”.

When you make a Wisdom (Perception), Wisdom (Survival) or Wisdom (Insight) check based on smell or hearing, your companion (Blink Dog) can give you advantage on these checks.

You smell something.
Your companion smells something.

Who detected it? 
Does it matter?

Once per long rest, you can meld your senses together with your companion. You can see, smell and hear through their eyes, ears and nose, for up to 10 minutes.

The Cost

Every ritual comes with a cost. A sacrifice, a mark or something unnatural.
For you that means the bond is not stable.

It's constantly trying to merge two separate beings together into one.

Your companion may begin to:

• Mimic your facial expressions.
• Move its mouth when you speak.
• Stand on two legs for brief moments.
• Reach for objects with unsettlingly human movements.
• Develop increasingly human-like eyes.
• Tilt its head when confused, but in the exact same way you do.
• Blink when you blink.
• Look toward something when you look toward it, even when it couldn't have seen it.
• Begin using your mannerisms when interacting with strangers.
• Occasionally speak using your voice.

You may begin to:

• Grow patches of fur.
• Develop claws or talons.
• Grow animal-like teeth.
• Develop heightened senses.
• Move instinctively like your companion.
• Experience animal instincts that aren't your own.
• Tilt your head when confused.
• Bare your teeth when threatened.
• Find yourself sniffing the air without realizing it.
• Develop an instinctive awareness of where your companion is.

These changes become more pronounced under stress, fear, anger, and combat.

The Chimera Bond - Shared Vitality

3rd level - The Chimera Bond

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, the bond between you and your companion becomes permanent.

Your companion remains a separate creature with it's own personality, thoughts, emotions and agency.

However, your life forces are now magically intertwined.

Shared Vitality

You and your companion share a single pool of hit points.

Your maximum hit points are calculated as:

Your maximum hit points + (your companions hit points x 0.5)

When either you, or the companion takes damage, that damage is taken on this pool of hit points.

When either of you regains hit points, the shared pool is restored by the appropriate amount.

You can not be healed twice by the same effect.

The Chimera Bond - Shared Conditions

3rd level - The Chimera Bond

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, the bond between you and your companion becomes permanent.

Your companion remains a separate creature with it's own personality, thoughts, emotions and agency.

However, your life forces are now magically intertwined.

Shared Conditions
You and your companion share the following conditions:

• Blinded
• Deafened
• Frightened
• Paralyzed
• Petrified
• Poisoned
• Stunned

If one of you gains one of these conditions, the other gains it too.

If an effect ends the condition on one of you, it ends on both.

You do not share every magical effect.

If a spell targets only your companion, you are not automatically targeted by the spell itself.

You do suffer the consequences of the spell, though.

If your companion becomes magically frightened, you feel an overwhelming animalistic urge to flee too.

The Chimera Bond - Sympathetic Instincts

3rd level - The Chimera Bond

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, the bond between you and your companion becomes permanent.

Your companion remains a separate creature with it's own personality, thoughts, emotions and agency.
However, your life forces are now magically intertwined.

Sympathetic Instincts

Your bond allows your companion's instincts to influence your own.

Whenever one of you experiences an intense emotional reaction, the other experiences an echo of it.

The emotion is not necessarily accompanied by an understanding of why it is being felt.

Some examples:
Fear
Your companion spots something in the darkness.
You don't see anything.
But your body suddenly tells you: Run.

Anger
A shopkeeper attempts to cheat you.
You become irritated.
Your companion’s lips pull back, baring its fangs.
Suddenly you realize you’re both growling.

Threat
A member of your party is suddenly attacked.
You react before you think.
Your body lowers, your teeth bare.
Your companion moves between them and the attacker.
For a brief moment, neither of you knows who decided to protect them first.

The Chimera Bond - Symbiotic Defense

3rd level - The Chimera Bond

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, the bond between you and your companion becomes permanent.

Your companion remains a separate creature with it's own personality, thoughts, emotions and agency.
However, your life forces are now magically intertwined.

3rd - Symbiotic Defense

Your bodies have begun reacting to one another on instinct. But the bond does not only protect the two of you. It has begun to recognize those you have accepted as your pack.

When an ally within 10 feet of you and your companion takes damage, you can use your reaction to reduce the incoming damage by your Wisdom modifier. 

You can use this up to an amount equal to your proficiency bonus, per long rest.

You may not consciously decide to intervene, your companion may leap towards the injured ally. You may suddenly step between them and the attacker. 

The distinction between protecting them and protecting yourself is beginning to disappear.

Convergence

Your bodies are beginning to change.

 

You have learned you can influence the transformation, they are not entirely random.

They are a reflection of your bond.

As a bonus action, you can intentionally let the curse manifest.

For 1 minute, you and your companion enter a Convergent Form.

 

While in this form, you gain the following benefits:
- Your walking speed increases by 10 feet.
- You and your companion gain advantage on Strength and Dexterity saving throws.
- You gain a natural weapon based on your companion
- Your companion gains a vaguely humanoid adaptation.

 

Examples:
Blink Dog
Your transformation manifests in your legs, eyes and ears first.
Your pupils become unnaturally canine, your ears sharpen.

Patches of pale fur spread across your skin.

 

Your movement becomes strangely light, as if gravity has less of a hold on you.

 

Your Blink Dog companion begins undergoing the opposite transformation.
Its posture becomes more upright.
Its forelegs become more dextrous.

Its facial structure begins to slowly morph into your own.
When you speak, it’s mouth sometimes moves with yours.

When it barks, whines or growls it sometimes does so with your own voice.

While in this form, as a bonus action you can blink from one location to another within 30 feet of yourself or your companion.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest.

The Unnatural Union

The transformations have become increasingly difficult to control. What began as changes to flesh has begun affecting something deeper.

The bond is no longer content to connect your bodies.

It has begun to connect your positions in space.

When your companion blinks, you feel yourself being pulled toward where it went.

When you move, your companion sometimes knows where you are going before you do.

And under enough stress..

You both arrive at the same place.

As an action, you can surrender yourself to the unstable magic of the ritual, triggering a violent convergence.

For 1 minute, you and your companion enter The Unnatural Union.

During this transformation:

• You gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.
• You gain advantage on saving throws against being frightened.
• Your speed increases by 20 feet.
• Your natural weapon deals an additional 1d8 damage.
• You cannot be forcibly separated from your companion by magical means.
• If one of you is moved against your will, the other moves with them.

Additionally, when one of you takes damage, the other can use its reaction  to blink next to the other, and make one weapon attack against the creature that caused the damage, provided that creature is within range.

Due to the instability of the ritual, if you start your turn with fewer hit points that half your hitpoint maximum, you and your companion must succeed on increasingly harder Wisdom saving throws (determined by the DM). On a fail, you and your companion must move towards the nearest creature and use the attack action against that creature.

The Transformation

During the Unnatural Union, the boundary between the two of you becomes almost impossible to distinguish.

 

Your body begins taking on increasingly pronounced features of your Blink Dog.
Your ears become canine. 

Your eyes begin to reflect light unnaturally.

Fur spreads across your arms, neck and face.
Your fingers lengthen into claws.
Your posture becomes more animalistic.

Meanwhile your companion does the exact opposite.
It begins standing upright.
Its forelegs become more like arms.
Its paws develop fingers

Its muzzle shortens

Its face becomes increasingly expressive.

Its eyes become disturbingly human.

You start blinking together.
Not metaphorically. Literally.

Your companion disappears.
For an instant, you do too.

Then you each reappear in each other’s spaces.

Then you’re back.

 

The pack becomes one

The ritual no longer recognizes you and your companion as the boundaries of your ‘self’.

It recognizes your pack.

Pack Instinct
When you and your companion enter The Unnatural Union, you can designate a number of creatures equal to your wisdom modifiers as your Pack.

The Pack always includes you and your companion.

For the duration of The Unnatural Union:
Whenever a Pack creature within 30 feet of you or your companion is attacked:

• You and your companion immediately know who attacked them

Then you and your companion can use their reaction to do one of the following:

• You and your companion can teleport to an unoccupied space within 5 feet of them.
  You and your companion don’t provoke opportunity attacks from this movement.
• You and your companion each can make a weapon attack against the attacker.

Whenever a Pack creature within 30 feet of you or your companion is attacked, you can use your Symbiotic Defense ability, without expending a use.