Griffon

They don't always look this derpily content

A griffon (also spelled griffin and gryphon) is a half eagle, half lion mythological creature that echoes immense amounts of cool and which many on /tg/ would sell their own mother to have (seriously why haven't they cloned one of these yet??).

Griffins are from old European and eastern myths and were so cool they have been adopted into practically every fantasy game out there. What is so cool about them? They have the strength of lions and the ability to fly like eagles! You think knights on horses were cool? Griffon-mounted knights are even better. If there was any monster you could describe as noble, it would be the griffin.

In mythology, griffons are said to make nests out of gold, and because knights had a tendency to try and steal their nesting materials, they developed a deep hatred of horses. Most people forget about the golden nests and "it's those damn greedy knights' fault!" parts and just make griffons enjoy eating horse-meat above all else. Because of this, Medieval bestiaries created the Hippogriff, a half-eagle half-horse creature said to be the spawn of a griffon and a horse. It was supposed to be a symbol of the absolutely impossible, a creature that "obviously" couldn't be -- and keep in mind, these were the same people who unironically believed in the existence of the Bonnacon, a curly-horned cow that defended itself by farting with such vigor as to propel gouts of shit at people. Shit that burst into flames upon exposure to the air, mind you. But someone somewhere along the line didn't get the memo and so hippogriffs have joined their griffon relatives in the ranks of "real" fantasy monsters.

Warhammer Fantasy Battle

The Empire of Warhammer Fantasy Battle fields griffons, which scores them strong awesome points. Mount an Empire Elector Count on him, give him a runefang and you have one of the hardest hitting characters the empire can provide (just be warned not to allow those pesky mage or artillery to hit them).

They also added in recent editions 'demigryphs' as monsters to ride as a cavalry option, essentially griffins without the wings and not as tough. They still look pretty cool and they do add a much needed extra mythological element to the human empire army.

Warhammer 40,000

Warhammer 40,000 does not have griffons as creatures, per se, but there are several things that are named after the griffon:

• The Griffon Heavy Mortar Carrier, a self-propelled artillery piece used by the Imperial Guard.
  • The Griffon heavy mortar is the gun carried by the Griffon Heavy Mortar Carrier. Unsurprisingly.
• There is a Forge World called Gryphonne IV, which made artillery until it was eaten by Tyranids.
• There's a Space Marine Chapter named the Howling Griffons.

HORDES

The Circle Orboros uses Griffins as sneaky fast attack warbeasts to tear into the enemy's troops.

Dungeons & Dragons

As you'd expect, griffons have been a part of Dungeons & Dragons very much since the beginning, and are one of the simplest "flying beasties" you can expect to fight. They're flying brutes, essentially, although you can potentially take them as exotic flying mounts, and 4th edition added the elementally infused Rimefire Griffon of the Elemental Chaos.

Ponyfinder

As you'd expect from a game that is the unholy lovechild of My Little Pony and Pathfinder, Ponyfinder features griffons as a PC race. They first appeared in the Everglow Campaign Setting, the core Ponyfinder sourcebook using Pathfinder rules, but subsequently received a much more detailed PC profile in their dedicated sourcebook, "Griffons of Everglow", which gave them more versatility in the form of new alternate races called "aspects".