Well instead of killing aimals which people dont seem to like why not have "beasts".
Beast are in my opinion are half animals/plants and half monstrosities...
You know how it is...a mage/alchemist perform an experiment on an animal..it doesnt work..the animal breaks free and survives on its own..it breeds with those of its part animal nature and the result is a half-breed feral being.
E.g some idiot mage experiemnted with a wolf's teeth and a large posion ivy.
He wanted the resulting being to protect his herbs. What happened was he created a moving venus fly trap. Consequently the mage was digested by the trap who then moved on and had loads of offspring.
When fighting such a creature..the crature will bite and can swallow you for a period of time. When you emerge you will sustain alot of posion damage.
Or the mage might be curious to cross a turtle with a spider...ohhhh
So that the crature has 8 legs...an extemrly tough shell and a head of a turtle which can spit a sticky substance which may cause you to be entangled.
I.e instead of fighting the creature you have to break free from the web first...by this time the creature would have already started to use its massive teeth into your helpless body.
