Anyone fooled by gargoyles anymore?

[Ahnehnois]

Red herrings, man.

If, every time you describe a feature, that feature becomes important, you're tipping your hand as a DM. If you describe a bunch of creepy looking architecture and nothing happens, you're building suspense and prepping the group for when something does happen.

If the players just smash everything gargoyle-like because they're so paranoid, you might try booby trapping one. Or maybe implementing some rules for the wear this puts on your weapons.

 

[jadrax]

There's also the question of why, in a universe with gargoyle monsters, everyone would carve statue gargoyles and not some other monsters. The whole critter is problematic.

It is a good question.

Probably needs more background. The original 'real world' purpose of Gargoyles was to scare away evil spirits; so maybe some sort of common creature (say Goblins or Kobolds) are naturally preyed upon by gargoyles. Then humans putting up gargoyle statues would make sense, in much the same way we put up statues of birds of prey to try and scare of various nuisance animals.

Of course thsi alos means if you go around smashing Gargoyle statues, the places they protect will end up full of Kobolds.

 

[Alzrius]

And they'd have to do it EVERY time like a robot. And it'd occasionally attract unwanted attention. I do see your point where there would be players that won't care and push that like a button EVERY TIME. I don't think that's most of them.

I'm not sure it's not most of them, but even besides that, I'm not sure how it's "like a robot" to do something regularly. They wouldn't even necessarily have to repeat the words verbatim every time, as at some point they'll just say to the GM "we're going to smash any statues we see, just to be safe."

Also it seems that you wouldn't put any consequences on it. I would.

I mean if they did that in 'The God That Crawls' it would be a TPK.

The ocassional instance of negative consequences is fine, to show that there are times when this sort of thing is inappropriate, but most of the time stealth simply isn't a (major) factor. It's worth noting that the adventure you cited isn't for D&D/Pathfinder; LotFP is a different beast altogether.

 

[by_the_sword]

I don't know if this has been suggested already, but give the Gargoyle the ability to contort its features to disguise itself as any kind of similar sized statue. In fact the Monster Manual entry states;"Gargoyles appear to be winged statues, for they can perch indefinitely without moving and use the disguise to surprise prey..." [Monster Manual 3.5 P.113] Thus statues of Lawful Good deities, Heroes, heck, even maidens would suddenly turn into nasty monsters and attack.

No statue will be safe from your players after that.

 

[darjr]

@Alzrius Looking back I think I'm reading a much more extreme point of view in your post than you maybe intended.

I'll just say that I've done this before, not with gargoyles, it was with large fungi, and the reason I think in my games that camouflaged monsters work is because there is a lot to be camouflaged in.

About 'The God That Crawls', I think the idea could work just fine in Pathfinder.

 

[Mike Eagling]

Also, you can sometimes pull tricks by hiding them among normal statues. A single living gargoyle atop a building with one gargoyle on each of the building's four corners. A gargoyle hidden in a graveyard filled with statuary. A gargoyle waiting amid a medusa's statuary garden. Even one that's half-buried itself amid a pile of broken statues.

This, and consequences for hitting statues with weapons, as mentioned before.

There may not be rules for weapon wear and tear but that doesn't alter the fact that smashing rocks with a sword is going to blunt, bend or break that sword fairly quickly. I'd argue even blunt weapons would suffer too.

It's entirely possible to topple statues but remember statues are designed not to fall over, so knocking them over isn't necessarily easy. Ropes and levers are required, which all takes time and effort.

Presumably gargoyles live in a habitat, just like other creatures. So site them in places with lots of statuary, which they use as camouflage--generally by roosting above them out of reach, so whilst those silly adventurers are trying to smash up a marble of an angel they can just drop down on them for a snack...

The idea of gargoyles preying on critters and then people using their form as scare-critters is an interesting one.

 

[Aeolius]

It depends on it's appearance and location...

 

[Alzrius]

Alzrius Looking back I think I'm reading a much more extreme point of view in your post than you maybe intended.

I'll just say that I've done this before, not with gargoyles, it was with large fungi, and the reason I think in my games that camouflaged monsters work is because there is a lot to be camouflaged in.

About 'The God That Crawls', I think the idea could work just fine in Pathfinder.

Thanks for that. I wasn't trying to evangelize (and I do think that TGTC could work in Pathfinder...at least, with some modifications). I do like the idea of camouflaged monsters in the game, I'm just saying that I've had a hard time dealing with players whose response is to take a "burn down the jungle" attitude, without whipping out the "fine, every wandering monster is now converging on your location" counterpoint.

...though, now that I think about it, the jungle is a better analogy for why that sort of tactic usually wouldn't work (without a great deal more effort).

 

[timASW]

You could also try pointing out that statues are very expensive sometimes and a nice statue is probably more valuable to them then any gold they'll find just lying around. I did this once and the next time the players hit a town they bought two wagons and started carting out everything that wasnt nailed down on adventures.

 

[Henry]

Just remember ... don't blink.

Nice.

I think the trick is like what was said earlier -- in D&D the exception is so often the norm that people are unfazed. Same thing happens to things like Flying Cloud Castles, Evil Royal Advisers, and things that need magic weapons to kill them -- you need a lot of counter-examples to make these once-fantastic things special in a game any more.

So, make sure you mention 20 regular gargoyles in scenes, before you make one come to life. They'll bash the first 4 or 5, but then get complacent with "normal" gargoyles.