Slobber Monster
First Post
...or "What is the air-speed velocity of a grappling Gargoyle?"
It seems to me that a gargoyle should be able to grab a halfling commoner and fly off with him. It shouldn't be guaranteed, with the halfling struggling and all, but it should be possible, right? However, in looking into the rules it seems that the gargoyle cannot gain any altitude once it grabs the halfling.
First off, a gargoyle has strength 15 (66 lbs or less for a light load), and a halfling weighs about 40 lbs, so the gargoyle can certainly fly around while clutching a dead halfling. However, once the grappling rules come into play things get a bit murkier for me. Assuming that the gargoyle succeeds in its touch attack and an opposed grapple check, it may move as per the SRD:
Since it takes a standard action to do this, I take it the grappler can only take a single move in the round at half speed? (The gargoyle would still have a move action left, but cannot use it for movement since it is involved in a grapple, but may use it for some other move action such as drawing a weapon). So the gargoyle would be able to fly off with the halfling at a rate of 30' per round (1/2 fly speed of 60').
However, the gargoyle only has average maneuverability, and so must move at least half its fly speed every round or go into a stall. So this means the gargoyle cannot gain any altitude while grappling, since it must move horizontally for all 30' every round! It doesn't even matter how strong the gargoyle is, since its strength never comes into play - only the 1/2 speed for grapple vs the 1/2 speed to avoid stalling.
There are a couple of ways I see where I could be interpreting this wrong. The one that seems most likely to me is that the stall speed is figured after reducing the gargoyle's speed for grappling - i.e. the gargoyle must move at least 15' horizontally. That would mean the gargoyle could climb at a 45 degree angle so long as it wins opposed grapple checks.
The other (less likely) possibility I see is that I'm reading the grappling rules wrong, and that the grappler can really double-move at half speed, in effect taking one normal single move. So in this case the gargoyle could fly 60' in a round, and thus climb up at a 45 degree angle.
If the rules really do make it impossible for a medium-sized, average-maneuverability creature to fly off with a small one, then I'll probably just house-rule it.
It seems to me that a gargoyle should be able to grab a halfling commoner and fly off with him. It shouldn't be guaranteed, with the halfling struggling and all, but it should be possible, right? However, in looking into the rules it seems that the gargoyle cannot gain any altitude once it grabs the halfling.
First off, a gargoyle has strength 15 (66 lbs or less for a light load), and a halfling weighs about 40 lbs, so the gargoyle can certainly fly around while clutching a dead halfling. However, once the grappling rules come into play things get a bit murkier for me. Assuming that the gargoyle succeeds in its touch attack and an opposed grapple check, it may move as per the SRD:
Since it takes a standard action to do this, I take it the grappler can only take a single move in the round at half speed? (The gargoyle would still have a move action left, but cannot use it for movement since it is involved in a grapple, but may use it for some other move action such as drawing a weapon). So the gargoyle would be able to fly off with the halfling at a rate of 30' per round (1/2 fly speed of 60').
However, the gargoyle only has average maneuverability, and so must move at least half its fly speed every round or go into a stall. So this means the gargoyle cannot gain any altitude while grappling, since it must move horizontally for all 30' every round! It doesn't even matter how strong the gargoyle is, since its strength never comes into play - only the 1/2 speed for grapple vs the 1/2 speed to avoid stalling.
There are a couple of ways I see where I could be interpreting this wrong. The one that seems most likely to me is that the stall speed is figured after reducing the gargoyle's speed for grappling - i.e. the gargoyle must move at least 15' horizontally. That would mean the gargoyle could climb at a 45 degree angle so long as it wins opposed grapple checks.
The other (less likely) possibility I see is that I'm reading the grappling rules wrong, and that the grappler can really double-move at half speed, in effect taking one normal single move. So in this case the gargoyle could fly 60' in a round, and thus climb up at a 45 degree angle.
If the rules really do make it impossible for a medium-sized, average-maneuverability creature to fly off with a small one, then I'll probably just house-rule it.
