Daywalker Gargoyles, inspired by Demona from Disney's Gargoyles

[Asmor]

A glance at a gargoyle comic inspired me... I've never liked D&D's treatment of gargoyles, and so for the homebrew setting I'm working on I wanted to use Disney's gargoyles instead. Unfortunately, the whole "turning into a statue during the day" means that normal gargoyles are pretty much unsuitable for use as PCs in most cases, but something like Demona would be much better... Thus, I present to you the Daywalker Gargoyle! There's a better formatted version at my setting's site, http://taintedlands.tiddlyspot.com/#[[Daywalker Gargoyles]] .

The Daywalker Gargoyles are an off-shoot of the true Gargoyles. Unlike true gargoyles, daywalkers don't turn into statues during the day. Instead, their claws, wings, horns and tails retract and they become indistinguishable from a human. Daywalker Gargoyles are also typically smaller than other gargoyles, about the size of a normal human. No one is sure exactly how the daywalker's came into existence. The two prevailing schools of thought are either that they are the result of a crossbreeding of humans with gargoyles, or that they are the result of magic, whether a curse placed on their lingeage or perhaps an intentional metamorphosis by some ancient gargoyle mage.

The night forms of daywalkers vary wildly and it's exceedingly rare for any two to look alike. Skin colors can be varying shades of blues, greens, reds and purples. Tails might be short or long, ended simply or with a cloved tip. They may or may not have horns, and if they do the horns could resemble the style of a ram, a bull, or anything in between. If they have hair, literally any color is possible. Even the wings are not constant; most have detached bat-like wings sprouting from their back, but a small amount of them actually have their wing membranes connecting to their arms and bodies. Their day form is indistinguishable from a normal human.

Daywalker gargoyle characters possess the following racial traits.

* +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence. Daywalker gargoyles are very strong and tough, but their feral nature makes it difficult for them to learn.

* Medium size.

* A daywalker gargoyle's base land speed is 30 feet.

* Low-light Vision.

* Transformation: During the day, a daywalker gargoyle loses its distinguishing gargoyle characteristics and appears exactly as a human. At night, a daywalker gains the following benefits:
o Tough skin: Tough, leathery skin grants a +1 natural armor bonus to AC.
o Wings: Grant a fly speed of 60 feet (poor maneuverability).
o Claws: A daywalker gargoyle's claws give it two claws as primary natural attacks, each dealing 1d6 damage (plus strength bonus).
o Tail: A prehensile tail grants a +4 racial bonus on balance checks.

* Special Qualities: Resistance to electricity 5.

* Automatic Languages: Common, Gargoyle. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Halfling, Sylvan.

* Favored Class: Barbarian.

* Level Adjustment: +1.

 

[Spatzimaus]

Not bad. IMC, we've actually been using a Disney-inspired Gargoyle race for a while now. Two races, actually, the main Gargoyle race, and the Feral (non-flying) subrace.

Our hibernation rule was that Gargoyles needed to hibernate for 8 hours each day, at least half of which must be during daylight hours (they absorb the solar energy, even through clouds or thin barriers). It's not dawn-to-dusk, but it's still a bit more limiting than what the other races deal with. To compensate, we gave them two other rules:
> While hibernating, a Gargoyle gains Hardness equal to his character level, and any damage which exceeds this will wake the Gargoyle up 1d6 rounds later.
> A Gargoyle who chooses to skip a day of hibernation (or whose hibernation is interrupted such that he can't meet the daylight requirement) suffers a -1 penalty to all attacks, checks, and saves, and the threshold for an automatic/critical failure increases by 1 (that is, 1-2 after one day, 1-3 after two, etc). Missing a second day makes it -2, and so on; each day of hibernation reduces it back down by 1.

The problem with your "daywalker" concept is that you still need 8 hours of sleep each day anyway. Since your character is far more powerful during the night, you'd want to get as much sleep during the day as possible; if you didn't, then your character would be sacrificing an entire level for a bunch of abilities that'd only rarely get used. On the other hand, if the rest of the party was willing to switch to a night schedule, then you're now far more vulnerable while resting in a defenseless human form...

 

[Asmor]

Any idea what Disney did as far as Demona and sleep? Did she just not sleep?

This thought had actually ocurred to me, and I just don't really know what to do about it. I like your medium, of making hibernation optional so that if they're in the middle of an adventure they can put it off... That's the main problem I'd see with having normal Disney gargs as a PC race.

 

[Cabral]

I get the impression that she did not sleep. If it helps, here's the Wikipedia article on Demona.

 

[Pyrex]

For +1 LA (and because it matches the series) your gargoyles shouldn't have a Fly speed, but rather be able to Glide, something on the order of 20' horizontal for each 5' vertical.

Oh, and they should get a large (+5 or so) racial bonus on climb checks.

 

[Tonguez]

I'd account for Demona not sleeping by linking it to her tie to Macbeth - she is practically immortal and eternally young so perhaps sleep isn't required by her.

If you go with daywalker then I'd still require sleep (in either human or gargoyle form)
I also agree flight is too much. 1. Gargoyles glide and 2.Flight is at least LA +2

Persoanlly I'd go with Spatz compromise and keep (a form of) stone hibernation

 

[Spatzimaus]

For +1 LA (and because it matches the series) your gargoyles shouldn't have a Fly speed, but rather be able to Glide, something on the order of 20' horizontal for each 5' vertical.

Oh, and they should get a large (+5 or so) racial bonus on climb checks.

To me, flight with Poor maneuverability is worth about half a level (and that's what Soldarin's ECL system charges for it), so giving it to a +1 LA race isn't too much IMO. Why?
> It allows you to travel overland without encountering some things... but so do a bunch of spells, starting at spell level 3ish, which can be cast on other people or are outright group-effect. And most of those are faster, too.
> It allows you to stay out of melee range... but you lose any possibility of cover or concealment, and keeps you from getting in any melee attacks of your own (which for a race with a STR boost isn't minor).
> Sure, YOU can fly, but the rest of your group is still sitting there on the ground, where the enemies can reach them, so you're still limited by what THEY encounter. It's the same reason most Paladins I know stopped using 3E mounts... the group has to stick together, and by high levels that's hard for the mount. This is sort of the inverse of that.
> Oh, and I'm not sure if this was ever added to the core rules, but in our world you can't be heavily armored or encumbered and still fly at all, and medium armor/encumbrance cuts your speed in half.

Also, in the series, while they launched from a high place to get going, the Gargoyles definitely COULD "fly" indefinitely by catching periodic thermals/updrafts, so a Glide ratio wouldn't be appropriate. If they could get out to the suburbs of New York from a building downtown, AND BACK, that's not gliding. Plus, they didn't climb the skyscraper's sides every time they wanted to get back up to the castle, and they sure didn't use the elevators. So, once in the air, it's just straight flight, with a really lousy maneuverability and climb rate.

And IMC we just gave the Gargoyles a Climb speed (10', and 20' for the Ferals); it's not a skill check, since they're actually digging into the surface they climb. 10' is slow enough to keep them from using it often, but fast enough to still get places.

 

[Asmor]

This is what I came up with talking with a friend a few days ago. I haven't touched it since before anyone replied to this thread, so I haven't worked in any of your suggestions yet. I'm strongly considering adding the compromised hibernation, but I've grown kind of attached to the whole turning into human thing... Not sure yet. I did do gliding, of a sort. Basically just made it hard for them to start flying, but once they're up there it's okay. Useful in general, but not as useful in combat.

Daywalker gargoyle characters possess the following racial traits.
* +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom.
* Medium size.
* A daywalker gargoyle's base land speed is 30 feet.
* Low-light Vision.
* Transformation: During the day, a daywalker gargoyle loses its distinguishing gargoyle characteristics and appears exactly as a human. At night, a daywalker gains the following benefits:
**Tough skin: Tough, leathery skin grants a +2 natural armor bonus to AC.
**Wings: Although they have wings, gargoyles are too heavy to truly fly; rather, they glide. If a daywalker gargoyle falls at least 20 feet, it may fly with a speed of 60 feet (poor maneuverability). Once airborne, the gargoyle's flight is unrestricted except that it may not ascend more than 10 feet for every 120 feet it moves.
**Claws: A daywalker gargoyle's claws give it two claws as primary natural attacks, each dealing 1d6 damage (plus strength bonus). In addition, the claws allow the gargoyle to climb easily, giving it a +10 racial bonus on climb checks.
**Tail: A prehensile tail grants a +4 racial bonus on balance checks.
**Glowing Eyes: Gargoyles' eyes glow when enraged, granting a +4 racial bonus on intimidate checks.
* Special Qualities: Resistance to electricity 5.
* Automatic Languages: Common, Gargoyle. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Halfling, Sylvan.
* [[Favored Class]]: Barbarian, Druid, or Ranger.
* Level Adjustment: +1.

 

[Pyrex]

Not bad. Here's a few changes you might consider:

Cut the Fly speed to 40' and simply note that they can't ascend more than 5'/move action (i.e. 10' per round if they double-move), but increase their maneuverability to Average. (they aren't terribly swift, but are capable of reasonable aerobatics).

To avoid the hibernation issue, note that they do not *have* to sleep, but that they also don't heal naturally and can't recover spells unless they *do* sleep 8 hours.

Also, under your current writeup they're almost certainly LA+2, way too good for LA+1.