D&D General Gargoyles need to be redone.

[Shades of Eternity]

Nobody ever uses them beyond a speed bump, and honestly, I'd rather play a gargoyle over an aarakocra as a pc.

so here's a quick brainstorm.

so here's my thoughts.

Gargoyles are sentient, ambulatory stone organisms sculpted from the architecture of faith, fear, or memory. They “grow” from places of emotional or mystical pressure and share traits of their parent structures:

• A gargoyle born from a cathedral spire has holy echoes, stained-glass veins, and gliding wings.
• One grown from a medical college’s parapet might have grotesque anatomical symbolism and parasitic humours that act like mutagens.
• A gargoyle formed from the ruins of a fortress becomes a warlike block of stratified battlestone, built to endure sieges.

They are simultaneously living sculptures and biological stones, deeply influenced by place, myth, and era.

Inspirations are:

• Disney's Gargoyles (clan structure, gliding, stone sleep, protectiveness)
• Medieval medical grotesques (anatomical exaggerations, symbolic organs, parasitic “humours,” alchemical symbolism)
• Princestons’ Gothic redesign (angular silhouettes, baroque armour-stone, cathedral-as-anatomy)

***************************************

Does this work, and do we want more?

Otherwise, how would you change them and how?

 

[Stormonu]

That's quite the bold claim, Cotton. I enjoy using gargoyles against low level parties. Grapple + fly straight up and let go has left many a horrified look on my player's faces.

But, I'm not against variants. Here's one of mine, the Ghargoyle

Spoiler

 

[cbwjm]

Nobody ever uses them beyond a speed bump, and honestly, I'd rather play a gargoyle over an aarakocra as a pc.

so here's a quick brainstorm.

so here's my thoughts.

Gargoyles are sentient, ambulatory stone organisms sculpted from the architecture of faith, fear, or memory. They “grow” from places of emotional or mystical pressure and share traits of their parent structures:

• A gargoyle born from a cathedral spire has holy echoes, stained-glass veins, and gliding wings.
• One grown from a medical college’s parapet might have grotesque anatomical symbolism and parasitic humours that act like mutagens.
• A gargoyle formed from the ruins of a fortress becomes a warlike block of stratified battlestone, built to endure sieges.

They are simultaneously living sculptures and biological stones, deeply influenced by place, myth, and era.

Inspirations are:

• Disney's Gargoyles (clan structure, gliding, stone sleep, protectiveness)
• Medieval medical grotesques (anatomical exaggerations, symbolic organs, parasitic “humours,” alchemical symbolism)
• Princestons’ Gothic redesign (angular silhouettes, baroque armour-stone, cathedral-as-anatomy)

***************************************

Does this work, and do we want more?

Otherwise, how would you change them and how?

This sounds cool, and due to my love of the old gargoyles cartoon, I'd like to see something where they're playable.

 

[MGibster]

What we need are a series of articles about various creatures explaining where they fit into the local ecology. You know, their behavior, habitats, treasure, etc., etc.

 

[Stalker0]

The idea that Gargoyles are grown from their environment and that this influences their look and abilities is pretty solid, I like that a lot.

 

[AnotherGuy]

@Shades of Eternity
At the end of Storm Kings Thunder the PCs face the ancient blue wyrm Iymrith. One of her titles is the Dragon of Statues, as she has the know-how to create gargoyles and has around 30 or so by the time the PCs arrive. They man the trebuchets at her lair, an ancient amphitheatre with an underground complex.

These gargoyles are not born from a cathedral or medical college, but have been fashioned by the draconic magic using the stones of a place that has a history of stirring up emotions be it pathos, comedy and the rest - perhaps these emotional traits have found their way in their appearance as each gargoyle reflects twisted masks of exaggerated emotion.

 

[Corinnguard]

Which monster type are you planning to use for them? Construct, Humanoid, Elemental or Monstrosity? Your initial post and @Stalker0 's post made me initially think of them being Elementals as in Earth Elementals (like they were in the 2014 MM). But since they are also biological as well as elemental, maybe they are a dual type (Humanoid and Elemental) instead.

 

[Remathilis]

Frontiers of Eberron: Quickstone has PC gargoyle stats.

What I want is a way to summon them again. In 5.14, Conjure Minor Elementals could summon gargoyles (as they were elementals) but when the summons were added and CME changed, you lost that ability. I'd love a separate summon gargoyle spell again.