D&D General Gargoyles need to be redone.

[Azzy]

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.

Did you just re-invent the "Ecology of..." articles from Dragon magazine?

 

[Savage Wombat]

Way back in 2nd ed., I had the local would-be evil empire learn a way to turn their elite soldiers into gargoyles. The campaign started with the PCs supporting an army discovering that their enemy was (a) flying and (b) immune to normal weapons. The players were fine. The army was screwed.

 

[renbot]

Frontiers of Eberron: Quickstone has PC gargoyle stats.

Just want to second this recommendation. Playable gargoyles (and medusae and harpies for those that are interested). Also lots of good gargoyle lore that doesn't have to be setting-specific.

 

[Hriston]

I'd use the 1932 Clark Ashton Smith story Maker of Gargoyles as inspiration and have gargoyles be actual statues (so constructs) imbued with the strong vice/virtue of their incredibly talented creator/sculptor, which brings them to life.

Subtypes:

Sin type​

Pride​

Greed​

Wrath​

Envy​

Lust​

Gluttony​

Sloth​

Virtue type​

Prudence​

Justice​

Fortitude​

Temperance​

 

[Weiley31]

Just want to second this recommendation. Playable gargoyles (and medusae and harpies for those that are interested). Also lots of good gargoyle lore that doesn't have to be setting-specific.

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.

Battlezoo Ancestries: Living Legends also has Gargoyle PCs options as well.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

One of my coolest encounters was gargoyles. I had mentioned that one of the temples in town had become so rich they covered their large dome in sheets of gold and the party decided to go up there and heist it. Amazingly nobody reacted to the many gargoyles on the battlemap, presumably because they were in their natural habitat of a giant basilica roof, so they went right to heisting and the gargoyles only woke up when they were hanging down the side of the dome trying to pry off sheets of gold.

 

[Stormonu]

While the Greyhawk adventure Gargoyle is rightly lambasted, I do like their appearance. It is also interesting that the gargoyles of this adventure have detachable wings - though I would make them unable fly instead of being clumsy fliers without them. This might make it easier to make them PCs with gaining flight at a later level - perhaps 3 or 5.

 

[Brendan Byrd]

While the Greyhawk adventure Gargoyle is rightly lambasted, I do like their appearance. It is also interesting that the gargoyles of this adventure have detachable wings - though I would make them unable fly instead of being clumsy fliers without them. This might make it easier to make them PCs with gaining flight at a later level - perhaps 3 or 5.

View attachment 422668

If nothing else, the detachable wings are a fun idea to play with:

• Every time a bell rings, a gargoyle gets its wings...
• A gargoyle paladin summons a set of wings instead of a mount... (Or gets a second set of wings & an improvement in speed and maneuverability)
• A set of wings stands in for the family car. "Mawm, can I borrow the wings? I wanna go visit my friends in town..."

 

[Hriston]

While the Greyhawk adventure Gargoyle is rightly lambasted, I do like their appearance. It is also interesting that the gargoyles of this adventure have detachable wings - though I would make them unable fly instead of being clumsy fliers without them. This might make it easier to make them PCs with gaining flight at a later level - perhaps 3 or 5.

View attachment 422668

Gargoyles, or, as Dorothy Gale calls them, "gurgles", are the native inhabitants of an underground world made entirely of wood, the Land of the Gargoyles, which she encounters in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (1908). The gargoyles themselves are made of wood and have wings, attached by hinges, which they remove when they sleep.

 

[Brendan Byrd]

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)

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Does this work, and do we want more?

Otherwise, how would you change them and how?

"You get to drink from the firehose!"
Add a minor breath weapon modeled on the gyeser effect of a Decanter of Endless Water ?
Damage, or a trip attack?

Spoiler: Decanter: 3.0

Decanter of Endless Water
If the stopper is removed from this ordinary-looking flask and a command word spoken, a stream of fresh or salt water pours out. Separate command words determine the type as well as the volume and velocity:
Stream: pours out 1 gallon per round
Fountain: 5-foot-long stream at 5 gallons per round
Geyser: 20-foot-long, 1-foot-wide stream at 30 gallons per round
The geyser causes considerable back pressure, requiring the holder to make a Strength check (DC 12) to avoid being knocked down. The force of the geyser deals 1d4 points of damage but can only affect one target per round. The command word must be spoken to stop it.
Caster Level: 9th; Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, control water; Market Price: 9,000 gp; Weight: 2 lb.