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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SpiralBound" data-source="post: 2262974" data-attributes="member: 8396">I notice no comments on my edits and suggestions... I hope that I haven't been too forward.  I'm doing this purely in the spirit of (hopefully) improving something that looks really cool to me.  Anyway, in the face of no objections, I have forged on and given the same treatment to your Gargolic Creature Template.  I'm using the same editorial conventions as my previous post:Altered text, usually correcting a minor grammatical or typographical error, sometimes just an addition of a single word.A confusing passage, usually due to a missing word or awkward phrasing.General comments, usually a question or a suggestion.--/\--/\--/\--/\--/\--/\--/\--Gargolic Creature Template--\/--\/--\/--\/--\/--\/--\/--That their bodies are made of pure, hard stone is the first thing that reveals the true properties of these creatures. Their facial and body aspects are also revealing, with exaggerated traits and melodramatic facial expressions, ranging from mocking to agonizing, their eyes, noses and ears unnaturally large or small. Gargoyles come in many types and forms, as distorted images of stone made alive by magic of true creatures and beings.  Gargolic is a template that can be added to any corporeal creature except the following types: Construct, Elemental, Ooze and Undead.Type and Size: The base creature's type is changed to Construct. Recalculate Hit Dice, Hit Points, Base Attack Bonus, and Saves accordingly. The creature now acquires Skill Points as a Construct, but all previously acquired skill bonuses are left unchanged. I thought that these Gargoyles were statues carved from a solid featureless block of stone? Why would a Statue of a horse have any "previously acquired skills"? Is this intended to mimic the Gargoleer's knowledge of the base creatue that he is attempting to recreate? Size does not change.Hit Dice and Hit Points: Because their body is a mass of inorganic stone, Gargolic creatures are very hard to destroy. They gain bonus Hit Points based on their size, as indicated below. This table replaces that of bonus Hit Points gained by Constructs, and so both do not stack:Bonus HP based on SizeFine: +1 HPDiminutive: +3 HPTiny: +5 HPSmall: +10 HPMedium: +20 HPLarge: +30 HPHuge: +40 HPGargantuan: +60 HPColossal: +80 HPIn the "Gargolic Companion" section of the Royal Gargoleer Prestige Class you say, "Creatures bigger than Huge or smaller than Diminutive can not be made into gargoyles this way".  Which is correct, this chart or the prestige class?Speed: Gargolic creatures retain all the movement modes of the base creature. The speed of all it's modes is decreased by 1/3. If the base creature is able to fly, upon applying the Gargolic template it's maneuverability is decreased by 2 levels. If the base creature has a maneuverability class of Clumsy, the Gargolic form will have the same level, plus decreasing it's flight speed by an additional 1/3. Base creatures with maneuverability better than Clumsy will be reduced either by 2 movement modes or directly to Clumsy (Perfect->Average, Good->Poor, Average->Clumsy, Poor->Clumsy, Clumsy->Clumsy plus additional speed penalty) Creatures whose flying ability is magical, or not dependent on their physical traits, have their speed and maneuverability unchanged.Armor Class: The Gargolic creature's natural armor improves by +8.Attacks: The Gargolic creature retains all attacks as the base creature, and is proficient in the same weapons and armor as the base creature. A Gargolic creature also gains a Slam attack if it had no original natural weapons.Damage: Claw and bite attacks have their damage increased by one damage category (for example, a Small Gargolic creature will dead 1d6 points of damage with it's bite attack and 1d4 with it's claw attack). Slam attacks now do damage as listed below: Slam Damage based on SizeFine: -Diminutive: 1d2Tiny: 1d3Small: 1d6Medium: 1d8Large: 2d6Huge: 2d8Gargantuan: 4d6Colossal: 6d8The same comment regarding how Gargoyles of these sizes are created as I made above.Special Attacks: A Gargolic creature retains all the special attacks of it's base creature, except those based on it's Constitution score.Special Qualities: The Gargolic creature retains all the special qualities from it's base creature, with the exception of healing qualities such as Regeneration (Fast Healing Works normally). Furthermore, it gains the following traits:--Construct traits--Immunity to electricity and disease--Resistance to fire and cold 20--Damage reduction 5/magic--Can not heal damage on their own, nor they can be healed. They may be repaired when in Statue Form (see below for details)Frightful Presence: Gargoyles are made for the purpose of scaring intruders away. Therefore, they are made with exaggerated body structures and faces with twisted and extreme expressions, that grant them a characteristically unsettling and fearsome look. When a Gargolic Creature charges, any creature with less HD than it must succeed on a Will saving throw, with a DC equal to 10 + 1/2 the Gargolic Creature's HD + the Gargolic Creature's Charisma modifier, or become shaken for 4d6 rounds. Creatures with 5 or more HD less than the Gargolic Creature's HD who fail the saving throw become frightened instead. A creature who succeeds at the saving throw is immune to this effect for 24 hours. The save DC is Charisma-based.Statue Form: Gargolic creatures may enter a state of absolute immobility and inactivity 3 times per day as a full-round action that provokes [color=redan[/color] attack of opportunity action, effectively turning into inanimate statues. When under this state, which can last for as long as the creature wishes to, it will rebuild itself, regaining lost body parts, and healing at a rate as listed below:HP per hour based on SizeFine: 1Diminutive: 1Tiny: 2Small: 2Medium: 4Large: 4Huge: 6Gargantuan: 10Colossal: 20see previous.When in Statue Form, a Gargolic creature is considered an inanimate object, with a hardness of 8, it's AC recalculated as an object, and follows all the rules for inanimate objects - page 165 of the Player's Handbook. A Gargolic creature may cancel this effect whenever it sees fit as a free action. However, at least 1 full hour must pass after activating this ability before cancelling the effect. Gargolic creatures in Statue Form may not spot or listen any threat, but gains Blindsense with a 120 feet range.  When not in combat or when no threat is present, Gargolic creatures will always stay in Statue Form.Abilities: Gargolic creatures attain a +8 bonus to Strength and a -8 penalty to Dexterity. A Gargolic creature has no Constitution score. I see the potential for a problem here.  What happens if a gargoyle is made of a base creature whose dex is only 8?  The resulting Gargolic version will have a dex of 0!  Won't that result in a "guardian" who is permanently in Statue Form? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Feats: A Gargolic creature retains all the feats of it's base creature.Skills: A Gargolic creature gains skill points as it's base creature, and retains all the bonuses from it's original. Gargolic creatures speak any language the base creature had.Advancement: Gargolic creatures advance as their base creature.Alignment: Gargolic creature retain the alignment of it's base creature.Challenge Rating: +3Level Adjustment: +3Overall, I had little to change about this template.  I do have two comments though.  One, it is quite powerful.  This isn't a problem in any way, but someone with a greater knowledge than I have regarding how to assign proper CR levels should review this template to make sure that it's high enough.Second, many of the features of this template refer to the base creatures knowledges or skills, which really gives this template the feeling of describing a process that transforms a living creature into a Gargoyle more so than describing the process of granting magical life to a stone statue with the outward appearance and surface behaviour of the creature that it is scupted to resemble.For example, a Human Royal Gargoleer could make a statue of an Dwarf and, once struck with the Gargoleer's hammer, the living statue would have Darkvision, Dwarven Stonecunning, Weapon Familiarity with Dwarven waraxes and Dwarven urgroshes, Dwarven Stability, a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against poison, a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against spells and spell-like effects, a +1 racial bonus on attack rolls against orcs and goblinoids, a +4 dodge bonus to Armor Class against monsters of the giant type, a +2 racial bonus on Appraise checks that are related to stone or metal items, a +2 racial bonus on Craft checks that are related to stone or metal, and it also speaks Common and Dwarven.  None of these abilities need to be known to the Gargoleer.  Sure, we can just say, "it's magic, get over it", but that is a rather cheap answer... I suggest two options:Option One, create a reason or mechanic that will explain or at least make plausible that the statue which simply looks like a Dwarf (or a Centaur, Dragon, Yugoth, etc.) is able to possess the abilities and knowledges of it's likeness even if the Gargoleer doesn't know or possess them himself.  This doesn't need to be something terribly involved, for example you could say that the magical process a Royal Gargoleer performs in crafting a Gargoyle actually binds a soul of the base creature to the statue in order to grant it the base creatures abilities.  You could then add a contested will save to the crafting process for the Gargoleer to dominate the taget soul.  You could also give the Gargoyle a chance to fully awaken into self-awareness and self-control if it is ordered to do something which would obviously destroy it.  Of course, this is just the effects of one possible explaination. Obviously, a different explaination could result in different effects.Option Two, declare that the above version of the template refers to what happens to the viction of a ritual performed by a high level Royal Gargoleer upon an actual living creature, who is then transformed into a Gargoyle that is bound to the will of the bearer of the Gargoleer's tools the same as though it were just an animated statue. Then create a lesser variant of the above template which would be used for the ordinarily Gargoyles crafted by a Royal Gargoleer.</blockquote>

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