So I want to play a gargoyle

[RingofThorns]

I was looking through my different books and the like for a new and exciting race to play, and finally I stumbled over an idea. I want to play a gargoyle like from the 90's cartoon show gargoyles.

I play DnD 3.5 and I am now trying to come up with a profile for this race, the enhanced strength, long life spans, and flight [yes I know the show says they 'glide' but come on they ignore every rule of that, they can keep up with jet powered aircraft.....they can fly.]

[KillianHawkeye]

You don't think that playing a character who turns to stone during the day will be a bit limiting? :smallconfused:

[nyjastul69]

It might help if you give us an idea about what a cartoon gargoyle can do. Not everyone is familiar with the comic referenced.

[GenericClone]

You could just play a gargoyle but check out the watcher in bastards and bloodlines.

It's a half dwarf half gargoyle. Only thing is that it doesn't have a fly, has wings and gets a bonus to jump and has no max jump distance though. "Leap over tall buildings in a single bound"

Maybe your DM might let you work in a fly speed.

Only 2LA instead of the 5 from gargoyle + 4 racial hit die putting you at a 9ECL at level 1

[Segev]

I suggest +2 Str, -2 Dex, -2 Cha for a stat line. The stone sleep's full over-day heal is balanced by the stone sleep's incapacitation. Describe them as "big," but don't make them Large-sized. Even Goliath didn't really have more than 7-8 feet.

Regarding gliding, they kept to it in one respect: they couldn't take off from the ground. Give them a fly speed of 60 ft (poor) and a special requirement that they must jump off of a ledge or precipice at least 10 feet high in order to take off. Give them a climb speed of 5 ft.

Then give them LA +0, but 1 racial Monstrous Humanoid hit die.

[Yogibear41]

There is a 3.5/Pathfinder books that has a 1-20 gargoyle racial class, but I can't seem to find it at the moment. If memory serves, it was built on a "fighter frame" but gave you scaling abilities for natural attacks, flight, damage reduction, a few SLAs, and natural armor. basically picked an option off a list every few levels, with higher levels offering better lists, sort of like how astral constructs work.

[Venger]

master of many forms is always an option, just stay in the shape of a gargoyle when you don't have anything better to do. not needing to breathe and their freeze ability is pretty nifty.

[RingofThorns]

These are all some pretty amazing ideas actually, I must admit that is the one thing they held to in the show was that they had to jump off something to take flight. I must apologize though as I did make the slip of assuming most had seen the cartoon show or possibly read the comics, as a race they are big humanoids that can glide/fly,are very strong and tough, live very long lives, have fangs, as well as claws that can cut/pierce stone and some weaker metals, and normally during the day they turn to stone to rest and regenerate however they are completely helpless while in stone form. I would think playing a character that can only work at night would be an interesting concept else wise there would never be a vampire character in DnD and I have seen a fair share of them, along with that I know for a fact that it is well established in the show that certain magical items can counter the stone sleep, or give the gargoyle the ability to control it. Honestly the book is what got me thinking of trying to stat them out as a race to begin with, I was looking for a new race to play while watching the series and recalled a similar race in the bastards and blood lines book. I have debated on just trying to fluff the watcher race into a 'gargoyle' or maybe just seeing if the DM would allow me to start or to early on aquire some kind of spell that would enhance the size and strength of the watchers wings to enable the flight/gliding. I think this is going pretty well so far and look forward to getting more help.

[Darrin]

Kir-lanan in Races of Faerun (p. 137) are "gargoylish" monstrous humanoids. However, the 4 racial HD and LA +4 make them mostly unplayable, and the negative energy stuff has no relation to the cartoon. Stripping all of that stuff out... well, ok, you might be better off with homebrew.

[Red Fel]

Funny story - I actually worked on a concept like this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?355175-Goliath-as-a-Goliath).

Step one was a Dragonborn Goliath. I wanted the Goliath race, not just because of the name, but because of the Powerful Build feature and the Mountain Rage ACF. Think about it - when Goliath rages (and he definitely rages), he unfurls his wings and becomes huge and imposing. Powerful Build works for that. Also, while he doesn't literally turn to stone during the day, he does have rocky protrusions on his skin. And a +1 LA isn't the worst cost, really.

Step two was deciding which angle to take - Gargoyle as Paladin (really only works for the character of Goliath specifically) or Gargoyle as Barbarian (works for all of them). I'd suggest Barbarian for your goals. I'd also suggest Fist of the Forest PrC, which gives you Con to AC - which makes sense, because their hides are wicked tough - and explains why they sleep outdoors.

[khadgar567]

Funny story - I actually worked on a concept like this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?355175-Goliath-as-a-Goliath).

Step one was a Dragonborn Goliath. I wanted the Goliath race, not just because of the name, but because of the Powerful Build feature and the Mountain Rage ACF. Think about it - when Goliath rages (and he definitely rages), he unfurls his wings and becomes huge and imposing. Powerful Build works for that. Also, while he doesn't literally turn to stone during the day, he does have rocky protrusions on his skin. And a +1 LA isn't the worst cost, really.

Step two was deciding which angle to take - Gargoyle as Paladin (really only works for the character of Goliath specifically) or Gargoyle as Barbarian (works for all of them). I'd suggest Barbarian for your goals. I'd also suggest Fist of the Forest PrC, which gives you Con to AC - which makes sense, because their hides are wicked tough - and explains why they sleep outdoors.
funny thing fel but i think direstirge may be put them la 0 or if more powerful la 1

[Segev]

It took artifact-level and archfey-level magics to allow gargoyles to ignore or otherwise overcome stone sleep.



I confess to a bit of Original Character creation, though. I generally spare the internet any fanfics involving them, but I did conceive of how a half gargoyle (likely the son of Elisa and Goliath) would function. My version of it is human except for having wings and a tail (and maybe little nubs of forehead-horns/ridges). Human hands, so no digging into stone. Strong for his size, but not as strong as even Lexington. Lighter, less dense than a gargoyle; can fake actual flight by jumping and flapping really hard to get height from which to start a proper glide.

Doesn't necessarily turn to stone by day, but instead of tanning goes from human-skin-tone to gargoyle-skin-tone, and if he gets "sunburn" it instead turns to stone (which flakes off at night). And, if he falls asleep (even for a moment) while the sun is up, he turns to solid stone. So if he's optimizing his sleep cycle, he's wisest to sleep at just before sunset, so he turns to stone and wakes up nice and refreshed a few minutes later. On the other hand, NEVER SLEEP IN PAST SUNRISE.

And dozing off in class is something he'd never get away with. "Dude, you TURNED TO STONE and occupied that desk for the rest of the day. They grafitti'd you, but it flaked off.

[RingofThorns]

That is pretty true I mean I wasn't meaning that the magic to get over the stone sleep would be something that I bought in town, though you must admit it would be a fun plot hook and quest line to go through to try and earn it.

[Jay R]

Talk to the DM first. She may disallow it. She may make some restrictions that make it unapopealing. Or she may have some great ideas.

But since she has to approve it in any case, tell her what you want, and get either an immediate "no", or her active help designing it. Both possibilities are better than designing it and then finding out if you can sue it.

[Segev]

That is pretty true I mean I wasn't meaning that the magic to get over the stone sleep would be something that I bought in town, though you must admit it would be a fun plot hook and quest line to go through to try and earn it.

Yeah. "Earn" it. The two primary instances were a mind-warping artifact and an ironic curse. :smallamused:

[RingofThorns]

Yeah. "Earn" it. The two primary instances were a mind-warping artifact and an ironic curse. :smallamused:

See why you gotta make the eye of odin goliath sound like a bad thing? Lol, Anyway yeah the DM has said that if I can come up with a stat block that isn't to over powered or needing to much level adjustment then they are fine with me playing as one.

[Segev]

See why you gotta make the eye of odin goliath sound like a bad thing? Lol, Anyway yeah the DM has said that if I can come up with a stat block that isn't to over powered or needing to much level adjustment then they are fine with me playing as one.

Because I didn't have the Eye for my own, personal use, of course. >_> <_<

More to the point, though, I think this is probably fairly well-balanced:


I suggest +2 Str, -2 Dex, -2 Cha for a stat line. The stone sleep's full over-day heal is balanced by the stone sleep's incapacitation. Describe them as "big," but don't make them Large-sized. Even Goliath didn't really have more than 7-8 feet.

Regarding gliding, they kept to it in one respect: they couldn't take off from the ground. Give them a fly speed of 60 ft (poor) and a special requirement that they must jump off of a ledge or precipice at least 10 feet high in order to take off. Give them a climb speed of 5 ft.

Then give them LA +0, but 1 racial Monstrous Humanoid hit die.