Gargoyle

Version 0.31: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

This page refers to the player species. For the monster, see Gargoyle (monster). For a list of all monstrous gargoyles, see List of gargoyles.

A cross between ordinary stone gargoyles and living beings, Gargoyles are hideous humanoids with an affinity to rock. They have low health, but large amounts of innate armour which increases further as they gain levels. They eventually gain the ability to fly continuously. Gargoyles' partially living form grants them immunity to poison, as well as resistance to electricity, and protection from some effects of necromancy. Their natural armour makes them strong melee fighters, and they are naturally skilled with blunt weapons and in unarmed combat. They can also be exceptional earth-based conjurers.

Innate Abilities

• Gargoyles are composed of nonliving stone, rather than flesh:
  • Poison immunity: Gargoyles are immune to poison.
  • Electricity resistance: Gargoyles are well insulated and take little damage from electricity attacks. Note that multiple sources of rElec do not stack.
  • Life Protection 1: Gargoyles have one innate level of resistance against negative energy (rN+).
  • Partial torment resistance: Gargoyles take 1/2 normal damage when affected by torment. This resistance does stack with other effects that reduce damage of torment.
  • Petrification resistance: Gargoyles cannot be petrified.
  • Unbreathing: Gargoyles can survive without breathing.
  • Gargoyles cannot be put to sleep and do not have blood.
  • Gargoyles are vulnerable to Lee's Rapid Deconstruction and Shatter.
  • Gargoyles cannot memorize Statue Form, as they are already made of stone.
• Natural AC: Gargoyles receive a large innate boost to AC relative to XL. This bonus begins at +2 and increases by 0.4 per XL up to 7, then it increases by 0.8 per XL, reaching a maximum of +20 at XL 27.

Gargoyles have a base Strength of 11, Intelligence of 8 and Dexterity of 5 (before Background modifiers).

Preferred Backgrounds

Gargoyles are recommended for the following backgrounds:

• Warriors: Fighter, Gladiator, Monk
• Zealots: Berserker
• Warior-mages: Reaver
• Mages: Fire Elementalist, Earth Elementalist, Venom Mage

Level Bonuses

• +1 strength or intelligence (equal chance) every 4th level.
• 20% less HP than average.
• Average MP.
• +3 willpower per level.
• Gargoyles gain Big Wings at level 14, granting them permanent flight.

Starting Skills and Equipment

Gargoyles receive the skills and equipment listed for their background.

Difficulty of Play

While Gargoyles may have low HP (-20%), this is compensated by many strong traits. Most notably, Gargoyles have high innate AC, which usually makes up for the lack of health. Beyond armour, Gargoyles have a variety of innate resistances, which range from "mildly convenient" to "very helpful".

Poison immunity turns early adders, kobolds with darts, and many critters from the Lair into non-threats. It also makes Lair's branches (Spider, Snake, Swamp) easier to manage. As stone creatures, they are immune to a variety of "gimmicks", like basilisk's petrification and dream sheep's sleep. Also, Gargoyles are one of the strongest species to take on the extended game. Torment resistance is rarely helpful in a 3-rune game, but it shines in the Pandemonium, Hells, and Tomb.

However, AC doesn't protect against everything. Smiting is a lethal threat in the early game. Later on, Gargoyles have to deal with damnation, as well as certain attack flavours (such as simulacra). In addition, they must be cautious around foes with Lee's Rapid Deconstruction (which include deep troll earth mages and Jorgrun) or Shatter.

Otherwise, their aptitudes are fairly well balanced. Gargoyles do well in a variety of backgrounds and subsequent development strategies.

Strategy

Although it may seem tempting to raise your AC as high as possible, realize that evasion is also tremendously useful, even with a Gargoyle's unimpressive Dodging aptitude. With a Gargoyle's large boost to AC regardless of armour, a suit of light or medium armour can still provide excellent defenses without penalizing your spellcasting or evasion nearly as much as heavier armour would.

Skill aptitudes

The higher the value, the better the aptitude.

Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude	Skill	Aptitude
Attack		Miscellaneous		Magic
Fighting	1	Armour	1	Spellcasting	-1
		Dodging	-2
Maces & Flails	0	Shields	1	Conjurations	1
Axes	-1	Stealth	2	Hexes	-1
Polearms	-1			Summonings	-1
Staves	0	Invocations	1	Necromancy	-2
Unarmed Combat	0	Evocations	-1	Translocations	-1
Throwing	-1	Shapeshifting	-3	Alchemy	-2
				Fire Magic	0
Short Blades	-1			Ice Magic	0
Long Blades	-1			Air Magic	-2
Ranged Weapons	0	Experience	0	Earth Magic	2

History

• Prior to 0.27, Gargoyles could not worship Yredelemnul. Flight was an activatable ability that could be ended and restarted. And prior to simplification of GDR in this version, Gargoyles had a special-case bonus to it, displayed here.
• Prior to its removal in 0.26, gargoyles were immune to rot.
• Prior to 0.16, Gargoyles could cast Statue Form, though they received four less AC than other species when doing so.
• Prior to 0.15, the skill aptitudes of Maces & Flails, Unarmed Combat, and Staves were +1.
• Prior to 0.14, Gargoyles had Fangs 1, Talons 1 and Slow Metabolism 1. Gargoyles got slightly less (only 5/6ths) of the GDR from their body armour, but this was more than compensated for by a large innate bonus (+24% GDR). This innate bonus was suppressed when they were transformed, except for Statue Form, in which Gargoyles had a total of 62% GDR.
• Gargoyles were added in 0.13.