Gargoyle
- This page is about the player species. For the monster, see Gargoyle (monster).
| A cross between ordinary stone gargoyles and living beings, Gargoyles are hideous humanoids with an affinity to rock. They are immune to petrification, and their stony weight protects them from being trampled.
Gargoyles' partially living form makes them less susceptible to effects of necromancy and cold than most beings. Their metabolisms are slow, and they blend into the dungeon pretty well. Their fangs and talons make them dangerous unarmed fighters, although they're incompetent with weapons other than maces. They can be exceptional earth-based conjurers, although they're bad with all other magic schools besides ice. |
Contents
Innate Abilities
- Natural AC: Gargoyles receive a large innate boost to AC relative to your XL. (+2 at XL 1; +20 at XL 27); but Statue Form only gives 13 + 0.5×Earth AC instead of 17 + 0.5×Earth.
- Increased GDR: Gargoyles lose a sixth of their body armour's GDR, but they receive a large bonus (+24) which cancels this loss. New_GDR = 5×Old_GDR/6 + 24. This bonus doesn't work when they are transformed, except Statue Form. Gargoyles in Statue Form have 62% GDR.
- Petrification resistance: Gargoyles cannot be petrified
- Rot resistance: Gargoyles are composed of stone rather than flesh, and thus cannot rot.
- Gargoyles are immune to poison.
- Gargoyles cannot memorize Cure Poison.
- Electricity resistance: Gargoyles are well insulated and take little damage from electricity attacks.
- Partial torment resistance: Gargoyles take 1/2 normal damage when affected by torment.
- Fangs 1 and Talons 2: Gargoyles get two auxiliary Unarmed Combat attacks.
- Slow Metabolism 1: Gargoyles require less food than most species.
- Unbreathing: Gargoyles can survive without breathing.
- Vulnerability to Shatter and LRD.
Preferred Backgrounds
Gargoyles are recommended for the following backgrounds:
- Warriors: Fighter, Gladiator, Monk, Hunter, Assassin
- Adventurers: Artificer
- Zealots: Healer, Berserker
- Warrior-mages: Skald, Warper, Arcane Marksman, Enchanter
- Mages: Wizard, Conjurer, Summoner, Fire Elementalist, Ice Elementalist, Earth Elementalist, Venom Mage
Due to their nonliving nature, gargoyles are prohibited from becoming Death Knights.
Level Bonuses
- +1 strength or intelligence (equal chance) every 4th level.
- 20% less HP than average.
- Average MP.
- +3 magic resistance per level.
- Gargoyles gain permanent at-will flight at level 14.
Starting Skills and Equipment
Gargoyles receive the skills and equipment listed for their background.
Difficulty of Play
| Simple • Intermediate • Advanced |
The gargoyle's innate resistances and immunities allow it to negate or lessen a large amount of early game threats, such as adders, as well as making some mid- and late-game challenges easier. Their torment resistance can be a large boon when fighting some later monsters, like greater mummies when trying to go through The Tomb. Their aptitudes are fairly mediocre, however. Their only major strength as far as skills go is Earth Magic, which tends to lack the strengths of the other schools, for the advantage of the ability to change the layout of the map easily and a few frighteningly powerful end-game spells. The innate ability to fly at level 14 can be helpful at times, but it tends to be situationally useful.
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
In 0.14 Gargoyles will lose their two auxiliary attacks and Slow Metabolism 1, and the current GDR formula will be modified. Their GDR will be calculated by treating their body armour as if the base AC value was 5 higher.
Gargoyles were added in 0.13.
