Anyone fooled by gargoyles anymore?

[Gomer212]

So, I love gargoyle encounters...or at least I used to.

A statue of a grotesque winged beast that comes to life when the players are least expecting it then use the advantage of surprise to it's best possible advantage.

Of course, the only problem with this...nobody's fooled anymore.


DM: You see a stone statue, a horned winged creature perching on a marble pedestal. It sneers at you as you pass.

Player: Gargoyle! I bash it with a magic weapon!

DM: **sigh**


From most editions, gargoyles have a built in ability which allows them to appears as statues, but regardless of the players Spot (or Alertness, or Wisdom) checks, they'll instantly know whats up. It's meta gaming, of course, but very few players will actually ignore a gargoyle that they think is a statue.

And of course you have to mention them when the players see them. You can't just be like "suddenly you're attacked by a bunch of statues you didn't notice were there."


So, I guess, open question. Any idea how to make the gargoyle encounter "cool" again?

 

[darjr]

Include lots of gothic statues that are not gargoyles, and then don't have any of them be gargoyles for a good great long time.

Or include gargoyles of different types of animals/demon forms. Like giant octopie or coiled snakes or even trees (gargoyle treants). The other is to have gargoyles in different media. Some that step out of tapestries or elaborate wood carvings, or ones that look like a troupe of dancers playing a dragon.

 

[Leatherhead]

Embossed carvings turn into gargoyles.

 

[dd.stevenson]

In addition to what [MENTION=52905]darjr[/MENTION] suggested, you can make sure there's an opportunity cost for checking the statues.

If you're running an old school game, you can roll for a random encounter when they make noise smashing statues.

For any game, you can always place nearby creatures who will be able to hear the noise, random encounter or no.

You can also make sure the statues are encountered during a combat encounter so there will be an action economy cost for smashing the statue.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There's also the question of why, in a universe with gargoyle monsters, everyone would carve statue gargoyles and not some other monsters. The whole critter is problematic.

I'd start by getting rid of them and replacing them with constructs.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Make them look like angels...or any other kind of thing. IOW, make them distant cousins of Mimics. Each gargoyle is somewhat formless until adulthood, when it takes on the form of a kind of statuary it has seen.

 

[timASW]

So, I love gargoyle encounters...or at least I used to.

A statue of a grotesque winged beast that comes to life when the players are least expecting it then use the advantage of surprise to it's best possible advantage.

Of course, the only problem with this...nobody's fooled anymore.


DM: You see a stone statue, a horned winged creature perching on a marble pedestal. It sneers at you as you pass.

Player: Gargoyle! I bash it with a magic weapon!

DM: **sigh**


From most editions, gargoyles have a built in ability which allows them to appears as statues, but regardless of the players Spot (or Alertness, or Wisdom) checks, they'll instantly know whats up. It's meta gaming, of course, but very few players will actually ignore a gargoyle that they think is a statue.

And of course you have to mention them when the players see them. You can't just be like "suddenly you're attacked by a bunch of statues you didn't notice were there."


So, I guess, open question. Any idea how to make the gargoyle encounter "cool" again?

Describe lots of statues that arent gargoyles.

make some statues traps. Every adventurer has heard of gargoyles, so has every wizard defending his tower. make some statues just cheap statues with traps on them for anyone who destroys them.

Also use the hardness rules, u can damage or destroy your weapon beating it against raw stone. Statue form or not.

 

[timASW]

double post

 

[Stormonu]

Make them look like angels...or any other kind of thing. IOW, make them distant cousins of Mimics. Each gargoyle is somewhat formless until adulthood, when it takes on the form of a kind of statuary it has seen.

Just remember ... don't blink.


Also, you can sometimes pull tricks by hiding them among normal statues. A single living gargoyle atop a building with one gargoyle on each of the building's four corners. A gargoyle hidden in a graveyard filled with statuary. A gargoyle waiting amid a medusa's statuary garden. Even one that's half-buried itself amid a pile of broken statues.

Finally, you can make them near indestructible when in "statue" form. If trying to chip one is likely to end up dulling swords or the characters are going to have to physically wrench or topple the figure (and risk the thing coming to life while they're grappling it), they're more likely to just keep an eye on it or try to avoid it.

 

[Weather Report]

I live in London (the UK), they are everywhere (especially in Town), and still have impact.