Beefing up the Gargoyle

[QorDaq]

Yeah I was always a little disappointed that the obvious impetus for the usually underpowered (but occasionally surprising) Gargoyle was the very potent Balrog.

Never quite made sense other than to have an alternative "Boss" included in the base game. As I recall the Gargoyle was often replaced with other minis in my games back in the day.

This game (and its expansions) so needs a re-release, including updated minis.

[The Admiral]

My Gargoyle will in the future have the following stats:
Att 5,Def 6, Bdy 4. Move and Mind are unchanged.

I want him to be clearly stronger than the Chaos Warrior and there is good rationale for these changes. I consider large monsters to have a base defence of 3, and he wears a helmet for +1. I considered giving him a flight ability, but that didn't seem practical in the close confines of a dungeon, but those huge wings should be good for something. I think they would be great for defence and would act a shields, giving another +2 for 6 defence dice.

He is holding a massive sword which I think is at least equivalent to a battleaxe. Coupled with his immense strength, I think it warrants an extra die for 5 attack dice.

The extra body point is warranted in my opinion for his huge size in relation to the CW.

Finally, a nod to the whip. I first considered making it a second attack of 1 or 2 dice, or just adding an extra attack dice, and those are both valid approaches, but I decided to make it a unique skill. A blow from a whip is not generally going to cause much damage. Sure, 50 lashes on an immobile unarmoured target is life threatening, but not one lash against a moving/armoured target. But a blow from a whip could knock a helmet off, Knock a shield out of the hand, catch you in the face or wrap around a leg or arm. These would all compromise a defence. Therefore I allow the whip a 1 dice attack. If it hits (skull) then the defender loses a defence dice against the main sword attack. If you want to avoid rolling twice, just roll a D6 with the 5 attack dice and consider that the whip has hit on a 4-6.

And with my 150th post I am no longer a gargoyle!

[cynthialee]

You can flay flesh open with a whip. One good lash from that Balrog and he could open your throat. (provided he actually has any skill with the whip, it could just be for show as it scares some folks...)

[Daedalus]

While posting about the Guardian of Grin's Crag here, I also came up with a separate Statue ability. The Gargoyle may freely shift into and out of its statue form, a state that prevents the Gargoyle from being attacked or affected by spells. To affect it on his turn, a Hero must beat this change by rolling higher than the Gargoyle's movement score of 7 for his own movement. A Hero with a Pass Through Rock spell cast on him may automatically affect the Gargoyle on his turn.

[aaronAGN]

The Gargoyle may freely shift into and out of its statue form, a state that prevents the Gargoyle from being attacked or affected by spells.

That's an interesting mechanic.
I'd have the opposite effect in play. Turning to stone, via exposure to sunlight or some spell, would make them practically instantly killable by breaking the statue.

[benvoliothefirst]

I see, kinda like a Tanooki Suit? I'm with aaronAGN, a hero with a chisel would make quick work of a stone-form gargoyle!

[Bareheaded Warrior]

The “great monsters” referred to in the description are, to my mind and invoked by the figure itself, the Balrogs of Tolkien’s world, so let’s examine the properties of the Balrog.

• Balrogs are tall and menacing beings who can shroud themselves in fire, darkness, and shadow.
• They are armed with fiery whips "of many thongs", and occasionally use long swords.
• They were fierce demons, associated with fire, armed with fiery whips of many thongs and claws like steel
• Flaming sword ("From out of the shadow a red sword leapt flaming") and a many-tailed whip that "whined and cracked"
• A figure strode to the fissure, no more than man-high yet terror went before it. They could see the furnace-fire of its eyes from afar
• It is physically massive and strong, and in one version he is some 12 feet tall. He wields a black axe and whip of flame as his weapons.

The association with fire is clear and strong so presumably our stone statue, “brought to life through arcane rituals” results in a stone exterior inhabited, animated by the Balrog, a Fire elemental/daemon/demon within. This combination would result in a core of fire within an outer shell of stone, so effectively a creature made of lava, rather like the “Pyroviles” of the Whoniverse.

So, from the text above combined with the figure we can state that in appearance.

This tall and menacing, physically massive and strong, monster composed of molten lava, with a stone skin, wreathed in fire and smoke, with eyes glowing like a furnace, armed with a many tailed fiery whip and huge sword.

In terms of armour, the alt. Dread Warrior has already been upgraded to 5DD due to the combination of Helmet, Mail and Plate and in the Stone Hunter Quest, the Stone Dread Warriors get an extra DD, so it is consistent to give our stone skinned Gargoyle 6 DD

In terms of weaponry.

• Clearly dual wielding, so as per the Trollslayer rule this would give an extra AD over and above that from the individual weapons.
• A whip has been previously defined in my house rules as being single-handed, 2AD and diagonal attack, similarly I already have a Flail that works as per a Longsword – single handed, 3AD and diagonal so I’m assuming that a many tailed whip of fire must be single-handed, 4AD and diagonal.
• The huge sword would at least have the properties of a longsword, single-handed, 3AD and diagonal attack, but upgraded a step to be a combination of that and a battle axe so single handed (at least for a creature with the size and strength of the Gargoyle) 4AD and diagonal attack

So those three factors combined would result in 5AD on all surrounding squares, adjacent and diagonal (incidentally this is the same 5AD as the Genie / Air Elemental)

The strong association with fire and a body composed of living molten lava would make it immune to Fire and Fire magic

The lava nature suggests the possibility of Regeneration, damage to the solid outer stone skin would be automatically repaired by the molten core filling in and solidifying, i.e., like the same property for Mummies – “At the start of Zargon’s turn any monster with this ability that has lost at least one Body Point gets one Body Point restored.”

I did consider some form of spell or ranged attack – fireball or spewing molten lava but honestly this Gargoyle is enough of a beast as it is!

Conclusion

Alt. Gargoyle

These foul creatures are produced by Dread magics. They are stone statues of great monsters, brought to life through arcane rituals. Their stone-like skin makes them extremely hard to wound in combat. They are physically menacing, and powerful monsters composed of molten lava, with a stone skin, wreathed in fire and smoke, with eyes glowing like a furnace, armed with a many-tailed fiery whip and a massive sword.

• Movement Squares: 6
• Attack Dice: 5
• Defend Dice: 6
• Body Points: 4
• Mind Points: 4

Special Abilities:
• Immune to fire and fire magic
• "Rock Solid" - if you are using the optional push back rule



This also aligns with revisions of the standard NA stats for Chaos Warriors and their variants

Chaos Warrior
MV = 7, AD = 4, DD = 5, BP = 3, MP = 3

Chaos Warrior (Stone)
MV = 5, AD = 4, DD = 6, BP = 3, MP = 0

Chaos Warrior (Doomguard)
MV = 8, AD = 5, DD = 5, BP = 3, MP = 4

Note: And I treat Festral's Personal Guard from ATOH as standard Doomguard

[Bareheaded Warrior]

Further half-baked thought, there may be some synergy between the Holy Water, Batman! thread and this one. If you are going to have a Gargoyle that is a fire elemental/demon, encased in a lava / hot rock wrapper then Holy Water ought to have a dramatic effect, perhaps include Alt. Gargoyle in the list of creatures affected by Holy Water, obviously it isn't Undead but it is 'not of this world' or 'from beyond the spheres' or whatever poetic term used to describe the supernatural...

[benvoliothefirst]

I quite like all your ideas, boneheaded warruor!

[Kurgan]

Destroying, weakening or severely damaging a daemonic being as the beefed up gargoyle might become sounds like another cool use of a rare item!

Another idea.. maybe if the point of a quest isn't to kill the creature but to escape, perhaps the Holy Water "cools off" the fire fiend and turns him into cold stone or a number of turns (before he's expected to "wake up" and resume his pursuit of the heroes), giving them another opportunity to flee...