What happens to a gargoyle when it dies? If the party is smashing every statue they see and manage to smash a gargoyle, does it shatter? Or does it ragdoll? While exploring, would a long dead gargoyle leave a gargoyle skeleton?
Well, gargoyles are considered elementals made of animated stone. It's never stated that they actually have skeletons, so at that point it's just up to DM discretion. If the party does manage to one-hit-kill a sleeping Gargoyle, I think it would make sense for it to react in some way rather than just shatter like any other statue (scream in pain, flail for a moment, etc.), so the party would likely know that they destroyed a real gargoyle and not just a statue. I also think that a long-dead Gargoyle is, essentially... just rock at that point, so probably wouldn't deteriorate into a skeleton or decompose at all, really.
Either the turn into inanimate stone when they die, or they magically vanish and their essence/soul/whatever returns to the plane of earth to reform, like most elementals do.
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What happens to a gargoyle when it dies? If the party is smashing every statue they see and manage to smash a gargoyle, does it shatter? Or does it ragdoll? While exploring, would a long dead gargoyle leave a gargoyle skeleton?
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Well, gargoyles are considered elementals made of animated stone. It's never stated that they actually have skeletons, so at that point it's just up to DM discretion. If the party does manage to one-hit-kill a sleeping Gargoyle, I think it would make sense for it to react in some way rather than just shatter like any other statue (scream in pain, flail for a moment, etc.), so the party would likely know that they destroyed a real gargoyle and not just a statue. I also think that a long-dead Gargoyle is, essentially... just rock at that point, so probably wouldn't deteriorate into a skeleton or decompose at all, really.
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Either the turn into inanimate stone when they die, or they magically vanish and their essence/soul/whatever returns to the plane of earth to reform, like most elementals do.