Homebrew Gargoyle of Mirruk Species Details

Beside a trickling of fresh melting frost, under a cool stone arch of ruined stone, I pondered what kind of person had last set eyes on this place as a home. The mess around me was peaceful—sullen and calm, like a beautiful memory I couldn't remember. "This is my home."  - Answered the room. I looked behind the arch, expecting a remnant spirit or elf to pair those words, but all I saw was the garden I passed first, and the statue that guarded it.
     I knew then that I was not welcomed here. I had been allowed to rest my head however, and for that I was grateful. Curiously, I watched my host as I hurried with my cold meal. When I left, I placed a small gift at the gargoyle's feet as thanks.

— John Heraba, Travel Journal I

Perched atop fortress, towers, and other lairs with gruesome grimaces and gestures, inanimate gargoyles are frightening decorations designed to suggest legends of living stones. True gargoyles are creatures of elemental earth, resembling horned humanoids with massive wings. The incredible variety of gargoyle appearances makes it impossible to tell the difference between a mason's imitation and a breathing statue.

Living Stone

Motionless, and quiet to a talent, gargoyles are best known for blending among features of crafted stone. Their bodies resemble marble, grey rock, or banded stone, and they can seem polished or rough, or anything between. When hiding among the artificial gargoyles that mirror their images, true gargoyles are almost impossible to find. The advantage of being overlooked as mere stone makes gargoyles skilled watchers and guardians.

Different Worlds

While gargoyles and greater gargoyles (called grists) of many worlds were crafted as elementals by mortal mages to serve evil, gargoyles of Mirruk are not beholden to this history. Gargoyles of Mirruk were made humanoid and given the opportunity to find their own place in the world.

After years of encountering the vast mysteries and dangers of life and freedom, Mirruk's gargoyles earned a culture of their own. Most answer to a strong calling to protect, rather than to use their talents for harm. Many divine forces in Mirruk ask gargoyles to serve as guardians of holy sites, wardens of lost sanctuaries, and as keepers of archaic knowledge.

Cultures of Stone

Gargoyles flock in small groups, though not necessarily as family units. These semi-nomadic groups of four to ten gargoyles flit quickly between venues. Honoring their wandering origins, many gargoyles value new experiences and changing sights. A flock might one week adorn a clocktower to watch the sun rise and fall over their home, and the next week frolic with stone-still dances as they sleep every night in a garden.

A deep understanding of elemental earth inspires many gargoyles to befriend the races of stone. While not all people are happy to have a gargoyle roosting on their mansion, let alone a flock, old agreements still honored by some dwarves and gnomes welcome them gladly as brothers and cousins. Giant kin who live underground often consider gargoyles as useful messengers, and employ them as envoys and representatives.

Gargoyle Names

Gargoyles traditionally take on names that horrify and frighten other creatures. gruesome grimace. Some gargoyles change their name as often as they learn of a new terrifying or disturbing thing, while others take a single name thy learn from the culture they belong to.

When a gargoyle takes a tribe name, it is usually as simple as naming the tribe's location—for example: Castle Ravenloft, the Caves of Despair, or the Stonewood. Humanoid gargoyles (sometimes called galateans) were born with the blessing of deities; Galateans that pay homage to this origin may take the tribe name Galatea.

Traditional Names: Awful Fright, Blood Tongue, Boil and Eat, Bone Spitter, Cries of Children, Demon's Laugh, Dog Teeth, End of Life, Face of Death, Fangle Face, Gruesome, Horror Head, Juicer, Killing Shadow, Lurks on Ledge, Mangle Mouth, Pain Claw, Rat Eater, Skin Grinder, Spider Head, Tooth Puller, Ugly, Very Ugly.

Creating Your Character

If you create an gargoyle character, follow these additional rules during character creation.

Ability Score Increases

When determining your character’s ability scores, increase one of those scores by 2 and increase a different score by 1, or increase three different scores by 1. Follow this rule regardless of the method you use to determine the scores, such as rolling or point buy.

The “Quick Build” section for your character’s class offers suggestions on which scores to increase. You’re free to follow those suggestions or to ignore them. Whichever scores you decide to increase, none of the scores can be raised above 20.

Languages

Your character can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for the character. The Player's Handbook offers a list of widespread languages to choose from. The DM is free to add or remove languages from that list for a particular campaign.

Creature Type

Every creature in D&D, including every player character, has a special tag in the rules that identifies the type of creature they are. Most player characters, including gargoyles of Mirruk, are of the Humanoid type. Creature types don’t have rules themselves, but some rules in the game affect creatures of certain types in different ways. For example, the text of the cure wounds spell specifies that the spell doesn’t work on a creature that has the Construct type.

Life Span

The typical life span of a player character in D&D is about a century, assuming the character doesn’t meet a violent end on an adventure. After about a century, gargoyles of Mirruk begin to crumble, breaking to dust from the cracks they gain instead of wrinkles.

Height and Weight

Player characters typically fall into the same ranges of height and weight that humans have in our world, but gargoyles are much heavier. If you’d like to determine your character’s height or weight randomly, consult the Random Height and Weight table in the Player's Handbook, and choose the row in the table that best represents the build you imagine for your character. You should double the listed weight.

Gargoyle of Mirruk Traits

As a gargoyle, you have the following racial traits.

Creature Type

You are a Humanoid.

Size

You are Medium or Small. You choose when you select this race.

Speed

Your walking speed is 30 feet.

False Appearance

A magical veil of elemental earth covers you when you are still. You and any items you are carrying are indistinguishable from an inanimate statue when you are motionless.

Gargoyle Wings

Your heavy stone-like wings are capable of carrying you to safety. As a bonus action on your turn, you can use your wings to fly up to 30 feet. You can use this bonus action a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

Stone Physique

When you take bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage, you can use your reaction to gain resistance to the triggering damage. Once you use this reaction, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

Elemental Nature

You are immune to the petrified and poisoned conditions, and you can can remain motionless in any position, even when sleeping.