Do you tell if a Gargoyles is in stoneform?

[Sjeng]

I've read that the HQ gargoyle is actually a Greater Demon of Khorne, or chaos bloodthirster:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/13569


Pretty cool!

[Daedalus]

Just figured a justification for buying a dagger or 2. Shuck it at the suspected Gargoyle (hopefully hitting it) and put at least 7 squares between you and it. If it's stone it won't react. If it's a monster it will defend and fall short trying to get at you for payback (or it will run for cover). You can roll movement dice on the next turn and do it again if possible, otherwise charge and get that first strike in.

Unless it's an American Gargoyle, and Zargon decides to simply take the damage and not let the players know, and attack as soon as the players are colse enough

Dirty trick! Zargon is supposed to automatically defend: "If hit, the monster immediately defends by rolling its Defend Dice." -p. 14 Defending should be a reaction.
I do seem to remember the Zargon of our group rolling dice even if it was a statue, however. Bad Zargon!

[Goblin-King]

I've read that the HQ gargoyle is actually a Greater Demon of Khorne, or chaos bloodthirster:
Pretty cool!

You are right. But apart from having the same visual design they really don't have anything in common.
The gargoyle behaves like a gargoyle, turning into stone and stuff.

But maybe the gargoyle started out as a demon, but MB reconed that having a DEAMON BLOODTHIRSTER in their game, would perhaps be too much for some parents? Dunno, just a thought.

Anyway I think a gargoyle is way more fitting in a dungeon crawler than a huge demon.

[cynthialee]

I have always rulled (in other games) that a creature like a gargoyle with a stone form, is still somewhat vulnerable to physical trauma if the attack is of sufficent force to harm stone.
Take our good barabarian for instance. If we gave him a large sledge hammer, I would wager he would be able to crush stone with a blow.
Now if he were to use his sword...he would stand a good chance of ruining his blade and making it useless before he could harm the stone.
Chances are the barbarian will not have a proper tool for crushing stone but if he did I think the way I would handle it would be too require 3 or 4 skulls (not married to a number yet) to be rolled to net one point of damage while in stone form. Also if a weapon other than some form of mace or hammer was ussed I would rule the weapon breaks if any black skulls are rolled.
Then we have the Dwarf...probably knows enough about stone from the dwarven mines to know just where to strike a stone to break it, so he also should be allowed some chance at harming a statue state gargoyle. Perhaps only require the Dwarf to roll 2 or 3 skulls to get damage on stone. If any thing other than some form of bludgeoning weapon then the weapon will break on a roll of a black shield.
The Elf and the Wizard are not strong enough or educated on the intricacies of stone so I would not allow them to damage the statue in most cases.

As for magic...the spells provided in the list do not seem to be capable of delivering damage to stone. (perhaps the one that allows pasage through stone. Just pass your weapon halfway into the stone and leave it there. As soon as the gargoyle moves the weapon might cause some damage...)

anyways...just my thoughts on the subject pre coffee so don't be too brutal

[Goblin-King]

Actually there are some magical statues in the game that makes the heroes' weapon break if they try to attack them

[cynthialee]

Had a game where a statue was in the dungeon and wouldn't activate until a contingency was met.

When they found the statue all thought of finishing the dungeon was blown off. They decided that the statue they found was likely very valuable and they hauled the statue out of the dungeon, not meeting the contingency to activate the statue.

So the statue gets delivered to a museum and the player characters leave with some gold in their pockets.

Ok, return to the dungeon and finish cleaning it out. Yep...contingency to activate the statue is met. Statue comes to life and wipes out a handful of Gnomeish tourists before the local paladins can put down the monster.

End result....heroes are arrested and fined for endangering the city.

[drathe]

If only Zargon had thought of setting up such a scenario long before...

[cynthialee]

well it was a dungeons and dragons game

But I thought it was hilarious enough to share here.
These guys literaly spent a couple of hours figureing out how to muscle the statue out of the dungeon and get it back to town. They took out a wall in one place and made many dice rolls to determine where the load bearing areas were so as not to bring the dungeon down on their heads.
I have noticed that once a group of players have gotten something hair brained in mind they often will go to the ends of the earth to see the task through.

[Daedalus]

I have always rulled (in other games) that a creature like a gargoyle with a stone form, is still somewhat vulnerable to physical trauma if the attack is of sufficent force to harm stone.
Take our good barabarian for instance. If we gave him a large sledge hammer, I would wager he would be able to crush stone with a blow.

Found 5 posts down this thread with some variations, I have your sledge:

Maul
550 Gold Coins
Weapon

This stone warhammer gives you the attack
strength of 3 combat dice. It gives 5 combat
dice against larger-than-man-sized monsters,
which are less able to avoid it's heavy blows.
You may not use a shield when using this
weapon. May not be used by the Elf or

. . . Wizard.

I'd say a Gargoyle statue is both large and unable to dodge blows, so 5 combat dice to attack.

Now if he were to use his sword...he would stand a good chance of ruining his blade and making it useless before he could harm the stone.
Chances are the barbarian will not have a proper tool for crushing stone but if he did I think the way I would handle it would be too require 3 or 4 skulls (not married to a number yet) to be rolled to net one point of damage while in stone form. Also if a weapon other than some form of mace or hammer was ussed I would rule the weapon breaks if any black skulls are rolled.
Then we have the Dwarf...probably knows enough about stone from the dwarven mines to know just where to strike a stone to break it, so he also should be allowed some chance at harming a statue state gargoyle. Perhaps only require the Dwarf to roll 2 or 3 skulls to get damage on stone. If any thing other than some form of bludgeoning weapon then the weapon will break on a roll of a black shield.
The Elf and the Wizard are not strong enough or educated on the intricacies of stone so I would not allow them to damage the statue in most cases.

I'd say 3 skulls from a Barbarian. Rolling 4 skulls would take far too long, spoiling the fun. That means a roll of 2 skulls for the Dwarf. In either case, the statue should become an angry Gargoyle at that point.

Alternatively, you could use immunity/damage reduction, say immune to all but hardened bludgeoning-weapons, and -3 skulls to even score a hit with one of those. That way a lucky hit could score 2 Body Points of damage.

As for magic...the spells provided in the list do not seem to be capable of delivering damage to stone. (perhaps the one that allows pasage through stone. Just pass your weapon halfway into the stone and leave it there. As soon as the gargoyle moves the weapon might cause some damage...)

Nice- having the Pass Through Rock spell allow damage is too cool to disallow! How about the spell is cast on another Hero who then attacks the statue, scoring damage as normal. A statue/monster should be vulnerable to an attack that can magically pass through its physical anchor. That would magically wrench it into Gargoyle form with the damage caused. Heck, as a statue it aint exactly defending too well either, so you could treat as if it was in shock. That rule from the BQP and EQP brings a Hero down to 2 Defend dice, so you could reduce the Gargoyle/statue to 2 Defend dice, as well.

[Zenithfleet]

I've read that the HQ gargoyle is actually a Greater Demon of Khorne, or chaos bloodthirster:
Pretty cool!

You are right. But apart from having the same visual design they really don't have anything in common.
The gargoyle behaves like a gargoyle, turning into stone and stuff. But maybe the gargoyle started out as a demon, but MB reconed that having a DEAMON BLOODTHIRSTER in their game, would perhaps be too much for some parents? Dunno, just a thought.

In the back of the EU questbook, the Gargoyles are described as 'stone statues of great monsters, brought to life through arcane rituals'. So I reckon the HeroQuest Gargoyle is a statue of a Bloodthirster. The Chaos boys who sculpted it were probably thinking "hey, we're gonna make this statue come alive, let's make it look real scary in honour of our dark gods".

...in which case, Gargoyles could actually look like anything. You could theme your Gargoyle to match your Quest. A Nurgle Chaos band would probably sculpt a statue that looks like a smallish Great Unclean One, for instance, while a Slaanesh band's Gargoyle would be... highly distracting.