Gargoyle
Long ago, a sculptor summoned an elemental spirit into a sculpture to protect their town from other spirits. So successful was the spirit, the people paid homage to it and carved other statues in it's likeness as gutters and rain spouts on their buildings. Filled with spiritual power by the imagery and focus, the spirit imbued it's essence into many of the statues, causing them to come to life and take on it's nature as well. Ever since then, gargoyle statues have been carved to ward off evil spirits.
Gargoyles themselves are elemental spirits spawned from these legendary events. Unlike most elementals, gargoyles thrive in urban environments, often seeking them out over the wilderness that other primal spirits prefer. Gargoyles seek towns not yet inhabited by many other gargoyles and begin roosting there, scaring off other spirits that attempt to stake claim to their territory. Contrary to popular belief, gargoyles don't have loyalty towards or against the inhabitants of the city or buildings in which they roost, only the buildings and cities themselves. They typically aren't violent unless they or their roosting grounds are threatened. They are highly territorial towards other spirits, but usually don't care about mortals. Occasionally, gargoyles have been known to defend cities from invasions and sieges, but also have a reputation for hunting, tormenting, and even killing inhabitants who violate their territory. This leaves people who know of gargoyles with mixed feelings towards their presence.
Gargoyles that reside in the same area long enough slowly mutate to match the style of the local architecture. If roosting near a place of strong spiritual power, such as a church or temple, the gargoyle also tends to adopt similar inclinations towards that faith.
GARGOYLE TRAITS (28 XP)
- Types Size 5 Sapient Bipedal Spirit (Earth, Gargoyle)
- Reach 5 feet
- Speed Land 20 feet, Climb 20 feet, Glide 20 feet
ATTRIBUTES (0 XP)
- +2 Con, -2 Int, +2 Wis
LANGUAGES (0 XP)
- Starting Languages: Common, Gaios.
- Bonus Languages: Any common language.
INNATE TRAITS (28 XP)
- Camouflage IV (8 XP): Gargoyles that remain still appear to be statues or piles of stone, allowing them to hide in plain sight via a Tier 4 Camouflage ability in locations where statues and rockpiles would be inconspicuous.
- Climbing (4 XP): Gargoyles have a 20-foot climb speed and +4 innate (racial) bonus to Climb checks.
- Dark vision (2 XP): Gargoyles ignore concealment created by dim lighting or darkness. They cannot see color in darkness, only shades of grey.
- Gliding (4 XP): Gargoyles have a 20-foot glide speed and +4 innate (racial) bonus to Fly checks. Glide speeds function as fly speeds except they cannot be used to move upwards and you automatically descend 5 feet every round spent gliding. This descent does not count against your movement.
- Magic Affinity (2 XP): Gargoyles are naturally adapted to using earth magic. They have a +2 innate bonus to all attack rolls, caster checks, concentration checks, DCs, and saving throws to use powers with the Acid or Earth descriptor and resist powers with the Air or Electricity descriptor. They also add this bonus multiplied by the effect tier to damage rolls and healing rolls with such effects. They have a -2 penalty to all these statistics when using any other form of magic.
- Natural Armor (6 XP): Gargoyles have +3 natural armor.
- Natural Weapons (2 XP): Gargoyles have a bite attack dealing 1d4 piercing damage and two claw attacks each dealing 1d4 slashing damage.
- Planar Affinity (6 XP): Gargoyles are naturally adapted to the Elemental Plane of Earth and don't suffer from the plane's innate climate. They can also use Plane Shift as a tier 1 innate elemental power with the Reliable upgrade applied three times but can only use it to travel to the Elemental Plane of Earth or Material Plane.
- Slow (-2 XP): Gargoyles are slow, possessing only a 20-foot land speed.
- Spirit (0 XP): A gargoyle's body turns to stone when they die.
- Sunlight Petrification (-4 XP): Gargoyles exposed to daylight make a Fortitude save every round DC20 + 1 per round of exposure, becoming petrified upon a failure. They remain petrified until no longer exposed to the sun. They are immune to petrification from other sources. If exposed to dim sunlight or small rays of light, this causes them to become slowed on a failure instead, only risking petrification if already slowed from the sun. Petrified gargoyles that are destroyed do not come back to life upon being removed from daylight.
ADDITIONAL TRAITS
Gargoyles begin with their innate traits and can gain additional traits from the following list as feats.
FAST WINGS (2 XP)
Prerequisites: Glide
Benefits: Increase your glide speed by 10 feet.
Special: Each additional time you take this feat, your glide speed increases by 10 feet.
FLIGHT (4 XP)
Prerequisites: Fast Wings
Benefits: Your glide speed becomes a flight speed.
GREATER CAMOUFLAGE (4 XP)
Prerequisites: Camouflage
Benefits: Your Camouflage bonus increases to +10. As a reaction, you can freeze in place to immediately gain the benefits of Camouflage.
SAFE SLUMBER (4 XP)
Prerequisites: Stone Seal or Petrification
Benefits: While petrified, you are automatically disguised and hidden with a +10 circumstance bonus. Your petrified form gains hardness equal to your Constitution modifier (minimum +1). While unconscious, you add this bonus to your defenses and saving throws against Divination effects used to locate you. If an effect requires a flat check to locate you, increase the DC by this bonus. If no check is normally required, the effect requires a caster level check (DC 20 + your level) or fails.
SLIPPERY STEALTH (4 XP)
Prerequisites: Camouflage
Benefits: As part of any movement, you may attempt a Sleight of Hand or Stealth check opposed by observers’ Perception. Observers you beat do not negate your Camouflage by seeing you move.
STONE MAGIC (4 XP)
Prerequisites: —
Benefits: The first time you take this feat, you gain know direction and magic stone as innate powers. Each additional time you take this feat, you gain one innate power of a higher tier (2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.) with “stone” in its name that has the earth descriptor or is a divination power.
STONE SEAL (4 XP)
Prerequisites: —
Benefits: You can enter or end petrification as a standard action (or reaction if you have Greater Camouflage). You can remain conscious while petrified. While not in direct sunlight, you can end petrification at will. If petrified in sunlight, you must attempt Fortitude saves each round; on a critical failure you remain petrified until out of sunlight, and on a success you end petrification for 1 round but must continue saving to avoid being petrified again.