Gargoyle 5e: Stats, Statue Ambushes and the 2024 Gargoyle

A gargoyle is a CR 2 Medium elemental that looks like a statue until it moves. In the 2014 rules it has AC 15, 52 hit points, a 60-foot fly speed, a bite and a claw at +4 for 5 damage each, and two traits that define it: False Appearance (while motionless it's indistinguishable from a statue) and resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren't adamantine. At low levels that resistance halves most of the party's damage. The 2024 gargoyle drops both traits, gains 15 hit points (67), Stealth +4 and Flyby, and becomes a hit-and-run flier instead of a stone wall.

Table of Contents

• •Gargoyle Stat Block (2014)
• •The Gargoyle in the 2024 Rules
• •How Gargoyles Fight
• •How Many Gargoyles for Your Party?
• •How Players Beat Gargoyles
• •Gargoyle Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Gargoyle Stat Block (2014)

SRD 5.1's gargoyle is built to be underestimated twice: first because it looks like decoration, then because the party's weapons barely hurt it.

Its resistance is what makes it CR 2. It resists bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren't adamantine. For a level 3 party with mundane weapons, the gargoyle's 52 hit points work like 104 against the fighter and the rogue. Magic weapons, adamantine weapons and spells deal full damage.

False Appearance. While it doesn't move, it's indistinguishable from an inanimate statue. A Perception check doesn't reveal it, because there's nothing to notice. Players find out what it is when it moves or when something besides sight tells them.

It's not much of a hitter. Bite and claws at +4 for 5 each. Against AC 16 each hits on 12 or higher (45%), so about 4.5 damage a round. The danger is how long it lasts, not how hard it hits.

Immunities: poison, Exhaustion, Petrified and Poisoned. A basilisk's gaze or a medusa's stare does nothing to it.

The Gargoyle in the 2024 Rules

SRD 5.2.1 trades the gargoyle's defenses for mobility and hit points.

What changes at the table:

• •Mundane weapons work now. The 2024 gargoyle has no resistance at all. A level 2 party without magic weapons goes from a grinding fight to a fair one.
• •Statue ambushes need Stealth, not a trait. Without False Appearance, whether the party spots a motionless 2024 gargoyle among real statues is a DM ruling. Its Stealth +4 is the number to use. To take the Hide action in 2024 it needs a DC 15 Stealth check (50% at +4) while Heavily Obscured or behind three-quarters or total cover and out of every enemy's line of sight. A gargoyle standing in plain view on a plinth doesn't qualify.
• •Flyby makes it a skirmisher. It can dive, claw twice and fly back up without provoking. Melee characters get nothing.
• •More damage. Two 7-damage claws against AC 16 average about 6.3 a round, up from 4.5.

How Gargoyles Fight

Gargoyles fight from above and from stillness. They pick the moment, attack from where nobody is looking, and leave the party trying to hit something 30 feet up.

The statue ambush (2014). Place gargoyles where statues belong: a cathedral roofline, a garden of carved figures, the corners of a crypt, the pillars of a bridge. With False Appearance, the party has no ordinary way to tell which statues are which. The gargoyles act when the party is spread out among them. Under 2014 surprise rules, the DM decides whether anyone notices a threat before combat; against a creature that is indistinguishable from a statue, the party is usually surprised and loses its first turn.

Dive and climb (2024). With a 60-foot fly speed and Flyby, a 2024 gargoyle flies 30 feet down, claws twice and flies 30 feet back up, ending out of reach of anyone without a ranged attack. It never takes an opportunity attack for leaving. Have it pick a target that's hard for the party to protect: the archer on the wall, the healer at the back.

Grind them down (2014). The 2014 gargoyle doesn't need to be clever. Against a party relying on nonmagical weapons, it can trade blows on the ground, because it takes half damage and they take full. Four rounds of 4.5 damage a round is not much; four rounds of the fighter dealing half damage is the real problem.

Strike over a drop. Gargoyles live on rooftops, cliff faces and bell towers. A character fighting a gargoyle on a narrow ledge risks a fall no matter how the attacks go. Shoving isn't in its stat block, but the threat of the drop changes how players move.

Retreat to perch. Gargoyles are territorial, not suicidal. At half hit points, one flies out of sight, then settles among other statues and goes still again. The party then has to decide which statue it was.

How Many Gargoyles for Your Party?

A gargoyle is worth 450 XP. With the 2024 SRD XP budget for four characters:

The 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines (used by our encounter calculator) count three gargoyles as 2,700 XP after the ×2 multiplier: Deadly for four level 4 characters, Medium for four level 5 characters. Two count as 1,350, Hard at level 3.

Adjust for magic weapons in 2014. A party without any magic or adamantine weapons faces 2014 gargoyles as if they had twice the hit points, so treat them as one difficulty step higher. In 2024 the numbers can stand as they are.

How Players Beat Gargoyles

• •Magic weapons and spells (2014). Any magical attack or adamantine weapon ignores its resistance. A cleric's Spiritual Weapon or a wizard's Magic Missile deals full damage. A fighter with a mundane longsword deals half.
• •Detect Evil and Good. It senses Elementals within 30 feet in both editions. Cast it before walking into a sculpture garden and the gargoyles light up among the real statues.
• •Ranged attacks. Gargoyles fly. Keep at least one character with a bow or a ranged cantrip ready, especially against 2024 gargoyles, whose Flyby means melee characters will rarely get a swing.
• •Ready actions (2024). A gargoyle that dives in to attack has to come within 5 feet. A character who Readies an attack for "when a gargoyle comes within reach" gets a hit in before it flies away.
• •Weak saves. Intelligence −2, Charisma −2, Wisdom +0. Banishment at DC 13 works 70% of the time. Under 2024 rules a banished Elemental doesn't return if Concentration lasts the full minute; in 2014 that depends on whether you rule the gargoyle native to another plane.
• •Protection from Evil and Good covers Elementals in both editions, giving gargoyles Disadvantage on attacks against the protected character.
• •Don't bother petrifying it. It's immune to Petrified. It's also immune to poison and the Poisoned condition.

Gargoyle Encounter Ideas

The stonemason's garden. A reclusive sculptor's estate is full of statues of travelers. Some are the basilisk's victims from the woods nearby; two are gargoyles who moved in because the basilisk can't hurt them. The party is hired to find the sculptor's missing apprentice. The basilisk is the threat everyone expects. The gargoyles strike when the party is busy with it.

The bell tower. A cathedral's bell has stopped ringing. Three gargoyles have nested in the bell tower, and the clergy assume the carvings on the outside are just carvings. The fight happens on narrow wooden stairs and the beams around the bell, 60 feet above the ground. The gargoyles hate the noise; a player who thinks to ring the bell sends them out of the tower for a round or two, which buys time to get off the stairs.

The wizard's porters. A dead mage's tower has two gargoyles on its gate that were bound to attack anyone who enters without the password. The binding still holds, but the gargoyles have spent forty years bored and will bargain in Terran (or Primordial) for news of the outside world, stories and shiny objects. A party that speaks the language may walk in without a fight.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a gargoyle in 5e?

A gargoyle is CR 2 and worth 450 XP in both the 2014 and 2024 rules. It has AC 15, a 60-foot fly speed, and 52 hit points in 2014 or 67 in 2024.

Is a gargoyle resistant to nonmagical weapons?

In 2014, yes: it resists bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren't adamantine. In 2024 it has no damage resistances.

How does the gargoyle's False Appearance work?

In the 2014 rules, while the gargoyle stays motionless it's indistinguishable from an inanimate statue. It can't be picked out by looking. The 2024 gargoyle doesn't have this trait; it relies on Stealth +4 and hiding instead.

Is a gargoyle an elemental or a construct?

An elemental, in both editions. That means spells and effects that target Elementals, such as Detect Evil and Good, Protection from Evil and Good and the 2024 Banishment's planar exile, work on it, and effects that only affect Constructs don't.

What does Flyby do?

The 2024 gargoyle doesn't provoke opportunity attacks when it flies out of an enemy's reach. It can dive, attack and fly away without taking a hit.

Stat blocks: System Reference Document 5.1 (2014) and 5.2.1 (2024), Wizards of the Coast, CC-BY-4.0. Tactics, encounter math and ideas are Loreify's own.