Gargoyle
Gargoyles and their cousins grotesques were statues of ugly humanoid monsters, sculpted demons that were popular decorations for churches and, to a lesser extent, the homes of the rich and powerful. The idea was that with their sheer ugliness, they would frighten away actual evil spirits, so they were very popular. Gargoyles are considered an epitome of the Gothic style, and tend to show up all over the place in settings with a Gothic aspiration, especially in "gothick-punk" settings like the old World of Darkness or Gothic Fantasy settings like Ravenloft.
Technically speaking, a gargoyle is a specific kind of grotesque, having been sculpted around and incorporating a waterspout (their very name, in fact, has the same root word as "gargle"). Few people remember this who aren't history buffs.
Fantasy Gaming
Gargoyles are a common feature in fantasy games, where they are usually depicted more as grotesques. They are often creatures of living stone, similar to golems in many ways, but intelligent, often mimicking living creatures in traits like needing to feed and reproduce, and usually evil - ironically, given the actual gargoyles were supposed to be protectors. In Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder specifically, they are actually a breed of lesser Earth Elemental, originally hailing from the elemental planes before migrating to the easier, more prey-rich environment of the Material Plane.
In 5th edition D&D, the fact that gargoyles are earth elementals who can fly is explained as their being the spawn of Ogremoch, the Archomental of Evil Earth, who created them in mockery of the Air creatures he so hates.
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Monstergirls
 | This article or section is about Monstergirls (or a monster that is frequently depicted as a Monstergirl), something that /tg/ widely considers to be the purest form of awesome. Expect PROMOTIONS! and /d/elight in equal measure, often with drawfaggotry or writefaggotry to match. |
Ironically, although gargoyle monstergirls rarely get much attention, they actually make a lot of sense. After all, a gargoyle is either a predatory earth elemental that pretends to be a statue, or just an Animated Object made from a statue, and statues of attractive (often naked) girls have always been popular decorations for people wealthy enough to afford statuary. It makes sense that gargoyles would evolve to resemble (or be created in the image of) statues of beautiful women, because that's a lot better way to camouflage themselves - after all, realistically, how many people would actually have sculptures of demons or hideous monstrous humanoids around the place? Everybody gets tense when you mention the presence of fiendish-looking statues; nobody bats an eye at all the naked women statues. Until they grab you and eat you, anyway.
In the Monster Girl Encyclopedia, gargoyles are believed to be demons who were sealed in stone statues before the current Succubus Lord took over. Inspired by the gargoyles of the 90s Disney cartoon "Gargoyles", they become living flesh and blood during the night, but transform into inanimate stone during the day. So, they try to get people to break the magical shackles binding them so they can use the night as a chance to go husband-hunting. And if you're still locked in coitus when the sun-rises, you turn to stone too until sundown.
Warhammer 40,000
A gargoyle is a winged variant of the termagant and possesses the same armament, except for a venom gland that allows it to spit acid. When not under the command of a synapse node Gargoyles are known for being weak and cowardly, shying away from combat. However, they are also described in the fluff as being lethal in a confined space, with claws, spikes, barbed tails, flapping wings, and venom flying everywhere. They typically like to dive upon exposed and weakened units like Imperial Guard command squads, as it can be rather difficult to fight off a swarm of acid spitting, gun toting bats that view you as a tasty slice of cake. Other preferred targets include isolated characters, back-field support units such as heavy weapon teams, and below-strength squads. Any target that is alone, vulnerable, and/or weakened would be ideal preferred prey for a swarm of Gargoyles.
Basically, imagine the Bio Raptors from Pitch Black. But they can see. And light doesn't hurt them. And they have guns. Yeah, pretty fething scary.
On the Tabletop
Prior to 8th edition, Gargoyles were Termagants with wings and a hefty points increase. They were rather unpopular, but not any more so than the rest of the Tyranid 5th-7th Edition Fast Attack choices. Now in 8th/9th they are only 2 points more than a Termagant despite having considerably more capability. Even so, you still need to know what you're doing to get the most mileage out of these guys.
In game they have one to two uses. One is to have them Deep Strike right behind enemy lines, away from fighting, and then attack things like command units, snipers, heavy weapon teams, and gun emplacements. They will wipe out these things through massed fleshborer fire, and if the unit is sufficiently depleted, dive in to melee and use their acid to finish them off.
An example of this tactic would be to use two winged hive tyrants with twin-linked devourers, supported by 30 gargoyles each, to rape the living shit out of enemy lines. Place them where the enemy has a crapload of important but vulnerable support units and then pelt them to death with so many dice rolls that they drown in them.
Really though, gargoyles are simply bats with guns, and use numbers (like all Tyranids) mixed with speed to force an opponent's death from aforementioned dice drowning. Thankfully, the newest Gargoyle models are now plastic, not the hellish metal ones, and as of pre-Codex 9th Edition they remain reasonably priced at 7 points per model. Gargoyles would be even better if they could use devourers, but then, flying dakka bats with acid spit would be absurd.