Gargoyle
Gargoyle
The Gargoyle is one of three playable races in Ultima Online, introduced as the centerpiece of Stygian Abyss in September 2009. Gargoyles are the canonical "magic-and-machinery" race — winged, stone-skinned, and culturally bound to arcane scholarship and high crafting — and they live in the underground homeland of Ter Mur, the third Britannian facet introduced alongside the race itself. Where Humans are the generalist baseline and Elves are the nature-and-magic refinement, Gargoyles are the race-as-class option: distinct stat modifiers, distinct equipment, distinct racial abilities, and an entirely separate weapon and armor roster they can equip.
The race shipped at the same time as Mysticism, Throwing, and Imbuing — the three new SA-introduced skills that map almost exclusively to Gargoyles in canonical builds. A "Gargoyle Mystic" with 120 Mysticism, 120 Throwing, and 120 Imbuing is the archetypical SA-era endgame template.
Race-creation choice
When creating a new character, the race menu offers three options:
| Race | Highlight |
|---|---|
| Human | Baseline; access to Jack of All Trades + Strong Back |
| Elf | +20 max INT / −20 max STR; Wisdom of Elves; race-restricted recipes |
| Gargoyle | Flying ability; +20 max DEX (after Publish updates); Throwing weapons; race-restricted equipment |
Once chosen, race cannot be changed without a paid Race Change Token from the UO Store. The race choice determines the available starter cities, equipment slots, and skill-availability bonuses for the rest of the character's life.
Gargoyle starter and homeland
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Starter location | Royal City (the Gargoyle capital in Ter Mur) |
| Native facet | Ter Mur |
| Native skills | Throwing (Gargoyle-only), Mysticism, Imbuing |
| Visible in | All facets — Gargoyles travel anywhere, just like Humans and Elves |
Royal City is the political and trade hub of Ter Mur — banks, healers, vendors, the Royal Mint, and the High Council all sit there. Newly-created Gargoyles spawn at the Royal City moongate; the surrounding Ter Mur landscape (Holy City, Painted Caves, Underworld entrance) is the canonical training ground.
The flight ability
The single most distinct mechanical feature of being Gargoyle: flying. Toggle flight via the racial ability menu, and the character switches from a walking sprite to a hover-flight sprite. While flying:
| Effect | Detail |
|---|---|
| Movement speed | Same as walking on the ground — flying is not faster |
| Terrain crossing | Cannot cross mountains, water, or impassable tiles by air alone — flight follows walkable terrain |
| Action restriction | Cannot attack while flying — must land first |
| Stamina cost | None |
| Cooldown to switch modes | A short visible animation — not a hard cooldown |
So flying is mostly cosmetic. The ability does not give Gargoyles a movement-speed advantage, and it is purely flavor. The exception is a few specific dungeon walkways and Ter Mur Holy City pillars where flight is the only way to reach a vendor or NPC perched on a high ledge — but these are rare and often have walkable bypasses.
Gargoyle equipment slots
Gargoyles have a different equipment layout than Humans and Elves — they cannot wear human or elven armor at all. The Gargoyle slot map:
| Slot | Item type |
|---|---|
| Head | Gargish helm — Gargish-only |
| Neck | Gargish necklace |
| Chest | Gargish breastplate |
| Arms | Gargish arms armor — unique slot, no equivalent on Humans/Elves |
| Hands | Gargish gloves |
| Legs | Gargish leggings |
| Earrings | Gargish earrings |
| Talisman | Universal slot, Gargoyles use it normally |
| Weapon slot | Gargish-only weapons (Cyclone, Soul Glaive, etc.) — see Throwing |
The Gargoyle equipment roster is a separate item-set from the human/elf one. Gargoyles cannot equip a sword or a longbow — they wield Throwing weapons instead — and they cannot wear standard plate or chain armor. Gargish equivalents exist for every craft tier (cloth, leather, plate-equivalent stone-skin armors), all with the standard property roster (Damage Increase, Resistances, Mana Regen, etc.).
The Throwing skill
Throwing is the canonical Gargoyle-only weapon skill. It mirrors Archery — ranged combat with chargeable specials — but uses Gargish-throwable weapons:
| Weapon | Min damage | Max damage | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boomerang | 11 | 13 | 3.25 |
| Cyclone | 14 | 18 | 3.25 |
| Soul Glaive | 17 | 23 | 3.25 |
A 120 Throwing Gargoyle is a high-DPS ranged build comparable to a 120 Archery Human, with the bonus that Throwing weapons cannot be wielded by any non-Gargoyle character — a unique-build advantage for the race.
Gargoyle-themed skills (partial-overlap)
The three SA-launch skills are not race-locked, but their canonical builds are heavily Gargoyle-aligned:
| Skill | Race availability | Why it's Gargoyle-flavored |
|---|---|---|
| Mysticism | All races | Gargoyles get a passive bonus and the racial caster theme |
| Imbuing | All races | Lore-wise the Gargoyles invented Imbuing; the imbue gump uses Gargoyle imagery |
| Throwing | Gargoyle ONLY — racial restriction | |
| Spellweaving | Elf-themed | Despite being SA-era, Spellweaving is Elf-themed, not Gargoyle |
Gargoyle racial abilities
Beyond flight, Gargoyles have several passive racial bonuses that show up across builds:
| Ability | Mechanic |
|---|---|
| Fire Immunity | Innate +5% Fire Resist baseline (small but additive with armor) |
| Berserk (older, deprecated mechanic) | At low HP, Gargoyles entered a damage-bonus rage state in pre-publish balances |
| Mysticism affinity | Gargoyles cast Mysticism spells with a small efficiency bonus in some publishes |
| Two-handed talisman wielding | Gargoyles can equip a talisman in either slot (where Humans use one universal slot) |
The exact bonuses have been tweaked through several publishes since SA's launch. The Royal Council in Ter Mur is the canonical reason to visit periodically — it occasionally awards Gargoyle-specific quest gear with bonuses that drift over time.
Gargoyle build templates
Five canonical Gargoyle templates dominate the meta:
| Build | Skills (120 each unless noted) |
|---|---|
| Gargoyle Mystic | Mysticism + Focus + Imbuing + Magery + Eval Int + Resisting Spells + Meditation |
| Gargoyle Throwing | Throwing + Tactics + Anatomy + Bushido + Healing + Chivalry + Mysticism (or Magery) |
| Gargoyle Sampire | Throwing + Tactics + Anatomy + Bushido + Necromancy + Spirit Speak + Chivalry — uses Throwing weapons in Vamp form |
| Gargoyle Bard | Musicianship + Provocation + Discordance + Magery + ... (rare; Bards are race-agnostic) |
| Pure Mage | Magery + Eval Int + Resisting Spells + Meditation + Mysticism + Focus + Imbuing — heaviest caster footprint |
The Throwing-Sampire is the Gargoyle-flavored end-game build — combining the race-locked Throwing weapons with the universal Sampire combat template. Every other race can run Sampire variants; only a Gargoyle can run it with Soul Glaives.
See also
- Stygian Abyss Dungeon — the expansion that introduced the Gargoyle race
- Ter Mur — the Gargoyle homeland facet
- Throwing — the Gargoyle-only weapon skill
- Mysticism — the SA-launch caster skill associated with Gargoyles
- Imbuing — the SA-launch crafting skill the Gargoyles canonically invented
- Elf — the parallel non-human playable race introduced in Mondain's Legacy
- Heartwood — the parallel Elven city; Gargoyles' equivalent is Royal City