Celestial traits?

What are the Celestial Traits in 3.5? Admittidely, I do not have the 3.5 MM as I wasn't planning on DMing, so alas I can not look it up muself. But I have a 3.0 character (a Celestial) that I need converted over to 3.5,a nd I need to know what changes (if any) were made to them.

Specifically, how is their Acid/Cold/Electricity resistance calculated?
How is their Spell Resistance calculated?
Do they have new Damage Reduction, since that was reworked in 3.5?

Thanks!

Hi again!

This was taken from the 3.5 SRD. Does it answer your questions?

CELESTIAL CREATURE
Celestial creatures dwell on the upper planes, the realms of good, although they resemble beings found on the Material Plane. They are more regal and more beautiful than their earthly counterparts.
Celestial creatures often come in metallic colors (usually silver, gold, or platinum). They can be mistaken for half-celestials, more powerful creatures that are created when a celestial mates with a non-celestial creature.
CREATING A CELESTIAL CREATURE
“Celestial” is an inherited template that can be added to any corporeal animal, aberration, animal, dragon, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, plant, or vermin of good or neutral alignment (referred to hereafter as the base creature).
A celestial creature uses all the base creature’s statistics and abilities except as noted here. Do not recalculate the creature’s Hit Dice, base attack bonus, saves, or skill points if its type changes.
Size and Type: Animals or vermin with this template become magical beasts, but otherwise the creature type is unchanged. Size is unchanged. Celestial creatures encountered on the Material Plane have the extraplanar subtype.
Special Attacks: A celestial creature retains all the special attacks of the base creature and also gains the following attack.
Smite Evil (Su): Once per day a celestial creature can make a normal melee attack to deal extra damage equal to its HD (maximum of +20) against an evil foe.
Special Qualities: A celestial creature retains all the special qualities of the base creature and also gains the following qualities.
—Darkvision out to 60 feet.
—Damage reduction (see the table below).
—Resistance to acid, cold, and electricity (see the table below).
—Spell resistance equal to HD + 5 (maximum 25).

Hit Dice Resistance to Acid, Cold, Electricity Damage Reduction
1–3 5 —
4–7 5 5/magic
8–11 10 5/magic
12 or more 10 10/magic
If the base creature already has one or more of these special qualities, use the better value.
If a celestial creature gains damage reduction, its natural weapons are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Abilities: Same as the base creature, but Intelligence is at least 3.
Environment: Any good-aligned plane.
Challenge Rating: HD 3 or less, as base creature; HD 4 to 7, as base creature +1; HD 8 or more, as base creature +2.
Alignment: Always good (any).
Level Adjustment: Same as the base creature +2

Here's the exact change:

Damage reduction 5/+1 > 5/magic
Damage reduction 5/+2 > 5/magic
Damage reduction 10/+3 > 10/magic

Resistance 5 > no resistance
Resistance 10 > Resistance 5
Resistance 15 > Resistance 10
Resistance 20 > Resistance 10


IIRC, that are the only differences to the stats.

Alright, let me see if I understand this Level Adjustment correctly. Let's say I am a Paladin 6 / Sorcerer 4. Would that mean my total character level is now 12? (Paladin 6 + Sorcerer 4 + Celestial Level Adjustment 2 = 12)?

How are skills calculated? Are they calculated just using me classes, so they'd be equal to a level 10 character? Or do I factor the +2 Level Adjustment in there, so they should be equal to a level 10 character?

Same thing with Feats. Do I get feats as a level 10 character would, or as a level 12 character would?

And for purposes of a PC, I assume HD is the same thing as character level? So using the chart to figure out my damage resistance, would my HD be equal to a level 10 character, or a level 12 one?

Would my spell resistance be a 17 or a 15 (accounting for the +2 lvl adjustment)?

How I understand this (going from Savage Species info):


Your celestial (Gnome) Paladin6 / Sorcerer4 has a character level of 10 and an effective character level of 12 (because of his level adjustment of +2).

The effective character level (ECL) of 12 is used to determine how much experience is to be awarded for encounters and how much experience is needed to gain a new level. (Additionally it would be used for starting equipment, but since your gnome is an already existing character, I don't think you'd benefit from this.)

Anything else is based on the character level (total number of classes + any racial HD [which you don't have]), so:

1. Skills are calculated for a level 10 character.

2. Feats are also gained for a level 10 character.

3. The HD-dependant features of the template are based on the character level so it would be Resistance 10 and DR 5/magic. Spell resistance would be 15.


In case you need further info while the boards are down, email me: Folkert.Siedler at t-online.de

Hope this helps!

Folkert

Many thanks! Not that I am disagreeing, but can anyone else chime on D's assessment? I just want to be sure is all...

Oh, by the way, what does that do for my feats and ability scores? At level 12, I get another feat and a +1 to an ability score. Am I considered level 12 for these purposes, or level 10? And if it's level 10, then I guess I'll be missing out on some feats when I hit level 20, which really would suck.

From WotC's 3.5 FAQ:

"Character Level: The total number of class levels you have in all your classes, plus any racial Hit Dice you have. [...] Character levels determine when you gain feats and ability score increases (see Table 3–2: Experience and Level-Dependent Benefits in the Player’s Handbook)."

and

"Effective Character Level (ECL): Effective character level is character level plus the level adjustment for the character’s race. [...] Use the character’s ECL to determine starting equipment and how the character earns and benefits from experience, as noted on page 5 of Savage Species. Use the actual character level for everything else."

So you are a 10th level character and do not gain a feat or an ability increase for level 12, because your actual character level is only 10.

This is how I understand these passages.


Folkert

As much as I may dislike the rule, Douane is 100% correct. ECL is used for determining XP-related stuff and starting equipment *only*. Everything else - stat boosts, feats, skill rank maximums, etc - uses racial hitdice + class levels (abbreviated as character level).

-The Souljourner