Aasimar

Hi all,

I thought I'd share my initial (unfinished) idea on updating the aasimar to 4e. I know that WotC seems to think the race was boring and too "goody two shoes" for most people, but it was one of my favorites. It seems to be a favorite around here, too, considering that there are four different versions of it in the OCC Races pdf! Here's another version ...

[sblock=aasimar]Aasimar
[Insert Cool Rousetastic Descriptive Text Here]

Racial Traits
Avg Height: 5' 6" - 6' 4"
Avg Weight: 150 - 240lbs

Ability Scores: +2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma (or +2 to any two from Con/Wis/Cha)
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 Squares
Vision: Low-light

Languages: Common, Supernal
Skill Bonuses: +2 Intimidate, +2 Insight
Angelic Presence: Attacks against the aasimar take a -1 penalty until the aasimar is bloodied.
Cold Resistance: You have resist radiant 5 + one-half your level
Angelic Zeal: You can use angelic zeal as an encounter power.

Angelic Zeal
Your angelic blood boils with righteous zeal, improving your odds of gaining victory over your foes.
Encounter
Minor Action * Personal
Effect: You channel the zeal of your angelic ancestors to gain a +1 power bonus to your next attack roll against an enemy that hit you since your last turn. If your attack hits and deals damage, add your CHA modifier as extra damage.

Flavor: Aasimar are a race of humans enhanced with the blood of angels. They tend to have either very pale or very dark complexions with hair and eye colors reminiscent of fire and ice. Their facial features are very soft and smooth, remarkable only in their near-perfect "genericness" -- this almost unfinished quality lends itself to blending in and being forgettable (think Jason Bourne, whose face has been surgically altered to be unremarkable so it's harder for people to identify him). They tend to be somewhat cold, aloof people, although when provoked they can be suddenly filled with righteous fury. They also exude a strange aura of awe-inspiring fear that affects others subconsciously.

The origins of the aasimar are shrouded in antiquity, but some say they were created as a race of assassins whose sole purpose was to hunt down and exterminate the devil-tainted humans known as tieflings. It is entirely possible that the aasimar were created using a ritual similar to the one that created the first tieflings. It is also possible that they were created through interbreeding between angels and humans. Whatever the truth, aasimar are a true-breeding race. They have also forgotten about any ancient animosity towards tieflings and these days they treat them as they would any other race.[/sblock]
It's by no means the most original thing in the world. I've basically taken the 4e tiefling and made a mirror image of it using the 3e aasimar and some of the other 4e aasimars for guidance. I don't mind the fact that the encounter power is mechanically the same as the tiefling's. I think it works in this instance. But if someone has a better suggestion, I'm all ears (or all eyes in this case ). Same goes for a minor +1 racial power. I'm not big on the group aura things (I'm thinking of changing the elf and half-elf group auras to something else). Maybe a +1 to Will defense?


EDIT: I've added some flavor for the aasimar. It's in with the mechnical stuff now.


Let me know what you think.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Healing is great for bad guys too you know?

KKDragonLord said:

Healing is great for bad guys too you know?

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Yeah I know. But it never comes built-in as part of the bad guys' shtick. Inherent healing has "goody two shoes" written all over it and it was implied that aasimar of old were descended from good creatures, whereas with 4e, angels and such are fairly amoral and unaligned. I think the new aasimar should be as well. They're touched by the divine but that doesn't mean they're "celestial" in the "good" sense. Yeah?

A reason NOT to include the Asimaar is in the new cosmology. Devils are no longer just evil outsiders, they are rebels against the order of the universe. Mating with mortals would then be an act of rebellion. An angel, even an evil one, would not do this, as it undermines the divine order.

Of course, you don't need to subscribe to this idea, its your would. Just something that popped up in my brain when I read your post.

Starfox said:

A reason NOT to include the Asimaar is in the new cosmology. Devils are no longer just evil outsiders, they are rebels against the order of the universe. Mating with mortals would then be an act of rebellion. An angel, even an evil one, would not do this, as it undermines the divine order.

Of course, you don't need to subscribe to this idea, its your would. Just something that popped up in my brain when I read your post.

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Yes, that's certainly a reasonable point ... although you could always have a deity "breed" mortals and immortals to get something along the aasimar to help combat the tieflings or something. Who knows ...

You're right, though. It's one of those "needless symmetry" issues, I think. If I can come up with a good reason for having aasimar, then no worries. But in the meantime, what do people think of the mechanics? Is it an interesting race? Boring? Too much like the old one? Too much like the tiefling? Etc etc.

First of all, I like it. Here are just a few suggestions to consider.

First, I would make them more lawful (in the 3.5 sense) than good. This keeps them from being too much of a goody-two-shoes.

Second, It might be a good idea to change the name of "Angelic Righteousness" to "Angelic Zeal" or something...Righteous sounds too...well, right. You could also have it mark the target, instead of giving it a bonus to attack or damage.

You could also change the ability modifiers to be +2 Str and +2 Wis or +2 Con and +2 Cha. Both of those would fit as well.

You might want to change the Cold Resistance to Radiant Resistance, reinforcing that they are divine beings and can better withstand divine energy.

Finally, having bonus skill bonuses to passive skills may get a little boring. I would suggest changing them to +2 Intimidate and +2 Insight. Might get rid of the whole goody-two-shoes thing for good.

tombowings said:

First of all, I like it. Here are just a few suggestions to consider.

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Thanks! Glad you like it!

First, I would make them more lawful (in the 3.5 sense) than good. This keeps them from being too much of a goody-two-shoes.

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I concur. I hadn't even thought about alignment stuff. But that definitely fits, especially in the homebrew setting I'm developing right now, where all the deities are about lawfulness, order and stability (but not necessarily goodness) and all the chaotic stuff is the demesne of demons and primordials and the like. There are no chaotic deities (so goodbye Lolth and Gruumsh! Actually, I may just demote them to demon lords or something. I'm going to throw in the idea that some of the demons are worshipped as deities by people who don't know the true story ...)

Second, It might be a good idea to change the name of "Angelic Righteousness" to "Angelic Zeal" or something...Righteous sounds too...well, right. You could also have it mark the target, instead of giving it a bonus to attack or damage.

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Funny you should mention this. I was actually thinking that myself and had already referred to it as "angelic zeal" in an e-mail to one of my players.

You could also change the ability modifiers to be +2 Str and +2 Wis or +2 Con and +2 Cha. Both of those would fit as well.

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Hmm. This is probably the area of race design with which I feel the least comfortable. I don't really know what would be best here. I just left it as +2 Wis, +2 Cha because that's what they have in 3.x but I think you're right. Some other combo might be better. What about +2 Con, +2 Wis?

You might want to change the Cold Resistance to Radiant Resistance, reinforcing that they are divine beings and can better withstand divine energy.

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Good idea. That makes more sense.

Finally, having bonus skill bonuses to passive skills may get a little boring. I would suggest changing them to +2 Intimidate and +2 Insight. Might get rid of the whole goody-two-shoes thing for good.

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Yes. I like it! Thanks!

I'm going to make the changes to my original post now.

bump

I'd like to see flavor text for this race. It appears to be the child of an Angel of Vengeance, but I'm not sure. There's just not enough evocative about their powers to capture the feel of the race for me.

As a mechanical conversion it's sound, and I like how you've given them an Intimidate bonus. Be aware that a bonus to Wis/Cha is slightly weakening since both these apply to Will defense. In other words, you might do better comparing this race to the eladrin which does the same thing with Int/Dex.

Quickleaf said:

I'd like to see flavor text for this race. It appears to be the child of an Angel of Vengeance, but I'm not sure. There's just not enough evocative about their powers to capture the feel of the race for me.

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Yeah, I'd like to do some flavor text as well. Time is a luxury for me, though (I have a toddler and a very pregnant wife ...). My basic thought was that the aasimar are a true-breeding race "created" (somehow) by the angels or with angelic DNA, as it were. The reason they were created was as a counter to the tieflings. Perhaps they were bred as a race of angelic assassins, their sole purpose to hunt out tieflings and kill them, thus hampering Asmodeus' grand plan of taking over the world (and the cosmos) through deception and corruption and so on. Then, over time, some aasimar have gotten sidetracked and have forgotten their original purpose and now they're just like any other race -- and bear no particular racial hatred towards tieflings, yada yada.

As a mechanical conversion it's sound

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Thanks. That's the kind of thing I wanted to hear. (Not that it is mechanically sound but whether or not it is).

and I like how you've given them an Intimidate bonus.

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Cool. This was mainly to go along with the new flavor for the angels, and since none of them are goody two shoes, then the aasimar don't need to be either. The new angels definitely come across as intimidating. They can probably intimidate people just by looking at them. They've got that frightening, not quite human appearance to them and they probably radiate a sort of aura of fear (as in the old-fashioned "awe-inspiring" kind of fear, not the "I'm super evil and I'm gonna kill you so you'd better cower in fear" kind that you might get from a demon or devil ...).

Be aware that a bonus to Wis/Cha is slightly weakening since both these apply to Will defense. In other words, you might do better comparing this race to the eladrin which does the same thing with Int/Dex.

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Yeah. I'm aware of that now. I think maybe +Con/+Wis might be better. The new angels strike me as being fairly hardy creatures, so Con can work there ... and of course there's the whole "wisdom of the angels" thing. I'd stick with Cha but I think there are already too many PC races with bonuses to Cha as it is (I'm thinking of changing the dragonborn to STR/WIS instead of Str/Cha. I don't really get why they have a bonus to CHA.). I know that's a rather silly reason not to want them to have Cha. Aargh. It's hard.

Actually, someone else has posted a variant that allows each race to pick from several stats rather than just getting static bonuses. I really like that, as it loosens the straight jacket. If I decide to go with that, I could probably make the aasimar have Str/Con/Wis/Cha as the options.