D&D 3E/3.5 Astral Deva 3.5

[questionmark]

Using the SS guide I am going to start an astral deva as a lvl one character in a 3.5 game. Has anyone else done this? How did it turn out?

 

[gariig]

Using the SS guide I am going to start an astral deva as a lvl one character in a 3.5 game. Has anyone else done this? How did it turn out?

There are a few glaring errors in the AStral Deva...
1. They never become large size at 12 HD, but they do at 19 HD. So someone got character level 19 and 19 Hit Dice confused, so just chuck that.
2. They should have +8 DEX
3. They should have Electricity Resistance not Immunity and Immunity to Cold(I think they forgot) instead of Immunity (Electricity).
4. The DR needs to be changed to Evil instead of the old +x system or you could House Rule it to Magic as Evil is a hard one to overcome.

That is all the problems I can think of, if you check the WoTC boards for Savage Species(or the archived ones) some people have stated some of the problems.

Also, there was a discussion earlier here you might want to check out.

Good luck,

Gariig

 

[Bill Muench]

Also along those lines, what are people's opinions on the Stun ability of Astral Devas? Can they use any melee weapon, as described in Savage Species, or are they limited to their Mace if they weren't leveled up as a PC?

 

[jgsugden]

Also along those lines, what are people's opinions on the Stun ability of Astral Devas? Can they use any melee weapon, as described in Savage Species, or are they limited to their Mace if they weren't leveled up as a PC?

That can go either way.

As for using SS to play a high ECL being: I *highly* recommend against it. Certain abilities are very abusive in the hands of a PC, regardless of level. They may be fun for the person playing the creature, but it often reduces the fun for other players. For instance, I played in a game where there was a 10th level ghaele PC. The ghaele's aura drove our enemies away constantly. You can imagine how annoying it is to not be able to fight your foes because they constantly flee you.

Many unexpected problems arise from high ECL creatures. If the creature has any ususual abilities, I'd lean away from allowing it as a PC race.

 

[Bill Muench]

That can go either way.

As for using SS to play a high ECL being: I *highly* recommend against it. Certain abilities are very abusive in the hands of a PC, regardless of level. They may be fun for the person playing the creature, but it often reduces the fun for other players. For instance, I played in a game where there was a 10th level ghaele PC. The ghaele's aura drove our enemies away constantly. You can imagine how annoying it is to not be able to fight your foes because they constantly flee you.

Many unexpected problems arise from high ECL creatures. If the creature has any ususual abilities, I'd lean away from allowing it as a PC race.

I know it can go either way. I'm looking for opinions.

I'm not worried about ECL issues - its an arena game and I'm only shapechanging into the Astral Deva.

 

[DM2]

It seems like many of those races would not be long for the world they are being played in, either.

Get to mid levels and any chump priest will dismiss you to either your native plane, or 1/5 of the time a random plane you don't wanna visit.

DM2

 

[Urbannen]

Outsider levels are superior to PC levels IMO. Outsiders get a fighter's BAB, a monk's saves, a rogue's number of skill points, spell-like abilities, special abilities like flight, teleportation, immunities, and resistances, proficiency with all simple and martial weapons, and a good list of class skills. Not to mention that the astral deva gets huge ability increases over time.

Think carefully before allowing astral deva characters into your game. The astral deva's LA should be higher +20 IMO.

 

[Mojo Jojo]

how would you handle the damage reduction of an astral deva in 3.5?
Using the ss, a pc has a DR of 5\+1 at level 6, and at lvl 11 the DR becomes 10/+1.
to convert this character to 3.5 do I just substitute the +1 to Evil?
Or something like at lvl 6 5\magic, lvl 10\evil?

 

[BenjaminB]

I love this monster class- I've got one as a 3rd level NPC in an upcoming game I'm running.

I'm waffling on whether to use 3.5 at all... I haven't upgraded, so I may stick with 3.0 for now.

Is there anything wrong with the class in terms of 3.0? Does it look right?

-B

 

[jgsugden]

how would you handle the damage reduction of an astral deva in 3.5?
Using the ss, a pc has a DR of 5\+1 at level 6, and at lvl 11 the DR becomes 10/+1.
to convert this character to 3.5 do I just substitute the +1 to Evil?
Or something like at lvl 6 5\magic, lvl 10\evil?

Not that I would allow an astral deva PC, but if there were to be one (and we kept it at 20 levels of progression), I'd go DR 5/(evil or magic) at 6th, DR 10/(evil or magic) at 11th and DR 10/evil at 18th. Or, I might give them DR at the same rate that a barbarian gains it (except that it would be #/evil instead of #/---) and then give them the rest of it when they hit 20th level.

DR is one of those abilities that just ruins the game if a PC gets too much of it. Very few creatures have evil weapons. For all other foes, this character effectively has the DR of a 34th level barbarian. Against a creature that does insane amounts of damage with few attacks, the DR is not that big of a deal. Against a foe with many attacks that each do little damage, that much DR is insanely powerful. That is why barbarians get it so slowly. It is far from the worst offender in terms of monster abilities that PCs are not supposed to gain, but it is still a pain.