Whats the deal with Celestials?

[Krystoff]

Ok, according to the SRD, Celestial creatures get these abilities.

Smite Evil once per day
Darkvision 60ft
Acid, Cold and Electricity Resistance based on HD up to 20
Damage Reduction based on HD up to 10/+3

Now, somehow, if you take that creature and mate him with a human, you now get

Half Celestial
Type becomes outsider
75% chance of wings
Natural Armor +1
Light at will

Once per day the following abilities
Level Abilities
----- ---------
1-2 Protection from evil, 3/day, bless
3-4 Aid, detect evil
5-6 Cure serious wounds, neutralize poison
7-8 Holy smite, remove disease
9-10 Dispel evil
11-12 Holy word
13-14 Holy aura 3/day, hallow
15-16 Symbol
17-18 Summon monster IX (celestials only)
19+ Resurrection

Low light vision
Immune to Acid, Cold, Disease, and Electricity
+4 Racial bonus to Poison saves
Str +4, Dex +2, Con +4, Int +2, Wis +4, Cha +4


What is with that? I mean you would think a Full Celestial creature would be more powerfull than a Half Celestial but no. The ECL for a Celestial is +2 and the ECL for a Half Celestial is +4.

Anyone have an explanation?

 

[Zhure]

Hybrids have more vigor.

 

[Yeoman]

I thought that the Celestial template was for average creatures that live on the good aligned planes, and that the half celestial template was for creatures with a parent that was actually a celestial (ex, archons, eladrins, things like that).


That's what I thought was in the monster manual, but I could be mistaken.

 

[Destil]

The "Celestial" template is for a typical creature that lives in the upper planes. A celetial badger, for instance, is simply the reprensation of a prime material badger in the good-alinged outer planes.

The "Half-Celestial" template is for someone who's a direct decendent of a powerful celestial (see the celestial entry in the MM), like a solar, astral diva or hound archon and something else.

 

[Arcturus_Rugend]

Celestial is a template that you apply to creatures and things that would be native to the plane. Half Celestial is a template that you apply to something that has celestial blood in it, such as the offspring of a human and an Astral Deva.

It should now be more apparent why the squirrel who just happens to live on the outer planes is less powerful than one whose mom was a solar.


(edit: my spelling sucks today)

 

[AuraSeer]

A "celestial creature" is just a native of a Good outer plane. There are celestial humans, celestial puppies and kittens, celestial trees, whatever.

A Celestial, with a capital C, is an outsider that literally embodies the power of Good-- one of the angelic types like Archons, Planetars, and the rest. These guys are the ancestors of the Half-Celestials.

[Edit: "Curse my metal body, I wasn't fast enough." ]

 

[Krystoff]

Ahh, nowhere in the SRD does it say anything about this. Just gives the stats.

Seemed rather wierd to me.

Thanks for the answers

The "Celestial" template is for a typical creature that lives in the upper planes. A celetial badger, for instance, is simply the reprensation of a prime material badger in the good-alinged outer planes.

The "Half-Celestial" template is for someone who's a direct decendent of a powerful celestial (see the celestial entry in the MM), like a solar, astral diva or hound archon and something else.

 

[coyote6]

The SRD is basically just the rules, just the mechanics; the flavor (descriptions, explanations, etc.) is largely reserved for the actual books.

Note that there's also no description of what vampires or vampire spawn are, nor (for the most part) are the material components of spells described, beyond any monetary cost associated with them.

 

[Staffan]

This is a problem with the nomenclature of D&D, which uses "Celestial" to mean both "angel" and "angelic" (more or less). It's a bit more apparent on the evil side of the coin, where you have "fiend", "half-fiend" and "fiendish".

 

[The Spectrum Rider]

>astral diva

Like Celine Dion?



The Spectrum Rider