D&D 5E Angels/Celestials of Different Races

[Urriak Uruk]

I imagine dwarf or even orc angels would look a bit like Stormcasts. Giant armored suits of armor, here to bash your heads.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I imagine dwarf or even orc angels would look a bit like Stormcasts. Giant armored suits of armor, here to bash your heads.

View attachment 144021

that is very dwarfy needs beard thought.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

I'm a big fan of the idea of celestial beings that serve a particular deity having an appearance that matches said deity, whether in relation to the creatures that deity is associated with or the portfolios and domains that deity maintains. I'm also a fan of these angelic beings being able to serve any deity regardless of alignment/morality/domain/etc.

So for example, Bahamut and Tiamat would have angels that would take the shape of draconic creatures, from smaller angels being more like dragonborns or other draconic humanoids, and more powerful angelic beings being full on dragons in appearance. Though for Tiamat, her angelic servants may look more fiendish and bursting with dangerous energies associated with the five chromatic dragon's damage types while Bahamut's servants are more regal, wearing gleaming armor and shining with holy radiance and the biting cold of the northern wind.

 

[Krachek]

IMO your changes are perfectly fine and legitimate.
In fact it’s the DM job to adapt its gods, celestial and fiend to a personal flavor and style.
Orchish or dwarvish fiend, gnome like celestial, it’s just depend on the lore behind.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Was this supposed to be tagged 4e rather than 5e?

I bring it up because while in 4e angels served all deities, in 5e angels are LG and only serve LG, NG, or CG deities. Prior to 4e angels also only served good deities, and could themselves be any good alignment.

Just in case any new players are reading this and getting as confused as I was

No, it's meant to be labeled 5e (though D&D General might have been a better tag). I've never played 4e. I just like the idea that celestials can serve more deities than just the typical Good gods (in my world, they can also serve the Neutral gods, and very, very rarely the evil gods, but that's typically for fallen angels).

(or maybe you have a really unique take on a CG Raven Queen...)

My Raven Queen is . . . different, yes. She's Lawful Neutral and is my world's sole Goddess of Death and the Afterlife, and Vecna is trying to overthrow her and absorb her portfolios (because then he could feed even more souls to his phylactery and become the most powerful god in my world). The Raven Queen created these Necrotic Shadar-Kai Angels because of this conflict between her and Vecna, and they're her generals and messengers in the war. That's why they're good at killing undead, because that's quite literally what they were made for.

 

[Voadam]

This is quite a simple concept, but one that D&D doesn't seem to do that often (from what I've seen).

I suggest checking out the Celestials of 2e such as in the Monstrous Compendium Outer Planes Appendix and the planescape compendiums.

No Guardinal has a human head.

The Eladrin are explicitly elf looking, etc.

There are still humanoid looking devas, solars, planetars, and trumpet archons, but a lot of non-human ones for D&D.

This carried over to 3e as well.

 

[Mind of tempest]

The old Eladrin need a rework as they are just elves+++ which is dumb for something on the level of an angel.
maybe move guardinal over to cg?

 

[Henadic Theologian]

The old Eladrin need a rework as they are just elves+++ which is dumb for something on the level of an angel.
maybe move guardinal over to cg?

I suggest combining Asuras and Lillends into a new race with multiple types of CG Celestial. Add in Erotes maybe.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I suggest combining Asuras and Lillends into a new race with multiple types of CG Celestial. Add in Erotes maybe.

remove the name asura as that is more or less like call them titans which does not really work, but I like this idea what theme are we going for her visually and thematically?

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I suggest checking out the Celestials of 2e such as in the Monstrous Compendium Outer Planes Appendix and the planescape compendiums.

No Guardinal has a human head.

Guardinals can vary between looking more humanlike or more animal like depending on which plane they're closer to. Generally those in the Beastlands will be more animal-like.

The way I see it an Equinal (a Horse Guardinal) can look like Sarah Jessica Parker (a human who looks the closest to a Horse to me) or can look like Bojack Horseman. And that may be the difference of being based in Bytopia or the Beastlands.

 

[MechaTarrasque]

I think the DM Guide says that Arborea has elves that are celestials (so you can have a celestial elf archmage zap your PC's), Arcadia has dwarves that are celestials (so you can have a celestial dwarf archmage zap your PC's), Archeron has fiendish orcs and hobgoblins, and I don't recall if they said this, but I wouldn't be surprised if Bytopia has celestial gnomes.

Of course, having the PC's go all the way to the outer planes so they can fight orcs and hobgoblins that are basically the same as the ones that they were fighting on the prime material plane (except affected by more spells) is kind of a dud. It would be nice if there were some "extra special NPC classes associated with some of the outer planes" that you could stick those celestial/fiend elves, dwarves, orcs, hobgoblins, and maybe gnomes into.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Guardinals can vary between looking more humanlike or more animal like depending on which plane they're closer to. Generally those in the Beastlands will be more animal-like.

The way I see it an Equinal (a Horse Guardinal) can look like Sarah Jessica Parker (a human who looks the closest to a Horse to me) or can look like Bojack Horseman. And that may be the difference of being based in Bytopia or the Beastlands.

and this is why I want them to be the dg races solves all this and makes a nice symmetry to the planes with Abrahamic as lg and le with more dnd as cg and ce.

the middle needs a massive rework.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

remove the name asura as that is more or less like call them titans which does not really work, but I like this idea what theme are we going for her visually and thematically?

You could rename the Asura Erotes, the fiery wings symbolizing passion for example.

 

[Mind of tempest]

You could rename the Asura Erotes, the fiery wings symbolizing passion for example.

that would be cool but what are the themes of the celestial type? if it is cg?

 

[Henadic Theologian]

that would be cool but what are the themes of the celestial type? if it is cg?

Yeah Chaotic Good Celestials linked to various forms of love, like you could have an Erote type that is about the love of Music (Lillends), you could have an Erote time for Romantic Love (Cupids), Erotes for Love of Sex (Hedons), Erotes the Love of the Gods (Peity), Love of Battle (traditional Asuras, maybe renamed or not or Valkyries).

 

[Mind of tempest]

Yeah Chaotic Good Celestials linked to various forms of love, like you could have an Erote type that is about the love of Music (Lillends), you could have an Erote time for Romantic Love (Cupids), Erotes for Love of Sex (Hedons), Erotes the Love of the Gods (Peity), Love of Battle (traditional Asuras, maybe renamed or not or Valkyries).

we need more than love but emotion might work?

 

[Henadic Theologian]

we need more than love but emotion might work?

Passion.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Passion.

hate is passion thus a poor fit as a pure theme, positives work much better for good.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

hate is passion thus a poor fit as a pure theme, positives work much better for good.

Easy to avoid, just don't do an Angel of Hate.

 

[Yaarel]

This is quite a simple concept, but one that D&D doesn't seem to do that often (from what I've seen).

Angels should have a variety of different appearances. They shouldn't just look like muscular humans with wings, in my opinion (or green-skinned muscular humanoids in the case of the Planetar). There should be angels that look like different races, maybe dependent on which god they serve.

For example, in my homebrew world, the Raven Queen has promoted some of her most devout Shadar-Kai to become Angels. They grow black raven wings (duh), become celestials, and get a version of the Angelic Weapons feature that does necrotic damage (specified to ignore the necrotic resistances/immunities of undead).

Also, my world's goblinoids worship magic, and the founders of their religion managed to transform themselves into angels using their arcane-divine power (like a mixture of True Polymorph and Tasha's Otherworldly Guise). The Hobgoblin became the equivalent of a Planetar (with arcane-blue wings), but with wizard spells, the Bugbear became the equivalent of a Solar (with leaf-green wings), but with druid spells, and the Goblin became the equivalent of a Deva (with golden-yellow wings), but as a Divine Soul Sorcerer.

It's just a simple change, and it could be applied to a lot of different types of celestials. Gruumsh could turn his most devout followers into Orc-looking evil Archons that rode Flying Aurochs (Winged Bull stats). Imagine Moradin-serving Dwarven Angels that wear heavy armor, wield Mauls/Warhammers and have metallic wings! Gold-feathered Aarakocra that serve the Gods of the Sun and Air, Kobolds that serve Tiamat becoming Abishai when they die, Pegasi-Centaurs that serve the Gods of Nature, Couatl-serving Yuan-Ti with rainbow-wings, and so on!

Any thoughts? Have you done anything like this in your world/campaigns?

According to Mordenkeinens, the elves are originally Celestial. The mercurial shapechanging of their parent came with instability and neglect as a parent. The parent banished them in a domestic dispute. From the Celestial Domain, they immigrated to the Fey Plane and to the Material Plane. The elves in the Fey Plane have no intention of returning, but many in the Material Plane still seek to reunite with their parent as Celestials.