Excerpts: Angels

[Mathew_Freeman]

I likes it, the entry really got me popping with encounter ideas. you pissed off the Grand Poobah of the local cult? Does he hire some standard assassins? No he starts filling out the paperwork to submit his request for divine redress against those who have crossed him, in triplicate.
And once the PCs finally track down the Poobah what messed with them and put him to the sword they find a neatly organized dossier with copies of all divine correspondence and detailed information on each of them, their families, darkest secrets etc. things even they did not know opening the door to the next adventure..

This makes me full of glee.

The best thing about the article for me is that it makes a distinction between those who worship and draw power from gods (good or evil) and those that seek power from Devils.

Annoy the Religious, suffer the wrath of angels. Annoy the Cultists, get attacked by Devils.

Fundamentally, all gods want to further their portfolio and attract new worshippers. Devils want your soul - big difference in approach, goal and method.

And I can't wait to drop an Angel of Vengeance on the party!

 

[Voss]

Hmm. Mixed feelings.
On the one hand, I always kind of liked that evil gods had to rely on human servants. That seemed... appropriate. Yet I like the idea of direct divine servants.
However, these angels are, for some reason, independently spawned mercenary forces, which is just frankly bizarre. Angel's as manifestations of a god's will? That would make sense to me. Angel's as hirelings the gods pick up on the Astral Sea? Kinda odd. Are they all standing in front of a Celestial Home Depot or something?

As creature blocks, they work as reskinned elemental beings (particularly like the pillar of fire effect on vengenance guy), but the fluff just fundamentally falls apart in several places.

 

[fullchromelogic]

I have to say, my favorite part of the whole excerpt is the Angel of Vengeance's ability to turn into a 30 ft column of flame upon being bloodied. It just makes me shiver with awesomeness.

 

[zoroaster100]

I like the overall design decision with the angels, except I dislike the look of the new angels. The art in the excerpt is not so bad, but the miniatures of angels WOTC has made so far are horrible. I think human yet more than human looking angels are much more inspiring than robots with wings.

 

[med stud]

I like the art, although I would like it if they made angels look like the apocryphical angels, with four heads and seven wings and a hundred eyes .

I also like the mercenary approach, not because I didn't like the old model but because it is more appropriate for a polytheistic system. The gods are the biggest and the strongest there are; they may have changed the world in dramatic ways, but they are still created. They were not the first, they may not be the last and they are not omnipotent. It's even possible for a god to die.

In that vein, it makes sense that there are other beings out there who found the gods, and the gods found them, and the gods and the angels started cooperating. The gods want to command while the angels want to be commanded.

This ties in with Asmodeus and the fallen angels; angels are servants. Asmodeus wanted to be a ruler. He became a ruler but wasn't up for it.

 

[Crosswind]

Am I the only one who can't get over the fact that the Angel of Vengeance looks like Don King wielding 2 swords?

Don King is coming for you! He has weaponry!

-Cross

<--Run, it's the angel of vengeance!

 

[WhatGravitas]

I like the art, although I would like it if they made angels look like the apocryphical angels, with four heads and seven wings and a hundred eyes .

I would already settle for fiery wheels and six-winged beings.

BTW, have you checked out Anger of Angels, because it (partially) does that for 3E? I need such a book for 4E.

Cheers, LT.

 

[med stud]

I would already settle for fiery wheels and six-winged beings.

BTW, have you checked out Anger of Angels, because it (partially) does that for 3E? I need such a book for 4E.

Cheers, LT.

Thanks for the tip, but it would be very easy to change. Say that the angel of valor looks like a fiery wheel. It's attacks looks different but deals the same damage. Same with everything else.

I suspect, though, that WotC is a bit careful with having monsters in the MM that are taken directly from the Bible, as that may cause some controversy.

 

[Just Another User]

OH! Thought of plot-hook/fan-fluff for Asmodeus and the other Angels rebelling and becoming Devils.

What if they were bought off, by another God or perhaps even a Primordial or a Demon (say Orcus) to kill that God.

Just imagine in Epic levels you finding out it was another God and you and the rest of the party have to make him say he did.

No I think they killed thier god because he did something that they didn't like (i.e, forgive someone that wronged him)

And now all the other gods live in fear of their angels but can't get rid of them because they are afraid they'll turn on them if they try.

 

[Just Another User]

I agree with TwinBahamut's critique-relating question. How did angels (d)evolve to devils?

A ritual?