Half-Celestials: Who plays one, and what are they *Really* worth?

[Sepulchrave II]

Particularly at high levels.

Does anyone here have any extensive experience of them? I'm considering options for a player who wants his character to 'assume' the template. He's 20th level.

What do you think? ECL +3, +4, +5; or something else?

No wings, btw.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I'd call them +3 without the wings.

And I love the Half-Celestial and Half-Fiend templates. They add a lot of spice to a character, especially if you're playing against type-- the NG Half-Fiend soldier who loves his mama and his hometown, and tries so hard not to let his fiendish nature control him... especially when the locals get superstitious.

Or, my favorite character, the Half-Celestial ex-Paladin alcoholic mercenary who's just trying to earn enough coin for his next night's drinks.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Even without wings, I don't think a Pal16/Half-Cel4 is underpowered.

Pal15/Half-Cel5 I'd be less inclined to play.

I'd consider a Pal17/Half-Cel3 to be a bargain.

As for stacking a template on top of a 20th level character - I'm afraid I don't have any feel for the Epic rules (I don't own the ELH), so I have no idea what a 24th level character should be capable of.

Sorry.

-Hyp.

 

[Nifft]

At one point I granted a player a Half-Stellar Deva Template (from my custom template set). It seemed worth about +3 ECL.

Think about how much "fun" your party had with the Half-Fiend Chimera! Those 1/day powers are pretty good -- especially Holy Word, Symbol and Monster Summoning IX.

For a Paladin, +4 Cha means that the save bonuses provided by the +4 Con, +4 Wis and +2 Dex are further extended by an additional 2. This template will grant Ed a total of:
Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +4

... and that's better than three levels of most classes!

Being an Outsider is cooler at high levels, when your party Wizard knows how to use Polymorph effectively.

No specific advice for the MM Half-Celestial ECL... just that it's a VERY good set of powers, and shouldn't be cheap.

-- Nifft

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Even without wings, I don't think a Pal16/Half-Cel4 is underpowered.

Would it be +5 with the wings, then? I'd consider that to be too much, and Savage Species lists the total template as +4. It makes no mention of wings, however.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Would it be +5 with the wings, then? I'd consider that to be too much, and Savage Species lists the total template as +4. It makes no mention of wings, however.

I personally feel that, at that level, the wings make no appreciable difference to your ECL. Wings or no wings is more a flavour thing than a power thing at 20th level.

You're supposed to have 720k gold in resources... and it's, what, 12000 for Wings of Flying or Winged Boots?

-Hyp.

 

[thundershot]

On the official D&D boards Savage Species section, I think it was Rich Redman who said that they assumed that people would be playing characters WITH wings. So I'd say subtract a point of LA without wings.



Chris

 

[greycastle]

Wait...so you must take levels of Half-Celestial to attain their level powers? This would seem to make them much less attractive to play, and lower the LA to at least +2 without wings, seeing as it would put them approximately along side a fey'ri without any of the LA abilities (e.g. DR, enervation)

If the spells acummulate with normal levels *such as from fighter, paladin, etc* then i'd say it should be about +4 without wings...though i can't imagine wings making another +1 LA, as they simply Aren't that much good if your in heavy armour *which most paladins by definition should be*

Also, if it's say a Half-Celestial/Half-Dwarf, do they gain dwarven bonuses and penalties? or if it's a half-elf would they gain the bonuses and penalties? or simply add the half-elf template *giving them bonuses to listen search etc*

And finally, is it possible, despite all reason, for a Half-Celestial/Half-Fiend to exsist?

 

[Darklone]

You're supposed to have 720k gold in resources... and it's, what, 12000 for Wings of Flying or Winged Boots?

-Hyp.

IME, there's a huge difference between magical means of flight and natural ones... especially if you play with Dispel Fly = DROP! houserules.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Wait...so you must take levels of Half-Celestial to attain their level powers?

No, when I said "Paladin 17 / Half-Celestial 3" I was just using a shorthand for "An ECL 20 Character with 17 Paladin levels, assuming a Half-Celestial template is being treated as an ECL modifier of +3".

Also, if it's say a Half-Celestial/Half-Dwarf, do they gain dwarven bonuses and penalties? or if it's a half-elf would they gain the bonuses and penalties? or simply add the half-elf template *giving them bonuses to listen search etc*

The dwarf would gain the dwarven racial traits.

A Half-Celestial/Half-Elf would gain the elven racial traits.

A Half-Celestial/Half-Half-Elf would gain the half-elven racial traits.

And finally, is it possible, despite all reason, for a Half-Celestial/Half-Fiend to exsist?

Do you mean a fiend with the half-celestial template, a celestial with the half-fiend template, or a basic race with both the half-fiend and half-celestial templates?

-Hyp.