Pathfinder 1E The lack of overarching aesthetics in certain major planar races

[VelvetViolet]

Take a look at the agathions, angels, asuras, demodands, inevitables, kytons, proteans, qlippoth, rakshasa... notice how the monsters under each major race look obviously related to the other monsters under the same major race? Agathions are animal-headed humanoids. Angels are winged humanoids with halos, togas, and a number of wings denoting their choir. Asuras have a sword fixation and exhibit a Hindu aesthetic. Demodands are grotesque toadish creatures. Inevitables are extraplanar constructs. Kytons are into extreme sadomasochism. Proteans are serpentine. Qlippoth are black tentacled nightmarish things. Rakshasa are colorful and exhibit a Hindu aesthetic.

Archons, Azatas, Daemons, Demons, and Devils do not have that sort of overarching aesthetic. If it wasn't for their statistics, you wouldn't be able to tell Archons and Azatas apart from other celestials: Houd archons look like Agathions, Trumpet archons look like Devas, Lillends look like a cross between an agathion and a deva, and the other Archons and Azatas are mostly wingless celestials that don't look like they fit in any category. Daemons, Demons and Devils are pretty much interchangeable in appearance.

I know the reason is because they were made up as the D&D writers went along, but I think a new game under a different company should try to make the classics as consistent as their original works. Each group needs an overarching motif that informs how members of that group look rather than haphazard collections of creatures: types of wings (bat, bird, bug), skin (scales, fur, carapace), general weapons and armor, symmetry versus asymmetry, and so on. In other words, make them look like they're related physically.

What do you suggest for overarching motifs?

 

[Starfox]

I'm cool with the chaotic creatures being very disimilar in apprearance. Demons could look like a random collection of body parts for all I care.

Devils are sorted by the nine hells, and those could have an asthetic. Each plane has a known environment and a known lord; that should be sufficient. They also have some pre-christian spirits that became devils in Christianity, like the Erinyes. Not much you can do about those legendary monsters. Also, it should be said that there IS a certain hellish aesthetic; red, with scales, horns, and pointy bits and a arrowhead tail. Just that only about half the devils fit this pattern.

 

[Shemeska]

Archons, Azatas, Daemons, Demons, and Devils do not have that sort of overarching aesthetic. If it wasn't for their statistics, you wouldn't be able to tell Archons and Azatas apart from other celestials: Houd archons look like Agathions, Trumpet archons look like Devas, Lillends look like a cross between an agathion and a deva, and the other Archons and Azatas are mostly wingless celestials that don't look like they fit in any category. Daemons, Demons and Devils are pretty much interchangeable in appearance.

You'll notice to an extent that those outsider races that were created for Pathfinder because their prior versions from D&D were closed content (and thus had to be replaced with new races created from the ground up) exhibit more cohesion around a central concept versus those outsider races that incorporate legacy D&D material via the OGL. Paizo's creatives (and its freelancers like myself) went out of their way to make the new races cohesive.

As for some that you don't think have an overarching aesthetic:

Daemons are reflections of the various ways in which mortals die. Death by old age - the skeletal temerdaemons. Death by starvation - the meladaemons that look like starving desert jackals. Death by plague - leukodaemons that are surrounded by black flies as if from bloated rotting corpses, with black vultures wings like carrion eaters feeding on the dead. I had a hand in creating a majority of the extant daemons, so at least the ones that I've worked on, I tried to link their appearance to fit in with the method of death that they embody.

Azata comprise what were D&D eladrin, who collectively were fey-like angels. The lillendi weren't part of the eladrin in D&D proper, but in Pathfinder they were incorporated into the azata race since the Infinite Staircase from D&D that they were linked to doesn't exist in Pathfinder. Still the azata are remarkably fey-like celestials, even if one of them has a serpentine lower body.

Devils and demons include all of the various legacy members of their kind, but for demons that makes sense given they're creatures of malignant chaos dwelling in the Darwinian nightmare of the Abyss. Devils I think that Wes Schneider did a remarkably good job portraying them with the theme of iron-gloved tyrants, foot soldiers of Hell, and baroque monstrosities of flame and steel.

It isn't necessarily overt aesthetic similarities in each case, but aesthetics that match the alignment or metaphysical niche the race as a whole embodies and that specific outsider within that race itself embodies. For the most part I think they succeeded, but some of the legacy content fights that a bit (as much as I adore said legacy content).

 

[Celebrim]

What do you suggest for overarching motifs?

I don't. The existing outer planar creatures generally have too strong of a motif as it is. Having a motif in physical appearance makes complete sense for animals linked together by shared heritage and physical form. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever for things that are incarnate ideas.

If you'd note the link my signature, one of the things I was try to do was as much as possible pull away from the assumption that Slaad have a motif while still maintaining some ties to the canonical description of these creatures. But the fact is, that a motif of common form is the last thing I'd except to find in reified platonic idealism, and if I was designing the slaad from first principles they'd be even more diverse than I present. Really, the 1e Hordeling remains the best fiendish creature entry ever. The chaotic incarnates shouldn't even have races per se, much less motifs. There shouldn't be such a thing as say a Bralani. By definition, chaotic incarnates should have identity independent of their community.

 

[VelvetViolet]

I would agree about demons and azatas if not for the fact that proteans, qlippoth and demodands all have clear motifs.