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Pika...
2011-02-21, 01:33 PM
I am looking to give archons a more classic Angel feel to them, both fluff wise and stats wise.

Here is what I did to a standard MM1 Hound Archon as a test for an NPC/PC rival:



http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/assets/39333/The_Angel_by_Koryface.jpg


Sathamil is an Angel of moderate rank in the good aligned Outer Planes who has tasked himself with the return of his close friend’s soul to the planes of good alignment. His beloved comrade has fallen in order to help a planet fight the awakening of Primordial Ones, and has founded his own city state with her (a gender recently acquired) as queen. He has convinced the outer powers to grant her forgiveness, but if he is not able to convince the fallen Lantern Archon to return Sathamil must end her meddling in the mortal realms through any means.


Sathamil
Size/Type: Medium Outsider (Archon, Extraplanar, Good, Lawful)
Hit Dice: 6d8+6 (33 hp)
Initiative: 4
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares), 100 ft. Flying (Perfect)
Armor Class: 19 (9 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 19
Base Attack/Grapple: 6/8
Attack: 1 Axiomatic, Holy Longspear +10 melee (1d84/x3) or 1 greatsword +9 melee (2d64/19-20)
Full Attack: 1 Axiomatic, Holy Longspear +10/5 melee (1d8+3) and slam with wings 3 melee (1d41); or 1 greatsword +9/4 melee (2d6+4/19-20) and slam with wings 3 melee (1d4
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Spell-like abilities
Special Qualities: Aura of menace, change shape, damage reduction 10/evil, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to electricity and petrification, magic circle against evil, spell resistance 16, teleport, tongues
Saves: Fort 6 (10 against poison), Ref 5, Will +6
Abilities: Str 15, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 12
Skills: Concentration +10, Diplomacy +3, Hide +9*, Jump +15, Listen +10, Move Silently +9, Sense Motive +10, Spot +10, Survival +10* (12 following tracks)
Feats: Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Weapon Focus: (Longspear)
Environment: A lawful good-aligned plane A lawful good-aligned plane
Organization: Able to call aid from other Angels
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: No coins; double goods; standard items
Alignment: Lawful good
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +5

Aura of Menace (Su): A righteous aura surrounds archons that fight or get angry. Any hostile creature within a 20-foot radius of an archon must succeed on a Will save to resist its effects. The save DC varies with the type of archon, is Charisma-based, and includes a +2 racial bonus. Those who fail take a -2 penalty on attacks, AC, and saves for 24 hours or until they successfully hit the archon that generated the aura. A creature that has resisted or broken the effect cannot be affected again by the same archon’s aura for 24 hours.
Aura of Menace (Su)
Will DC 16 negates.

Spell-Like Abilities
At will—aid, continual flame, detect evil, message. Caster level 6th.

Change Shape (Su)
Sathamil can assume any Humanoid form of Small to Large size. While in in his chosen form, Sathamil loses his wing slam attack, but gains any natural attacks of the form he chooses.


Did I manage to get the feel right, and keep it at the proper CR?


Also, is there a third-party book or something with classic Angel (and Maybe Devil/LE Outsider stats? I like the CE Abyss as is.). If not, how would you al start about stating such "Angels" up?

Ashtagon
2011-02-21, 03:00 PM
When you say "classic" angel, do you mean classic as in the Bible and the apocrypha, or classic as in one of the mediaeval traditions, or classic as in 1st edition AD&D? Each is very different from each other.

There's a campaign setting called Testament, which is extremely good for stating out Bible-style angels. Which are, frankly, nothing like the modern concept of what an angel looks like.

Pika...
2011-02-21, 03:17 PM
More the medieval/modern perspective. Beautiful feathered wings, built like greek studs, wielding spears and swords of might, but without the halos. Sort of like the image I posted.

Think sort of like the movie Legion when the two Angels fought, and the scene of main star/Angel in heaven.

Re'ozul
2011-02-21, 03:25 PM
Sorry I couldn't resist.

Lantern Archons already are kinda angely (http://images.wikia.com/evangelion/images/3/30/Ramiel_RoE.jpg).

Pika...
2011-02-21, 03:29 PM
Sorry I couldn't resist.

Lantern Archons already are kinda angely (http://images.wikia.com/evangelion/images/3/30/Ramiel_RoE.jpg).

LoL...:smalltongue:

Ashtagon
2011-02-21, 03:50 PM
There's three ways I can think of for making "modernistic" angels.

* Refluff the crunch. Use the exact same stats, but instead of saying hound archons have dog heads, say they look like perfected humans.
* Invent a new race entirely. Something like an aasimar, but with all the abilities of the angel subtype stacked on top. This better reflects the underlying modernistic aesthetic of angels.
* Recognise that PCs (if good) shouldn't be fighting a direct servant of $deity, and simply not stat them out. They succeed or fail based on the demands of plot, rather than the demands of a die roll.

Eldan
2011-02-21, 03:55 PM
Why can't you use angels, then, instead of archons? The Aasimon work perfectly as this type of angel. Greek god build, holy weapons, cleric casting, feathered wings. It seems they are too strong for your tastes, if yours is CR4, so creating a lower caste of Aasimon (there were a few in AD&D books, IIRC), seems more like your goal.

The Tygre
2011-02-21, 04:01 PM
Aren't Archons angelic enough? Perfect bodies, wings... they live in Heaven and are spawned directly from the Supreme Virtue; what more do you need? If all else fails, DiceFreaks that **** (http://dicefreaks.superforums.org/viewforum.php?f=10&sid=059cc93deab68e5dd16bb23f4ccb99ef).