Angels in the outfield

[Angelalex242]

I have a paladin in the party, and he's requested some celestial presence in the campaign. The angel is meant to be a social encounter, possibly a quest giver. It's even theoretically possible to rescue one from a sufficiently powerful creature.

What has everyone else used celestial presence for, if they've used it at all?

[pwykersotz]

My players gated a Solar once to get help with defeating a massive revenant army (3.5). The heavens had forseen this event and approved of giving aid, so a host appeared and the party had 120 seconds to deal with the boss before the angels vanished. Good times.

I've also used Lantern Archons as divine representatives in large and powerful good aligned temples. (Also 3.5)

[Angelalex242]

Sure, but as this is the 5E forum, I was wondering if anybody had actually used Celestials in 5E yet.

[lianightdemon]

What has changed rp wise about celestials from 3.5 to 5e? Your the GM play the celestials how it suits your game.

[Angelalex242]

While that is true, I can certainly ask what other people have done in their games.

[Human Paragon 3]

I haven't used them yet, but their stat blocks certainly don't preclude them as quest givers or anything else.

In a 3.5 game, we had a scenario where six divas were bound to six orbs and they all had different alignments. Some were fallen angels that had gone mad or just gone bad, some were good angels who had lost hope, and some could barely remember their past lives as angels. You could lay your hands on the orb to enter it and talk to the angels. All of them wanted to be released, but we couldn't be sure which ones were actually evil.

They were all also pretty useful for advice and could grant down-time bonuses like training and blessings, so we had incentive to keep them trapped. I feel that this would work very well in 5e. Angels can give blessings and boons, they can give training in tools and skills, or even training in feats.

[Angelalex242]

That's an idea. My paladin player probably wouldn't leave 'em trapped, though. Even if there's goodies to be had out of doing so.

[Human Paragon 3]

A simpler scenario may be this:

There are two angels bound to two orbs. One is a fallen angel who would do great harm if released. The other is a good angel who has been wrongfully trapped for centuries and deserves to be released.

The party (paladin) must determine which is which, and then decide which to release. He can also choose to release angel 1, angel 2, both, or neither.

Both want to be released and will offer compensation. The evil angel pretends to be good as best it can. The good angel has been trapped for so long his personality has changed and he's either a little crazy, or has lost hope/faith. He doesn't know the evil angel is pretending to be good, so he doesn't try very hard to prove himself. He also doesn't expect to be released because he's lost hope.

The evil angel might make good on his word to give training or boons if he is a lawful evil angel. I think whichever angel they release, they should be rewarded in some way. Maybe the evil angel offers a better deal, but then does something that the PCs don't want, while the good angel offers some OK benefit, but then does something the PCs do want (or they just get the satisfaction of picking the right one and doing a good deed).

Or maybe the good angel offers a better deal and the evil angel plays it cool and aloof because he doesn't want to come off as over eager.

This can go many different ways, so I encourage you to be creative with it.

If the deals the angels offer are good enough, the party might decide to release both even though the paladin only wants to release the good one!

Or if they can't properly determine which is good and which is evil, they might play it safe and keep them both imprisoned. Who knows?

[unwise]

In my game I used an angel as a high level quest giver. Basically they stumble across the only just living remains of an ancient angel sent to the realms to avenge a great wrong. He is trapped in this realm until his quest is complete, but he is in no state to complete it. He passes the Paladin his holy avenger (or level appropriate weapon) and asks him to take up the quest.

He also asks the Paladin to find the fate of his colleague, another angel that he saw go down over the fields of X near Y city. His sword should lead him to know the location with a miles. That other angel has become a twisted angel of vengeance and is up to no good, but has the same ultimate goal as the paladin. He can either be an enemy to stop, a friend to redeem, or a necessary evil to endure.

This worked well for my campaign, where the realms we play in are cut off from the gods and no direct commuication is possible.

Another time I have used angels is the Paladin came across an old temple. His divine sight told him that the statues of angels were actually holy. With the help of the party, he investigates and finds that A) The statues are actually angels turned to stone and therefore not dead so they can't go back home, B) The chapel commemerates a great battle against the high priestess of the demigoddess of disfigurement, including landmarks in the painting to show where the dark temple was. A successful religion check tells them that Medusas are the chosen ones of the evil goddess. An arcana check tells them that the eyes of a Medusa (or her descendants) can be made into a poltice to cure their stone gaze. A questing we will go!

[Angelalex242]

How'd that quest to destone them go?

Other ideas?

If it helps, this game is set in Forgotten Realms.