Heralds

[AlanBruce]

Greetings! I have been running a 3.5 game for a very long time and over the course of many years, have built an unnecessary large database of NPCs that my players either have killed, will kill, or will forge great alliances, if they haven't done so already.

Many of the NPCs I have built have not seen the light of the day. Some may never do so at all, depending on where the PCs decide to go. However, the higher the party's level, the higher the chance to meet prominent figures in a setting. Add the presence of devout clerics in the party and eventually, Heralds happen.

I was not aware of Heralds in the D&D verse until I chanced upon Complete Divine and read the deity entries, specifically the last section in each entry: Heralds & Allies.

Allies are clearly explained: the are the monsters a specific deity sends in response to Planar Ally spells. Some of them make very little sense, given who the deity is and what they do, but I usually adjust that aspect of their entry for the PC's sake.

Heralds, however, are an entirely different matter. From what I understand, there's only one in the service of a deity at any given time. They are the ones that come down to the Material Plane to deal with important matters... or as important enough that an avatar isn't required. Regardless, these heralds should be unique individuals. Divine ambassadors, if you will and their appearance should not be a casual one (although one could ague that a high level cleric could Gate one in if the situation arose).

Sadly, Complete Divine (and later, the Races of... series books) present heralds that are rather underwhelming when it comes to a build or power gauge.

For instance, Corellon has a "20th level celestial elf cleric that always excels at archery". Okay, it's an elf cleric, but straight cleric 20 is rather bland. Powerful? Yes, but still bland. Especially when the herald descriptions came out in a book called Complete Divine with a dozen or so cleric focused Prestige Classes.

Same goes for "X HD Y outsider". A bigger outsider than the one in the SRD? Sure, but we can do better.

Linking all the heralds from a mythweaver's account would entail way too many links, so I decided to present here those heralds that serve the core PHB gods. which most of us here are familiar with by attempting to rebuild a few so as to make a lot more sense thematically with the deity they serve.

These builds are far from finished and most likely unoptimized- as mentioned earlier, chances of them ever seeing play are slim to none, but in the rare case that a PC decides to visit his god's realm or has attracted enough favor from the god they serve, these guys would most likely make an appearance.

Note that some herald descriptions are very specific, detailing race and template. While others are simply a straight build, like wizard 20. In keeping with their heraldic positions, they all share the same alignment as their deity, unless a build states otherwise.









Bahamut's Herald: Male Old Gold Dragon Cleric 1/ Sacred Warder of Bahamut 2

Notes: It'a big gold dragon that watches over the weaker races and tries to help. Uncertain if adding class levels is the same as age categories. Hopefully not.


Boccob's Herald: Male Tiefling Wizard 5/ Nightmare Spinner 5/ Mindbender 1/ Geometer 5/ Mage of the Arcane Order 5

Notes: The book says "20th level wizard". It never specifies race, so it could have been a human just as well, but a Tiefling just burst into my mind when choosing a race, since they are perceived as Evil... but that isn't always the case.



Corellon's Herald: Female Celestial Star Elf Cleric 6/ Seeker of the Misty Isle 10/ Ruathar 3/ Contemplative 3

Notes: I have been working on the elven pantheon's heralds...and there are a lot of gods there. More than I imagined, but it always hit me that a herald serving the main elf god should have a better build than the others.




Ehlonna's Herald: Female Planetar Cleric 1/ Fleet Runner of Ehlonna 4

Notes: One of the strongest angels with solid cleric spellcasting. Since there is a PrC for Ehlonna (that arguably a planetar would find no reason to benefit from, anyways), I went with it so as to keep it as thematic as possible.



Erythnul's Herald: Male Balor Paladin of Slaughter 2/ Ravager 5

Notes: It's a Balor. Strongest of the evil outsiders (arguably more so than the Pit Fiend), but at this point, why not make him a reakly savage zealot anyways? Plus, Erythnul has a PrC devoted to him.




Fharlanghn's Herald: Female Ghaele Eladrin Jaunter 4/ Wayfarer Guide 3

Notes: Yes, technically the ghaele should not qualify for the build, since it cannot cast Teleport,. But for a god of Travel, I saw it fitting for her to be able to take as many people as she can. Plus the Jaunter class gives her a bunch of nice short range teleportation spells to further the idea that she can go places ver fast.



Garl Glittergold's Herald: Male Celestial Gnome Bard 6 / Lyric Thaumaturge 4 / Sublime Chord 10

Notes: It's a bard all the way through... with extra casting power.




Gruumsh's Herald: Male Fiendish Orc Fighter 2/ Barbarian 4/ Frenzied Berserker 10/ Eye of Gruumsh 4

Notes: The book says "20th level barbarian", but what better way to encompass the god's destructive urges than going FB?




Heironeous' Herald: Female Solar Paladin 2/ Knight of the Chalice 6

Notes: Pelor has one too, so I had to make a clear distinction amongst the two most powerful angel types in the game.




Hextor's Herald: Male Pit Fiend Cleric 1/ Ordained Champion 5

Notes: I was a tad conflicted about this build. The chassis is powerful enough, but fiends rarely if ever take on the cleric mantle.



Kord's Herald: Male Titan Barbarian 4/ Cleric 2/ Mighty Contender of Kord 5

Notes: It's a titan that can rage and is very strong. I had heard about that particular PrC and saw fit to give it to the guy...despite not really needing much more strength already.




Kurtulmak's Herald: Female Draconic Erinyes Paladin of Tyranny 2/ Sorcerer 4/ Spellsword 1/ Abjurant Champion 2

Notes: The book says Kurtulmak calls on an erinyes with reptilian features. I could have gone with fluff alone, but usually when we think of reptilian, I at least think of a dragon, or the Troglodyte from the Alter Self spell.




Moradin's Herald: Male Celestial Dwarf Fighter 2/ Paladin 2/ Crusader 4/ Battlesmith 5/ Dwarven Defender 7

Notes: This is all over the place. I don't feel it gives a herald of the main Dwarf god justice. Having said that, the book suggests straight fighter 20 or fighter 10/ dwarven defender 10.



Nerull's Herald: Female Evolved Nightwalker Lurking Terror 3

Notes: I love Libris Mortis. Undead are a favorite of mine in my games so having a PrC dedicated to making them even scarier suits this one nicely.




Obad Hai's Herald: Female Greenbound Centaur Cleric 5/ Master of Radiance 5/ Contemplative 10/ Divine Oracle 1

Notes: I was surprised he wouldn't have a druid as a herald, instead going for a centaur cleric 20. Had to get that CL to 20th, hence the extra classes there.

Greenbound made sense to me, given that it's a herald of a Nature god.




Olidammara's Herald: Male Death Slaad Cleric 3/ Rogue 3/ Divine Trickster 3

Notes: The book says it's an 18 HD death slaad, but again... that's just a bigger slaad. The idea was to make it unique from all the others of its kind and thankfully, Rich's Divine Trickster PrC fit like a glove.




Pelor's Herald: Female Solar Cleric 1/ Radiant Servant of Pelor 5

Notes: Another Solar serves a good deity, but unlike the one to Heironeous, this one dedicates itself to healing...and wrecking the forces of evil if need be.




St. Cuthbert's Herald: Male Hound Archon Paladin 4/ Gray Guard 7

Notes: Cuthbert gets the Hound Archon Hero, described in the SRD, but again...11 levels of straight paladin? Plus, Grey Guard fits nicely for a god like Cuthbert who I have always seen as a bit of a Judge Dredd kind of guy.




Vecna's Herald: Female Human Spellsticthed Evolved Lich Necromancer 3/ Master Specialist 10/ Archmage 2

Notes: Yes, I went overboard with the templates here, but given that Vecna never allows its herald to get past CL 15th, she needed as much help as possible to make up for it... because 8ths sometimes aren't enough.




Wee Jas' Herald: Female Axiomatic Githzerai Sorcerer 5/ Mind Bender 1/ Paragnostic Apostle 2/ Fatespinner 5/ Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil 5

Notes: Wee Jas has an 18th level githzerai sorceress as a herald, but given her strict adherence to Law, I decided to tack on the template to make her even more Lawful, I suppose? Again, no idea on whether this build works for her.



Yondalla's Herald: Female Trumpet Archon Paladin 2/ Emissary of Barachiel 4

Notes: I wanted to find something more halfling themed, but they are usually rogues, something a Trumpet Archon would be very hard to accept as a life style. Plus, Yondalla is depicted as a paladin of sorts and since she lives in Celestia, maybe she knows one of the Hebdomad?





Tiamat's Heralds: The Queen of Chromatics sends five dragons, each of a different color and specific age as her heralds. One alone is terrifying. I cannot imagine having to confer with 5 at the same time, but that's how it goes.

Adult Black Dragon Dragonstalker 4

Adult Blue Dragon Hidecarved Dragon 6

Adult Green Dragon Talon of Tiamat 6

Adult Red Dragon Elemental Master 5

Adult White Dragon Barbarian 1/ Bloodscaled Fury 4

Notes: Like with Bahamut's Herald, chances are the extra levels increase their age, thus not making them suitable as Heralds as per the book description.


If you have taken the time to read up to this point, thank you. I am currently working on the other pantheons because well, why not? Again, these aren't even finished and are likely to get an overhaul, which is why I posted them here. Hopefully I can get much valued info from this community on how to make them even far more unique than what I had in mind.

All 3.5 sources allowed, although I'd like to stick to the general idea of the build and theme they had for these guys in the book, despite me butchering it completely.

[mesc]

Well for Nerull... I recently thought up of a new spell combination incorporating an insanely high caster level reaching thousands and apocalypse from the sky which affects most, if not all of the planet with the same metamagic feats of the locate city bomb trick. Combined with fell drain, and fell animate, this caster can control thousands of HD in zombies.
Effectively fulfilling the duty as a Herald of death.
For more information on the combo, read the thread i started Idea for apocalyptic spell.

[Eldan]

Surely the herald of Moradin would work significantly better as a Hammer of Moradin? Dwarven Defender is really just quite a mess of a class.

[King of Nowhere]

those things depend a lot on the power level of your campaign. I mean, don't set up a herald if you think the pcs will rise in power to the point that they can trivialize it

[AnimeTheCat]

Surely the herald of Moradin would work significantly better as a Hammer of Moradin? Dwarven Defender is really just quite a mess of a class.

Justice Hammer of Moradin from dragon 329? That class looks... not good. Half casting progression, 3/4 BAB, and class abilities that equates to a few daily SLAs, a starting subpar +1 weapon enchantment, and a domain? I wouldn't call that significantly better than anything really... but that's just my opinion. That's not to say Dwarven defender is better, but I can't agree that hammer of Moradin is "significantly better".

[Eldan]

No, Hammer of Moradin. From, uh, Players Guide to Faerun, the internet tells me. Used to be on the WotC site for free, probably not anymore. Pretty steep requirements (BAB +7, 2nd level divine spells), but it's quite thematic. Specializes in thrown hammers, turns every warhammer you hold into a flying returning, axiomatic, goblinbane drowbane giantbane warhammer.

And, uh, I just noticed it doesn't actually give cleric spells. Much worse than I remembered, then. It does get a few nice one-offs, though, like:

Stalwart (Su): Hammers of Moradin are renowned for their ability to stand strong in the face of a hail of arrows, or wade into a throng of shrieking goblins and emerge untouched. At 7th level, the hammer of Moradin may add his base Will save modifier to his AC once per day as a free action. This benefit lasts for 1 round per hammer of Moradin level.

or

Power Throw (Su): At 9th level, the hammer of Moradin can hurl his warhammer with such force that it plows on past creatures struck by it. When throwing his hammer, the hammer of Moradin makes a single ranged attack roll and checks the result against the AC of all creatures in a 60-foot straight line from his position. He then rolls damage against each creature that the weapon hits.

[Telonius]

For Olidammara ... how about an Ur-Priest? That's exactly the kind of wacky shenanigans Oli would want to play. "The guy's stealing juice from the gods themselves? And he's as likely to tell me to shove it as he is to do something I ask him? This is my guy." :smallamused:

[AlanBruce]

those things depend a lot on the power level of your campaign. I mean, don't set up a herald if you think the pcs will rise in power to the point that they can trivialize it.

When I built them, having them fight the party wasn’t my choice. Although the possibility exists that they may surface as antagonists later.

My main focus was thematics as tied to the deity they serve, followed by power, since they are considered unique individuals.

Another reason why I posted them here was for anyone willing to use them, if ghey hadn’t thought so already, tailoring them to the power level of their game.

As for Moradin, yes. I find it strange that hhe designers, having access to all sources, couldn’t come up with something more fitting for a herald than Dwarven Defender and fighter, since both classes are presented in the core books.

Had not seen Hammer of Moradin. The name alone fits.

Regarding Nerull, I wanted to try and stick to the Herald entry given in Complete Divine, which states he sends a Nightwalker. Those are pretty powerful already if we go by their entry alone.

Besides, in a world with do many gods who canonically oppose Nerull (even the evil deities), I foubt The Reaper would want to attract too much attention to himself via proxy.


The Olidammaran idea is really good! The ultimate prank and theft.

There is that “must be evil” requirement entry for Ur Priest, but Death Slaads have this fluff about them- at least in 3.0- that they have fallen off the Chaos side and been tainted .