Low level celestials?

[Grod_The_Giant]

I've been tinkering with a homebrew summoning-focused class, and I've hit a slight snag-- there are next to no low-power celestial creatures, or even celestial-adjacent, in 5e. I can come up with Blink Dogs, Giant Eagles, Pegasus, Coatl, and... that's about it. Can anyone point me at some good homebrew?

[nickl_2000]

I've been tinkering with a homebrew summoning-focused class, and I've hit a slight snag-- there are next to no low-power celestial creatures, or even celestial-adjacent, in 5e. I can come up with Blink Dogs, Giant Eagles, Pegasus, Coatl, and... that's about it. Can anyone point me at some good homebrew?

Why not take some of the normal humanoid low CR monsters and make them Aasimar (and give them Celestial Resistance). That gives you the flavour without to much work.

[lunaticfringe]

That's not really new to this edition you could just slap a template on things in 3e. Conjure Animals but they are Celestials & Beasts like how Conjure Fey can be a Fey Beast. Plus the above suggestion of making NPCs celestial, You summon warriors from heaven.

[Admael]

How low level are you looking for? I know there are some CR 5 celestials in the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica.

[Grod_The_Giant]

How low level are you looking for? I know there are some CR 5 celestials in the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica.
Real low, unfortunately. I've been building a "single strong pet" style summoner, and I figure they should be fielding a little less than one PC's worth of monster. CR 1/4 critters to start with, going up to CR 5 at level 18 (with, probably, Beastmaster style plus-Prof-to-attack/damage/ac/saves).


That's not really new to this edition you could just slap a template on things in 3e. Conjure Animals but they are Celestials & Beasts like how Conjure Fey can be a Fey Beast. Plus the above suggestion of making NPCs celestial, You summon warriors from heaven.
I thought about it, and I'll probably do at least a bit of that, but I don't want to lean too heavily on animals. My goal is to have subclasses for Celestials, Fiends, Fey, and Undead; when I tried filling in the Celestial list with animals, it started overlapping too much thematically with the fey stuff.


Why not take some of the normal humanoid low CR monsters and make them Aasimar (and give them Celestial Resistance). That gives you the flavour without to much work.
I'll probably have to, yeah. <sigh>

[lunaticfringe]

Real low, unfortunately. I've been building a "single strong pet" style summoner, and I figure they should be fielding a little less than one PC's worth of monster. CR 1/4 critters to start with, going up to CR 5 at level 18 (with, probably, Beastmaster style plus-Prof-to-attack/damage/ac/saves).


I thought about it, and I'll probably do at least a bit of that, but I don't want to lean too heavily on animals. My goal is to have subclasses for Celestials, Fiends, Fey, and Undead; when I tried filling in the Celestial list with animals, it started overlapping too much thematically with the fey stuff.


Okay that's a bit of a horse of a different color. Your making a pet class with fluff that their pet is a summoned creature. Since you have 1 class and the subs are different planar flavors I would go the pathfinder Eidolon route.

Summoning your pet is a Class Feature, not a Subclass Feature. Start with a base statblock common to all of the subs. Your subclass adds theme to your blank spirit/creatue. Resists, Actions, Movement modes, innate magics, etc. Pet improvements that work like Warlock invocations, some open to the class some options are specific to your sub.

[Man_Over_Game]

If going the Celestial-Fey-Fiend-Undead route, why not base it on the 4 points of the Alignment wheel?

Fiend: Chaotic Evil

Undead: Lawful Evil

Fey : Chaotic Good

Celestial : Lawful Good

What fits Lawful Good as a summon? Constructs. Justicar Robots, eager to bring the light down on these heretics.

With how modular and customizable constructs can be, you don't have to worry about much overlap with something like Fey.

[Naanomi]

2E Planescape and 3.X planar/Book of exalted deeds might give some inspiration... coure Eladrin, lantern archons, mustevals...

[Mr.Spastic]

Blink Dogs are fey. Giant Eagles are beasts. If you want low level celestials the ohaonly current option is homebrewing stuff. In my games I had a celestial warlock with a sprite familiar and I let it be a celestial because of the patron.

[nickl_2000]

I'll probably have to, yeah. <sigh>

Sounds like you aren't to excited about that.
Maybe Kobold Press then?
The Creature Codex looks like it has about 8 celestial CR 5 and under. I didn't look to in depth to see if they appeared balanced.
The Tome of Beasts has 6 that are CR 5 and under, same about balance.


Still is isn't perfect, but better than nothing.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Sounds like you aren't to excited about that.
Eh. It would have been nice, but... oh well. This is what I've got, stealing as much as I could from existing cosmology:

CR 1/4 (lv 1): Pseudodragon, Blink Dog, "Lantern Archon" (smoke mephit)
CR 1/2 (lv 3): Celestial Black Bear, "Asura" (aarakocra), "musteval" (scout)
CR 1 (lv 5): Celestial Giant Eagle, "Leonal" (lion), "Hound Archon" (gnoll flesh gnawer)
CR 2 (lv 8): Pegasus, "Bariaur" (centaur), "Warden Archon" (cave bear)
CR 3 (lv 11): "Bralani" (skyweaver), "Hound Archon Hero" (knight)
CR 4 (lv 15: Couatl, "Flame Archon" (Flameskull)
CR 5 (lv 18): Unicorn, "Throne Archon" (half-dragon veteran), "Firre" (salamander), "Ursinal" (werebear)

So... 13/20 quick mock-ups. Hooray?