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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Aasimar equivalent feats



Angelalex242
2020-06-22, 04:32 PM
After seeing those awesome feats Tieflings get, don't their holy equivalents deserve some nifty new feats?

Celestial awareness: (opposes Barbed hide)

+1 Wis or +1 Cha

A drop of celestial wisdom lives in you.

Once per long rest, you gain truesight out to 120' for 10 minutes. In addition, you know if you hear a lie during that time.

In addition, you have the insight skill. If you already have the insight skill, double the proficiency bonus.

Celestial constitution: (opposes fiendish constitution)

+1 Con

You gain resistance to fire and poison, and advantage on poison saves.

Heaven's Light: (opposes Flames of Phelgthos. Slightly modified so Paladins and Clerics both can use it.)

+1 Wis or +1 Cha

When you roll radiant damage, you may reroll 1s.

When you use a radiant attack, a halo surrounds you that does 1d4 radiant damage to anyone in 5 feet who strikes you in melee till the end of your next turn. It gives off light for 30 feet and dim light for 30 more feet.

(So, fair? Overkill? About the same?)

T.G. Oskar
2020-06-22, 05:49 PM
After seeing those awesome feats Tieflings get, don't their holy equivalents deserve some nifty new feats?

Celestial awareness: (opposes Barbed hide)

+1 Wis or +1 Cha

A drop of celestial wisdom lives in you.

Once per long rest, you gain truesight out to 120' for 10 minutes. In addition, you know if you hear a lie during that time.

In addition, you have the insight skill. If you already have the insight skill, double the proficiency bonus.

Even for 10 minutes, Truesight is pretty strong. I wouldn't normally oppose it if a class gets it and has limited resources, but that kind of buff is a bit too much for a racial feat on an already strong class. I'd instead double the darkvision. On the other hand, the "Detect Lies" effect could be something you can tag in with the enhanced Insight skill. Remember - it's a half-feat, so it's gonna be powerful on its own.

CELESTIAL AWARENESS
Prerequisite: Aasimar
Your celestial ancestry sharpens your normal senses. You gain the following benefits:
Increase your Wisdom score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
Your darkvision increases to 120 feet.
You gain proficiency in the Insight or Perception skills. If you are proficient in both of these skills, choose one of them. Your proficiency bonus with the chosen skill is doubled.
When you succeed on an opposed check using your Insight skill to detect a lie, you know if it was deliberate, by omission or by ignorance.


(The drop of Charisma is because Wisdom is the ability score related to perception. Decided to make a choice between Insight or Perception, again to reinforce the idea of heightened senses. As for the Insight bonus, it's a nice ribbon that allows your Insight to serve as a reliable lie detector, even though you still need to figure out the truth.)


Celestial constitution: (opposes fiendish constitution)

+1 Con

You gain resistance to fire and poison, and advantage on poison saves.

This one is rather straightforward, but do note that Aasimar, unlike Tieflings, have resistance to two kinds of damage, one of them being resisted the least. Also: virtually no celestials resist fire, and not all resist or are immune to poison (Ki-rin resist it, Hollyphants, Solar angels and Unicorns are immune to it). I'd drop fire and keep it as-is, considering that the Tiefling feat is to compensate for them having only one kind of resistance.

CELESTIAL CONSTITUTION
Prerequisite: Aasimar
Your celestial heritage allows you to resist the nefarious effects of poison, which many forces of evil tend to use. You gain access to the following benefits:

Increase your Constitution score by 1, to a maximum of 20
You have resistance to poison damage.
You have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned.



Heaven's Light: (opposes Flames of Phelgthos. Slightly modified so Paladins and Clerics both can use it.)

+1 Wis or +1 Cha

When you roll radiant damage, you may reroll 1s.

When you use a radiant attack, a halo surrounds you that does 1d4 radiant damage to anyone in 5 feet who strikes you in melee till the end of your next turn. It gives off light for 30 feet and dim light for 30 more feet.

This one is overkill. Radiant damage is rarely resisted, and giving the ability to reroll radiant damage just makes that damage insane. Not just that, even if the halo damage is just 1d4, it's unresisted 1d4, with the chance to reroll for 1s - and remember, Spirit Guardians on a Cleric or Crown Paladin is just insane. That said, it could be reworked.

FLAMES OF MERTION
Prerequisite: Scourge Aasimar

You hold ties to Mertion, the Platinum Heaven, and within you burn the flames of divine retribution. You gain access to the following benefits:
Increase your Wisdom or Charisma score by 1, up to a maximum of 20.
When you roll fire or radiant damage for a spell you cast or attack you make, you can choose to convert half of the damage you make into the other kind of damage. In other words, spells or attacks that deal either fire or radiant damage now deal half fire and half radiant damage.
Whenever you cast a spell that deals fire or radiant damage, you surround yourself with diivne flames that last until the end of your next turn. The flames don't harm you or your possessions, and they shed bright light to 30 ft. and dim light for an additional 30 ft. While the flames surround you, any creature within 5 ft. of you that hits you with a melee attack takes 1d4 points of damage, plus additional damage equal to your character level if you have activated the Radiant Consumption ability. Half of this damage is fire and half is radiant.


(The name is in reference to Mertion, the Platinum Heaven, which is supposed to be ruled by Raziel. I limited it to Scourge Aasimar if only because it represents a modicum of their ability to explode in divine light. As you can see, rather than make it a reroll, I made it so that every attack you make is effectively a mini-Flame Strike - this allows you to bypass resistances but doesn't add much to damage. The "Halo" bit was extended to be slightly more powerful, but ONLY if you use Radiant Consumption - otherwise, it's merely slightly different than Flames of Phlegethos. Since fire is resisted a lot more than radiant, the effect doesn't really overkill, but is definitely more effective.

Considering that, unlike Tieflings whose variant options don't have unique feats, I'd consider making feat variants for Protector and Fallen Aasimar that take advantage of their traits. Note that Protector Aasimar gain flight and extra radiant damage, while Fallen Aasimar frighten and deal extra necrotic damage.

STALWART OF JOVAR
Prerequisite: Protector Aasimar
Your celestial heritage bounds to you Jovar, the Glittering Heaven and last bastion of defense of Mount Celestia. You gain the following benefits:
Increase your Constitution or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
When you use your Radiant Soul ability, you can choose to instead create a bulwark of protection. For 1 minute, any creature of your choice within 10 feet of you gains resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage from non-magical sources, and gains advantage on saving throws against spells. If you have 18 levels in the paladin class, the benefit extends to all creatures of your choice within 30 feet instead. In addition, once on each of your turns, you can deal extra radiant damage to one target when you deal damage to it with an attack or a spell. The extra radiant damage equals your level.

TAINT OF CORRUPTION
Prerequisite: Fallen Aasimar
You have embraced the taint of evil in you. You gain the following benefits:
Increase your Strength or Charisma score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
When you deal radiant damage, you can choose to convert all damage into necrotic damage instead.
You can see in magical darkness
You gain proficiency in the Intimidate skill. If you are already proficient in the Intimidate skill, you instead apply twice your proficiency bonus to the check.

(As with the Scourge Aasimar, I made a reference to another layer of Mount Celestia, this time to the realm of Sealtiel, another of the big honcho celestial leaders. Since many Celestials happen to be resistant to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage from nonmagical weapons, I decided to make a sort of "defensive stance" aura with them that replaces their flight, so the Protector Aasimar has more options. I also set it up for Constitution or Charisma, to make the option more attractive to Paladins.

As for Fallen Aasimar, I played to their strengths. Seeing in magical darkness alone is insanely good, since that means they can learn Darkness somehow and gain insane benefit from it, or play well with Shadow Sorcerers and Drow.)

Angelalex242
2020-06-22, 06:30 PM
Thanks. It's been years since I've tried to balance anything.

As for the Constitution thing, if it doesn't resist a second damage type, it's objectively worse than Fiendish Constitution. One of the things Aasimar resist is Radiant, and that only matters if they're fighting Paladins Clerics or Angels. IE: not much.

...what if it were switched from fire to say, hmmm...lightning?

T.G. Oskar
2020-06-22, 08:25 PM
Thanks. It's been years since I've tried to balance anything.

As for the Constitution thing, if it doesn't resist a second damage type, it's objectively worse than Fiendish Constitution. One of the things Aasimar resist is Radiant, and that only matters if they're fighting Paladins Clerics or Angels. IE: not much.

...what if it were switched from fire to say, hmmm...lightning?

Consider that, just as you can say that "objectively" the feat would be worse than Fiendish Constitution if you evaluate the feat alone, it's also "objectively" true that the Aasimar is superior to the Tiefling, since it has two resistances (one being Radiant, the other Necrotic; compare to Fire, which is relatively common in terms of enemy attacks), Light as a cantrip (compare to Thaumaturgy) and Healing Hands (a mini Lay on Hands, which is comparable to Hellish Rebuke and/or Darkness), as well as the "awakened form" options which are superior to both Hellish Rebuke and Darkness combined. Combine that with flexibility in the +1 bonus, and you'll notice the Aasimar is much better than the Tiefling. I find that, in exchange, the feat has to provide less resistances, as you'd have a class with four resistances, of which two of them are insanely good.

The other bit is that, other than Radiant, Necrotic and perhaps Poison, there's no unified theme behind Celestials in terms of resistances. Most are resistant to nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage, but that's overkill. Couatls have Poison, and the only one that I recall has Lightning resistance is the Ki-Rin. Poison is a bit more common, which is why I left it.

That said, if you want something to compare, I'd suggest expanding the advantage on saving throws to apply to paralysis and petrifaction. since a lot of celestials are outright immune to those conditions. Paralysis and petrifaction are pretty nasty, but as an advantage and not immunity, you only have a better chance of success - if you don't succeed on the save, though, you get affected for full. And since both paralysis and petrifaction are physical conditions, it fits the "constitution" theme - Tieflings resist more kinds of damage, Aasimar resist the same but are better at status effects.

Angelalex242
2020-06-22, 11:10 PM
That makes sense. Status resistance is often more valuable anyway, as it protects you from save or die and/or save or suck.