Archon, Judgement [Pathfinder monster, PEACH]

[Belial_the_Leveler]

Archon of Judgement CR 20


This striking, silver-haired, white-robed, dove-winged woman glows with an inner radiance, the glory of Heaven given form to clear the shadows. Those who worship evil's might, beware!

Large Outsider (Archon, Extraplanar, Good, Lawful)
Init +9; Senses lowlight vision, darkvision 60ft, true seeing, Perception +33
Aura Courage (20 ft), Menace (20 ft, DC 30)
DEFENSE
AC 41, touch 18, flat-footed 32 (+9 Dex, +23 natural, –1 size)
hp 370 (20d10+260) Fort +26, Ref +17, Will +24 (+4 vs poison), DR 15/evil and mithril, SR 31, Immune: Electricity/Fire/Charm/Compulsion/Fear/Petrification, Resist: Acid/Cold 10, Regeneration 5/evil
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft., fly 60 ft. (perfect), Size 10 ft., Reach 10 ft. (20 with glaive)
Melee Glaive +35/+35/+31/+26/+21, +2 vs evil outsiders (2d8+21, +2d6+2 vs evil outsiders, 19-20/3x)
Special Abilities celestial judgement, summon weapon, incapacitating strike
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 20th)
Always on—deathward, repulsion (DC 25), true seeing
At will—euphoric tranquility (DC 27), greater dispel magic, greater teleport (self plus 50 lbs. of objects only), greater scrying (DC 26), holy aura (DC 27), holy word (DC 26), imprisonment (DC 28), magic circle against evil, cure critical wounds, sunburst (DC 27), wall of cold (as per wall of fire, deals cold damage)
1/day—mass heal, true resurrection
1/year—wish
STATISTICS
Str 36, Dex 28, Con 35, Int 26, Wis 30, Cha 28
Base Atk +20; CMB +34 (+38 grapple); CMD 53
Feats Blind Fight, Iron Will, Great Fortitude, Lightning Reflexes, Power Attack, Toughness, Weapon Focus: Greatsword, Improved Natural Armor 3x
Skills Appraise +17, Bluff +32, Diplomacy +32, Disguise +27, Fly +30, Intimidate +32, Knowledge (arcana) +28, Knowledge (planes) +32, Knowledge (religion) +32, Perception +33, Sense Motive +33, Spellcraft +32, Stealth +28, Survival +22, Use Magic Device +29
Languages Infernal, Draconic, Common, Celestial, Abyssal
Equipment: Double. Archons of Judgement usually wear a Monk's Robe and a Belt of Physical Perfection +6 in combat. These bonuses are not included in the above statblock; increase Strength/Dexterity/Constitution by 6 and add their wisdom modifier to AC and CMD if those items are employed.

Celestial Judgement (Su)
Three times per day, an Archon of Judgement can spend a minute to judge an evil outsider or undead she has personally slain in the last hour. If the evil outsider or undead has CR equal to or less than her own, its soul -or the souls it once formed from- is severed from its fiendish or undead essence and returned to its original state right after death. Such souls usually go on to their rightful punishment in the afterlife - they can be made into fiends or undead again by the dark powers, but the process has to be done from the beginning.

Call Weapon (Su)
Archons of Judgement can call forth a large, two-handed weapon of their preference as a swift action. The weapon is either silver or cold iron (their choice, each time they summon), and it is a +1 speed evil outsider bane weapon.

Incapacitating Strike (Ex)
Melee injury; save Fort DC 32; frequency 1/round for 10 rounds; effect 1d6 Str damage; cure 3 consecutive saves. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Divine Challenge (Su)
As a swift action, an Archon of Judgement may issue a challenge to an evil creature. If she does, she may no longer employ her repulsion, euphoric tranquility, greater dispel magic, holy word, imprisonment, sunburst or wall of cold SLAs against that creature and her deathward, holy aura and magic circle against evil give her no bonuses or defense against attacks from that creature. However, her own attacks function against that creature as if she were a paladin of her level using Smite Evil.
Divine Challenge lasts until either the target or the Archon die, until the Archon rests or until she attempts to flee the field of battle. An Archon of Judgement may employ Divine Challenge only once per creature per day.



DESIGNER'S NOTES
*Built off Pit Fiend stats, mostly.
*Built because having all the celestials be heal-bots and all the fiends as tanks is fantasy discrimination at its best.
*Spell-likes altered to reflect her nature but kept at the same level more or less.
*Special abilities equivalent to those of the Pit Fiend, if different.
*Feats changed to reflect a more defensive approach to combat.

[HC Rainbow]

Everything about this is fantastic. It has such a great celestial feel to it, but I feel like it would still be something to fear, even as an NPC I feel like it would add a huge amount of flavor to any campaign.

A mercenary of the heavens, If you will.

A quick question, What gives it all of its natural armor? I havent experimented much with celestials but I can understand demons get natural armor from its thick hide, but the feeling its giving me is it would, as the picture depicts, be almost humanoid. Do most celestials get natural armor like that? Scratch that last part I can google that one.

[Belial_the_Leveler]

You don't need to look monstrous to have natural armor; if an angelic being's skin is made of solidified holy light with the consistency of, say, alabaster then they are going to have natural armor. (and damage reduction)

Mechanically, Judgement Archons start with the exact same natural armor bonus as Pit Fiends but end up with better armor due to their Improved Natural Armor feat; I have them focused on defensive feats as opposed to the Pit Fiend and Balor being mostly offensive feats.


Minor nitpick:
She's more of a paladin and holy knight than mercenary.

[Frathe]

[nitpick]Size/Type should technically be: Large Outsider (Archon, Extraplanar, Good, Lawful)[/nitpick]

Edit: Wait, maybe not, that's 3.5.

Edit: Yeah, the PF SRD has the format: LG Large outsider (archon, extraplanar, good, lawful).

[Belial_the_Leveler]

Thanks.

Though technically "extraplanar" should not be a type or subtype. A human is extraplanar when he's standing on the Abyss. An Archon of Judgement is not extraplanar when standing on Celestia. I never understood why it was built-in on so many monster sheets.

[Zireael]

Thanks.

Though technically "extraplanar" should not be a type or subtype. A human is extraplanar when he's standing on the Abyss. An Archon of Judgement is not extraplanar when standing on Celestia. I never understood why it was built-in on so many monster sheets.

Maybe the designers assume the archon is on Material Plane?

Anyways, great work.

[Plato Play-Doh]

I feel like smite evil would fit this creature, unless there's a specific reason you left that out, or it's just a 3/3.5 thing and isn't included in pathfinder (I wouldn't know). Other than that minor detail, I really like it!

[Belial_the_Leveler]

Thanks.

Smite Evil would fit, yes. But in Pathfinder it has become a major ability rather than minor one; once activated it lasts until the target is dead, gives a bonus equal to the paladin's charisma to all attack rolls and as a deflection bonus to AC vs the creature and adds the paladin's level (or twice her level, against outsiders/dragons/undead) to damage. Last but not least, it automatically penetrates Damage Reduction


An Archon of Judgement with Smite Evil would get +9 attack, +9 deflection AC and +40 damage against, say, a Pit Fiend. That's a huge bonus - about equivalent to all her SLAs in direct combat.

Hmm, this gives me an idea.

[Belial_the_Leveler]

Added Divine Challenge to her stats. She may now smite, but only at the cost of most her SLAs.

[Thump]

Added Divine Challenge to her stats. She may now smite, but only at the cost of most her SLAs.

Would that not strip her of most of her immunities though? if any demon that knew what it was fighting were to do this, it could theoretically set off a few Energy Drains or such, and effectively nullify the Smite's additional effects (aside from damage), or use Hold/Dominate Monster. It would be a long shot, but admittedly it would be almost easier to kill her with spells and the like.

[Belial_the_Leveler]

It is a risk - a sacrifice; give up her safety in order to kill a fiend faster. The point is, neither Balors and Pit Fiends nor she are fools; they have both wisdom and intelligence beyond most mortals'. So in any fight where they're played as close to their intelligence as the GM can manage, that possibility will be known to both - and be a tactical option for both.

(just because she's an archon doesn't mean she can't bluff - rare though they might be, there exist lawful good lawyers, spies and politicians)

[Thump]

It is a risk - a sacrifice; give up her safety in order to kill a fiend faster. The point is, neither Balors and Pit Fiends nor she are fools; they have both wisdom and intelligence beyond most mortals'. So in any fight where they're played as close to their intelligence as the GM can manage, that possibility will be known to both - and be a tactical option for both.

(just because she's an archon doesn't mean she can't bluff - rare though they might be, there exist lawful good lawyers, spies and politicians)

Ahh, so it's like a mass game of chess...

Interesting. I might have to throw one of these at my RL group. (I don't do PbP DMing simply because I'd suck at it.)

Out of curiosity, what made you pick mithril as the metal needed to bypass it's DR? I think that's the only creature that has DR/mithril in existence...

Pretty unique, though. Me gusta.

[Belial_the_Leveler]

It really doesn't make sense for Angels and Archons to have the same DR as Devils and Demons - they are supposed to be opposites after all.



As for your RL group, are they evil to face angels and archons? One of the funnier things you can do with the Judgement Archon is for her to pretend to be an Astral Deva (not lying - just hiding her full power) and then challenge (as in, Divine Challenge) an evil group's Blackguard/antipaladin/whatever in single combat, playing off his pride and arrogance.
One's sin being one's downfall is a cardinal creed of divine Judgement after all - and just because she's Lawful Good doesn't mean she can't use that 26 Intelligence and 30 wisdom.
And then, when the rest of the group would have gathered around to witness the duel and incidentally be in the perfect place to stab her in the back (they're evil after all), they will also be close enough for her to get them in the area of effect of her Holy Word or Sunburst all at once.
After all, not only expecting betrayal but also turning it against the betrayer is a cardinal outcome of "evil never prospers".

[bobthe6th]

Mithral is not a great choice for metirial. As the only one that has to deal with it, only metaline weapons are going to have a chance of having it. What about adimantine?

Also, the metals are more alinment based. Cold iron is for chaotic anything, and silver is for lawful anything. So Evil and Silver would make way more sense.

I may have to make a monster class of this...

[Thump]

Actually, I'll try and make a monster class out of this... should be fun!

[AttilaTheGeek]

Why are the effects of her Monk's Robe and Belt of Physical Perfection +6 not included in the statblock? It makes for extra work for someone running the monster, and if they're usually worn in combat, it makes more sense to have them in by default, no?

[Belial_the_Leveler]

I chose not to add the bonuses because monster statblocks don't include magic items (except for those tied to monster abilities) even though monsters are entitled to such. The Pit Fiend statblock doesn't have such items for example, even though the Pit Fiend would significantly benefit from -and could afford to get- a belt of physical perfection.

[Elricaltovilla]

Why does her summoned weapon not have the Holy property?

[Belial_the_Leveler]

Weapons wielded by good outsiders already are treated as good-aligned. That allows me to add Bane instead of Holy to her weapon, which better fits the concept of an avenger/hunter of fiends than an all-purpose Holy enhancement.