Campaign Idea: Angellic players....

[MonkeySage]

This was an idea i had a couple years back that never got off the ground, because i had no idea how to make it work.
The players would start off as newly forged angels, and would receive their quests from greater celestials- with of course the potential to fall.

1) How could I make the whole angel player work? I feel like creating a home brewed angelic race, or giving them aasimar or half celestial would be a cop out- i want it to feel genuine to the players, like they are truly playing as angels.
2) What could I give as quests? What kind of story arc could I create for these newborn angels? In my setting, angels are created as angels, not born from mortal souls.
3) Would they have class levels? Would they work their way up through the ranks? Would they gain their Outsider HD as if they were class levels?

[Batcathat]

2) What could I give as quests? What kind of story arc could I create for these newborn angels? In my setting, angels are created as angels, not born from mortal souls.

Maybe instead of the classic "go kill the bad guy" the players could be tasked to try and redeem the bad guy. We all know how to kill the Big Bad Necromancer or whatever but how do you make him see the error of his ways? It'd probably take some extra thinking from both you and the players but I think it could be rather interesting and fitting of the angel theme.

[TheTeaMustFlow]

This was an idea i had a couple years back that never got off the ground, because i had no idea how to make it work.
The players would start off as newly forged angels, and would receive their quests from greater celestials- with of course the potential to fall.

1) How could I make the whole angel player work? I feel like creating a home brewed angelic race, or giving them aasimar or half celestial would be a cop out- i want it to feel genuine to the players, like they are truly playing as angels.
2) What could I give as quests? What kind of story arc could I create for these newborn angels? In my setting, angels are created as angels, not born from mortal souls.
3) Would they have class levels? Would they work their way up through the ranks? Would they gain their Outsider HD as if they were class levels?

My suggestion for 1 and 3 would be to adapt the gestalt rules, only instead of advancing in two character classes, they advance in one class and outsider HD, also gradually gaining the spell like abilities and such of whichever kind of angel they are.

[Eldonauran]

My suggestion for 1 and 3 would be to adapt the gestalt rules, only instead of advancing in two character classes, they advance in one class and outsider HD, also gradually gaining the spell like abilities and such of whichever kind of angel they are.

This would be my suggestion as well. I run a similar style game, but all the players are undead. There are some 3rd Edition resources that can help, namely Savage Species and Libris Mortis. They provide examples of monster progressions.

[Clementx]

You could start them with the Celestial or Half-Celestial template added to whatever race they wanted/represented their origin, if you wanted to begin at Step Zero ala Paul Hogan's seminal "Almost an Angel". There are savage progressions for their LA's on WotC web supplements. This works if you want to advance via class levels. I'm sure someone has a progression one-to-epic written for angels like solars.

Between story arcs, you could have them change base creature to more powerful angel types. Unlike devil/demon promotions, I don't know if there is a recommended chain of forms. This is a lot more work than leveling, probably changes effective level erratically, and involves losing powers as well as gaining.

[Psyren]

1) There's a lot of potential variety under the "Angel" umbrella. You've got the actual angels (i.e. Angel subtype) that move freely among all the upper planes (e.g. Planetars, Devas.) Then you've got the aligned celestials like Archons (LG), Agathions (NG) and Azata (CG). Even though these other three groups aren't technically "angels", I would consider them close enough to count for this campaign, which gives your players a lot more variety. I would even consider allowing Inevitables, Aeons, Psychopomps or Proteans for added spice - these groups would have reason to join in fighting fiends if it looks like the fiends are about to destroy creation, for example.

2) With (1) in mind, I would pick a CR (e.g. 8) and let everyone choose an angel of that CR - they could pick an angel that's already there, or pick a lower-CR one and have you advance it to the appropriate HD to be even with the others. In general I would restrict them to angels that have a humanoid-shaped form of some kind so that you don't have to worry about things like body slot discrepancies - so no Lantern Archons etc. Having everyone start at the same CR means you can do APL calculations very easily, which makes your life much easier when designing appropriate encounters.

3) Lastly, I would use the Monsters as PCs rules to let them advance in a character class of their choice, complete with built-in "LA buyoff." (Pathfinder doesn't really have LA, but this accomplishes the same design objective.) If you want a level-by-level breakdown of how these rules work in play, see this older post by me as an example.

[Mnemius]

Pathfinder has a concept of Race Points in the Advanced Race Guide. Different racial traits cost so many points.
Give the players points as they level to spend on more angelic-themed racial perks as they level up?

Borrow the summoner's Eidolon system and have them play with evolution points and the evolution to themselves?

[Blue Jay]

In this thread on Myth-Weavers, I have progressions for all the monsters from the Monster Manual. They use Inevitability's Reassigned LAs (RLAs). The Astral Deva is in this post, and the Trumpet Archon and Planetar are in this post. I've also got one for the Movanic Deva from Fiend Folio.

You're welcome to use my progressions, if they'll give you what you want. If you do use them, I would love feedback on them.

[TiaC]

You could use Oslecamo's Monster classes. He has over a dozen celestial classes that are intended to be played as PCs with no LA involved.

[Lord Foul]

This looks like it would be cool in a sort of gestalt game
Like you're given a CR budget for your celestial side and then on the other half you pick a class. If you go under budget you fill that with class stuff too

That or you could just slap half celestial or archon graced or whatever on a normal character

[StSword]

There's also a book about playing angels "Anger of Angels" by Sean K Reynolds you might wish to check out.

It has the various kinds of angels as races, feats for angels, prestige classes.

It's got a more Abrahamic vibe going for it rather than taking the outsiders and giving them classes ala Savage Species.

So it wouldn't do you as much good if you wanted to play a lantern archon instead of a wheel made out of fire with eyes, but thought I'd bring it up for completeness sake.

[Lord Foul]

Ooh, Abrahamic angels are freaky
That's cool

[Endarire]

A friend and I played in The Shackled City for D&D 3.5, written by Paizo pre-PF1. We were gestalt angels of Pelor given earthly bodies suited to our task. (We started at level 1 but with some reduced-cost level adjustment.) Our goal was to play the module, but in so doing explore the world and determine if this plane should be destroyed or spared.

Yes, some of it was inspired by the Biblical account of Sodom and Gomorrah.

[Lord Foul]

A friend and I played in The Shackled City for D&D 3.5, written by Paizo pre-PF1. We were gestalt angels of Pelor given earthly bodies suited to our task. (We started at level 1 but with some reduced-cost level adjustment.) Our goal was to play the module, but in so doing explore the world and determine if this plane should be destroyed or spared.

Yes, some of it was inspired by the Biblical account of Sodom and Gomorrah.

That's really really cool

[Endarire]

Our characters were the only ones in the world with notably high stats. (We had a 40 point buy and gestalt. Everyone else used standard elite or common array stats or their default premade stats.)

I chose Pelor primarily because of the controversy around Pelor, the Burning Hate. Being angels of judgment or mercy could fit either way.

I appreciate your appreciation of my proposal!