Welcome back to Dave’s Daily D&D Monsters! Today, I’ll be tackling angels. Here’s what you can expect from this post:
- My thoughts on angels
- 1 new angel variation (sorry, got to this late!)
I apologize for only offering up one variant this evening. Had to finish up my Mega-Delve planning and also had some personal things to take care of. Tomorrow, I plan on writing up 3 more to go with this one plus the normal rundown of angels.
Thoughts on Angels
I use angels very sparringly in my campaigns. To me, they seem kinda like… deux ex machina. Literally.
They also kinda come off as super serious. These are the sort of folks that if you make a joke they just respond with “blink blink blink.”
Plus, with their challenge ratings, they’re the kind of things you only run into at later levels. Like, your players’ characters are using the restroom in Sigil and accidentally run into one taking a shit. In other words, these guys aren’t just waltzing around some hamlet on the Sword Coast.
One Angel Variant
Tonight, I’m just putting up one angel variant, and I’m not sure if it’s been done in D&D before (who am I kidding, they’ve pretty much turned everything into a monster at some point or another).
And that’s the cherub.
A cherub, as wikipedia describes it, is
… a winged angelic being described in biblical tradition as attending on God. It is represented in ancient Middle Eastern art as a lion or bull with eagles’ wings and a human face, and regarded in traditional Christian angelology as an angel of the second highest order of the ninefold celestial hierarchy.
That sounds pretty cool. But we all know what we think of when we hear the word cherub:
Fat baby archer angel!
These are the little buggers that shoot arrows in your butt and make you fall in love with the first person you see.
Sure, I guess I could’ve made cherubs into evil homebrewed monsters or something like that, but frankly, that’s just boring. Plus, after coming up with the lumwochaak during my aboleth variants, I wanted to do something a little more… cute.
Statting a Cherub
First up, I made it chaotic good instead of lawful. Because a) why do all angels have to be lawful? Isn’t good good enough? And b) these little buggers are always causing mischief, even if it’s the good kind of mischief.
They’re small and overall kinda wimpy, but fast and totally charismatic. Their job is to show up, fire an arrow into someone’s butt, and disappear. So I gave them at will invisibility and expertise level stealth.
Finally, to really make ’em cutesie, I made it so their bow can either deal damage (a reasonable 11 average) or charm someone. The object of the charmed creature’s affection is either the cherub itself or another creature within 30 feet of the target.
This should be fun and wacky!
As usual, the cherub is totally free for you to use in your 5e campaigns. Just not commercially. And the art ain’t mine. Borrowed!
Angel: Cherub
Small celestial, chaotic good
Armor Class 13
Hit Points 33 (6d6 + 12)
Speed 20 ft., fly 40 ft.
Abilities Str 10 (+0), Dex 18 (+4), Con 14 (+2), Int 13 (+1), Wis 15 (+2), Cha 20 (+5)
Saving Throws Wis +3, Cha +7
Skills Insight +4, Perception +4, Stealth +8
Damage Resistances radiant; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened
Senses darkvision 120 ft. passive Perception 14
Languages all, telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge 2 (450 XP)
Angelic Weapons. The cherub’s weapon attacks are magical. When the cherub hits with any weapon, the weapon deals an extra 1d8 radiant damage (included in the attack).
Lover’s Arrow. If the cherub hits a creature with its short bow, it may choose to avoid dealing damage and instead cause the creature to make a DC 15 Wisdom save. On a failed save, the creature becomes charmed for 1 hour. The cherub may choose itself to be the object of the charm, or it may choose another target within 30 feet of the charmed creature. A charmed target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns. If the saving throw is successful, the effect ends on it. A target that successfully saves is immune to this cherub’s arrow for the next 24 hours.
Innate Spellcasting. The cherub’s spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 15). The cherub can innately cast the following spells, requiring only verbal components:
At will: detect evil and good
1/day: calm emotions
Magic Resistance. The cherub has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Actions
Short Bow. Ranged Weapon Attack. +6 to hit, range 80/320 ft. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) piercing damage plus 4 (1d8) radiant damage.
Superior Invisibility. The cherub magically turns invisible until its concentration ends (as if concentrating on a spell). Any equipment the cherub wears or carries is invisible with it.
Thanks for reading!
I’ll be back tomorrow with three more angel variants. I haven’t totally decided which ones I want to make, but the word “blood angel” keeps running through my head, so I might do that.
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See you later!
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