Aasimar

So I asked my resident DM what I should research today and he directed me to page 104 in Volo’s Guide to Monsters, where you can find the Aasimar. They’re pretty cool!

For those who know nothing about Dungeons and Dragons, and I know there are a few reading this, Aasimar is a race of people you can choose to play. Unless something happens to them as a young person, they seem to be almost inherently good. Not to just transcribe the book, here’s the first part:

“Aasimar bear within their souls the light of the heavens. They are descended from humans with a touch of the power from Mount Celestia, the divine realm of many lawful good deities. Aasimar are born to serve as champions of the gods, their births hailed as blessed events. They are a people of otherworldly visages, with luminous features that reveal their celestial heritage.”

Pretty people, champions of the gods, you get it. Angels? Nah. But they are guided by angels. Not so much in coming down from the clouds, blowing trumpets, but in dreams and visions. These angels are from a realm of pure law and light and good and justice, and will always try and urge the champions of the gods in that direction as well. The book says that these dreams lead an aasimar to a “sense of destiny and desire for righteousness.”

As all this is such, aasimar will attract the attention of evil, ready to “strike down a celestial champion,” and so will often choose to hide their identities behind a hood or helms. I don’t know why but that is just fascinating to me. Maybe because there’s that trope of a hooded adventurer. I never really thought why that might be until now.

Anyway, if you’re interested, the book has some more information on what the guiding angels or devas are like.

The next bit that caught my eye were the different types of aasimar. There’s protector aasimar, scourge aasimar, and fallen aasimar, that we’ll get to in a minute.

Protector aasimar get a wisdom score increase by 1, and their special thing is Radiant Soul: your eyes glimmer and two luminous, incorporeal wings sprout from your back. For one minute, you get to fly, and deal extra radiant damage to one target, equaling your level. Scourge aasimar gets a constitution increase of one, and “a searing light [radiates] from you, [pouring] out of your eyes and mouth and threatening to char you.” Lasting for a minute, you shed bright light, and also deal extra radiant damage equal to your level.

So basically, if you’re not going to be evil, you choose between those two. Having celestial wings and glimmering eyes just sounds so much more appealing to me than light that “threatens to char you.” I’m just picturing it like equipping my wings in Diablo. Much cooler.

So I asked Thor, with your patrons being all justice and good and law, do you have any choice but to be lawful good? I asked, what if you disagree with the law of the land?

He brought up Strahd. He makes the law and the law under Strahd probably isn’t great. But you can still have a code, and that can be your law. But they are generally good.

UNLESS. “An aasimar who was touched by dark powers as a youth or who turns to evil in early adulthood can become one of the fallen–a group of aasimar whose inner light has been replaced by shadow.” Fallen aasimar get a strength increase of 1, and can transform, “causing your eyes to turn into pools of darkness and two skeletal, ghostly, flightless wings to sprout from your back.” Metal. Deal extra necrotic damage to a target, equaling your level.

I guess it’s up to your backstory! The book makes sure to mention that you can change from good to evil or vice versa with the DM’s consent.

Here’s some pictures!

By missuskisses on deviantart

Thor says he especially appreciates the tables that give you angelic names and personalities. He says any time you can give the DM a hook like that, will only further the story.

 

There you have it! That’s what I’ve learned today!