D&D MONSTER RANKINGS - CELESTIALS

i have returned for another d d monster ranking this time we are looking at one of the most unique types of creatures in dungeons and dragons celestials there are no end to gruesome horrors and ferocious beasts in dnd and rpgs in general but it is not as often that we see celestial creatures the angels the noble beasts the spirits of the upper plains and other sorts of sacred beings partially this is because the characters are far more likely to come into conflict with neutral or evil creatures and partially this is because terrifying monstrosities and strange roguish foes have a dark allure to them that the beings of light don't have i suppose celestial beings are closer to perfection and as great as that is perfection is less interesting for storytelling stories after all revolve around conflict tragedies struggles and some of the most interesting characters are the flawed ones i also think another issue is that d d doesn't always know quite what to do with celestial creatures it has no trouble finding room for demons and undead and weird abominations but for some reason it starts to lose its grip when it comes to angels and exalted spirits have also observed a similar shortcoming with primal creatures and tribal folk in d d though to a lesser degree than celestials it seems d d is great with dungeons and cities but it gets oversimplified and a bit more generic when it comes to those who dwell upon the land or who dwell up in the higher majestic celestial plains but if we are going to have dark abysses then there must also be luminous heights if there is a hell then there is a heaven if there are devils witches and vampires then there must be saviors guardians and deities the battle between opposing forces gives us the story one of the most profound parts in dostoyevsky's the brothers karmazov is the chapter the confession of a passionate heart which deals with how people are attracted to corruption as well as to goodness and how there is a profound struggle between these opposing forces the awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible god and the devil are fighting there and the battlefield is the heart of man that is conflict that is storytelling we need the angel grappling with the demon as much in d as in literature this is the sort of thing that compels stories forward and develops characters and settings without these struggles between dark and light good and evil order and chaos things are formless and meaningless as with all my rankings i'm going to examine the various aspects of each creature they're analyzed in five main areas mechanics which is how interesting fun and unique the abilities are style which deals with aesthetics tone and flavor role playing which is to say social interactions and potential for interesting dialogue and exchanges lore which is how much substance a creature has in its legends its ecology and adventure hooks and versatility which looks at the variety of different roles objectives and modes of expression the creature has if a creature you like gets a low rating don't worry you can always breathe additional life into a monster or develop one of its weak spots to make it more effective in that area in fact i encourage you to get creative with the monsters and the npcs and your adventures but i'm not here to rate your skills i'm just looking at what's actually presented in the books speaking of books i'll be referencing five e's monster manual volo's guide to monsters and mordenkainen's tome foes as well i'm including some additional books this time around because there are not a ton of celestials overall in d d so we'll see some entries from guild masters guide to ravnica mythic odysseys of pharaohs and eberron rising from the last war oh and before we delve in i want to mention a few quick things first of all it seems that on every ranking video i make i get these comments from people or at least someone complaining about what tier i place the song titles in well song titles actually aren't being ranked i choose a band or an artist for each ranking and i use their song titles as flavor text to describe the different tiers second the pre-order store is up and running for my upcoming 5e book esper's emporium of esoterica filled with monsters a new class that i've designed called the paragon spells magic items cursed items npcs traps and much much more there's a link down in the video description below and last but not least let us offer up a short prayer glorious divine of the astral realm above illuminate now these wayward souls who linger and lurk about my videos guide their hands to strike the button of subscription and toll the bell of awareness and may our journeys to strange and misbegotten places lead us in the end to the majestic and sacred shrine where we may reflect upon our experiences and attain higher levels of competence such that we might successfully navigate through dark dungeons and slay the fearsome dragons now we approach the brilliant gates of celestia onward to radiant majesty my brave companions f-tier belongs to the most flawed creatures and also the most basic ones very few celestials are found here the winged bull and winged lion are typically associated with archons which we'll get into a bit later on the mighty archons often use these celestial beasts as mounts they're like normal animals in many ways though they are technically celestials as they are native to the upper plains they're more intelligent than regular beasts and they have wings they're also tougher and stronger than normal bowls and lions overall these are relatively simple creatures and the mythic odysseys of theros book doesn't even provide any artwork for them so that is actually all for f-tier celestials and it's not until mid-deter that we encounter the next entry the felidar takes things up a notch from the winged lion it is a lawful neutral creature that typically bonds with powerful companion that also embodies the ideals of righteous order such as an archon paladin or magistrate physically felidars are feline creatures with horns and long fangs sometimes they possess wings mechanics wise they pounce like lions have true sight and can magically bond with one creature at a time the felidar and its bonded creature can communicate telepathically since each other's locations and see and hear through each other's senses you might wonder why don't those celestial bulls and lions just have these magical abilities why create a whole new creature that's nearly the same thing well this is because the felidar comes from magic the gathering by way of the guildmaster's guide to ravnica setting book and if there's something that magic the gathering has no shortage of it's beast monsters that are remixes of already existing things soaring high a little ways above the felidar is the pegasus a classic mythological winged horse pegasi are wild and free-spirited even shy in a way their minds are intelligent and their hearts are noble and benevolent the olympian glades of arboria is the plane of origin for the pegasi which is a place of majestic wilderness as well as ancient greek style palisades for gods it's a chaotic good plane so it's forever untamed and disorganized but the powers that be are ultimately well intentioned in many ways the pegasus is a simple creature it flies attacks the hoof kick and essentially is a kind of mythical wild horse it does strike me as very odd that they are as intelligent as humans but they live as animals from time to time a pegasus does join with a companion such as a hero or a champion of good but why don't they in and of themselves have something more going on no culture no society no language even giant eagles which are just beasts can speak giant eagle which i imagine is composed of avian sounds so the pegasus has potential and aesthetically it's quite beautiful and inspiring but unfortunately it is underdeveloped if it was up to me i would create a sort of pegasus society now we don't need to completely knock off human society for this we could do something that fits more with the horse-like traits and proclivities but imagine glades that function something like villages or even something like druidic circles or small religious orders and in these the pegasi could develop language laws cultures ideas philosophies goals and who knows maybe even find some way to do some sort of construction maybe they have allied creatures or races that have opposable thumbs and can use tools there's plenty of different ways you could go with this and in the end it's really up to you moving along just like that to seat here we come across but a single creature and it is actually the first angel in this ranking the battle force angel again comes to us from the ravnica book and she is associated with the boros legion which combines furious zeal and a dedication to justice the battle force angel is sort of like a valkyrie a celestial of combat and war who flies in the vanguard alongside sky nights on their flying mounts she's leading companies of soldiers against the evil hordes this is all decently cool but it's nothing too unique she's a fairly standard battle angel like a flying knight in shining armor her sword deals additional radiant damage and her inspiring battle cries bolster allies attacks and saving throws much like the blessed spell this is the only entry in seat here it's high seat here but the only one in our ranking here it gives us just a mere taste a sampling of the greater angels that are to come on to be tier much like what we saw with the dragons ranking there aren't too many low tier or even mid-tier entries when it comes to celestials these types of creatures are typically full of wondrous abilities inspiring aesthetics and strong role-playing potential in mid-beat here we have the unicorn along with angels this is the most culturally visible creature on this list as far as modern day is concerned though pop culture has kind of bastardized the unicorn as it tends to do with pretty much everything the unicorn is a legendary creature which is fairly rare for a monster of only cr5 it has a forest layer with regional effects though no layer actions it has legendary actions but no legendary resistance which i think is one of its worst shortcomings as it really needs some legendary resistance due to the fact that its ac and its hit points are so low it really sucks the unicorn has to use up all three of its legendary actions to heal itself just to stay on par with some decent ac and hit points in battle the unicorn can charge with its horn and strike with its hooves it has a selection of innate spells such as pass without trace and once per day calm emotions entangle and dispel evil and good it can also heal other creatures with a touch from its horn and teleport up to a mile once per day so incredibly elusive this one the unicorn's lore describes how it is a lordly guardian of its forest realm how a unicorn sometimes serves as a mount for a champion of good and how magically potent its horn is this makes unicorn horns prized as magical components which brings with it a whole slew of moral questions and potential for stories and adventures i can't help but think of the movie legend the goblin blicks who cuts off the unicorn's horn to give it to his master the archdevil darkness and thankfully unlike the pegasus the unicorn can speak it even has telepathy personally i don't think i would narrate the unicorn as talking in a typical mundane way but rather making beautiful sounds and calls that other creatures understand within their minds and hearts even onto sophisticated ideas the unicorn is a great entry and it has the potential to be even greater a few main hairs ahead of the unicorn is the fire main angel from ravnica she's a different type of battle angel whose red hair ignites and flame during the fury of combat unlike most angels which have a lawful good alignment the fire mane is chaotic good meaning she is rebellious unorthodox and willfully independent yet her moral compass is ultimately aligned towards trying to do what is right to help others this defiance in terms of approach and dogma causes tension amongst groups of angels which in turn provides us with a new avenue for storytelling even if you're not someone who gets into philosophical debates you can still imagine angelic companies having arguments and competing with one another to take charge of the next great initiative abilities wise the fire mane is a plate armor wearing flaming long sword-wielding flying warrior in fact she can fly at a ferocious speed of 120 feet that allows her to capitalize on a flyby attack maneuver she has true sight and some decent resistances along with a relentless trait which is reminiscent of half orcs her innate spells include a six level fireball a fifth level guiding bolt and compelled duel which plays into her specialty in single combat fire mains revel in driving straight towards the most powerful opponents engaging them directly like achilles calling out hector while the masses of troops struggle through the grand melees overall the fire mane is a solid angel entry she's a flying duelist warrior that also has a few powerful artillery type spells and her persona and lore can lead to some charge to role-playing and storytelling empyrions are essentially lesser gods as they are the children of the gods of the upper plains and technically they are categorized as celestial titans the gods themselves are so powerful that we rarely ever see a stat block of one and there is a good argument to be made that gods transcends stat blocks empyrians being in effect lesser gods or minor deities are on this second highest of all tiers the same general power level as demon lords archdevils archfay elder horrors ancient dragons primordials so on we could also include 20th level player characters in that echelon as well empyreans being the willful and impulsive souls that they are get into all sorts of trouble from simple things like temperamental fits that cause natural disasters to more heavy things like venturing to lower planes and getting corrupted by evil forces as they are in effect giant hyper-powered people the empyrions can potentially be found in almost any situation even on the material plane where they might exist as god emperors or divine pharaohs or some other grand station the empyrean has a variety of different abilities his maul delivers a massive amount of damage and stuns the target he can throw powerful bolts of elemental energy or radiance out to 600 feet he has legendary resistance magic resistance immunity to non-magical weapons his innate spells include things like earthquake firestorm plane shift dispel evil and good commune and at will greater restoration he also has legendary actions which can be a mall strike granting allies advantage on all saving throws or a seismic trimmer that can knock creatures prone within 60 feet there's a lot you could do with an empirian i just have to wonder why we don't hear about them very often i'm trying to remember a single published adventure or d d video game that features one i'm sure they exist but i'm not remembering any off the top of my head this gives me thinking again about that peculiar shortcoming dnd has with divine and godly things it's like d d tries to cram too much stuff into a game at the same time and certain things can get overlooked even things that seem like they would be impossible to overlook like the children of gods who venture into the world to become titanic kings and queens and when they get upset natural disasters erupt from their anger i also think that d d has a strange relationship with religion at face value the game isn't deep enough to tackle a topic like religion which deals with the biggest questions of all time d d is more about pulp fantasy adventure and dungeon delving there's nothing in the game's mechanics that directly relates to spirituality philosophy and the like but at the same time the playing of d is like a religious experience where we ritualistically gather to take part in an experience that is steeped in imagination storytelling and the journey of the self and all the discovery and the growth that's involved with it i don't know about you but i've had countless mysterious experiences while playing d d where things even supposedly randomly generated things strangely align they sync up and everyone seems to be connected on some other level there's also the fact that d is at its very roots connected to mythology which is essentially one with religion imagine d d without clerics paladins monks or druids without temples shrines or sacred locations without gods celestial realms and holy artifacts without prayers miracles and divine magic without all the creatures that come to us from mythology if we were to strip away all those spiritual and mystical mythological elements from the game it would be a far worse and far shallower experience speaking of a shallow experience we come to aurelia officially referred to as war leader aurelia of the boros legion from the ravnica setting in a way she is a solid b-tier entry but i need to go on a quick rant here aurelia is a beautiful and mighty battle angel with legendary actions she has something of a mary sue effect going on she's a devastating force in combat yet so compassionate she's the epic war leader of one of the main guilds but also so humble and empathetic of the lowly common folk and she believes in equality for all she commands a whole army though she claims to be beholden to every one of her soldiers she is fair merciful and self-sacrificing and capable of delivering swift and unrelenting justice to the forces of evil yes and she also shits gold bricks i just don't buy it something in me reads all this and thinks so she's a totally perfect being with no flaws who somehow has time to fight all battles fulfill the wishes of each soldier help all the poor and show the world how she is a flawless saint and how everyone else can be so flawless like her well she's so perfect and swiftly eradicates evil why do so many evil creatures exist in ravnica how can she be both a cr-23 war leader queen of a main guild and yet believe everyone is equally the same how can she abide by the requests of all the thousands of soldiers she claims to be beholden to when people have such wide differences in opinion and perspective something in me just doesn't believe it maybe if she were a goddess and existed in a more mysterious abstract form she would work for me better but as a literal person she seems like a half-baked daydream of impossible perfection okay enough with that aside from my rant aurelia does work if you just get away from her stupid lore if treated as an icon of an archangel she's actually quite amazing beauty majesty divine power all together in one form her battle prowess is epic with bardic inspiration like abilities a helix that deals radiant damage to an enemy while simultaneously healing an ally and two different reactions the almighty and sacred technique of perry and also unyielding which negates being knocked prone or forced to move her long sword is a devastating force of slashing and radiance and her frightened foes ability is reminiscent of a dragon's frightful presence personally i suggest either modifying aurelia's lore or maybe even reskin her for your own campaign but otherwise she's a epic very high cr angel next up we have the archon of the triumvirate this creature is as you see here an archon which is different than the archons of third edition such as the lantern archon hound archon etc in 5e an archon is a stern stoic being that embodies the harshest manifestation of law and order lawful neutral taken to a severe degree though not associated with moderns or mechanisms archons are mysterious creatures that typically shade their handsome faces and pure white eyes beneath large hooded cowls they're also known to ride winged felidar mounts or other flying mounts and they share deep magical bonds with these mounts in essence archons are hardcore celestial punishers and law bringers the archon of the triumvirate is a legendary cr-14 creature so it's nothing to sneeze at it has a number of abilities including spells that calm emotions command and also that compelled duel all of these at will it also has eyes of a law which allows it to automatically determine what all laws a certain creature has broken within the past 24 hours and an ability which is simply called mount even though the ability's name is pretty mundane it's really an incredible feature as a bonus action the archon can teleport onto its bonded mount from anywhere within the same plane of existence while mounted the archon can't be surprised it and its mount have advantage on dexterity saving throws though if the archon dies the mount dies too so i guess their bond truly is to the core in combat the archon wields a hammer of justice which deals bludgeoning and force damage and can knock a target prone it also has an incredible ability called pacifying presence as an action the archon can target a number of creatures within 120 feet each one that fails a wisdom saving throw drops any weapon it's holding ends concentration on all spells and is charmed for a minute the archon does not have legendary resistance for some reason but it has legendary actions which are rejoined mount similar to what i just described above actually a twin hammer attack plus mount attack simultaneously and detention one of those strange exiled to a dimmy plane for one round abilities so not exactly detention but more like a flicker or a temporal phase-out this archon comes from magic gatherings ravnica setting and as with most things magic the gathering its artwork and mechanics are really interesting but the lore is not the greatest d d has something of a problem with its ultra high magic everything goes kitchen sink fantasy but magic cranks that up to 11. it's just impossible to avoid the nonsense the plot holes and the ridiculousness when a setting is that over the top and bloated now i do love magic i've played it a ton since the mid-90s but the current state of its lore and the overall tone of it sort of reminds me of what hollywood has turned into it's a strange mixture of everything being overproduced and forced to be epic and hyper flashy while at the same time overly politically correct and overly sensitive strangely enough it destroys the heart and soul of the story and it makes the characters feel hollow so in some ways the archon of the triumvirate is a great monster but in other ways not so much imagine being a common criminal in ravnica city of guilds while cr-14 archons are flying around and at will as bonus actions just by looking at you they can psychically detect what laws you've broken say goodbye to the plucky ragamuffin street thieves like aladdin kiss the arkhan's rigid ass you flawed grey characters we've got many gods whirling about hammering everyone into gray cubes of obedience and we're already through beat here celestials much like dragons have most of their entries in a tier so let's ascend up now to the loftiest echelons of the divine and astral beings and behold their sublime majesty the radiant idol comes from the eberron campaign setting though it could fit into many different fantasy settings as a type of fallen angel a being with a celestial origin but was cast down or pulled down due to its egotistical lust it really desires to be worshipped by mortals and it has lost the ability to fly as its wings were thus ripped off to mere bloody stumps or divine chains shackled the wings due to their haughty and immoral desires a radiant idol uses disguise self to conceal this fact and enhance its appearance overall in fact its innate spells overall lend to the radiant idol portraying itself as a living god capable of healing communing bringing the dead back to life and also charming dominating and mass suggesting people or even calling down a plague of insects using its magic and every kind of manipulative scheme that it can a radiant idol gathers a cult following and in the end leads its followers into a downward spiral of corruption and quote fanatical doom unfortunately the lore leaves things sort of incomplete never answering bigger questions such as what is it the radiant idol really wants what's its end goal sure it wants to be worshipped but to what ends is it like a devil who wants more souls for hell in fact this creature seems more like a devil than an angel at what point does a fallen angel become a devil these questions of the radiant idol's nature and true motivation and ultimate objectives are just left up to you in combat it can make two powerful flail strikes that bludgeon and deal 48 extra radiant damage once per day it can convoke a 30 foot radius cylinder of searing radiance that lasts for a round it also has magic resistance resistance against radiant damage and non-magical weapons and a few other skill proficiencies and such its passive feature aura of false divinity does strike me as somewhat odd the concept fits the radiant idol when someone is close to it they have to make a wisdom saving throw or be charmed by it but the charm subject repeats the saving throw at the end of every single turn and it becomes immune for 24 hours once they succeed on the save i suppose that in a straight-up combat encounter this could be a strong effect but in a role-playing context it's bizarre imagine every new potential follower of the self-styled god meeting him for the first time the newcomer gets charmed feeling an immense affinity for this influential and exquisite holy being but then some seconds later that intense feeling just fades away shouldn't such an effect last much longer and if the player characters meet the radiant idol in an rp context which i imagine they probably will they too will experience that strangely short-lived charm effect this isn't some wandering beast monster or ravenous demon it's a creature that is 100 built for social interactions so the aura really might have no bearing on a combat encounter at all because some of the characters if not all of them would have already timed out the charm effect and gained the immunity during the interaction the radiant idol is a great monster one that i could totally see myself using in a campaign yes it has a few shortcomings but nothing majorly detrimental and nothing that can't be improved upon by some dm creativity and storytelling in the magic the gathering plane of pharaohs which is inspired by greek and roman mythology the archons once had a mighty empire it fell because of reasons and some of the remaining archons who were embittered by the rise of humanity fled into the underworld dwelling in that dark and fearful place eventually broke and transformed this group of archons into ashen writers a type of lawful evil archon hell-bent on laying low great heroes and reducing mortals to ash it is an ominous figure in mythic full plate riding a top to giant winged white tiger and wielding a heavy sickle-like blade somewhat reminiscent of the iraq's from the dothraki and game of thrones mechanically the first thing i noticed about the ashen rider is that it is a legendary creature yet does not have legendary resistance then i saw that its hit points are kind of on the low side considering that it has no damage resistances nor magic resistance though it does have the rare immunity to thunder damage so this essentially means that the offensive capabilities are going to be very high balancing out the weaker defensive shortcomings it has an aura of silence that can render foes mute and death which shuts down effectively all spell casting unless the target succeeds on a wisdom save that is in which it gains 24 hours of immunity to the silence aura the ashen rider has the innate spells of command and compelled duel at will banishment and blade barrier once per day each it has that wonderful teleporting mount feature like the archon of the triumvirate we saw before for attacks it has an ashen blade that deals a good amount of slashing and radiant damage it has a bolt of ash a ranged spell attack that deals 4d10 necrotic damage and the target can't regain hit points for a round with an action the ashen rider can make three blade attacks or two bolt attacks and it can make an additional attack per legendary action it spins meaning up to five to six attacks per round so there's the high offensive capability i was expecting its two other legendary actions are a coordinated assault in which the archon and its mount both make attacks and reduce to ash which uses all three of its legendary actions for that round the target must succeed on a constitution saving throw or take 5 d10 necrotic damage and its max hp are reduced by an amount equal to the damage if this reduces the target to 0 max hp it and all of its non-magical equipment are disintegrated to ash with only a wish spell able to restore it so mechanically and style-wise the ashen writer is a tremendous awe-inspiring force especially considering that it will be flying on its mount though as we often see in dnd we are left to fill in the blanks left by the creature's lore which is not necessarily a bad thing but when we are looking at a race of creatures whose crs range from 12 to 16 and they used to have an empire you would think the actual books would provide more information about them but no we're just left with the seeds and sproutlings of the ideas the planetar is actually a step above the deva in terms of the core three angels from the monster manual but even though its numbers are mechanically superior and it has access to some more powerful spells it lags behind a bit in versatility because it cannot change shape like the deva can more on that in just a moment planitars serve as the weapons of the gods they are devastating forces high cr beings that can unleash tremendous radiant great sword attacks heal with a touch remove curses and diseases or call down divine magic in the form of invisibility blade barrier insect plague flame strike raised dead commune and control weather for whatever stupid reason though it has no ranged weapon it has intelligence 19 and wisdom 22 yet it isn't smart enough or aware enough that it should bring along a bow and arrow i don't buy it give this bald giant angel a long bow for heaven's sake yeah the thing that i probably like best about the planetarius is that they also serve the rule of giving mighty quests mortals they unfortunately don't have the gesh spell which they totally should but they do have divine awareness allowing them to know whenever they hear a lie this paired with their true sight makes them nearly impossible to bluff could their lore be a bit better yes but that's like eighty percent of d d so take your average lore rating and let's move up or perhaps shoot down as the archon of falling stars is our next entry coming to us from the pharaoh setting like all other archons this is an enigmatic figure wearing heavy armor including headwear that shadows its facial features it wields a mighty weapon or i guess the creatures innate magic imbues whatever weapon it wields and it rides atop a majestic celestial mount this time the artwork depicting one of those winged bowls or winged ox as i stated before my main criticism with the archons is their lore the book says the archons are conquering warlords who once ruled vast empires with iron fists yet somehow these empires all fell and the scattered remaining archons went their own ways so how did their vast empires topple who or what caused this why were the immensely powerful archons in their people unable to stop this apocalypse are there arkon empire ruins leftover what about powerful archon magic items or artifacts i checked the treasures section of the mythic odysseys of theros book and there is no mention of archon items what was the archon's religion or philosophy what were their laws their system of government how were their societies structured where did the archons come from originally there is almost no end to all these questions and some of them are really big questions with tremendous implications for the setting so you get to develop all of that yourself because the game's developers i guess weren't interested in creating or including such content [Music] the archon of falling stars specifically it does have a nugget of interesting lore referring to an ancient battle between a party of champions favored by the gods fighting a mighty archon at the eastern edge of the world the archon was defeated it fell off the world and was about to be consumed by the sun when the sun god paleos heard his pleading his promise to uphold order and goodness paleos accepted the promise and gave the archon a spear of light thus creating the first archon of falling stars i'm actually not sure where the stars part comes in as the creature's lore appearance and abilities have nothing to do with stars but it's rather kind of like an angel phoenix theme so is this a hint of what happened to the ancient empire of archons did the gods and the champions of the gods topple them if we get past the incomplete lore the archon of falling stars is an otherwise amazing creature with that teleporting mount feature that we've seen with the other archons magic resistance and true sight innate spell casting including crusaders mantle and spirit guardians and a fantastic radiant rebirth feature which states that once per day when the archon of falling stars is killed it comes back immediately with 30 hit points unleashing a burst of radiance that deals damage and blinds all creatures within 30 feet it has a radiant spear attack and its first legendary action option is to attack with the spear or cast its at will guiding bolt it also has the coordinated assault legendary action like we saw previously where it and its mount both attack together and its three-point legendary action is called return to nyx which obliterates a dead body in a burst of radiant damage overall it's a really cool monster a nice mid to high cr champion of stoic might and radiant phoenix type elements the next entry is another angel the deva which is actually the very first angel you come across in the monster manual it's the very first angel you find in 5th edition dungeons and dragons the deva and the standard angels are exactly what we think of in terms of the traditional sense of an angel beings that resemble beautiful people to some degree but they're more sublime closer to god than we terribly flawed humans angels are sent by deities and times of dire need when lowly mortals are in terrible crises desperate for some force of goodness to lead them from darkness back to the light there are also the fallen angels which we've already glimpsed in this ranking as well and there's also the arrhenius fallen angel which is technically a devil i covered it in my devil ranking video so it goes to show us how even a creature as divine as an angel has some degree of susceptibility to corruption the deva is a beautiful angelic agent with a number of resistances and a mace that deals a substantial amount of radiant damage i do find it incredibly odd just as with the planetary that it has no ranged attack no angelic longbow no ray of searing light not even javelins or the sacred flame can trip this makes absolutely no sense this creature is so smart and so cunning he would know to bring along at the very least a short bow the davis n8 spells are detect evil and good at will and once per day commune and raised dead it also has a healing touch that restores hit points and cures any curse disease poison blindness or deafness any any like even the curse from a god or an ancient lich well i suppose the dm can make the call on that this miracle working celestial also has the fantastic change shape ability with this it can transform into any humanoid or beast that has a challenge rating no higher than its own in this way it can move about the world or even on other planes in a more discrete way or it can utilize this ability to gain different powers and traits that it doesn't normally possess it's pretty incredible when you think about it all the humanoid races the i assume you could do the npc stat walks in the monster manual as well and all the different kinds of animals and beasts that exist it can become any of them at will this chain shape ability alone gives the deva access to so many different kinds of abilities and mechanics and allows it to break certain limitations such as abilities that a race or a beast can only use once per day but then each of those forms would grant its own daily power which the deva can access effectively every other round if it has the opportunity the deva is an all-around classic really the most classic angel in all of d d i would say and it's well deserving of its high rank here in mid 8 here serpents are often creatures associated with evil or chaos but the kawada is a lawful good winged serpent of celestial origin i had always imagined this creature to be really big but apparently according to the monster manual it is medium sized long long ago a good aligned god created the cottals to fulfill his divine plans for whatever mysterious reason this god was killed imprisoned or somehow removed from godhood and then forgotten except by the coils who probably won't tell you anyhow as they are a secretive and even reclusive type of creature the original mandates of their creator have long since played out but those few quartals that are alive still follow in his spirit and thus they exist as stewards or guardians of sacred places of divine treasures or even a favored bloodlines another interesting tidbit about the cuaddles is that while they can live for a very long time they are not immortal a cuaddle can sense its death approaching up to 100 years in advance and in the case of it having unfulfilled goals which who doesn't have those it will seek out a mate the female of the pair lays a jewel-like egg and the koala who's going to be dying will then raise the young one instructing it on how to carry on the parents duties and objectives personally i really find the cuaddo's aesthetic quite appealing and inspiring i find myself captivated by seeing his wings with vibrant colorful feathers and it's on this big serpent and i imagine it floating and coiling in a mystical air dance i also like how this creature draws from mesoamerican mythology which can be underutilized in fantasy as much as i love the various mythologies from europe and the eastern hemisphere the americas have a lot of gems too looking at the cuaddle's mechanics it is reminiscent of the deva in some ways and that it has magic that can heal and cure conditions and the amazing chain shape ability once again where it can turn into any humanoid or beast of its cr or lower its attacks though are quite different than a deva it has a poisonous bite and a constricting tail it can also cast dream and scrying spells meanwhile it itself is immune to scrying and divination effects of others all in all this is one of the most powerful cr4 creatures i've ever seen by and large creatures in 5th edition tend to fall on the low end of power for their cr but the cuaddle here is an exception it's great also to see celestials other than angels and angel-like creatures now angels are amazing but so are mythical magical beasts which leads us to our next entry the kirin which comes to us from east asian myth which is sort of like a huge flying unicorn they're beautiful creatures reminiscent of works of art living paint or jewelry they radiate majesty and nobility and as full legendary creatures they have legendary resistance legendary actions and regional effects though no layer actions their melee attacks are not the most powerful though they are incredibly fast especially in the air and they are powerhouses of spell casting having both innate spells and spell casting as an 18th level cleric when i first looked at the kirin entry in volo's guide i saw all the space dedicated to its lore and i got really excited and hopeful unfortunately all these paragraphs don't really tell us very much kieran are aligned with gods of goodness and order and when they appear in the material plane they often herald good tidings to come or they might even fight directly against evil doers people typically love and adore kirin as they're creatures of luck and good fortune and there are even a few monk sects that are led by kieran sometimes kiran watch over or safeguard a place and their layers are beautiful ares that radiate sacredness and purity so definitely not bad but i expected a bit more considering that there's like three or four times as much space given to the kieran's lore compared to a typical monster this is a beautiful and mystical creature it's definitely a very potent spell caster it has spells like six level major image at will true resurrection plane shift heroes feast mass cure wounds banishment and many more again it's as an 18th level cleric so it could be improved a bit but the kirin really deserves its spot here in mid a tier the most powerful the three core angels in the monster manual is the solar which we can think of as an arc angel it's nearly a god in its own right their lower states that only 24 solars exist some as the right hands of gods others as contemplatives who await the coming of some epic level threat which they will then rally and fight against apparently so this lore and the lore of all the angels in general does make me wonder why don't we ever see angels in action in d there are endless amounts of adventures in campaigns in which terrible forces assault towns cities nations even whole planes demons and devils immediately come to mind but there are also aberrations undead and various evil humanoids how many of these modules or campaigns contain angels showing up to fight against the forces of darkness how many of your campaigns have had angels or kieran or coddles flying around and defeating malevolent monsters and npcs perhaps a better question what is stopping all these mighty celestials from descending to the mortal world to slay the wicked and otherwise bring them to justice it's worth pondering the magic the gathering setting ravnica has angels actively present in the world the same as pretty much any other fantastical race in the setting their great power is balanced you could say by equally powerful opponents in rival factions or enemy guilds it's something of a solution but it does bring about the same issue that i touched upon earlier in which the world turns into a battleground of epic contenders this ends up belittling and neglecting the small folk the commoners the low level characters the simple smaller scale stories these more humble and gritty people get pushed aside like disregarded little children while the lofty giants stomp around with their grand all-important plots and competitions so you have to take your pick what do you want would you prefer this material plane to be the world the world of mortals or would you rather it be the battle arena of titans as usual it's up to us to the world builders and the players and the dms of d to come up with our own solutions what if each god has a certain level of divine power something like a star or an energy reactor typically mortals exist simply due to the latent energy that the god gives off the passive force that a god radiates is enough to generate souls to fuel the basics of life and to provide that spark that divine spellcasters utilize or tap into the magic of clerics and such that they develop and they wield can come off of this passive radiation of a god's innate power but in order to produce something greater say to create angels and other celestials the god must sacrifice part of his divine power he must give up a sliver of his greatness to birth a mighty being maybe the god also must do something similar in order for the most powerful divine spells to function such as resurrecting someone who has died this puts a limitation on the angelic forces and the reality breaking spells and it simultaneously aids our storytelling in our world building it presents an interesting and difficult choice that the gods must make is it worth giving up some measure of divine power or divine rank in order to create a squad of devas a duo of planetars or a single solar grand archangel champion is it worth the deific self-sacrifice in order to bring a mortal hero back to life if you tread deeply into the difficult questions of religion spirituality and cosmic law you're putting your own mind and soul into a great existential forge hopefully you come out stronger in the end for an unforged mind is like an unedited draft vague cliche unoriginal and full of defects and impurities let us return to the solar and behold its awe-inspiring stat block it is a large-sized celestial with ac21 243 hit points and a flying speed of 150 feet it has true sight telepathy and a number of resistances including magic resistance yet for whatever frustrating reason no legendary resistance it has innate spell casting like a planetary and a long sword that deals a tremendous amount of damage as well the long sword has the ability to go flying off and act as a bonus action it's like a high-powered version of the spiritual weapon spell and by the gleaming nose hairs of paylor it has a ranged weapon a really good ranged weapon at that a high-powered longbow that can automatically slay targets that have 100 hit points or fewer the solar can heal and cure afflictions with a touch like the other angels can and its legendary actions include a medium range teleportation a searing burst of radiance and fire and a blinding gaze the solar is immensely powerful and beyond sheer power level it has terrifically interesting and dynamic abilities its style is about as grand as it gets filling us with a sense of power sacredness nobility hope and saving grace as well as holy righteousness and divine retribution if there were a war of spiritual proportion you would want to be on the side of this sun angel and with a stunning charisma score of 30 in its entire existence bound to the interaction between the divine and the mortal the solar absolutely is steeped in role-playing just imagine everything you would want to ask an angel such as this imagine the gravity of the solar's magnetism a being like this could influence and redirect the entire spirit of a society this angel is one of the greatest creatures ever known to dnd and its only shortcoming lies in the area of how to actually implement it in a setting and how to get it to go beyond a mere generic stereotype of an angel there is one celestial that comes in at an even higher position however a creature that is nearly perfect and one that i wish i would have discovered before now i wish i would have discovered it before i made my most recent top 10 d d monsters ranking video it or rather she would have certainly made that list found in the ravnica setting aligned with the orzov syndicate is the death-packed angel she is a raven-winged scythe-wielding dark angel dwelling in towering gothic cathedrals and captivating thralls of her own when a seeker comes to this angel he will make his plea for wealth for glory for healing for vengeance whatever his heart most desires if the angel deems him worthy which she often does for those who manage to reach her lair she immediately grants the boon in exchange the person is indebted to the angel for eternity he becomes a fanatical follower or cultist in her service and even after his death he exists in a spirit form continuing his service the only hope for release is if the angel mistresses slain the indentured spirit can sacrifice itself unto oblivion to restore the angel back to one hit point as we are seeing the death-packed angel is a lawful evil creature and like the radiant idol she is in some ways reminiscent of a devil but she is not corrupt enough to be a denizen of hell she is not fully evil but rather a sort of callous and cruel dominatrix who is interested in preserving society if only for the sake of perpetuating her own designs whereas most angels weapons deal a substantial chunk of radiant damage hers deals necrotic she whips about flyby attacking with her scythe and calling upon spells such as second level command at will fifth level charm person and magical darkness which of course she can see through along with her scythe attack she can paralyze creatures charmed by her which is quite a strong feature though it is just limited to humanoids so she is not as effective in combat against non-humanoid creatures of which there are many she can also drain the life out of people charmed by her dealing damage to them while simultaneously healing herself this is one of those excellent cases in which a monster has unique abilities that mechanically express what is in the monster's lore at first glance it might seem to be a little wrong to have a dark creature be at the top of the celestial's ranking but such a perspective might be too limited or perhaps too cliche for if you spend any time at all reading ancient stories that feature angels they are more than simply beings of comfort and loveliness they are also the angel of death the harbingers of doom and the reapers enacting the nightmarish side of god i personally would not want to become entangled with a death-packed angel but i cannot deny that she makes an excellent npc for storytelling and a spectacular opponent for a combat encounter skirmishing upon dusk and wings with indentured souls fighting alongside her and sacrificing themselves both the ultimate expression of their devotion and the sweet final release of bondage in a moment of spiritual obliteration if i were to have an s tier in these rankings the death-packed angel would be in it well that wraps up the celestial's ranking they are a majestic and inspiring group of creatures often with some of the higher power levels as compared to most creatures of the same crs in d d if you can figure out a way to implement them without resorting to deus ex machina or story shattering plot holes they can be wondrous and i also think an area of opportunity exists for the characters to fight angels it doesn't necessarily have to be evil characters fighting against the angels and fighting them to the death the angels could be guardians that test the characters at certain important locations and it doesn't even have to be a fight completely to the death the angels could be summoned or they could be just called magically or it could be that they're fighting as allies of the rivals of the party the characters enemies don't always have to be evil there are plenty of neutral or even good aligned npcs that can have very different motives and goals and philosophies and laws etc all of this can clash against the same perspectives of the player characters and this leads to conflict enemies don't always have to be ugly orcs goblins and kobolds or demon worshipping cultists i also have to say that this was one of the more profound script writing experiences for me perhaps the most profound with the dragon ranking coming in second if you get into monsters and mythical creatures and i really do get into them you have to seek out what's under the surface try to get to the roots and to the core in the case of celestials this caused me to end up grappling with some really big questions and i'm still grappling with them but i suppose that's what we were born for to strive and to seek that is the journey and that is the adventure and as always i wish that yours will be many my friends [Music] you

Channel: Esper the Bard

Views: 109,936

Keywords: d&d, dungeons & dragons, dungeons and dragons, dnd, breakdown, analysis, best, top, review, ranking, ranked, tiers, 5e, 5th, dm, rating, ratings, strongest, abilities, monster, monsters, monster manual, volo’s guide to monsters, volo, volos guide, myth, mythology, dungeon master, mordenkainen’s tome of foes, theros, mythic odysseys, ravnica, guildmaster’s guide, eberron, angel, deva, planetar, solar, kirin, couatl, unicorn, pegasus, felidar, deathpact, aurelia, firemane, celestial, celestials, angels in D&D, empyrean

Id: QkwfqQszpEY

Length: 62min 39sec (3759 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 18 2021