The Warrior Angel: Knight of Heaven

[clavis123]

Presenting the Warrior Angels, the final choir in my translation of the Heavenly Host. Inspired by the legends and iconography of the Archangel Michael, as well as the biblical story of the angel that wrestled with Jacob, a Warrior Angel would make the perfect patron for a campaign's Paladin.

I am probably going to have take the next few weeks off from working on the write-ups for the spirits, due to the significant real-world obligations which have also limited my recent participation on these boards. I already have extensive notes for the Cosmic Archons, Demons, and Fairy Folk; its just finding the time to put them into a presentable format. Meanwhile, the basic inhabitants of Heaven and Hell are now complete and presented to you. Enjoy.
WARRIOR ANGEL

NO. ENCOUNTERED: 1

SIZE: Large (9' Tall)

HD: 16 (d8)

MOVE: 60', 120' (fly)

AC: 27

ATTACKS: 3 Weapon (usually 1d12+6)

SPECIAL: Magic Weapons To Hit, Deepvision, Electricity Resistance (Full), Immune to Poison and Emotion-affecting Magic, Great Strength, Skilled Grappler, Debilitating Touch, Change True Name, Virtue of Patience, Covenant of Patience, Spell Resistance 17, Spell-like Abilities

SAVES: M+P

INT: Genius

ALIGNMENT: Lawful Good

TYPE: Extraplaner

TREASURE: 16

XP: 22,200+16

The Warrior Angels are the knights and commanders of the Heavenly Hosts. Individually, they battle the worst monsters of Creation, and fight ceaselessly to prevent the mundane world from being overrun by the powers of Evil. The are the bravest of Angels, who consider only the importance of their mission and are perfectly willing to be destroyed in the service of righteousness. Fittingly, they are the especial patrons of most Paladins, serving as models of absolute devotion and courage.

Warrior Angels in their natural form resemble well-built men and woman dressed in the armor typical of ancient heroes, and wielding a spear and type of sword associated with an long-gone empire. They often wear helmets of similarly ancient design, and bear shields emblazoned with holy symbols. A Warrior Angel possesses a pair of great, eagle-like wings. The head of the Angel is constantly surrounded by a nimbus of golden light, which persists even if they wear a helmet. Warrior Angels will often assume human form, appearing as a noble Knight or Dame on a white horse.

Warrior Angels often lead groups of Guardian Angels into battle. The duties of the Warrior Angels may seem to overlap those of the Cherubim and Angels of Death somewhat, but the primary function of Warrior Angels is not guarding holy places or executing heavenly judgment on mortal men, but rather fighting abominations and preventing injustice. It is said nonetheless that the souls of particularly brave and righteous warriors will be personally escorted to Heaven by Warrior Angels, rather than an Angel of Death.

The animosity between the Warrior Angels and the Wrath Devils is intense, exceeding that between any other types of Angels and Devils. While Wrath Devils will attack Warrior Angels on sight, Warrior Angels are possessed of the Virtue of Patience, and will pick the best time to engage their damned counterparts. It is said that not only are the Wrath Devils the fallen form of the Warrior Angels, but that the Warrior Archangel personally banished from Heaven the draconic Destroyer who is the Marshall of Hell.

Warrior Angels are often assigned to specific geographical areas of the mundane world, where they both personally engage in combat with supernatural terrors and aid mortals in battling more ordinary monsters. Perhaps because of the dragon-like form of the Destroyer, the Warrior Angels bear great enmity towards evil dragons. Warrior Angels are particularly fond of the human race, and consider themselves their special protectors. They share this love with the Angels of Mercy, which explains the otherwise surprising fondness that the two choirs feel for each other.

Warrior Angels are also especially concerned with eradicating the practice of human sacrifice. They have been known to actually invisibly hold the arm of anyone (or anything) attempting to commit such an abomination. Often, such vile people and monsters are protected by Diabolical and Demonic forces, so the battle to end the horrible practice continues on both the mundane and spiritual planes.
Combat: Warrior Angels are masters of melee combat, so skilled with their weapons that they can strike three times in a single round. Both their spear and their sword are equivalent to +2 magical weapons. Against opponents of Good or even Neutral alignment, the Warrior Angels will usually use grappling attacks, however. Evil opponents, on the other hand, can expect to suffer the full range of the Angel's abilities. Typically, the Warrior Angel will use Control Weather to create a storm, and then Call Lighting down upon the wicked. The angel will then swoop down to attack with their spear or sword, alternating melee attacks with lightning or Flame Strikes.
Great Strength: All Warrior Angels have an effective Strength score of 20, adding a +4 bonus to all to-hit and damage rolls, as well as to all relevant SEIGE checks and saving throws.
Skilled Grappler: Warrior Angels are skilled wrestlers, and add a +4 bonus to grappling checks. This bonus is in addition to the bonus for their Great Strength, so the total bonus is +8 under ordinary circumstances.
Debilitating Touch: In lieu of their standard attacks, Warrior Angels can attempt to dislocate the joints of one of their opponent's limbs. The Angel makes a normal attack roll against an opponent. The victim must save versus Constitution (Challenge Level 16) or suffer permanently numbness and loss of function in the affected area. Roll a d4 to find the affected limb:

1 - Thigh: Character will walk with a limp, reducing AC by 2 points and reducing movement rate by 50%.

2 - Hand: Character loses use of the hand, destroying the ability to hold a weapon in the affected hand, or use spells with somatic components. A shield could still be strapped to the arm, however.

3 - Arm: Character loses use of an entire arm. The character loses the ability to cast spells with somatic components.

4 - Torso: The character can no longer turn or bend at the waist, eliminating all bonus to AC due to dexterity, and further reducing AC by 4 points. The character cannot bend down, although they can sit.

The paralysis can be removed by the standard spells and effects.
Change True Name: Warrior Angels possess the unique ability to change the True Name of a willing creature. Such a change renders useless any magic that employs the character's former True Name against him.
Virtue of Patience: Warrior Angels possess the Virtue of Patience, and the presence of one within 100' automatically dispels all Haste spells, as well as magically-induced confusion, rage, or madness. This includes similar effects created by extraplaner beings, especially Wrath Devils.
Covenant of Patience: Characters who impress a Warrior Angel with their bravery and commitment to righteousness can enter into a Covenant of Patience. In return for pledging to serve Heaven, a character in a Covenant of Patience receives constant Protection Against Evil (as the spell), and becomes immune to magically induced Fear (including such things as Fear auras), Hasting, Slowing, or Entanglement. Every night thereafter the character will receive a dream directing them to perform some service during the day. The objects of such services will usually be obscure, and will therefore test the character's patience. For instance, a character may be told to visit the far side of town, count how many people wearing orange tights enter a particular house, and then write that number on a wall near the city gate. Failure to perform Heaven's directives, no matter how apparently ridiculous, will result in the cancellation of the Covenant of Patience.
Spell-Like Abilities: One at a time, at will: Aid, Call Lightning, Consecrate, Control Weather, Cure Serious Wounds, Dispel Magic, Dream, Flame Strike (16d6), Neutralize Poison, Protection Against Evil (on another), Sending. In common with all Angels, a Warrior Angel can also use Improved Invisibility, Know Alignment , create Light, Polymorph Self , perform feats of Prestidigitation , and Teleport Without Error , all at will. They can roam the Ethereal and Astral planes; speak, write and and understand all forms of communication; and can see perfectly regardless of illumination. Once a day a Warrior Angel can Summon either another of it's kind, or a pair of Guardian Angels (none of which will be able to Summon more Angels). All spell-like abilities have an effective caster Level of 16.
Immune To Electricity: Like all Angels, a Warrior Angel cannot be harmed by Lightning or Electricity.
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[Julian Grimm]

Nice. I'd love to see this stuff compiled as it fits into my pantheon ideas nicely.
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[Omote]

All the best Clavis in your RL endeavors!

~O
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[dachda]

Fantastic work!
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[Go0gleplex]

Of course one of those endeavors is going to have to be compiling all of these fun lil guys into one place so us lazy folks can really employ them.
Good luck on the RL thing dude.
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[Lurker]

Very nice, and as a habitual Paladin play, this on is right up my alley! Especially your

Quote:
It is said nonetheless that the souls of particularly brave and righteous warriors will be personally escorted to Heaven by Warrior Angels

I like how you handled the idea of them being more of just a combat angle and included wrestling and debilitating effects, and the covenant of patience. I've actually had players do tasks like that or other "silly" things before -(leaving a new cloak and pair of shoes in a bag tied to the low branch of a specific tree, - A few months later they ran into a NPC that was wearing the cloak and told the story about him being attack by goblins and being thrown in a river to drown, all his belongings were swept away, but when he climbed out of the river there was a gift from the gods...)

It's great you've included "true names". I've always been a huge fan of true names/birth geises/fate, but I've never worked out a perfect way to rule it...

Quote:
I already have extensive notes for the Cosmic Archons, Demons, and Fairy Folk; its just finding the time to put them into a presentable format

I'd love to see the notes (well more to the point what research you used). Your write-ups are great and fit my ideas for how I like my home brew worlds to run. Once I finis school I'll actually have a little free time, so will be able to dig into it a bit.

Also, if you have an area/idea you'd like worked up, but it's low on your priority send it my way. I'll try my hand at it (of course after school is finished, it's not "right around the corner, but I do see a light at the end of the tunnel!)
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[Maliki]

Nice work. (By the sound of things, there is more floating around here, I'll have to look them up. )
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[clavis123]

Lurker wrote:
It's great you've included "true names". I've always been a huge fan of true names/birth geises/fate, but I've never worked out a perfect way to rule it...

Thanks. That bit is right out of the biblical story of Jacob, when after wrestling all night with an angel (and suffering partial paralysis after the angel dislocates Jacobs' hip joint with a touch), Jacob demands a blessing. The angel then changes Jacob's name to "Israel".

Lurker wrote:
I'd love to see the notes (well more to the point what research you used). Your write-ups are great and fit my ideas for how I like my home brew worlds to run. Once I finis school I'll actually have a little free time, so will be able to dig into it a bit.

Thanks again. I've tried to rely on primary sources as much as possible (i.e, the Bible, Book of Enoch, medieval iconography, etc.).

Lurker wrote:
Also, if you have an area/idea you'd like worked up, but it's low on your priority send it my way. I'll try my hand at it (of course after school is finished, it's not "right around the corner, but I do see a light at the end of the tunnel!)

Thanks for the offer! I may take you up on it!
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