What would be cool is if the "markings of divinity" were more than just aesthetic. For example. The eyes could give true sight for 1 minute per long rest. The Halo could provide a reaction where if you were to hit 0 HP you only go down to 1 hp once per long rest or alternatively gives you the blur spell once per long rest. The vestigial wings would allow you to cast an altered version of levitate (can only target yourself) once per long rest. Lastly is the Divine Chords, where you would innately have advantage on persuasion checks and be able to cast command once per long rest. I'd set it up to where you get your first marking at level 3, the second at level 9, then the last one at level 18. (3 of the 4 max, or alternatively you can double or triple down and do the same one 3 times) As always, love your work!
A simple way of giving Aasimar a conflict is to make people have extremely high expectations from them, like they can't walk into a village without 50 people asking favors from them and if they don't do it the folk get angry and start calling the Aasimar an impostor and so on. It's the perfect opposite of the Thiefling because I can see evil Aasimar just hating people in general and isolating themselves, or it getting over their head and becoming obsessed with their own image, while good Aasimar often have to do good deeds while taking no glory on it, just because it's the right thing.
I really like that, and it could make for very interesting interactions between an Aasimar and a Tiefling then because it'd be very easy for both to grow envious of the other's position because they'd see it as everything they want, one wants to be "loved and praised" by the common folk whilst the other want to have all of their pressure disappear and be able to live however they want. Classic tale really
Yeah, I think it would be interesting to emphasize that, despite having angelic origins, Aasimar are no more good or evil than any other mortal. Just like their Tiefling counterparts. Maybe they take advantage of their angelic appearance to manipulate people, or, as you said, they struggle with the high expectations & pressures others give them.
yesssssss. when i was a dm for a while, i made a world where most leaders of a particular kingdom were aasimar, since they were expected to have divine right (like the catholic thing for kings being the chosens of god), suposedly part of the greater plan of the gods, blood of the gods. but the fun thing is... this is all cultural, it doesn't mean it's true, just like for tieflings. Therefore, everyone expected miracles and goodness from them, perfection. And the fun thing was THERE WAS ALWAYS the threat of being identified as a fallen aasimar, an impostor! People expect the best from you but you can't stray too much... If you do... you can be seen as one of them. Fallen aasimars in my world are seen as ones who failed or escaped the plans of the gods, walking failiures. It is said that they're even worse than tieflings since they WERE made for greatness and even in god's favor they failed. They're often depressed, and other aasimars avoid them so not to get "sick" as well. They're known for their absence of a halo (or a dark one) and wings and more monochrome colors. So, in reality, no one knows exactly why aasimars get "corrupted". It might have something to do with their fait, emotions, confidence. But definitely not goodness. Actually many aasimars are fallen, and hide their fallen apearance with magic or make up. All in a perpetual charade of faking that everything is okay, gaslighting and deflecting into the fallen who couldn't hide their looks. It's that thing that most of them knows, but no one talks about. And also half angels can be blinded by their own light and become infected by their own radiance. Too much faith and overconfidence starts to overtake them and they become too angelic for their minds and mortal bodies to handle. They usually follow a virtue or a good thing, but to such limit that it becomes a toxic radiance that seeps into everything, some loosing their minds and saying they hear the commands of the gods. Maybe they really do? I made all this because, one of my players played a pc that was an aparently born a fallen aasimar, hated by his parents who expected perfection. And he never knew why, but started to piece all of this together through the campaign. It was really fun.
In one of the games I play, my characters backstory is that almost as soon he was born he was given the task of defending a village. And when he was like 8 werewolves attacked and slaughtered his whole village. He ran away for two reasons: he was literally scared and his mind had open(I am aberrant mind sorcerer) and his mind was filled with the pain and fear of the village. And since then he thinks he has the responsibility to avenge his village as he ran away.
This is precisely how the character Daeran Arendae in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is written and it makes him into one of the best characters in that game. Because of being both noble and an aasimar as well as receiving *trauma* he has become this jaded self-obsessed narcissist that despises the expectations put on him due to his divine lineage and his noble heritage. I think people often forget that conflict can arise from what is seen as "positive" traits as well because there is nothing truly black and white in the world. Aasimar can just as easily be burnout "gifted" kids that were promised great things but couldn't live up to those great expectations just as much as tieflings can be underdog outcasts that are spat on by society.
For those that are not that into the idea of the Vigil dying when the Ward dies, maybe the death of the Ward is how you get the other subraces: if the Ward is killed, you get the vengeance seeking Scourge Vigil, and if the Vigil kills the Ward it becomes a Fallen Vigil. That way you can bring in that sweet, sweet edge in there as well! Edit was typo
My first thought before pointy hat described the vigil was that aasimar could almost be like isekaied souls. Reincarnated and sent back into their world with a message or a task from their god. That plays very well with the people having high expectations of them aspect mentioned earlier. It also mirrors the whole idea of people assuming tieflings are fiendish, people would assume aasimar are devout zealots, or even that their divine task is good... as I type this it occurred to me that it would be very cool, if this isekaied soul lost all memories of what God reincarnated them or even what their task was. Every now and again they just got a vision with a command or an impulse to act with the divine, and they just had to assume the God that sent it had good intentions. Part of their plot could be to regain their memories of a past life and their purpose in this life (mirroring a guardian angel gaining consciousness). Maybe a successful aasimar's soul when they die is then manufactured into a guardian angel and their life has been about training obedience to the god. I really like how these ideas make an aasimar appear to be the most zealous and devout, but there is more riding on their faith than anyone else. Faith in a god is an existential matter for them, literally.
This is a good optional edit I think. I feel a very string ward connection is awesome if your ward is a key campaign NPC or party member. If not though, a weaker connection might be easier on the DM to juggle.
I had an Aasimar character who was evil aligned simply because she was spoiled rotten by her small town and learned that she could use the “goodness” reputation to get things she wanted. She was a bard who used all kinds of manipulation tactics and was pretty fun to play. I say that just about any race/class can be fun to play if you’re able to add your own twist to it.
I played a aasimar who was ice themed, dm allowed him to have a pair of permanent icy wings, however he could only wear light or medium armor, anyhow any weapons or armor he had was ice themed, he also had a halo which was a snowflake he was bubbly and a joy to play, mainly bc he felt he has to be/do good 24/7 which the stress/pressure of it leads him to drink
I have/had a very similar character in one of my 3.5e games! He is also a bard, and this second son of a powerful Venetian-inspired family, an absolute playboy and utterly in love with himself. He's evil aligned because he's incredibly selfish and self-serving, and won't do anything that won't benefit him. He *will* get you killed to save himself, and sing his own praises afterwards, the bastard! I have so much fun playing him 😇
you could also do the opposite with this, like a good aligned tiefling or drow who uses their stereotype to easily ‘befriend’ master criminals only to betray them
Imagine if the ward dies, but instead of dying instantly they take a bunch of necrotic damage without resistance, but if they survive they can CHOOSE who their new ward is, this would be someone they will be nearly guaranteed to care about and like, unlike their birth ward, but the downside of this freedom is that if the second ward dies then death is guaranteed, also if the ward kills the vigil they will take lots of necrotic damage too so the downside of one dying/killing the other is less one side but if a vigil kills their ward then they are most likely to go straight to the lower planes when they die.
Regarding the innate conflict for aasimars, I like what Paizo did in their Pathfinder setting. Namely, their asimars are said to be often burdened by society with great expectations. Meanwhile, despite having celestial powers, they are just cas capable to good and evil as other mortals. As a result, the aasimars can, for example, grew up to become spoiled by the attention they receive, or struggle to form normal connections with other people because they were always treated as exceptional,. In Paizo published adventures there's even a case of an aasimar who was blamed for loving a human, because she was expected to be pure.
I often played my Aasimar As space marine or other super human from the 40k universe. the expectation are so high they usually always get the best fo the best but are expected to be the best of the best, this constent race for perfection meant hey have very high standard that: -they cannot fill and feel con guilt for never really beeing up for the task ahead -monster of comptent that believe they are superior to all and thus, why shoudl they bleed for lesser beign why isnt he in charg ect... As Thiefling get pushed back in darkness by society and can get desperate or angry or hopefull for more because of it, Aasimar Are put in the maximum amount of light and thus cannot comprehend the normal and fear to be like those that are less fortunate than them, some kidn of fall from grace if you will.
I like the idea of people look at them a perfect being so much so that no matter what they do they're being judged questioned and ridiculed for any action. I don't like the idea of being tied to a person. But them being held up to an impossible standard, yes100%. I can imagine people taking advantage like with cheap pay things are more expensive.
Twin siblings, an Aasamir Vigil and a Tiefling. The latter is the vigil's ward. Both grow up with a compicated mix of love and resentment toward each other 👌
Genuinely had this in a game once where the parents were adventurers who had made pacts and ended up with twins played by the PCs - a tiefling trickster cleric and a fallen aasimar fighter whose aura was 'corrupted' by the proximity to said twin. all sorts of complicated emotions going on in that family dynamic
i was thinking something like this except it’s a set of twins from a big band church family, and when the parents try to get rid of the tiefling, the aasamir child gets in the way and their divine aspects show! in the case of vigil, their twin would be their ward and they might’ve even run off into the night to keep them both safe!
I've always liked the idea of aasiamar having great expectations placed on them due to their heritage: They are going to be the next great shining knight or religious prophet. The impossibly high standard would cause many of them to break under the pressure.
I always preferred to go with "divine arrogance" myself. The classic idea that these "mortals" are beneath you and all your divine glory. Similar approaches work with stuff like Dhampirs and Elves of course but its the flavor of feeling like a literal god among men that set the Aasimar apart for me. This means you can be good or evil or whatever because all that matters is the superiority complex.
For those who don't like the caveat, a pretty quick fix to the Vigil and the whole "you die if they die" thing could be "If they die, you fall". That way you get the cool edgy backstory for a Fallen Aasimar. Give them a deep fear of falling if they haven’t already or give them a feeling of being a failure in life if they have already. Maybe make a character that lost the Ward they had and is depressed and their journey is to find a new purpose in life. I dunno, that could be cool.
The social stigma of an Aasimar that failed to protect their ward would be interesting, especially if like what @jasonb6860 said about physical changes making it obvious to others.
@@investigativebatman something like a lightless or broken halo is a classic way of showing off a fallen angel, if you dont want to make your character monsterous
I always liked having Aasimar being akin to kids who were always were told they were gifted but ended up burning out hard. The sorts who would always be pressured into resolving others issues and embodying the virtues of those around them to the point of constantly having to suppress who they actually are out of fear that deviating from the expectations set for them and left them extremely repressed yet secretly desperate for freedom from the expectations of those around them. A longing for freedom and acceptance for who they are rather than what they are would be a great motivation for one.
I developed an Aasimar for a campaign and I was going to play her like this. Ended up not playing the campaign and writing a book instead, and this is indeed the route I went.
While simultaneously being the scapegoat for being a goody two shoes that you're expected to be at all times. This is a good adventuring hook too - escaping the needy, repressive "family" in the middle of the night, to explore the world & make your own way.
"always being good" feels like more of a player problem than an official one. You can absolutely make a Aasimar evil if you want too, a fictional example of something similar to an evil Aasimar would be Sephiroth.
You can even make them "good" and still keep the idea that good doesn't mean nice. Have the Aasimar that is good and upstanding, but he's also morally inflexible and zealous. Or go darker and suddenly, he's the Old Testament angel with a firey sword that doesn't even once blink at the idea of killing all the first born in the city. His god says it has to happen, so its gotta happen. Besides, all those dead get to meet his god. Who wouldn't want to have eternal paradise?
I'm playing a campaign where my Aasimer is "good" in that she's extremely righteous but to the point of being a total bitch, especially to another party member who loots every dead body he comes across. She's not shy to scold and threaten to smite him because of how disgusted she is of thieves. She also doesn't think twice before attacking undead and other evil beings, even if they're simply dancing. Ironically, she was bit by a werewolf in her backstory while hunting them for sport, and the only thing keeping her from going completely savage and killing everyone in sight when she turns is a tiny speck of divine light within her soul keeping her from total darkness. She's far from a Mary Sue!
I think I’d like the “my ward is a stranger that I haven’t met yet” idea and then let the DM decide who it is. So me and my character both would have to deal with that. The possible drama scenarios are endless, I love it
I could totally imagine a play/movie in a setting called "Forbidden Romance" that is a romcom about a vigil and their tiefling ward whose progenitors are arch nemeses.
There's also the tragedy of your ward being the BBEG that your whole party has been trying to kill, and then you only find out (essentially) right before the boss fight.
One of my favorite characters that I've ever played was an aasamar with golden child syndrome. His parents were incredibly religious, and because he was the first born, every other kid to come after who wasn't born an aasamar was compared to him. Parents would never admit it, but he was the favorite child. He was just a people pleaser who grew up always getting a pat on the back and always being told that he was a good boy
😮 Sounds like a pretty fast shortcut to instilling moral arrogance or crippling levels of humility/guilt in a kid - either could be deeply character-shaping and interesting to play out!
I appreciate the inherently baked in fan fiction trope with this. like a magic string that connects you to your soulmate where you can feel everything they do but die if they die is like a classic soulmate Au and I'm loving it. I'm licking my fingers with this one its so good.
The life series. Minecraft smp series started by Grian. Double life. The third smp in the life series. Included "soulmates" which was someone you were attached to, and could feel all their pain. The Watchers. Evo and life series. Started by Grian, continued by Martyn. Powerful beings that are still quite mystery. Watcher Grian. A popular AU started by the canonical event of Grian joining the watchers in Evo. While Grian himself never continued the lore, many fanfics have. Desert duo. Started by Grian blowing up Scar in Third life (the first smp), and vowing to stay by Scar's side. Continued when Grian and Scar were chosen to be soulmates in Double life. Grian wanted someone else. Scar was fine with Grian. Grian, a part celestial being, often drawn with wings where his ears should be. Scar, an elf (depends) who just wants Grian to either accept him or just leave him alone. Stuck together by a curse neither wanted. I know this is a strange tangent but DOESN'T THIS WORK SO WELL?! I just thought of this when you said "fan fiction" and "soulmates".
Imagine the stupid irony of a vigil getting a tiefling as a ward. A descendant of a heavenly being soulbound to protect a demon touched one. Being tied to essentially your polar opposite
Imagine the utterly befuddled confusion of people meeting a vigil warlock who's patron is their tiefling ward's ancestor, the tiefling themselves having grown to be a paladin of the very celestial that the vigil descends from.
My second ever D&D character was an aasimar paladin of Torm. I went full golden-haired angelic paladin pretty-boy with an angel wing back tattoo that his wings would sprout from. He was my longest-played character and will always have a special place in my heart. Our DM was great at giving us real moral quandaries that pushed my dude towards having to lie for the greater good, and it led to some really memorable campaign moments.
I like the idea of a vigil tied to a tiefling, and both being in the same party. Perhaps they're cousins or brothers because grandma was really freaky.
Celestials can become devils like Zariel. So imagine two siblings, the older is an aasimar, the younger a tiefling, who have the same dad. Father was a celestial but later became a devil.
Me and my husband are kinda doing this. We are going to make it our first dnd characters that are a couple in game so not related we are also doing a yin and yang theme. He's lawfull evil I'm chaotic good.
Having a ward that hates you and is trying to hunt you down and kill you could be a really interesting plot. You can sense them as they get closer to you, but know the only thing you can do is flee.
I mean, you can't kill your ward BUT you can keep him locked in a cage, torture him and cast healing whenever he is about to die. Your emotional bound allows you to know EXACTLY how much he is suffering and that gives you joy.
I actually really like the inconsistent appearances of old school tieflings. The idea that they are all unique because they all originate with different circumstances. It’s allowed for a lot of unbounded creativity. I get why you might want standardisation though.
Same! There are so many crazy different types of devils, demons and yugoloths! Kind of lame that we now only get “sexy punk with horns”. Also, I like that they were, let’s be honest, a bit uglier because most devils are kind of hideous
@@heilmodrhinnheimskiThat’s the other thing, weren’t tieflings at some point (either in-universe or just in a retconned bit) descended from ANY fiend, including demons and yugoloths, and now it’s just devils? I know there are other hybrids for those now, but not as ubiquitous as a tiefling
yeah, or having the ward alive/dead grants racial abilities that way the players don't have to stop playing when the person they need dies. I think it would be cool if the abilities they had with the ward, are trusted on the person that killed them. Like you turn into an avenging angle you know where the murder is, etc. I feel like instant death if one person whose actions you can't control dies would lead to some bad gameplay. Like in a fight the ward is in they would spend every action protecting them and it limits the player agency. Like you have to go this way to the Bbeg cause they broke into your ward's home and kidnapped them it doesn't give the player the choice to say hey I don't want to do this rn cause the character has to go and protect someone.
@@iem-axoltleater RNJesus said "no" when it came to rolling for an angel/demon hybrid. Im curious if both parents being half human themselves make the human gene more dominant in the process?
I actually like Aasimar, but to be fair, I HEAVILY focused on the an ideal sacrifice for cults and summonings. The character I made had the constant struggle of wanting to do everything she could to help people, but being constantly paranoid of being discovered and hunted because the world we were in had the heavy presence of infernal cults. One of my favorite arcs was that she got captured on her own because she was the party scout. When the party rescued her, it made her more willing to use her powers because it gave her the confidence that she wasn't on her own anymore and she had people who could help protect her.
I had an aasimar character named Azriel and she was born to a family of dwarves. Not only was she angelicaly different but she was humansized. I never got to play her but I always liked the idea of this big strong paladin having parents half her size.
Interesting. I likewise haven't played them, but I wanted to do something similar with a character that was born to Drow parents. The idea was that he's a pureblood, but was born looking very human. His mother was not pleased in the least, but was willing to allow his father to keep him so long as he stayed out of her sight.
@@TaurusTheCrazyBull her whole backstory was her kinda being ostracized by her family. She just thought of herself as a dwarf that happened to look weird but her father always had trouble accepting her. She tried to get into the dwarves religion and traditions, anything she could do to make her seem more like a dwarf to her family. If anything she was a melting pot of different cultures, dwarf family, lived in tymora which is a dragonborn country, and her deva guardian was constantly telling her off for not living up to her standards.
Matt Mercer created a great conflict with Aasimar. Devils of the 9 hells highly prize aasimar as slaves and torture victims, taking even greater delight in their pain and suffering. Also being in possession of an aasimar's soul is far more valuable than a regular soul. And as such Aasimar are ruthlessly hunted and victimized.
To me the rough part of being an Aasimar is that they're basically big walking targets. As devils and demons like to treat the material plane as a summer home, you can wade through tieflings. You got tieflings by the bushel. Angels and the divinities play it much more casual with contact and influence, preferring to give orders to be vaguely followed by someone please. Also there are no incu/succubi porking theme angels. So Aasimar are a rarity. And while good aligned churches tend to frown at knifing some random tieflings to fight evil by civilian proxy, any two bit cultist who wants to bloody their blade with divine blood probably won't make a distinction. Unlike demons you can throw a stone in Faerun without hitting a cherub, so the glowing guy three towns over is a pretty good bet. Plus, while direct divine intervention to save one poor Aasimar is a lot of celestial paperwork, some devil taking the next fifty years off to focus on driving you mad is the sort of thing to brag about at the infernal water cooler. And, obviously, locking a random kid into a themed divinity is gonna suck. Daughter of the forge god? Hope you love blacksmithing! Hope you're ready for every cleric with a cracked icon to pilgrimage to you. Hope you're ready for every mundane blacksmith in five towns to hate you, cause who the fuck spends money at Ol'mikes when some nightlight of the gods will do it a trip away? Oh, and good luck ever being able to tell if people like you for you, or they like you to win perks with mom or dad.
I had an aasimar goolock that I fluffed as a Lovecraftian god larvae. His super saian transformation was fluffed as more biblically accurate. Basically instead of glowy wings he got surrounded by wheels covered in eyes.
In a sense, but the wheel looking angels are but one of roughly 2 dozen angel types most of which are either described as humanoid and frightening or nondescript, so calling them biblically accurate is accurate but a gross oversimplification of the truth.
I love Aasimars and your whole concept for vigils. what I usually do in my table to give them conflict is leaning into the magic in their blood, so everybody wants to hunt them and use their blood to make potion or Elizabeth bathory themselves for a youthful appearance, and that's why they have to remain hidden. Not that everybody hates them but more like they want to consume the angel people
I always loved Aasimar as a race so I made sure to add interesting things to their lore in my games. Their looks remained mostly the same but what I added is that -Aasimars are considered by the general public to be gifts from the gods to the world whose whole purpose is to fight off the forces of evil and protect people -The heart and blood of an aasimar are extremely valuable and irreplaceable spell components, which is partly why aasimars are rarer than tieflings Pretty much as soon as they are born any morally questionable being in proximity will try to kill them, which is why temples take in a lot of aasimars with the pretenses of keeping them save but in actually a lot of them end up being train to be warriors of the faith. So basically whenever an aasimar is born they pretty much have to choose between committing to being a full on holy warrior and fight against the forces of hell forever OR find a way to hide their heritage to not have that weight on their shoulders. Under this template being an aasimar is actually harder than being a tiefling. Because at least a tiefling can walk around and have a normal life while experiencing prejudice but if an aasimar rolls up to a town open about what they are the villagers may immediately assume they were personally sent by the gods to solve their dragon problem (regardless of whether the Aasimar looks anywhere ready to face a dragon) or one of the townspeople may decide they can get a pretty penny from selling their hearts to a hag/demon. I also transplanted the concept of them having a guardian angel but instead of being a patron they are more like celestial social workers. The idea being that Celestia would be more involve with their spawns than the hells would be to theirs, and so Aasimars get guardian angels who provide some amount of protection and guidance specially in their early years, they are also authorize to take away an Aasimars divine powers if they consider they have “fallen” from the path of good. Basically tieflings get daddy issues while Aasimars get mommy issues. A lot of fun characters where created like this: -A cleric in Barovia who was hale as the savior of the country and future slayer of Strahd just for being born an aasimar and had to deal with that pressure all her life -An Aasimar family whose celestial guardian took a very “the ends justify the means” approach to good and thus guided the family to become ruthless militaristic dictators who always justify their actions by pointing out they haven’t fallen yet so the gods must approve of them -An orphan enslaved by a pit fiend at an early age for bragging rights and was only able to escape with the help of their guardian who from then on acted a as surrogate parent to them (and maybe actual biological parent?) -An Aasimar who wanted to fulfill their duties of fighting away the evil from the hearts of men... by becoming a chef, making hearty meals to weary travelers and listening to their stories
I had the idea that Aasimars often have cracks in their skin that are inlayed with gold or other metals. When they become closer to a faith or divine entity their cracks change to swirls and filigree or deeper cracks for falling to evil
I love the idea of Kintsugi like skin. Except I used it exclusively for the Radiant consumption ability. Since it damages you as well, having glowing cracks form all over your body seemed fitting and just really cool!
See this is why I enjoy how they handle races in pathfinder 2e with the ancestries and heritages. Cus in PF 2e your Aasimar could start as pretty low level celestial kin to "You know what? BE AFRAID". The ancestry feats allow so much customization and options to your character than what 5e allows. PF also has more types of Aasimar with the Angelkin, Emberkin, Idyllkin, Lawbringers, Musetouched, and Plumekith.
Also, iirc, the Aasimar are like a subclass themselves. Like half elves and half orcs. So you can be half X and Aasimar and have access to both ancestry feats.
@@icarue993 Basically how it works is you pick your ancestry, which is like Human, Elf, etc, then your heritage is the subsect of that ancestry. Which can include more rare heritages like Aasimar, Tiefling, Undine, etc. Then you pick a ancestry feat that has options from your base ancestry and your heritage. So you can be any combo available based on your choices. Then as you level up you get access to more ancestry feats that can be from either of the two or even some unconnected feats such as Fey Influence. I'm playing a gunslinger human who started out as baseline human but got Fey Influence cus all my teammates were some kind of fey and they infected me with their weird magic BS. So now she's a human with cat eyes. Which is another thing consider as some feats will actually physically change your character's appearence.
@@TriXJester I am playing a half elf. Which is basically a sturdier elf. I have not picked any or lamost any human feats, and most have been elf feats. I went with fighter, and they feel so good to play. I technichally mutliclassed into barbarian, but I feel I shouldnt have. I barely rage at all.
@@Merilirem Pathfinder 2e. Because PF1e is stupid (good) in different ways. Like it feels way more minmaxy than 2e because of how many bonuses and types there are in 1e compared to 2e. 1e has like 10 differnt types, vs 2e's 2-3. You can mix and match bonuses, butiit feels more minmaxy than 2e's options.
If I remember right, goblin aasimar have stuff like eyes where they shouldn't be, voices that sound like multiple people speaking at once, etc. And it mentions stuff like aasimar having problems, getting saddled with impossible expectations or even being creepily fetishized by people around them.
Honestly I feel like half the time I have a problem with dnd, Pathfinder has fixed it. You have the three action economy making things other than attacking useful in combat, change in how crits work, and the newest change in excited for; spells will no longer be put into schools but rather schools will contain spells
Personally I really like how the Remaster is folding the Asimar and Tiefling together into the Nephiliem. It lets you go "Well yeah I have angelic blood but people see my butrning eyes and golden skin and think I'm a fiend."
Pathfinder's WotR campaign also has an evil Aasimar you meet in the Abyss; initially he pretends to be a good guy rescuing Aasimar slaves from the fleshmarkets but if you follow the questline in a certain direction it turns out he's a sadistic bastard who tortures and brainwashes his "rescues" and ends up being one of the most vile NPCs you meet in the Midnight Isles
@@benjii_boi Honestly Owlcat did an amazing job of making the world feel very dark and corrupted. And best of all they don´t discourage players from going a more evil path themselfes. Most games straight up reward players more for playing in a "good" way. Not in their games. They have a pretty good split of rewarding every playstile at different opportunities
I played an aasimar through a Curse of Strahd campaign. Her race was a struggle, leading her to constantly try to break out of her middle-class life, to strive for more. Her world kept trying to shove her back in that box. Coming back to Eberron at 15th level in the middle of a war pretty much ensured an answer. Her class caused her more problems, being a paladin in Ravenloft.
Okay I haven't seen the twist yet, but I think it would be a cool conflict for Aasimar to have a strong, inherent perfectionism from their angelic heritage. The celestial in them wants to always do the right thing but the mortal in them always makes mistakes, and that dichotomy can be embraced by some aasimar or drive others mad. Perfect for the burnt out gifted kids at the table
I think it was stated somewhere that Aasimar tend to suffer from positive profiling. Where they have higher expectations placed on them because of their lineage. So some of them end up becoming like gifted kids turned Karens because they hate themselves for not being able to live up to their own hype but still get the regard and pampering that comes with being a local celebrity.
I ran an Aasimar character in a previous campaign who, by all accounts, was just a guy wearing a mask. The mask was magical, and concealed his true visage. If he ever took it off, his head was a Biblically Accurate rotating set of rings covered in eyes with a blinding light at their center. Needless to say, the first time he took his mask off it was a mix of awe and, 'OH GODS PUT IT BACK ON! PUT IT BACK ON!'
Honestly, I think combining the aasimar and vigil together would be perfect, especially if they have transformation options like the aasimar. Perhaps it is effected by the kind of bond the vigil has with its ward (guardian with a kind or loving bond, fallen if they have a antagonistic bond, scourge if the bond involves intense emotions like fervent love or hate). It could even be that the emotional bond isn’t mutual, with either the ward or vigil just needing to feel this way towards the other bonded person.
I know this is all about Aasimar but that little bit where a beholder turned into some sort of construct with gems had me intrigued beyond belief. A construct Beholder sounds cool as heck!
I actually like the fact that Assimars doesn't have a distinctive look. Then it can be more of a "secret celestial heritage" things that are then revealed once they spread their wings or radiate light.
I really like the upcoming Pathfinder remaster's new take on aasimar/tieflings. They're combining them and their law/chaos equivalents into one Ancestry, the Nephilim. It opens up the possibility of a character that's a descendant of multiple otherworldly bloodlines
The vigils sound so damn cool with so much roleplay opportunities running through my head as you described them. It has so much character to it I'd love to include these if I was a DM.
I think I prefer the concept suggested by someone else of your ward dying causing you to "fall" or some such. You can then extrapolate that rather than death being the direct cause your vigil becomes extremeley depressed since not only have they failed but a whole part of themselves, the bond to another person through which they shared emotions and a permanent presence of not being alone, has shattered and been taken from them. This could lead to many vigils taking their own lives, dying from self inflicted starvation, and other such awful ends. Although there are benefits to outright dying if your ward is killed, for example what if your ward is the bbeg or at the very least a goon thereof. You would end up having to make a very important character decision on how to approach them. Do you kill them, saving the world at the cost of your own life. Do you try to reason and plead with them to stop. Do you "Wish" or call for Divine Intervention to break your bond. Do you be an edgy boy, knock them out, then tie them up in your basement as a captive for the rest of your life so you can live on.
The idea of a party with a Vigil, who's Ward is the BBEG or some other villain of the party is SO COOL TO ME. They have to fight and kill the BBEG, but the Vigil either has to die to do it, or fight their own party to protect the BBEG, and in turn, their own life. It's so interesting.
There is one problem with this. The ward is the same age and the vigil knows where they are, what they are doing, and what they are feeling at ALL TIMES. So you can't have this ultra evil BBEG that is massively powerful without the Vigil ALSO being ultra powerful. The Vigil would see the evil early on and do something about it.
So, I have a question. What happens if a vigil necromancer convinces their ward to enter lichdom in order to live forever? I find it super funny the angel is the one tempting the mortal to do evil in order to live forever.
@@antonakesson Or better yet the Vigil "falls" and gets the cool bone wings and becomes a Psuedo lich themselves. Now I want to become a lich with a Fallen Vigil guardian. That sounds metal AF.
Now THAT'S an idea. Can you imagine having to figure out how to thwart BBEG without killing them? Or a vigil willing to sacrifice themselves to destroy their ward because they're just that evil?
Oh, that pretty cool. It is pretty interesting if the BBEG is your ward, like what if your npc allies turned on you and the rest of the party and you're on the run avoiding both sides trying to get you
I love the visual changes you made to the Aasimar. The only thing I would be hesitant about roleplaying as an Aasimar would be the Ward aspect. While it IS compelling, I think the problem arises when the character goes throughout the campaign without their ward. Essentially forcing them to abandon their wards unless they come with them.
What if their ward is another member of the party, but the vigil is the only one who knows? (along with the DM, obviously). So the other character wonders why the vigil is always by them in battle, always working to protect them more than any other of the PCs, only heals them...
@AAAndrew eh even then that means you kinda have to work with that player and hope they want that. They might find it to be a bit too close when they have their own story they want to tell and they don't want to deal with "oh and here is Gary, he wants the same things as me because he has no choice. He completes my goal because his goal is me". I find individuality makes characters interesting in a party (same reason why siblings or pre-existing lovers are often hard to do well).
A way that might work around the Ward aspect is for the character to have some sort of hardcore Vow (or Compulsion) that the Aasimar has to engage in every so often or will start experiencing some flavor of mental health symptom. (For some reason Polka Dot Man needing to expel the pustules twice a day comes to mind.)
The conflict I’ve given my Aasimar is that she’s the child of high level lesbian mom clerics who used divine intervention to have a baby. But because they were former adventurers, their enemies have been hunting and attempting to kidnap or kill their kid for decades. Making them extremely protective and over sheltering the aasimar. Conflict in a character doesn’t always have to deal directly with your race appearance but rather just your lineage in general.
This is my go-to dnd race. I’m so glad you did this one! The last Aasimar I played was a noble-born named Azalea, who’s overprotective mom hid her from the public (because Azzy’s great-uncle, the emperor, was racist against nonhumans). As a result, she had a an unrealistically positive worldview, was very trusting, and didn’t always understand social cues. One of my favorite things about her, though, was that she was how she was introduced. Her Mom was hosting a party, and Azzy was allowed to show up for once (probably to be like “see??? I was not making my kid up.”) And she was just OBVIOUSLY not human. Girl had white hair and glowing white eyes and she towered over all the human party guests, and they were all awkwardly shuffling trying to ignore her (because of the racism thing). (It was funnier in person) (a bit later on, she lit her own dress on fire to stick it to her mom) With all my D&D characters, though, I had an even funnier twist: Azalea was a warlock, who’s patron had betrayed an evil god and was now trying to hide from it. So her pact was literally “I get to chill inside your head, and you get a partner in crime that’ll help you sneak out of the house every so often” I kinda miss her, I’ll be honest.
oh my god that warlock pact is genius, I love that. (I'm actually generally really partial to warlock pacts where the patron _doesn't_ have that much power and is heavily reliant on this _particular_ warlock.)
I made an Aasimar character once that I'm actually pretty proud of: they were half-goliath, to give them that interesting look, with a heavy eye-motif. They were a blood hunter, basically using their innately divine blood for that. For the conflict factor, I basically went “what if the Aasimar’s deity wasn’t good? How would that duty to them, along with a patron holding them on that path, feel, especially since a young age. Then there was the whole religious trauma angle, with the deity being basically the god of mistrust and paranoia, so at one point in the Aasimar’s life they just had constant visual hallucinations of every single pair of eyes they could see glaring at them, following and judging, so they ritually blinded themselves. It was a very edgy character, yes, but I really hope I’ll get to play them some day, cause I love the concept.
My favorite character I keep playing as is an Aasimar who is born from a diety outside of the multiverse who does not care about the lives of mortals in the multiverse at all and by some is considered evil, by others is considered good, but their most important characteristic is that they are VERY STRICT and kill the Aasimar the moment they break any of the laws of that diety... One DM banned that character idea, because it placed my Aasimar outside of the DnD alignment and lore...
I really liked the “giving aasimar a more unifying design identity” but I found the bonded ward way too limiting to make that a replacement for aasimar in my world. It's definitely a cool character background though
you can just make it a cultural thing! society expects them to be perfect and protect their bonded. If they fail, they become a fallen, and everyone will know it. They're a disgrace, and a walking failiure not to be trusted.
Yea I felt the same way. Honestly I would just get rid of the whole dying thing when the ward dies, but the fact they are compelled to protect them I could get behind
I agree that the ward feature is awesome, but it does shoehorn a very specific character conflict. I like the idea of just doing Tiefling, but opposite. Everyone expects Aasimar to be perfect, but they’re just human. They’re unfairly dragged from monastery to monastery. Some thrive in this and become great clerics. Others go against this entirely seeking dark power. Most run, seeking to strike their own path, unhindered by divine destiny.
I like that Aasimars don’t have a cohesive, defined appearance. I liked that Tieflings didn’t until 4e too. You could *pick* a creature to be your forebear and give your planetouched features that reflect the kind of creature you descend from. Pathfinder 1e has a table of features you can give your planetouched. It made the characters more believable as lacking a cohesive culture, because they were rare enough they might never encounter one another, varied to the point of potentially not recognizing each other, and in some cases, naturally at odds with each other on the law-chaos axis due to elemental alignment in their blood. Pathfinder even had subraces and ability score modifiers based on the kinds of creature you were descended from.
Yes. I've fallen off the D&D train since 4e came out, and this video doesn't make me want to play it more, considering aasimar are my favorite planetouched. PF1e is my favorite system so far, and that doesn't look like it's going to change anytime soon.
You stole the thoughts right from my head. When I saw the whole "horns, tail and red skin" version of 4e tieflings for the first time, I knew they'd basically written tieflings out of the system. 3e tieflings and 4e tiefling are not the same race, they should have been given different names. The new tiefling look, I find, is dull and cliched, how someone would make a tiefling if they had no sense of visual subtlety. It seems we're in the minority. Most people really like the trope. I don't get it personally.
My party wanted a death/resurrection table, so I decided on a d20 roll where a nat 20 = resurrecting with one Aasimar trait and the chance of descendants being Aasimar. I think it’s a good alternative option to just f*cking an angel 😂
Yeah, I think for both Aasimar and Tieflings, it isn't only a result of biological sex, but can be a sign of destiny, or rituals or spirituality or something else.
Personally, whilst I love interspecies romance as a trope and like crazy hybrid races stemming from it, and I do think that Pathfinder did a really good job with their aasimar variants, I still prefer the devas from the World Axis core setting as their replacement. Angels who gave up the heavens out of love for the mortal world and who reincarnate over and over to defend it just have so much more... *sizzle* to them than aasimar generally have.
Eh I'm gonna be honest I'm not a fan of the vestigial wings. But I think maybe there's something about making the Aasimar a race that can be ugly. Like imagine an Aasimar is born it looks normal until it opens several sets of eyes. Or even an unsettling psychological trait. Like Aasimar in Volos have charisma boosts like Tieflings. Imagine an Aasimar growing up and not only being conventionally beautiful but with moments where people couldn't help but to obey them even if they didn't want to. Think Purple Man from Marvel though maybe not sinister evil or fully aware of this fact.
I also did something like that, the characters eventually realizing he can command people to do almost anything and it gets abused very quickly until the angel eventually shows up and threatened him to stop.
Yeah, I'm... not a fan of the ear wings. It's a weird anime design IMO. Or elbow wings. Or really much of the Vigils in general. I feel bad for not liking it somehow because like 90% of PH's ideas are golden to me, but none of this feels like aasimar to me short of the halos. Forcing a character to be inherently tied to another might make for good individual writing but not for a whole playable race.
I like to use the 'Lucifer Logic' that Aasimar's appearance is directly tied to their home plane/powers and this is the source of all the variation in their appearance and rarity. Some look entirely normal outside of performing acts of divine magic to blend in (ala Jesus), others may have animal heads in their 'true' form or are shapechangers (would make a fun Druid!). Some sprout multiple limbs in combat (Monk or Fighter), are divine warriors or a guru who follows a path of non-violence..basically allowing you to shape your Aasimar to fit any real world (or made up) religious hero.
Aasimar is my favorite because it's so vague and divines you have in campaigns can be so different, plus every portrayal of demons will be some form of evil while divine can be anything from icons of good to evil tyrants. Just look at the pathfinder 1st edition aasimar options for looks
I actually liked the old tiefling appearance. The new stuff is good, but I liked how different types of tieflings could look radically different. Demon, devil, yugoloth, and other, stranger tieflings were all options.
I feel like you could throw in some kind of self-sacrifice ability as an option for if your ward is about to die, give up your own life (or just drop to 0 and start making death saves) to protect them or revivify them before their soul has departed, kind of a "it is not your time, I shall go in your place" kind of deal, and since death in D&D isn't the end they might still find a way to send them messages from whichever plane they end up on
Aasimar Scourge was my first long campaign character. She was saved from a disease when she was child by an angel brougt by her parent's prayers. She grew up and lived on a farm, taking care of her parents until they died. The thing is that aasimars live longer than humans and her, looking in her early 30's and whithout no-one in her life, parted to waterdeep in order to change her life. There she was assaulted and saved by th Lord's Alliance which she joined. There, as she was doing some sword practise (Wasn't very good at it), a sword caught her eye, being that sword the home to a particular patron and turning with time in a powerful hexblade warlock. As for the appearance, she was marked with runes that covered parts of her body and even though she was shy, emanated a particular charismatic aura that brought all the eyes to her. As she used her race hability, then the angel appearance emerged, her runes shining bright, eyes glowing, a waving halo and some 10ft wings made of light that burnt with radiant damage all it touched and feathers falling doing the same. Overall, a pretty cool character to play and an underrated race.
Turning the Aasimar INTO the Patron is legit brilliant. Edit: If the "they die when their ward dies" angle is too harsh, id settle for them feeling this mysterious person's joy and pain, constsntly dreaming about them, feeling that pull etc. And if that pain strikes at the wrong time or they let the ward get hurt or die, they get cursed with disadvantage to a bunch of stuff for a while, possibly a long time. Accomplishes a similar objective without being as rough.
Having permanent Disadvantage is just as harsh, if not more so. You pretty much have to sit out of every combat because you're now more likely to miss every attack and can almost never crit. You're a liability, and I can see players having the character leave so that things can move forward.
I think I'd tweak it to be more like a curse, something that makes the aasimar start to wither over the course of days or weeks, starting with small things, building up to a point where the aasimar dies if it's not helped by someon high up their respective angelic 'court'. This way, players can see what's happening, and take action (or lack thereof) to try and circumvent it, giving a new, albeit limited, plothook. Effects could be along the lines of RAW exhaustion, but perhaps a bit more stretched out.
My first thought with the whole "ward dying causes the Vigil to die" plot point was a Crime Syndicate is pulling the strings on a Vigil by holding their ward hostage. They can keep the Vigil obedient through harming the ward and threatening their life. The Vigil needs to work on finding help to rescue their ward to free them both. That was an immediate hook.
I’m very glad my DM and I worked to solidify the aasimar as extra EXTRA weird. We made my aasimar basically people who are taken and forcibly transmogrified. Into basically time locked and entropy immune Dolls. Vessels for exiled gods. (In my case Tharizdun) They have porcelain skin, are stalled at the age they were transformed at. They also have different number of eyes depending on when they were transformed as they are much more uncommon and aren’t SUPPOSED to exist. So they are actually despised by celestials and they scare normal people because most don’t KNOW what they are.
Building on some other comments, a character idea would be an aasimar that lost their ward but somehow lived. Their arc would start as a generic self-discovery but the reason for surviving would eventually be something the party could discover and be tied to the main story arc. It could go many ways, the ward turned into a lich; they didn't really die; the PC was never an normal aasimar etc. Great video! Made my creativity start spinning.
Definitely using this to update my Tiefling/Aasimar hybrid that I have. Not only would the Vigil totally work for his parent's background (Basically think of Romeo and Juliet, but with Angels, Demons, Tieflings, and Vigils/Aasimars); it also works super well with his kind of personal history. His ward would be his childhood best friend, Kewryn: a half-halfling, half-elf rogue/bard. Both were raised by an adventuring party (Aries being found after the tragedy of his parents death, and Kewryn being born not long after from the rogue of the Adventuring Party as they begin to reach into their eaely retirements). Having thw two having started adventuring themselves, only for them to get captured and seperated/ or having Kewryn kidnapped by the main BBEG would have a whole lot of drive for him as a character Cx
After watching this video, I feel like celestials themselves need a bit of a rework as well. The humanoid celestials are all just really powerful dudes that do radiant damage (the only interesting one I found was the empyrean who have the ability to alter their surroundings based on their mood, but don’t even have any abilities to match that). With demons and devils, they might be all evil, but they vary from one another in both design, actions, and even how they act. Maybe Aasimars would be a lot better if celestials were much more interesting It’d be funny if most people found Aasimars unlikeable due to them not looking like the deities they pray to but they don’t know that celestials don’t look like the basic angel
I'm surprised aasimar are considered the least popular. Someone I used to play D&D with used to play almost exclusively aasimars, and I have 3 aasimar characters myself (one of each subrace!). Especially with the popularity of the "biblically accurate angel," I often see quite a lot of aasimar PCs. Tieflings are definitely a fan favourite though, I cannot argue with that!
probably because in the Statistic it counted the characters made by free available races and Tiefling is available for free, while only Variant Aasimar is available for free. Variant Aasimar does not have subraces but rather a shitty spellcasting trait. I think thats why the numbers on the survey are so low, cause many people like playing Aasimar, just not Variant Aasimar.
Gotta say, absolutely loving the "Every Vigil has a halo, but not all halos look alike". It's simple, it's fun, it allows for huge creative freedom while still maintaining an iconic similarity. Truly inspired. I'm not as big on "wings anywhere except the back", but then I played an Aasimar specifically because I wanted angel wings on my back (Disappointed they are limited use but close enough). Also it's kinda weird that the angel parent has back-wings but the child doesn't. That said, while I'm not usually a fan of tiny head-wings, I am tempted by the prospect of slowly becoming biblically-accurate as the campaign progresses. Major "Tales of Symphonia" vibes.
Barbarians backstory Mom gave me a small trident to fight these things called vegetables and dad said he was called a formal fighting against the veg so they said make sure you eat all your veg on your plates
Aasimar are my favorite race and I play too many of them. Usually just be an actual angel not a tiefling style half humanoid thing. Israfel the angel of song as a Creation Bard was a blast! Can sing things into existance! The key I found to making angels interesting to play is that, yes they are holy & good, but their idea of morality is much more black & white so they don't understand mortals and their grey world. When you're in a grey situation and try to tackle it in black & white ways, it automatically leads to inner conflict as you have to shift your beliefs to even finish the quest.
I agree. It's similar to the Paladin conflict, where you have an oath, but the world doesn't care about your oath. So you can either learn to live in a compromised world, or try to change the world by various means, or go crazy, etc.
this is very well made, I pray more people use this similar to how I'm going to because it would drive so much more of a story forward in different ways.
Yo, check this idea out: Psychopath Aasimar that was raised to do good, but is unable to feel any empathy; the character wants to be some Lawful Evil tyrant or something, but doesn't want to disappoint their angel dad/mom. The character only truly feels any joy when doing evil shit, but desperately wanted to be different from what they are and desperately seeks to be good.
I somewhat agree, but I think it also kinda symbolizes how their only half angel, and their angel parent is among the weakest of angels. So I get what your saying, but I also think versatile wings not being on the back also kinda makes sense.
Honestly even without the ward or the vigil itself, you've given aasimar a very awesome visual identity that actually defines them, and one that works thematically. Im a big fan of just doing the opposite of tieflings, and having them be decendants from celestial beings, so giving them that visual identity was really all I felt the race was missing.
22:50 "Vigils also know the emotional state of their Ward" Me a known Hentai addict: oh boy its 3AM The poor Vigil assigned to me: OH NO. ITS 3AM. AGAIN.
This is *perfect#, thank you! I'm trying to do some solo DnD and the guide I was following suggested making a sidekick. My character... would not want a sidekick. This presents the *perfect* way to go about creating one (with some minor tweaks, of course). I love it, 100%, thank you again!
I love the idea that the Vigil's ward is their ex-partner. The Vigil loves them still and wants to be together, but the ex has moved on. But now the Vigil has to let go of the past all the while struggling knowing exactly how much more happy the ex is without them.
Silver white Skin, incredibly beautiful, white hair, glowing eyes that are "good" colors like gold, blue, and green . That's what I picture when I think of Aasimar. Maybe they have a sparkling effect under direct sunlight idk. Also, on the topic of the Vigil Aasimar I like the idea that the bond is actually created once you meet someone like you are imprinting on them and your guardian angel nature now forces you to protect them at all cost. If they die you become a Fallen Aasimar and all divinity rejects you as a result. It'd be a fun way to play DnD with one of your party members being your ward and you have to protect them or you both die. Edit: Aasimar should also be as tall as Goliaths, and wings coming out of their heads above their ears. These wings are kept close to the head but towards the back. Think winged helmets. After looking at the Aasimar of the PHB, I think them being these tall, beautiful beings with glowing eyes, and wings on their head would definitely make them stand out like the Tieflings. You could also add lineages like Guardian, Supernal, & Fallen. Guardians are the normal looking Aasimar; they can get the optional imprinting ability that enhances their racials but could lead them into becoming a fallen aasimar. Supernal are inspired by biblically accurate angels that have two extra sets of eyes, one that is located above the normal location of eyes and eyes are each head wing. They basically get the Alert feat at whatever level makes sense for that. Fallen Aasimar - the evil, the bad boy aasimar. Their wings are now bat-like, their eyes glow red, purple or simply black.
My personal idea for how to inject some conflict into the Aasimar is to take inspiration from the tale of Job. Every Aasimar starts off as a completely normal member of another humanoid race, and at some point in their life (which can happen anytime after they enter their race's version of the teen years) they're put through a Trial to test their worthiness to become an Aasimar. Their loved ones will suffer, disappear, or die, their everyday lives will be beset by misfortune and strife, and overall, they essentially become social pariahs. This continues for around a year, and once the Trial ends, their reaction to it will shape what type of Aasimar they become; if you faced the Trial with unwavering determination and hope (or if you develop a degree of toxic positivity) then you'll become something similar to a Protector Aasimar, with all the hallmarks of a typical angel. However, if you let the Trial drag you down and change you into someone defined by negativity, your Aasimar transformation will become warped by the emotion that defines you, with those who became the worst of the worst because of the Trial becoming something akin to Fallen Aasimar. Note that the "best" Aasimar aren't defined by goodness but willpower and positivity and the "worst" Aasimar aren't defined by evilness but by allowing their (quite justified) negative emotions to define them. Beyond the physical and magical changes, the Trial adds a lot of freedom for major backstory moments and the loss of someone important to the Aasimar. In addition, this would add a social element to the Aasimar besides people thinking they're always good people - if it's known you're the child of an Aasimar and you haven't gone through your Trial yet, you already become a pariah for fear of the Trial targeting you and possibly leading to your death. This also means that Aasimar who have children have an unfortunate tendency to abandon them or leave them anonymously in the care of another, once again out of fear of what pain the Trial could bring them. As for a major visual identity, I love your idea of how halos work being linked to the god the Aasimar is connected to, but I also love Aasimar having bodies that are naturally made of metal, so after their Trial, parts of an Aasimar's body will turn to some kind of metal, often with the most expensive and "pure" metals going to the more angelic Aasimar while rough, corroded, or rusted metals go to the more emotional Aasimar. As for _what_ body parts become metal, entire limbs becoming armor-like and metal is rather rare; instead, it's usually smaller and more individual body parts, like nails, hair, eyes, or teeth.
Really interesting concept! And maybe difficult to play? It feels like nearly any way they responded to such impending/arriving trials would be caustic to developing healthy empathy: whether causing them to cut themselves off from interpersonal connections (to protect those around them), overly-identifying with their suffering loved ones (to the point of codependence), afficting them with guilt (a kind of "plague rat" complex), or crippling them with PTSD from watching so much unavoidable suffering that they couldn't prevent...? 😮
I like the Unexpectables version of Assimar, their angelic guide is also their parent (so they generally have 3 parents). They're pretty directly connected to their celestial parent in a sorta "a chain can be pulled from both ends" situation.
They also have a consistant esthetic, being people but off hairs a little too shiny, skin a little too flawless, eyes which apear to glow feintly. Not obvious at a glance but identifiable if you're looking for it.
I think your reasoning for why aasimar aren't a super appealing option was spot on. This was also maybe my favorite of your creations so far. You took a pretty vague option and made it much more defined and also added some great starting points for character concepts. Great job!
The codification of tieflings was a tragedy. Their intro back in 2nd ed made them way better in that it was any fiendish heritage and one supplement even provided a table of variations. The aasimar unfortunately have never been so appealing on the same scale despite the numerous angelic beings one could draw inspiration from. Much the same could be said about the genasi.
I completely forgot Genasi even existed. I remembered Tieflings and Aasimar, and always mentally paired them together... but Genasi... completely forgot. Aren't they like... elemental people or something? Kinda like Mephits? ...
@@SotiCoto each of the alignment planes had their sort of humanoid monster that was signature to the place that could produce offspring with mortals. The genasi were just the elemental plane version of tiefling and aasimar with a version for each of the four primary planes.
@@SotiCoto Yeah, they really only got the slaadi and modrons. Their variations weren't as varied on the spectrum. They had different types for sure but they were only chaotic or lawful neutral respectively. Then there were the Rilmani but again the neutral things never got a human hybrid.
@@kylestark1800: I reckon there should be official rules for people who survive a Slaadi infection and end up partially transformed. Heck, I imagine spending too much time in Limbo would destabilise anyone's form... unless they've got Githzerai level reality-conforming powers.
I feel like making aasimars creepy would be an interesting idea, but this variant is pretty interesting. Not sure how playable it really is, but aasimars don't belong in every story, to begin with.
I've seen an Asimar played as someone with an overly simplistic black & white view of the world and not much consideration for the morality of their actions. Good people need to be protected. Bad people need to die. Simple and clean. The conflict ariose through interaction with their party as they needed to learn to broaden their views, because not everyone is all good or bad. Also the party miiiiight have had to stop them from committing cold blooded murder one or twice until they learn this lesson. Trying to explain why you can't just murder the the slave trader even though they are vile is... challenging.
@@SapphWolf to be honest, it would be hard to explain to some people I know in real life why murdering a slave trader is a bad idea... I would think about somebody like corrupted politician who you don't have any better replacement for. But sounds pretty interesting overall.
I feel like the original concept of the aasimar as counterparts of the Tieflings that are celestial planefolk as interesting. But the issue is that it just doesn’t feel right and it’s hard to make them visually distinct from humans with divine abilities and magic. If they had things more akin to what tieflings have like glowing eyes or unnatural skin tones they could be more distinct than they are now
My favorite character I ever played was an amnesiac Scourge Aasimar Hexblade who used a scythe (halberd stats). I was able to offset the edge at the start by having him sorta be a cowardly comic relief guy who would only fight because his weapon was literally pulling him around, but over the course of the campaign he became more and more sincerely edgy and godddd he was just SO MUCH fun to roleplay, AND he did absolutely insane damage in combat. So so so so SOOOO much fun. Every character I build now is an attempt at recapturing his glory.
I can your angle 😇.... or yuor asmr 🤫
Bananas
First time that you don't include an artwork to go along with your work =P
Straight up ballin´.
@@thatswedishfoolrotate
What would be cool is if the "markings of divinity" were more than just aesthetic. For example. The eyes could give true sight for 1 minute per long rest. The Halo could provide a reaction where if you were to hit 0 HP you only go down to 1 hp once per long rest or alternatively gives you the blur spell once per long rest. The vestigial wings would allow you to cast an altered version of levitate (can only target yourself) once per long rest. Lastly is the Divine Chords, where you would innately have advantage on persuasion checks and be able to cast command once per long rest.
I'd set it up to where you get your first marking at level 3, the second at level 9, then the last one at level 18. (3 of the 4 max, or alternatively you can double or triple down and do the same one 3 times)
As always, love your work!
A simple way of giving Aasimar a conflict is to make people have extremely high expectations from them, like they can't walk into a village without 50 people asking favors from them and if they don't do it the folk get angry and start calling the Aasimar an impostor and so on. It's the perfect opposite of the Thiefling because I can see evil Aasimar just hating people in general and isolating themselves, or it getting over their head and becoming obsessed with their own image, while good Aasimar often have to do good deeds while taking no glory on it, just because it's the right thing.
I really like that, and it could make for very interesting interactions between an Aasimar and a Tiefling then because it'd be very easy for both to grow envious of the other's position because they'd see it as everything they want, one wants to be "loved and praised" by the common folk whilst the other want to have all of their pressure disappear and be able to live however they want. Classic tale really
Yeah, I think it would be interesting to emphasize that, despite having angelic origins, Aasimar are no more good or evil than any other mortal. Just like their Tiefling counterparts. Maybe they take advantage of their angelic appearance to manipulate people, or, as you said, they struggle with the high expectations & pressures others give them.
yesssssss. when i was a dm for a while, i made a world where most leaders of a particular kingdom were aasimar, since they were expected to have divine right (like the catholic thing for kings being the chosens of god), suposedly part of the greater plan of the gods, blood of the gods. but the fun thing is... this is all cultural, it doesn't mean it's true, just like for tieflings. Therefore, everyone expected miracles and goodness from them, perfection.
And the fun thing was THERE WAS ALWAYS the threat of being identified as a fallen aasimar, an impostor! People expect the best from you but you can't stray too much... If you do... you can be seen as one of them. Fallen aasimars in my world are seen as ones who failed or escaped the plans of the gods, walking failiures. It is said that they're even worse than tieflings since they WERE made for greatness and even in god's favor they failed. They're often depressed, and other aasimars avoid them so not to get "sick" as well. They're known for their absence of a halo (or a dark one) and wings and more monochrome colors.
So, in reality, no one knows exactly why aasimars get "corrupted". It might have something to do with their fait, emotions, confidence. But definitely not goodness. Actually many aasimars are fallen, and hide their fallen apearance with magic or make up. All in a perpetual charade of faking that everything is okay, gaslighting and deflecting into the fallen who couldn't hide their looks. It's that thing that most of them knows, but no one talks about.
And also half angels can be blinded by their own light and become infected by their own radiance. Too much faith and overconfidence starts to overtake them and they become too angelic for their minds and mortal bodies to handle. They usually follow a virtue or a good thing, but to such limit that it becomes a toxic radiance that seeps into everything, some loosing their minds and saying they hear the commands of the gods. Maybe they really do?
I made all this because, one of my players played a pc that was an aparently born a fallen aasimar, hated by his parents who expected perfection. And he never knew why, but started to piece all of this together through the campaign.
It was really fun.
In one of the games I play, my characters backstory is that almost as soon he was born he was given the task of defending a village. And when he was like 8 werewolves attacked and slaughtered his whole village. He ran away for two reasons: he was literally scared and his mind had open(I am aberrant mind sorcerer) and his mind was filled with the pain and fear of the village. And since then he thinks he has the responsibility to avenge his village as he ran away.
This is precisely how the character Daeran Arendae in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is written and it makes him into one of the best characters in that game. Because of being both noble and an aasimar as well as receiving *trauma* he has become this jaded self-obsessed narcissist that despises the expectations put on him due to his divine lineage and his noble heritage. I think people often forget that conflict can arise from what is seen as "positive" traits as well because there is nothing truly black and white in the world. Aasimar can just as easily be burnout "gifted" kids that were promised great things but couldn't live up to those great expectations just as much as tieflings can be underdog outcasts that are spat on by society.
For those that are not that into the idea of the Vigil dying when the Ward dies, maybe the death of the Ward is how you get the other subraces: if the Ward is killed, you get the vengeance seeking Scourge Vigil, and if the Vigil kills the Ward it becomes a Fallen Vigil. That way you can bring in that sweet, sweet edge in there as well!
Edit was typo
Turn the ward undead, problem solved :p
Watching this I was expecting Pointy Hat to do exactly that, then the video ended. xD
My first thought before pointy hat described the vigil was that aasimar could almost be like isekaied souls. Reincarnated and sent back into their world with a message or a task from their god. That plays very well with the people having high expectations of them aspect mentioned earlier. It also mirrors the whole idea of people assuming tieflings are fiendish, people would assume aasimar are devout zealots, or even that their divine task is good... as I type this it occurred to me that it would be very cool, if this isekaied soul lost all memories of what God reincarnated them or even what their task was. Every now and again they just got a vision with a command or an impulse to act with the divine, and they just had to assume the God that sent it had good intentions. Part of their plot could be to regain their memories of a past life and their purpose in this life (mirroring a guardian angel gaining consciousness). Maybe a successful aasimar's soul when they die is then manufactured into a guardian angel and their life has been about training obedience to the god.
I really like how these ideas make an aasimar appear to be the most zealous and devout, but there is more riding on their faith than anyone else. Faith in a god is an existential matter for them, literally.
This is a good optional edit I think. I feel a very string ward connection is awesome if your ward is a key campaign NPC or party member. If not though, a weaker connection might be easier on the DM to juggle.
Pointy hat please look at this
I had an Aasimar character who was evil aligned simply because she was spoiled rotten by her small town and learned that she could use the “goodness” reputation to get things she wanted. She was a bard who used all kinds of manipulation tactics and was pretty fun to play. I say that just about any race/class can be fun to play if you’re able to add your own twist to it.
I played a aasimar who was ice themed, dm allowed him to have a pair of permanent icy wings, however he could only wear light or medium armor, anyhow any weapons or armor he had was ice themed, he also had a halo which was a snowflake he was bubbly and a joy to play, mainly bc he felt he has to be/do good 24/7 which the stress/pressure of it leads him to drink
I have/had a very similar character in one of my 3.5e games! He is also a bard, and this second son of a powerful Venetian-inspired family, an absolute playboy and utterly in love with himself. He's evil aligned because he's incredibly selfish and self-serving, and won't do anything that won't benefit him. He *will* get you killed to save himself, and sing his own praises afterwards, the bastard! I have so much fun playing him 😇
Sounds like Aqua from Konosuba lol
thats genius
you could also do the opposite with this, like a good aligned tiefling or drow who uses their stereotype to easily ‘befriend’ master criminals only to betray them
Vigils being forced to do an escort mission their whole lives sounds like Hell.
LMFAO noooooooooooooooooooooooo
Especially if they walk faster than you, but run slower than you.
I'm gonna use it to give myself a tie in to a party member
@@WinglessAngelic
Bodyguard speedrun, any %
@@WinglessAngelicSounds exciting but potentially problematic. Especially if that party member dies.
Imagine if the ward dies, but instead of dying instantly they take a bunch of necrotic damage without resistance, but if they survive they can CHOOSE who their new ward is, this would be someone they will be nearly guaranteed to care about and like, unlike their birth ward, but the downside of this freedom is that if the second ward dies then death is guaranteed, also if the ward kills the vigil they will take lots of necrotic damage too so the downside of one dying/killing the other is less one side but if a vigil kills their ward then they are most likely to go straight to the lower planes when they die.
Regarding the innate conflict for aasimars, I like what Paizo did in their Pathfinder setting. Namely, their asimars are said to be often burdened by society with great expectations. Meanwhile, despite having celestial powers, they are just cas capable to good and evil as other mortals. As a result, the aasimars can, for example, grew up to become spoiled by the attention they receive, or struggle to form normal connections with other people because they were always treated as exceptional,. In Paizo published adventures there's even a case of an aasimar who was blamed for loving a human, because she was expected to be pure.
I often played my Aasimar As space marine or other super human from the 40k universe. the expectation are so high they usually always get the best fo the best but are expected to be the best of the best, this constent race for perfection meant hey have very high standard that:
-they cannot fill and feel con guilt for never really beeing up for the task ahead
-monster of comptent that believe they are superior to all and thus, why shoudl they bleed for lesser beign why isnt he in charg ect...
As Thiefling get pushed back in darkness by society and can get desperate or angry or hopefull for more because of it, Aasimar Are put in the maximum amount of light and thus cannot comprehend the normal and fear to be like those that are less fortunate than them, some kidn of fall from grace if you will.
Yeah this. I knew I read that somewhere.
I like the idea of people look at them a perfect being so much so that no matter what they do they're being judged questioned and ridiculed for any action. I don't like the idea of being tied to a person. But them being held up to an impossible standard, yes100%. I can imagine people taking advantage like with cheap pay things are more expensive.
The new Pathfinder game, wrath of the righteous, also gives you a pretty good idea of a non good aligned aasimar character in one of the companions
man that is so good
Twin siblings, an Aasamir Vigil and a Tiefling. The latter is the vigil's ward. Both grow up with a compicated mix of love and resentment toward each other 👌
Genuinely had this in a game once where the parents were adventurers who had made pacts and ended up with twins played by the PCs - a tiefling trickster cleric and a fallen aasimar fighter whose aura was 'corrupted' by the proximity to said twin. all sorts of complicated emotions going on in that family dynamic
i was thinking something like this except it’s a set of twins from a big band church family, and when the parents try to get rid of the tiefling, the aasamir child gets in the way and their divine aspects show! in the case of vigil, their twin would be their ward and they might’ve even run off into the night to keep them both safe!
I've always liked the idea of aasiamar having great expectations placed on them due to their heritage: They are going to be the next great shining knight or religious prophet. The impossibly high standard would cause many of them to break under the pressure.
This is literally my character in the campaign I'm in.
Gifted Kid aasimar
Great minds think alike
This is about how they're described in Pathfinder 2e!
I always preferred to go with "divine arrogance" myself. The classic idea that these "mortals" are beneath you and all your divine glory. Similar approaches work with stuff like Dhampirs and Elves of course but its the flavor of feeling like a literal god among men that set the Aasimar apart for me. This means you can be good or evil or whatever because all that matters is the superiority complex.
For those who don't like the caveat, a pretty quick fix to the Vigil and the whole "you die if they die" thing could be "If they die, you fall". That way you get the cool edgy backstory for a Fallen Aasimar. Give them a deep fear of falling if they haven’t already or give them a feeling of being a failure in life if they have already. Maybe make a character that lost the Ward they had and is depressed and their journey is to find a new purpose in life. I dunno, that could be cool.
This, I like this one!
And failure causes horrific changes to ones appearance and maybe some lore bits like feeling constant pain or somesuch
The social stigma of an Aasimar that failed to protect their ward would be interesting, especially if like what @jasonb6860 said about physical changes making it obvious to others.
@@investigativebatman something like a lightless or broken halo is a classic way of showing off a fallen angel, if you dont want to make your character monsterous
🧑🏼🍳💋👌🏼
I always liked having Aasimar being akin to kids who were always were told they were gifted but ended up burning out hard. The sorts who would always be pressured into resolving others issues and embodying the virtues of those around them to the point of constantly having to suppress who they actually are out of fear that deviating from the expectations set for them and left them extremely repressed yet secretly desperate for freedom from the expectations of those around them. A longing for freedom and acceptance for who they are rather than what they are would be a great motivation for one.
This comment hit close af to home 😂 good job 👏
I developed an Aasimar for a campaign and I was going to play her like this. Ended up not playing the campaign and writing a book instead, and this is indeed the route I went.
I love this approach!
While simultaneously being the scapegoat for being a goody two shoes that you're expected to be at all times.
This is a good adventuring hook too - escaping the needy, repressive "family" in the middle of the night, to explore the world & make your own way.
NGL sounds like my life maybe that's what I liked about it lmfao😊😊
"always being good" feels like more of a player problem than an official one. You can absolutely make a Aasimar evil if you want too, a fictional example of something similar to an evil Aasimar would be Sephiroth.
Yeah, for real.
You can even make them "good" and still keep the idea that good doesn't mean nice. Have the Aasimar that is good and upstanding, but he's also morally inflexible and zealous.
Or go darker and suddenly, he's the Old Testament angel with a firey sword that doesn't even once blink at the idea of killing all the first born in the city. His god says it has to happen, so its gotta happen. Besides, all those dead get to meet his god. Who wouldn't want to have eternal paradise?
I having an antagonist Aasimar who is the warlock rival.
I'm playing a campaign where my Aasimer is "good" in that she's extremely righteous but to the point of being a total bitch, especially to another party member who loots every dead body he comes across. She's not shy to scold and threaten to smite him because of how disgusted she is of thieves. She also doesn't think twice before attacking undead and other evil beings, even if they're simply dancing. Ironically, she was bit by a werewolf in her backstory while hunting them for sport, and the only thing keeping her from going completely savage and killing everyone in sight when she turns is a tiny speck of divine light within her soul keeping her from total darkness. She's far from a Mary Sue!
@@TheGoldenDunsparce mine is just a bitch who likes to mess with the party.
I think I’d like the “my ward is a stranger that I haven’t met yet” idea and then let the DM decide who it is. So me and my character both would have to deal with that. The possible drama scenarios are endless, I love it
Life is short if your ward dies before you even find out who that is lol
@@kulgydudemanyo yeah I wouldn't want my ward to be some rando 6 hp peasant who could die from a stiff breeze.
I could totally imagine a play/movie in a setting called "Forbidden Romance" that is a romcom about a vigil and their tiefling ward whose progenitors are arch nemeses.
There's also the tragedy of your ward being the BBEG that your whole party has been trying to kill, and then you only find out (essentially) right before the boss fight.
One of my favorite characters that I've ever played was an aasamar with golden child syndrome. His parents were incredibly religious, and because he was the first born, every other kid to come after who wasn't born an aasamar was compared to him. Parents would never admit it, but he was the favorite child. He was just a people pleaser who grew up always getting a pat on the back and always being told that he was a good boy
😮 Sounds like a pretty fast shortcut to instilling moral arrogance or crippling levels of humility/guilt in a kid - either could be deeply character-shaping and interesting to play out!
I appreciate the inherently baked in fan fiction trope with this. like a magic string that connects you to your soulmate where you can feel everything they do but die if they die is like a classic soulmate Au and I'm loving it. I'm licking my fingers with this one its so good.
But then you fall in love with someone else.
@@Merilirem then the plot goes two ways. either its a love triangle or polyamory. sometimes both.
The life series. Minecraft smp series started by Grian.
Double life. The third smp in the life series. Included "soulmates" which was someone you were attached to, and could feel all their pain.
The Watchers. Evo and life series. Started by Grian, continued by Martyn. Powerful beings that are still quite mystery.
Watcher Grian. A popular AU started by the canonical event of Grian joining the watchers in Evo. While Grian himself never continued the lore, many fanfics have.
Desert duo. Started by Grian blowing up Scar in Third life (the first smp), and vowing to stay by Scar's side. Continued when Grian and Scar were chosen to be soulmates in Double life.
Grian wanted someone else.
Scar was fine with Grian.
Grian, a part celestial being, often drawn with wings where his ears should be. Scar, an elf (depends) who just wants Grian to either accept him or just leave him alone. Stuck together by a curse neither wanted.
I know this is a strange tangent but DOESN'T THIS WORK SO WELL?!
I just thought of this when you said "fan fiction" and "soulmates".
Imagine the stupid irony of a vigil getting a tiefling as a ward. A descendant of a heavenly being soulbound to protect a demon touched one. Being tied to essentially your polar opposite
Imagine the utterly befuddled confusion of people meeting a vigil warlock who's patron is their tiefling ward's ancestor, the tiefling themselves having grown to be a paladin of the very celestial that the vigil descends from.
@@QuartzChrysalis AND THEN ADD ROMANCE >:3
If a Tiefling is destined to do some important good in the universe, then it makes sense. Somebody gotta do it.
And then what if they kissed? 🤔🤔🤔
@@averyodowd6448The cosmos would never be the same again.
My second ever D&D character was an aasimar paladin of Torm. I went full golden-haired angelic paladin pretty-boy with an angel wing back tattoo that his wings would sprout from. He was my longest-played character and will always have a special place in my heart. Our DM was great at giving us real moral quandaries that pushed my dude towards having to lie for the greater good, and it led to some really memorable campaign moments.
I like the idea of a vigil tied to a tiefling, and both being in the same party. Perhaps they're cousins or brothers because grandma was really freaky.
Make them twins because their mother had a realy great night
OR! The guardian angel was assigned to a tiefling/fiend and so one of the twins takes after the angel parent and the other after the fiendish parent!
Celestials can become devils like Zariel. So imagine two siblings, the older is an aasimar, the younger a tiefling, who have the same dad. Father was a celestial but later became a devil.
Me and my husband are kinda doing this. We are going to make it our first dnd characters that are a couple in game so not related we are also doing a yin and yang theme. He's lawfull evil I'm chaotic good.
WOOOOAHHHH
Having a ward that hates you and is trying to hunt you down and kill you could be a really interesting plot. You can sense them as they get closer to you, but know the only thing you can do is flee.
OO THIS is a fun idea
... your ward could be the snail...
@@isabellasantopolo2487 😮 🐌
Oh no he's coming closer
I mean, you can't kill your ward BUT you can keep him locked in a cage, torture him and cast healing whenever he is about to die. Your emotional bound allows you to know EXACTLY how much he is suffering and that gives you joy.
@@Noperare I was going for more of a tragedy than "I keep them in my torture cell because it gets my rocks off"
I actually really like the inconsistent appearances of old school tieflings. The idea that they are all unique because they all originate with different circumstances. It’s allowed for a lot of unbounded creativity. I get why you might want standardisation though.
Same! There are so many crazy different types of devils, demons and yugoloths! Kind of lame that we now only get “sexy punk with horns”. Also, I like that they were, let’s be honest, a bit uglier because most devils are kind of hideous
@@heilmodrhinnheimskiThat’s the other thing, weren’t tieflings at some point (either in-universe or just in a retconned bit) descended from ANY fiend, including demons and yugoloths, and now it’s just devils? I know there are other hybrids for those now, but not as ubiquitous as a tiefling
I think that having a ward die be the way to become a "fallen" vigil has a lot of potential for great roleplay potential aswell
yeah, or having the ward alive/dead grants racial abilities that way the players don't have to stop playing when the person they need dies. I think it would be cool if the abilities they had with the ward, are trusted on the person that killed them. Like you turn into an avenging angle you know where the murder is, etc. I feel like instant death if one person whose actions you can't control dies would lead to some bad gameplay. Like in a fight the ward is in they would spend every action protecting them and it limits the player agency. Like you have to go this way to the Bbeg cause they broke into your ward's home and kidnapped them it doesn't give the player the choice to say hey I don't want to do this rn cause the character has to go and protect someone.
I like the idea of a Tiefling being the ward of a Vigil. Because the amount of plot you could make from that alone would be insane.
And if they had KIDS. oh lord the amount of DRAMA, LORE, AND MOST OF ALL CUSTIMIZATION would truly be endless.
@@OneColdRepublican 25% chance their child is just a regular human sounds so funny, getting caught in all the family drama
@@iem-axoltleater
RNJesus said "no" when it came to rolling for an angel/demon hybrid. Im curious if both parents being half human themselves make the human gene more dominant in the process?
Good Omens vibes, even though tieflings aren't evil
Unexpected Brazilian! Legal@@iem-axoltleater
The great thing about Aasimar and Tieflings is that they are insanely visually customizable
I actually like Aasimar, but to be fair, I HEAVILY focused on the an ideal sacrifice for cults and summonings. The character I made had the constant struggle of wanting to do everything she could to help people, but being constantly paranoid of being discovered and hunted because the world we were in had the heavy presence of infernal cults. One of my favorite arcs was that she got captured on her own because she was the party scout. When the party rescued her, it made her more willing to use her powers because it gave her the confidence that she wasn't on her own anymore and she had people who could help protect her.
I had an aasimar character named Azriel and she was born to a family of dwarves. Not only was she angelicaly different but she was humansized. I never got to play her but I always liked the idea of this big strong paladin having parents half her size.
Sounds a lot like Carrot from Terry Pratchett's discworld books
I'm curious, Is she displeased about the fact she's basically a Dwarf with Gigantism, or does she not really care about It?
Interesting. I likewise haven't played them, but I wanted to do something similar with a character that was born to Drow parents. The idea was that he's a pureblood, but was born looking very human. His mother was not pleased in the least, but was willing to allow his father to keep him so long as he stayed out of her sight.
@@TaurusTheCrazyBull her whole backstory was her kinda being ostracized by her family. She just thought of herself as a dwarf that happened to look weird but her father always had trouble accepting her. She tried to get into the dwarves religion and traditions, anything she could do to make her seem more like a dwarf to her family.
If anything she was a melting pot of different cultures, dwarf family, lived in tymora which is a dragonborn country, and her deva guardian was constantly telling her off for not living up to her standards.
My current character is an Aasimar Necromancer that is 16, she's a delight to play.
Matt Mercer created a great conflict with Aasimar. Devils of the 9 hells highly prize aasimar as slaves and torture victims, taking even greater delight in their pain and suffering. Also being in possession of an aasimar's soul is far more valuable than a regular soul. And as such Aasimar are ruthlessly hunted and victimized.
To me the rough part of being an Aasimar is that they're basically big walking targets. As devils and demons like to treat the material plane as a summer home, you can wade through tieflings. You got tieflings by the bushel. Angels and the divinities play it much more casual with contact and influence, preferring to give orders to be vaguely followed by someone please. Also there are no incu/succubi porking theme angels. So Aasimar are a rarity. And while good aligned churches tend to frown at knifing some random tieflings to fight evil by civilian proxy, any two bit cultist who wants to bloody their blade with divine blood probably won't make a distinction. Unlike demons you can throw a stone in Faerun without hitting a cherub, so the glowing guy three towns over is a pretty good bet. Plus, while direct divine intervention to save one poor Aasimar is a lot of celestial paperwork, some devil taking the next fifty years off to focus on driving you mad is the sort of thing to brag about at the infernal water cooler. And, obviously, locking a random kid into a themed divinity is gonna suck. Daughter of the forge god? Hope you love blacksmithing! Hope you're ready for every cleric with a cracked icon to pilgrimage to you. Hope you're ready for every mundane blacksmith in five towns to hate you, cause who the fuck spends money at Ol'mikes when some nightlight of the gods will do it a trip away? Oh, and good luck ever being able to tell if people like you for you, or they like you to win perks with mom or dad.
I had an aasimar goolock that I fluffed as a Lovecraftian god larvae. His super saian transformation was fluffed as more biblically accurate.
Basically instead of glowy wings he got surrounded by wheels covered in eyes.
Love this
Hell yeah this slaps!
In a sense, but the wheel looking angels are but one of roughly 2 dozen angel types most of which are either described as humanoid and frightening or nondescript, so calling them biblically accurate is accurate but a gross oversimplification of the truth.
@@AtelierGodnerd (i say in the comments of a dnd video)
jrwi
I love Aasimars and your whole concept for vigils. what I usually do in my table to give them conflict is leaning into the magic in their blood, so everybody wants to hunt them and use their blood to make potion or Elizabeth bathory themselves for a youthful appearance, and that's why they have to remain hidden. Not that everybody hates them but more like they want to consume the angel people
Eat the rich
Angel food cake.
I always loved Aasimar as a race so I made sure to add interesting things to their lore in my games. Their looks remained mostly the same but what I added is that
-Aasimars are considered by the general public to be gifts from the gods to the world whose whole purpose is to fight off the forces of evil and protect people
-The heart and blood of an aasimar are extremely valuable and irreplaceable spell components, which is partly why aasimars are rarer than tieflings
Pretty much as soon as they are born any morally questionable being in proximity will try to kill them, which is why temples take in a lot of aasimars with the pretenses of keeping them save but in actually a lot of them end up being train to be warriors of the faith.
So basically whenever an aasimar is born they pretty much have to choose between committing to being a full on holy warrior and fight against the forces of hell forever OR find a way to hide their heritage to not have that weight on their shoulders.
Under this template being an aasimar is actually harder than being a tiefling. Because at least a tiefling can walk around and have a normal life while experiencing prejudice but if an aasimar rolls up to a town open about what they are the villagers may immediately assume they were personally sent by the gods to solve their dragon problem (regardless of whether the Aasimar looks anywhere ready to face a dragon) or one of the townspeople may decide they can get a pretty penny from selling their hearts to a hag/demon.
I also transplanted the concept of them having a guardian angel but instead of being a patron they are more like celestial social workers. The idea being that Celestia would be more involve with their spawns than the hells would be to theirs, and so Aasimars get guardian angels who provide some amount of protection and guidance specially in their early years, they are also authorize to take away an Aasimars divine powers if they consider they have “fallen” from the path of good.
Basically tieflings get daddy issues while Aasimars get mommy issues.
A lot of fun characters where created like this:
-A cleric in Barovia who was hale as the savior of the country and future slayer of Strahd just for being born an aasimar and had to deal with that pressure all her life
-An Aasimar family whose celestial guardian took a very “the ends justify the means” approach to good and thus guided the family to become ruthless militaristic dictators who always justify their actions by pointing out they haven’t fallen yet so the gods must approve of them
-An orphan enslaved by a pit fiend at an early age for bragging rights and was only able to escape with the help of their guardian who from then on acted a as surrogate parent to them (and maybe actual biological parent?)
-An Aasimar who wanted to fulfill their duties of fighting away the evil from the hearts of men... by becoming a chef, making hearty meals to weary travelers and listening to their stories
I had the idea that Aasimars often have cracks in their skin that are inlayed with gold or other metals. When they become closer to a faith or divine entity their cracks change to swirls and filigree or deeper cracks for falling to evil
I love the idea of Kintsugi like skin. Except I used it exclusively for the Radiant consumption ability. Since it damages you as well, having glowing cracks form all over your body seemed fitting and just really cool!
@@Jarvice *cough* Dame Aylin *cough COUGH*
Pathfinder has sub-races for aasimar based on what celestials they hail from and it really helps you assign an identity to them.
See this is why I enjoy how they handle races in pathfinder 2e with the ancestries and heritages. Cus in PF 2e your Aasimar could start as pretty low level celestial kin to "You know what? BE AFRAID". The ancestry feats allow so much customization and options to your character than what 5e allows. PF also has more types of Aasimar with the Angelkin, Emberkin, Idyllkin, Lawbringers, Musetouched, and Plumekith.
Also, iirc, the Aasimar are like a subclass themselves. Like half elves and half orcs. So you can be half X and Aasimar and have access to both ancestry feats.
@@icarue993 Basically how it works is you pick your ancestry, which is like Human, Elf, etc, then your heritage is the subsect of that ancestry. Which can include more rare heritages like Aasimar, Tiefling, Undine, etc. Then you pick a ancestry feat that has options from your base ancestry and your heritage. So you can be any combo available based on your choices. Then as you level up you get access to more ancestry feats that can be from either of the two or even some unconnected feats such as Fey Influence.
I'm playing a gunslinger human who started out as baseline human but got Fey Influence cus all my teammates were some kind of fey and they infected me with their weird magic BS. So now she's a human with cat eyes.
Which is another thing consider as some feats will actually physically change your character's appearence.
Agreed. The best part of pathfinder is stuff like this.
@@TriXJester I am playing a half elf. Which is basically a sturdier elf. I have not picked any or lamost any human feats, and most have been elf feats.
I went with fighter, and they feel so good to play. I technichally mutliclassed into barbarian, but I feel I shouldnt have. I barely rage at all.
@@Merilirem Pathfinder 2e. Because PF1e is stupid (good) in different ways. Like it feels way more minmaxy than 2e because of how many bonuses and types there are in 1e compared to 2e. 1e has like 10 differnt types, vs 2e's 2-3.
You can mix and match bonuses, butiit feels more minmaxy than 2e's options.
Fun fact: Pathfinder already had a similar range of physical appearances for their versions of aasimars.
If I remember right, goblin aasimar have stuff like eyes where they shouldn't be, voices that sound like multiple people speaking at once, etc. And it mentions stuff like aasimar having problems, getting saddled with impossible expectations or even being creepily fetishized by people around them.
Honestly I feel like half the time I have a problem with dnd, Pathfinder has fixed it. You have the three action economy making things other than attacking useful in combat, change in how crits work, and the newest change in excited for; spells will no longer be put into schools but rather schools will contain spells
Personally I really like how the Remaster is folding the Asimar and Tiefling together into the Nephiliem. It lets you go "Well yeah I have angelic blood but people see my butrning eyes and golden skin and think I'm a fiend."
Pathfinder's WotR campaign also has an evil Aasimar you meet in the Abyss; initially he pretends to be a good guy rescuing Aasimar slaves from the fleshmarkets but if you follow the questline in a certain direction it turns out he's a sadistic bastard who tortures and brainwashes his "rescues" and ends up being one of the most vile NPCs you meet in the Midnight Isles
@@benjii_boi Honestly Owlcat did an amazing job of making the world feel very dark and corrupted. And best of all they don´t discourage players from going a more evil path themselfes. Most games straight up reward players more for playing in a "good" way. Not in their games. They have a pretty good split of rewarding every playstile at different opportunities
I played an aasimar through a Curse of Strahd campaign.
Her race was a struggle, leading her to constantly try to break out of her middle-class life, to strive for more. Her world kept trying to shove her back in that box. Coming back to Eberron at 15th level in the middle of a war pretty much ensured an answer.
Her class caused her more problems, being a paladin in Ravenloft.
Okay I haven't seen the twist yet, but I think it would be a cool conflict for Aasimar to have a strong, inherent perfectionism from their angelic heritage. The celestial in them wants to always do the right thing but the mortal in them always makes mistakes, and that dichotomy can be embraced by some aasimar or drive others mad. Perfect for the burnt out gifted kids at the table
Though the twist was different, I like your idea very much as well!
I think it was stated somewhere that Aasimar tend to suffer from positive profiling. Where they have higher expectations placed on them because of their lineage. So some of them end up becoming like gifted kids turned Karens because they hate themselves for not being able to live up to their own hype but still get the regard and pampering that comes with being a local celebrity.
I ran an Aasimar character in a previous campaign who, by all accounts, was just a guy wearing a mask.
The mask was magical, and concealed his true visage. If he ever took it off, his head was a Biblically Accurate rotating set of rings covered in eyes with a blinding light at their center.
Needless to say, the first time he took his mask off it was a mix of awe and, 'OH GODS PUT IT BACK ON! PUT IT BACK ON!'
Honestly, I think combining the aasimar and vigil together would be perfect, especially if they have transformation options like the aasimar. Perhaps it is effected by the kind of bond the vigil has with its ward (guardian with a kind or loving bond, fallen if they have a antagonistic bond, scourge if the bond involves intense emotions like fervent love or hate). It could even be that the emotional bond isn’t mutual, with either the ward or vigil just needing to feel this way towards the other bonded person.
I like that, honestly could make for some fun character building
I know this is all about Aasimar but that little bit where a beholder turned into some sort of construct with gems had me intrigued beyond belief. A construct Beholder sounds cool as heck!
he already kinda made that
Pointy made it. It's called a "mind's eye". It happens when a Beholder becomes aware of its flaws.
Its from a video that pointy did on beholders. its genuinely pretty cool i suggest you check it out
It's a biblically accurate angel
I actually like the fact that Assimars doesn't have a distinctive look. Then it can be more of a "secret celestial heritage" things that are then revealed once they spread their wings or radiate light.
I really like the upcoming Pathfinder remaster's new take on aasimar/tieflings. They're combining them and their law/chaos equivalents into one Ancestry, the Nephilim. It opens up the possibility of a character that's a descendant of multiple otherworldly bloodlines
Oh this is GOOD game design.
Yeah sounds cool.
The vigils sound so damn cool with so much roleplay opportunities running through my head as you described them. It has so much character to it I'd love to include these if I was a DM.
I think I prefer the concept suggested by someone else of your ward dying causing you to "fall" or some such.
You can then extrapolate that rather than death being the direct cause your vigil becomes extremeley depressed since not only have they failed but a whole part of themselves, the bond to another person through which they shared emotions and a permanent presence of not being alone, has shattered and been taken from them. This could lead to many vigils taking their own lives, dying from self inflicted starvation, and other such awful ends.
Although there are benefits to outright dying if your ward is killed, for example what if your ward is the bbeg or at the very least a goon thereof. You would end up having to make a very important character decision on how to approach them.
Do you kill them, saving the world at the cost of your own life.
Do you try to reason and plead with them to stop.
Do you "Wish" or call for Divine Intervention to break your bond.
Do you be an edgy boy, knock them out, then tie them up in your basement as a captive for the rest of your life so you can live on.
The idea of a party with a Vigil, who's Ward is the BBEG or some other villain of the party is SO COOL TO ME. They have to fight and kill the BBEG, but the Vigil either has to die to do it, or fight their own party to protect the BBEG, and in turn, their own life. It's so interesting.
There is one problem with this. The ward is the same age and the vigil knows where they are, what they are doing, and what they are feeling at ALL TIMES. So you can't have this ultra evil BBEG that is massively powerful without the Vigil ALSO being ultra powerful. The Vigil would see the evil early on and do something about it.
So, I have a question. What happens if a vigil necromancer convinces their ward to enter lichdom in order to live forever? I find it super funny the angel is the one tempting the mortal to do evil in order to live forever.
Plot twist. The Vigil dies during the process due to liches being undead, hence not living. Need to read the fine print XD
Cool villain/bbeg idea. Yoink! Sorry, I shamelessly stole it for my campaign.
@@antonakesson Or better yet the Vigil "falls" and gets the cool bone wings and becomes a Psuedo lich themselves. Now I want to become a lich with a Fallen Vigil guardian. That sounds metal AF.
@@antonakesson Oh yes I like this idea. The Vigil could guard the Phylactery or even BE the phylactery!
Dude, I’m already imagining a situation where the ward is one of the random bosses in a campaign.
You know the DM would absolutely do that to tie in the player’s ancestry and mess with them
Did anyone else think of the vigil's ward being the BBEG and the conflict for the party?
Now THAT'S an idea. Can you imagine having to figure out how to thwart BBEG without killing them? Or a vigil willing to sacrifice themselves to destroy their ward because they're just that evil?
That's exactly what I immediately thought of!
I immediately went there too
Oh, that pretty cool. It is pretty interesting if the BBEG is your ward, like what if your npc allies turned on you and the rest of the party and you're on the run avoiding both sides trying to get you
That's the first thought I had as soon as he said it
I love the visual changes you made to the Aasimar. The only thing I would be hesitant about roleplaying as an Aasimar would be the Ward aspect. While it IS compelling, I think the problem arises when the character goes throughout the campaign without their ward. Essentially forcing them to abandon their wards unless they come with them.
What if their ward is another member of the party, but the vigil is the only one who knows? (along with the DM, obviously). So the other character wonders why the vigil is always by them in battle, always working to protect them more than any other of the PCs, only heals them...
@AAAndrew eh even then that means you kinda have to work with that player and hope they want that. They might find it to be a bit too close when they have their own story they want to tell and they don't want to deal with "oh and here is Gary, he wants the same things as me because he has no choice. He completes my goal because his goal is me". I find individuality makes characters interesting in a party (same reason why siblings or pre-existing lovers are often hard to do well).
A way that might work around the Ward aspect is for the character to have some sort of hardcore Vow (or Compulsion) that the Aasimar has to engage in every so often or will start experiencing some flavor of mental health symptom. (For some reason Polka Dot Man needing to expel the pustules twice a day comes to mind.)
The conflict I’ve given my Aasimar is that she’s the child of high level lesbian mom clerics who used divine intervention to have a baby. But because they were former adventurers, their enemies have been hunting and attempting to kidnap or kill their kid for decades. Making them extremely protective and over sheltering the aasimar. Conflict in a character doesn’t always have to deal directly with your race appearance but rather just your lineage in general.
This is my go-to dnd race. I’m so glad you did this one!
The last Aasimar I played was a noble-born named Azalea, who’s overprotective mom hid her from the public (because Azzy’s great-uncle, the emperor, was racist against nonhumans). As a result, she had a an unrealistically positive worldview, was very trusting, and didn’t always understand social cues.
One of my favorite things about her, though, was that she was how she was introduced. Her Mom was hosting a party, and Azzy was allowed to show up for once (probably to be like “see??? I was not making my kid up.”) And she was just OBVIOUSLY not human. Girl had white hair and glowing white eyes and she towered over all the human party guests, and they were all awkwardly shuffling trying to ignore her (because of the racism thing). (It was funnier in person) (a bit later on, she lit her own dress on fire to stick it to her mom)
With all my D&D characters, though, I had an even funnier twist: Azalea was a warlock, who’s patron had betrayed an evil god and was now trying to hide from it. So her pact was literally “I get to chill inside your head, and you get a partner in crime that’ll help you sneak out of the house every so often”
I kinda miss her, I’ll be honest.
oh my god that warlock pact is genius, I love that. (I'm actually generally really partial to warlock pacts where the patron _doesn't_ have that much power and is heavily reliant on this _particular_ warlock.)
I made an Aasimar character once that I'm actually pretty proud of: they were half-goliath, to give them that interesting look, with a heavy eye-motif. They were a blood hunter, basically using their innately divine blood for that. For the conflict factor, I basically went “what if the Aasimar’s deity wasn’t good? How would that duty to them, along with a patron holding them on that path, feel, especially since a young age. Then there was the whole religious trauma angle, with the deity being basically the god of mistrust and paranoia, so at one point in the Aasimar’s life they just had constant visual hallucinations of every single pair of eyes they could see glaring at them, following and judging, so they ritually blinded themselves. It was a very edgy character, yes, but I really hope I’ll get to play them some day, cause I love the concept.
My favorite character I keep playing as is an Aasimar who is born from a diety outside of the multiverse who does not care about the lives of mortals in the multiverse at all and by some is considered evil, by others is considered good, but their most important characteristic is that they are VERY STRICT and kill the Aasimar the moment they break any of the laws of that diety...
One DM banned that character idea, because it placed my Aasimar outside of the DnD alignment and lore...
Okay this is an awesome race when you include the wings, halos, wards and vigils. So well done. Putting this in my campaigns going forward.
I really liked the “giving aasimar a more unifying design identity” but I found the bonded ward way too limiting to make that a replacement for aasimar in my world. It's definitely a cool character background though
you can just make it a cultural thing! society expects them to be perfect and protect their bonded. If they fail, they become a fallen, and everyone will know it. They're a disgrace, and a walking failiure not to be trusted.
Yea I felt the same way. Honestly I would just get rid of the whole dying thing when the ward dies, but the fact they are compelled to protect them I could get behind
I agree that the ward feature is awesome, but it does shoehorn a very specific character conflict.
I like the idea of just doing Tiefling, but opposite.
Everyone expects Aasimar to be perfect, but they’re just human. They’re unfairly dragged from monastery to monastery. Some thrive in this and become great clerics. Others go against this entirely seeking dark power. Most run, seeking to strike their own path, unhindered by divine destiny.
Aasimar are my favourite. It's always so cool playing as someone who's part angel
Damn. You're so creative w your twists and I feel that you do get how important themes are for storytelling. Thank you for your contributions
I like that Aasimars don’t have a cohesive, defined appearance. I liked that Tieflings didn’t until 4e too. You could *pick* a creature to be your forebear and give your planetouched features that reflect the kind of creature you descend from. Pathfinder 1e has a table of features you can give your planetouched. It made the characters more believable as lacking a cohesive culture, because they were rare enough they might never encounter one another, varied to the point of potentially not recognizing each other, and in some cases, naturally at odds with each other on the law-chaos axis due to elemental alignment in their blood. Pathfinder even had subraces and ability score modifiers based on the kinds of creature you were descended from.
Yes. I've fallen off the D&D train since 4e came out, and this video doesn't make me want to play it more, considering aasimar are my favorite planetouched. PF1e is my favorite system so far, and that doesn't look like it's going to change anytime soon.
You stole the thoughts right from my head. When I saw the whole "horns, tail and red skin" version of 4e tieflings for the first time, I knew they'd basically written tieflings out of the system. 3e tieflings and 4e tiefling are not the same race, they should have been given different names. The new tiefling look, I find, is dull and cliched, how someone would make a tiefling if they had no sense of visual subtlety. It seems we're in the minority. Most people really like the trope. I don't get it personally.
your videos are masterfully edited and so fun to watch
The halo and vestigial wings really hit a good vibe for me, I may very well use that kind of description going forward! Thanks Pointy!
My party wanted a death/resurrection table, so I decided on a d20 roll where a nat 20 = resurrecting with one Aasimar trait and the chance of descendants being Aasimar. I think it’s a good alternative option to just f*cking an angel 😂
Yeah, I think for both Aasimar and Tieflings, it isn't only a result of biological sex, but can be a sign of destiny, or rituals or spirituality or something else.
Personally, whilst I love interspecies romance as a trope and like crazy hybrid races stemming from it, and I do think that Pathfinder did a really good job with their aasimar variants, I still prefer the devas from the World Axis core setting as their replacement. Angels who gave up the heavens out of love for the mortal world and who reincarnate over and over to defend it just have so much more... *sizzle* to them than aasimar generally have.
loved the one from pathfinder but also that one is so coool!!! didn't know about it thanks
Hey Antonio. I just wanna say: your taste in music is excellent. Never change. 😊
Eh I'm gonna be honest I'm not a fan of the vestigial wings. But I think maybe there's something about making the Aasimar a race that can be ugly. Like imagine an Aasimar is born it looks normal until it opens several sets of eyes. Or even an unsettling psychological trait. Like Aasimar in Volos have charisma boosts like Tieflings. Imagine an Aasimar growing up and not only being conventionally beautiful but with moments where people couldn't help but to obey them even if they didn't want to. Think Purple Man from Marvel though maybe not sinister evil or fully aware of this fact.
same here with the vestigial wings
I also did something like that, the characters eventually realizing he can command people to do almost anything and it gets abused very quickly until the angel eventually shows up and threatened him to stop.
Yeah, I'm... not a fan of the ear wings. It's a weird anime design IMO. Or elbow wings. Or really much of the Vigils in general. I feel bad for not liking it somehow because like 90% of PH's ideas are golden to me, but none of this feels like aasimar to me short of the halos.
Forcing a character to be inherently tied to another might make for good individual writing but not for a whole playable race.
@@ZenFr0g Yeah it felt like a cool character, but it's too planet of hats for a whole race of people, even if they're relatively rare.
I like to use the 'Lucifer Logic' that Aasimar's appearance is directly tied to their home plane/powers and this is the source of all the variation in their appearance and rarity. Some look entirely normal outside of performing acts of divine magic to blend in (ala Jesus), others may have animal heads in their 'true' form or are shapechangers (would make a fun Druid!). Some sprout multiple limbs in combat (Monk or Fighter), are divine warriors or a guru who follows a path of non-violence..basically allowing you to shape your Aasimar to fit any real world (or made up) religious hero.
Aasimar is my favorite because it's so vague and divines you have in campaigns can be so different, plus every portrayal of demons will be some form of evil while divine can be anything from icons of good to evil tyrants. Just look at the pathfinder 1st edition aasimar options for looks
I actually liked the old tiefling appearance. The new stuff is good, but I liked how different types of tieflings could look radically different. Demon, devil, yugoloth, and other, stranger tieflings were all options.
Aasimar are my favourite, I’m going to enjoy what you come up with.
what did you think?
@@Dan280974 i really like it, good flavour
i will def use this in my campaign@@zannrazor8569
I feel like you could throw in some kind of self-sacrifice ability as an option for if your ward is about to die, give up your own life (or just drop to 0 and start making death saves) to protect them or revivify them before their soul has departed, kind of a "it is not your time, I shall go in your place" kind of deal, and since death in D&D isn't the end they might still find a way to send them messages from whichever plane they end up on
Aasimar Scourge was my first long campaign character.
She was saved from a disease when she was child by an angel brougt by her parent's prayers. She grew up and lived on a farm, taking care of her parents until they died. The thing is that aasimars live longer than humans and her, looking in her early 30's and whithout no-one in her life, parted to waterdeep in order to change her life. There she was assaulted and saved by th Lord's Alliance which she joined. There, as she was doing some sword practise (Wasn't very good at it), a sword caught her eye, being that sword the home to a particular patron and turning with time in a powerful hexblade warlock.
As for the appearance, she was marked with runes that covered parts of her body and even though she was shy, emanated a particular charismatic aura that brought all the eyes to her. As she used her race hability, then the angel appearance emerged, her runes shining bright, eyes glowing, a waving halo and some 10ft wings made of light that burnt with radiant damage all it touched and feathers falling doing the same.
Overall, a pretty cool character to play and an underrated race.
Turning the Aasimar INTO the Patron is legit brilliant.
Edit: If the "they die when their ward dies" angle is too harsh, id settle for them feeling this mysterious person's joy and pain, constsntly dreaming about them, feeling that pull etc. And if that pain strikes at the wrong time or they let the ward get hurt or die, they get cursed with disadvantage to a bunch of stuff for a while, possibly a long time. Accomplishes a similar objective without being as rough.
Having permanent Disadvantage is just as harsh, if not more so. You pretty much have to sit out of every combat because you're now more likely to miss every attack and can almost never crit. You're a liability, and I can see players having the character leave so that things can move forward.
@@christianemerson4622 true
I think I'd tweak it to be more like a curse, something that makes the aasimar start to wither over the course of days or weeks, starting with small things, building up to a point where the aasimar dies if it's not helped by someon high up their respective angelic 'court'. This way, players can see what's happening, and take action (or lack thereof) to try and circumvent it, giving a new, albeit limited, plothook. Effects could be along the lines of RAW exhaustion, but perhaps a bit more stretched out.
@christianemerson4622 I didn't say anything about it being permanent 🤔 just long lasting and removable, potentially via a character quest
@Thorunge yeah something like this would work great. Something that enables counterplay from the aasimar PC
My first thought with the whole "ward dying causes the Vigil to die" plot point was a Crime Syndicate is pulling the strings on a Vigil by holding their ward hostage. They can keep the Vigil obedient through harming the ward and threatening their life. The Vigil needs to work on finding help to rescue their ward to free them both. That was an immediate hook.
Sounds like it would make an interesting quest chain for sure!
This is just such a great concept, you are a fond of creativity! I absolutely and firmly do believe that BG3's Pointy Hat is a tribute to you. 😊
I’m very glad my DM and I worked to solidify the aasimar as extra EXTRA weird. We made my aasimar basically people who are taken and forcibly transmogrified. Into basically time locked and entropy immune Dolls. Vessels for exiled gods. (In my case Tharizdun) They have porcelain skin, are stalled at the age they were transformed at. They also have different number of eyes depending on when they were transformed as they are much more uncommon and aren’t SUPPOSED to exist. So they are actually despised by celestials and they scare normal people because most don’t KNOW what they are.
Love Aasimar
Building on some other comments, a character idea would be an aasimar that lost their ward but somehow lived. Their arc would start as a generic self-discovery but the reason for surviving would eventually be something the party could discover and be tied to the main story arc. It could go many ways, the ward turned into a lich; they didn't really die; the PC was never an normal aasimar etc. Great video! Made my creativity start spinning.
Definitely using this to update my Tiefling/Aasimar hybrid that I have.
Not only would the Vigil totally work for his parent's background (Basically think of Romeo and Juliet, but with Angels, Demons, Tieflings, and Vigils/Aasimars); it also works super well with his kind of personal history.
His ward would be his childhood best friend, Kewryn: a half-halfling, half-elf rogue/bard. Both were raised by an adventuring party (Aries being found after the tragedy of his parents death, and Kewryn being born not long after from the rogue of the Adventuring Party as they begin to reach into their eaely retirements).
Having thw two having started adventuring themselves, only for them to get captured and seperated/ or having Kewryn kidnapped by the main BBEG would have a whole lot of drive for him as a character Cx
After watching this video, I feel like celestials themselves need a bit of a rework as well. The humanoid celestials are all just really powerful dudes that do radiant damage (the only interesting one I found was the empyrean who have the ability to alter their surroundings based on their mood, but don’t even have any abilities to match that). With demons and devils, they might be all evil, but they vary from one another in both design, actions, and even how they act. Maybe Aasimars would be a lot better if celestials were much more interesting
It’d be funny if most people found Aasimars unlikeable due to them not looking like the deities they pray to but they don’t know that celestials don’t look like the basic angel
I'm surprised aasimar are considered the least popular. Someone I used to play D&D with used to play almost exclusively aasimars, and I have 3 aasimar characters myself (one of each subrace!). Especially with the popularity of the "biblically accurate angel," I often see quite a lot of aasimar PCs. Tieflings are definitely a fan favourite though, I cannot argue with that!
probably because in the Statistic it counted the characters made by free available races and Tiefling is available for free, while only Variant Aasimar is available for free.
Variant Aasimar does not have subraces but rather a shitty spellcasting trait.
I think thats why the numbers on the survey are so low, cause many people like playing Aasimar, just not Variant Aasimar.
I feel like there are a handful of people (myself included) that just play a metric ass load of Aasimar.
Gotta say, absolutely loving the "Every Vigil has a halo, but not all halos look alike".
It's simple, it's fun, it allows for huge creative freedom while still maintaining an iconic similarity.
Truly inspired.
I'm not as big on "wings anywhere except the back", but then I played an Aasimar specifically because I wanted angel wings on my back (Disappointed they are limited use but close enough). Also it's kinda weird that the angel parent has back-wings but the child doesn't.
That said, while I'm not usually a fan of tiny head-wings, I am tempted by the prospect of slowly becoming biblically-accurate as the campaign progresses. Major "Tales of Symphonia" vibes.
You're such a gem! Thanks for another imaginative, fun, and heartfelt video! Keep it up!
Barbarians backstory
Mom gave me a small trident to fight these things called vegetables and dad said he was called a formal fighting against the veg so they said make sure you eat all your veg on your plates
Aasimar are my favorite race and I play too many of them. Usually just be an actual angel not a tiefling style half humanoid thing.
Israfel the angel of song as a Creation Bard was a blast! Can sing things into existance!
The key I found to making angels interesting to play is that, yes they are holy & good, but their idea of morality is much more black & white so they don't understand mortals and their grey world. When you're in a grey situation and try to tackle it in black & white ways, it automatically leads to inner conflict as you have to shift your beliefs to even finish the quest.
I agree. It's similar to the Paladin conflict, where you have an oath, but the world doesn't care about your oath. So you can either learn to live in a compromised world, or try to change the world by various means, or go crazy, etc.
I played an assimar who was the divorce lawyer of the 9 hells. That may be my favorite character of all time.
@@TNTmage7 That sounds funny, you mind elaborating? 😄
this is very well made, I pray more people use this similar to how I'm going to because it would drive so much more of a story forward in different ways.
Yo, check this idea out: Psychopath Aasimar that was raised to do good, but is unable to feel any empathy; the character wants to be some Lawful Evil tyrant or something, but doesn't want to disappoint their angel dad/mom. The character only truly feels any joy when doing evil shit, but desperately wanted to be different from what they are and desperately seeks to be good.
Bro that would make for such an interesting character for a more morally dark campaign
Jesus, Pointy Hat.
How can you be so creative? The changes are so cohesive, and there's so much you can do with them.
Straight fire 🔥
That is why we love his vids!
"The vestigial wings will never be on the back" is the "Dragonborn don't have tails" of the new race. I'm putting them on the back.
I somewhat agree, but I think it also kinda symbolizes how their only half angel, and their angel parent is among the weakest of angels. So I get what your saying, but I also think versatile wings not being on the back also kinda makes sense.
Honestly even without the ward or the vigil itself, you've given aasimar a very awesome visual identity that actually defines them, and one that works thematically. Im a big fan of just doing the opposite of tieflings, and having them be decendants from celestial beings, so giving them that visual identity was really all I felt the race was missing.
22:50
"Vigils also know the emotional state of their Ward"
Me a known Hentai addict: oh boy its 3AM
The poor Vigil assigned to me: OH NO. ITS 3AM. AGAIN.
This is *perfect#, thank you! I'm trying to do some solo DnD and the guide I was following suggested making a sidekick. My character... would not want a sidekick. This presents the *perfect* way to go about creating one (with some minor tweaks, of course). I love it, 100%, thank you again!
I love the idea that the Vigil's ward is their ex-partner. The Vigil loves them still and wants to be together, but the ex has moved on. But now the Vigil has to let go of the past all the while struggling knowing exactly how much more happy the ex is without them.
Yikes that's tortuous and sounds like a terrible existence lol
Honestly I think pathfinder wrath of the righteous does the aasimar aesthetic well, they look unique and very obviously angelic looking.
This is honestly the best "With a twist" ive seen from you yet
Silver white Skin, incredibly beautiful, white hair, glowing eyes that are "good" colors like gold, blue, and green . That's what I picture when I think of Aasimar.
Maybe they have a sparkling effect under direct sunlight idk.
Also, on the topic of the Vigil Aasimar I like the idea that the bond is actually created once you meet someone like you are imprinting on them and your guardian angel nature now forces you to protect them at all cost.
If they die you become a Fallen Aasimar and all divinity rejects you as a result.
It'd be a fun way to play DnD with one of your party members being your ward and you have to protect them or you both die.
Edit: Aasimar should also be as tall as Goliaths, and wings coming out of their heads above their ears. These wings are kept close to the head but towards the back. Think winged helmets.
After looking at the Aasimar of the PHB, I think them being these tall, beautiful beings with glowing eyes, and wings on their head would definitely make them stand out like the Tieflings.
You could also add lineages like
Guardian, Supernal, & Fallen.
Guardians are the normal looking Aasimar; they can get the optional imprinting ability that enhances their racials but could lead them into becoming a fallen aasimar.
Supernal are inspired by biblically accurate angels that have two extra sets of eyes, one that is located above the normal location of eyes and eyes are each head wing. They basically get the Alert feat at whatever level makes sense for that.
Fallen Aasimar - the evil, the bad boy aasimar. Their wings are now bat-like, their eyes glow red, purple or simply black.
My personal idea for how to inject some conflict into the Aasimar is to take inspiration from the tale of Job. Every Aasimar starts off as a completely normal member of another humanoid race, and at some point in their life (which can happen anytime after they enter their race's version of the teen years) they're put through a Trial to test their worthiness to become an Aasimar. Their loved ones will suffer, disappear, or die, their everyday lives will be beset by misfortune and strife, and overall, they essentially become social pariahs.
This continues for around a year, and once the Trial ends, their reaction to it will shape what type of Aasimar they become; if you faced the Trial with unwavering determination and hope (or if you develop a degree of toxic positivity) then you'll become something similar to a Protector Aasimar, with all the hallmarks of a typical angel. However, if you let the Trial drag you down and change you into someone defined by negativity, your Aasimar transformation will become warped by the emotion that defines you, with those who became the worst of the worst because of the Trial becoming something akin to Fallen Aasimar. Note that the "best" Aasimar aren't defined by goodness but willpower and positivity and the "worst" Aasimar aren't defined by evilness but by allowing their (quite justified) negative emotions to define them.
Beyond the physical and magical changes, the Trial adds a lot of freedom for major backstory moments and the loss of someone important to the Aasimar. In addition, this would add a social element to the Aasimar besides people thinking they're always good people - if it's known you're the child of an Aasimar and you haven't gone through your Trial yet, you already become a pariah for fear of the Trial targeting you and possibly leading to your death. This also means that Aasimar who have children have an unfortunate tendency to abandon them or leave them anonymously in the care of another, once again out of fear of what pain the Trial could bring them.
As for a major visual identity, I love your idea of how halos work being linked to the god the Aasimar is connected to, but I also love Aasimar having bodies that are naturally made of metal, so after their Trial, parts of an Aasimar's body will turn to some kind of metal, often with the most expensive and "pure" metals going to the more angelic Aasimar while rough, corroded, or rusted metals go to the more emotional Aasimar. As for _what_ body parts become metal, entire limbs becoming armor-like and metal is rather rare; instead, it's usually smaller and more individual body parts, like nails, hair, eyes, or teeth.
Neat
That would make their gods automatically evil.
@@Infranodynenot necessarily
Really interesting concept! And maybe difficult to play? It feels like nearly any way they responded to such impending/arriving trials would be caustic to developing healthy empathy: whether causing them to cut themselves off from interpersonal connections (to protect those around them), overly-identifying with their suffering loved ones (to the point of codependence), afficting them with guilt (a kind of "plague rat" complex), or crippling them with PTSD from watching so much unavoidable suffering that they couldn't prevent...? 😮
I have to say. You are right to be very proud of this. Your Vigil should be the cannon Aasimar. Absolutely great jog!!!
I like the Unexpectables version of Assimar, their angelic guide is also their parent (so they generally have 3 parents).
They're pretty directly connected to their celestial parent in a sorta "a chain can be pulled from both ends" situation.
They also have a consistant esthetic, being people but off hairs a little too shiny, skin a little too flawless, eyes which apear to glow feintly.
Not obvious at a glance but identifiable if you're looking for it.
Sounds like Pathfinder Aasimar.
I think your reasoning for why aasimar aren't a super appealing option was spot on. This was also maybe my favorite of your creations so far. You took a pretty vague option and made it much more defined and also added some great starting points for character concepts. Great job!
So excited to try out this subrace! Thank you yet again Pointy Hat!
The codification of tieflings was a tragedy. Their intro back in 2nd ed made them way better in that it was any fiendish heritage and one supplement even provided a table of variations. The aasimar unfortunately have never been so appealing on the same scale despite the numerous angelic beings one could draw inspiration from. Much the same could be said about the genasi.
I completely forgot Genasi even existed. I remembered Tieflings and Aasimar, and always mentally paired them together... but Genasi... completely forgot. Aren't they like... elemental people or something? Kinda like Mephits? ...
@@SotiCoto each of the alignment planes had their sort of humanoid monster that was signature to the place that could produce offspring with mortals. The genasi were just the elemental plane version of tiefling and aasimar with a version for each of the four primary planes.
@@kylestark1800: What about Law and Chaos though? Last I checked they never got any love... and obviously I'm discounting weird Slaad infections.
@@SotiCoto Yeah, they really only got the slaadi and modrons. Their variations weren't as varied on the spectrum. They had different types for sure but they were only chaotic or lawful neutral respectively. Then there were the Rilmani but again the neutral things never got a human hybrid.
@@kylestark1800: I reckon there should be official rules for people who survive a Slaadi infection and end up partially transformed. Heck, I imagine spending too much time in Limbo would destabilise anyone's form... unless they've got Githzerai level reality-conforming powers.
I feel like making aasimars creepy would be an interesting idea, but this variant is pretty interesting. Not sure how playable it really is, but aasimars don't belong in every story, to begin with.
I've seen an Asimar played as someone with an overly simplistic black & white view of the world and not much consideration for the morality of their actions.
Good people need to be protected. Bad people need to die. Simple and clean. The conflict ariose through interaction with their party as they needed to learn to broaden their views, because not everyone is all good or bad. Also the party miiiiight have had to stop them from committing cold blooded murder one or twice until they learn this lesson. Trying to explain why you can't just murder the the slave trader even though they are vile is... challenging.
@@SapphWolf to be honest, it would be hard to explain to some people I know in real life why murdering a slave trader is a bad idea... I would think about somebody like corrupted politician who you don't have any better replacement for. But sounds pretty interesting overall.
Real Dame Aylin and Isobel vibes with your homebrew on this one. I love it.
I feel like the original concept of the aasimar as counterparts of the Tieflings that are celestial planefolk as interesting. But the issue is that it just doesn’t feel right and it’s hard to make them visually distinct from humans with divine abilities and magic. If they had things more akin to what tieflings have like glowing eyes or unnatural skin tones they could be more distinct than they are now
Yeah, I think they need visual distinction as a race.
My favorite character I ever played was an amnesiac Scourge Aasimar Hexblade who used a scythe (halberd stats). I was able to offset the edge at the start by having him sorta be a cowardly comic relief guy who would only fight because his weapon was literally pulling him around, but over the course of the campaign he became more and more sincerely edgy and godddd he was just SO MUCH fun to roleplay, AND he did absolutely insane damage in combat. So so so so SOOOO much fun. Every character I build now is an attempt at recapturing his glory.