Pure of heart? You? Bah! I’ve seen insects with more courage than you. You are but mouse, scurrying underfoot, avoiding confrontation, all while corruption and heresy spreads like the plague. You want change? You want to ‘fix’ this realm? Act then.”
– Aeiros of the 7th Heavenly Court.
If I had a nickel for every blogpost I have made so far for a Celestial creature who is righteous to a fault and intolerant to anything even considered unholy, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but its weird how its happened twice already. Additionally, yet another creature that hovers in the air. It seems my taste for creature design is starting to show already. Hailing from the celestial heavens, the Aerios are dangerous celestials to get on the bad side of, relying on more deceptive means than one might assume to strike with holy retribution.
Aeiros: The Overview
The Aeiros are towering angelic figures who have their heart in the right place, if not a bit too much in the right place. Similar to Absolution, the last Celestial creature we discussed, the Aerios are incredibly righteous and pious creatures who seek to purify the lands of all that is unholy, aberrant, and heretical. Unlike the powerhouse that is Absolution, the Aerios are far weaker and nowhere near as much a battlefield dominator as Absolution. As such, the Aerios must rely on craftier means to turn the tables during combat. While a potent spellcaster, that is not the Aerios’ ace in the hole. Instead, the Aerios relies on its ability to possess and inhibit the bodies of mortal creatures to get close to their quarry before striking them down with holy fire. Additionally, if an Aeiros can help it, you will never see one coming before it’s too late.
Stats and Abilities:
Assertive and single minded at times, the Aerios are powerful angelic figures that track and hunt down those with ties to the unholy and heretical. Despite their noble ambitions, the Aerios have no qualms taking underhanded tactics to secure their goals. The Aerios are well rounded when looking at their statblocks with no real obvious tell-tale sign of weakness, but typically rely on their high WIS modifier for the saves on their notable spells and features. With a DEX of 14 being their lowest stat, the Aerios really can thrive just about anywhere but rely mostly on being in physical confrontation with their opponents as opposed to in the back line.
- Stats and Skills: The Aerios has no obvious weakness in the stats department, boasting a high WIS alongside their respectable STR, INT, and CHA, the Aerios are perfect all rounders for nearly any situation, however their primary form of combat involves possession and stealthy approaches which isn’t really highlighted in the actual statblock. For starters, while the skill proficiencies they have currently are still applicable, I would say they need to have proficiency with Stealth checks if not outright expertise. With a meager +2 to all Stealth checks, it makes it quite hard for a creature to successfully sneak up on anything, regardless of other features. Bumping the Stealth to either a +5 or +8 would be leagues better and fit more in line with the Aerios’ tactical and sneaky approach.
- Resistances, Immunities, and Senses: Resistant to nonmagical weapons like many creatures of this caliber and outright to Radiant damage feels very thematic for this creature. It is a holy agent and as such should be at the very least resistant to holy magics if not outright immune. With immunities to the Blinded, Charmed, and Frightened conditions, the only one I don’t agree with is the Blinded immunity. Typically the only time a creature is immune to being blinded is if they don’t have any eyes to speak of as then there would be nothing to actually blind. The reasoning I had for immunities to Charmed and Frightened is that the Aerios are incredibly stubborn and headstrong and would not succumb to these conditions due to their nature as well as their otherworldly physiology. In all honesty, 120ft. of Truesight might be a bit much as even dragons typically only get 30ft. of it. As I am unsure if we have even discussed Truesight to any degree on this blog yet, Truesight allows the following:
“A monster with truesight can, out to a specific range, see in normal and magical darkness, see invisible creatures and objects, automatically detect visual illusions and succeed on saving throws against them, and perceive the original form of a shapechanger or a creature that is transformed by magic. Furthermore, the monster can see into the Ethereal Plane within the same range.”
So pretty much the Aerios can do the following:
– Ignore illusion based spells and effects.
– See Invisible creatures without needing to make any checks to determine their location.
– See into the Ethereal Plane, the plane which typically acts as an in-between for the Material and the other planes.
– Bypass all forms of darkness or dim light.
– And lastly determine if somebody is currently shapeshifting.
That’s a whole lot for a range of 120ft. I would say Truesight is appropriate and while most creatures only have 30ft., the Aerios could get away with 60ft. due to it being wholly about tracking down and hunting criminals and heretics. It makes sense to me for a creature of this style to be able to see through lies and deceptions a lot better than many others, but 30ft. of Truesight would still serve the Aerios just fine.
Passive Abilities and Actions:
Magic Resistance. The Aeiros has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
A staple of mid-higher tier monsters. No comments or adjustments to be made.
Innate Spellcasting: The Aeiros’s spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 16, +8 to hit with spell attacks). The Aeiros can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
- At will: Burning Hands, Detect Evil and Good, Light
- 3/day each: Blinding Smite, Daylight, Dispel Magic
- 1/day each: Banishment, Mass Healing Word, Spirit Guardians
While I am quite happy with the spells on selection here, this isn’t perfect:
- Burning Hands is a decent enough offensive option, but for a CR 8 it does feel a bit on the weaker side, being a 1st level spell that covers and incredibly small 15ft. cone and only dealing 3d6 fire damage. A better option would be Scorching Ray, a 2nd level spell that deals a total of 3d10 across 1-3 targets with 120ft. of range and being an attack roll vs a saving throw.
- Detect Evil and Good feels almost redundant with hindsight. This spell allows the caster to see if their is an Aberration, Celestial, Elemental, Fey, Fiend, or Undead within 30ft. of themselves. Even if we were to nerf Truesight down to the distance of what most other creatures that have Truesight have, it still would cover the same distance as Detect Evil and Good. Detect Thoughts feels more at home within the Aerios’ utility as while it can see invisible creatures thanks to Truesight, it has no ability to actually probe for thoughts.
- Light is usually a good utility, but for the Aerios it feels like clashes with what the Aerios is trying to accomplish. The Aerios is all about skulking and sneaking in on the unsuspecting, and it already can see in the dark so why would it illuminate the area? I think a better spell would be Crown of Madness as that gives the Aerios another form of mental control at the cost of its concentration and ability to act aside from dictating the creature through the spell.
- Daylight is in a similar position as Light. Why would the Aerios want to remove any darkness at all, especially magical Darkness it can see through but most other creatures couldn’t. Silence feels much more applicable in this spell list as if the Aerios can dispose of its prey without a sound, then it absolutely would every chance it gets. Additionally, the non-spell list options within the Aerios kit don’t require any verbal components so it could cast silence, take possession of a martial oriented character or NPC, and then go to town.
- Mass Healing Word also feels out of place as typically, an Aerios would work alone and would not care too much if others got injured in the wake of trying to dispose of their target. Dominate Person feels like it should be the trump card within the Aerios’ kit, allowing it one final tool to try and gain control of another.
Selective Appearance. The Aeiros can dictate which creatures can perceive it so long as the creatures are not engaged in combat with the Aeiros. Creatures within 120ft. of a hidden Aeiros can make a DC 16 Wisdom (Perception) check to notice remnants of an Aeiros’ presence and will not be surprised should the Aeiros attack the target.
This is just messy writing. I tried to be more creative and unique with how the Aerios could sneak into locations. At the end of the day, because I am trying to create something new, it doesn’t have a preset on how it interacts with other mechanics of D&D, so ultimately it would be better if this was a form of invisibility as opposed to just being perceived. This would still have it function to an indefinite version of the Invisibility spell, having the Aerios be invisible until it attacks, casts a spell, or is successfully hit by a spell or attack. After it has been revealed, the Aeiros must wait 1 full minute before it goes back to being invisible.
Multiattack. The Aeiros makes two attacks.
Nothing to say. Standard feature for a monster of this caliber.
Luminous Strike. Melee Spell Attack. +8 to hit, reach 10ft., one target. Hit: 14 (4d6) radiant damage.
The standard attack of the Aeiros. The damage might be a smidge high paired with the multiattack, but honestly it’s not completely game-breaking with the damage it can deal.
Radiant Blast. Ranged Spell Attack. +8 to hit, range 60ft., one target. Hit: 16 (4d8) radiant damage.
With the revamp to the spell list to include Scorching Ray, this feels almost redundant, especially with the fact that the Aeiros will likely never be attacking at a range as it wants to get close, possess someone, or get close enough to control through Crown of Madness or Dominate Person. This has no place in this statblock and will be removed.
Possession (Recharge 6). The Aeiros can enter the mind of a humanoid creature it can see and use their body as its own. The Aeiros targets a creature it can see within 60ft. of itself and forces them to make a DC 16 Charisma saving throw or become possessed by the Aeiros. While a creature is possessed in this manner, the target is incapacitated and loses control of its body.
The Aeiros now controls the body but doesn’t deprive the target of awareness. The Aeiros can’t be targeted by any attack, spell, or other effect, and it retains its alignment, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, and immunity to being charmed and frightened. It otherwise uses the possessed target’s statistics, but doesn’t gain access to the target’s knowledge, class features, or proficiencies. The Aeiros can still cast spells from its Innate Spellcasting feature as normal. The possession lasts until the body drops to 0 hit points, the Aeiros ends it as a bonus action, or the Aeiros is forced out by an effect like the Dispel Evil and Good spell. When the possession ends, the Aeiros reappears in an unoccupied space within 10 feet of the body. The target is immune to this Aeiros’ Possession for 24 hours after succeeding on the saving throw or after the possession ends.
This is the Aeiros’ trump card. Forcing a creature to make a CHA save or become possessed leads to a number of problems, namely the Aeiros becomes undamageable until it exists the possessed individual. The game-plan for an Aeiros is to target a powerful martial PC or NPC, giving it a boost to its AC and hit points while still retaining all of its spell casting abilities and mental stats. If a party is ambushed by an Aerios, it could spell disaster as there are very few tools to actively get rid of an Aeiros once it is possessing someone. The only saving grace is that once a creature saves or is no longer possessed, they become immune for 24 hours, and with the recharge timer on this ability somewhat forces the Aerios to target creatures with low Charisma scores and higher hit point totals to try and maximize the ability.
Revisions:
I am quite happy with this statblock, but again it’s not perfect though thankfully the changes that need to be made are pretty simple:
- Lowering Truesight down to 30ft.-60ft. of range as opposed to 120ft.
- Spell list revisions of changing certain spells out to better mesh with the ideas I have for this creature.
- Tweaking Selective Appearance to just be normal invisibility for rule clarity.
- Remove Radiant Blast as it is somewhat replaced by Scorching Ray and clashes with the attack economy the Aeiros wants to be prioritizing.
Thank you for reading another entry in this series. It has been a bit stressful trying to get this out between work, errands, and other projects I’m working on. Recently I have been resuming work on the other WIP statblocks I have sitting in my collection which has lead to even more to-dos in my life, but I’m keeping myself on these posts, trying to make sure we got one out every two weeks! See you next time and thanks again!
The Speer-Head Lounge 