Monsters: Deva

Angels, Celestials, Assimons are just other names for the creatures called Devas.

If demons and devils are the ultra-bad then the Deva are the ultra-good.

I hate the ultra-good! They are just so boring.

Devas are angels. Let me just toss that out there for the remainder of this post.

They have wings. They can be male or female. They are strikingly beautiful/ handsome. They were togas, loincloths or something sparse in the clothing related department. They are messengers for the higher powers of good. They have various orders they which they belong. They are also warriors for the higher powers of good too. There is nothing super shocking about the D&D version of angels that doesn’t match what we all learned in Sunday school, from movies, books etc.

Why no Devas?

 

Angels are garbage adversaries for parties that are not pure evil. I have no desire to play the super goody goody creature attacks party because they are not goody goody enough. I have no want to play the angel that is confused, corrupted, fallen off the proverbial rocker, etc. either. These creatures fall into the too good for their own good category of monsters.

 

Why use super good guy creatures when there are so many better super bad guy creatures? I mean why use angels when their polar opposites are so much easier to work into a campaign? Demons and devils are just as powerful as the angels and are just so much easier write into games. If I was looking for power from the gods it would be the dark versions. It is just so much easier to write and run the fallen fell ugly power critters than their light bearing flying pretty relatives.

 

Devas might be ok for quest givers, but that is about all I might use them for and that is an awful big and iffy might. That still means I would have to deal with the celestial goodness and that is not really where I want to go as a DM. ( I also tend to stay away from the demon/devil realms in game too )

 

I know in previous editions they were an option for playable characters. I thought the Drow were the only silly class until I saw the option for Deva. The idea of an angel running in group of elves, men and dwarves is just beyond stupid! I am not sure why they made them playable or who they were catering to? I mean was there such an outcry for playable angel characters? Who wanted this? This is just so stupid!

 

What I imagine every Deva player thinks they are or wants to be.

Devas are another case of an absolute good creature that has and never will make it into one of my games.

Next time I’ll venture into the Feywild and discuss why I stay away from the winged tiny folk. I’m talking fairies, pixies, sprite and the like.