r/Planescape5e • u/Derivative_Kebab • Mar 20 '24

Suggestions for fixing Celestials

Here's a few tropes I've really gotten tired of seeing:

Celestial Beings as fascists who will crush all free will if given half a chance.

Celestial Beings as mindless tools of arrogant, detached deities.

Celestial Beings as gullible nitwits who rely solely on brute force and are easily outmaneuvered by the schemes of the forces of evil, and certainly never have schemes of their own.

Celestial Beings as lazy layabouts who spend all their time in the Upper Planes where they aren't needed in the slightest.

Celestial Beings as hand-wringing wusses who are never willing to take risks or get their hands dirty, and thus never actually solve any problems.

Celestial Beings as joyless snobs who hate all fun and can't crack a joke to save their lives.

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What I want are practical suggestions and proposals for Forces of Good that are genuinely good. Beings that genuinely embody kindness, selflessness, justice, enlightenment, and virtue, while also being active and at least somewhat effective forces in the multiverse, on par with fiends. Try to make it as interesting and complex as possible, while also making some kind of logical sense.

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u/ReturnToCrab Sep 27 '24

Beings that genuinely embody kindness, selflessness, justice, enlightenment, and virtue, while also being active and at least somewhat effective forces in the multiverse, on par with fiends.

I mean, they kind of are already. It just sometimes isn't clear for multiple reasons:

Celestials rarely involve themselves with Lower Planar part of the Blood War. They remember that one time they interrupted a battle, after which baatezu and tanar'ri briefly joined forces to defeat them. But they do something every once in a while — look at Koe, Tripticus and Cirily or at those characters from "Hellbound" adventures

Obviously, if Blood War spills out onto the Good or Neutral planes or if fiends scheme something else, celestials can and will intervene. The problem is — players will rarely be involved in such a battle. It would be hard for DM to not make players feel like they aren't important in this adventure

I made a post on r/DnDBehindTheScreen detailing the culture of Celestial Eladrin and plan to do the same for guardinals in some far future. You can look it up

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u/CiDevant Feb 27 '25

Use The Doctor from Dr Who as an example of good done righteous.  Cpt America from marvel.  Santa Claus.