Aasimar bear within their souls the light of the heavens. They are descended from humans with a touch of the power of Mount Celestia, the divine realm of many lawful good deities. Aasimar are born to serve as champions of the gods, their births hailed as blessed events. They are a people of otherworldly visages, with luminous features that reveal their celestial heritage.
Celestial Champions
Aasimar are placed in the world to serve as guardians of law and good. Their patrons expect them to strike at evil, lead by example, and further the cause of justice.
From an early age, an aasimar receives visions and guidance from celestial entities via dreams. These dreams help shape an aasimar, granting a sense of destiny and a desire for righteousness.
Each aasimar can count a specific celestial agent of the gods as a guide. This entity is typically a deva, an angel who acts as a messenger to the mortal world.
Hidden Wanderers
While aasimar are strident foes of evil, they typically prefer to keep a low profile. An aasimar inevitably draws the attention of evil cultists, fiends, and other enemies of good, all of whom would be eager to strike down a celestial champion if they had the chance.
When traveling, aasimar prefer hoods, closed helms, and other gear that allows them to conceal their identities. They nevertheless have no compunction about striking openly at evil. The secrecy they desire is never worth endangering the innocent.
Aasimar Guides
An aasimar, except for one who has turned to evil, has a link to an angelic being. That being- usually a deva provides guidance to the aasimar, though this connection functions only in dreams. As such, the guidance is not a direct command or a simple spoken word. Instead, the aasimar receives visions, prophecies, and feelings.
The angelic being is far from omniscient. Its guidance is based on its understanding of the tenets of law and good, and it might have insight into combating especially powerful evils that it knows about.
As part of fleshing out an aasimar character, consider the nature of that character's angelic guide. The Angelic Guide tables offer names and natures that you can use to flesh out your character's guide.
Angelic Guide
| d6 | Name |
|---|---|
| 1 | Tadriel |
| 2 | Myllandra |
| 3 | Seraphina |
| 4 | Galladia |
| 5 | Mykiel |
| 6 | Valandras |
| d6 | Nature |
|---|---|
| 1 | Bookish and lecturing |
| 2 | Compassionate and hopeful |
| 3 | Practical and lighthearted |
| 4 | Fierce and vengeful |
| 5 | Stern and judgmental |
| 6 | Kind and parental |
Conflicted Souls
Despite its celestial origin, an aasimar is mortal and possesses free will. Most aasimar follow their ordained path, but some grow to see their abilities as a curse. These disaffected aasimar are typically content to turn away frorri the world, but a few become agents of evil. In their minds, their exposure to celestial powers amounted to little more than brainwashing.
Evil aasimar make deadly foes. The radiant power they once commanded becomes corrupted into a horrid, draining magic. And their angelic guides abandon them.
Even aasimar wholly dedicated to good sometimes feel torn between two worlds. The angels that guide them see the world from a distant perch. An aasimar who wishes to stop and help a town recover from a drought might be told by an angelic guide to push forward on a greater quest. To a distant angel, saving a few commoners might pale in comparison to defeating a cult of Orcus. An aasimar's guide is wise but not infallible.
Names
Most aasimar are born from human parents, and they use the same naming conventions as their native culture.
Traits
Your aasimar character has the following racial traits.
Ability Score Increase
Your Charisma score increases by 2.
Age
Aasimar mature at the same rate as humans, but they can live up to 160 years.
Alignment
Imbued with celestial power, most aasimar are good. Outcast aasimar are most often neutral or even evil.
Size
Aasimar have the same range of height and weight as humans. Your height is 4'8" with a modifier of +2d10. Your weight is 110 lbs. with a modifier of +(height roll) x 2d4.
Speed
Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision
Blessed with a radiant soul, your vision can easily cut through darkness. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Celestial Resistance
You have resistance to necrotic damage and radiant damage.
Healing Hands
As an action, you can touch a creature and cause it to regain a number of hit points equal to your level. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
Light Bearer
You know the Light cantrip. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for it.
Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common and Celestial.
Subrace
Choose one of several subraces for your character.
Protector
Protector aasimar are charged by the powers of good to guard the weak, to strike at evil wherever it arises, and to stand vigilant against the darkness. From a young age, a protector aasimar receives advice and directives that urge to stand against evil.
Ability Score Increase
Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Radiant Soul
Starting at 3rd level, you can use your action to unleash the divine energy within yourself, causing your eyes to glimmer and two luminous, incorporeal wings to sprout from your back.
Your transformation lasts for 1 minute or until you end it as a bonus action. During it, you have a flying speed of 30 feet, and once on each of your turns, you can deal extra radiant damage to one target when you deal damage to it with an attack or a spell. The extra radiant damage equals your level.
Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
Scourge
Scourge aasimar are imbued with a divine energy that blazes intensely within them. It feeds a powerful desire to destroy evil — a desire that is, at its best, unflinching and, at its worst, all-consuming. Many scourge aasimar wear masks to block out the world and focus on containing this power, unmasking themselves only in battle.
Ability Score Increase
Your Constitution score increases by 1.
Radiant Consumption
Starting at 3rd level, you can use your action to unleash the divine energy within yourself, causing a searing light to radiate from you, pour out of your eyes and mouth, and threaten to char you.
Your transformation lasts for 1 minute or until you end it as a bonus action. During it, you shed bright light in a 10-foot radius and dim light for an additional 10 feet, and at the end of each of your turns, you and each creature within 10 feet of you take radiant damage equal to half your level (rounded up). In addition, once on each of your turns, you can deal extra radiant damage to one target when you deal damage to it with an attack or a spell. The extra radiant damage equals your level.
Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
Fallen
An aasimar who was touched by dark powers as a youth or who turns to evil in early adulthood can become one of the fallen — a group of aasimar whose inner light has been replaced by shadow.
Ability Score Increase
Your Strength score increases by 1.
Necrotic Shroud
Starting at 3rd level, you can use your action to unleash the divine energy within yourself, causing your eyes to turn into pools of darkness and two skeletal, ghostly, flightless wings to sprout from your back. The instant you transform, other creatures within 10 feet of you that can see you must succeed on a Charisma saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier) or become frightened of you until the end of your next turn.
Your transformation lasts for 1 minute or until you end it as a bonus action. During it, once on each of your turns, you can deal extra necrotic damage to one target when you deal damage to it with an attack or a spell. The extra necrotic damage equals your level.
Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
Volo's Guide to Monsters
Variant Aasimar
Whereas tieflings have fiendish blood in their veins, aasimar are the descendants of celestial beings. These folk generally appear as glorious humans with lustrous hair, flawless skin, and piercing eyes. Aasimar often attempt to pass as humans in order to right wrongs and defend goodness on the Material Plane without drawing undue attention to their celestial heritage. They strive to fit into society, although they usually rise to the top, becoming revered leaders and honorable heroes.
You might decide to use the aasimar as a counterpoint to the tiefling race. The two races could even be at odds, reflecting some greater conflict between the forces of good and evil in your campaign.
Here are our basic goals for the aasimar:
- Aasimar should make effective clerics and paladins.
- Aasimar should be to celestials and humans what tieflings are to fiends and humans.
Given that aasimar and tieflings are like two sides of the same coin, the tiefling makes a good starting point for coming up with the new race's traits. Since we want aasimar to be effective paladins and clerics, it makes sense to improve their Wisdom and Charisma instead of Intelligence and Charisma.
Like tieflings, aasimar have darkvision. Instead of resistance to fire damage, we give them resistance to radiant damage to reflect their celestial nature. However, radiant damage isn't as common as fire damage, so we give them resistance to necrotic damage as well, making them good at facing undead.
The tiefling's Infernal Legacy trait is a good model for a similar trait to reflect a magical, celestial heritage, replacing the tiefling's spells with spells of similar levels that more closely match the aasimar's celestial ancestry. However, the aasimar's expanded resistance might require limiting this trait to basic utility spells.
Filling in the remaining details, we end up with the following racial traits for the aasimar:
Ability Score Increase
Your Wisdom score increases by 1, and your Charisma score increases by 2.
Age
Aasimar mature at the same rate as humans but live a few years longer.
Alignment
Due to their celestial heritage, aasimar are often good. However, some aasimar fall into evil, rejecting their heritage.
Size
Aasimar are built like well-proportioned humans. Your size is Medium.
Speed
our base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision
Thanks to your celestial heritage, you have superior vision in dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Celestial Resistance
You have resistance to necrotic damage and radiant damage.
Celestial Legacy
You know the Light cantrip. Once you reach 3rd level, you can cast the Lesser Restoration spell once with this trait, and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Once you reach 5th level, you can cast the Daylight spell once with this trait as a 3rd-level spell, and you regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common and Celestial.
Dungeon Master's Guide
Aasimar MPMM
Aasimar can arise among any population of mortals. They resemble their parents, but they live for up to 160 years and often have features that hint at their celestial heritage. These often begin subtle and become more obvious when the aasimar gains the ability to reveal their full celestial nature. The Aasimar Celestial Features table has examples you can choose or use as inspiration to create your own.
Aasimar Celestial Features
| d6 | Celestial Feature |
|---|---|
| 1 | A dusting of metallic, white, or charcoal freckles |
| 2 | Metallic, luminous, or dark eyes |
| 3 | Starkly colored hair |
| 4 | An unusual hue tinting your shadow |
| 5 | A ghostly halo crowning your head |
| 6 | Rainbows gleaming on your skin |
Ability Scores
One ability score of your choice increases by 2, and one other ability score of your choice increases by 1, or three ability scores of your choice increase by 1.
Size
Small/Medium
Speed
30 ft.
Size
You are Medium or Small. You choose the size when you select this race.
Celestial Resistance
You have resistance to necrotic damage and radiant damage.
Darkvision
You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light. You discern colors in that darkness only as shades of gray.
Healing Hands
As an action, you can touch a creature and roll a number of d4s equal to your proficiency bonus. The creature regains a number of hit points equal to the total rolled. Once you use this trait, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
Light Bearer
You know the Light cantrip. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for it.
Celestial Revelation
When you reach 3rd level, choose one of the revelation options below. Thereafter, you can use a bonus action to unleash the celestial energy within yourself, gaining the benefits of that revelation. Your transformation lasts for 1 minute or until you end it as a bonus action. Once you transform using your revelation below, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.
Necrotic Shroud. Your eyes briefly become pools of darkness, and ghostly, flightless wings sprout from your back temporarily. Creatures other than your allies within 10 feet of you that can see you must succeed on a Charisma saving throw (DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier) or become frightened of you until the end of your next turn. Until the transformation ends, once on each of your turns, you can deal extra necrotic damage to one target when you deal damage to it with an attack or a spell. The extra damage equals your proficiency bonus.
Radiant Consumption. Searing light temporarily radiates from your eyes and mouth. For the duration, you shed bright light in a 10-foot radius and dim light for an additional 10 feet, and at the end of each of your turns, each creature within 10 feet of you takes radiant damage equal to your proficiency bonus. Until the transformation ends, once on each of your turns, you can deal extra radiant damage to one target when you deal damage to it with an attack or a spell. The extra damage equals your proficiency bonus.
Radiant Soul. Two luminous, spectral wings sprout from your back temporarily. Until the transformation ends, you have a flying speed equal to your walking speed, and once on each of your turns, you can deal extra radiant damage to one target when you deal damage to it with an attack or a spell. The extra damage equals your proficiency bonus.
Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for your character.
Source: Volo's Guide to Monsters, Dungeon Master's Guide, Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse