It's the time of year when we start to see hosts of angels everywhere, so it seems appropriate to turn our attention this week to building models for those paragons of virtue: the celestials.
Celestials are innately good-aligned outsiders from the Upper Outer Planes. In most D&D and Pathfinder campaigns, they usually appear as allies rather than enemies, most often joining a fight through summoning spells. However, as beings of pure good, they will hold mortals to high standards, and will often punish those who (knowingly or not) profane a sacred site or who abuse their trust. In exceptionally rare cases, a celestial may fall from grace, and become a villain every bit as dastardly as the fiends that they were once tasked to battle.
A few celestials have already been covered in previous "Building the Bestiary" columns. See #6: Four-Legged Friends for the pegasus and unicorn, and #16: Serpentine Creatures for the couatl; all three of these creatures are considered celestials in D&D 5E. I've also presented one angel model (in #15: For the Birds), but this column offers new models for each type in the Bestiary.
For titans, see #3: Giants about building oversized humanoid minis. The Monster Manual's empyreans are Huge, while Bestiary 2's Elysian titans are Colossal. I haven't covered any Colossal creatures in this series yet, but I plan to devote at least one future column to additional techniques for models of that size.
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| Aasimar |
Part-Celestials
Aasimars are native outsiders descended from humans (and sometimes other bumanoids) who interbred with celestials. They appear mostly human, though many have metallic hair, skin, or eye colors, so simply choose minifigures with the appropriate coloration. A few have halos, which can be added by attaching a transparent 2x2 radar dish to the stud on the minifigure's head; a clear 1x1 round plate can give it more altitude. (See the planetar angel later in this column for an example.)
Creatures with the celestial or half-celestial template look little different from the base creature, except that many have gold or silver coloring, and the latter template adds wings (see #15: For the Birds).
Agathions
Agathions (Bestiary 2) are neutral good outsiders who combine humanoid and animal features. The weakest, the cat-like silvanshee, can be represented by a black cat figure.
Most others agathions can be built using animal-like minifigures such as those from the Legends of Chima theme: Eagle or Raven Tribe characters for avorals, Lion for leonals, and Fox for vulpinals. (For the avoral's wings, use the Eagle Tribe's wing assembly or see "Building the Bestiary" #15: For the Birds.)
The orca-like cetaceal can be built like a merfolk (see #2: Underwater Races), but with black and white parts. In the photo below, the tail is from The LEGO Batman Movie Minifigures, the torso from an Avengers: Infinity Gauntlet villain, and the head from the Minifigures Geisha Girl.
A draconal has a snake-like body; see #16: Serpentine Creatures for options. The easiest method is to use a Ninjago or Medusa snake body as shown here, which also fills a Large space nicely without needing a base. This model uses a Crocodile Tribe head and torso and Bat Tribe wings (both from Legends of Chima).
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| (L-R): Leonal, Avoral, Draconal, Silvanshee, Cetaceal, Vulpinal |
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| Detail of the solar's wing attachments |
Angels
Angels may be of any good alignment, and can be found throughout the upper planes, as well as pursuing missions almost elsewhere. "Building the Bestiary" #15: For the Birds presented one method of building an angel (with brick-built wings), but here I've built separate models for the three ranks appearing in the first Bestiary: astral devas, planetars, and solars. In Pathfinder (but not in D&D 5E), the more powerful the angel, the more wings it has. In order to mount the planetar's and solar's extra wings. I've used small plates to attach more clip plates to the back of the minifigure. The two senior angels are Large, so have been mounted on appropriately sized bases. The heavily armored solar uses the oversized Axl minifigure from Nexo Knights as a starting point, both for its size and for the 2x2 studs on its back.
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| Astral Deva |
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| Planetar |
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| Solar |
Archons
Archons are lawful good outsiders. The weakest, the lantern archon, is described as an orb of light, though the Bestiary picture shows a filigree-like frame around that light. The photo below shows examples of both interpretations.
For the hound archon, use a canine-headed minifigure such as a werewolf (LEGO Studios, Monster Hunters), Wolf Tribe (Chima), or Anubis Warrior (Pharoah Quest).
Trumpet archons are built just like a two-winged angel (see above).
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| Hound Archon, Trumpet Archon, three Lantern Archons |
Azatas
Azatas are chaotic good outsiders who strongly resemble elves or fey. The Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, and LEGO Elves themes are the best sources of parts to convey this look.
Bralani and ghaele look like majestic elves with obviously magical weapons, so can be built with normal minifigure parts. I've used an Elves minidoll for the bralani, and LOTR elves for the ghaele's head and hair.
The lillend requires a bit more work, as they are Large, with snake-like lower bodies. Like the draconal agathion above, this model uses a Ninjago serpent body. These azatas have bardic abilities, so adding a musical instrument (like the brick-built lyre shown here) is a nice touch.
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| (L-R): Bralani, Ghaele, Lillend |
Appendix: Past "Building the Bestiary" Columns
[#0]: How to Cheat (at Building) a Dragon#1: Humanoids
#2: Underwater Races
#3: Giants
#4: Undead
#5: Tiny Creatures
#6: Four-Legged Friends
#7: Oozes
#8: Spell Effects
#9: Elementals
#10: Devils
#11: Aquatic Animals
#12: Vermin
#13: Non-OGL Monsters
#14: Plants
#15: For the Birds
#16: Serpentine Creatures
#17: Demons
#18: Aberrations
Index
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