Celestial Censor
Medium celestial (deva), lawful good
- Armor Class 17 (splint)
- Hit Points 136 (16d8 + 64)
- Speed 30 ft., fly 90 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 18 (+4) 18 (+4) 18 (+4) 17 (+3) 20 (+5) 19 (+4)
- Saving Throws Wis +9, Cha +9
- Skills Athletics +8, Insight +9, Perception +9
- Damage Resistances radiant; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
- Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened
- Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 19
- Languages understands all but can't speak, telepathy 120 ft.
- Challenge 10 (5,900 XP)
Angelic Weapons. The censor’s weapon attacks are magical. When the censor hits with any weapon, the weapon deals an extra 4d8 radiant damage (included in the attack).
Innate Spellcasting. The censor’s spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 16, +8 to hit with spell attacks). The censor can innately cast the following spells, requiring only verbal components:
At will: detect evil and good, detect thoughts, guiding bolt
4/day: plane shift
1/day each: commune, feeblemind
Magic Resistance. The censor has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Shielded Mind. The censor is immune to scrying and to any effect that would sense its emotions, read its thoughts, or detect its location.
Actions
Multiattack. The censor makes two melee attacks, only one of which can be with its seize.
Scimitar. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) slashing damage plus 18 (4d8) radiant damage.
Seize. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. On a hit, the target is grappled (escape DC 18).
Pass Judgment (Recharge 6). The censor innately casts banishment, requiring only verbal components.
Rewrite (Recharges after a Short or Long Rest). The censor innately casts modify memory, requiring only verbal components.
Change Shape. The censor magically polymorphs into a humanoid or beast that has a challenge rating equal to or less than its own, or back into its true form. It reverts to its true form if it dies. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying is absorbed or borne by the new form (the censor’s choice).
In a new form, the censor retains its game statistics and ability to speak, but its AC, movement modes, Strength, Dexterity, and special senses are replaced by those of the new form, and it gains any statistics and capabilities (except class features, legendary actions, and lair actions) that the new form has but that it lacks.
Celestial Censors
Blessed with a divine, albeit grim, charge by the gods, celestial censors are a special rank of deva who know that knowledge can be dangerous in the wrong hands. Trained in magics to confuse, even obfuscate, such angels carry out secret missions to retrieve, suppress, and sometimes destroy.
The Risk of Writing. In many realms of Dungeons & Dragons, books and writing can be far more than literature. An enchanted scroll might kill any creature that reads it, a possessed book may drain or dominate the uniwtting carrier, and an eldritch tome may hold the record of a blasphemous rite that bursts the earth in two.
Sentenced Texts. In the face of these threats against mortality, sometimes even existence, celestial censors are sent out to respond to discovered threats and carry out the divine sentence appropriate to the danger. Some texts are only suppressed, their copies stored away in the outer planes. Others are destroyed entirely. The most extreme sentence a celestial censor can carry out is to attempt to erase the text from existence entirely through mind-altering magic, though most devas are loathe to commit such deception except for the direst needs.
Seekers. When it is decided that a
dangerous text must be addressed by a
celestial censor, the deva charged with the
task will work quickly to handle the matter as
appropriate to its threat level. Low profile texts that
have been discovered by allies but are not in immediate danger of use will be pursued and seized, with memories being quietly altered as necessary.
Hunters. For more pressing issues, such as an evil writ being actively used by dangerous powers, celestial censors will take active roles. Unlike other angels, which might honorably warn a foe of their approach, a celestial censor is more liable to ambush its target in order to swiftly subdue if necessary before retrieving the text in question.
Aligned Yet Adversarial. Due to the strictness of its duties, a celestial censor can sometimes come into conflict with even parties or individuals that share either its lawful or good alignments or otherwise normally have similar goals and values. Consider the following reasons to come up with ideas as to why a celestial censor would clash with those it might otherwise call allies or peers:
| Roll | Reason |
|---|---|
| 1 | The spell a wizard has recently scribed into its book contains a hidden clause that would conjure a balor into the realm upon its casting. |
| 2 | A temple's young acolyte read a scroll in the restricted section. The memetic curse it held will spread if it isn't erased from his memory. |
| 3 | A spell of secrecy has kept a megalomaniacal unseelie fey queen of cosmic power in magical slumber. A stone tablet revealing the secret has just been unearthed, and once read it will unleash the fey. |
| 4 | The stone giant library the explorers pursue houses the terrible rites and curses that pulled half the giants' kingdom into the Far Realms. |
Book Wyrms
Celestial censors on particularly significant or otherwise challenging missions might be accompanied by one or a team of book wyrms, couatls that can detect the presence of text and writing. Such couatls have the following additional trait:
Textual Sense. The couatl can sense the presence and direction of any text or other written material within 30 feet of it.
Credits
Created by /u/BunnygeonMaster using GM Binder for the #GreaterCelestial prompt on the Discord of Many Things.
"Urza's Tome" by Aaron Miller (© Wizards of the Coast)
"Resurgence" by Daarken (© Wizards of the Coast)