Caelus
The caelus are a curious community of individuals that are all heavily imbued with positive energy, giving them a connection to goodness and light. Enclaves of caelus are usually found deep within woods, away from large population centres. They are rarely seen unless one seeks to find them, in which case they will descend from the canopies above and the surrounding woodscape. Humanoids of all sorts can become a caelus by accepting their ritual and becoming a caelus thrall, wherein they will start the transformation and attunment to a higher plane. After a year of such meditation a thrall will become a fully-fledged caelus, with the powers that come with it, but mostly the blissful existence and freedom from typical daily worries which are why people seek to join them. As such, caelus come in all sorts of humanoid form, but are uniform in their slight bliss, love of freedom, glowing eyes and skin, and vigorous demeanour.
Place of peace. The areas where caelus live are often infused with sourceless light, and many find it hard to think negative thoughts or commit violence within their most sacred areas.
Sometimes the elderly or infirm wil wander into forests where caelus are known to occupy, and never come back. The more superstitious in the village will say they were eaten by the caelus or taken by spirits, but if the wanderers are found they are often brought into the fold to live their last years (often many more than they originally had) in peace, comfort, and happiness.
Plane-wide connections. Due to all caelus' connection to each other, their forests, and the positive energy that suffuses them and their surroundings, caelus have the uncanny ability to communicate over large distances with others of their kind about threats, dangers, the weather and latest converts. This can lead to a group of sinister monster hunters trying to track a caelus enclave and only finding one or two before the rest vanish into the forest.
If a colony of caelus seems to grow too big, often members of that community will venture out to find new woodlands to occupy, meaning that often a group of caelus will be no bigger than twenty or thirty individuals, spread out across a forest.
Radiant energy. All caelus are free from the diseases and sicknesses that plague most mortal folk due to their connection to positive energy. This also means that they need only eat, sleep, or age if they feel like it. Often caelus don't age beyond maturity for their original race or don't exceed their original age when they become thralls, whichever is older. A full caelus can also choose to blissfully dissolve into the positive energy, painlessly passing away from this world.
Quiet Existence. The loudest sound around a caelus will often be an animal call, some wind in the branches, or a twig snapping. Caelus themselves try to make very little noise at all, and find the hustle and bustle of town and city life to be overwhelming, sending thralls to such places if there is need for communication between gentle forest clan and town folk.
Caelus Thrall
Medium humanoid, any good alignment
- Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
- Hit Points 58 (9d8 + 18)
- Speed 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 11 (+0) 14 (+2) 15 (+2) 10 (+0) 13 (+1) 15 (+2)
- Saving Throws Dex +4
- Skills Stealth +4
- Damage Resistances radiant
- Condition Immunities poisoned, disease
- Senses passive Perception 11
- Languages Languages it knew before transformation, telepathy 30 ft.
- Challenge 3 (700 XP)
- Regeneration. The thrall regains 10 hit points at the start of its turn if it is below half health and the caelus is not at 0 hit points. If the thrall is above half health, it gains one hit point at the start of each of its turns. If the thrall takes necrotic damage, this trait doesn't function at the start of the thrall's next turn. Limbs will slowly grow back.
- Glowing Soul. The thrall glows with a dim light out to 5 ft.
- Animal Empathy. The thrall can spend a minute to convey feelings to animals in the forest.
- Ritual Enthrallment. If the remove curse spell or similar is not used on the thrall within a year of its enthrallment, it becomes a full caelus. If remove curse or similar is used, the thrall regains its previous statistics except for diseases or lost limbs that would have been fixed while being a thrall.
Actions
Multiattack. The caelus makes two Radiant Touches.
Radiant Touch. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) radiant damage.
Reactions
Radiant Spurt. The thrall bleeds radiant energy as a reaction. Whenever the thrall takes piercing or slashing damage, the caelus can choose to release radiant energy onto creatures in a 5 ft. radius of the thrall, making them take 2d4 radiant damage.
Caelus
Medium humanoid (humanoid, celestial), chaotic good
- Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
- Hit Points 112 (15d8 +45)
- Speed 30 ft. (40 ft. in woodlands)
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 12 (+1) 16 (+3) 17 (+3) 10 (+0) 15 (+2) 18 (+4)
- Saving Throws Dex +6, Con +6, Wis +5, Cha +7
- Skills Perception +5, Stealth +6
- Damage vulnerabilities necrotic
- Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical weapons that aren't silvered
- Damage Immunities radiant
- Condition Immunities poisoned, disease
- Senses passive Perception 15
- Languages Languages it knew before transformation, telepathy 60 ft.
- Challenge 9 (5000 XP)
- Regeneration. The caelus regains 20 hit points at the start of its turn if this trait is active and the caelus is not at 0 hit points. If the caelus takes necrotic damage, this trait doesn't function at the start of the caelus's next turn. Limbs will grow back quickly over the course of day.
- Radiant Absorption. Whenever the caelus is subjected to radiant damage, it takes no damage and instead regains a number of hit points equal to the radiant damage dealt.
- Forest Walker. The caelus can climb trees and other vegetation, including upside down from a canopy, without needing to make an ability check. Difficult terrain created from vegetation also doesn't slow the caelus. The caelus has advantage on Stealth checks when hiding in foliage, even if it's only lightly obscured.
- Glowing Soul. The caelus can choose to emit light from itself. As an action it can choose to emit dim light in a 20 ft. radius, or to emit bright light in a 20 ft. radius and dim light in a 40 ft. radius, or to emit no light. The light emitted is soft and golden.
- Longrange Telepathy. The caelus can take at least a minute to communicate telepathically to any other caelus it is aware of on the same plane of existence, but is incapacitated and unaware of its surroundings for the duration.
- Forestmind. The caelus can use its action to communicate telepathically with any other number of caelus in the same forest as long as the sender has met the recievers.
- Animal Empathy. The caelus freely convey feelings and simple ideas to animals in the forest, which can respond in like.
- Civilization Aversion. The caelus cannot willingly approach any large population of humanoids (towns or cities).
- Ritual Enthrallment. The caelus can spend eight hours with an incapacitated or willing creature to turn it into a caelus thrall. A "Remove Curse" spell or similar can remove this enthrallment. If it is a thrall for a year, the creature becomes a caelus and cannot be restored except by a wish spell.
- Death Throes. If the caelus has not taken necrotic damage since the start of its last turn and the caelus is at 0 hit points, it regains 1 hit point at the start of its turn. It can regain a hit point in this manner three times a day, and if it cannot do so due to taking necrotic damage or through running out of uses, it dies. If the caelus dies Blinding Radiance is instantly triggered regardless of whether it is charged or not.
Actions
Multiattack. The caelus makes two Radiant Touches.
Radiant Touch. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) radiant damage.
Charm (3/Day). The caelus targets one humanoid it can see within 30 feet of it. If the target can see or hear the caelus, the target must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw against this magic or be charmed by the caelus. The charmed target regards the caelus as a trusted friend to be heeded and protected. Although the target isn't under the caelus's control, it take the caelus's requests or actions in the most favorable way it can, and are willing targets for the enthrallment ritual. If the target is under the effect of Dazzling Lights, they make any saves against this effect with disadvantage. Each time the caelus or the caelus's companions do anything harmful to the target, it can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a success. Otherwise, the effect lasts 24 hours or until the caelus is destroyed, is on a different plane of existence than the target, or takes a bonus action to end the effect.
Dazzling Lights (1/Day). The caelus targets a 20 ft. cube it can see within 60 ft. of it. As long as the creatures weren't covering their eyes, they must make a DC 15 Charisma saving throw or become stunned for a minute, thinking happy thoughts as glowing lights fill the space. At the end of their turn, or whenever they take damage, they can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on a success.
Blinding Radiance (Recharge 5-6). The caelus glows with blinding light, and flashes with an outburst of energy. Creatures within 20 ft. must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take 18 (4d8) radiant damage, and if their eyes are uncovered become blinded for one minute. If the saving throw is successful, they take half damage and are not blinded. At the end of their turn, affected creatures can repeat the saving throw, ending the blindness on a success.
Reactions
Radiant Spurt. The caelus bleeds radiant energy as a reaction. Whenever the caelus takes piercing or slashing damage, the caelus can choose to release radiant energy onto creatures in a 10 ft. radius of the caelus, making them take 2d8 radiant damage. The creatures must also make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or become blinded for until the end of the caelus's next turn.