Monsters: Archons

Monsters: Archons

In this post, I would like to show an update of one of my oldest conversions – archons from Monster Manual. Archons in D&D are exemplars of the lawful good alignment. These celestial beings, just like other celestials, do not get as much attention in D&D as demons and devils do, and the reason, as I believe, is that the typical PCs are not supposed to fight them – they serve as allies or patrons. This is why there are only seven or so angels in D&D and dozens upon dozens of different fiends.

The three archons presented in the Monster Manual are lantern archon, hound archon, and trumpet archon. While all three are quite different from one another, especially the lantern archon, they all have some common features.

Since they are outsiders, they do not need to eat or drink, and are unaging. Due to being paragons of law and goodness, they possess vulnerability to anarchic and unholy weapons. Hound archon and trumpet archon will also have two perks – Axiomatic Touch and Holy Touch. This means that all their natural weapons are considered to be axiomatic and holy for the purpose of vulnerabilities. Their racial templates will also include some appropriate disadvantages – Honesty (9), Intolerance (Fiends), Pacifism (Cannot Harm Innocents), and Truthfulness (9).

They also have some other archon-specific abilities. First of all, they have DR 20 against electricity. Why? Honestly, I don’t know the justification, but in fiction, divine wrath often is manifested as a lightning storm or bolt, so maybe there is a relation. They also are resistant to poison and immune to petrification. I can understand minor resistance to poison, but where does immunity to petrification come from? The only thing that comes to mind is the story of Lot’s wife from the Old Testament – she got turned into a pillar of salt for disobeying divine orders. So, maybe petrification is something only mere mortals are supposed to be vulnerable to? But this is quite a stretch. Anyway, I’m fine with this immunity – it will come up rarely, but you can be sure that any statues of archons are actual statues, not petrified archons.

Archons have an innate ability to detect evil, and it seems sensible to me. I know that alignment is a contentious topic, but I explained my position in another place. Aura of menace is yet another ability that is found in all archons. D&D had it impose penalties to various rolls, but I decided to go a different route – I will represent it as the Terror advantage with some modifications. Magical will be a power modifier, Selective Area will prevent the archons from spooking friendlies, and Presence will remove the requirement to see or hear the archon, but limit it to a 10-yard-radius area. Most importantly, you can use the Awe variant Fright Check table from GURPS Powers – there are few opportunities to use this variant table, and this is one of them that will give the archons just the right flavor. Finally, archons can speak with any creature that has a language. Instead of using a horrendously expensive Omnilingual advantage, I will build it as a Cosmic Power that costs only 12 points. Sure, it can hold only one language at a time, but it still accomplishes its task.

D&D archons, like most other creatures, have Darkvision. Usually, I represent it as Infravision, but this time I decided to simply remove it. I feel that darkvision is overused and it invalidates many darkness- and stealth-related abilities, so I try to remove it where it makes sense. After all, Celestia, the home plane of archons, is constantly illuminated, why would they need to see in the dark? I still left Night Vision 5, however.

D&D archons also had a constantly active magic circle against evil and the ability to cast greater teleport at will, but that’s too much, in my opinion. I do not want archons to teleport around the world all the time, and I do not want to deal with the magic circle against evil.

Now, the archons themselves. Let’s start with the strangest one – the lantern archon. Lantern archons are simply small orbs of light, souls of departed lawful good mortals. They can barely interact with the physical world, but they possess some powerful abilities nonetheless. Among the archons, they serve as messengers.

Various D&D books for different editions give conflicting information regarding these creatures, so I had to pick and choose to build what I like the most. While some books claim that lantern archons are intangible, which means that they have either Injury Tolerance (Diffuse) or Insubstantiality, I decided to go with Injury Tolerance (Homogenous, No Head, No Blood, No Eyes, and No Neck). This means that the archon has a physical body, a small, homogenous core that can be physically damaged. It emits light and can see all around itself, so I gave it the Illumination perk and the 360 Vision advantage with the Panoptic I enhancement. In terms of metabolism, they seem to be closer to constructs than to living beings – I decided to go with Doesn’t Breathe, Doesn’t Sleep, Immunity to Metabolic Hazards, Pressure Support 3, Sealed, and Vacuum Support. I even went as far as to give them the Unnatural disadvantage.

They can speak, but they have no mouth. GURPS doesn’t have the No Mouth disadvantage, but I usually treat it as a -4-point disadvantage – Weak Bite is, after all, a -2-point disadvantage. They cannot smell, taste, or feel anything – I gave them No Sense of Smell/Taste and Numb. Obviously, they have No Manipulators and No Legs (Aerial). They move via the Flight advantage.

Aside from flight and illumination, they have some other unique magical abilities. First, I actually gave them the Warp advantage. Description says that they are often sent by other archons as messengers, so I decided to emphasize this by actually allowing them to teleport and removing teleportation from all other archons.

Their only attack is a light ray. This is a relatively weak tight-beam burning attack with a range of 10 yards. To spice things up, I gave it Nuisance Effect, Reflective, -5% stolen from the Sunbolt sorcery spell. You might notice that I did not give them the Axiomatic Touch and Holy Touch perks – this is because the lantern archons do not have any physical attacks.

Finally, one of the older books said that lantern archons are impervious to mundane attacks and that they reform one day after their destruction. I found that interesting – immunity to mundane weaponry is something many pre-D&D 3e monsters had, but this reformation was never brought up in any more modern edition. I decided to give the lantern archon Unkillable 3 with Achilles’ Heel, Non-Mundane Attacks, -50%. This means that the only way to permanently destroy a lantern archon is to either do it in a no-mana area, or by harming it with a magical, psionic, divine, etc. weapon. That’s neat.

Next up, we have the hound archons. They always seemed out of place to me. A beautiful winged humanoid or a floating ball of light seem angelic to me, but… a humanoid dog? Really? I do not know if they are based on some mythological creature, but if you do, please let me know. Unlike the lantern archons, they are closer to proper living beings. I gave them Combat Reflexes, Discriminatory Smell, tough skin, Magic Resistance 2, and the ability to see invisible. All this seems appropriate. Finally, they have a signature ability – an ability to shapeshift into any canine animal to blend in with the crowd and stay unnoticed. Fine, I guess. In my opinion, they are the lamest archons, and maybe even the lamest celestials, at least from the Monster Manual.

The final archon is the trumpet archon. They are beautiful winged humanoid beings with magical trumpets. Of course, I gave them positive appearance and higher-than-average attributes, as they are supposed to be near the top of the archon hierarchy. And wings, obviously. However, I decided to remove the Aura of Menace, as I felt that it is redundant – they have their trumpet ability that basically does the same thing. The trumpet, when blown, forces everyone who hears it to roll a Fright Check with a -3 penalty, using the Awe variant table. I included some gadget modifiers, because the archon needs this trumpet, not any trumpet. Finally, the trumpet archon has a huge array of spell-like abilities in D&D, but I mercilessly cut it down to merely two spells – Lesser Restoration and Minor Healing. Thus, the trumpet archon will be more focused on healing injuries and afflictions, while the hound archons do the fighting, and lantern archons serve as messengers. Narrowing it down this way helps giving the trumpet archons a theme.

I am content with the result. The lantern archon actually became more expensive compared to my previous conversion, but my first attempt was incredibly flawed – it made no sense whatsoever. The hound archon became slightly cheaper, but probably got changed the least out of three, and the trumpet archon had its point value drastically decreased.

 

Lantern Archon [Monster Manual, page 16]

 

217 points

Attribute Modifiers: ST-9 [-90]; IQ-2 [-40].

Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM-4; Per+2 [10].

Advantages: 360° Vision (Panoptic I, +20%) [30]; Doesn’t Breathe [20]; Doesn’t Eat or Drink [10]; Doesn’t Sleep [20]; Flight (Magical, -10%) [36]; Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30]; Immunity to Petrification [5]; Injury Tolerance (Homogenous, No Head, No Blood, No Eyes, No Neck) [62]; Pressure Support 3 [15]; Sealed [15]; Unaging [15]; Unkillable 3 (Achilles’ Heel, Non-Mundane Attacks, -50%; Magical, -10%) [60]; Vacuum Support [5].

    Aura of Menace: Terror (Awe; Magical, -10%; Presence, +25%; Selective Area, +20%) [41].

    Detect Evil: Detect (Evil; Cannot Analyze, -10%; Magical, -10%) [8].

    Electricity Resistance [35]: DR 20 (Limited, Electricity, -40%; Tough Skin, -40%) [20] + Immunity to Electrical Conduction [5] + Immunity to Noxious Electrical Effects [10].

    Light Ray: Burning Attack 1d (Accessibility, Not against holy beings, -5%; Costs Fatigue, 1 FP, -5%; Increased 1/2D, 10x, +15%; Magical, -10%; Nuisance Effect, Reflective, -5%; Reduced Range, 1/10, -30%) [3].

    Teleport: Warp (Magical, -10%) [90].

    Tongues: Cosmic Power 3 (Limited, One Spoken Language, -50%; Magical, -10%) [12].

Disadvantages: Curious (12) [-5]; Honesty (9) [-15]; Intolerance (Fiends) [-5]; No Manipulators [-50]; No Mouth [-4]; No Sense of Smell/Taste [-5]; Numb [-20]; Pacifism (Cannot Harm Innocents) [-10]; Truthfulness (9) [-7]; Unnatural [-50]; Vulnerability (Anarchic Weapons, x2) [-10]; Vulnerability (Unholy Weapons, x2) [-10].

Perks: Illumination (Magical, -10%) [1].

Features: No Legs (Aerial).

Creature Type: Outsider (Archon, Good, Lawful).

 

Typical Stats

ST:	1	HP:	1	Speed:	5
DX:	10	Will:	8	Move:	10 air
IQ:	8	Per:	10
HT:	10	FP:	10	SM:	-4
Dodge:	8	Parry:	N/A	DR:	20 (vs. electricity)

    Light Ray (10): 1d tight-beam burning. Ranged attack (Acc 3, Range 10). Costs 1 FP per use. Cannot affect holy beings. The beam is easily reflected. Normally it cannot be blocked, but someone may use a mirror or a highly polished shield to do so; this causes the attack to bounce off in a random direction, possibly striking the wrong target (p. B389). The mirror-wielder may even attempt to reflect it back at the archon, but this gives -2 to Block; the archon defends normally. On the upside, the archon may make use of mirrored surfaces to “ricochet” the beam. This inflicts -2 per bounce to the attack roll, but may allow the attacker to bypass cover; in addition, the target is at -1 per bounce to defend.

    Aura of Menace: An archon can activate this ability to cause all creatures within 10 yards of him to make a Fright Check. The archon can exclude any beings from the area of effect. If a victim succeeds at his Fright Check, he will be unaffected by the archon’s Aura of Menace for one hour. Use Awe check table from GURPS Powers, page 85, if possible.

    Detect Evil (10): By taking a Concentrate maneuver and rolling against Per modified by range penalties, the archon can sense evil auras of unholy creatures (such as fiends and clerics of evil deities) and unholy items. On a success, the archon learns the direction to the nearest significant evil aura.

    Teleport (8): The archon has a magical ability to teleport as per the Warp advantage (p. B97).

    Tongues: Aside from the languages the archon knows, it has one slot that it can fill with any spoken language that is not “secret” or “lost” at the Native comprehension level by taking a Ready maneuver.

 

    Traits: 360° Vision (Panoptic I); Curious (12); Flight (Magical); Honesty (9); Illumination (Magical); Immunity to Electrical Conduction; Immunity to Metabolic Hazards; Immunity to Noxious Electrical Effects; Immunity to Petrification; Injury Tolerance (Homogenous, No Head, No Blood, No Eyes, No Neck); Intolerance (Fiends); No Legs (Aerial); No Manipulators; No Mouth; No Sense of Smell/Taste; Numb; Pacifism (Cannot Harm Innocents); Pressure Support 3; Sealed; Truthfulness (9); Unaging; Unkillable 3 (Achilles’ Heel, Non-Mundane Attacks; Magical); Unnatural; Vacuum Support; Vulnerability (Anarchic Weapons, x2); Vulnerability (Unholy Weapons, x2).

    Skills: Innate Attack (Beam)-10.

    Creature Type: Outsider (Archon, Good, Lawful).

 

Hound Archon [Monster Manual, page 16]

 

286 points

Attribute Modifiers: ST+4 [40]; HT+2 [20].

Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Basic Move +1 [5].

Advantages: Combat Reflexes [15]; Discriminatory Smell [15]; DR 2 (Tough Skin, -40%) [6]; Doesn’t Eat or Drink [10]; Immunity to Petrification [5]; Magic Resistance 2 (Improved, +150%) [10]; Night Vision 5 [5]; Resistant to Poison (+3) [5]; See Invisible (Magical; Magical, -10%) [14]; Unaging [15].

    Aura of Menace: Terror (Awe; Magical, -10%; Presence, +25%; Selective Area, +20%) [41].

   Change Shape: Morph (Accessibility, Only SM-2 to SM+1 canine animals, -40%; Magical, -10%) [50].

    Detect Evil: Detect (Evil; Cannot Analyze, -10%; Magical, -10%) [8].

  Electricity Resistance [65]: DR 20 (Includes Eyes, +10%; Includes Internal, +20%; Limited, Electricity, -40%; Tough Skin, -40%) [50] + Immunity to Electrical Conduction [5] + Immunity to Noxious Electrical Effects [10].

    Tongues: Cosmic Power 3 (Limited, One Spoken Language, -50%; Magical, -10%) [12].

Disadvantages: Honesty (9) [-15]; Intolerance (Fiends) [-5]; Pacifism (Cannot Harm Innocents) [-10]; Truthfulness (9) [-7]; Vulnerability (Anarchic Weapons, x2) [-10]; Vulnerability (Unholy Weapons, x2) [-10].

Perks: Axiomatic Touch [1]; Holy Touch [1].

Features: Born Biter 1.

Creature Type: Outsider (Archon, Good, Lawful).

 

Typical Stats

ST:	14	HP:	14	Speed:	5.5
DX:	10	Will:	10	Move:	6
IQ:	10	Per:	10
HT:	12	FP:	12	SM:	+0
Dodge:	9	Parry:	11	DR:	2* (tough skin), 20 (vs. electricity)

    Thrusting Greatsword swing (14): swing 3d-1 cutting, Reach 1-2.

    Thrusting Greatsword thrust (14): thrust 2d-1 impaling (KYOS: 2d+1 impaling), Reach 2.

    Sharp Teeth (12): thrust 1d cutting, Reach C.

    Aura of Menace: An archon can activate this ability to cause all creatures within 10 yards of him to make a Fright Check. The archon can exclude any beings from the area of effect. If a victim succeeds at his Fright Check, he will be unaffected by the archon’s Aura of Menace for one hour. Use Awe check table from GURPS Powers, page 85, if possible.

    Change Shape: A hound archon can assume a shape of any canine animal with template cost up to 236 points. This takes 10 seconds of continuous Ready maneuvers. While in the canine form, the archon retains all its innate abilities, except for the attribute bonuses.

    Detect Evil (10): By taking a Concentrate maneuver and rolling against Per modified by range penalties, the archon can sense evil auras of unholy creatures (such as fiends and clerics of evil deities) and unholy items. On a success, the archon learns the direction to the nearest significant evil aura.

    Tongues: Aside from the languages the archon knows, it has one slot that it can fill with any spoken language that is not “secret” or “lost” at the Native comprehension level by taking a Ready maneuver.

 

    Traits: Axiomatic Touch; Born Biter 1; Combat Reflexes; Discriminatory Smell; Doesn’t Eat or Drink; Holy Touch; Honesty (9); Immunity to Electrical Conduction; Immunity to Noxious Electrical Effects; Immunity to Petrification; Intolerance (Fiends); Magic Resistance 2 (Improved); Night Vision 5; Pacifism (Cannot Harm Innocents); Resistant to Poison (+3); See Invisible (Magical; Magical); Truthfulness (9); Unaging; Vulnerability (Anarchic Weapons, x2); Vulnerability (Unholy Weapons, x2).

    Skills: Brawling-12; Observation-14; Tracking-16; Two-Handed Sword-14.

    Creature Type: Outsider (Archon, Good, Lawful).

    Notes: Weight 500 lbs.

  

Trumpet Archon [Monster Manual, page 18]

 

414 points

Attribute Modifiers: ST+6 [60]; DX+2 [40]; IQ+2 [40]; HT+2 [20].

Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Will+3 [15]; Basic Move +1 [5].

Advantages: Appearance (Beautiful/Handsome; Universal, +25%) [15]; DR 2 (Tough Skin, -40%) [6]; Doesn't Eat or Drink [10]; Flight (Cannot Hover, -15%; Winged, -25%) [24]; Immunity to Petrification [5]; Magic Resistance 3 (Improved, +150%) [15]; Night Vision 5 [5]; Resistant to Poison (+3) [5]; Unaging [15].

    Detect Evil: Detect (Evil; Cannot Analyze, -10%; Magical, -10%) [8].

  Electricity Resistance [65]: DR 20 (Includes Eyes, +10%; Includes Internal, +20%; Limited, Electricity, -40%; Tough Skin, -40%) [50] + Immunity to Electrical Conduction [5] + Immunity to Noxious Electrical Effects [10].

    Tongues: Cosmic Power 3 (Limited, One Spoken Language, -50%; Magical, -10%) [12].

    Trumpet: Terror (-3) (Hearing; Awe; Breakable, DR 6, SM-2, -30%; Can Be Stolen, Quick Contest of ST, Will not work for the thief, -15%; Magical, -10%; Selective Area, +20%) [39].

    Spell-Like Abilities (Alternative Abilities) [65]:

    Lesser Restoration [58];

    Minor Healing [32/5=7] - see GURPS Thaumatology: Sorcery, p. 17.

Disadvantages: Honesty (9) [-15]; Intolerance (Fiends) [-5]; Pacifism (Cannot Harm Innocents) [-10]; Truthfulness (9) [-7]; Vulnerability (Anarchic Weapons, x2) [-10]; Vulnerability (Unholy Weapons, x2) [-10].

Perks: Axiomatic Touch [1]; Holy Touch [1].

Creature Type: Outsider (Archon, Good, Lawful).

 

Knowing Your Own Strength [384] Replace ST+6 [60] with ST+3 [30]

 

Typical Stats

ST:	16 (KYOS: 13)	HP:	16 (KYOS: 13)	Speed:	6
DX:	12	Will:	15	Move:	6 ground, 12 air (cannot hover)
IQ:	12	Per:	12
HT:	12	FP:	12	SM:	+0
Dodge:	9	Parry:	11	DR:	2* (tough skin), 20 (vs. electricity)

    Thrusting Greatsword swing (16): swing 2d+2 cutting, Reach 1-2.

    Thrusting Greatsword swing (16): thrust 1d+3 impaling (KYOS: 2d impaling), Reach 2.

    Detect Evil (12): By taking a Concentrate maneuver and rolling against Per modified by range penalties, the archon can sense evil auras of unholy creatures (such as fiends and clerics of evil deities) and unholy items. On a success, the archon learns the direction to the nearest significant evil aura.

    Tongues: Aside from the languages the archon knows, it has one slot that it can fill with any spoken language that is not “secret” or “lost” at the Native comprehension level by taking a Ready maneuver.

    Trumpet: A trumpet archon can blow its trumpet to create an awe-inspiring noise, causing everyone who hears it to make a Fright Check at -3. The archon can exclude any beings from the area of effect. If a victim succeeds at his Fright Check, he will be unaffected by the archon’s Trumper for one hour. Use Awe check table from GURPS Powers, page 85, if possible. The trumpet can be taken away like any normal weapon. The trumpet has SM-2 and DR 6. It only works in the hands of the trumpet archon owner.

    Spell-Like Abilities (Alternative Abilities):

    Lesser Restoration (12);

    Minor Healing (12) - see GURPS Thaumatology: Sorcery, p. 17.

 

    Traits: Appearance (Beautiful/Handsome; Universal); Axiomatic Touch; Doesn't Eat or Drink; Flight (Cannot Hover; Winged); Holy Touch; Honesty (9); Immunity to Electrical Conduction; Immunity to Noxious Electrical Effects; Immunity to Petrification; Intolerance (Fiends); Magic Resistance 3 (Improved); Night Vision 5; Pacifism (Cannot Harm Innocents); Resistant to Poison (+3); Truthfulness (9); Unaging; Vulnerability (Anarchic Weapons, x2); Vulnerability (Unholy Weapons, x2).

    Skills: Brawling-12; Musical Instrument (Trumpet)-16; Two-Handed Sword-16.

    Creature Type: Outsider (Archon, Good, Lawful).