I realize this is more of a fluff question, but how do you guys feel about evil characters wearing Celestial Armor? And would they be able to procure it at a high level in Cheliax? I don't want to railroad my players, it just feels a bit weird for evil characters to wear Angel armor radiating good.
I realize this is more of a fluff question, but how do you guys feel about evil characters wearing Celestial Armor? And would they be able to procure it at a high level in Cheliax? I don't want to railroad my players, it just feels a bit weird for evil characters to wear Angel armor radiating good.
Celestial Armor doesn't cause the wearer to radiate good. Do you mean armor made out of Angelskin?
Since angelskin is literally armor made out of an angel that's been harvested for it's skin it seems very much the sort of thing an evil character would wear. Conversely, I imagine good aligned creatures would be horrified to wear something like this. As a result I imagine that anyone who recognizes the armor for what it is would immediately assume that the creature is evil regardless what they might radiate.
Of course anyone who doesn't realize what the armor is would probably be tricked by it, which IMO seems to be the whole point of the armor.
edit: I looked at the celestial armor again and it does state that it faintly radiates transmutation [good]. Since good is in brackets I wouldn't expect the armor to show up if someone casts detect good. It will show up if someone casts detect magic and only then if they get high enough on their check to get more than just "it radiates faint transmutation magic". So, wearing it doesn't really cause the person to radiate good. At best its like a non-christian wearing a shirt made by a christian clothing manufacturer. Maybe they don't know, maybe they do know and they don't care because they like how it looks. In any case just wearing it isn't likely to make anyone think you are a christian unless it's someone who happens to recognize the brand. Even then they might be offended you're wearing it, if it's obvious to them in other ways that you're not a christian.
It really depends on the circumstances. If the evil character is trying to fool people into thinking he is good it will be no problem and even a good tactic. If the evil character is a member of an openly evil organization it will probably be at least frowned on. As to being able to procure it that is probably going to be a lot harder. While good characters can and do exist in evil societies they are going to be pretty rare, and probably unwilling to cooperate with evil on a regular basis. To me any good character who is working to supply an evil organization with material benefits will not remain good. About the only way that this is going to be available in an evil society is as loot.
There is also the social implication of wearing celestial armor in Cheliax. I imagine that some someone wearing it would be looked on with suspicion and distrust. This would be like wearing a shirt with the star of David in a territory controlled by ISIS. Expect any character in Chlieax wearing it to be investigated by the authorities. Anyone in authority in Cheliax wearing this may be considered being disloyal and subversive. The only exception would be if the person in authority is undercover trying to infiltrate a good organization.
edit: I looked at the celestial armor again and it does state that it faintly radiates transmutation [good]. Since good is in brackets I wouldn't expect the armor to show up if someone casts detect good. It will show up if someone casts detect magic and only then if they get high enough on their check to get more than just "it radiates faint transmutation magic". So, wearing it doesn't really cause the person to radiate good.
Apologies if I sound too nit-picky but [1] Detect Good's entry indicates that Celestial Armour would be picked up :
This spell functions like detect evil, except that it detects the auras of good creatures, clerics or paladins of good deities, good spells, and good magic items, and you are vulnerable to an overwhelming good aura if you are evil.Aura faint transmutation [good]
If you're an evil cleric say, wearing celestial armor then you ping to both detect good amd detect evil. One doesn't hide the other.
Aura faint transmutation [good]Apologies if I sound too nit-picky but [1] Detect Good's entry indicates that Celestial Armour would be picked up :
This spell functions like detect evil, except that it detects the auras of good creatures, clerics or paladins of good deities, good spells, and good magic items, and you are vulnerable to an overwhelming good aura if you are evil.
Nah, you're fine. I'm not sure what defines something as a good magic item though, if celestial armor counts. I mean the holy enchantment calls out that the item is good aligned and clearly an intelligent item can have a good alignment. These seem inline with the other things detect evil/good picks up.
It seems weird that a set of celestial armor would detect as good and a crown of heaven wouldn't. As the latter bestows a negative level on evil creatures and the former doesn't.
Edit: actually looking at it closer I think the key part is that it detects good spells. My argument against was that transmutation [good] is a spell descriptor not an alignment. So yeah strictly speaking it would pick up celestial armor and not a crown of heaven.
Quite honestly, I doubt most evil people would care. They might object, but only because they want the nice top-quality magic armour for themselves.
Lawful evil societies like Cheliax might approach it a bit differently, but it would really be a legalistic version of the above: using the law to deprive someone of something the complainant wants, or using it as an excuse to hurt the wearer because the two parties have some other dispute.
Celestial Armor is a suit of chain mail that is extremely light (+8 Max DEX bonus) that allow you to fly once per day. Celestial Armor can only be made by a good character. It does not involve skinning an angel that is the special material Angel Skin which has nothing to do with do with Celestial Armor.
The second post mentions Angel Skin because he though that maybe the OP was talking about it instead of Celestial Armor.
Detect good would detect celestial armour, but when the caster identifies each source of aura with the full 3 rounds it will be the armour that's the source, not the wearer. It does nothing to stop the wearer detecting as evil.
I don't see why Chelliax would object to wearing (probably stolen/looted) celestial armour, it's really really good armour, potentially the best armour in the world in terms of protection it grants if you have the dex to cap it out.
Might even be a point of pride to have slain someone who wore it and won it for yourself.
Crafting requirements might make it a little harder to find there, though thanks to the +5DC to skip a requirement rules I imagine some enterprising magical armourers make it.
From a purely fluff perspective I wouldn't allow it. Evil characters wouldn't be wearing it. From a fluff-support perspective I'd point to this sentence from Curse of the Crimson Throne (spoiler...)...
From a purely fluff perspective I wouldn't allow it. Evil characters wouldn't be wearing it.
Or maybe the denizens of that castle are just a bunch of pussys. You steal from a corpse, pervert the purpose the armor was forged for, and you get to defile a symbol of good on top. What about that says "not evil"?
Alternatively:
Thanks for all the input folks! This is what I am going with:
- They can buy it, but they have to perform an infernal ritual with 2000GPs worth of components to 'defile' it, as per the rules for another item in part two of Hell's Vengeance.