Aasimar

An Aasimar as according to Tony DiTerlizzi.

Aasimar are one of three core Planetouched player races in Dungeons & Dragons, alongside their counterparts the Tiefling and the Genasi. Descendants of unions between mortals and angels, aasimar are characterized primarily by their tendency towards physical perfection and their natural inclination towards the goodly alignments. Whilst they may bear physical manifestations of their divinely-touched lineage, these are never freakish and usually tend to be quite subtle; hair the color of silver or gold, metallic-colored eyes, ivory-white skin, or a beautifully melodious voice are mentioned, though more drastic features are possible, such as regal tails, birdlike or leonine lower bodies, and vestigial wings. Needless to say, their ancestry gives them a strong inherent affinity for the Paladin and Cleric classes.

Aasimar are uncommon on the Prime Material Plane, but are vastly more common in Sigil and the Upper Planes.

Like pretty much every planetouched, aasimar tend to be portrayed as human + angel, with the occasional handwave by the designers that "aasimar traits are dominant" and thusly an elven or dwarven aasimar would still have the same statblock. For a rare exception to this, see the Celadrin, an elf/eladrin aasimar variant.

Aasimar Controversies

None of the planetouched have been free of their controversies, but aasimar arguably got hit a little harder than their cousins from the Lower Planes and the Elemental Planes did. The big issues are two-fold:

Firstly, some argue that aasimar actually manage to be even bigger Mary Sues than the tieflings do. After all, their description comes with many standard traits of the dreaded Sue actually written in, such as being incredibly beautiful, instantly likable without even trying, and are almost always good guys/girls. yes, they are the literal children of angels, but even so, there are complaints that they get slathered with a bit too much authorial loving.

Secondly, some argue that the aasimar are... well, to put it bluntly, they're boring. They're not alone in this, genasi get the same accusation thrown their way, but it is noted by some that their fluff does tend towards painting them in a generic "they're good because they're born to it, they're always the goody two-shoes race", and some find this less inspiring than the tieflings and their struggle to define themselves despite the expectations others have about them due to their ancestry and despite the temptations of their dark heritage. In fact, this attitude is common enough that even WoTC gave it a nod, which led to the temporary replacement of aasimars with the deva race in 4th edition.

In AD&D

Unlike tieflings, who lucked into being part of the original Planescape boxed set, aasimar didn't come out until two years later. Whether or not this had any impact on their popularity vs. tieflings is anybody's guess. Aasimar were part of the expanded planar racial PC offerings presented in the Planewalker's Handbook, alongside the Genasi and the Rogue Modron, where they came with the following stats:

Ability Score Minimum/Maximum: Strength 8/18, Dexterity 5/18, Constitution 5/18, Intelligence 11/18, Wisdom 11/18, Charisma 13/18

Ability Score Adjustments: +1 Strength OR +1 Charisma, +1 Wisdom, -2 Constitution

Class & Level Restrictions: Fighter 14, Ranger 14, Paladin 14, Wizard 14, Cleric 12, Druid 15, Thief 15, Bard 9

Multiclass Options: Fighter/Priest, Fighter/Mage, Fighter/Bard, Ranger/Mage, Ranger/Priest, Mage/Priest, Mage/Thief, Mage/Bard, Priest/Bard

Thieving Skill Adjustments: +10% Find/Remove Traps, +5% Move in Shadows, +10 Hide in Shadows, +5% Detect Noise

Infravision 60 feet

+1 to Surprise checks

Halve damage from Heat and Cold attacks

+2 bonus to saves vs. magical Charm, Fear, Emotion and Domination effects.

Non-Wizard aasimar have Magic Resistance 10%

Alignment Restriction: Any Non-Evil

The Not-So-Legendary Aasimar Tables

As mentioned above, aasimar, like tieflings, were given a fluff as being a very mutable "bastard" race, but not the stats to back it up... at least, in their initial publication. In the relatively obscure "Warriors of Heaven" sourcebook, which also detailed the celestial races and even made PC race options out of them, the Aasimar finally received what the tieflings had back in the Planeswalker's Handbook; randomization tables. However, these were actually presented as being for aasimar NPCs and so very little attention was given to using them to customize PCs; a single sentence saying that a player could give up their default 50% resistance to heat & cold for 1 roll on the Aasimar Abilities table was all the info we were given. Of course, nothing stopped/stops a DM from simply stealing the Tiefling randomization rules (make 1d4 rolls on Appearance and give up the heat/cold resistance, saving throw bonus and magic resistance to make 5 rolls on Abilities).

Aasimar Abilities

• 01-03: Alter Self (1/day)
• 04-06: Augury (1/week)
• 07-09: Blur (1/day)
• 10-12: Comprehend Languages (1/day)
• 13-15: Detect Evil (1/day)
• 16-18: Detect Lie (1/day)
• 19-21: Detect Magic (1/day)
• 22-24: Enthrall (1/week)
• 25-27: Feather Fall (1/day)
• 28-30: Know Alignment (1/day)
• 31-33: Light (1/day)
• 34-36: Mirror Image (1/day)
• 37-39: Protection From Evil 10ft Radius (1/day)
• 40-42: Protection From Normal Missiles (1/week)
• 43-45: Read Magic (2/day)
• 46-48: Shield (1/day)
• 49-51: Strength (1/day)
• 52-54: Water Breathing (1/week)
• 55-57: Half damage from Fire
• 58-60: Half damage from Cold
• 61-63: Half damage from Electricity
• 64-66: Half damage from Acid
• 67-69: +2 to save vs. Poison
• 70-72: +2 to save vs. Fire
• 73-75: +2 to save vs. Cold
• 76-78: +2 to save vs. Electricity
• 79-81: +2 to save vs. Petriciation/Polymorph/Paralysis
• 82-84: +2 to save vs. Rod/Staff/Wand
• 85-87: +2 to save vs. Spell
• 88-93: Celestial Aura (-2 penalty to enemy attacks)
• 94-96: Immune to nonmagical weapons
• 97: Immune to energy drain attacks
• 98-99: Roll twice, rerolling results above 97
• 100: Roll three times, rerolling results above 97

Aasimar Appearance

• 01-04: Silvery skin
• 05-07: Green-tinted skin
• 08-10: Blue-tinted skin
• 11-14: Golden skin
• 15-16: Pointed ears
• 17-18: Ridged ears
• 19-20: Doglike ears
• 21-25: Angular face with high cheekbones
• 26-29: Perfect white teeth
• 30-31: Long, distinguished nose
• 32-33: Hooked nose
• 34-36: Crystal-blue eyes
• 37-39: Bright green eyes
• 40-42: Gleaming silver eyes
• 43-45: Golden eyes
• 46-48: Six fingers per hand (including thumb)
• 49-50: Fingers one inch longer than normal
• 51-52: Animal horns on head
• 53-54: Silver or gold fingernails
• 55-57: Long, slender arms
• 58-60: Long, slender legs
• 61-65: Featherd Wings (MV Fly 18 [D])
• 66-72: Vestigial wingbones on shoulders
• 73-76: Opalescent skin
• 77-80: Naturally tanned skin
• 81-83: Body covered with speckled markings
• 84-85: Bald, hairless
• 86-89: Small feathers rather than hair on 1d10x10 of body
• 90-95: Special Side Effect (roll on Side Effects table)
• 96-98: Roll twice, rerolling results above 89
• 99-00: Roll three times, rerolling results above 89

Aasimar Special Side Effects

• 01-10: Sweet, fresh odor surrounds body
• 11-15: Surrounded by an aura of calm that grants +2 to morale checks for good-aligned creatures within 30 feet
• 16-25: Heals twice as quickly
• 26-30: Susceptible to fire (+1 point of damage per die)
• 31-35: Susceptible to cold (+1 point of damage per die)
• 36-45: Presence eases animals (+4 to reactions)
• 46-50: Touch inflicts 1d4 damage to evil creatures
• 51-55: Odd skin composition gives base AC of 1d6+3
• 56-60: Takes 1d6 points of damage from a splash/vial of unholy water
• 61-70: Can be turned by evil priests
• 71-75: Can speak telepathically (range 1 mile)
• 76-80: Can leap up to 15 feet vertically or 30 feet horizontally
• 81-85: Natural (ground) movement rate of 15
• 86-90: Can't be held or ensnared, as per a free action spell
• 91-98: Can speak any language
• 99-100: Eyes have the power of true seeing (as per spell)

In 3e

Aasimar showed up all over the place in 3e, starting as early as the Monster Manual. Like many other "human-descendant" races, they made their ultimate appearance in Races of Destiny, which presented their finalized racial statblock. Fluff-wise, they were basically unchanged from 2e.

+2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma

Outsider (Native)

Medium

Base land speed 30 feet

Darkvision 60 feet

Daylight (Sp): 1/day as either a 1st level caster or a caster of class level, whichever is higher.

Resistance 5 to Acid, Cold and Electricity.

+2 racial bonus on Listen and Spot.

Favored Class: Paladin

Level Adjustment: +1

In Pathfinder

In Pathfinder, it's noted that a lot of Aasimar actually tend to go evil either because superstitious yokels tend to pile on emotional trauma and guilt until they snap by constantly harassing them for "blessings" that the aasimar can't actually give, or because they realize everyone automatically expects them to be capital-G Good Guys/Girls and so they can easily manipulate people. This is yet another way in which Pathfinder likes to present itself as the GrimDark D&D equivalent setting. They can have lots of different possible starting types, depending on which kind of celestial they descended from. Interestingly, supplements explicitly encourage white-hot holy-on-unholy action by stressing the odd sense of kinship most aasimar feel for their similarly-bullshit-cultural-expectation-wracked fiend-blooded counterparts.

Naturally, the Pathfinder Aasimar sourcebook, "Blood of Angels" follows the same plans as the Tiefling sourcebook "Blood of Fiends", giving a D100 table for alternative traits to replace the vanilla aasimar's spell-like ability, and racial variants for aasimar recognizably tied to one of the existing celestial races - Agathions, Angels, Archons, Azata, Garudas and Peris.

Pathfinder Aasimar Strains

Idyllkin are descendants of Agathions, the Pathfinder equivalent of Guardinals, which gives them slight bestial physical traits (think "divine catgirl" to the Agathion's "divine catfolk") and a natural prediliction for the Neutral Good alignment. They have a tendency to be nomadic and feel a strong connection with nature, tending to be druids or nature clerics more than the traditional aasimar affinity for paladins.

Angelkin descend from angels, which in Pathfinder are their own kind of "Any Good Celestial". These guys take the Mary Sue aspect of the aasimar and crank it up notch, being described as "mortal paragons of exceptional beauty". Ironically, they're noted for being the one aasimar strain most racist against tieflings, despite their personal belief in embracing the idea of harmony.

Lawbringers descend from Archons, meaning that at best they're champions of justice, and at worst they struggle with which is stronger; their need for order or their need for good. They tend to be naturally patient, disciplined, and skillful, but they prefer routines and are uncomfortable outside of a clear hierarchy.

Musetouched descend from the Azata, Pathfinder's version of Eladrins, and this makes them both extremely capricious and, ironically, one of the aasimars best able to blend in. They tend to easily pass as beautiful and graceful elves or half-elves, for obvious reasons. Possessed of wanderlust and natural talents in music, which means many become bards, they are particularly opposed to tyranny. They have a rather strong resemblance to the Celadrin, elven/firre planetouched who first surfaced in the pages of Dragon Magazine.

Plumekith descend from the Garuda, noble but impetuous celestials who resemble humanoid birds with beautifully colored plumage. Like their parents, Plumekith tend to be noble but very impulsive, and grow feathers; sometimes in vestigial wings on their backs or arms, sometimes in place of hair. Like garuda, they tend to have a very intense hatred for snakes and serpentine monsters.

Emberkin descend from the Peri, former devils who redeemed themselves and were transformed into angels that resemble white-skinned humanoids with wings of fire. It goes without saying that emberkin tend to have "igneous" features, from bright yellow eyes to flames that flicker amongst their hair. Whilst many feel an insatiable need to perform good, just as many feel the exact opposite; emberkin are noted as the aasimar strain most likely to revolt against their heavenly ancestry and embrace evil, which presumably makes them the aasimar most sympathetic towards tieflings.

In 4e

You saw that bit above about how 4e dumped aasimar for Devas? Yeah, that's not entirely true.

See, whilst not referred to by name, "The Ecology of the Deva" in Dragon Magazine #374 featured the fact that Devas can interbreed with other races, which produces offspring who are of the non-deva's race, but inherently touched by their angelic heritage - which is the very literal definition of what aasimar are. This was supported by the Bloodline feat "Deva Heritage", which lets you play one of these angel-touched mortals.

"Deva Heritage" grants you a new racial daily utility called Astral Splendor (so long as you are not bloodied, you can enter a stance that causes you to shed light in a 6 square radius and inflicts a -2 penalty to attack rolls against you), as well as a +2 to all Perception & Insight checks against angels, devils, devas and rakshasas. It also means you qualify for either of two feats; Heavenly Heritage (gain temp HP equal to your Wis bonus when you take Cold or Fire damage) and Radiant Recovery (gain temp HP equal to your Con bonus if you get hit or hurt by an attack that causes Radiant damage).

In 5e

Aasimar returned to 5e in the DMG as the sample race for showcasing the "build a race" rules. They're basically Tieflings flipped to a more Celestial aspect, complete with sharing the same +1 Mental Stat (Wisdom, for Aasimar) +2 Charisma bonus, Darkvision, Damage Resistance (Necrotic + Radiant) and spell-like abilities at level 1 (Lights), 3 (Lesser Restoration) and 5 (Daylight) format. They were recently voted one of the three most-popular races for a new D&D expansion to create in detail, with Mike Mearls professing they were his favorite race and that he really wanted to do them right because, in his own words, there's a tendency to make the good guys boring.

The first "official" release of the 5e aasimar didn't happen until November 2016, when they were one of the player races added in the Forgotten Realms-based "Volo's Guide to Monsters". This version takes them a good way away from the "radiant tiefling" ruleset, giving them new lore that described each aasimar has a celestial guide or deva who speaks to them through dreams, exhorting them to do good... often in a very harsh and inflexible way. They have three subraces, that gain special abilities at third level: the Protector aasimar, who gets +1 Wisdom and can sprout wings and fly around dealing extra radiant damage on their spell and weapon attacks; the Scourge aasimar, who gets +1 Constitution and can turn into a living divine sunlamp that deals Radiant damage to everyone around them, including themself; and the Fallen Aasimar, who, having turned to evil, gets +1 Strength, causes fear in others, and deals Necrotic damage instead.

The Races of Pathfinder
Player's Handbook:	Dwarf - Elf - Gnome - Half-Elf - Half-Orc - Halfling - Human
Advanced Race Guide:	Aasimar - Catfolk - Changeling - Dhampir - Duergar Drow - Fetchling - Gillman - Goblin - Grippli - Hobgoblin Ifrit - Kitsune - Kobold - Merfolk - Nagaji - Orc - Oread Ratfolk - Samsaran - Strix - Suli - Svirfneblin - Sylph Tengu - Tiefling - Undine - Vanara - Vishkanya - Wayang
Bestiaries:	Android - Astomoi - Caligni - Deep One Hybrid - Gathlain Gnoll - Kasatha - Munavri - Naiad - Orang-Pendak Reptoid - Rougarou - Shabti - Trox - Yaddithian
Adventure Paths:	Being of Ib - Kuru
Inner Sea Races:	Ghoran - Monkey Goblin - Lashunta - Skinwalker Syrinx - Triaxian - Wyrwood - Wyvaran
Ultimate Wilderness:	Vine Leshy
Blood of the Sea:	Adaro - Cecaelia - Grindylow - Locathah - Sahuagin - Triton
Planar Adventures:	Aphorite - Duskwalker - Ganzi