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Angel, Dapsara

This otherworldly dancer moves with incredible grace. A second pair of ghostly arms complement the motions of her physical arms.

Dapsara CR 4

Source Inner Sea Gods pg. 309
XP 1,200
NG Medium outsider (angel, extraplanar, good)
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +10

Defense

AC 16, touch 12, flat-footed 14 (+2 Dex, +4 natural)
hp 32 (5d10+5)
Fort +2, Ref +6, Will +8; +4 vs. poison
DR 5/evil; Immune petrification; Resist acid 5, cold 5, electricity 5, fire 5; SR 15

Offense

Speed 30 ft., fly 30 ft. (average)
Melee 4 slam +7 (1d4)
Special Attacks bardic performance 16 rounds/day (countersong, distraction, fascinate, inspire competence +2, inspire courage +2), ghostly arms
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 5th; concentration +7)
At will—summon instrument
3/day—calm emotions, lesser confusion (DC 13), remove fear, saving finaleAPG
1/day—eagle’s splendor, gallant inspirationAPG, ghostbane dirgeAPG (DC 14), invisibility (self only)

Statistics

Str 11, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 15, Cha 14
Base Atk +5; CMB +5; CMD 17
Feats Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Weapon Finesse
Skills Acrobatics +7, Knowledge (history) +8, Knowledge (religion) +8, Perception +10, Perform (any one) +10, Sense Motive +10
Languages Celestial, Draconic, Infernal, speak with animals, truespeech
SQ change shape (any humanoid or a cloud of perfume; alter self or gaseous form), versatile performance, weapon proficiencies

Ecology

Environment any (Nirvana)
Organization solitary, pair, or band (3–5)
Treasure standard

Special Abilities

Bardic Performance (Su) A dapsara has the bardic performance ability of a 5th-level bard.

Ghostly Arms (Su) A dapsara’s two spectral arms may manipulate corporeal or incorporeal creatures and objects, as if they had the ghost touch weapon property. She may manifest or hide these arms at will in any shape, even in gaseous form.

Versatile Performance (Su) A dapsara has the bard’s versatile performance ability, using one Perform bonus in place of the skill bonuses of that Perform skill’s associated skills.

Weapon Proficiencies (Ex) A dapsara is proficient with all simple weapons, plus the glaive, longsword, rapier, sap, short sword, shortbow, and whip.

Description

A dapsara is a physical representative of beauty and grace. Each studies one type of music, dance, poetry, or singing, and together they create elaborate performances for Shelyn and the other inhabitants of Nirvana. Some come to the Material Plane to be muses for mortals and still others protect sacred theaters and places of great natural beauty. They prefer to remain hidden, either in gaseous form, invisibly, or both, so they can advise and watch over the mortal world on behalf of the goddess.

A dapsara in her natural form looks like a beautiful humanoid woman (usually an elf or human), sometimes with an unusual skin color such as jade green or sky blue, but she can take the shape of any humanoid or any gender. She typically uses her second pair of arms to play musical instrument or assist some other type of performance, such as holding a sheet of lyrics for a song or manipulating a cloak or dress to look like wings or flowing wind. A dapsara is a mediocre flier and normally only uses her flight to augment a performance or to garner attention. A dapsara can use many kinds of weapons, but prefers to use magic to confound and defeat opponents; in a pinch, she can attack with all four arms.

Although these servitors of Shelyn respect and revere art is all of its forms, they especially delight in performance art, song, dance, and other arts of the moment. They delight in the intimacy of sharing beauty with a limited group and knowing that a single masterful performance will never be reproduced in exactly the same way. They will also go far to help servants of Shelyn recover lost works of art, so long as they get to attend the eventual exhibition.

Dapsaras stand about 5-1/2 feet tall and weigh about 120 pounds.

Creatures in "Angel" Category

NameCR
Astral Deva14
Balisse8
Cassisian2
Choral6
Dapsara4
Empyrean20
Erelim6
Iophanite4
Kuribu3
Monadic Deva12
Movanic Deva10
Ninkonda17
Planetar16
Solar23

Angel

Source Pathfinder RPG Bestiary pg. 10
Angels are a race of celestials, beings who live on the good-aligned outer planes.

Angels can be of any good alignment. Lawful angels hail from Heaven, neutral angels from Nirvana, and chaotic angels from Elysium, though the majority serve one good deity or another and call their patron's realm their home. Most mortals assume that angels never lie, cheat, or steal, are impeccably honorable in all their dealings, and are the most trustworthy and diplomatic of all the celestials; while this is generally true, there are exceptions, especially as some angels serve good-aligned trickster gods and other chaotic entities.

The original and most powerful angels predate the mortal races. They were among the first creations of the gods of good, and those that survive to this day are among the more powerful non-divine beings in the multiverse. While new angels are still periodically created by the gods, most modern angels were once good mortals, their souls transforming into something greater upon reaching their destination in the planes. Often an angel's true form is reminiscent of its mortal self, only taller, brighter, and more powerful. The relationship between good mortal soul and angel is common knowledge, and many mortal religions assume that all members of the faith in good standing become angels of some type in the afterlife. Others confuse the issue by conflating famous mortals (such as saints and martyrs) with preexisting angels that have similar names, or suggesting that angels take human form to perform great deeds as mortals, returning to the heavens when their duties are over.

All angels are blessed with extraordinary beauty, though their actual appearances vary widely. Their natural shapechanging ability means they may appear to mortals as male or female, depending on their personal preference or the will of their deity. As they are spiritual creatures given a physical form rather than creatures of flesh born of other creatures, their gender is mutable; some angels always use a male form, some strictly a female one, and others use either or both, or prefer an androgynous or sexless shape.

Technically, the word “angel” refers to several types of humanoid angels—solars, planetars, and devas (of which the astral deva is the most common; other types exist as well)—though many mortals use the term loosely and apply it to any celestial, whether an angel, one of the guardian archons, fey-like azatas, beast-like agathions, or any other creature of the good planes. The angels do not take affront at this, as they have more important things to deal with than mortal nomenclature.

Angels speak Celestial, Draconic, and Infernal, though they can communicate with almost any creature because of their truespeech ability. All angels possess a number of similar traits. Most angels also have additional powers beyond these traits, depending on the role their deity assigns them. For example, an angelic guardian of volcanoes might have the fire subtype, or the protector of a sunken city might be aquatic, amphibious, and able to use her wings to swim.

Fallen Angels

Many religions include stories of angels rebelling against a creator or becoming corrupt and evil. Sadly, this is indeed possible, though thankfully rare, and only the proudest or weakest-willed angels succumb to this fate. Fallen angels are exiles of the good realms, hunted by their former brethren and easy targets for fiends as well. The fallen lose some of the grace and light of their untainted kin, though many are said to still be tragically beautiful. Rarer still are those fallen angels strong and clever enough to join the legions of Hell, and who are often transformed into some type of devil, or those who become demons of the Abyss and carve out a niche in that horrible realm or come to serve a greater demon.

Angelic Choirs

Whereas there are evil and cruel counterparts for all the other good races, the legions of fiends do not possess a clear analogue for the race of angels. Many scholars have debated the reasons for this strange lack of symmetry among the good and evil outsiders, and while most have come to believe that this is simply an example of good's inherent willingness to rise above specific alignments for everyone's benefit, the exact reason may never be known.

Since angels can be of any good alignment, they represent the needs and desires of all three major good outsider races. While some angels devote their energies to all three, most have a particular favorite among the races in keeping with that angel's particular alignment. While their true forms never vary between alignments, angels will often use their change shape ability to appear more like an archon, agathion, or azata as the situation and the angel's personality demands.

Angels are further subdivided into their own specific hierarchy known as the Triad of Choirs. The bulk of the angel race consists of the devas—these are the most common angels, and numerous different specialties exist, with the astral deva presented here merely the best known. Devas of the third choir have two wings. The second choir consists solely of the four-winged planetars, while the rulers of the angelic race are the six-winged solars. These are the mightiest of all angels, and the most powerful of them can directly oppose even the will of a demigod if the situation calls for it.

Angel Subtype

Angels are a race of celestials, or good outsiders, native to the good-aligned outer planes. An angel possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature's entry).
  • Darkvision 60 feet and low-light vision.
  • Immunity to acid, cold, and petrification.
  • Resistance to electricity 10 and fire 10.
  • +4 racial bonus on saves against poison.
  • Protective Aura (Su) Against attacks made or effects created by evil creatures, this ability provides a +4 deflection bonus to AC and a +4 resistance bonus on saving throws to anyone within 20 feet of the angel. Otherwise, it functions as a magic circle against evil effect and a lesser globe of invulnerability, both with a radius of 20 feet (caster level equals angel's HD). The defensive benefits from the circle are not included in an angel's statistics block.
  • Truespeech (Su) All angels can speak with any creature that has a language, as though using a tongues spell (caster level equal to angel's Hit Dice). This ability is always active.