The Gaming Den

Burning wheel Angels, demons that teach you math, leviathans and ziz, and so on. If there's even more obscure stuff that appears outside of the bible that'd be even better.

The closest thing I can think of is the Shin Megami Tensei bestiary http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Angel which usually sticks to mythology with how they portray 'em.

hah!

Whichever dominions faction it is that has all the cool old testament angels might help.

OgreBattle wrote:The closest thing I can think of is the Shin Megami Tensei bestiary

Oh HELL YEAH! I find that they make that mythology interesting, and/or showcase how awesome it COULD be. It's definitely material I would look at for ideas, if/when I'd do some God-of-war-esque one-shot/short campaign of taking down the Judeo-Christian Mythology (Though never played/read Feng-Shui, nor I know how "complete" material in that link is exactly).

Somewhere in older editions, the three angelic choirs were stated out. They were updated here. (Scroll down a bit to find the angels.)

Though they are kind of crappy. Maybe I should do my own version...

Wiseman wrote:Somewhere in older editions, the three angelic choirs were stated out. They were updated here. (Scroll down a bit to find the angels.)

Though they are kind of crappy. Maybe I should do my own version...

Ho- Li- Shit-

And it's OGL too. Though with a rather insane Section 15.

Testament has quite a few you could use.

Wiseman wrote:Somewhere in older editions, the three angelic choirs were stated out. They were updated here. (Scroll down a bit to find the angels.)

Though they are kind of crappy. Maybe I should do my own version...

They are named after the choirs, but all of them are humans with wings wielding greatswords.

To be honest, that's most angels in D&D.

Yeah the angels in D&D have little in common with Judao-Christian angels aside from the name. And really, they aren't very interesting. I always thought the spirits in the Hindu/Buddhist tradition would make much more interesting D&D creatures.

Just take a perusal through the books of Ezekiel and Revelations. They aren't that long and are super freaking trippy. You'd get a better feel for the monsters than through more modern interpretation books.

Plus, big thing to remember is that when angels say, "I come in peace", in the bible, it doesn't mean they are nice guys. Its means "don't freak the fuck out, I'm not here to bring the hammer of God down on you like normal". In the old testament Jacob wrestles with an Angel and when the Angel can't win, he breaks his hip to gain an advantage. So classic Old Testament angels are actually perfect monsters to add in. Not to mention that theologically archangels are the weakest not strongest of the angels like most assume, so you can fuck with your players that way. They're messengers and a bridge between humans and the divine, not the rulers of angels like a ton of people assume.

Biggest thing to do with Old Testament monsters is to emphasize the impersonality of it all. You're being fucked and you don't really don't know why or maybe haven't even done anything wrong. The Book of Job is basically Satan (not evil Satan, but "tester of people Satan") and God arguing over whether or not Satan can cause Job to lose his faith by repeatedly crushing his life.

Anywhoo, Ezekiel, Job and Revelations, with maybe some genesis. You can read them all for free online and they are all great inspirations for some different monsters, who will truly seem alien to your players. Avoid using more modern books because they tend to bring the monsters into line with how modern Judeo Christianity views the divine, divine powers and the nature of punishment. The originals don't take that much time and are a great source.