d'Archon Designs
January 3rd, 2010
Hello everyone. Today marks not only the third day of a brand new year, but also the beginning of Archon week, which is conveniently devoted to the Lawful-Good outsiders of the same name.
A current trend in game design is to shy away from creatures like archons. Those of you who listen much to the designers in charge of 4th edition are no doubt aware of this. After all, a major reason for the shift in cosmology was for the same reason: these designers felt that planes like Arcadia, Bytopia, and Celestia had little to offer the PCs: after all, in a land full of good (and lawful, though that was less the point) creatures, what adventure could there possibly be for a group of goodly and heroic adventurers? Why would a paladin or cleric (or, for that reason, even a mildly heroic fighter or wizard) ever raise a hand against an angel, a being of pure goodness and incorruptible righteousness?
According to these designers, at least, they simply wouldn’t. I won’t go into the details about all of the built-in plot hooks and adventure information which made even the most peaceful-seeming plane a goldmine for potential adventures, but, believe me, they’re all there. That isn’t to say that there’s anything wrong with the new cosmology, mind you, but I just wanted to take a moment to quickly state that, in my mind, at least, the claims that the Planescape cosmology carried a lot of “dead weight” planes and monsters is nothing but groundless, ignorant misinformation.
Today, however, is not about Planescape (as we aren’t legally allowed to talk about it, really, and, as always, I live in constant fear of Nicol Bolas showing up to serve me with a court order), but is instead about archons. The reason I brought up the Planescape planes is that the same theory that caused them to be tossed out with the bathwater also led to the end of archons as we know them. While it’s true that 4th edition features monsters called archons (and, I must say, they’re actually fairly interesting monsters, and one of my favorite things to come out of 4th edition’s new setting), these creatures have absolutely nothing in common with the archons of old. They are elemental creatures whose sole purpose is to fight and kill, which makes a stark contrast from the archons we all know and love: the lantern, hound, and trumpet archons.
Along the same lines, angels (who are technically different from archons, but who I tend to lump into the same camp, possibly because of my fondness for the Planescape cosmology, which had angels as Lawful Good and filled the role of Neutral Good creatures with the guardinals) in 4th edition bear little resemblance to those of prior cosmologies, as they are now neutral creatures, who mindlessly pursue any task their deity (or whatever) sets before them, regardless of the morality of the act.
The reason for these changes, according to those behind them, was that creatures like angels, archons, metallic dragons, and other generally “good” creatures were simply not pulling their weight as monsters. Certainly, if we accept the supposition that players are highly unlikely to ever cross swords (or even wits) with such agents of holy will, then it stands to reason that such creatures really wouldn’t be worth the paper they’re printed on: after all, what purpose is there to have a monster stat-block for monsters that the PCs are unlikely to fight? One hardly needs to give a stat-block to the divine messenger who just pops in from the heavens to inform the PCs that the Sword of Truth and Light (or a relic of your choice) has been stolen and must be recovered, or that the dread lord Raul Drakon is bearing down on a holy temple with an army of a thousand dragons, and only the PCs stand between him and conquering the world, as that messenger is simply going to depart afterward.
One could make a case that statistics are useful for such creatures because it allows them to serve as allies to the PCs as they fight the forces of darkness. Unfortunately, as most DMs with any experience are aware, this is mostly an excellent way to take the spotlight off of the PCs. Even if the goodly creature doesn’t wind up making the PCs seem obsolete by simply mechanically outdoing them, it will likely wind up stealing the spotlight in other ways, such as by providing a convenient “plot-o-meter.” Honestly, in my experience, angels and the like only make suitable companions to the party if they are notably weaker than the party and have no special knowledge of the adventure—sort of like a mascot that the players are fond of, and go out of their way to protect on the battlefield. These things can’t really be forced on the players—that’s a great way to create bad feelings, and, besides, they’re a lot less likely to try to protect the character if they don’t genuinely care about him—but when they do arise, they can be fun. Still, there are often better choices for this than archons, and it’s not something that comes up all that often, anyway.
All of that, however, is really only relevant if you accept the premise that PCs and archons have no reason to fight. This is simply not true. There are many reasons why the PCs might find themselves at odds with the forces of good, and while some of them require a little bit of effort on the DM’s part, I am confident that all of them have the potential to be highly satisfying, as well as mixing things up a bit: variety is the spice of life, and all that, and how often do you really get to fight an angel in a game like D&D?
The most obvious answer to the issue is the ever-popular (on our forums, at least) “evil campaign,” in which the PCs all play evil characters who do evil things for evil purposes. With one of the game’s core assumptions (that the PCs are paragons of virtue) tossed on its head in such a manner, the creatures which PCs originally would never have reason to fight will now flock to them, constantly trying to thwart their schemes. Alternatively, the PCs might find themselves assaulting a celestial stronghold in order to gain access to a powerful relic which was locked away for safekeeping, or may find that the demon lord they summoned refuses to give them the information they seek until they prove themselves by sacrificing a hound archon in an unholy ritual.
There are much easier ways to get PCs to go toe-to-toe with archons, however, and they require much less of a commitment from the DM about the style of game. The trick here is largely to remember that, while archons and their like are wholly devoted to the cause of good (and, in the case of archons, at least, law), they aren’t infallible. What’s more, when it comes to the kinds of stakes that adventurers often deal with, “good” can often become a tangled and complicated affair. Consider, for example, a party of heroes who set out to recover the lost Sword of Great Goodliness, which they need to defeat the evil Lord McEvilbad, who usurped his brother’s throne and has been taxing the peasantry into oblivion. A hound archon tracks down the PCs en route, demanding that they abandon their task, as legends say that the sword must only be drawn in the most dire of circumstances, and that a petty nobleman is not nearly dire enough. He feels strongly that he is in the right, and if the PCs insist on continuing, he fights them to (in his mind, at least) save the realm. Was he right? I don’t know. You’re the DM.
The conflict need not even be a real one, however: perhaps the PCs have been falsely accused of a crime, or the archon is misinformed, or has, for whatever reason, lost sight of his priorities. Maybe he’s even been dominated (or, if you don’t want to throw 9th-level spells around willy-nilly, he could simply have been dominated through some other means: perhaps the true villain holds an entire orphanage worth of hostages to ensure that the archon plays along) and is attacking the PCs against his will. Perhaps the PCs have been cursed with the likeness of their own archenemies, and while the bad guy runs around enjoying (and perhaps tarnishing) their good name, they are stuck with a huge price on their heads and are running from a horde of archons out to bring them to justice.
Finally, far too many people make the mistake of forgetting that archons are as devoted to law as they are to good. Even campaigns full of virtuous heroes are likely to have times when the PCs are working outside the law, whether because those laws are serving the forces of darkness, or just because the PCs are of a particularly chaotic bent. Either way, the struggle between Law and Chaos is just as strong (if not stronger) as the struggle between Good and Evil, and it’s far from unthinkable that an archon might hunt down the PCs for some small and petty crime, whether because he holds such heroes to a higher standard, or because paragons of law tend to be sticklers for even the smallest sort of rule-breaking. In fact, the PCs may wind up thrust in the middle of a conflict between archons and azatas, forced to mediate peace talks between the two wildly opposed factions.
Join me next week, when I’ll be unveiling the first book in our new .pdf series: A Necromancer’s Grimoire: The Book of Purifying Flames. It’ll be some pretty hot stuff (okay, okay, bad pun), so be sure not to miss it! In the meantime, happy new year, everyone.