Large Celestial (Angel), Lawful Good
- AC
- 19
- Initiative
- +10 (20)
- HP
- 262 (21d10+147)
- Speed
- 40 ft., Fly 120 ft. (hover)
| Score | Mod | Save | |
|---|---|---|---|
| STR | 24 | +7 | +12 |
| DEX | 20 | +5 | +5 |
| CON | 24 | +7 | +12 |
| INT | 19 | +4 | +4 |
| WIS | 22 | +6 | +11 |
| CHA | 25 | +7 | +12 |
Traits
Divine Awareness. The planetar knows if it hears a lie.
Exalted Restoration. If the planetar dies outside Mount Celestia, its body disappears, and it gains a new body instantly, reviving with all its Hit Points somewhere in Mount Celestia.
Magic Resistance. The planetar has Advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Actions
Multiattack. The planetar makes three Radiant Sword attacks or uses Holy Burst twice.
Radiant Sword. Melee Attack Roll: +12, reach 10 ft. Hit: 14 (2d6+7) Slashing damage plus 18 (4d8) Radiant damage.
Holy Burst. Dexterity Saving Throw: DC 20, each enemy in a 20-foot-radius Sphere centered on a point the planetar can see within 120 feet. Failure: 24 (7d6) Radiant damage. Success: Half damage.
Spellcasting. The planetar casts one of the following spells, requiring no Material components and using Charisma as spellcasting ability (spell save DC 20):
At Will: Detect Evil and Good
1/Day Each: Commune, Control Weather, Dispel Evil and Good, Raise Dead
Bonus Actions
Divine Aid (2/Day). The planetar casts Cure Wounds, Invisibility, Lesser Restoration, or Remove Curse, using the same spellcasting ability as Spellcasting.
How to run Planetar
A planetar showing up to fight on the party's side is a strong scene if you handle two things. First, it's on loan from a deity or higher celestial, and it returns the moment its work is finished. Second, it does not improvise. If the players try to extend the visit or ask for help with a problem the planetar wasn't sent for, it politely declines and gives them a one-line blessing.
Use the planetar for one specific thing. A paladin might invoke a god's intervention. Sometimes the party simply walks into a location where the Upper Planes have stake in the outcome. Whatever the reason, the planetar should arrive with a stated purpose, which defines the scene's beginning and end.
In combat, lead with Holy Burst once for the dramatic clear, then identify the creature that best fits the planetar's mandate and go for that one until it drops. Detect Evil and Good helps it find fiends, undead, and other supernatural threats, while Divine Awareness makes lying to it a bad idea. Do not treat the spell as a general morality scanner. If your actual BBEG is morally complicated, the planetar might hesitate, and the hesitation can carry a whole subplot.
The exit matters more than the fight. Once the threat is gone, the planetar says something brief and uplifting to whoever summoned it and leaves the way it came. Don't let it linger. The party should feel the loss of having had something perfect on their side for one scene.
A trick worth doing: write the planetar's farewell line before the session. A clean exit beats five minutes of awkward improvised goodbye.
A hostile planetar is uncommon, so you need a setup. Perhaps it has been deceived about the party's intentions, or it serves a god at odds with the party's patron, or a corrupted relic has tipped it off-balance. Sell whichever setup you pick for at least one scene before swords come out, because a planetar that's wrong about the party is a tragedy, and a planetar that's right about them is a campaign-ender.
Once the fight starts, the planetar is an executioner. Its walking speed is 40 ft. but it hovers at 120 ft. of fly, so it opens with Holy Burst from outside the party's effective response range. The DC 20 Dex save and 24 radiant in a 20-foot sphere will drop several casters and squishies in one round even on a passed save. After the burst it drops into melee for three Radiant Sword attacks, averaging 96 damage on full hits. That's enough to put a tank on the floor if the dice cooperate.
Spellcasting is your difficulty lever. Detect Evil and Good helps the planetar confirm creature types, not private motives, so let its orders decide who it prioritizes. Save Dispel Evil and Good for a player who's clearly an undead or fiend, or for an extraplanar threat that has made itself obvious. Commune is your release valve. If the fight is going badly, the planetar withdraws via flight and reports back to its superior. Planetars do not do last stands.
Magic Resistance plus a 21 Passive Perception keeps surprise rounds and disabling spells largely off the table. The fight should feel hard but legible. The party should always understand why the planetar is doing what it does, even as they can't stop it.
Telegraph the Holy Burst with a line of celestial song before you call for the save. The pause between the song and the save is half the encounter.
Lore guide
Planetar 5e Lore: There Are More Than Three Angels
Unofficial D&D fan content. This guide summarizes and analyzes public lore sources; it is not endorsed by Wizards of the Coast.
Planetars are big angels. They usually leave Mount Celestia to fulfill a mandate.
The current 5e stat block gives the rules frame: strong powers, lethal to most enemies that your players may face (D&D Beyond SRD 5.2.1). D&D Beyond also keeps the older 2014 Planetar page online as legacy material (D&D Beyond: Planetar).
This guide is unofficial D&D fan content. It is original commentary, not copied adventure prose, and it follows the public Wizards of the Coast Fan Content Policy. Setting notes cite public wiki pages that point back to published D&D books and adventures.
The useful taxonomy
The usual 5e angel ladder is Deva, Planetar, Solar.
A Deva is the messenger. A Planetar bears the mission. A Solar commands.
That distinction matters more than the stat hierarchy. “Above Deva, below Solar” tells you power level, but not what the creature is doing in the story. Older lore also presents the Planetar as a CR 16 angel tied to good-aligned planes and anti-fiend conflict, which supports the idea that it is not a minor servant (d20 SRD: Angel).
The better question is: what kind of Planetar has your campaign produced?
The Sword
This is the simplest Planetar: something has crossed a divine line, and the Planetar has been sent to eliminate the threat.
The 5e rules support this role. The current SRD version flies fast, resists magic, sees through many deceptions, hits hard, and can attack at range with Holy Burst (D&D Beyond SRD 5.2.1). Older lore leans further into the anti-fiend role (d20 SRD: Angel).
Use this Planetar for one-scene intervention. The party is losing, the ritual has gone too far, etc. The Planetar buys time, destroys the target, or opens a path.
Then it leaves, because it has other assignments, and if it stays, it becomes the party’s answer to every problem.
The Witness
The current stat block gives Planetars Divine Awareness: the Planetar knows when it hears a lie (D&D Beyond SRD 5.2.1). That ability changes gameplay more than an extra attack or damage bonus would.
Hence, a Planetar is useful during social scenes: in its presence, deception is dangerous and exact wording important.
Do not overread Detect Evil and Good. In modern 5e, the spell detects certain creature types and hallowed magic, but it does not reveal a person’s private morality (D&D Beyond SRD 5.2.1). The Planetar can catch lies and identify some supernatural threats, but it does not automatically know every sin in the room.
The Physician
A Planetar can heal, restore, remove curses, and raise the dead through its listed magic (D&D Beyond SRD 5.2.1). The older 2014 version also carried strong healing utility (D&D Beyond: Planetar).
Use that power sparingly. A Planetar can save a life because that life matters to its mission. It can lift a curse because the curse blocks the mandate. It should not become a recurring hospital for the party.
The Prisoner
Nascius, mentioned in Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus, is the strongest public Forgotten Realms example of this pattern (Forgotten Realms Wiki: Nascius).
A trapped Planetar powers an ancient powerful artifact. The party may be right to free the Planetar and still responsible for what happens next.
Ask two questions: what is the Planetar powering, and who benefits from keeping it trapped?
The Zealot
A fallen Planetar isn’t the same as a demon.
Fazrian, from Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, is the clearest public Realms example of a corrupted Planetar (Forgotten Realms Wiki: Fazrian). His holy mission has become violent, narrow, obsessive.
It is not an “evil angel.” It still cares about justice, and it still hates corruption. But it has lost proportion.
Use virtues as the danger: truth without patience, justice without scale, courage without doubt.
The Herald
A Planetar should reflect the power it serves.
Forgotten Realms material lists the Shards as seven Planetars serving Selune and includes other named Planetars tied to good powers (Forgotten Realms Wiki: Planetar).
A Planetar of Selune should not speak like a Planetar of Tyr. A Planetar of Bahamut should not treat guilt, mercy, or oaths the same way as a Planetar of Lathander.
Change symbols, taboos, enemies, and language before changing mechanics.
Different settings
Planetars do not mean the same thing in every D&D setting.
In a default Great Wheel or Forgotten Realms campaign, a Planetar belongs to the Upper Planes, good deities, and the good-aligned parts of the multiverse. Public Realms material places Planetars around Mount Celestia and other Upper Plane contexts, and Planescape treats the Outer Planes as playable geography (Forgotten Realms Wiki: Planetar; Planescape overview).
Planescape adds politics. Older 2e material uses terms like aasimon for angelic beings, and Planetars appear in that older monster-list context (AD&D 2e monster list). In Planescape, a Planetar has superiors, enemies, planar obligations, and its reputation matters.
In Eberron, the setting is less interested in proving that gods personally intervene. Divine magic exists, but faith remains ambiguous (Eberron overview).
In Eberron, run the Planetar as planar rather than clerical. Eberron’s angel material ties angels to planes, and Syrania gives a clean celestial-plane anchor (Eberron Wiki: Angel; Eberron Wiki: Syrania). Radiant Idols also show that Eberron already has a fallen-celestial pattern for dangerous beings on the Material Plane (Eberron Wiki: Radiant Idol).
That gives you useful variants: a Syranian Planetar enforcing peace too strictly, an Irian-style Planetar preserving life without consent, or a Shavaran-style Planetar treating a local war as one front in a larger eternal conflict.
Pathfinder is not D&D 5e canon, but its first-edition Planetar preserves the same d20 shape: a CR 16 angelic general below the highest celestial tier, tied to good planes and celestial warfare (Archives of Nethys: Planetar). The pattern is consistent: do not make the Planetar small.
Homebrew patterns
Use the Celestial Warlock frame and make the Planetar a source of visions, debts, taboos, and commands. The public Unearthed Arcana version of the Celestial patron describes an Upper Planes patron category broad enough for this idea, though it is not a Planetar-specific option (Unearthed Arcana: Revised Class Options).
A playable Planetar usually does not work. A literal Planetar has CR 16 scale, flight, truesight, telepathy, high stats, strong magic, and heavy celestial lore (D&D Beyond SRD 5.2.1; D&D Beyond: Planetar). Use an Aasimar, Paladin, Cleric, Divine Soul Sorcerer, or Celestial Warlock instead. Say the character carries a Planetar’s oath, brand, feather, dream, bloodline, or unfinished mission.
A Planetar villain is a great homebrew angle. Make it wrong because it has bad information, a narrow command, or a definition of justice the party cannot accept.
Fighting a demon means evil has arrived. Fighting a Planetar means the campaign’s moral order has failed.
Arcana and Religion checks
Use Religion for hierarchy, doctrine, sacred history, divine service, and likely patron deity. Use Arcana for summoning, binding, planar mechanics, creature identification, and magical limits.
If a character has both skills, give the clearer answer.
| DC | Skill | What the character knows | Source pointer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Religion | This is an angelic Celestial associated with powerful good-aligned forces, not merely a winged humanoid. | D&D Beyond Planetar, FR Wiki Planetar |
| 12 | Arcana | It has supernatural flight, truesight, broad communication, strong magic resistance, and divine magic. | SRD 5.2.1 |
| 15 | Religion | Planetars sit above Devas and below Solars in the useful 5e angel hierarchy. They are not minor messengers. | D&D Beyond Planetar, d20 SRD Angel |
| 15 | Arcana | Detect Evil and Good is not a general morality scanner in modern 5e. It detects certain creature types and hallowed magic. | SRD 5.2.1 |
| 18 | Religion | A Planetar usually acts under a mandate. If it is here, something with celestial authority probably sent it. | FR Wiki Planetar |
| 20 | Arcana | A Planetar can be bound, trapped, or used as the power source for a miracle. Breaking the binding may break the miracle. | Nascius |
| 22 | Religion | A Planetar can be wrong without becoming a demon. A holy mission can become violent, obsessive, or corrupted. | Fazrian, Radiant Idol |
| 25 | Arcana or Religion | In Eberron, read a Planetar through planar immortals and faith ambiguity, not as simple proof that a god is personally intervening. | Eberron Angel, Syrania |
Five Planetar problems
The angel in the engine. A city has no plague, famine, undead, criminals, etc. The blessing is powered by a bound Planetar. Freeing it ends the miracle. Nascius is the official example.
The clean city. A fallen Planetar takes command of a corrupt district. Crime vanishes, along with informants, debtors, petty thieves, dissidents, and anyone who lied during questioning. Fazrian is the official example.
The wrong apocalypse. A Planetar arrives to kill a child prophesied to become a tyrant. The prophecy is real but incomplete. The Planetar will not stop unless the party finds stronger divine or planar authority.
The patron calls in the debt. A Celestial Warlock, Paladin, or Cleric learns that the visions came from a Planetar, not directly from a god. The Planetar needs mortal agents because entering the warded site itself would trigger a planar incident (Unearthed Arcana: Revised Class Options).
The Eberron idol. In Sharn or another manifest-zone city, a fallen celestial claims to be a holy proxy. The public good is real but it comes with a cult that has long-term negative consequences for the local community. Radiant Idols are the Eberron research trail (Eberron Wiki: Radiant Idol).
How to label your sources
Separate rules, setting lore, and homebrew.
Rules come from SRD 5.2.1 and the older D&D Beyond Planetar page (D&D Beyond SRD 5.2.1; D&D Beyond: Planetar).
Setting lore comes from published settings and adventures. Public wiki pages can help locate the relevant material, but they are research pointers, not primary books (Forgotten Realms Wiki: Planetar; Nascius; Fazrian).
Homebrew is inference. Planetar patrons, Planetar-touched PCs, Eberron-flavored Planetars, and specific divine mandates are table adaptations inspired by adjacent material.
FAQ
What is a Planetar in D&D 5e?
A Planetar is a high-ranking angelic Celestial. In 5e it is a CR 16 creature, so it belongs in high-level play, divine intervention scenes, planar stories, and major celestial conflicts rather than ordinary town encounters (D&D Beyond SRD 5.2.1; D&D Beyond: Planetar).
Is a Planetar stronger than a Deva?
Yes. The useful 5e hierarchy is Deva, Planetar, Solar. Devas can be messengers, Planetars are mission commanders, and Solars are near-mythic authorities (D&D Beyond: Planetar; d20 SRD: Angel).
Can a Planetar fall?
Yes, if your setting supports that story. Fazrian is the strongest Forgotten Realms example of a corrupted Planetar, and Eberron’s Radiant Idols are a separate fallen-celestial pattern (Forgotten Realms Wiki: Fazrian; Eberron Wiki: Radiant Idol).
Can I use a Planetar as a Warlock patron?
Yes, especially for a Celestial Warlock. Keep it mostly offstage. A Planetar patron works best as orders, visions, taboos, and debt (Unearthed Arcana: Revised Class Options).
Sources used
- D&D Beyond: System Reference Document 5.2.1
- D&D Beyond: Planetar legacy stat block
- Wizards of the Coast Fan Content Policy
- Forgotten Realms Wiki: Planetar
- Forgotten Realms Wiki: Nascius
- Forgotten Realms Wiki: Fazrian
- d20 SRD: Angel, including Planetar
- Planescape overview
- AD&D 2e monster list
- Eberron Wiki: Angel
- Eberron Wiki: Syrania
- Eberron Wiki: Radiant Idol
- Unearthed Arcana: Revised Class Options
- Archives of Nethys: Pathfinder Planetar
Stat block from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 © Wizards of the Coast LLC, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.