Harmonious choirs of the words (often shortened to just "harmonious choirs") were highly intelligent and powerful celestials.[1]
Description[]
Harmonious choirs looked like balls of light some 2 feet (0.61 meters) in diameter, with a smooth, not-quite-human face floating within and a stream of runes flowing from the mouth. The coloring of the face and the runes varied from individual to individual, though most were of the cooler colors of blues, greens, and purples.[1]
The voice of a harmonious choir sounded like dozens of voices speaking in perfect unity.[1]
Personality[]
Harmonious choirs were friendly, voluble, and more interested in promoting good than what structure or lack thereof underlay it.[1]
They loved nothing so much as conversation and knowledge: to them, the wrestling of ideas, enjoyment of learning, and beauty of language were their own rewards; whether such occurred as conversations between peers or were given more as tutorials was secondary at best. They constantly sought out knowledge, however trivial, and gladly shared what they knew, though keeping one on track could be difficult.[1]
Abilities[]
Harmonious choirs were creatures of powerful and potent magic as well as knowledge. They could, for example, dispel magically induced silence at will, and they could innate bypass or dispel magical glyphs, runes symbols, and other writing, nor did they suffer negative effects from such writings if they did not choose to. Beyond that, they had a number of innate spell-like abilities, being able to replicate the effects of analyze dweomer, commune, daylight, detect thoughts, discern lies, enthrall, flare, legend lore, message, read magic, speak with dead, and stone tell all at will; dispel evil, dispel magic, glyph of warding, and major image each thrice per day; and erase, hold person, shatter, shout, suggestion, summon monster V, and teleport each once per day.[1]
Certain abilities of the harmonious choir were similar to those possessed by bards; they could, for instance, cast up to moderate spells in a manner akin to bards, as well as produce similar magical songs. They could sing in such a manner some ten times each day. Their outward similarity to bards was only compounded by their vast and expansive knowledge.[1]
They could also use what were called the Words of Creation to enhance their bardic music or any process of creation or crafting, or to energize good magic, or, if the harmonious choir knew a creature's true name, it could use the Words to exert control over that creature in a number of ways.[1]
A harmonious choir of words could, interestingly, merge its body with that of another creature on the same plane in a manner similar to that of a magic jar spell, but their ability did not require a vessel. A creature that successful resisted the merge was immune to further attempts for several hours, and effects like protection from good prevented use of this ability.[1]
Harmonious choirs radiated a protective aura that affected all of its allies who were within 20 feet (6.1 meters) of it and could see it. The aura made them both harder to hit with attacks, and strengthened their ability to dodge or resist attacks and magic cast by evil creatures. It also produced the magical effects of arcane sight, detect evil, know direction, light, speak with plants, tongues, and true seeing.[1]
Harmonious choirs could turn undead eight times each day, similar to clerics of moderate power. Among their innate defenses, they were incorporeal, as well as immune to harm from acid and electricity, and could not be affected by polymorph, necromantic magic, and mind-affecting magic.[1]
Combat[]
Harmonious choirs of the words were peaceful creatures by preference, but they did not shy away from combat to protect themselves or others. They typically targeted enemy spellcasters first using their own spells and spell-like abilities, as well as their ability to fire off rays of light that sapped both the physical strength and mental fortitude of foes.[1]
Society[]
Harmonious choirs were said to be living embodiments of the Words of Creation, which were the words used to create everything at the beginning. Whatever the case, they were in fact made of many words that were, akin to a sentence or paragraph, arranged into a single structure.[1]
Harmonious choirs were scholars that were constantly learning, talking, often singing, and sometimes even composing poetry. They were native to the House of Knowledge, and harmonious choirs would serve Deneir, Milil, Oghma, or, more rarely, Gond.[1]
Accordingly, with their natural talents and inclinations, harmonious choirs favored training as bards. They spoke all languages, but they themselves preferred the Celestial language.[1]
Trivia[]
A summon monster IX spell could call a harmonious choir of the words.[1]
Appendix[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 Thomas M. Costa, Ed Greenwood (March 2007). “Volo's Guide: Outsiders of the Forgotten Realms”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #353 (Paizo Publishing, LLC), pp. 64–67.
Connections[]
| Angel (any good alignment) | ||
| Archon (lawful good) | Guardinal (neutral good) | Eladrin (chaotic good) |
Arcadian avenger • Asura • Bariaur • Couatl • Einheriar • Foo creature (Foo dog • Foo lion) • Harmonious choir of the words • Hollyphant • Ki-rin • Lillend • Moon dog • Pegasus • Shirokinukatsukami • Sliver • Unicorn (Celestial charger)
Related Creatures
Aasimar (Deva) • Celestial creature • Half-celestial