Aasimar 5E Race Guide | Tips and Builds for the Aasimar Race

It is nearly impossible to tango with Celestials. They are some of the most powerful beings in Dungeons & Dragons 5E, and they have a ton of magic inherently within them. That’s why their children, the Aasimar, are so powerful. Aasimar are the union between a celestial and a mortal being or descend from Mount Celestia as nearly perfect humans. Of course, a race in Dungeons & Dragons 5E can’t be perfect, so Aasimar do have some quirks to them. Find out how to make your Aasimar work best with our Aasimar 5E race guide!

Aasimar Lore

Aasimar were introduced twice, once in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and with much more detail in the Volo’s Guide to Monsters. We will be referring to the Volo’s Guide Aasimar in this guide, as it is by far the most versatile and interesting.

Aasimar are nearly perfect-looking human beings, typically with slight changes in skin or with very holy features. They are created by the gods to serve law and goodness, and thus receive visions from their deities which reinforce the reason that they were created. These dreams are hugely influential on an Aasimar’s life, since it gives them a prophecy which they are expected to follow.

Their dreams are caused by an angelic guide, which is typically a high-ranking angel like a deva. These angels can’t give direct orders, and instead causes dreams and feelings within the aasimar. The deva can make mistakes, however, since it can only give advice based on it’s own perspective. For most Aasimar, their guide will be important to their journey and should be fleshed out… However, some Aasimar can get frustrated by their guide’s constant messages, and may break ties by becoming evil or magical separation.

Because of their destiny, the Aasimar must be careful to hide their incredibly obvious ties to Mount Celestia. Any evil creature would love to get their hands on an Aasimar, either to kill them or convert them. So, most Aasimars keep it quiet until there’s a chance to defend the innocent against evil.

The free will of the Aasimar is a problem for the celestials that made them. Most that separate from their angelic guide become neutral, but a select few become evil. These fallen aasimar are devastating foes, since their magic becomes corrupted and rotten. This feeling of rebellion might even blossom in the most stalwart of aasimar champions. The constant reminders of the guide can be annoying, and the guide very much undersells some kinds of evil, like robbing the poor or political (rather than religious) corruption.

Aasimar names are usually based on their human parents. Check out our Aasimar names guide if you want some advice.

Aasimar Attributes

Aasimars are paragons of humanity, but that doesn’t mean they’re perfect. In fact, they’re actually quite heavily leaning towards the magical side of humanity.

• +2 Charisma. A somewhat inflexible stat bonus. Charisma is far from a bad stat, and is an important stat for 4 classes. That’s not bad! Charisma saves are rare, but you’ll like having a high Charisma save when a magic effect comes up that targets Charisma. Still, this puts Aasimar in a rather unfortunate position where they’re most useful in a few specific classes. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s important to remember that Charisma is not the most flexible mental stat.

• Medium size, 30 ft movement. These are both average. Medium size is what most dungeons are built around, and so is 30 ft movement. You have no alternate forms of movement, which means you climb and swim rather slowly. Still, few races have that, so it’s hard to ask for more.

• Darkvision. The best vision bonus. Darkvision allows you to almost ignore torches, taking away a massive marker on you. If you’re a bruiser or frontline class, Darkvision matters less, since you want enemies to target you. But, casters especially love Darkvision so they can get the drop on unsuspecting opponents. 

• Celestial Resistance. These two resistances are far from bad, but are more late-game. Necrotic and Radiant are somewhat rare, outside of a few specific spells. If the enemy doesn’t have those specific spells, you’re relying on some relatively standard enemies (like fiends, undead, or celestials). This is a somewhat niche resistance, but plenty fine.

• Healing Hands. This amount of healing might not look good. But imagine this situation; your party is fighting a boss, and your Cleric got domed with a crit and fell unconscious. You’re a Sorcerer with no healing capabilities, and the rest of your party doesn’t have any way to pick up your Cleric. Well, now you can spend an action to get the Cleric up, and let them heal themselves and the rest of the party. It’s not going to be useful all the time, but it’ll come in handy!

• Light Bearer. Free cantrip. Not very useful for you, Mr. Darkvision, but it will let your non-Darkvision allies ignore torches. That frees up hands and lets you see just fine.

• Languages. Celestial is a good language for negotiating with Celestials, but little else. Considering you’re an Aasimar, you’re (probably) already on good terms with Celestials, so the usefulness of this might be a bit questionable. At least it sounds pretty!

Aasimar Subraces

In total, there are three subraces for the Aasimar.

Fallen Aasimar

Fallen Aasimars are inherently evil, in that they fell from grace. Their magic becomes necromantic, and they are fierce on the battlefield… But they still have Healing Hands from the basic Aasimar toolkit. Dunno what that’s about.

• +1 Strength. Great for Paladins, Fighters, or even Barbarians. This makes Fallen Aasimar a key choice if you want to do something with yourself other than use your Charisma.

• Necrotic Shroud. Big level 3 powerspike for you. Area of effect frighten to keep your party safe, then you deal a huge amount of damage every round. If you’re ever in a dangerous fight, or needing to damage down a boss, Necrotic Shroud might be the damage potential you need.

Protector Aasimar

Protector Aasimar are defensive angelic beings, here to protect the innocent. Perhaps the most basic Aasimar.

• +1 Wisdom. Awful. Wisdom and Charisma have next to no synergy with each other. This does allow Aasimar to pretend to be alright in Wisdom-based caster classes, but your massive Charisma bonus goes to waste. Wisdom is at least good for saving throws and Perception checks… You got that going for you. Maybe multiclassing?

• Radiant Soul. The fly speed is super nice, since you’re still getting it 2 levels before the Fly spell. You also get a big burst of damage every round. Great for shredding a boss or chasing an annoying flying creature.

Scourge Aasimar

Scourge Aasimars bring the wrath of the heavens upon their foes, and are thus the most violent Aasimar. Even more so than Fallen!

• +1 Constitution. Great! Constitution boosts your health, increases your chances to survive, and boosts your Constitution saves. Every class in the game benefits from Constitution.

• Radiant Consumption. You hurt yourself a lot during this form, which sucks. You also can hurt your friendly melee allies. However, if you’re defending a flank by yourself, this is great area of effect which burns your enemies to death. You’ll be hurting them a lot more than they hurt you! This is fantastic damage per round, especially for short ranged classes.

Best Class for Aasimar

The +2 Charisma puts Aasimar in an unfortunate spot where the Charisma classes are just so good for them. There’s very little reason not to pick a class that says you benefit off of Charisma.

Good Classes for Aasimar

• Bard. Your pick for a Support class on Aasimar. Bards get most of the healing that Clerics get (Healing Word being especially useful) while depending on Charisma. Bards also get to use each archetype of the Aasimar very well; Fallen for Valor melee builds, Protector as a good generalist, Scourge also for melee builds, though with more dexterity allowance. Your racial abilities are a nearly perfect fit for the Bard.

• Paladin. Your pick for melee builds, typically. Fallen and Scourge Paladins are both insanely strong, with extra ability to heal, good resistances, and the ability to see far ahead of themselves. You don’t suffer in stats, you get great ability to boost your Saving Throws through your auras… Yeah, Paladins Aasimars are sort of insane. Heck, you can even go Protector for Fly Speed, if you want! There are very few cons for picking Paladin here, other than maybe not getting super good Strength early on.

• Sorcerer. Aasimar sorcerers aren’t usually Fallen, but Protectors and Scourges both have their uses. As a Protector, you can use the Fly speed to get out of bad situations and position yourself to rain spells on your enemies (maybe with Quickened Spell to get that first round of Level Damage in!). Scourges benefit a lot from the Constitution, but are probably not getting the most out of Radiant Consumption. Still, Sorcerers really like the bonus healing ability, each archetype has a reason to be a Sorcerer, and you’ll find the Darkvision and Radiant/Necrotic resistance useful.

• Warlock. Basically all the good points of the Sorcerer. The Charisma is great, you can make use of all archetypes (Fallen gives you potential Heavy Armor for Hexblade builds!), and their racial features are fantastic for you. You also get the weird interaction between your Patron and your Guide, which should be amusing. Aasimar Warlocks will probably suffer in the AC department, but not many other departments!

Bad Classes for Aasimar

• Artificer. Artificers only benefit from the Constitution bonus of the Scourge Aasimar. Any other benefits that the Aasimar can give (which is admittedly a lot) is overridden by how much Artificer relies on Intelligence. You’ll be doing less damage, having easier spells to save against, and generally just not being useful. Your racial features aren’t worth that.

• Barbarian. The Charisma bonus is wasted on a Barbarian. Healing Hands doesn’t really matter, because you’ll be locked in melee combat and likely won’t be able to quickly get to people. You might be able to make a Fallen or Scourge Aasimar work okay, but a Paladin might get the job done better.

• Cleric. Protector Aasimar can get a tiny bit of work done, but Clerics don’t really need the Aasimar’s features. They have the tools to replicate the Aasimar, and you’ll be down a Wisdom and up two Charisma that you just don’t need.

• Druid. Once again, Protector Aasimar can do okay work, and this time Druids have more trouble replicating Aasimar features. Still, you have 2 more Charisma than you need, and your class features aren’t necessarily good for Druids; they can heal just fine.

• Fighter. Banneret Aasimars are actually great, and I can see them working out fine. Otherwise, there is no fighter that needs anything to do with Charisma. Your class features work well on a Fighter, but you’ll be doing decreased damage. This isn’t really a bad option, just a suboptimal one.

• Monk. Monks can replicate your class features somewhat, and you give them no Dexterity and up to +1 Wisdom. This is a really bad choice. You’ll be very squishy and not hit very hard.

• Ranger. No Dexterity, only +1 Wisdom… You’ll be lagging behind on damage. The Charisma is worthless, and Rangers have spells that can let them track easier or even heal their allies. There’s not much of a reason to play a Ranger Aasimar.

• Rogue. Rogues rely too much on Dexterity; your Aasimar will have low AC and low damage. Your racial abilities are pretty nice for a Rogue, however, and you might get away with it in the lategame. Protector or Scourge rogues can have a weird, not too strong niche.

• Wizard. Basically, same thing as Artificer. Wizards have great spells, but you’re much better off being a Sorcerer. Your Intelligence will be too bad to warrant choosing the class, and your racial traits don’t make up for your decreased usefulness.

Conclusion

Aasimars are fantastic, especially if you need a Charisma caster of some kind. A Paladin can really represent your destined goal as a champion well, and you can sing your own praises as a Bard. This is a really cool race, that I highly suggest that you give a try with your next Charisma caster build.