Planetar 5e: The Middle Angel's Stats, Spells and Tactics

A planetar is a CR 16 Large celestial, the angel between the deva and the solar. In the 2014 rules it has AC 19, 200 hit points, a 120-foot fly speed and a greatsword that hits for 43 damage, more than half of it radiant. It knows when it hears a lie, sees through illusions to 120 feet, and can raise the dead three times a day. The 2024 planetar has 262 hit points, swings three times with a 10-foot-reach Radiant Sword, can throw two 20-foot bursts of radiant light instead, and comes back to life in Mount Celestia if it dies anywhere else.

Table of Contents

• •Planetar Stat Block (2014)
• •Planetar in the 2024 Rules
• •Deva vs Planetar vs Solar
• •How the Planetar Fights
• •Running a Planetar Encounter
• •How Players Beat a Planetar
• •Planetar Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Planetar Stat Block (2014)

The SRD 5.1 planetar.

Read it as a war-cleric with a two-handed sword. Angelic Weapons adds 5d8 radiant to every weapon hit, so each greatsword swing is 21 slashing plus 22 radiant. Two swings a turn is 86 damage if both land.

Its spells are the other half of the threat, all at save DC 20:

• •3/day each: Blade Barrier, Flame Strike, Dispel Evil and Good and Raise Dead.
• •1/day each: Commune, Control Weather and Insect Plague.
• •At will: Detect Evil and Good and Invisibility on itself.

Healing Touch (4/day) restores 30 (6d8 + 3) hit points to another creature and ends any curse, disease, poison, blindness or deafness on it. A planetar on the party's side is a walking temple.

Defensively it has Magic Resistance, resistance to radiant damage and to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing from nonmagical attacks, and immunity to the Charmed, Frightened and Exhaustion conditions. Its Constitution, Wisdom and Charisma saves are +12, +11 and +12.

Planetar in the 2024 Rules

SRD 5.2.1 keeps the AC, speeds, CR, radiant resistance and condition immunities, drops the weapon resistance, and swaps spell power for raw damage.

The headline: the 2024 planetar does more every turn and needs no resources to do it. Holy Burst hits only enemies, so it can drop two bursts on a melee scrum where its allies stand. It no longer depends on daily spells, which makes it simpler to run and more dangerous in a long fight.

Deva vs Planetar vs Solar

All three are SRD angels. The difference is scale.

A deva works as a mid-level emissary, the planetar as a high-level champion, and the solar as an end-of-campaign power. A planetar is the strongest angel you can run without legendary actions, so it's the one most likely to feel beatable in a straight fight at level 13 to 16.

How the Planetar Fights

A planetar doesn't need tricks, but it uses its senses and flight well.

Truth first. Divine Awareness tells it when it hears a lie. Before a sword is drawn, it asks questions. Players who lie to a planetar should know the moment they do.

Open from range (2014). Flying 60 feet up, out of reach of most melee characters, it casts Flame Strike (DC 20, 4d6 fire plus 4d6 radiant, average 28, in a 10-foot-radius column) on clustered enemies, or rings the strongest one with a Blade Barrier from up to 90 feet away. The 2014 Blade Barrier deals 6d10 slashing (average 33, Dexterity save for half) to a creature that enters the wall or starts its turn there, and it grants three-quarters cover the planetar can fight around.

Then close in. Against AC 20, a +12 attack hits on 8 or better (65%). Expected damage per turn:

Holy Burst is the better choice whenever two or more enemies stand within 20 feet of a point: two targets already take about 88 expected damage, against 62 from the swords. Each burst forces a DC 20 Dexterity save, so a character with +2 fails 85% of the time. Against four characters caught in both bursts, that's about 178 damage across the party in one turn.

Heal the line, not itself. The 2014 Healing Touch can't target the planetar itself, so it spends actions on allies and fights on with 200 hit points. The 2024 Divine Aid is a Bonus Action, so the planetar can swing three times and cast Cure Wounds or Lesser Restoration on an ally in the same turn.

Leave, then return. At will, the 2014 planetar turns invisible and flies off at 120 feet. The 2024 planetar can only cast Invisibility through Divine Aid, twice a day. It also has less reason to run: dying outside Mount Celestia just sends it home whole.

Running a Planetar Encounter

A planetar is worth 15,000 XP. Using the 2024 budget for four characters:

Under the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines (used by our encounter calculator), one planetar against four level 13 characters is Hard (13,600 to 20,400 XP) and against four level 11 characters is Deadly.

A lone planetar loses on action economy at those levels. Two ways to fix it:

• •Give it a host. Two devas and a planetar is 26,800 XP, a High encounter (over the 21,600 Moderate budget, within the 31,200 High budget) for four level 15 characters under 2024 rules.
• •Give it a goal. It's protecting a gate, a relic, or a sleeping saint. The party "wins" by getting past it, not by killing it, and it can be talked down if they prove it was deceived.

How Players Beat a Planetar

• •Attack its Dexterity. At +5, Dexterity is its weakest common save (Intelligence, at +4, is lower but few spells use it). The 2014 planetar's Strength save is +7; its Constitution, Wisdom and Charisma saves are +11 or +12, and Magic Resistance gives Advantage on top.
• •Skip fear and charm. It's immune to Charmed and Frightened, and it can't gain Exhaustion levels.
• •Don't rely on radiant damage. It resists radiant. Fire, cold, force, necrotic, thunder and magic weapons all work. Against the 2014 planetar, use magic weapons; bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks is halved.
• •Counter its spells (2014). A 3rd-level Counterspell on Blade Barrier (a 6th-level spell) needs a DC 16 spellcasting ability check, but stopping a 33-damage wall is worth the slot.
• •Banishment is a gamble. Banishment sends it home if it fails, but its Charisma save is +12 with Advantage. Against a DC 18 caster it needs a 6 or better on either of two d20s, so it fails only about 6% of the time.
• •Spread out against the 2024 version. Two 20-foot Holy Bursts punish a party that clusters around a healer. Keep 40 feet between pairs.
• •Know what killing it means (2024). Exalted Restoration brings it back in Mount Celestia with full hit points. If the party needs it gone for good, kill it in Mount Celestia or deal with whoever sent it.

Planetar Encounter Ideas

The debt of a life. A planetar raised the party's paladin from the dead years ago. Now it arrives to collect: the paladin must escort a condemned prisoner to execution. The prisoner may be innocent, and the planetar knows whenever anyone lies about it.

The storm that won't break. A drought-stricken valley has a planetar living on its tallest peak. It casts Control Weather each day to keep the rain away, because the valley's lord made a bargain with a fiend, and rain would wake what's buried under the reservoir. The farmers want the party to make it stop.

Wrong orders. A planetar attacks the party on sight, because the god it serves was told by a disguised archmage that they plan to steal a holy relic. It can be stopped by truth: anyone who says something true about the archmage within its hearing gets a pause in the fight. Divine Awareness only tells it when it hears a lie, so the players must make true statements that prove the deception.

A planetar the party argues with across several sessions builds up a lot of promises and threats. Loreify can record your sessions and keep the NPC record straight, including what the angel was actually told.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a planetar in 5e?

The planetar is CR 16 (15,000 XP) in both editions. It has AC 19 and 200 hit points in the 2014 rules or 262 hit points in the 2024 rules.

What is the difference between a deva, planetar and solar?

They are three ranks of angel. The deva is CR 10 with AC 17, the planetar CR 16 with AC 19, and the solar CR 21 with AC 21. Only the solar has legendary actions.

How much damage does a planetar do?

The 2014 planetar makes two greatsword attacks for 43 damage each (21 slashing plus 22 radiant). The 2024 planetar makes three Radiant Sword attacks for 32 each (14 slashing plus 18 radiant) or uses Holy Burst twice, each dealing 24 radiant damage in a 20-foot radius on a failed DC 20 Dexterity save.

Can a planetar raise the dead?

Yes. The 2014 planetar can cast Raise Dead three times a day; the 2024 planetar can cast it once a day. Both use Charisma with a spell save DC of 20.

What happens if you kill a planetar?

Under the 2014 rules it simply dies. Under the 2024 rules, Exalted Restoration means that if it dies anywhere other than Mount Celestia, its body disappears and it instantly revives in Mount Celestia with all its hit points.

Stat blocks: System Reference Document 5.1 (2014) and 5.2.1 (2024), Wizards of the Coast, CC-BY-4.0. Tactics, encounter math and ideas are Loreify's own.