Aasimar D&D 2024: Species/Race Optimisation Guide

The Aasimar have been updated for D&D 2024 and we’ve got everything you need to know to optimise these heavenly heroes!

What are Aasimar?

Aasimar are the celestial counterparts of Tieflings. Born of both mortal and celestial influences (whether that be through a physical relationship or divine magic), Aasimar take on attributes of both these lineages.

While previously, Aasimar tended to lean into Human ancestry, D&D 2024 leaves their mortal ancestry more open. This allows you to flavour your Aasimar more closely towards any mortal race you choose.

Likewise, there’s no longer a delineation between different types of Aasimar like fallen, protector or scourge. Instead, the traits held by these subraces are available to all Aasimar and you’re free to fashion your personality towards these subraces however you see fit without being limited by traits.

While Aasimar have been elevated to a core race in D&D 2024, they remain a rarity on the planes. So much so that an Aasimar may never meet another of their kind (especially if born of mortal parents and not a pair of Aasimar).

This guide will take you through the rules for an Aasimar, various tactics you can use and how to optimise them for gameplay.

Is an Aasimar the right species for me?

Choose an Aasimar if you like…

Wielding celestial power
Having innate paladin-like powers
Glowing with mysterious light
Temporary flight

An Aasimar might not be for you if…

You don’t care about healing your allies
Don’t want to be on the frontlines of combat
Prefer something a little more fiendish

Aasimar traits

Creature Type	Humanoid
Size	Small or medium
Speed	30ft
Traits	Darkvision, light bearer, healing hands, celestial revelation, celestial resistance
Resistances	Necrotic and radiant
Proficiencies	No
Darkvision	Yes
Innate spellcasting	Light
Book found in	Player’s Handbook 2024

Darkvision – You have darkvision up to 60ft.

Light bearer – You can cast the light cantrip.

Healing hands – Once per long rest, you can heal another creature by a number of d4 equal to your proficiency bonus

Celestial resistance – You have resistance to necrotic and radiant damage.

Celestial revelation – Once every long rest, you can use a bonus action to transform for a minute into one of 3 divine forms (you can choose which one whenever you use this trait and aren’t limited to one option for the whole of your campaign unlike the 2014 iteration of the Aasimar):

Heavenly wings – Gain temporary flight for the duration.
Inner radiance – All creatures within 10ft of you take an amount of radiant damage equal to your proficiency bonus. You also illuminate the area around you.
Necrotic shroud – Causes enemies within 10ft of you to become frightened of you for a turn if they fail a charisma saving throw.

You also get to add an amount of damage to a single attack or spell each turn equal to your proficiency bonus. This is either radiant or necrotic damage depending on the transformation you’ve performed.

Where are the ability score increases?

You may have noticed that there are no ability score increases associated with your species any more. This is because these increases are now linked to your background. This gives you more flexibility to play the species you want and optimise more easily for a broader range of classes.

Check out our guide to backgrounds in D&D 2024 to find out more.

Tactics

The handy thing about an Aasimar is that their signature trait now lets them choose whichever version celestial revelation of they want to each time it’s activated. This makes them a far more flexible species in D&D 2024. Below are some tactics you can use with an Aasimar:

Double resistance: Not many species get 2 resistances putting Aasimar in a relatively exclusive club. It’s great for martials who often put themselves in harms way. However, these resistances are not equal. While necrotic is the 2nd most used damage type by monsters (after poison), radiant is the least used. Still, that’s more resilience than most species get so you can enjoy being that bit more durable, especially when facing off against undead.

Flighty folk: Another relatively exclusive club that Aasimar belong to is the flight club (pun intended)! While a handful of races from D&D 2014 do have flight like Fairies and the Aarakockra, no other playable species other than Dragonborn have any kind of flight in D&D 2024 (and their’s is also temporary). Even the winged variant Tiefling is no longer found in the D&D 2024 rules.

While you may be playing with 2014 races anyway, this does give Aasimar a distinct advantage, even if it’s just for a minute each day.

You can use your flight to keep a more vulnerable character out of harms way in combat. Casting spells or hailing down arrows from a great distance.

Alternatively, use your flight for utility outside of combat. Scout out an enemy castle, get into the top window of the sorcerer’s tower or fly allies across a gaping chasm.

The fear of the gods: Necrotic shroud is a great way to partially disable enemies for a turn by causing them to be frightened of you. And many enemies don’t have great charisma saving throws, so wade into the midst of them and apply that terror! Of course, for this to be effective, you need a good charisma score making this best for paladins and other charisma focused martials (because non-martials don’t want to be that close to crowds of enemies).

It’s a decent enough option for something like a valor bard or certain warlock builds too, but you probably won’t want your sorcerer close enough to combat to be using this.

Crowd control: In fact, related to this is the use of inner radiance and necrotic shroud to deal with crowds of enemies. Cause damage or fear and whittle away at your foes. One thing to consider is that some of your bonus damage will only work if you actually do some kind of damage to your enemies. This makes it great for martials and attack focused spellcasters, but perhaps less so for support casters like bards or druids who might often not make an attack.

Emergency medic: You may only be able to heal once per long rest, but that can be the difference between life and death when an ally’s life is fading away and the cleric is preoccupied (or the one that needs healing). I’d suggest saving your healing for emergencies just like this.

Choosing a class for your Aasimar

Below I’ve scored how well each class works with an Aasimar:

Artificer⭐⭐⭐⭐

Barbarian ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Bard ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cleric ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Druid ⭐⭐⭐

Fighter ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Monk ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Paladin ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ranger ⭐⭐⭐

Rogue ⭐⭐⭐

Sorcerer ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Warlock ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Wizard ⭐⭐⭐

*Star ratings scored out of 5

Best classes for an Aasimar

Many classes will work well for an Aasimar, but the best ones can take full advantage of the range of abilities available here. I’d recommend the following as your best options:

Paladin
Sorcerer
Warlock

Unfortunately for the bard, it loses a point because even though they’d enjoy the safety of heavenly wings, they often ended up not making attacks to capitalise on the extra damage. A valor bard will make up for this and might choose inner radiance or necrotic shroud instead for their celestial revelation uses.

Paladins work really well with the crowd control aspects of this species and have the charisma to backup the use of necrotic shroud.

For sorcerers and warlocks, you’ll often want to blast damage dealing spells while you fly around in relative safety. An option to heal as a bonus action is always useful, especially as your paladin might be occupied with all the crowds they’re smiting.

Worst Aasimar classes

There aren’t really any bad options for an Aasimar. They’re so flexible in their execution of traits that they can work at least reasonably well for any class. Some do get less than others out of these traits though.

Druids are one of these classes. Some extra healing is fine, but they probably already have enough of this. They can gain access to flight through their wild shape though and lack the charisma to backup necrotic shroud. Inner radiance is workable though and some extra resistance is good too.

Rogues also specialise in one on one situations making crowd control abilities redundant. You’re also pretty good at getting safe without flight (though it is still a good option) and your bonus action is so busy keeping you safe, it’s hard to spare it on healing. Still, most of these are reasonable enough options for a rogue so it’s not a bad option as such, just not optimal.

About Aasimar

Appearance

An Aasimar will take on the traits of both their mortal and celestial aspects. If you have the blood of Halflings running through you, then you’ll likely be short, if you have the blood of dwarves, then you’ll likely have a beard and so on. On top of this, you take on aspects of your ceslestial heritage which might include (but aren’t limited to):

Metallic or white freckles
Metallic, luminous or dark eyes
Starkly coloured hair
An unusual hue tinting your shadow
A ghostly halo
Rainbows gleaming on your skin.

Aasimar tend to be longer-lived than their Human counterparts owing to their divine heritage. Their mortal blood ensures that they are not immortal, but will often live up to about 160 years.

Personality

Aasimar are typically, highly empathetic individuals that feel the pains and sorrows of others granting an intense desire to help those in need. This also comes with a heavy emotional burden as the needs of others can be many and not all can be solved easily. Most Aasimar do have a desire and an inclination towards goodness and lawfulness though some Aasimar may differ and may even fall (much as some celestial beings have also fallen from the goodness they once held).

Sometimes, this “goodness” can manifest in a coldness and even a self-righteous and pious attitude. This can certainly be the case with Scourge Aasimar who adopt a more vengeful streak, even if it is in the name of doing “good”.

How to roleplay an Aasimar

While you can choose to play an Aasimar however you like, the personality you choose may depend on the type of Aasimar that you are. Below I’ve shared some ways you could roleplay your Aasimar:

A heritage you never wanted: Some Aasimar do not want the gifts or responsibility bestowed upon them by their lineage. You actively rebel against any sense of divine destiny and instead try to forge your own path. Perhaps though, these things have a way of catching up with you anyway…
Regret and redemption: You are a fallen Aasimar. You have failed in some way, giving in to evil, but you are also regretful of that evil. You seek redemption and perhaps one day, to come back into the good graces of the celestial beings you serve.
The scourge of evil: You take your divine calling very seriously. Like many other celestial beings, you seek to root out and destroy evil. You see morality through a black and white lens with little room for grey areas. Take a strong stance against certain things you consider obvious evils like stealing (even if it’s to feed a starving family) or lying (even if it’s to protect a loved one). Be careful with this type of character though, that they don’t become a blocker for the rest of the party and what they want to do.
Protecting the weak: Unlike many celestials, you are acutely aware of the challenges of mortality. You have empathy for the weak and the defenceless and seek to use your divine powers to protect those that cannot protect themselves. A holy warrior, you are prepared to sacrifice much for the greater good.