It looks like angels are regressing just a bit back to a collection of winged humanoids with varying skin tones, though I guess to be fair the solar mixes it up by having two pairs of wings. I mentioned last time angels were brought up that I find the whole winged humanoid look boring. Not only do so many look very similar, but it does little to evoke an unearthly quality–because, winged elves and a winged template–and unless they are wearing their stat blocks on their sleeve, certainly does not inspire any awe.
Unfortunate–for me anyway–but not exactly unexpected.
The latter half of the article asks questions about whether they should have genders, faces, legs, how big their weapons should be, and the overall appearance of the deva. My feedback, again, would be that I think that they should not have distinctly humanoid forms. Genders, mouths, and legs are all fine depending on the rest of the angel’s form, but making them so human downplays their nature.
I think that, if they must have humanoid angels, that the lowest tier could have a largely humanoid shape (and thereby by the ones most likely to communicate with mortals), while the upper echelon would have more alien and abstract shapes.
Awful Good Games 