Quesar

A quesar has a vaguely human outline, with graceful arms, strong legs and a noble head on a slim body, but the form is nearly lost inside the blaze of energy pouring off it. Though almost golem-like in makeup, each is a free-willed being with the power and lifespan of a star.

Evil creatures who know quesar give one piece of advice about fighting them: don't. A quesar never uses weapons, since even powerfully enchanted ones would eventually melt in its grip, but its blows land for 1d12.

Its true menace is the halo of energy streaming from its body, which it can intensify in stages. At the lowest level, usable at will, everyone within 100 yards saves vs. spell or is blinded for 1d10 rounds; this light counts as sunlight against undead and certain evil creatures. After one round of that, it can brighten to a searing glare that deals 6d6 to all within 10 yards, halved by a save vs. breath weapon, six times per day. After a round of searing, it can push further still, and everything within 5 yards must save vs. death magic or be disintegrated, three times per day.

Only +3 or better magical weapons hurt it. Fire, lightning, magic missile and other energy attacks do nothing, though cold harms it normally if its magic resistance is overcome. In daylight it regenerates 1 hp per round, even after being 'killed.' To destroy one for good, either beat it and then lock its remains away where daylight never reaches, or annihilate it outright with magic such as disintegrate, wish or repeated energy drain. Quesar cannot be summoned, and they bitterly resent any attempt to control or subdue them; as one archmage put it, righteous anger can be every bit as terrible as evil's revenge.

Legend says a band of lawful celestials made the first quesar to guard heavenly treasures. In a hidden fortress amid the marshes of a wild layer of the blessed fields, they shaped a dry, human-shaped husk from mud and enchanted it to draw power from daylight. Fire kindled deep inside and soon burst outward until the thing was more energy than body. They called it quesar, 'borrowed from heaven's crown,' and, delighted with themselves, made many more.

At first the quesar served out of gratitude, but they quickly decided they would be no one's servants. They told their makers so peacefully, thanking them and promising to remain a force for good, but the celestials were furious: the clock, they said, does not command the clockmaker. A brief war in heaven ended when powers of that plane stepped in, telling the celestials that the quesar were not beings of order, and telling the quesar not to strike at those who had treated them kindly. The celestials departed in silence.

The quesar remain outcasts. Good but defiant of heaven's hierarchy, they are resented by celestials and other lawful beings of the upper planes, and even when devas, planetars or asuras battle evil, no one asks quesar for help, nor are they ever seen alongside such beings. Most stay hidden on that plane, searching for a purpose. A few choose their own paths, and some hurl themselves alone against the lower planes, felling tanar'ri, baatezu, mercenary fiends and other horrors in dazzling battles that are ultimately suicidal.

Without the daylight their fragile flesh soaks up, quesar are delicate, plain-looking humanoids. If slain and even scattered on the wind, they are restored by the sun, or whatever gives daylight on their current plane. Like golems, they need no food, water or air.