[DF] "But I'm a (half) angel!"

[Kromm]

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy assumes a dirty, gritty kind of fantasy where even the "cute" halflings and leprechauns are, respectively, gangsters and foul-tempered little brutes. Everybody is looking out for #1, which is why the saintliest clerics still accept payment in gold procured through theft and murder. As the (brief) rules for social order in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 2: Dungeons suggest, the authorities are harsh, unforgiving, and prone to dishing out corporal punishment. This is the context for celestials.

Turning to the racial write-up: "Some people believe that celestials exist for a Reason and are the Chosen. However, if divine servitors are forbidden to fraternize with mortals – as clerics claim – then it seems more likely that celestials descend from rebel angels, or that angels aren't divine servitors." Which is to say that the prevailing belief is that celestials are the offspring of fallen angels who can't keep their pants up. They get exactly the same amount of slack as anybody else with +1 to reactions thanks to Attractive, but not one iota more. Their racial feature of counting as Good has nothing to do with how they're perceived in mundane interactions; it's a technicality or loophole in cosmic law that hinders as often as it helps, and only matters in supernatural affairs. Only some fool who relies entirely on Detect Evil spells would let that influence him.

In short, ordinary people in the dog-eat-dog environment assumed in DF generally acknowledge that celestials are pretty. Beyond that, any awe they might feel is balanced by an apprehension that angels are dangerous, mercurial, and maybe a bit rapey. Thus, celestials don't get a free pass. And note that the author is well aware of the Honest Face perk, which he gave to gnomes and halflings so that they could live in polite society despite being known to be gifted thieves and kleptomaniacs, respectively. Celestials don't have this because they're at least as likely as anyone else to draw blame when things go wrong . . . maybe more so, when things go supernaturally wrong or someone experiences virgin birth.

If a player wants a "can do no wrong" celestial, then by all means let her buy Honest Face. Agents, assassins, bards, cutpurses, innkeepers, servants, and thieves all have it as a standard option, allowing sketchy people who are card-carrying members of the demimonde, lowborn classes, and underworld to hang out with holy warriors and get audiences with kings. Perhaps more pertinently, it's suggested for clerics of love, who also have holy ties with a decidedly carnal shadow.