Book of Exalted Deeds: What would you put in it?

With the rash of BOVD posts and the speed with which they've been getting heated/closed, perhaps it might help to look at things from a different angle.

Let's imagine that the BOVD came out, and was a solid, mature, well-written book that sold well above expectations. And over the same span, you manage to get hired into some appropriately high position in WOTC. Since the Big Book of Evil is such a hit, WOTC figures that a Big Book of Good would be a good idea, and puts you in charge of assembling the BOED. Assuming a reasonable budget, how would you set up and lay out the book, what would you want to focus on, and what would you consider essential to the book? Keeping in mind, of course, sales considerations like in-game usefulness of the material (I.E: Feed the Hungry, Clothe the Naked, and Shelter the Homelss spells probably won't see use unless the party ends up hungry, naked, and/or homeless), and a good crunch/fluff ratio.

So keeping in mind that this would be the Book of Good, not Book of Good Gods or Book of Celestials (although the latter two could well have a place), What advice, tips, tricks, and crunch for mature, well rounded Good campaigns and PC's would you include?

Probably rituals and/or cermonies that help strength and/or remove taints of evil in places.

Feats that allow a cleric of good to use positive energy in different ways.

Feats that make a goodly aligned character a force for change, like increase his/her CHA to help bring comfort or healing.

Advice for creating different paladin codes. Explain more about moral codes and how to create a convincing code for a paladin. It should include advice how the paladin could react. A little more different as: You sinned *BAM*.

Also:
Adventures how to get on the wrong side of a celestial, besides that he was summoned with a gate.

Perhaps a PrC turning the character into some kind of celestial.

Celestial hierarchies

Holy weapons with a purpose.

the higher ups in the heavenly realms

Heaven be praised if someone is able to: a definition of what is good in game terms

What is the meaning of the different alignments and how can you customize your type of alignment.

And as my example...

As for me, I'd open with some pretty standard claptrap about the nature of good, about the good/evil dichtomy in most campaigns, and about how important that duality is in most fantasy. I'd give a sideways nod to acknowledge both the evil and the amoral campaign (with maybe a little blurb pointing out the benefits of each), but also admonish against intermixing styles and give advice for making sure everyone's on the same page. Close the first part of the book out with talk of relative moralities, in the sense of "in this culture, it's good to do X, while in others, it's considered neutral or evil, but Z is always evil". (F'rex, in a feudal japanese campaign, it would not be good to prevent a dishonored samurai from comitting seppuku, while in a more western fantasy campaign with modernized sensibilities, it would not be good to allow someone else to commit suicide without at least trying to talk them out of it. However, killing an innocent [or even an honorable enemy who surrenders] is pretty much a universal no-no.)

Since celestials are pretty much synonymous with good, some section on their general attitudes, types, and motivations would be required, as well as different ways to deal with them. After all, good creatures can range from kindly and pacifistic to stern and defensive. Provide pointers on making even the most strict celestials clearly good instead of athority figure parodies. Close out this section talking about celestial origins (giving options; are they created by the gods, born from other celestials, or dead mortal spirits at different stages of refinement/advacement), and maybe a paragraph or so on risen fiends.

Come back to relative moralities, and more importantly, nonrelative parts of morality now. Include either a list of direct do's and dont's, or else a Goofus and Gallant style series of shorts. Give a few examples of moralities with slightly altered do/don't lists, as well as a couple that might look good off the bat but that have irreconciabile difficulties with Good as the D&D game describes it. Expand out into slightly alternate approaches to D&D alignment (there was an alignment traits post someone made here a while ago, that might be included, as well as such things as good and evil points, alignment being scratched off the character sheets and being entirely up to [and tracked by] the DM, and even keeping a solid sense of moral responsibility when mechanical alignment is removed).

Close out with an essay on different ways to focus on good vs. evil in your campaign, be it the classic Good heros descend into the dungeon to beat up Evil monsters, all the way to Evil being a seductive force running rampant in the world with the Good heros having to fight hard to avoid falling into its clutches, and finally, sprinkle with a handful of new celestials and other "monsters" of good, as well as feats, spells, and maybe a domain or so intended primarily for good-aligned use.

How to be good without being a wuss or an . Most people play actively good characters as either:

Phil Donahue, unwilling to kill the Demon Lord that has destroyed half a continent because "He was probably abused as a child, and, besides, haven't we all wanted to kill millions?"

Jerry Falwell: "You have SINNED by the theft of that COPPER COIN, and NOW you shall PAY THE PENALTY!"

I'd like to see good more in the Charlton Heston or Han Solo vein -- the grim avenger who does to the bad guys what they've done to the innocent, only twice as hard, or the rogue with a heart of gold. These archetypes, oddly, are underrepresented in gaming.

I would try to create detailed, but easily implemented and maintained reputation rules.

If a character refuses to loot the bodies of fallen enemies, I think there should be some kind of reward for that. Perhaps a reputation score, with a real in-game effect like that of Honor in Hackmaster, could accomplish that.

Outside of that, I ditto the above request for celestial hierarchies and powerful celestial lords. Why should demons and devils have all the fun?

Expanded rules for paladin creation, such as making NG or CG paladins. Perhaps a mechanic for swapping out some of the traditional paladin abilities to make something a little more customized? The typical paladin always struck me as very Euro-centric.

Examples of effects a cleric can create with positive energy channeling.

Just for starters...

Lots on celestials, both hierarchies, new types, and their philosophies. A whole chapter on what good is, how much it varies from culture to culture, etc.- full of examples. A big discussion in this chapter on the difference between law and good, two concepts that are often confused in games. A discussion on what the differences are between the three good alignments, and how they affect a government.

More domains for clerics that are "goodly"- perhaps things like Life, Friendship, Love, Justice, etc. A section on divine feats that would be useful both for pcs and for npcs (a feat to drive out hunger, etc.)

A section on "redeeming the fallen" focused on how to bring an evil npc back into "the light" as it were. A section on good villains, too; for instance, how a party of good characters might end up with a paladin as their nemesis (condemned by the church, differences of opinion, etc.) and how to deal with the conflict. Tie this into a section on how good can go wrong.

A whole section on non-violent campaigns. I know this sounds dull to a lot of people, but it's got a lot of potential. This section would have to include a discussion of awarding xp in a non-violent game. In fact, a whole section on xp, and how to award it for rp challenges in general.

Naturally, a section on good spells (by which I mean spells with the Good descriptor), magic items, and prestige classes. Maybe give a quick list of prc's from other sources that, with minor changes, can become "archetypical" types of good guys (knight of the chalice- I think, aren't they the demon hunters?, hunters of the dead, etc.).

Hmmm... it seems like there's a lot of stuff that could go in there, and a lot of it could be "crunchy"- what do you all think? Is there a market for this?

Specialty priests. Not how to make the cleric more powerful, but how to customize it to more embody their God. Like switching out heavy armor for this, etc, etc.

Good monsters. Or, using monsters that are often evil in a not-so-black way, or handling actual Good creatures, like a neutral Red dragon.

I'd like to say a definet Heck Yeah! to building up paladin codes and stuff.

As well, suggestions on more then being a Good character class, OTHER then a cleric or paladin. How about a good rogue? Wizard? Fighter? Suggestions on that.

Exorcisms

Rules for spells that ACTUALLY HELP the "commoner horde".

As in:

Spells that reverse drought, spells that ensure bountious crops, spells that reduce the rate of disease over large areas, that sort of thing.

Also:

Info on how good churches spread their faith and tend to the masses.

Info on just how good can impact a world. This would go beyond the simple "Well, we kill all the Dark Lords(tm) that keep appearing, don't we?", to discuss how good would promote social change, would advance philosophical thought, and, yes, deal with the continuing presence of Monolithic Evil(tm).

Patrick Y.

PS: Also lots of the stuff that other people listed above.