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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2010972" data-attributes="member: 1129">The Book of Exalted Deeds brings new options for players interested in actively pursuing their good alignment. It's the counter weight to the Book of Vile Darkness, and like that book, is meant for mature readers. I personally don't get that part as there really isn't a lot of objectionable material, but given the discussion on some of the options for good players and actions, I suppose Wizards want to cover themselves.After the introduction, the book goes into some role playing advice and options. On one hand, it's good to see concrete examples of how say, prisoners should be treated or how noble such characters should act. On the other, it seems like the authors have taken everything we know to be good today, and combined with the ideals of good, and made a very difficult character to run, almost going to the 'lawful stupid' degree. For example, accepting surrender. You have to and on top of that, you have to try and redeem such surrendered individuals until they are turned over to the law. Okay, fine. But the book recommends that good characters shine better when confronted with vile ones. The book also suggests that you don't mess with the player's trust. You can't have all three things. You can't be using the most vile criminals not using every trick in their book to kill, disable or maim the players while the players are trying very patiently to redeem them. It's possible but would require some actors or something to pull off on a consistent basis instead of everyday role players.Another thing I thought was lame was the ravages and afflictions, the good versions of poison s. They are poisons, get over it. Sure, they only work on evil creatures but, they are 'debilitating'. Using such a, yes, poison, is now a good act because it effects only evil creatures?There is a new type of feat, the exalted feat. These feats can only be taken after the character has a ritual performed on him and are lost, much like paladin hood, if the character ever commits an evil act. In my campaign, one of the player's has taken Nymph's Kiss. Now this feat grants you a +2 bonus to all Charisma checks against Fey Creatures and a +1 bonus to saving throws against all spells and spell-like abilities plus 1 extra skill point per level. Might be a little over the top. If you have any exalted feat, you radiate good. Now you have to take Exalted Smite to actually have your weapon be considered good-aligned for bypassing damage reduction. Not too bad, but unless you've got a lot of smiting ability not the greatest.One thing I don't like is feats that are common mechanically. For example, switching a stat for a skill or attack or the dreaded +2 bonus to two skills. We have several different patrons, each with their own feat, that gives the user a +1 luck bonus on any one roll or check once per day. We've got Favored of the Companions, Servant of the Heavens and Knight of Stars. Why not just one feat, “Favored”, with examples under it as to what each one is? Same deal with Consecrate. Here, you take any spell and give it the good descriptor and half the damage is now holy damage or divine damage and isn't blocked by energy immunity. Very much like the Vile version. But now you've got Consecrate Spell Like Ability, with the full text repeated of the benefit while Consecrate Spell Trigger, just states, “modified as thought it had the Consecrate Spell feat applied to it.” Why not just use that for Spell Like Ability?The Prestige Classes also mirror those in Book of Vile Darkness to a certain degree. There are new good patrons that take the places of the demons and devils and players can work towards a PrC with one of those patrons. Same player who took the Exalted feat is working towards Defender of Sealtiel, the patron of defenders. Strong hit dice, 1d12, two good saves, Fort and Will, high attack bonus entry requirement (+7), high Listen requirement (5 ranks), and three feats to get into. They gain many abilities related to defense like protective aura, shield of faith, shield other, and a defensive stance that gives them strength and constitution bonus with a dodge bonus but locks them to the spot they're standing on.For those who want more general PrCs, the anointed knight takes the place of the warrior of darkness, using special oils to augment their magical weapons and themselves.  The exalted arcanist gain access to exalted spells and bonus exalted feats. Perhaps the most simple to integrate into a campaign would be the sword of righteousness who gain a bonus exalted feat at every level (3 level prc) with reduced hit dice. The PrCs flesh out the divine patrons of D&D without going overboard and still allow for some non-specific material that can fit into any campaign using this book, but not the patrons.The new spells include sanctified spells, standard spells, many with the good descriptor, new domains, celestial, community, endurance, fey, glory, herald, joy, pleasure, and wrath, and a spell list breakdown by class, level, and for arcane, school. This allows you to get a brief description and see if it's something you can use for those with say, prohibited schools. The sanctified spells can add a lot of divine to a game. Armageddon, a 9th level conjuration spell, opens a portal to a good aligned plane and has celestials come down and  fight for the cast. First, 2d4 avorals, then a ghaele eladrin, then astral deva. Should be enough to put the smack down on most evil creatures.Magic items are also included for further options. These range from new special abilities like angelic, where you gain a bonus against evil creatures on your ac and saving throws, to specific weapons and items like vassal armor, +3 exalted half-plate that increases the wearer's armor class versus critical hits. Every item type gets touched on from rings and staffs, to wondrous and intelligent magic items to major artifacts and redeemed evil magic items. Now one thing as a DM I was interested in was the Celestial Paragons. These are supposed to be patrons for orders and organizations and take no worship themselves. Fine and well but the information on what they actually do and how they act as patrons is not there, instead, it goes the Deities and Demigods route and fully stats out these incredibly powerful beings. About the only thing they can do is petition higher powers (gods) for specific spells for those working under them and grant them access to the new domains in this book.The monsters in the book introduce some old favorites to 3.5. Take the Aleax, a creature I don't recall seeing in too many other places than it's original AD&D Fiend Folio appearance. This creature is conjured forth by a deity and takes the appearance of the one it's meant to slay, hunting that individual down with a list of that individual's crimes against the deity. Several archons are included, owl, sword, throne and warden and even the moon dog makes an appearance. One monster template, the saint, was an interesting twist as it is an acquired template added to any living creature of good alignment. Now I'm very old school and let me tell you, Saint Kargoth, patron of the deathknights, with his sword Gorgon the Shatterer, was not good, nor living. Still, I can see the point they make here but wish that they had made the Saint more universal so that you can have evil saints as well as good saints and that they updated one of the old Saint NPC's instead of some nameless 7th level paladin.The art in the book is top notch for the most part. Doug Koacs, Wayne Renolds and Ron Spenser provide some great illustrations with others who help fill out the book. Ron Spenser has long been a favorite of mine and I'm glad to see his work in several Wizards of the Coast Products. The book follows the layout and look of the Player's Handbook with a semi-aged scroll look. My own group has three people who own the book, one of them playing a paladin fighter, another playing a lawful good summoner, and a third playing a cleric of Torm who hasn't taken advantage of the book yet. There are some things I would've like more information on, more examples of how you can use the Book of Vile Darkness with the expectations of good characters here for example. More information on the role patrons play in a campaign and how they actually interact with the world. Overall, very satisfying. In the end, the book is really a heavy resource for players, providing a wealth of options from feats and prcs and spells, to magic items to strive for and patrons to follow. It works as a great foil for a campaign that uses the Book of Vile Darkness and can expand the planar cosmology of any D&D campaign by finally making the good patrons have some presence in a campaign.</blockquote>

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