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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 2011069" data-attributes="member: 3586">The Book of Exalted Deeds is the second in the line of D&D products intended for mature audiences. It treats upon what the nature of "Good" is in a role-playing campaign, with discussions upon that matter, new magic, feats and prestige-classes for good-aligned characters, and new monsters and unique celestials with that alignment.The book is an attractive hardcover of 192 colour pages; the artwork in it is of similar quality to that of the Complete Warrior: a variety of styles, some of which I appreciated more than others. Fifteen interior artists are credited. The cover is a work of art by Henry Higginbotham, one of his best designs for a 3E D&D book, if not the best.The billing of the work as something intended for mature audiences only is something I fully agree with: most D&D campaigns can easily survive without requiring the moral ambiguities raised in a book of this matter. What this book does, and does well, is move the game of D&D past merely hack 'n' slash fighting and look squarely at the issues confronting a group who wish their adventures to be morally and ethically based as well as merely "fun". To aid this, the idea of "Exalted Deeds" is introduced: an exalted character always acts in a good manner, never falls towards evil. The path is difficult, but the rewards are high.Chapter One: The Nature of GoodWhat does it mean to be good? This is what this chapter looks at. It begins with a discussion of basic acts and beliefs of good people: charity, healing others, personal sacrifice and showing mercy being some of them. A fairly uncompromising line is taken here: you can be good and display these traits, but to be exalted, you must always show these traits.What this means in a D&D campaign is discussed, and covered well. It can be uncomfortable to read and more uncomfortable to implement, but it does make an exalted character special. Of particular note is the discussion of mercy towards prisoners: an exalted character must always assume that the prisoner truly wishes to repent and change his ways if the prisoner expresses those views (assuming no magic is used, of course!). Although this may seem like an easy way for a DM to continually hoodwink his characters, the discussion also makes clear that the DM needs to keep the trust of his players - and having every prisoner betray the exalted character is a good way of losing that trust. This is an example of the maturity required by the book: both DM and players must agree to produce a campaign where the path of exalted deeds works.The Book of Exalted Deeds also looks at how Law and Chaos influence characters of a good alignment, archetypal good characters that may be used as role-models for PCs.It ends with a discussion of how the DM can make a campaign that will allow the players to play exalted PCs in a manner that will allow them to shine, whilst also demonstrating the narrow path they have to take.This is good material, stimulating both players and DMs with ideas for improving their campaigns, and for introducing a strong moral component into the campaign. These discussions provide the basis upon which the rules material that forms the rest of the book is built.Chapter Two: Variant RulesSeveral additional rules are presented in this chapter that become useful in a campaign with exalted characters. Of particular note are the following:Channelling - a mortal becomes invested with part of the power of a good celestial; a counterpart to the evil possession in the Book of Vile Darkness.Exalted Cohorts - cohorts particularly fitted to exalted characters, such as unicorns, brass dragons and couatls.Sainthood - a PC who by their exalted acts becomes a living saint; thus becoming part celestial (gaining a Saint template).For the most part, these variant rules will affect some part of the functioning of the world. If you permit sainthood for PCs, why do not other saints exist? The answer being: they probably do, and thus the rules allow the world to be expanded. None of the rules are that complicated, though there is one rule/feat combination that is problematical: that is the Vow of Poverty.To get the benefits of the Vow of Poverty, one must take two feats, but upon swearing it there are a number of benefits the PC gains to offset the fact that they may no longer use any items - or more importantly, magic items - save a simple, non-masterwork, non-magical weapon, and a few ordinary day-to-day tools. These benefits, for the most part, are fair and balanced if taken by a Paladin or a Fighter. In the case of a Monk, things get far more difficult. A human monk, at first level, could have a +4 armour bonus to AC on top of the other benefits that a monk gets, and more benefits are gained as the character gets higher and higher in level. Whilst, for the most part, the Vow of Poverty looks balanced, it is in these odd cases that it may prove problematic, and must be carefully watched by the DM. The rest of the material in this chapter is of good quality.Chapter Three: Exalted EquipmentThis chapter is only a few pages long. The most notable part of it are the suggested relics, and the rules for ravages and afflictions - the latter being magical poisons that only affect evil creatures. The material in this chapter does not enthuse me greatly.Chapter Four: FeatsThere are six general feats in this chapter, three metamagic feats, and 43 Exalted feats, which is a new type of feat, requiring the character to be utterly good in outlook, much like a paladin, and can only be granted in a ritual in which a celestial is involved, thus allowing the DM full control over their acquisition. As one might guess, a paladin will find several exalted feats of use! If the path of good is strayed from, the penalty to the PC is the loss of all Exalted feats, with nothing replacing them. I like this a lot: it rewards characters for good play, and has the option of punishing them if necessary. Interestingly, against the previous credo of 3E, this book balances a game benefit against a role-playing penalty. I would normally consider this to be a sign of bad game design, but not in this book. Why? Because it is for mature players and DMs! For the superior players that this book is written for, a role-playing requirement does balance the power granted by these feats.I must emphasise that, for the most part, these feats aren't wildly more powerful than existing feats, but they have just a little edge on them to make a player feel special about having one.The feats range from those that adjust familiar game mechanics, to those that represent a vow to a deity, cause or way of life. As I have mentioned, the Vow of Poverty is somewhat problematical for balance, but the Vow of Non-violence and the Vow of Peace will severely affect the running of many D&D campaigns. Once more, maturity and judgement is required; I am so happy that the options are given.All in all, there are many excellent feats in this chapter that help define the abilities of an exalted character, as well as also reinforcing that role.Chapter Five: Prestige ClassesChapter Seven: Celestial ParagonsIt is impossible to discuss the contents of chapter five without also discussing the contents of chapter seven: the Celestial Paragons. Taking up a role similar to those of the archfiends of the Book of Vile Darkness: figures less powerful than true deities but commanding a following nonetheless, the Celestial Paragons represent archetypal concepts of good classes and the like. The sudden appearance of these paragons could be problematic for an ongoing campaign. I would tend to alter their descriptions so that they became the servants of particular deities, rather than good in general, but I must admit that I like the paragon as they are described in the book.There are three groups of Celestial Paragons described here: the Celestial Hebdomad, seven lawful good archons who defend Celestia; Talisid and the Five Companions, neutral good guardianals of Elysium; and The Court of Stars, chaotic good eladrins of Olympus. The latter are the group I enjoy the most, for there are elements of the faerie about them.Of the 22 new prestige classes here, most are followers of one or more of the Celestial Paragons, the remainder tend to just provide exalted roles of one kind or another, although we do also have a Vassal of Bahamut for lovers of that draconic deity.There are prestige classes that several classes could qualify for, but many are devoted to providing an exalted progression for just one class: a bard could take the Troubadour of Stars prestige class, holding as his or her patrons the members of the Court of Stars, thus gaining celestially enhanced music while losing some spell-casting ability and her bardic knowledge spells. The Slayer of Domiel, who is sponsored by one of the paragon archons, is a lawful good assassin who uses supernatural means to slay evil foes: a rather unusual concept that some DMs may not approve of.A favourite of mine is the Skylord, an elvish prestige class that gains a celestial giant eagle or similar as a mount and gains many bonuses to be used whilst riding this; eventually gaining a certain power over storms. These prestige classes just look fun, and because most have exalted feat requirements, also give the DM plenty of latitude for involving the deities and celestials further in the campaign as patrons of the PCs.Chapter Six: MagicThe counterpart of the BOVD's Corrupt spells make their appearance here in the form of Sanctified spells. The Sanctified spells differ from normal spells in that they require a sacrifice of some sort. The ultimate of these is likely to be exalted fury, a 9th level spell. It deals damage of your current hit points + 50 to all evil creatures with 40 feet of you; however in doing so you sacrifice your life. Not all the sanctified spells are that extreme, of course! The sacrifices range widely in nature, which is good to see.Also presented are nine clerical domains: Celestial, Community, Endurance, Fey, Glory, Herald, Joy, Pleasure and Wrath. The book notes that the Community and Glory domains were presented in Defenders of the Faith as prestige domains, but have become just normal domains in this book. I rather like the Herald domain - a bardic type of domain if ever I saw one - but they all seem interesting and flavourful.New spells are given for all classes, of which the paladin gains quite a few. The spells seem powerful, but I cannot properly judge if they are truly unbalanced.Several new magic items, many unique, round off the chapter, along with a few artefacts. A section on redeeming evil magic items does not appeal to me at all, though it does note that some items are irredeemable and can only be destroyed.Chapter Seven: MonstersThis chapter has a somewhat misleading title, because monsters are normally associated with evil. Not so here! Instead we have many champions and servants of good. There are several creatures that were first presented in oAD&D making their reappearance here, such as the Aleax and the Moondog.  There are also new archons and other celestials, as well as new templates. I'm not going to discuss these monsters that much: they look reasonable, but I don't find them of much particular use unless the PCs are seeking allies for their quests. Thankfully, a sidebar gives suggestions as to which creatures may be summoned by which summon monsterspell.ConclusionsWhere the Book of Vile Darkness is a DM's book, the Book of Exalted Deeds is aimed more at enhancing the players' roles in the campaign. I find it a more satisfying book. The discussion of the meaning of good seems both more complete and more useful in running a campaign and the new prestige classes, spells and feats feel more interesting and useful than those in the BOVD.Is this a book for mature players? Absolutely. It is not just in its discussion of moral concepts - something that a young child would probably find hard to understand - but in the requirements of mature role-playing, where the actual role-playing and decision making of an ethical character must be adhered to. This book could easily be turned into a power-gamer's book, if the requirements of the exalted feats and classes were ignored.The flaws in the book are these: new material that may not integrate well into your established D&D cosmology, and a tendency towards powerful abilities that may not be properly balanced by the role-playing restrictions. This is not a book for the novice Dungeon Master!Despite those persistent niggles, I do like the Book of Exalted Deeds. I feel that there are many parts of it that I would have to alter to make it fit my campaign, but I find the whole inspiring, and that is far more than I expected.</blockquote>

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