Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Listlurker" data-source="post: 2009392" data-attributes="member: 9943">First off, I apologize in advance for the extreme length of this review, but since "The Book of the Righteous" (TBotR) is a relatively expensive hardcover ($39.95 US) I felt I owed it to any potential readers to do as detailed an overview as possible, so that they might make an informed choice. Hopefully, they will also realize that this astounding rules supplement is worth every penny they might spend.It's true. "The Book of the Righteous" is a truly amazing product. This three-hundred-pages-plus hardcover is the best sourcebook for D&D game gods that I have ever seen. It's beautiful -- both visually (the artwork and the layout are top-notch) and in its dedication to providing useful, adaptable information to overworked DMs. The amount of thought and care that went into producing TBotR is evident on every page. Author Aaron Loeb and the rest of the contributors are to be commended.But there's so much here, I don't really know where to begin. I've been putting off writing this review for precisely that same reason: it's a BIG book, packed to the brim with useful things. It's easy to find information in this volume -- thanks to well-laid-out pages, with plenty of sectional subject headers, a Table of Contents, and an Index -- but there's so much in TBotR that deserves mention, I'm really not sure how to do both the book and the review reader's curiousity justice in a readable format.Perhaps I'll simply break down what's in the book by section and include some notes on the game deities provided. That way, prospective buyers can get a basic sense of what's here, and then use their browsing time at the game store to decide if the actual, detailed presentation of the content does it for them. Deal? Okay, here goes:*Chapter One: The Introduction*Everybody skips the introduction, right? Well, this time you might want to read it, because this introduction addresses the questions many potential buyers of  TBotR probably have on their minds right now, namely: What Is This Book For? Why Do I Need This Book? (especially if I already have a D&D gods book) Why Should I Care About Religion In My Game? and so on. To the author's credit, this isn't the only place where these questions are answered -- later chapters expand upon the short answers given here by providing practical information on implementing/adapting TBotR into existing D&D campaigns and campaign worlds.*Chapter Two: The Mythology*This section details the cosmology of the book's pantheon, and provides a short listing of the deities in TBotR. The cosmology (the story of how the universe came into existence, and the disposition of its planes of existence) is intentionally archetypal -- it echoes a number of real-world myths and religions without relying too strongly on any one source. It's also completely optional for DMs. You don't have to accept this cosmology to use the deities in TBotR. The book assumes this cosmology when describing the interactions and interrelations of the deities later in the text, but swapping out the cosmology for your own version is fairly effortless. The cosmology doesn't matter so much, in and of itself, it simply sets up the dramatic relationships within the pantheon. The basic planar information provided will be familiar, and of interest to anyone who owns a copy of "The Manual of the Planes".A timeline of the universe, and a diagram of the planes as TBotR configures them, round out this section.Before I list the included deities, I should explain something: Green Ronin Publishing does not support the idea of "racial gods", as they attest on page 297. So, while all the traditional races of D&D (humans, elves, half-elves, dwarves, gnomes, half-orcs and halflings) are tacitly a part of TBotR's world-view, there are not separate pantheons for each of these races.Korak, for example, is the Lord of the Forge. While the dwarves love him, trace their racial origins to him, and typically represent him as dwarven in their religious iconography, Korak is neither dwarven nor human per se. His race, if you will, is "deity". Likewise, the elves may especially revere Aymara, the goddess of love, desire, beauty, and the arts -- but so do members of the other races. The orcs don't have a racial god, like Gruumsh, here to fan their hatred -- but there's a demonic lord of Destruction, Violence, and Rage (one of a handful of evil deities in this book) who makes Gruumsh look like an overly-ambitious tribal chieftain, anyway.In the TBotR, *all* the deities are available to every race. The racial tags below merely indicate certain more-obvious racial choices.Here's my deities guide for "The Book of the Righteous". I have listed only the major one of the few evil deities provided (as adversaries) in the book, since the text suggests that DMs may wish to keep the exact nature of the evil powers sketchy until PCs confront those forces.  Also note that certain good or neutral churches listed below have heretical, evil offshoots for DMs to toy with.======The Great Church -- The Lords of Heaven (i.e. the entire pantheon as a whole). Uses standard D&D clerics and paladinsUrian (m) -- Air and Sky (includes Night, Sun, and Moon). Free preview at www.greenronin.comRontra (f) -- Earth (includes Plants, Metals, Farmers, Miners)Shalimyr (m) -- Water (includes Oceans and Sailors)Eliwyn -- Druids (i.e. Eliwyn is the cosmological Tree of Life in TBotR. Druids who prize Nature regard Eliwyn as an emblem of same)Nameless One -- Monks (i.e. The Nameless One is the mysterious God-Over-All who created existence and then withdrew. Monks contemplate his/her/its nature)Morwyn (f) -- Healing and Wisdom (includes Peace and Mercy)Terak (m) -- War and Valor Zheenkeef (f) -- Wine, Madness and Inspiration (includes Creativity, Prophecy and Gnomes)Tinel (m) -- Magic, Knowledge and Truth (includes Secrets and Science). Has both a chaotic good and a neutral aspect, and factions for each.Mormekar (m) -- Death and Rebirth (includes Slayers of Undead)Maal (m) -- Law and Justice (this deity judges the dead, including PCs, and rules on type of afterlife, or reincarnation) Preview at www.greenronin.comDarmon (m) -- Travel, Wealth, Joy (includes non-evil Rogues and Messengers)Aymara (f) -- Love and the Arts (includes Beauty, Passion, Marriage, Bards and Elves)Korak (m) -- The Forge and Artisans (includes Dwarves)Anwyn (f) -- Home and Hearth (includes Halflings)Naryne (f) -- Nobility and Leadership (also oversees the Land of the Dead)Canelle (f) -- Victory and StrengthThellyne (f) -- Woodcraft, Nature and the Hunt (includes Rangers, Elves and Gnomes)Asmodeus (m) -- Lies, Power and Fire (formerly Kador, a Lord of Heaven governing Fire, who rebelled and was cast out of Heaven)======*Chapters Three Through Seven: The Deity Details*This is the lion's share of  the book. Almost every deity is described under headers for the following categories: name, associated myth(s), associated concepts, alignment, common representations, purpose/motives, and servants (either avatars or, more commonly, special messenger creatures such as celestials).Next, the church of the deity is described, followed by suggestions concerning church structure. Doctrine, common prayers, holy days (events, not calendar dates), saints (if applicable), the deity's view of the church, plus the god's (not necessarily the clergy's) preferred weapon are also put forward.A discussion of church-related character classes follow. Most churches have a Cleric class ( with Domains listed here), a new Holy Warrior class (i.e. a sort of paladin customized to the particular faith, both in terms of alignment and abilities) and one or more Prestige Classes. Although there are a *lot* of these classes, it's rewarding to wade through them, as some might pleasantly surprise you. While an order of "knights in shining armor" Holy Warriors in service to the goddess of Nobility might not raise an eyebrow -- what about a Prestige Class secret society sworn to combat the forces of Hell ... all in the name of the goddess of Love? Or a Prestige Class available from the god of Death which allows any evilly-aligned character to be reborn as a fierce champion for good, seeking to atone for past crimes? The list of cool things goes on, if you're willing to look.One interesting concept here is the idea of the Great Church. Unlike other published D&D pantheons, the deities in TBotR really do form an official alliance -- an official pantheon. Standard 3E cleric or paladin characters in a campaign using TBotR are considered to be followers of the Great Church, an organization which reveres all of the Lords of Heaven as a group. But rather than being just a catch-all for generic characters, The Great Church is just as vibrant and detailed a church as any other in this book (Did I mention that the "servants" listed for the Great Church are Archangels -- essentially, maximum hit dice huge Solars with names, personalities, and attitudes? Finally, the forces of good have counterparts to the "named" devils and demons of D&D).Because the Great Church deals with all the Lords of Heaven, it may even be the best church for PCs whose players are most interested in the deities contained in this book. Such players are given an in-game rationale for knowing and learning as much as possible about each of the Lords of Heaven.One word of warning about the deities in TBotR -- be advised that there are *no* deity statistics (hit points, epic abilitues, and so on) in this volume. Would-be godslayer PCs will be sorely disappointed in TBotR, because these deities are not designed to be epic-character fodder at any point in a D&D campaign. Indeed, the myth provided for Tinel, the god of magic, stands as a clear, story-driven warning to arrogant PCs who might imagine that they can ever truly usurp the gods.*Chapter Eight: Evil Deities*Since this *is* "The Book of the Righteous", there are only two other evil deities described besides Asmodeus. The listings are partial (only Clerics provided) although Green Ronin has said that it hopes to have further information available as website downloads eventually. Also, Green Ronin Publishing has already published "Legions of Hell" and "Armies of the Abyss" and the content of those books, not surprisingly, mesh with this one.As above, since some DMs may wish to keep the nature of the evil deities secret in their campaigns (a possibility the book suggests) I will not say anything more about this chapter.*Chapter Nine: Campaigning*This chapter starts off with one of the best overviews of alignment and what it means in D&D that I have seen in some time. The alignment definitions are almost flawless, forgetting only that true Neutrality can now also indicate agnosticism or a complete lack of interest in spiritual or moral questions.The chapter also features useful things like a list of gods and churches by alignment; a matrix of church attitudes toward one another; a list of geographical sites related to the book's cosmology and mythology that you can drop into your campaign world, plus campaign and adventure hooks.The remainder of the section looks briefly at relevant DM issues for the game world (perks of faith, law, the evil races, heresy and blasphemy, the forms of faith). While short suggestions are made, the book does not try to tell you how to run your fantasy-world faiths in the day-to-day. And since TBotR is meant to be generic and (im)portable to any D&D world, such nitty-gritty details are best left to individual DMs anyway.*Chapter Ten: Do It Yourself*Speaking of portable, chapter ten is dedicated to helping you adapt TBotR to your existing D&D campaign. It starts out with a bulleted list of all the key ideas presented in the book's mythology and cosmology which will have to be addressed or accounted for if you plan to change the book's content as given -- or if you plan to import content from TBotR into an existing campaign world. Other "importation" issues are discussed, and broad suggestions are given on how to incorporate only the pantheon itself into an existing game world with a minimum of fuss.*Chapter Eleven: Additional Rules*It starts off with an in-depth look at the new Holy Warrior class, and includes how to handle it if used as a multi-class option. All the expected information is here: experience progression chart, description of Special Abilities, spell domains  by church, and so on.Next, it's skills and feats time! There are eleven feats listed, most of which are clerical or religious in nature. Of the general feats, Martial Instructor seems interesting. as it allows both the teaching of weapon proficiencies, and the ability to train anyone to become either a first-level warrior or fighter. There's only one new skill, Famous, which can be used for improved reaction checks.There are nine new clerical domains (ten, if you count Champion, which is simply a domain created to frame the abilities of a standard D&D paladin in terms of TBotR's new Holy Warrior class) and they are: Beauty, The Dead, The Forge, Home, Inspiration, Justice, Night, Oracle, and Truth.Out of the nine domains, we get about 22 new divine spells. Be advised, though -- the text warns that some of the spells listed can only be found written up in another book, "Pocket Grimoire Divine". However, I looked, and I couldn't find *any* spell that wasn't listed in either my "Player's Handbook" or "The Book of the Righteous" itself. If spell writeups have been omitted here, there can't be very many gone, so DMs could always just make a "next best" substitution when the need arises.Magic items and new creatures are also included in TBotR and, as you might expect, they all have some sort of divine or divinity-related aspect to their natures. Of magic items, we have enchanted stoles (stoles being the linen scarves worn by priests) with thirteen variations. We're also given eight Minor Artifacts; five of which are staves (each staff corresponding to one of the five senses). The are also two Major Artifacts provided, either of which could easily serve as a significant quest-object in a D&D campaign.The new creatures include Animal Spirits (the monkey-like hanumanis, and the rabbit-like pooka -- and yes, Harvey, pookas can turn invisible), as well as the bizarre Handmaid of Zheenkeef, and the jokester fox known as Ix.Metteron -- the leonine father of all good beasts, and companion to Terak, deity of War and Valor comes up next, followed by another powerful Outsider -- the mythical Phoenix.Finally, Raguel the Archangel of Divine Retribution is statted out. While Raguel is the only one of the seven Archangels mentioned in the Great Church section to be written up in this book, Green Ronin is planning a Celestials supplement which will, no doubt, bring the others to us. In the meantime, Raguel serves as an example from which clever DMs can extrapolate.*Appendix I: A Treatise on the Divine*This is an "in-character" document written by the Great Sage Matalou. It basically takes most of the cosmology and patheon information in TBotR and puts it into an in-game context. DMs can use excerpts from this famous treatise to "remind" PCs of what they know about the history of the Lords of Heaven and the nature of the universe.*Appendix II: Gods and Races*It's got a geneaology of the gods, followed by a glossary. That's right, a glossary! Need to look up a concept quickly? There it is. Talk about making it easy on overworked DMs!*Appendix III: Religion Reference Guide*Pulls together some basic information on the deities, and the titles used by their churches, for quick reference.*Index*Yes, an index. Green Ronin loves you.That's it! To anyone who has actually read through all of this, my thanks. I now return you to your regularly scheduled ENWorld ...</blockquote>

Verification