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="John Morrow" data-source="post: 2010337" data-attributes="member: 27012">FIRST IMPRESSIONSBook of the Righteous (BOR) is perhaps the best RPG supplement I have ever purchased.  That may sound like hyperbole, but I can't say it any other way.  I have never seen religion handled so completely or so well in any game I have ever played.  If you have any desire to insert a completely consistent, logical, and interconnected cosmology into your campaign, then BOR is for you.It would be hard to write a concise review that did this book justice, but I'll touch on the high points.FORMBOR is a mammoth hardcover book.  It's monstrously huge.  320 pages of information packed between two sturdy attractive covers.  The interior art is not colour, but it is well done.  The art of the cover is appropriately imposing.  The book is well written and seems tightly edited.  It is an entertaining read and I found it hard to put down.FUNCTIONSo what is BOR?  It contains a ready-to-use pantheon of some 20 gods with well-designed churches and associated cleric and paladin (holy warrior) classes.  Prestige classes are included for most of the churches as well.  There is even information on hidden, twisted cults and sects that pervert the will of some of the gods, as well as a little information (not enough to satisfy me!) on the one major evil power (he's not a deity per se) and his minions.In addition to these things, all laid out in exceptional detail, there is a compelling and consistent mythology to tie all of these churches together.  At the risk of offending some people, I found the mythology and cosmology in this book to be much more intriguing than most real world religions.  That may say more about the state of my immortal soul than it does about this book though...The purpose of all of this is to allow a DM to drop the churches and/or the mythology into any campaign world allowing for instant credibility vis-à-vis religion.  For anyone who likes to play clerics, this supplement will make your character's life infinitely fuller.For each deity, the book lists myths told by the worshippers of the particular god in question.  It then outlines the god's associations - what are the god's domains?  What animals are associated with the church?  Who worships this god?  Next the book describes the god's alignment, as well as how the god is generally represented.  How do worshippers picture the god?  What is his holy symbol?  Next, the book discusses the god's purpose.  What is the god interested in?  Why?  What is his ultimate goal?  Finally, the servants of the god (immortal servants, such as angels - not mortal worshippers) are described.After this level of detail about a god, the book then shifts to describe that god's church.  A description of the church and its structure is followed by details of the church doctrine.  A few common prayers and holy days are listed, followed by the god's main saints.  Interestingly, there is then a discussion of the god's relationship with the church.  Not all gods support or even like their churches.  Some are indifferent to the mortals.  Interesting take on this.  Finally, each church's preferred weapon is listed.Next, the book delves into the holy orders of each church.  Most churches have 3 holy orders - an order of clerics, an order of holy warriors (paladins), and an order of some sort of prestige class.  These are all generally well thought out and interesting.  I particularly like the idea of holy warriors for all churches, not just Lawful Good ones.After these lengthy sections on the various gods and churches, the book has an interesting section on "Campaigning", which contains an excellent discussion of alignment.  Each alignment is described in relation to a cosmic perspective, and each is related to an ideal or concept.  For example, Chaotic Good relates to "freedom" while Lawful Good relates to "Charity" and Neutral Evil to "Greed".  It's a new take on alignment that I found refreshing.The rest of the section deals with various aspects of incorporating religion (and specifically these religions) into your game, including a short section on stopping players from abusing their character's role as a servant of the gods.There is also a chapter on creating your own mythology, or incorporating some parts of the book and not others, but frankly the content as provided is so good, I can't imagine wanting to change much of it.There are also the obligatory new feats, abilities, spells etc.  Some of this is good and some mediocre, as per most these days, but honestly, I was sold on this book long before I got to this bit.  You could easily pick and choose what to keep and what to pitch from this section.FUNIs this book fun?  Heck, its fun to read let alone use.  I would love to play a cleric in a campaign that uses this supplement.  It totally takes clerics out of the cookie-cutter role of combat medic and gives them life and purpose.One thing I really like - there are no stats for gods.  This is not an addendum to the Monster Manual.  The gods do not have hit points.  They don't have levels.  They are gods.  Raise your hand against them and be smitten.I cannot recommend this book highly enough.  Buy it.  Read it.  Use it.</blockquote>

Verification