BoVD: Your opinions

[maddman75]

Well,
I guess I'll be the dissenting voice. I don't like it at all...but then my group doesn't play evil characters. We are pretty much old school...not many weird combinations....none of the stupid min/max stuff like take a level in 4 classes so you get to use all the abilities....None of the stupid items....not trying to make the game perversely sexual, or any of that stuff...

Um, me neither. But I love the book. This is not a book for players, but for DMs. Even the prestige classes seem geared to providing interesting enemies rather than cool toys for players. For instance, the lifedrinker, a class that will let vampire sorcerers use drained levels to power their spells, or a PrC for classed demon mortal hunters.

The book seems to drip adventure ideas. And it has one of the most powerful spells I've seen done really well. Apocalypse from the sky, 9th leve. Does 10d6 of your choice of energy damage in a 10 mile radius per level. So minimum, 170 mile radius. The material component is the hitch. It requires an artifact. Not as a focus, the artifact is *consumed*.

That right there can give you adventure ideas. Maybe there's an evil cult that is trying to cast this spell, and the heros need to get keep them from stealing the Holy McGuffin of Goodness and destroying it along with the kingdom! Or they find the Dark Plot Device of Utter Evil, and this is the only way to destroy it.

The spells just tend to be nasty. Not overpowered, just really nasty. My players eventually were conditioned to flinch whenever I reached for it...

And there's not much sexual content in it. All I recall is the infamous Lichloved feat that requires 'relations' with the undead, and a few mentions of sadism and masocism. They are easily ignored if that isn't your cup of tea. It isn't mine. Not because my group is so mature, but that they're immature. God, we'd never hear the end of the jokes if they battled someone masochistic (they get bonuses to hit after being damaged)

 

[Kealios]

Honestly, the book had enough in it visually that I just didnt want to spend time flipping through the book. We use Exalted Deeds in my game, but Vile Darkness just seemed to go that extra...step...that I didnt want to.

Im not a prude, although I have a deeply seeted religious background, but I feel that I can make my evil badguys bad enough without a book like this. YMMV

 

[pogre]

I like it as a DM inspiration book as well. I think the vast majority of folks use the book as a source for the enemy. A vile/evil campaign has limited appeal to me, but I still like this book.

 

[Turanil]

a first level spell that requires a bone from a still-living child as a material component.

For me there are some "poor taste" things in this book that I would have preferred seen not included, like the one above. But on the overall as a DM I do find some usefulness in BoVD. It never crossed my mind that it could be anything else but a DM's tool only, though. It has some ideas and monsters to throw at players, that are interesting to portray the "real" evil in a campaign.

I must say that the first time I ever heard of this book, was when angry Dragon Magazines' readers wrote letters to say how scandalous it was to publish such a book. I must say that I was REALLY intrigued. Then, I had the opportunity of buying a copy in perfect condition on ebay for 15$ (I would never had paid more for that book, that I not deemed essential). Well, I did not find what was so scandalous about it... :\

My main critic is there is too much stat blocks for demons princes and the like, and I do not intend to play munchkin campaigns where you slay demon princes. I think there are too many prestige classes. They require the DM to create scores of specific npcs, and most of the times the PCs don't notice how peculiar the abilities of the villain were. In this regard feats are better, but those of BoVD are most of the time lame IMO. Of course, there is no question I would ever allow a PC take one of these prestige classes. On the othe hand there is some useful ideas such as demonic possessions, vile damage, curses, diseases, and a few monsters and templates.

 

[Olive]

I don't like it at all...but then my group doesn't play evil characters.

Hey, nether does mine! Like the others, I like it as a DMs book.

To be honest, the stuff about nasty spell components doesn't bother me. I think evil power should be fueled by nasty things. Otherwise it becomes cartoonish.

The art similarly doesn't bother me. I mean I don't know what you guys think demons do in their spare time, but torture sounds about it.

Basically I like fiends as enemies. This book makes them more varied (as do a lot of other books...) and that suits me just fine.

 

[Sejs]

The name of the spell eludes me, but there was one that I really thought was cool. Basically, it deals negative energy...but not on the target. It deals the damage to the targets closest friend/loved one/etc.

That would be Love's Pain. Such a wonderful little spell.

Nothing tops Alert Bebelith though for sheer laugh factor. I mean who can say no to a spell that doesn't so much -summon- a giant fiendivorous demon spider, as it does just send up a big neon pan-dimentional equivelant of Willey Coyote with a sign that reads "Free Bird Seed"? I love that spell to pieces, I really do.

 

[Li Shenron]

I think it is just an average book.

Its best features are a lot of bits (spells, feats, PrCl, you know the usual stuff...) usable for NPCs, some very cool monsters, and the Archfiends -although their stats may not be usable unless you play epic.

Its worst features are some of the art which is excessively gruesome (who said mature?) and the failure in providing support to play a vile campaign.

To mention, its counterpart BoED is far better in providing support to play an exalted campaign IMHO.

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

I shrugged my shoulders over it.

There are some neat things in there, like the artefact that pretty much belches up zombies, and there are some interesting magic items, spells, and monsters.

A lot of the rest of it was of no use to me. The discussion of evil and the presentation of various evil, example NPCs was uninspired, and uninspiring, and I didn't feel the writing as a whole was up to snuff - dry as kindling, in fact.


Patrick Y.

 

[Snoweel]

There's nothing to add that hasn't already been said, other than every bit of crunch is a plot hook waiting to happen.

And while I've never been a fan of D&D demonology/cosmology, I realised the notes contained in this book fill the glaring hole I had in the cosmology of my homebrew.

Honestly, the book had enough in it visually that I just didnt want to spend time flipping through the book. We use Exalted Deeds in my game, but Vile Darkness just seemed to go that extra...step...that I didnt want to.

Im not a prude, although I have a deeply seeted religious background, but I feel that I can make my evil badguys bad enough without a book like this. YMMV

Funny that.

Going by statistics, I'm guessing your religious background is essentially the same as mine, yet I love the book because it really does help me eliminate the grey areas for my players (I'm not too interested in DMing moral dilemmas - there are far too many IRL).

And I won't buy the Book of Exalted Deeds because I don't trust its treatment of something that is very real and important to me.

But to each his own...

 

[Gez]

There's cool ideas in it. It does suffer from overusing the word "vile" (in the same way that epic level handbook suffers from overusing the word "epic"), but that's not that important, as it's just rulesy stuff. Vile damage is nice, as are dark speech and dark chant. Goes well with the exalted equivalent of dark speech, with truenames, with the language primeval, etc.