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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sammael" data-source="post: 2009821" data-attributes="member: 4475">I wouldn't describe myself as a "fan" of Monte Cook in the sense that I have both liked some of his products and disliked others, but I do recognise him as an important RPG writer. With this in mind, I was intrigued enough by the various Books of Eldritch Might to purchase and peruse them. I decided to go for the Book of Hallowed Might after seeing a few comments on the Messageboards here. I benefited from the special offer which allowed me to purchase this 48 page product at $6. Since that's less than the average magazine I'm likely to buy at the newsstand, it would be hard to judge the product in terms of value for money, so I'll judge it on it own merits below. First of all, I'm glad that Monte decided to focus on Divine spellcasting a bit. A lot of the supplements out there, especially supplements providing more spells, focus mainly on Arcane magic, even if they profess otherwise. The BoHM is a bit more focused than that though, since it addresses the divine magic from a definite "holy" angle and therefore a lot of the material is geared towards good-aligned characters. No complain from me on this, since again, a lot of supplements out these days focus on the bad and the ugly. It's a nice thing to see the good in there too !OK, so what do you get in there ? The first chapter focuses on Divine Spellcasters in Campaigns, ie. how to integrate divine spellcasters, where does their power come from, what social roles do clerics play, etc. This chapter is kind of a hodge-podge, briefly mentioning a lot of diverse subjects but rarely going into any depth. This was kind of a disappointment considering that very little of this has been covered in generic resources (like the WotC DMG.) This could have been more of an idea mine than it is. I would especially have liked for Monte to go in a lot more depth on the impact of resurrection magic in a campaign and various options to either live with it or change it, and the consequences of these options. You do get some crunch in here as well, with an alternate ranger (essentially a slightly less front-loaded and less-specialised one). There's nothing very exciting about it, and that's how it should be IMO. I'll certainly be using this variant from now on. The alternate Paladin was, in my opinion, unnecessary, but then again I don't like the idea of the Paladin as a core class, so who am I to judge. There's also an alignment variant which brings in "shades of grey". I don't really see the need for such a mechanic, but others may. On the whole it's well conceived, but again, nothing revolutionary...Chapter Two presents the obligatory Prestige Classes. Monte's prestige classes in previous supplements have been of varied quality and usefulness, and the BoHM is no exception. The Blessed Prelate is a good concept, makes a nice (if rare) NPC class for living figures of religious significance. I'm not entirely convinced by the abilities that go with it (not unbalanced, just unconvincing), especially the ability to Summon Blessed Children (a monster described later in the BoHM) which is essentially a combat-enhancement ability, very unlike what the class seems to be about. The Hallowed Mage is a purely mechanical concept of combining arcane and divine magic with no power loss. As such, it's pretty weak from a background point of view and uninteresting to me. The Knight of the Pale on the other hand, is pretty cool, being linked to the great heroes and saints of the past and being able to let themselves be inhabited temporarily by their traits. The "suites" of abilty represented by the various saints are pretty cool and make sense. Good one there.Chapter Three presents the Feats and this is where the books shines the most. Unlike the overly complex and/or specific feats of the first two BoEMs, the feats presented here are not only useful and sexy, but, for the most part, they actually fill a non-combat function which is refreshing ! Vows and Oaths, in particular, are very nice additions, giving bonuses based on a ceratin abstinence (Vows) or linked to a specific goal (Oaths). The Fealty mechanic also is very nice, adding an in-game mechanic (and incentive) to such Oaths. The rest of the feats are mainly religious feats, and make sense in the context of a church hierarchy or church objectives. Considering that the choice of feats for non combat-oriented Clerics in the PHB is very poor, this is a most weclome addition. There are 20 feats in all, and they're all good an useful.Chapter Four focuses on Spells. It starts with a new domain, Light, a surprising ommission from the Core Rulebooks. Overall, the spells presented are designed with the good-aligned cleric in mind, and they're nice and balanced. A few of them I liked a lot, like the Aeonian Lantern a permanent light that hinders Evil creatures, or Ethereal Prison and its variants that allow the magical imprisonment of enemies in various locales (the sun, a pond, the ethereal plane, etc.). On the whole, these are valuable additions to any campaign.Chapter Five describes new Magic Items. On the whole I'm not keen on additional magic items in supplements. There's already way too many of these in the DMG for my own use, so I'll freely admit I didn't read this chapter with all the attention required for a serious review. There are some cool concepts, but nothing that made me want to use it immediately. Some of the new properties are a bit too much, or a bit too  specific, and some introduce yet more mechanics, which I'm not keen on (Enough book-keeping in 3E as it is !) Since it's only three pages long, though, I won't complain. Finally, the book closes on Creatures. You get Angels of the Elements (of the usual four kinds) and Blessed Children, souls of beings not yet born and therefore parangons of purity. Interesting concepts both, but again, do we need yet more outsiders ? I guess it's up to each DM to decide whether he wants to use this or not, but I didn't find anything stunning enough in there to make me want to do so.Overall, I'd say BoHM is a great buy for any DM and for players of good-aligned clerics. Although there is some stuff in there for Druids, Rangers and Paladins, there's not enough to justify getting the book just for that. Monte Cook's usual attention to game balance issues means that there is little that seems overpowered in here, which is a comforting thought for any DM who doesn't have time to review the hundreds of spells, feats and prestige classes that we usually see out players bring to the table.</blockquote>

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