Thoughts on Book of the Righteous

[Gothmog]

Hello all,

I picked up this meaty book on Monday, and even though I am only about 1/3rd the way done with it, I have been VERY impressed. Its what Deities & Demigods should have been. The sample religions are very well thought out, interesting histories and dogma, and would be easy to drop into virtually any D&D world. The Holy Warrior class, although designed only for good aligned characters, could easily be converted for use to any religion or alignment by simply adding new domains and powers. Its more of a "fluff" than "crunch" book, but I think there have been a few too many crunch books lately, and this book is a welcome addition. IMO, its the best money I have spent on a d20 supplement to date.

Other questions/comments/ thoughts about the book out there?

 

[JoeGKushner]

The best book on gods in 3rd ed. I hope that they do stat teh gods though when the SRD comes out.

I'm very curious to see what future support for this product will be.

I'm debating using this whole cloth for my old Karathis campaign but am a little undecided. Sure, this would solve the whole lack of information on the Pantheon issue, but wouldn't do a thing for the setting itself in terms of cities, etc...

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Green Ronin has a special site set up to support this book with their additions and fan additions-

http://www.greenronin.com/tree_of_life/index.php?x=main.htm

Their forums are also very good- I found a lot of great tips on running the Freeport Trilogy there. You may find similar support about this book.

FD

 

[Nightfall]

Not to denegriate a TRULY great outing by Green Ronin BUT I did feel that the Divine and the Defeated was also a good god book. True the myths may not be as thought out, or the religious systems having that much detail. BUT what it does have is a good organic feel in a sourcebook about gods in a particular campaign setting.

Though I'll certainly agree, this book is MUCH better than D&Dmg.

 

[Gothmog]

Yep Nightfall, I really enjoyed the Divine and the Defeated as well. Its ideas about Heralds and Servitors were really interesting, and the info about the different religions were well done. However, the Divine and the Defeated might be a little harder to extrapolate to other campaigns due to the fairly specific nature of some of the mythology and deities (although it didn't stop me from stealing some great ideas for use in my game!).

I thought it was just nice to see a comprehensive cosmology that could work in most worlds that wasn't so rules heavy in the Book of the Righteous. In a time of ballooning powers, feats, stats, prestiege classes and power-ups, a book that doesn't have those as its focus is really refreshing. I guess I am different than most people- I don't want stats for gods. IMO they should be untouchable by mortals, even the most powerful ones. Gods are primal forces of the multiverse, not subject to the desries of whims of any mortal. Besides, as the old saying goes "If you stat it, they will kill it!"

 

[Tewligan]

The best book on gods in 3rd ed. I hope that they do stat teh gods though when the SRD comes out.

I doubt they will. There's a sidebar in there that says they intentionally didn't give any stats to the gods. They basically say that the gods should be so far beyond mortals that no one should even entertain the notion of being able to ever smack down a god. It then goes on with a myth about a group of uber-powerful wizards who enter Heaven and try to defeat a god, only to be instantaneously wiped out with a thought. The message behind it is "Well, these guys were the most powerful wizards ever, and look what happened to THEM."

 

[Nightfall]

Yep Nightfall, I really enjoyed the Divine and the Defeated as well. Its ideas about Heralds and Servitors were really interesting, and the info about the different religions were well done. However, the Divine and the Defeated might be a little harder to extrapolate to other campaigns due to the fairly specific nature of some of the mythology and deities (although it didn't stop me from stealing some great ideas for use in my game!).

Mm glad to hear it. But you are right, they are pretty specific in many ways.

I thought it was just nice to see a comprehensive cosmology that could work in most worlds that wasn't so rules heavy in the Book of the Righteous. In a time of ballooning powers, feats, stats, prestiege classes and power-ups, a book that doesn't have those as its focus is really refreshing. I guess I am different than most people- I don't want stats for gods. IMO they should be untouchable by mortals, even the most powerful ones. Gods are primal forces of the multiverse, not subject to the desries of whims of any mortal. Besides, as the old saying goes "If you stat it, they will kill it!"

I don't mind the stating of gods. I just prefer to keep it to their avatars. Make THEM pretty tanklike. D&Dmg gave me that. Now I can make avatars that will make EPIC level people fear and I already figured out how to stat titans. I use d8s for Outsiders and d20 for being a Titan.

 

[Crothian]

The book is so good, I almost got rid of my Homebrew gods. Almost.

 

[Nikchick]

Green Ronin has a special site set up to support this book with their additions and fan additions-

http://www.greenronin.com/tree_of_life/index.php?x=main.htm

Thanks for posting this link, FD. We've been really pleased at the response to Book of the Righteous and we're all looking forward to seeing how the Tree of Life starts to fill out.

The author of Book of the Righteous, Aaron Loeb, has been really great about answering questions about the book on the Green Ronin boards. He's very approachable and interested in what people end up doing with the information presented in the book.

I encourage those of you who have it to swing by the Green Ronin boards or the Tree of Life site and share your ideas!

Nicole

 

[The Serge]

The book's da bomb! Finally, someone out there treating Asmodeus the way he should be treated (don't agree with all of it, but it's a great job nevertheless).

It's more than worth $40!