Product Description
Strike Down Evil with the Sword of Enlightenment
“Only those who are pure in word, thought, and deed may look upon the knowledge gathered within this blessed tome. For the blinding truths inscribed within offer nothing but redemption or destruction for the wicked. May these consecrated pages forever illuminate the paths of the righteous.â€
– Raziel the Crusader, ruler of the Platinum Heaven
As the Book of Vile Darkness was a resource book on the most evil elements of campaign play, the Book of Exalted Deeds focuses instead on the availability of good resources and features in the D&D spectrum.
Included are new exalted feats, prestige classes, races, spells, magic items, and descriptions and statistics for a host of creatures and celestial paragons to ally with virtuous characters. The Book of Exalted Deeds also provides descriptions and statistics for a host of creatures and celestial paragons to ally with virtuous characters.
Book of Exalted Deeds is the second title in the line of Dungeons & Dragons products specifically aimed at a mature audience.
To use this supplement, a Dungeon Master also needs the Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual. A player needs only the Player’s Handbook.
In my opinion, this is an un-needed book. Why does a DM need a book full of “monsters” that are vastly powerful GOOD beings. In the vast majority of campaigns, the players are good, fighting the forces of evil. With the monsters in this book, the players won’t have much to do except watch the battle. This brings up a minor complaint about D&D that I’ve had since the game first came out…why do the developers always give a slight power edge to good? Wouldn’t it make more sense to give a slight power edge to evil, since that’s what the players will be fighting against. Take dragons for example. The most powerful good dragon (gold) is a bit more powerful than the most powerful evil dragon (red). All this leads to is the DM having to come up with some reasoning why evil dragons outnumber good dragons, like in Dragonlance Chronicles with the abduction of the dragon eggs. Well, enough rambling off topic. Unless you’re DMing a high level evil group, give this one a pass.
Rating: 2 / 5
I found this book to be more or less devoid of useful or interesting material, with two exceptions. I liked some of the feats presented in the book and I liked the section on creating immortals. The rest of the book was fluff, useless, a waste of space. The book tries to explain goodness to players, all of which know what it means to be good anyway. It presents a whole mess of groupings of deities which anyone could make up on their own, which is basically the way Wizards of the coast present everything divine. Instead of giving 7000 examples of divine beings, why not give us a book about how to build them, details of how divine beings interact, create, and how they fit into the cosmos? Anyone DM truly worth his salt makes all his own stuff up anyway rather than using the junk in books like this and the Manual of the Planes. Spend money on something else like Heroes of Battle, a much better book and more useable.
Rating: 1 / 5
But this book is lame. Especially compared to its companion piece, the Book of Vile Deeds. Vile Deeds was cool–it had crazy pictures, an interesting musing on the nature of good and evil [before whole heartedly abandoning that line of reasoning and presenting such morally ambiguous figures as the "Cancer Mage"], and some really evil stuff to throw at your PCs.
This book… well… it has a great cover. No seriously, it’s really neet to look at.
The inside art isn’t very attractive. Most of the add-ons are like “if your characters become extra special good, they are just so swell! Let’s make everything holy or something like that!” The prestige classes aren’t very inspiring either. And it’s not really clear [although Vile Deeds wasn't either] about how a non-god figure is more powerful and important than a god figure? I guess it’s one of those DnD continuity issues that you just have to grin and bear… or create your own setting!
overall, not really worth your time.
Rating: 2 / 5
One of the better products from WotC. Very good information for those that aren’t fascinated by being evil.
Rating: 5 / 5
A very useful resource, especially for those incorporating the high planes into their campaign.
Rating: 4 / 5