Book of Exalted Deeds

by Christopher Perkins, Darrin Drader, James Wyatt

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786931361
• ISBN13: 9780786931361
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
• Length: 191 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 8.7" x 11.1"

Customer Reviews

So, you're on a mission from Heaven? Step right this way...

Finally, we have something to stick in the Demon Princes' craw.The Book of Exalted Deeds (commonly acronymed BoED) is the counterpart to the Book of Vile Darkness. Named after a nifty artifact in the game, this greatly-welcomed tome brings you the ability to play, well, "goody little two-shoes!"The book is set up rather like Book of Vile Darkness, with sections I'll title Discussion, Stuff, Feats, Prestige Classes, Magic Stuff, Big Huge Celestials, and (Mostly) Friendly Monsters.The Discussion section talks about how being Good (not good) works, and how it can expand your enjoyment of the game. This includes ethics and examples of heroic types. Stuff includes relics, Ravages and Afflictions (Evil-targeted poisons and diseases), and some alternate rules, including the explanations for the Vow of Poverty, Vow of Nonviolence, and Words of Creation feats.Speaking of feats, there are quite a few here, some generally useful and then one or two per class. There really need to be more, for reasons I'll get to in a second. This has some quite nifty things, like Sacred Strike (sneak attacks rise from xd6 to xd8 versus evil creatures) and Sanctify Martial Strike (gives extra damage against evil creatures, and allows your weapon to breach n/good damage reduction). These are often necessary to the Prestige Classes, many of which are built on one or two of these feats as prerequisites. I rather liked the Slayer of Domiel (a LG assassin-type...no, really), the Initiate of Pistis Sophia (Exalted monk), and the Fist of Raziel (uber-smiting paladin-cleric).The Magic Stuff includes quite a few new spells and domains, though some are revised (like Glory). This book introduces the Sanctified spell, which has somewhat greater effects for its slot, but at the cost of some sacrifice from the character (usually ability damage or XP). There are nifty new magic items, which can be a tad problematic; one, the Retributive Amulet, reduces damage by half and returns that half to the attacker as damage, which, at 56,000 gp, is a bit cheap for the effect. However, these are generally nice items.(Re-)Introduced here are the Higher Celestials, the Good counterparts to the Archdevils and Demon Princes. You probably won't ever see them, and they don't accept worshippers, but they do have small followings (sort of like saints in the Church). Also included are quite a few new and revised celestials, most of whom appeared last in the Planescape setting, like the Hollyphant!On the whole, I enjoyed the heck out of this. There are a few things that could make it better, like more Exalted feats; only having one or two per class means that you will, eventually, run out if you take the Vow of Poverty feat (which grants bonus Exalted feats every other level). Feat chains built for each class would be very nice, indeed; some higher-level ones would be most welcome, especially if they supported multiclassing in their requirements.

Wonderfully written, with a few balance issues

I was delighted when I first heard about this book. I'd been peeved for some time by the focus on evil presented by the Book of Vile Darkness as being somewhat unequilateral. This book is, in essence, a guide to playing good characters. Not just run-of-the-mill good characters, but for those who really want to get INTO playing a truly good character, right along with all of its consequences and dilemmas. It's hardly easy or simple, but definitely interesting, and this book provides some great food for thought on such characters, as well as a handful of really nifty and fairly original prestige classes. However, apparently, there are some balance issues, as a few of the new classes and feats are rather disproportinately powerful (though a careful DM can balance these out with the alignment requirements and making sure that these prestige classes in particular are stricter about the characters being good). This book does Dungeons & Dragons the deep service of demonstrating that goodness is neither laughable, trivial, feeble, or misguided. It is a powerful force unto itself that is as every bit as real, potent, and meaningful as any other sort of power. This is the type of heroism that I feel this game was really made for, and the classes and feats herein are perfectly suited for characters who have reached epic levels of both moral development and power.In a nutshell: Nice guys only finish last because it takes them a little bit longer to wind up to deal the deathblow.

The good guys get a leg up in glorious style

The purpose of D & D, at the start, was to crawl through dungeons while killing monsters and finding nifty pieces of equipment. The game's come a long way since then, with hundreds of core book and supplements adding layer after layer of moral complexity to the fantasy world.Demons and devils were defined. Evil was given its own spells, magic items and races. The good guys, for there part, had morally limited and easily stereotyped paladins and the occasionally pure-hearted cleric. That was it. There was no real reason for a fighter, rogue or wizard to be any more good than their alignment description read.The Book of Exalted Deeds changes all that. Good has been given power, real power, and is now just as capable as evil of showering benefits on its devotees - though at no less cost to those devotees.This book opens with a discussion of the motives of good. What acts are good, which are not, and the exceptions to the rules. It's never a problem for me, but this section would be quite handy for those DMs and players who have trouble figuring just what a character's alignment means and practice.Also included is the idea of being "exalted." This isn't being on a moral high-horse or anything of the sort, it's simply the idea that just as some villains can be despicable beyond human comprehension, so can heroes be righteous.Next we get to the meat and drink of the book: the new stuff. The magic items are adequate, not much more. There's only so many new adjectives you can add onto the beginning of item names, and only so many powers you can give, but at the very least this book includes special enhancements that directly counter enhancements from the dreaded Book of Vile Darkness. The same goes for feats and spells, really, although some completely new concepts are also entertained.The book really comes into its own with the prestige classes, monsters and descriptions of greater creatures of good. In these sections, you're given some specific statistics, but you're also given a really good guideline for just how you can create your own special and sacred servants of the eladrin, the angels and the guardinals. Various otherworldly and mortal servants of the three great bastions of good are described, including a lot of the eladrin that were missing from previous supplements. The tulani and the firre were particularly appreciated.The greater creatures of good, the angels, the high eladrin, the greatest of the guardinals, are described in detail, with thorough descriptions. Given their tremendous power, I'm a little surprised that they weren't generated via Deities and Demigods, but that's a minor quibble.What I liked best about this book is that, as opposed to the majority of WotC's other products, this book appears to be cleanly edited, neatly presented and well-organized. I'm not an organization freak in my waking life, but when it comes to reference supplements, I really appreciate having everything laid out in plain, simple order, particularly w

A Book for True Heroes

Without making fun of religion or making it trivial, this book actually makes it possible to play someone with real virtue in a D20 game. I've had a pacifist cleric order in my game for some time, but no one would ever consider playing one - with the details in this book, they actually become balanced. The new creatures included are much appreciated by my current group, as most of them are noted as being able to be summoned by various existing spells - which makes my existing characters more versatile, even without the prestige classes.I would have liked to have seen a sample adventure, to help make some of the ideas presented more real and more easy to work into a D20 game, but that's a nice to have. I would also have liked to have seen more interaction with the Epic book. I considered this a fairly major flaw, in that most of the ideas and scope presented would work well with epic characters. It may be difficult to figure out the progressions for the characters here, and some of the feats cry out for epic versions. Hopefully, Hasbro will address this with web enhancements later.

Glorious!

Plato once said that we should never trust anyone who advocates that we should avoid anything but evil and pursue anything but goodness. And Plato was right. This book is fantastic and definitely worth buying for several reasons:1. It is a worthwhile counterpart to the Book of Vile Darkness. For a game which prides itself on being fair and balanced in all things, it would naturally be blatantly unbalanced in favor of evil if there were not such counterpart.2. The new feats and prestige classes are definitely worthy of those of us who prefer to play with good-aligned parties and characters. I'll expand on that below.3. There are those idealistic, old-fashioned fools like me still in existence who believe that for a game like D & D, which is based on Lord of the Rings, it is not only more appropriate but also more fun to play with a view to some sort of noble goal to destroy evil. Such naive souls like myself have always believed that it is far more fun and exciting to kill the dragon and save the damsel than the other way around. I'm not terribly big on prestige classes. However, the ones described in this book are terrific - very balanced and eminently playable. Although I haven't actually played a campaign with this text (yet), I can see how it would be supremely fun to do. The prestige classes are very powerful: Vassal of Bahamut (a de facto dragon-slaying class), the Sword of Righteousness (a prestige class for those who, like me, don't want to deviate from their regular character class for many levels but would like some bonus feats), and, my personal favorite, the Fist of Raziel for Paladins who wish to eschew their undead turning and special mount privileges for bonuses to their smiting ability. Ever hear of a lawful good assassin? There's now a special order of ex-rogues and assassins who have converted and have now formed a lawful good society of spies and stealthy killers of evil. Harpers, eat your heart out. There are more, of course; this is only a sample. But for those of us who live to play good-aligned Paladins and Clerics, this book is a ray of hope in an often evil-glorifying game. But don't think for a moment that only Paladins and Clerics can benefit from this text. On the contrary, there are classes designed specifically for good-aligned Druids, Fighters, Rangers, Sorcerers and Bards. There is a prestige class only for Elves & Half-Elves. There's even a class only for female characters. But the main requirement for any of these classes is that the character be of good alignment. Not non-evil. Good. If I have any complaint at all it's that there isn't much in the book for Barbarians and Wizards. But even so, Barbarians may wish to join one of the nature-oriented prestige classes designed primarily for Rangers or Druids. And Wizards will enjoy the new spells and metamagic feats available to them. So there truly is something for everyone. I myself have played Paladins for years. And I'm in love with