Book Of Exalted Deeds - Fireden

620 88026 ExaltedDeeds2a.qxd 8/25/03 1:43 PM Page 3Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Chapter 1: The Nature of Good . . . . . . . . 5Exalted Deeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5The Straight and Narrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Law, Chaos, and Good . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Playing a Hero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Exalted Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Sin and Atonement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Exalted Adventures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Channeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Exalted Cohorts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Exalted Gods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Exorcism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Heroes of the Heavens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Heroic Sacrificeand Martyrdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Mercy, Prisoners,and Redemption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Sainthood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Tithes and Offerings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Voluntary Poverty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Waging Peace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Words of Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Sanctified Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Nonlethal Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Ravages and Afflictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Relics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Optional Material Components . . . . . . . . . 37Special Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Chapter 4: Feats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Exalted Feats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Feat Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Chapter 5: Prestige Classes . . . . . . . . . . 49Anointed Knight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Apostle of Peace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Beloved of Valarian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Celestial Mystic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55Champion of Gwynharwyf . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56Defender of Sealtiel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58Emissary of Barachiel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59Exalted Arcanist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61Fist of Raziel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62Initiate of Pistis Sophia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64Lion of Talisid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65Prophet of Erathaol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66Risen Martyr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68Sentinel of Bharrai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Skylord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71Slayer of Domiel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Stalker of Kharash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Swanmay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Sword of Righteousness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Celestial Creatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191Celestial-Related Templates . . . . . . . . . . . 191Celestials by Challenge Rating . . . . . . . . 191Chapter 6: Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83Good Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83Spell Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84Cleric Domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Spell Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89Magic Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112Redeeming Evil Magic Items . . . . . . . . . . 119Irredeemable Evil Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120Chapter 7: Celestial Paragons . . . . . . . 121Celestial ParagonsIn Your Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121Celestial Paragons and Clerics . . . . . . . . . 123The Upper Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123Law and Chaosin the Heavens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124The Celestial Hebdomad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124Talisid and theFive Companions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138The Court of Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150Celestial Planar Allies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156Chapter 8: Monsters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157Chapter 3: Exalted Equipment . . . . . . . 33Appendix: Index of Celestials . . . . . . . 191The Deathless Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157Aleax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158Archon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159Owl Archon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159Sword Archon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160Throne Archon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162Warden Archon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163Asura . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164Bariaur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165Crypt Warden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167Eladrin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168Coure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168Firre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169Shiradi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170Tulani . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171Guardinal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172Equinal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173Musteval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174Ursinal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174Hollyphant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176Leskylor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177Moon Dog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179Quesar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180Rhek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181Sacred Watcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182Saint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184Sanctified Creature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186Swarm, Divine Wrath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188Apocalypse Frog Swarm . . . . . . . . . . . . 188Bronze Locust Swarm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188Deathraven Swarm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189Sunfly Swarm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190SidebarsExalted Deeds and Vile Darkness . . . . . . . . 6Exalted Versus Epic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Celestial Monster Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Skylord’s Mounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Sample Skylord’s Mounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Expanded Summoning Tables . . . . . . . . . 190TablesTable 2–1: Example Special Cohorts . . . . . 25Table 2–2: Half-CelestialLevel Adjustments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Table 2–3: Voluntary Poverty . . . . . . . . . . . 31Table 3–1: Nonlethal Weapons . . . . . . . . . . 34Table 3–2: Ravages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Table 3–3: Afflictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Table 3–4: Good Spell Components . . . . . 37Table 4–1: Feats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Table 4–1: Feats (cont) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Table 4–2: Ancestral Relic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Table 5–1: The Anointed Knight . . . . . . . . 50Table 5–2: The Apostle of Peace . . . . . . . . . 51Table 5–3: The Beloved of Valarian . . . . . . 53Table 5–4: The Celestial Mystic . . . . . . . . . 55Table 5–5: The Champion ofGwynharwyf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57Table 5–6: The Defender of Sealtiel . . . . . . 58Table 5–7: The Emissary of Barachiel . . . . 60Table 5–8: Emissary of BarachielSpells Known . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60Table 5–9: The Exalted Arcanist . . . . . . . . . 62Table 5–10: The Fist of Raziel . . . . . . . . . . . 63Table 5–11: The Initiate of Pistis Sophia . 64Table 5–12: The Lion of Talisid . . . . . . . . . . 65Table 5–13: The Prophet of Erathaol . . . . . 67Table 5–14: The Risen Martyr . . . . . . . . . . . 68Table 5–15: The Sentinel of Bharrai . . . . . 70Table 5–16: The Skylord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71Table 5–17: The Slayer of Domiel . . . . . . . 73Table 5–18: The Stalker of Kharash . . . . . . 75Table 5–19: The Swanmay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Table 5–20: The Sword of Righteousness . 78Table 5–21: The Troubadour of Stars . . . . . 79Table 5–22: The Vassal of Bahamut . . . . . . 80Table 5–23: The Wonderworker . . . . . . . . . 82Table 7–1: Channel Celestial ParagonConferred Qualities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122Table 7–2: Channel CelestialParagon Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123TABLE OFCONTENTSChapter 2: Variant Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Troubadour of Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78Vassal of Bahamut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80Wonderworker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823

620 88026 ExaltedDeeds2a.qxd 8/25/03 1:44 PM Page 4ter every drow I see and sell their goods on the open market?How do I wrest information from enemy prisoners withoutcompromising my alignment? Is there any hope for the orcWelcome to the Book of Exalted Deeds.whelps in the stronghold, or should we slaughter them, too?There is an obvious parallel between this book and its predeMany players would just as soon overlook these questions,cessor, the Book of Vile Darkness. Both are named after minorbelieving they detract from the fun of the game. There’s nothingartifacts detailed in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, artifacts thatwrong with that. For groups that want to address these issues,define the sharp polarity between the most abhorrent pits ofhowever, the Book of Exalted Deeds opens the way. At the sameevil and the highest peaks of righteousness. While the Book oftime, it presents a whole host of new opportunities for playerVile Darkness concerns itself with all things evil, dealing withcharacters of good alignment and righteous conviction: newthe most reprehensible subjects ever covered in the DUNGEONSfeats, spells, prestige classes, magic and mundane items, and& DRAGONS game, this book tackles the opposite subject. Therules to help address the situations they face. These goodies aren’ttwo books share a similar outline, and there are several otherjust for the cleric and paladin, either—characters who someparallels in content as well,times are the sole voices of morality in an adventuring party.but their essentialWhile paladins and good clerics will certainly find much offunction is quiteuse, characters of all classes can benefit from the new matedifferent. Therial in the Book of Exalted Deeds—if they are willing and ableBook of Vileto walk the straight and narrow path of the exalted.Darkness givesThere is one other reason this book is intendedDungeon Masfor mature audiences: it deals with certainters the toolsaspects of real-world religion that mightthey need tomake some people uncomfortable.bring the villainsIn the Book of Exalted Deeds,and monsters ofyou’ll find archons withtheir campaigns to newnames drawn fromlows of depravity and evil.Jewish, Christian, andArmed with the Book of ExaltedGnostic angelology,Deeds, players can now bring theirpaladins with stigcharacters, the heroes of the cammata, and monkspaign, to great new heights of valorwho have swornand righteousness. In contrast to thornot to touch deadoughly vile villains, heroes are calledflesh or drink alcoupon to perform truly exalted deeds.hol. Among the holyThe Book of Exalted Deeds is for players whorelics discussed herearen’t satisfied by slapping a good alignmentare items of torture andlabel on their character and then acting noexecution that were used upon saints and stilldifferent from the neutral characters in thecarry the touch of sanctified blood. To manyparty. This book is all about how to make apeople, these things are hardly in the same categood alignment mean something, and howgory as the appalling abominations found in theto live up to the ideals implied in that alignment.Book of Vile Darkness. To many of us with deeplyThis is not a book about what good charactersheld convictions about such matters, thecan’t do—it’s not a list of ways to avoid being evil.An exaltedarcanist and hissubject is touchy at best. This bookRather, it’s about what they can do, the power thatcelestial familiarcarries a warning because we’rethey gain as a direct result of adhering to arelying on you to deal with yourhigher standard of righteousness than mostown reactions to this material in a mature manner: use what youof the world can hope to achieve. It’s aboutlike, adapt what doesn’t fit, and simply ignore what you don’tbeing an agent of good, whether a character serves a good deitylike. We’ve tried to present the material with sensitivity andor simply adheres to more abstract ideas of goodness. It’s aboutappropriate gravity, and we trust you to use it in the same way.following a higher call than the lure of gold and experienceAuthor’s Note: I didn’t expect this book to require a dispoints, wrestling with tougher choices than which monster toclaimer like the one Monte put in front of the Book of Vile Darkkill first or what magic item to buy with newfound loot, andness. I like to think I am a good person, and I stronglydoing the kinds of heroic deeds that make a difference in theencourage others to be good people as well. Nevertheless, I feelgame world.the need to point out that this book attempts to define theLike the Book of Vile Darkness, the Book of Exalted Deeds ismorality of goodness in the context of the D&D world, not theintended for mature players. That’s not because it’s filled withreal world. While I’ve tried to explore some shades of gray inlurid depictions of depravity and torture. The material isn’tthis book, the D&D universe is still much more black-andmeant to shock or offend (though some topics may). Rather,white than the real world. I don’t advocate anyone killing somethis book deals with tough questions of ethics and morality inone they think is evil, to give just one example.a serious manner. It’s intended to help players and Dungeon—James WyattMasters wrestle with hard in-game issues: Is it okay to slaugh-Illus. by S. BelladinINTRODUCTIONIntroduction4

620 88026 ExaltedDeeds2a.qxd 8/25/03 1:44 PM Page 5Illus. by D. Kovacshat is good?Many characters are happy to rattle off longlists of sins they haven’t committed as evidencethat they are good. The utter avoidance of evil,however, doesn’t make a character good—solidly neutral, perhaps, but not good.Being good requires a certain quality of temperament, thepresence of virtues that spur a character, not just to avoid evilor its appearance, but to actively promote good. As expressedin the Player’s Handbook, “‘Good’ implies altruism, respect forlife, and a concern for the dignity of sentient beings. Goodcharacters make personal sacrifices to help others.”Good is not nice, polite, well mannered, prudish, self-righteous, or naïve, though good-aligned characters might be someof those things. Good is the awesome holy energy that radiatesfrom the celestial planes and crushes evil. Good is selfless, just,hopeful, benevolent, and righteous.EXALTED DEEDSThese acts of goodness are concrete, positive means by whichthe heroes of the world fight against the darkness of evil. Theyare the meat and drink of the exalted hero, and should serve asan inspiration for how to play a character of good alignment,suggesting not only common actions but also motivations andpersonality traits.HELPING OTHERSWhen a village elder comes to a good character and says,“Please help us, a dragon is threatening our village,” thegood character’s response is not, “What can you pay?”Neutral characters might be that mercenary, and evilcharacters would certainly consider how to collect themost benefit from the situation. For a good character,however, helping others is a higher priority than personal gain.A good character might ask a number of other questions before leaping up from her seat and charging tothe village’s aid: good characters aren’t necessarilystupid. A good character can be cautious, determining how powerful the dragon is and whether additional reinforcements are required, but she shouldnever say, “Sorry, I’m out of my league. Go findanother hero.” It

4 Introduction Welcome to the Book of Exalted Deeds. There is an obvious parallel between this book and its prede-cessor, the Book of Vile Darkness.Both are named after minor artifacts detailed in the Dungeon Master’s Guide,artifacts that define the sharp polarity between the most abhorrent pits of