Book of Exalted Deeds
![]() | |
Author | James Wyatt, Darrin Drader and Christopher Perkins |
---|---|
Genre | Role-playing game |
Publisher | Wizards of the Coast |
Publication date | October 2003 |
Media type | Print (Hardback) |
Pages | 192 |
ISBN | 0-7869-3136-1 |
The Book of Exalted Deeds is an optional sourcebook for the 3.5 edition of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, providing supplementary game material for campaigns involving characters of good alignment. Within the game, it is also the name of a powerful magical artifact.
Contents
The Book of Exalted Deeds contains rules for good occurrences, acts, and characters in the game, and thus is only useful for campaigns including good forces.
It is one of two manuals for the game to carry a "For Mature Audiences Only" warning label on the cover (the other is Book of Vile Darkness, devoted to evil).
Chapter Summary
- The Nature of Good: This defines how good is seen in the Dungeons & Dragons setting, as well as how good-aligned characters of different alignments act in relation to the world around them.
- Variant Rules: This simply adds additional rules for a campaign featuring good-aligned characters that allows such characters to become exalted characters.
- Exalted Equipment: This talks about the weapons (sometimes special) used by exalted characters.
- Feats: This chapter includes several new feats, the vast majority of which are exalted feats, meant specifically for good-aligned characters and usable only by such.
- Prestige Classes: This chapter introduces prestige classes appropriate for an exalted campaign.
- Magic: This chapter provides spells almost exclusively for good characters, as well as magical items, weapon and armor enhancements, and artifacts appropriate to such a campaign.
- Celestial Paragons: This chapter discusses (and provides NPC stat blocks for) celestial paragons, rulers of the Upper planes so overwhelmingly powerful that they are revered as a god would be, even on the Material Plane. It also discusses the Upper Planes to an extent.
- Monsters: This chapter contains good-aligned monsters, featuring the Deathless type, as well as templates to create customized monsters.
The Book of Exalted Deeds artifact
The artifact is mentioned in the Dungeon Master's Guide, version 3.5, listed as a magic item. The magic item is described as a book only useful to good characters.
It is also listed in the original Dungeon Master's Guide as a miscellaneous magic item. Reading it increases the experience point total and wisdom score for cleric player characters of good alignment, but will harm or kill a neutral or evil character.
The book also appears in the computer game Birthright: The Gorgon's Alliance as an artifact granting a bonus to character level and wisdom to good-aligned priest characters for as long as they possess it.
Publication history
It was authored by James Wyatt, Darrin Drader and Christopher Perkins, and published by Wizards of the Coast in October 2003. Cover art is by Henry Higginbotham, with interior art by Tom Baxa, Steve Belladin, Matt Cavotta, Brent Chumley, Rebecca Guay-Mitchell, Jeremy Jarvis, Doug Kovacs, Ginger Kubic, David Martin, Mark Nelson, Wayne Reynolds, Ron Spencer, Arnie Swekel, and Ben Thompson.
References
- James Wyatt, Christopher Perkins, Darrin Drader. Book of Exalted Deeds (Wizards of the Coast, 2003)