|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
There certainly is a risk of a 'book of good' going the Book of Exalted Deeds route of just whitewashing villainous options and making 'good poisons' and 'good diseases' and 'good positive-energy-empowered undead' (itself a bilious concoction, since positive energy is no more 'good' than negative energy is 'evil') or 'good spells that smite the hell out of evil people.'
Our culture doesn't equate moral good with heroic adventure. 'Heroes' are supposed to be big strong men who kill the hell out of anyone they deem a bad-guy, bully the hell out of anyone who gets in their way, express contempt for authority, laws or the rights, liberty or property of the common man, and have a steady stream of funny quips to unleash as they kill the latest faceless mook.
A book that explored heroic ideals of mercy or kindness or charity or compassion or moderation or respect would likely bore the hell out of a gaming audience who came to set stuff on fire and put swords into monsters before collecting their GPs and their XPs.
Right now, alignment *doesn't* mean anything. You can be mindless and evil, making evil utterly meaningless. You can be good and torture babies for the lulz. A book that changed the line even slightly would piss off people who got used to being able to do anything, regardless of the letters in the alignment box on their sheet.
I think I'd prefer that any Paizo book on the subject just include alignment-themed options, like the holy barbarian rages or the good ki options (spend a ki point to surround oneself with an aura of serenity that acts like sanctuary, for instance, or even to radiate an aura of calm emotions). Skip the essays on the philosophy of good and evil, since it's already been long established that one can do a million 'evil' things and still be a paladin, or be the nicest ghost who ever ghosted, and still be CE 'just because.'
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I just totally want a book on good outsiders* at some point. There really hasn't been one since super late 2e, and that one wasn't the absolute best as far as design focus went. I want a giant book of good outsiders, their interactions with each other, with fiends, other races, mortals, and how mortals interact with them. And handled in a way to make the upper planes not be totally boring. And enough crunch to make it worth $ for folks not wanting 500 pages of straight up fluffy awesomeness.
*which is bringing a scowl from the daemon on my shoulder, who in turn is getting sucker punched by a protean
I just totally want a book on good outsiders* at some point. There really hasn't been one since super late 2e, and that one wasn't the absolute best as far as design focus went. I want a giant book of good outsiders, their interactions with each other, with fiends, other races, mortals, and how mortals interact with them. And handled in a way to make the upper planes not be totally boring. And enough crunch to make it worth $ for folks not wanting 500 pages of straight up fluffy awesomeness.
*which is bringing a scowl from the daemon on my shoulder, who in turn is getting sucker punched by a protean
I think that some serious consideration of alternate RW and fictional "heavens" besides the ones that have appeared in the game lineage so far - i.e., Judeo-Christian/Norse/generic Native American come to mind - would be interesting. They should be as varied and as fun to visit (if not as dangerous for non-evil parties) as the evil planes. There's some pretty interesting stuff in Chinese, South Asian, African, and Middle Eastern legend and myth that would be interesting to see reinterpreted.
I'd love to see rules for service to Empyreal Lords, similar to those for service to Abyssal Lords we've already seen. And a "Saint" prestige class, of course.