I was reading both of them in the SRD, and found that while Book of the damned is a terrifing artifact, Chronicle of the Righteous isn't near the polar opposite that it's supposed to be:
If a non-evil guy tries to open BoD he must pass a 30 Fort save or face obliteration. If a non extreme good guy tries to open CoR, he must pass a 12 Will or just "Deem himself unworthy" but keep in mind: Would Vecna mind if he's deemed unworthy? Also, in many stories when a vampire tries to step into a holy place, he burst into flames. So if Dracula, a legendary irreverent bad guy with no respect for good icons, get his hands in CoR, he would just say "I'm unworthy" instead of roast himself in holy fire.
BoD gives eternal damnation: Even if you collected every piece of it with the intend of destroying, even if you MANAGE to destroy it, even sacrificing yourself to the flames (The last requisite is to burn alive a good outsider using one of the chapters as kindling for the pire) even in that case, you're damned to hell.
CoR just "Shifts yourself one step to good". Keep in mind: If you're an evil guy, you can still "sense that stupid will of looking for goodness" and try to compensate.
BoD has as a permanent Unhallow aura. CoR just a Zone of Truth effect (With DC 15. You know that a high level cleric surely can cast it with a greater DC!)
CoD gives you +2 to CHA when interacting with good creatures, BoD gives you +5.
The Spell-like habilities they grant cannot be compared: One can cast three spells from a list, with the best being summon monster VII. The Book od Damned? it has at-will spells (One of them being Bestow curse, no less) and allows you to cast GATE. CoR even has an evil version of "Mage's Magnificent Mansion", a spell which my GM uses to say "it's the most magnificent spell ever"
Even Flavor-wise, BoD gives you a huge boon to Knowledge checks, while CoR doesn't! Aren't those two supposed to be the ultimate repositories of knowledge?
My point is: A high level evil cleric with BoD can give nightmares to an even higher level cleric even if he's bearing CoR! shouldn't those two be ballanced?
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Sorry for my awful english. Yo hablo español
I don't see why they should necessarily be balanced. They are the same TYPE of item, similar in many ways, but as you point out, the Book of the Damned is far more powerful. I don't have a problem with that. As for the alignment shift of the Chronicle of the Righteous, it IS a serious deal to have your Evil alignment shifted to Neutral - which would mean you got some sort of conscience and saw no need or desire to "compensate". And regarding sacrificing yourself to destroy the Book of the Damned: Quite possibly destroying it would damn you. Your sacrifice would rid the world of a supremely tainted artifact devoted to spreading evil itself. There will be a price to pay for that. It also might just be possible to find a celestial willing to be burned alive for that cause.
Ok, just think about this scenario:
A Paladin enters into a room: He sees "Book of Damned" laying in a altar. He recognices it. The paladin would quake in fear! "Beacon to all demons", "Obliteration when you touch it", "Eternal Damnation"... Bad stuff, indeed! Most of paladins and clerics would, at most, summon some celestial and ask them "To take care of it"
An Antipaladin enters into another room and sees "Chronicle of the Righteous". At most, he would look at the book with disgust! He even can put the book in his bag, and carry it to some evil priest in order to destroy it, with no ill efects save for a temporal level loss until he leaves the book.
So, I cannot see those two artifacts as truly oposites in function. At least, give the bearer or Chronicle of the Righteous a knowledge bonus! It's a BOOK!
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Edit: The "Become a Good Outsider and sacrifice yourself to destroy book of damned" it's just to illustrate an absolute and selfless act of sacrifice for the cause of good. And keep in mind, the Book of Damned says "Only the direct intervention of a deity can save a soul that has read from the Book of the Damned, and such powers are loath to break their eternal pledges."
So even the ultimate and selfless sacrifice, by RAW, only would deem yourself to Hell (Yes, any GM worth of himself would make Iomedae, Sarenrae and Cailen to person themselves to deliver you from Hell. But RAW is RAW!)
Well, part of their difference lies in how the different alignments tend to work. The Book of the Damned is something a villain searches for, over the corpses of others who might want to possess it, kept in secrecy, tainting all who touch or read it, and so on. The Chronicle of the Righteous would be something you were given, including taking responsibility for, something you showed to those you found deserving, or shared between the members of a good society, and could be shown as a token saying you or your group is important to Good as a whole. When faced with someone of the wrong alignment finding them, the BotD would see a good person/outsider as something to taint, while the CotR would see an evil person as a stain and a danger. Incidentally, giving the BotD to a good outsider for safekeeping is NOT necessarily a brilliant idea.
Well, let's see this scenario: A good low level adventurer finds an evil High Priest of Rovaugh, who has BotD. The evil guy uses the "At Will" Bestow curse on our adventurer, summon something using "Gate" and retreats to the "Mage's "Damnificed" Mansion".
Then, Sarenrae's High Priest walks into the room holding CoR, and... Uses "Summon Monster VII"? He and the low level adventurer has to FLEE, and about the curse, the Sarenrae's High Priest just have to "Pray for that spell tomorrow, since I haven't prepared it"
It ruins any intend of "The foul Evil-Sorceringthon has discovered Book of Damned, and he's rallying every bad guy in the realms! We need to find Chronicle of the Righteous in order to stop him" scenario
Well, I find some fun scenarios. And fun in the "I like to GM Tomb of Horrors"
The group defeats the bad guy, and finds an open book in a desk. "It's the Journal! Let's learn the backstory"
The bard uses "Comprehend Languages" and start to read
"So, the denizens of hell [Censored, Censored, and archi-censored]" But what kind of book is this? (He closes and looks the title) "Book of Damned! Noooo! We're going to Hell!"
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"We're here, in the initiation of a new promotion of young good clerics. Goody-TwoShoes-Lad, the first will read a passage from our holy book"
"So, the denizens of hell [Censored, Censored, and archi-censored]" But what kind of book is this? (He closes and looks the title) "Book of Damned! Noooo! We're going to Hell!"
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An army of good crusaders had made a stand against an evil guy and his legion of dragons. The wounded and dying are in a hospital. A cleric walks into the room.
"Thank you, my good crusaders, your sacrifice won't be in vain... I'll remember you the words of our cause"
"Hail the God of Good! Hail for Father HolyBus"
"So, the denizens of hell [Censored, Censored, and archi-censored]"
"Father HolyBus, are you reading the RIGHT book?"
"I'm not Father HolyBus, I'm an evil cleric with a Hat of Disguise. Now all of you will go to hell. L0L!"
Otherwise a devil would be able to reap souls by just getting the book greater teleporting to the biggest city available and start reading.
That's exactly the case I was telling you!
Maybe BotD rests in the planes of Hell, and when a lesser devil proposes the Teleport, Read, Damn everybody and Teleport Back trick, the rest of devils scoofs the one who said that.
"Dude! There's no sport on it!"
Evil is always better. It is just undone because it does not discriminate against who it works against and eventually feeds on itself.
Good artifacts/deities/NPCs can't be more powerful or influential than Evil ones, because their role belongs to the PCs in an average table. That's the official explanation, anyway. And while I can see the reasoning behind it. I do agree the CotR should be at least a bit more powerful.
It gets worse when you notice that the CotR can also be used against Good characters - The "uncensored" version is enough to make most Good clerics lose their faith or somesuch;,
Creative Director
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Symmetry is boring.
That's why there are no evil analogs to angels, why the Empyreal Lords cover all 3 good alignments while the evil demigods have specific categories for each alignment, why some alignments have more races associated with them than others, and why artifacts like the two mentioned here aren't mirrors of equal power.
Huh...there are 3 types of angels....and then there is demons, deamons and devils.
I thought those were the evil analogs to angels?
Huh...there are 3 types of angels....and then there is demons, deamons and devils.
I thought those were the evil analogs to angels?
No: there are archons (LG), agathions (NG), azatas (CG), and angels (any G). There's no "can be any evil alignment" fiend outsiders.
Forgot about Azatas...always seem to. I was also thinking that all of them are actually classified as angels. Which is wrong.
Anyways, barring angels the other 3 are sort of the opposites to demons, daemons and devils.
But yeah not with angels. Oopses me.
I am unsure of this, but the 2nd edition guardinals and eladrin at least were not immortal beings, but rather biological, reproducting creatures.
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I don't recall that, certainly not for Planescape-era eladrin or guardinals at least.
Lillendi however were indeed a bit of a combination of biological and spiritual life, more a planar race than actual outsiders before 3e changed them and PF later folded them into the larger Azata family.
Planescape-era lillendi had a lot of neat stuff going on, like how they could come in male or female forms, but all were biologically female and reproduced parthenogenically. And then on the flipside they had stuff like the Silent Hour, which let them choose the time of their own deaths to go out swinging with one hell of a boost and reunite with their goddess when it was over.
:p we're drifting from the topic...
I mean, CotR's best power is that studying it, your "Teleports" into the celestial plane gets improved to "Greater Teleport". Knowing that many places can have not only teleportations, but just ANY access (Some random god's palace, Abadar's treasury, etc.) is when you notice that CotR may be weaker than other magical items that the PCs maybe carrying with themselves.
Symmetry is boring.
Keep in mind that CotR is told to be "the Sister of BotD", so when I was reading them, I was especting one to be the answer to the other.
Maybe you can find it boring, but it's what's really espected. From a "Sister" magical item at least<Paladin> EvilCleringhthon has reunited the Book of the Damned and unleashing untold evil. I'm in a quest to find Chronicle of the Righteous and fight him. I'll be back in a month
<Cleric> Okay, I'll use that month to craft an object that haves a permanent Hallow aura
<Wizard> And I'll craft something to protect us from BotD curse, and banish everything that comes through it's Gate
I don't recall that, certainly not for Planescape-era eladrin or guardinals at least.
Lillendi however were indeed a bit of a combination of biological and spiritual life, more a planar race than actual outsiders before 3e changed them and PF later folded them into the larger Azata family.
Planescape-era lillendi had a lot of neat stuff going on, like how they could come in male or female forms, but all were biologically female and reproduced parthenogenically. And then on the flipside they had stuff like the Silent Hour, which let them choose the time of their own deaths to go out swinging with one hell of a boost and reunite with their goddess when it was over.
Well, lillends were their own type of creature before PF. And what I am referencing is from Warriors of Heaven, though that's dubiously canon and, as you say, not from the Planescape era.
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At first I was thinking about something akin to "Those who read BotD are damned to hell" for CotR. But then I remembered the obvious:
The lower planes are about eternal torture. The upper planes is about reward. If CotR auto-sends you to heaven, you can be the most evil guy ever, keep the book until you die, and use it as your "Get Scott Free from Hell" card.
It indeed puts you a step towards good, but having Acererak, Vecna, Lord Soth and Sean K. Reynolds running happily in Heaven just because they had a token when they died...
(Why Sean K. Reynolds? Because he "killed" the Brass Knuckles and every monk along Golarion cursed him!)
I Still miss it feeling more powerful, like a Holy Grail or an Arc of the Covenant. Maybe reading it could counts as a Atonement spell (And like the spell, it only works if the one reiciving the spell truly seeks for atonement) or something, but the main thing is clear:
- It appears as the response to BotD
- It isn't the answer they would need.
- Maybe those two are meant to be joined? Like Soul Edge & Soul Calibur
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Which Book of the Damned are you talking about? there are 3 of them, also i love Chronicles of the Righteous just as much as any of the BotD
so, no it is not inferior:)
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The warrior scholar angel Tabris wrote the Chronicles of the Righteous with the aid of many others, and the approval of the choirs of Heaven. The Book of the Dammed was written by Tabris alone as he journeyed through the darkest pits of the planes of woe. At the end of his journey, even the Sacred Mountain itself would tremble at Tabris' footsteps, but could not bar him from finishing his task.
Yes, the Book of the Damned IS the more terrible of Tabris' works.
Damn forgetting about a ton of stuff.
Asuras and Demodands are awesome.