As we approach the final week of the Book of Exalted Darkness Kickstarter, over 120 (wonderful!) pledges have unlocked our first backer goal: the Book of Celestial Heroes!

What’s inside this supplement of do-goodery?

• 30 pages devoted to the holy decopunk utopia of Askis and its three continents: contiguous Ouranios, Samovi, and Zakuthombo.
• 27 pages covering the 9 Spheres of Askis, great workings of the Celestial Heroes that rule over the world. By undertaking epic quests the PCs will solidify these global magics, making certain they last long after their creators pass away.
• 33 pages of Player Options including Innate Beliefs, the new exemplar class, holy and technological class archetypes, feats (including troths for those devoted to celibacy, charity, hardship, truth, and more), inaequa equipment (like automobiles, blimps, and even jetpacks!), the holy magic tradition, and holy relics to give holy PCs an edge in their fight against evil!
• 30 pages of powerful Mad Scientists, ruthless evil adventurers, and vile monsters for the party to hunt down and fight against!

Defenders of the World As defenders of the world and hunters of the last vestiges of evil within it, many of the nuances of the campaign setting (like exploiting the schedules of various officials) just aren’t necessary. Obviously we’re still devoting a fair bit of space to this section but we’ll be exploring more of what it’s like to be part of the establishment and that doesn’t require seeing all the gears at work.

Protecting the Spheres This section will be the reverse of a lot of the material in the Book of Exalted Darkness, giving a quick breakdown of how the sphere works and what it does, then quests for restoring it (if damaged) or making it permanent. We’re estimating 3 pages each but of all the parts of the book, this is one of the areas that might expand.

Holy Adventurers The big things here are definitely the exemplar class (which has a playtest version featured as a guest spot on James Introcaso’s Worldbuilder blog TOMORROW), class archetypes, and Holy Troth feats.

For archetypes here’s what we’ve got planned so far–I know that more are going to come up during playtesting. Even more so than the Spheres section, this part of the book has the greatest potential for expansion.

HOLY ARCHETYPES – These are *all about* being goody-two-shoes! Whether fighting with honor, empowered by celestial beings, possessing a truly blessed soul, or hunting down evil, these will have you covered. As of this moment I plan on reprinting the Gray Druid Circle and Gray Knight warlock patron, though I look forward to adding those in as additions to go with some more holy-oriented options later on. 🙂

• Holy Spirit Primal Path (Barbarian)
• College of the Celestial Song (Bard)
• Cleric of the Celestial Bureaucracy
• Chevalier Fighter
• Heavenly Soul Monastic Tradition
• Oath of the Chosen (Paladin)
• Inquisitor (Ranger)
• Samaritan Rogue Archetype
• Angelic Sorcerer Bloodline
• Holy Arcane Tradition (Wizard)

INAEQUA ARCHETYPES – Players interested in the technological side of things but not necessarily keen to making everything explode can pick up a few levels with one of these archetypes to take control of inaequa and really make the most out of the wondrous resource.

• College of the Inaequa Tinkerer (Bard)
• Cleric of the Cog
• Deviant Technologist Rogue Archetype
• Inaequa Inventor (Mad Scientist)

HOLY TROTHS – These are all feats done in the fashion of the Vows from the Book of Exalted Deeds with the exception that ours aren’t going to be unbalancing! Among them (so far) are Celibacy, Clarity, Charity, Hardship, Pacifism, Righteousness, and Truth, though I reckon playtesters will come up with a few more!

A Despicable Bestiary
This one is pretty simple to explain! We’ve got space allotted for 5 very challenging Mad Scientists (Challenge Rating 16+), 10 moderately challenging evil adventurers (of Challenge Ratings 5-13), and 15 vile monsters of varying challenge levels (ranging from low to high). We’ll work in more as the art budget allows of course, but each of these will have an illustration as well.

SO TELL YOUR FRIENDS! ^_^

Many of my previous Kickstarter backers expressed an interest in the campaign setting but weren’t interested in being evil, and I strongly believe in listening to folks when they have something to say so this tome has taken over most of my last week. It’s going to be just as decadent and awesome as the Book of Exalted Darkness so get your pledge in and help us unlock more backer goals (and soon I reckon, STRETCH GOALS! 😀 ) to make these books the absolute best they can be!

Thanks!