Book of Exalted Deeds

The Book of Exalted Deeds is an optional sourcebook for the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, providing supplementary game material for good campaigns. It was authored by James Wyatt, Darrin Drader and Christopher Perkins, and published by Wizards of the Coast in October 2002. Within the game, it is also the name of a powerful magical artifact.

Material covered

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. According to the book's introduction, it is intended for use only by Dungeon Masters; Dungeon Masters should restrict their players' access to the book.

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).

Gnostic references

The Book of Exalted Deeds appears to make reference to gnostic myth in the figure of Pistis Sophia. She is one of the Celestial Hebdomad, a body of seven mighty archons that administer the Seven Mounting Heavens of Celestia for an unknown and unknowable entity that (maybe) resides in the Seventh Heaven. Her followers are commonly ascetics and focused on self-improvement, though through physical perfection and harmony, not gnosis. Mortal souls which go to Celestia also attain purity and grace in a physical journey that resembles gnosis, learning about the nature of Law and Good experientially as they ascend the mountain towards the "illuminated" (another descriptor of any possessor of secret knowledge) heaven of Chronias, at the top of the mountain

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.