The Most Powerful Books in DND

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[@Koketsu_]

the most powerful book is the DM notes for today's session

[@batmanboy9794]

Too bad they don't exist...

[@padawan-fd2jx]

That’s useless. It’ll get thrown out in 10 minutes

[@draggo69]

You're talking about the note behind the DM screen that says "sexy goblin?" ?

[@sheogorathinnocuous9982]

Actually, that is somewhat canonically correct (if you consider the "power above Ao" to be the DM)

[@griffingamer8624]

First new session, just have both books in the players' inventory to see what happens.

[@marcolu5395]

The Book of Many Things: Just the deck of many things with one side taped together

[@RougeMephilesClone]

Oh, please let this comment be upvoted. This is too good to go unused.

[@d.h.5511]

The entire deck happens to you at once

[@felixrowan646]

Can only be destroyed by being given to an entity incapable of literacy.

[@DkKombo]

"Ya CAN'T just tape the deck of many things together to make a book!" He he, card pages go BRR- *gets fucking destroyed by holy jesus laser and evil curses at the same time*

[@MonkeyJedi99]

@@DkKombo Your comment made me laugh unto pain!

[@malocchio1533]

We all know the most powerful book is The Lusty Argonian Maid

[@thisman1375]

R/cursedcomments

[@Jray608]

Ah yes the Skyrim equivalent of 50 shades of gray

[@arbiterskiss6692]

Nah man, Lusty Argonian Maid is good.

[@rickyevans2697]

Nope….Tusk Love!

[@Sharkakaka]

You meant "the lusty yuan-ti maid"?

[@spenhaPot]

Does the Neutrality Book just make you stay home all day and eat potato chips while everyone ignores you?

[@Adam-cq2yo]

The reason no one's heard of the Book of Lame Neutrality is because everyone who picks it up ceases to be remembered or acknowledged. It's essentially an erase-you-from-existence book, or a false hydra book.

[@RAGEINGChiken]

No, you turn grey and you cant move or act. But your immortal.

[@gideonmele1556]

This instills ambiguous feelings of neutrality. Also known as quarantine feels

[@Telsun78]

@@RAGEINGChiken So you become an eternal rock. I think I ran across one of those in some game...

[@katherineminor3402]

So it gives the power of social distancing covid-19 powers

[@chrisppx]

The two books of all knowledge, Harvard Textbooks and _What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard_

[@boomdude4426]

you stole that from r/itemshop, but i thought the exact same thing

[@OwenOfElliott]

It's everywhere not just 1 subreddit

[@huntercollins6670]

THE ANCIENT TEXTS!

[@artificernathaniel3287]

What the teach you at mount celestial and what they dont teach you at mount celestial

[@incompetentnerd4051]

Ok I’ll delete my comment. I’ll still refer to them as such In my campaigns though.

[@Witchtheif89]

I had a True Neutral character that went on a quest to get both books so she could interlace the pages and create a homebrewed "Book of Transcendent Truth" that told her the true names of Gods, and Eldrich beings so she could summon Yog-sothoth.

[@theenderdestruction2362]

Well that wouldn't work cause I can only imagine the books being indestructible can't exactly be torn apart but it sounds interesting for sure but doomed to fail

[@Witchtheif89]

@the ender destruction Yes well, no one ever said that GOO warlocks who discovered their patron by losing their mind reading a creepy book in a library were rational. She was a fun crazy though. She kept herself half clean, half dirty with prestidigitation, so she stayed balanced.

[@theenderdestruction2362]

@@Witchtheif89 huh yeah that makes sense kinda of reminds me a friend's pc who whilst not goo was a batshit insane monster made out of ship parts man was wild but good god was he insane

[@Witchtheif89]

@the ender destruction She did wind up getting both books by the way. When she interlaced them she exploded. 80d6 damage centered on herself.

[@lachlanmckinnie1406]

I like this idea quite a bit. Bonus points if it needs a secret third book to work properly.

[@lifeispain3782]

We all know the most powerful book in DnD is Stibbles Codex of Companions, why bother.

[@ShugoAWay]

Or the lesser known stumpy's compendium of followers

[@citizensguard3433]

Red popcorn sounds like slang term for some horrible sex act

[@emilianorios4761]

Citizen’s Guard cooking popcorn in your ass

[@bruhboss3141]

666 likes nice you are have the evil book confirmed

[@the_dragonlord7689]

@@ShugoAWay Yes

[@hyasyMth]

The feel when you put down the book of exalted goodness to get a glass of water and it disappears.

[@lucasmarsh9841]

q q it*

[@paulol7224]

q q it*

[@WillLadeira]

It*

[@darthrevan2961]

NNNNOOOOOOOOOO

[@darthrevan2961]

Wait, 80 hours is a bit over 3 days, which is the average maximum time the human body can survive without water. So wouldn’t you theoretically die while reading if you were Human?

[@Groovebot3k]

Shame the third legendary tome - The Book of Erotic Fantasy - remains lost to KZbin.

[@queenannsrevenge100]

Never fear, it’s only one Google-minus-safe-search away... 😁

[@valteine]

Safe search still exists?

[@stevecooper6578]

Waifu Manual Monster manual but everything is a cute girl Debatable as to how good or bad it is but I see many bards going ham

[@OhitsONnow]

@@stevecooper6578 the monster girl encyclopedia* What's worse is that it constantly expands itself

[@geradosolusyon511]

The book of Erotic Fantasies and The Waifu Manual are the two most powerful books aren't they?

[@noraarcadia635]

"I'll come to your house and drink all your water." Foo Fighters?

[@lyfechoices7901]

r/expectedjojo

[@justincaviness]

r/ihaveihavereddit

[@madafaka2666]

B o i l i n g w a t e r

[@flamebrindger3984]

"World Over Heaven" 7:27 Hmmm

[@alexanderlehane3459]

There is one way to destroy the Book of Vile Darkness forever, and that's if all evil in the multiverse is wiped out. Completely. Then the book does a Thanos snap on itself and is gone forever.

[@order012]

So you gotta kill/redeem every villain in the material plane. Then go into the inner planes and kill all the evil elementals in it. Then destroy the Shadowfell, Nine Hells, Achreon, Gehenna, Hades, Carceri, the Abyss, Pandemonium and its innately evil inhabitants. Then kill/redeem all the evil gods (including Vecna who wrote the book), and you have to destroy all the evil magic items (some are artifacts).

[@kasadeya3754]

And thus have become evil your self; but hey self destruct and the job is done.

[@kylestanley7843]

@@order012 Not to mention the infinite lesser evils that riddle almost every single person.

[@cornuschristi1814]

So it literally only happens if good wins in the cosmic war between good and evil. But by that point you can probably bet that most or all of the material planes are devoid of sentient life capable of passing on to the outer planes, so there's nothing to save by destroying the book anyway. Also, the whole point of the blood war in the lower planes is that the forces of evil are 100% certain they're going to win that cosmic war, so they're duking it out now to also establish the winner of the chaos/order conflict. So evil probably wins anyway.

[@dylangrimm7291]

Ahem. "I wish! More than anything! For all the evil to be gone!" End scene. Sure, the after effects of the wish probably atomize you, your soul, and half the continent. But hey, no more evil.

[@superblobfish2567]

He didn't even mention destroying them by removing all evil or all good in the multiverse

[@doombybbr]

That would be a completely metal BBEG scheme - A plan to kill all the gods of evil and all evil in existance that then kill himself just so he can escape the books soul tax.

[@Windowsprodukt]

Would you actually want to stop the BBEG at that point though?

[@Aplesedjr]

Windowsprodukt only if you don’t want the planes to forever be imbalanced.

[@superblobfish2567]

That sounds rad

[@beastwarsFTW]

@@Windowsprodukt I think in order to destroy all the evil you need to destroy all life or make everything dumb as a rock.

[@Thunder-bw9xm]

4:16 Ah yes. My 6th level paladin spells

[@danielkubicek1323]

DMs note: Artifact that warps the fabric of reality to the whims of one being. Destruction condition: proximity to player characters.

[@bulbasaur001]

I mean, you can actually read these books in real life, they’re 3.5e sourcebooks.

[@magma90]

Yes

[@Nyghtking]

Are they good though?

[@bulbasaur001]

@@Nyghtking no idea, I haven’t played 3.5e myself

[@smartestmoronx19]

@@Nyghtking one of them is. The other one is the exact opposite of good

[@Sorain1]

@@smartestmoronx19 Yeah, ironically the only one worth reading was Vile Darkness. Exalted Deeds ran directly into the issues of 'Define Good' and trying to resolve moral dilemmas with absolute answers. Vile Darkness just needed to say "This right here? This is evil, end of story." Which wasn't that hard it turns out. Plus a lot of it was dedicated to helping use evil in campaign's. Meanwhile Exalted Deeds was about how to deal with the crippling limitations on player character's imposed by trying to use the content their in.

[@haydenstockwell252]

The Book of Proverbs is probably a decent approximation of how something like a Book of Exalted Deeds would work in practice. Especially the parts where it says “Don’t do X, because it’s dumb. Do X, because it’s smart.” That’s the kind of schtuff that can take 80 hours to unwrap and still deal psychic damage at the end of the day.

[@lorekeeper685]

it just summons angel and stuff at least its most powerful ability along with converting stuff to "good" order of serophetians is weird sense of "good"

[@FanOfMostEverything]

I still wish there were lawful and chaotic versions. Good and evil get all the hype.

[@android19willpwn]

there's already a book of law, it's called the local city ordinances. There's already a book of chaos, it's called nothing because sitting down and reading is for nerds.

[@Dyneamaeus]

Hmmm.... The Scroll Of Perfection: Reading it grants a Ki pool, some monk abilities, sets you a serious of codes to live by, and drains away your emotions, making it easier to follow your codes. You also become immune to aging, gain advantage on all checks you have proficiency in, and don't need food or rest. After ~500 years you ascend into a perfect realm where all things are you, and you are all things. You are unable to act except to defend your perfection from invaders and you may never leave, but why would you want to? You are perfect. The Sponge: Holding the sponge causes fascination with the infinite possibilities of reality. Each day, squeezing the sponge produces a handful of liquid that appears to be water. Consuming, making contact with, or seeing this liquid has the following consequences: Viewers are intoxicated for a number of days, Contactee's become polymorphed for a number of weeks, and the consumer's race, gender, appearance, memory, class, and history are permanently altered. The holder considers this experience delightful, and will go out of their way to do so at every opportunity.

[@FanOfMostEverything]

@@Dyneamaeus For maximum fun, use the Sponge for mixers at your next cocktail party!

[@Aplesedjr]

I feel like a book would be antithetical to the concept of chaos.

[@kylestanley7843]

@@Aplesedjr perhaps instead a tumultuous story that slays any scribe that attempts to write it? Spread solely through oratory tradition. Almost like that one SCP that is actually a cursed secret. The real truth of the story is not the words themselves that are spread, but the lessons - to remember and benefit from the story, one must come up with their own meanings, and may only teach others by paraphrasing or modifying the story.

[@sirreginaldfishingtonxvii6149]

Make a warlock that found a PHB or even the DM's guide, and gains reality-altering, horrible powers from it (pact of the tome, obviously). It does make the warlock slowly go insane though, as he realizes the nature of his universe. The warlock would probably keep the book for themselves both to protect others and because free eldritch knowledge is dope. To not break immersion you'd probably just have to refer to it as a mysterious, eldrich tome, which lays clear universal rules that no mortal should know, or something.

[@randomlygeneratedname]

I have done this,

[@thisstatementisfalsenothin5312]

I love this idea and I’m playing a pact of the tome warlock so I’m gonna talk to my dm about it

[@zoesequeira5388]

Patron: an omnipotent being above even the gods, known as Dee-Em

[@thisstatementisfalsenothin5312]

Zoe Sequeira make it a whole subclass that lets him see into the future by reading the dms notes

[@viktorthecreator4458]

"You find a tome covered in an unnatural gloss despite it having seemingly been in this dungeon for many years. On its cover is the likeness of some immortal, unknowable, inhuman being, a walking corpse commanding the armies of darkness. It speaks of universal truths, some known, some unknown, and seems to belong to one claiming the name 'Master of Dungeons.'"

[@natezabinski5615]

Ah, my favorite artifact. Shit like this makes me wanna play a wizard and take the steps to ascend to godhood.

[@gargoyles9999]

AO: *reading newspaper* No

[@itsallfunky4591]

Or like a cleric of knowledge

[@jamescampbell2353]

What do you think Titania, the summer queen would do with the book of exalted deeds?

[@natezabinski5615]

@@jamescampbell2353 Start a bookclub; where nobody reads the book and they all use it as an excuse to get day drink and talk.

[@gideonmele1556]

*Karsus wants to know your location. Well he wants to know any location at this point since he’s been “vestiged”

[@naomisisk4663]

I love how book of exalted deeds/vile darkness started out as splats for 3e and then became magic items in game.

[@ArkadiBolschek]

Nope, both books were already magic items in AD&D. They were way less powerful than today, though: all they did was raise your Wisdom by 1 point and give you enough xp to push you up halfway through the next level. And only clerics could use them.

[@lorekeeper685]

@@ArkadiBolschek I think thats a diffremt book ih a non-evil cleric/paladin/druid touches the vile book unless they atonein 24 hours they lose spell casting spellcasting permantly its a dreadful effect and vice versa

[@queenannsrevenge100]

I don’t know why, but the phrase “The Jesus Laser is back” just makes me giggle... 😄

[@macintalkshow]

In my current homebrew campaign, my players discovered a magic book called the Talk Tome. He is a talking tome. He'll answer any sufficiently specific question with a factual answer. FACTUAL, not necessarily truthful. We're having a lot of fun with it.

[@adenowirus]

So it's basically a mimir in the form of a book.

[@Slash0mega]

"Ok Talk Tome. What is a minataur" *BiDink* "a minautaur is a bull like beast...."

[@megaman5559]

Book of vile shadows has SCP’s and Vecna what more could you want

[@roguepsykerhaaker4813]

I for some reason want the theoretical book of neutrality to make you antimemetic. I don't know why but it'd be cool

[@eventhorizon492]

The Book of Vile Darkness is bound backwards so you know it’s evil... 👌🏼

[@MarineS0n2]

I hate that you pointed that out.

[@OwenOfElliott]

It could just be the back of the book Let's just give the book of vile darkness the benefit of the doubt

[@ShankMugen]

So it's like any Japanese book?

[@thechosenone9361]

@@ShankMugen When you read it, you gain the power of tentacles

[@walrideralp6275]

@@OwenOfElliott No

[@victorhoyseth180]

Incredible, I just gave my players both these books yesterday. Our wizard attuned to the vile darkness and our tielfing went into the exalted heros. So basically half my party might be dead soon

[@samtheactualkenku6205]

Fun Fact: Acererak was originally a Cambion before Lichdom and subsequent devolution to a Demilich. The full bodied one we see on the cover of the DMG and in the Tomb of Annihilation is a simulacrum that gained a will of its own

[@grayrook8637]

I did a fun extra bit with these actually. A wild magic table for what happens if these diametrically opposed things touch in case my players where insane enough to try. it ranged for instant death to alerting every evil and good thing of great enough power in the cosmos to your location and every secret.

[@jatomeer9605]

Please, if you can, make this list visible by others, as I need this due to my players absurd stupidity. This dm begs you.

[@Zorro9129]

@@jatomeer9605 I second this

[@NanoNovaBlast]

Please let us see this list

[@gubus2494]

please

[@dik4316]

You know how "for evil to flourish, it's enough that good men do nothing"? That's why the limitation.

[@blackjoker2345]

@Sightless_Seeker Yes, because the "good"decision for any situation is only evident after the fact most of the time and persecuting someone for failing to act toward an ideology is "Evil".

[@Nightmare_vZ]

You uploaded the same exact minute Davy chappy did We’re watching you

[@calvinjones5911]

I saw that to

[@JEST3R_]

It's a scheduled upload.

[@jetonjacot7595]

What would happen if a PC got the PHB

[@naomisisk4663]

It allows them to metagame without being THAT guy. Too powerful

[@archibaldholmer9920]

They would break reality and come into our world, then depending on the character they would probably become a traveling magician, try to take power or kill people and loot their houses. In the last case they would have a lot of credit cards

[@imanard3593]

The PC will become a NPC

[@voidstrider801]

@@archibaldholmer9920 Box Car Joe, The Magic Hobo is said to have read the Book of Neutrality and the PHB, achieving enlightenment on a level that even the gods can not even begin to fathom. Joe simply is, and he does what he wants, when and where he wants to, only the magic hobo himself knows why, for he is unknowable to all others.

[@randomonlineuser6401]

What pHb?

[@justsomejerseydevilwithint4606]

3:57 Which Is why the tome of leadership and influence is easily the 2nd most powerful book.

[@l.psimer6124]

Healthy people who have read it have became cult leaders and politicians.

[@DanateDMC]

Is there a book heavy metal that makes you the best bard? If not, Imma gonna make my own.

[@DHTheAlaskan]

Call it the Metallic Manuscript

[@CyberneticHamster108]

Blind Guardians complete guide to bardic inspiration

[@Nyghtking]

Can't think of a better name for it so how about The Tome Of Lore and Verse, inside is every story ever told and every song ever written as well as philosophy on what it means to be a story teller and historian.

[@returnofthechickentendies2844]

@@DHTheAlaskan Nah, just The Book Of Heavy Metal. Like, the Dream Evil song. I hate my jokes

[@sanguiniustheredangel2695]

In the book of heavy metal!

[@CallMeCatalin]

Now we need the book of lawful order and the book of chaotic madness.

[@thecyberneticphoenix7040]

But I imagine " the book of chaotic madness" isn't even a book. It's a partially broken chest filled to the brim with loose, half torn pages.

[@CallMeCatalin]

@@thecyberneticphoenix7040 or a poorly laid out essay of loosely connected paper that is constantly losing and adding pages

[@thecyberneticphoenix7040]

@@CallMeCatalin Of which the content of these pages ranges from poems, short stories and genuine philosophy lessons, all the way to incomplete letters, cryptic runes and cave drawings. The only unifying theme is this " Rules are arbitrary by nature and they shouldn't be allowed to keep you from your goals."

[@thecyberneticphoenix7040]

I don't have a good idea what " The book of lawful order" could be.

[@benjaminwahl8059]

@@thecyberneticphoenix7040 a perfecttly orginized libary

[@zexa252]

6:28 love when people use the tf2 RANDOM CRIT sound, I feel like cap in avengers where goes "I understood that reference"

[@Beriorn]

The most powerful written work in all of D&D is Ed Greenwood's contract. When either party breaks it the other one attains complete control over the Forgotten Realms in perpetuity.

[@brandonbost7813]

“A freelance knight who goes to fight people to the death” literally just a hitman

[@justsomejerseydevilwithint4606]

One of them stays with you and helps as best it can, no matter your alignment, and the other leaves you quickly, and if it doesn't like you, murders you outright. Kinda makes you wonder which one is ACTUALLY the evil one.

[@RougeMephilesClone]

Well... that's not quite the whole shebang. One stays with you in the hopes of leading you to discovering new depravities, driving everyone else away from you, and conspiring against you to steal your body. The other leaves you to spread more good once it decides you have learnt to espouse virtue on your own (and that halo probably means it's right), and reduces the sum of evil in the world by killing people who don't want to be good. I figure the DM can make the call regarding whether certain lawful and neutral evil characters get smougt, or if they are capable of being redeemed.

[@Aplesedjr]

The evil book doesn’t really “help”. It really just creates more evil, and amplifies already existing evil. The good book makes you good, which could redeem even an evil creature, and amplifies already existing good. If you are too evil, you get fucked up. Compared to what the evil book could make you do, being smote is really not that bad.

[@codyn980]

Evil feeds evil, and once you cross that one moral line it’s hard to go back. Goodness is fleeting and always trying to help others before yourself can destroy you.

[@caiawlodarski5339]

Really makes you thinks doesn't it..... Gamers rise up.

[@geradosolusyon511]

@@Aplesedjr redeem an evil creature? Doesn't it Jesus beam guns you of of existence if your alignment is remotely "evil"?

[@deathracoffee]

7:29 Za warudo over heaven!

[@Rankerquat]

Hey you guys remember "The Book of KND" from the Kids Next Door movie? On one hand, it was cool that the book had all these instructions preserved in case evil triumphed, but that was only HALF of what made the book cool! What really made that book cool was that it had all these blank pages in the back of the book for kids to write in their own "super-cool story." And that's how I'd go about implementing the books of Exalted Deeds and Vile Darkness. It'd probably be, like, right at the very end of a huge campaign, and after the PCs emerge victorious, one of the two books teleports in front of the party and invites each character to immortalize their triumphs among infinite others, collected from far across the multiverses!

[@TerrariaGolem]

Yes

[@kylestanley7843]

They do that, yes. That's how the books were made, after all. People just added to them over time.

[@blackheartdistrution]

one of my DM's once gave me the book of vile darkness and another player in the party the book of exalted deeds. He gave them to us in the first or second session, they were both in a random goblin cave and I'm pretty sure he just threw them in there because he had just read about them. They never really had an effect on the campaign because he called it off after our party derailed the campaign by creating a cult and converting all the goblins to it (bringing something like 40+ goblins and a couple of hobgoblins to our side) instead of killing them and fighting our way through the cave.

[@DeltafangEX]

"World Over Heaven" ... Nice.

[@johnpaulcross424]

SCP-140 HAS BREACHED CONTAINMENT, MTF UPSILON 3, ‘BOOK BURNERS’ ARE TO SEEK OUT AND RECONTAIN SCP 140 AT ALL COSTS

[@Invalid571]

Mtf upsilon 3 report: After searching for the book for so long we finally traced it at a god forsaken place, a small island at the Pacific ocean. Agent {redacted} tried to touch the book but he instantly got disintegrated and it vanished again... The search continues.

[@biblebot3947]

I wonder who redacted was

[@harrisono.324]

MTF upsilon 3 updated report: the book appeared in site {redacted} and caused the escape of multiple SCPs of class Euclid or Keter. SCP 140 has been re contained, but the containment breach has not been fully dealt with

[@biblebot3947]

Harrison O. Damn right that breach hasn’t been dealt with

[@partyrock4144]

The book of vile darkness could make an interesting hide and seek plot line for a campaign were the book's pages have been scattered and the players have to gather as many as they can to stop evil stuff from going on or use it themselves. And the benefits and disadvantages that come from having the book awaken gradually

[@abelcain4726]

>evil character starts to have change of heart >decides to read the ultimate guide to goodness >book summons lighting bolt and incinerates him to ash Ultimate goodness.

[@polo6661994]

Book one: Google Book two: The second page of google.

[@dianauwu1312]

Accurate.

[@apxllo8734]

Book one: Google Book two: Bing

[@robertwyatt7188]

They need a book of pure neutrality, its blank

[@thejuiceking2219]

and then you become the dragon warrior

[@vaporjester6523]

The "Super Ultra Double Bacon 'World Over Heaven' nitrokart" Delete Button. I would like to add "Ultra Instinct, Izanagi no Okami, Sage Of Six Paths Mode, True Gitaroo Man, Rick of Earth C-137, Nicol Bolas, Hiroshima" to that, please.

[@spencegame]

I remember when we played an evil campaign and I decided to turn my warlock into a cancer mage and man that talking tumor was broken

[@kenedy65]

I think a cool take on the book of vile darkness would be that everyone around you except for yourself pays its price, but god damn would it suck to play with.

[@kanashimi4356]

This video is perfectly timed, the book of Vile darkness has just (yet unknown to my players) entered the game via a mummy lord summoned by a bag of beans in curse of strahd (yeah my version of the game is pretty wild because of some added stuff from their backstories) so having some tips on narrative ideas and potential is perfect along with general usage. Thanks Logan!

[@natezabinski5615]

Oh no, that book might never leave Barovia.

[@inpuris13]

imagine if a wizard got the book of vile darkness early on they would probally become the incarnation of evil

[@coleallen8425]

7:27 “World Over Heaven” JJBA EOH reference

[@flooferderp2918]

So what if there was a book of neutrality? If these are the penultimate tombs of good and evil, their knowledge can’t really be mixed. So, could there be a tomb of true neutrality and balance?

[@davidholmes3728]

In 3.5 there is

[@davidholmes3728]

Not sure if it was a source book to like these though

[@Idiotvera]

I see your World Over Heaven, and I appreciate it

[@isabellelessard6717]

This is the only comment I care about

[@saqibahmed7740]

Is that a jojo reference

[@flamebrindger3984]

The book of Exalted Deeds could be the reason why a monster PC would want to be an adventurer. They read a few pages, book disappears, and they're goal could be to re-obtain the book to spread goodness to the world.

[@archmagemc3561]

you forgot one other book. Vecna's Spellbook. Its in the same artifact class as these two. Also there is one additional method to destroy these books that gets rid of them for good. Feed them to the Tarrasque. Clifford the big angry earth monster can destroy anything.

[@felixrowan646]

Alright so, seeing a few comments regarding: "We need books of Law and Chaos!" Book of Law I can agree with. Seems to make more sense than books of Good and Evil actually. Book of Chaos not so much. Chaos wouldn't stand to be bound in something unchanging like written text. So you make it music instead. Think along the lines of how history was passed down by some Vikings and Celts, in the form of songs taught to each new generation changing a bit with each iteration. Maybe flavor it to seek out bards or skalds in particular? Maybe it is the only one of the four "Records of Alignment" that actively seeks out new holders as it has no physical form? After a while it gets bored with whoever currently is humming it to themselves and moves on. tl;dr "Book of Chaos" works pretty well as a magical song that earworms bards/barbarians for a while before wandering off on its own.

[@antiquereality3168]

Last time I was this early Vecna still had his eye and hand

[@ataberkdedemen9802]

That eye and hands are the only things left from Vecna. Kas destroyed other parts of him with his sword (he got destroyed too)

[@walrideralp6275]

@@ataberkdedemen9802 Last time he was this early, Vecna still had *a complete body*

[@zacharygadzinski3147]

@@walrideralp6275 and wasn't defeated by Vox Machina.

[@lorekeeper685]

Vecna is still unlife?

[@voidstrider801]

Thank you for the image of a fitguy angel flexing and tearing a book of absolute evil in half life a phone book. Truly glorious.

[@FirstLast-cg2nk]

To quote Skeletor: "Books are the real treasures of the world."

[@vigilantsycamore8750]

6:25 as someone whose first language isn't English I'm pretty sure this is just English

[@cornuschristi1814]

(Angrily whispering into your ear in English) (You roll at disadvantage for the rest of your life)

[@mladen7641]

6:19 So Sauron did write the book!

[@darthrevan2961]

The Book of Vile Darkness also has one last weakness that’s nearly impossible to exploit. The DMG states that if all evil in the multiverse is destroyed, the book disintegrates into dust, but destroying all evil may or may not require killing every last being in existence because we all have a spark of evil in us, one way or another. Edit: I’m pretty sure the book comes back if evil comes back, though.

[@bigboi4193]

Now that youve mentioned it, an SCP themed D&D adventure does sound amazing. I mean theres magical artifacts, entire new dimensions, hundreds of different and unique choices for npc, and the list just goes on and on really. Does anyone know a good SCP themed campaign which i can watch online? Im kinda hyped up now.

[@suriah12]

I appreciate the JoJo reference in World Over Heaven. If you don’t believe me, google Dio Over Heaven

[@keithgawain3614]

Dark Speech: *I'M GONNA SAY THE N-WORD*

[@zachariahkindle8926]

THANK YOU! For the life of me I could not figure out what the hell he ment

[@metumortis6323]

5:25 was that a psychicpebbles scream? If so, very fitting to use the voice of a goblin in a dnd video

[@refboarder8]

2:49 I appreciate the use of the dark souls 3 Lord of Cinder soundtrack

[@mosesfox52]

Lol the editor’s on fire today. 😂

[@mr.incorporeal7642]

I feel like the whole "magically corrupted good-person" thing is so common it's boring as hell. I say it'd be way more interesting if the Book of Exalted Deeds didn't just nuke any evil creature who reads it, but changed them similarly to the Book of Vile Darkness. Imagine a Pit Fiend or somesuch getting their hands on it and being like "Oopsie, now I have a conscience!", and they get started on a couple thousand years of altruism and healing as they attempt to find redemption. After all, what's more virtuous? To kill evil? Or to cure evil?

[@thebutler4212]

This^^^^ like how are they not flipped? Why would darkness not seek to destroy, and light not seek to redeem.

[@mr.incorporeal7642]

@@thebutler4212 Exactly! Honestly it feels like a lot of it is based on old notions of morality where "good" is more about punishment and penance rather than redemption and healing.

[@andresarancio6696]

Probably my favorite aspect of the books is that no matter how powerful the way of destroying them, the books come back eventually. The sole way of fully destroying them is erasing all good or all evil from the multiverse. Probably my favorite plot hook for an endgame DnD campaign is putting the book on the players' hands go full "your quest cannot end, for there will always be evil/good"

[@brad5204]

If I got the good book I’d definitely just save it until I could trick a powerful enemy into reading at least 1 word of it, where he then either spends 80 straight hours reading defenselessly or died immediately via Archimedes Beam.

[@CL30]

Someone please make a book of neutrality! Then we will have the complete set!

[@ataberkdedemen9802]

We need the book of order and the book of freedom too.

[@noodlesgamebox5903]

My current player is actually doing this in game. I could totally make one up too and just crap those stats out into the world. It's kinda like a journal, but it documents literally everything my character learns outside of basic knowledge. For instance, in the current campaign, casting fireball with gunpowder instead of sulfur will blow your arm off. I regretfully that arm with an amulet of Hydra regeneration. That's an item I created.

[@lorekeeper685]

@@ataberkdedemen9802 book of freedom is a oxymoron

[@99firefalcon66]

2 views 28 likes 11 comments, youtube do be a small indie company tho

[@ProfessorVuubik]

There’s at least two other versions of the deck of many things- and one is an expanded version- and there’s a deck of portals, deck of beasts, boccobs magic book, the demonomicon if iggwilv, whatever baba yaga has jotted down, a Thanatos library card- darklight codex, libris Morris, astromundi chronicles, nether scrolls, the comedicon of zagyg, and some missing pages of the bobs itself.

[@stevemetcalfe6029]

So if your players were sneaky and tricked the villain into reading The Book Of Exalted Deeds, reading a book could literally kill them.

[@bobertson_jr]

After finishing a Grim Hollow campaign, my Fiend mob boss took over the city of Liesech and managed to find the Book of Vile Darkness. It's a shame that my character and his city got put into a Domain of Dread.

[@starbomber]

8:00 you forgot about the part where, "If all evil in the multiverse is defeated, the book would cease to exist"

[@thetsarofall8666]

I like to imagine both books contain extremely similar information, but tinted towards good or evil aspirations.

[@Timetraveler2411]

This is part of a home brew campaign me and some friends did a few weeks back, thought I’d mention it after seeing the books mentioned here. Though a bullshit sequence of combat, the party I was with managed to rangel the book of vile darkness out of the hands of the of the warforged pirate crew who were sent to get it for the BBEG, as it fell through the depths of the ocean floor, we concluding the session. Come back a week later. We arrive at our destination, an island village where we were told we could get our ship repaired. Only to find it burned and in ashes, unholy abominations roam the streets and corpses crucified on lamp posts like the streets. We arrive at what used to be the town hall.. only to find the book in the possession of what I can only describe as a parasitical barnacle lich. After landing on the sea floor, it managed to corrupt a barnacle, which was not only possessed by it, but gained the boons. Allowing it to grow and take control of a sunken corpse and amass an army of undead as it made its way to the island. Just to note this may have been a cheap way for the dm to introduce a one off villain while keeping the book as part of the story, but the entire party fell in love with the idea so it didn’t matter. TLDR : book of vile darkness turns a barnacle into an undead lich and raises an army of undead sailors.

[@DkKombo]

Sounds like a good time to get a clone and have them read the two books and change their alignments.

[@peepock7796]

The only true way to permanently destroy the book of vile darkness is to completely eliminate evil from the universe.

[@AfikBlitz]

I just want to say that my week goes around these videos... Like, I identify as a Logan Pilgramee.

[@arpedular4372]

The trick of the book of exalted deeds is that once it disappears, you are no longer attuned to it, meaning you lose the random boons that it gives you, making them essentially pointless

[@fedrikrose2277]

Reading the last part I just realized that you could kill a lich by tricking him into learn celestial.

[@yourwondrouswizard7261]

8:10 You’ve been gnomed

[@eGirlPlays]

I had an 18th level gunslinger that held the Book of Exalted Deeds for a while. It was a pretty powerful RP tool, but it disappeared after a few in game months, off to help another good adventurer. Oh, Sam. What a good boy you were.

[@leslieoliverii9035]

"not going to a restaurant 20 minutes before they close" Is the biggest mood I've ever had.

[@unlimited037]

There is also the little know Book of Perfect Balance from the Forgotten Realms Underdark book.

[@oligb1469]

You don't need a book to destroy your enemies just a tooth pick and dedication.

[@FattyMcFox]

i home brewed a combination book that was an amalgam of the 2, it had the goodest of good, the Evilist of Evil, and everything in between. The players were meant to wrestle with looking at it and fulfilling their potential or transporting it to a celestial library in the heavens. They just tied a rope around it and used it as an indestructible shield and beat up a dragon. They never even opened it.

[@ActionNerdGo]

Then they made them into supplements. "The Book of Brokenly Good Feats and Such" and the Book of "No You Can't Play That Shit in My Campaign."

[@formerctgovernordannelmall1452]

7:28 “world over heaven” was all you needed to say for me to know that whatever I’m about to hear once I unpause the video is gonna be some bullshit

[@door5443]

In my Dnd world, there’s a books written by the man who invented magic which contains an incredibly in-depth guide to every location in the multiverse, and every spell ever. It grants the owner all of this near unlimited knowledge and power, yet you must share a body with the spirit of it’s original author and your body becomes a variation of the former host’s

[@mattgreen7692]

I have The Book of Vile Darkness and The Book of Exalted Deeds for 3.0. Lots of fun content in them

[@afeliskdistell5963]

"Snap and kill them at any moment" this would not effect any of my characters, they all ready act like that.

[@lorekeeper685]

unless its used againts the pc thr book has a spell that can make your stats STR0 Dex0 Con1 wis0 IntO Cha0 Book is no joke

[@BeTeeEl]

Pretty sure there was a good campaign on dice friends that use these books. Good podcast 👍

[@nealmorgan9037]

Just pulled the moon card today and was granted 3 wishes....one of them was spent being granted the wisdom and saintly ideals from the book of exalted deeds. Honestly fucking worth the effort to word it well

[@mutantmaster1]

"And the SCP Wiki, all combined into two books" Ah, big as hell, and convoluted

[@itsbrad9903]

that psycicpebbles scream tho 5:26