标题： OSSR: Book of Exalted Deeds
作者：FrankTrollman
发表时间：2013年2月
原帖地址：http://www.tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=54030
OSSR索引：http://www.tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=53716
（译注：OSSR是Old-School Sourcebook Reviews 的缩写。这里的Old-school不仅局限于d&d，也包括许多其他老TRPG规则，包括且不限于CoC、战锤40k等等。OSSR可以译作“老派规则回顾”“老规则书深度解读”之类，但为了简便和避免译名混淆，正文中保留缩写。）
（译注：由于原帖的文风颇为口语化且不乏粗口，译文也会进行相应的粗口化口语化/超译化/网络语言化处理。如引起不适请谅解。翻译本文不代表译者同意原作者的全部、部分、任何观点或任何言语过激之处。）
作为参考，附上崇善之书第一章的译文http://www.goddessfantasy.net/bbs/index.php?topic=40152.0
虽然这篇译文是本人在7年前翻译的，本文在提及原书章节时并未完全参照当初的译文，因为这篇当年的译文确有不确切和错漏之处。
应别人要求，我正在做一个关于崇善之书（Book of Exalted Deeds）的OSSR。这本书是2003年的，当时WotC才刚刚推出3.5版D&D。在他们寻找眼下可以做的、不会太类似于那些9个月前刚出版的3e扩展的东西的时候，他们注意到秽恶之书（the Book of Viled Darkness）出人意料地大受欢迎。于是他们在旧书堆里面翻了翻，注意到在AD&D的宝藏列表里面，秽恶之书事实上有个伴儿。这是个简单的把邪恶替换成善良的反转版本，而这个善良版本就叫做崇善之书。
（译注：据某位知名不具的自称wery vegetable的大佬先生表示，原句模仿了巴比伦5号剧集的句式。译者并没有看过，有在意的读者请对照原文自行体会。）
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基本上，崇善之书这本扩展是由那些想要写它的人执笔的。也就是说，这本书是James Wyatt的崽，同时执笔名单当中也会有Chris Perkins和Darrin Drader。我们知道James Wyatt是个recovering Minister（译注：大概是某种基督教的教区职务），所以或许写一本反复强调终极之善良的书的点子对他很有吸引力。Jesse Decker和Erik Mona则贡献了一部分设计。Erik Mona在那时候是个负责龙杂志（Dragon Magazine）的家伙，秽恶之书大概碰到了他的什么G点，以至于他只要有可能，就会在几乎每期杂志里面都提到这本书。所以我们毫不意外地看到他参与了这一系列的下一本书。游玩测试的名单里则包括了诸如Amy Wyatt（James Wyatt的妻子）和Gwendolyn Kestrel（桃花书the Book of Erotic Fantasy的主要作者）。这到底意味着什么，就任你们想象了。
我们需要注意到一件事，尽管这本书的前辈是出人意料的一拳，但崇善之书本身并不是。在AD&D的宝藏列表里面还有其他的书，但在BoED之后，万法大全（the Spell Compendium）并没有被命名为无尽法术之书（the Book of Infinite Spells），战斗卷册（the Tome of Battle，也即是九剑）也并不叫强大武技指南（The Manual of Puissant Skill at Arms）。之所以会这样，一部分原因是单纯由于逐句逐段来看，Monte Cook（秽恶之书的最主要的作者）比起James Wyatt来说，是个远比他更能切中主题的作者。但是就像我们接下来会在这篇解读当中看到的，大部分的问题都可以归结到糟糕的设计决策上面。这本书有8个章节，所以我们会试着分成四次来把自己的好肝灌满酒精，并且每次回顾其中的2个章节。
（译注：这篇review最后坑了，没有继续写完魔法物品、天界dalao和怪物的评论……作者似乎习惯于在写这种东西的时候先灌点酒。）
前言（introduction）是由James Wyatt执笔。他尝试了一下诗意对比（poetic contrast）的手法，而他的手法显然并不高明。Wyatt尝试将这种手法运用在这本书上，而这种对比既漫无目的又自相矛盾。他很快就承认了，这本书的内容安排基本上就是反转了内容的秽恶之书，而对于一本关于“善良”（“Good”）的书这可不是一件“好”事（a good thing）。这是因为在任何哪怕稍微具有一点意义的道德体系里面，善良都不仅仅是邪恶的反面。他同时也宣称，最主要的反转在于这本书主要是用来提供给玩家玩滥强的（for players to powergame with），而秽恶之书则主要是用来给DM创造反派角色的。这根本讨好不了任何人。玩家们想要扩展书提供滥强资源，但他们可不希望这本书说自己是“关于他们将要获得的滥强力量的”，因为这类的术语从一开始就会减少DM允许使用这本书的可能性。接下来这段前言花了大概一半的篇幅来解释为什么它有个标签写着“仅面向成熟的读者”，而这唧唧歪歪的解释根本没有解释任何东西。前言还说这本书将会讨论你是不是可以杀死兽人婴儿的问题（剧透警告：尽管事实上这个问题极其容易回答并且对于所有曾经存在的关于阵营的网络口水战都极其基础而重要，这本书实际上却并没有屈尊给出解答），以及会和那些“困难的问题”进行搏斗，但这些听上去都不像一个能够解释为什么这本书会有一个“仅限成人”的标签的理由。说白了，你很难在看了这段解释之后而不产生这样的一种感觉：这本书之所以有一个这样的标签，纯粹是因为秽恶之书也有而已。
第一章：善良的本性（The Nature of Good）
这本书有一个还算扎实的开头，并且在第一段话中就直截了当地告诉你们，光是没有罪恶缠身并不意味着善良。那正是中立阵营之所以存在的理由。它甚至指出了，善良角色并不一定需要是过分谨小慎微、礼貌或者天真的。这话说得也挺对的。但是接下来这本书就像是一头冲进了疯人院，因为它告诉我们善良实际上是“一种从上层位面辐射出来的神圣而伟大的能量，摧毁一切的邪恶”。呃……我他妈……只能说真是太谢谢了。一切都得到了解释。(http://www.goddessfantasy.net/bbs/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=101958.0;attach=86964;image)
你看，这里的问题在于，这段话是基于一种基督徒的观点写的。而基督教道德观完全他妈没有一点狗屁意义。如果你把它转换到一个现世的语境下，你仍旧处于一个这样的层次：也就是说，你认为“善”就是照着一个家伙说的话做，而这个家伙允许他自己的儿子被谋杀了，从而可以说服他为了你们的遥远先祖的一次冒犯原谅你们，而你们的这个祖先在冒犯他的时候还是个啥也不懂的青涩少女呢。 我他妈只能说，这在任何语境下都完全说不通。而大概正因为这个理由，比起把接下来的道德讨论构建在他们实际使用的道德体系（也就是“因为我以前就是这么说的”）之上，他们选择了譬喻——也就是“因为我以前就是这么说的”的神圣光辉。
（译注："because I said so"似乎是个常用于黑宗教陈词滥调的梗。大概意思似乎是“因为每个道德正直善良的人都是这么说的所以这肯定是对的”。）
然而，这种“你的激光束是金色的，他们的激光是红色的”的把戏只能算是儿童动画片的世界观。在任何实际存在的、一位成熟的成年人可能会想要进行的、关于美德的讨论中都不会有它的容身之地。你可能会选择声称善良和过程有关，或者与幸福有关，或者健康、自由、勇气、稳定或者其他的一千多种人们会将其与“善”关联起来的东西有关系。见鬼，如果你们讨论不同的哲学体系和这些哲学体系对于善良的真正含义的看法的话，这本书本来可以是个不错的玩意的。但是当那个要用几个形容词来描述善良的人是Wyatt的时候，他就只能不断地重复一些同义反复的废话，诸如“benevolent”（仁慈的，意思是被形容的事物可以“做出善事”）和“righteous”（公义的，意思是被形容的事物“是善的”）。在这整个章节的关于这个问题的讨论中，唯一的闪光点（除了那些发出不可言说的神圣之光的）就是他用了“Just（正当的）”这个词。正义（justice）是唯一一件你能够真正合理地认为是“善良”的东西，并且不仅仅是一个“善良”的同义反复的词汇。所以，呃，还好吧？
（译注：这句话指向的应该第一章的第一小段的最后一句话，“Good is selfless, just, hopeful, benevolent, and righteous.”）
接下来让我们来看看他们的关于“Exalted Deeds（崇高善行）”的讨论，也就是那些让你能够确切无疑地表示你的确是善良的具体行为。这些包括了：帮助他人，施舍，治疗，自我牺牲，敬拜善良神祇，施展善良法术，仁慈，宽恕，唤起希望和救赎邪恶。我甚至不能确定作者到底有多清楚这里面有多少项仅仅意味着“戴着白帽子（而不是黑帽子）”。我们知道我们自己是善良的因为我们信仰我们这一边的神，而这些神是善良的因为他们站在我们这边……啊啊啊啊啊！！同样的逻辑完全可以适用于海克斯托和信仰他的邪恶结社。尽管我们没有时间来详细讨论这些狗屁，但我觉得，重要的是我们应该注意到下面这些内容：
善良角色不一定是愚蠢的。善良角色可以是谨慎的……
……
……但她绝对不应该说，“抱歉，这已经超出了我的能力，你还是去找别人吧。”
而在这两句话之间隔了整整两行字。需要我来提醒你，D&D当中存在着比你高出差不多10多级，并且完全确定肯定超出你能力范围的恶龙和恶魔吗？以及和这些怪物战斗是完全毫无用处并且愚蠢的吗？以及告诉这些村民你确实没办法帮助他们，是你能做的最仁慈、最诚恳的事情吗？这他妈都什么鬼？！这段话在D&D语境当中对于善良角色的看法的不切实际真是令人叹为观止。
而仁慈是另一个令人烦心的问题。这一章的第一段话里面关于善良的意义的唯一有意义的阐释，就是它是“公正”的。而公正和仁慈绝不是同一回事。不如说，它们在很多情况下是完全相反的。仁慈的章节警告道，善良角色绝不应该“落入这一陷阱”，也就是“像他们对待他人一样”对待恶徒。这他妈什么狗屁？这就是正义的意涵。你有可能做到的最“公正”的事情，就是像他们对待别人一样对待他们。这可能并不是最好的选择（你知道，缺牙和瞎眼之类的），但这毫无疑问是公正的。这个章节显示出，作者对于这个章节的训诫让你为了一种仅仅是被描述为“公正”的品质在何种程度上令你背离了正义本身这一点一无所知。这完全就是尤达大师式的鬼话（That is some serious Yoda shit，译者不太清楚这是什么梗），而这根本性的自相矛盾完全没有得到哪怕半点讨论。这就像是那些跟你嚷嚷着关于道德的废话的人实际上对于正义和仁慈实际上是什么、为什么它们这么重要和它们之间可能有什么矛盾完全没有概念一样。不如说，实际上完全就是这么一回事。
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而这是一张实际上用在这个章节里面的插图。这可不是我编造出来的，这张插图下面的注解是：“一位圣武士必须在摧毁邪恶和尊重爱情之间作出抉择。”这句话简直不知道有几个槽点。问题不光在于，“尊重爱情”本身并不在这本书告诉我们的、善良应该是的东西的清单上面。“爱情”似乎被两个性感的魅魔蕾丝边代表了的这一事实，使得她们因为太过于沉浸于其中和弄出的响动太大，以至于她们甚至听不见一个穿着当当作响的板甲的脑袋上着了火的伙计靠近的这一点都显得就像天知道什么鬼上的添足了。（icing on the WTF。原句应该是指icing on the cake这个习语，意为漂亮但并非必要的点缀。）
最后，在我们开始看最后一节之前，我觉得我们需要谈论一下作者令人起鸡皮疙瘩的基督教精神和对D&D的极度缺乏了解。关于救赎邪恶的那一节从头到尾都在讲这是多么地帮助了被救赎的生物，因为它们可以前往“美好的来世”而不是遭受“永恒的痛苦与折磨”。这是基督教的观点，并且值得注意的是，这并不是D&D的观点。在D&D当中，坏人窝里的死后生活并不是永恒的（灵魂可以被摧毁，并且确实经常被摧毁），而且如果你够屌的话，你可以成为负责折磨别人的那些家伙。而这是你的奖赏，因为你是邪恶的，所以你多半本来就喜欢折磨别人。如果你是坏蛋一方的强大勇士，在龙与地下城当中对你来说根本就没有什么痛苦、折磨和永恒或者随便什么鬼。而且，如果你没有那么屌的话，在死后前往上层位面也挺吃屎的。我是说，见鬼的，如果你不够格成为一个天界仆人的话，洛山达会把你变成一片草叶（a blade of grass），直到永恒的剩下的时间走完为止。
（译注：关于洛山达的这段出处不明。）
这本书还有一个小小的边栏，向你保证“崇善（Exalted）”和“传奇（Epic）”是不一样的。剧透警告：崇善专长非常操蛋，根本不会有人搞混它们的。
下一个分章节叫做“善良正道（The Straight and Narrow）”。这标志着作者在继续进行着他那试图把基督教道德填鸭给我们的笨拙尝试，因为他对这一节的命名来自于马太福音7:14。虽然我也可以放过这一点（说到底这确实是个常用俗语，而不一定非得有着基督教的意味），但这一节整个都白痴透顶。这一节一开头就开始讲“目的与手段”，而这一段全是愚蠢的废话，而且还不如双重后果原则有道理。事实上，它基本上就是双重后果原则，只不过掺水了大量的推诿之辞，相比之下阿奎那的蹩脚道德论证听上去都可以算得上思路清晰了。接下来是一小段关于暴力的讨论，而这段基本上就是在“正义战争”理论（the theory of "Just War"）的表面上漆了一层D&D术语，就跟在猴子笼的玻璃上粘着的大便一样。我得去喝一杯。任何哪怕只是被动地熟悉于基督徒式的自我辩白的人都能清楚地看出这些大粪原本是从哪里来的，而Wyatt式的处理并不会让它们听起来更睿智或者更令人信服。
（译注：the doctrine of Double Effect是阿奎那提出的一个道德判断原则，没有统一的标准翻译，常见译名包括双重后果理论、双效说、双果律、双重效应学说等等。内容是同一个行为可能同时有善和恶的两种后果，在恶的后果不超过善的后果、且恶的后果不是这一行为的主要目的的情况下，这一行为就是可以接受的。正义战争理论则是一个由奥古斯丁提出、并在其后被阿奎那和一系列神学家完善的用于确保战争正义性的理论，相信你们可以注意到它至少到21世纪初还在政治上被持续使用。）
下一节是“秩序、混乱与善良”。出于某些原因，我的杯子又空了。D&D当中的秩序和混乱完全说明不了任何东西，而这本书的处理并不会让它们变得比较自洽。我自己就能列举无数种守序善良和混乱善良的描述的矛盾之处并且说上三天三夜，但这些废话早就不是新闻了。秩序和混乱在PHB当中本来就是自我矛盾的屁话，而这本书只不过是浪费了更多时间喋喋不休，并且在让它显得更不弱智的方面没有任何实质帮助。
接下来这本书继续列举了一些你们或许会想要成为的角色范例。而你们根本不会想成为这些角色。第一个角色是个15级游荡者/武僧。看起来，这个角色是Rob Lightener写的。（译注：Rob Lightner显然是个设计师……事迹不详。）我完全不能理解为什么他们觉得有必要用这些东西来占用页数。这里列举了一些“好人”范型和极其糟糕的范例角色。我得为了那个“被救赎的夺心魔”角色颁发额外的愚蠢点数，因为它仍旧是个操蛋的夺心魔，然后……你猜？见鬼去吧。我得去喝一杯，然后跳过这段去看他们给出如何扮演每个PHB职业的崇善角色的部分。而就是在这里他们富有帮助地通知我们，一个崇善吟游诗人“与天堂的音乐和创造的诗篇共鸣”。因为显而易见，越善良就意味着越宗教。
（译注：那个夺心魔角色发了和平誓言，但是卡面上没有维生戒指或者任何让她可以不用吃东西的手段。也许她是靠着创造食粮法术造出来的面糠大脑过活的，天知道。……虽然我们也不知道这个夺心魔是怎么获得性别的，不过这不是重点。）
这标志着James Wyatt的基督徒思考回路在试图理解D&D的巨轮阵营噱头时的一个重大失败。在这个游戏世界里面，“创造”既是善良的，也在同等程度上是邪恶的。在这里天堂中充斥着和美德一样多的恶意。在这里神祇们完全可能代表着杀戮、压迫和欺诈，就跟他们提倡健康、自由或者真理的可能性一样大。我完全没法理解为什么他们会在拼凑这本书的时候忘记这一点。就像我们在最近的一篇OSSR（译注：桃花书的OSSR）当中指出的一样，这本书的游戏测试玩家之一在她的战役世界里面有一个如假包换的强奸之神，而这是她的主要剧情要点之一。所以你或许会觉得，应该有个人会跟Wyatt说一句，在D&D当中虔诚（godliness）和善良（goodliness）完全他妈没有一毛钱关系。但是他们没有。或者他们确实说了，但他就是完·全·不·在·乎。甚至连崇善德鲁伊都被描述为在屁股后面带着神派来的天界仆人满街晃悠。
他们没有放过任何一个在一个关于多极主义的多神教社会的世俗游戏里面涂满基督徒的哗众取宠的废话的机会。崇善之书里面有一整段关于罪恶与赎罪的冗长的屁话。而这段话是完全从基督徒的视角写的。它声称你需要在获得神的宽恕之前先诚心地忏悔和补偿你的罪过。呕。
这一章的结尾花了我大概整整四杯酒和一整段漫长的抨击，因为他们认为要真正地展示角色们有多“善良”的方式是把反派们塑造得特别、特别地坏。在我听来这完全就是疯了。我是说，每个人都讨厌希特勒。如果你的敌人真的特别、特别坏，那你根本不需要先成为某种美德的化身就可以搞明白你该站在那一边。我是说，如果你的敌人足够邪恶的话，连斯大林都能站在好人的这一边。当敌人变得更坏的时候，角色们并不会变得“更善良”，他们的善良也不会“变得更引人注目”什么的。这段彻头彻尾地搞错了重点，根本没弄明白衬托在故事当中起到的是一种什么样的作用。
第二章：可选规则（Optional Rules）
这一章必须在一个很糟糕的局面下开始写，因为它所讨论的是这本书要怎么将“崇善主题”引入游戏当中，并且给出了以下的几个例子：与天界生物神入合体（channeling celestials），自愿贫穷（voluntary poverty）和非暴力（nonviolence）。当然了，只有其中的一项与善良有直接关系。自愿贫穷仅仅是一种虔诚的方式（a form of dedication）罢了。我的意思是，食人蝎尾狮也一样赤身裸体并且抛弃了个人财产，但我可不觉得它们哪里善良而崇高了。
宽泛地说，这一章就是对秽恶之书的第二章的直接抄袭。而这又直接回到了那个问题上，也就是当你拿起某种邪恶的东西并且把它反转过来，你并不会获得一种多么可靠的“善良”。所以这本书给了你一种伟大而正义的恶魔附体的变体，一个从驱魔师的角度看待恶魔附体的段落，一堆崇善神祇（为了和秽恶之书里面那堆同样毫无存在必要的“秽恶神祇”相对应），以及对于殉道的一些泛泛而谈。殉道作为一种你想提升到善良的高度上的行为来说污点也太多了（你看，塔利班什么的），而这本书在自我意淫中一路向殉道和封圣（sainthood）狂奔的时候也把自己构建在了一个极其不稳定的道德基础之上。
这里还有一段关于转化囚徒（redeeming prisoners）的内容。简单来说，它把斯德哥尔摩综合征描述为最高的道德理想，并且在某种程度上令人毛骨悚然地予以了详细叙述。这不是心理学上的隐喻（即使只是如此也已经足够令人毛骨悚然了），而就是这一过程本身。
最开始，一位邪恶角色或许会对这种对待报以讥讽并且寻找逃脱的机会。当他发现善良角色们尽管温和但是又十分坚定，和善但又在他们的防备上不失机智，他就会对他们产生一种新的高度的尊重，渐渐产生哪怕是最微小的一点察觉，也就是人不需要残酷就可以变得强大。
基本上，我觉得我在读的这段话仿佛是从作者的玛丽苏BDSM爱情小说里面摘录的。而这似乎就是作者观念中的“善良”。它接下来就开始说到你需要见证主花费一个小时描述救赎和忏悔罪行忏悔罪行的好处，并且谈到主的无限量的宽恕表现出宽恕俘虏的罪恶的意愿。只有这样，你接下来才能让他们受洗并得到重生。这就是彻头彻尾的基督教传教士操作手册，只不过这本书所描述的是你对你的俘虏们所做的事情，而这让整件事情的毛骨悚然指数达到了一个前所未有的超级高度。
接下来我们看到的是为什么什一稅和向教会的捐赠是你应该做的事情的章节，然后我们就可以直接跳到贫穷誓言的部分了。贫穷誓言收到的抱怨它的虚拟墨水比这本书里面的任何其他东西都更多，而且说真的，比绝大部分书里的绝大多数东西都多。而这是十分合理的，因为它真的、真的很烂。简单来说，就是贫穷誓言对这个游戏来说毫无疑问地烂透了，它给了你一堆稍高的加值来交换取得通常的装备的权利，因为你把所有的东西都拿去做慈善了。但是你得到的这些奖励在任何方面都和你捐了多少钱给慈善毫无关系，而且从一开始就和你的角色在多大的程度上依赖于装备也毫无关系。所以如果你是个骑士，它是broken的，因为它拿走了你的闪亮的盔甲，并且使你只能穿着粗麻布裤子战斗，而如果你总地来说依靠变成一头熊或者一条巨蛇来战斗，它也是broken的，因为你本来就不会用到任何衣服和装备。更不要说还有好几种绕过限制的方法，你可以把大部分或者所有的加值变成“非装备回报”（non equipment rewards）并且仍旧保留这些加值，即便你在把你的“0加值”实体装备捐赠出去的时候事实上根本没有放弃任何东西。操蛋。
（译注：虽然不清楚作者指的是哪一个，但是滥用贫穷誓言的滥强法说真的要多少有多少……）
接下来我们得到了一堆狗屁不通的关于如何在D&D中进行有非暴力角色参与的战役的指引。这根本就行不通，因为非暴力战役的根基从一开始就不存在。所以其他的角色仍旧在杀死恶龙和拯救公主，而非暴力角色则在……扮演吊在其他所有人脖子上的烦人的大石头。
这一章以“创造圣言”（Words of Creation）收了尾，而这无非就是秽恶之书的邪恶圣言的简单的反转版本而已。唯一的区别就是这里更加明确地赋予了它宗教和基督教的味道罢了，因为这本书仍旧无法分清“善良”（goodly）和“虔诚”（godly）之间的区别。而这一章就到这里为止了。
下期预告：第三章：崇善装备
-Frank (http://www.goddessfantasy.net/bbs/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=101958.0;attach=86964;image)
第六章：魔法（Magic）
真的，这本书本来可以不用是这样一本片面强化的扩展的（a splat book，意为只提供游戏里一部分职业/势力/侧面的强化的扩展资源，如C系列都可以说是splat book），如果不是因为他们花了整整一章来写只有施法者能用、而且神术施法者还能免费获得的资源，并且因而进一步扩大了战神牧师和底层劳工（hobos）战士之间的鸿沟的话。换句话说，现在我们在看的这一整章都在致力于继续扩大“有”的职业和“没有”的职业之间那深不见底的鸿沟。而这一章当中的几乎所有东西都是狗屎味的狗屎，而这也不过意味着这本书也没把这个游戏里的收入差距继续扩大多少。
（译注：hobos指的是美国历史上的流动工人，并且他们当中的大部分都处于赤贫状态。）
这本书开篇就告诉了你（好像它做的蠢行还不够多一样）[善良]法术应该是什么，而这个清单仅仅是BoVD的[邪恶]法术的定义的反转版本罢了。接着它努力地试着回答为什么[治疗]法术没有善良描述符的问题，即便它们正是“减轻苦痛”的体现。不过这还算不上是最蠢的部分。在他们把[邪恶]法术的定义中的“造成难以忍受的痛苦”反转成[善良]法术的“减轻苦痛”的时候，这意味着他们选择的与疫病术（contagion）（在BoVD的欠缺考虑的定义当中这是个[邪恶]法术）对立的法术是移除疾病（remove disease），而它们毫无疑问就是字面意义上的两个对立的法术。同样地，对于丧志术（Doom），与其对立的是祝福术（Bless）。接下来BoED没有在这个方向上走得更远，而是仅仅给特别高兴术（great joy，指强大希望good hope法术，可能是个调侃）和护卫他人（shield other）增加了[善良]描述符，而这两个法术都是根本没有人会去用的那种法术。这对游戏而言是件好事，因为这比起BoVD那种把事情搞得一团糟的方式要好多了——因为BoVD搞得善良牧师没法施展亵渎术（desecrate），结果他们只好给祝圣术（consecrate）加了个errata，否则善良一方甚至根本无法摧毁邪恶神殿。但这样做对于游戏的前后一致性很不好——这本书才刚刚给了你一个蠢得要命的关于什么是善良法术的定义，紧接着就立刻吃了回去，因为他们等于是承认了他们没办法实际执行这个定义，因为邪恶势力仍然需要治疗法术才能在D&D的世界里保持竞争力。这可真是个杯具。
第二，他们引入了一种长得和BoVD的腐败法术一模一样，只不过是属于[善良]而不是[邪恶]的法术。他们给这种法术想出来的名字是“圣洁（Sanctified）”。而这既诡异又让人抓狂，这当然是因为“sanctified”的意思是“被变得神圣的”，与此同时“腐败（corrupted）”的意思则是“不道德、堕落、或者邪恶的”。而这本书的作者无疑认为这两个词是反义词，这真是毫无说服力。我是说见他妈的鬼的，在D&D当中可是有一大堆邪恶神的。我是说真的。一直都有。但是即使不管这个，在“让法术从施法者的精神与身体的健康当中汲取能量的行为是邪恶而堕落的”这一逻辑已经得到确立的前提下，试图再确立一个“牺牲你的精神与身体健康来为法术提供力量的行为是一种善良的行为”的逻辑是极其让人难以接受的。这他妈就是同一回事好吗。这些玩意和腐败法术的唯一区别就是牧师们可以不用提前准备就施展它们，而这只不过是让已经很不平衡的牧师职业再获得一个巨大的优势而已（假如曾经存在过任何理由去施展这些操蛋玩意的话）。
这本书继续介绍了一些新领域，这些领域关联着一些你根本不可能会去鸟的新神祇，而且这本书甚至完全没有费心尝试去把这些领域与那些实际存在于已有的战役世界中的神祇关联起来。讽刺的是，在这些新的特殊“善良”领域中有一个的1级法术是丧志术（卡拉什的“神谴[wrath]”领域，而就像我们之前说的，卡拉什甚至不是一个真正的神），而BoVD告诉你，施展这个法术是个邪恶行为。看来他们甚至懒得去读他们自己写过的狗屁玩意。我都不知道为什么他们有脸期待我去读。
而新法术中的大部分都是狗屎玩意，这既是从游戏机制的角度说的，同时也是从概念构架的角度说的。在这个清单上高居首位的就是那个能够在缓慢地杀死你憎恨的人的同时把他们变成欲求不满的性奴隶的法术。这个法术叫“授予苦痛（Affliction）”，并且它是个[善良]法术。我是说真的，WTF？然后还有一堆法术得到了复刻，只不过常常伴随着严重的损害到了游戏本身的功能缺失。举个例子说：神性型貌（Aspect of the Deity，这里采用了BoED法术的译名）又回来了，只不过这次只有[善良]的版本被列在了这里。这并没有节省多少空间，同时也让能够受益于这个法术的角色大为减少了，并且再次强化了作者每次都陷进去的“神祇=善良”的狗屁逻辑。
这当中的许多新法术只能造成极为无关痛痒的伤害，并且常常要求十分高昂的代价。比如说这里面有个9环法术让你可以在谋杀你自己的同时对40英尺爆发范围内的邪恶生物造成你的HP加50点伤害。这他妈是个9环法术，而且几乎永远不会值得你去施展，即使它是个戏法也一样。甚至绝大多数的buff法术也糟糕透顶。这当中得到了最多的网络口水的就是辉耀护甲（luminous armor），这是个给你增加5点AC并让近战攻击你的敌人承受-4命中惩罚的2环法术。人们总是说些这实际上是9点AC变动并且这基本上就是整个随机数变动范围了（basically the entire RNG）之类的疯话。但这玩意提供的是盔甲加值，也就是说它几乎跟随便啥操蛋玩意都不叠加。所以你付出了2个2环法术位（因为你还得放个次级复原术来恢复这狗屎玩意的祭献花费），换来的就是比法师护甲和护盾术多1点AC，并且特效还更少。而这又带来了另一个问题：让你不得不施展一个次级复原术是一个多大的“牺牲”？这玩意的概念整个都构建在自我牺牲上面，但这里的牺牲就只有一个2环法术位而已，而且它甚至都不一定要你自己来出。
（译注：显然这里面关于战力方面的指摘有一部分是不公正的，对于身经百战的滥强读者这根本不需要多加解释。当然Exalted Fury即使进行滥用也仍然是个烂法术就是了。）
然后这段里面还有一些有着极其痛苦而扭曲的用词的语句。天堂闪电（Heavenly lightning）造成闪电伤害，这种闪电伤害忽略电击伤害免疫并且忽略由魔法赋予的电击抗力。但是如果你具有天生的电击抗力（但是并没有强到让你天生免疫电击的程度，我猜？），它的伤害似乎仍旧会被正常扣减。为什么会这样呢？为什么它不能直接造成无属性的魔法伤害呢？但与此同时它是个只有短射程，并且只造成3个骰子伤害的5环法术，而这意味着永远也不会有人去实际用它。永远。
这里面还有一些真的能杀人的法术。美中不足的是这些法术有着糟糕的用词和愚蠢的构思。光彩夺目之美（Blinding Beauty）能让60英尺内所有看得见你的类人生物进行豁免以避免永久目盲，而且你可以在战斗剩下的每一轮里面都重复尝试这件事，而这意味着它的效果就相当于一个影响法术射程内的每个人的无豁免的群体目盲术（因为他们不得不在这场战斗剩下的时间里都闭着眼，以避免每轮都进行针对目盲的豁免）。但是这个法术有个成分——这可不是我编的——叫做禁制（Abstinence）成分，内容则是你在施展这个法术之前的一周内不可以有性行为。而且这还是个德鲁伊法术，这意味着在绝大部分情况下，你会在变成一只巨型章鱼冲进战斗之后施展这个法术。所以通过成为一只欲求不满的巨章鱼，你变得如此富有性吸引力，以至于所有的敌人都瞎了。这……可不太好。我是说，它确实很强力。但是这很蠢。此外，这个法术也同样具有[善良]描述符，我想我这辈子是没法搞清楚这当中的理由了。
（译注：这个[善良]的梗显然来自于裸骑的戈黛娃夫人。顺便一提，那个偷看裸体的夫人并且被诅咒目盲的人的情节是17世纪才添加上去的，较早的版本里面并没有这个情节。再顺便一提，这个法术在AD&D中的对应版本叫Nymph's Beauty……不用多解释了吧。必须承认这的确是一个强行喂你一嘴宗教屎的例子。）
话说回来，禁制成分本身就是个问题。这其中有些例子禁止你吃东西或者随便什么玩意。它们在这里并不仅仅是摒弃性行为而已。而我仍旧搞不懂，不去做那些健康而令人愉悦的事情到底哪里特别善良了。即使这样，在这当中关于性的那一个或许仍旧是最为吊诡的，因为给他人带来愉悦毫无疑问是[善良]的，而以我自己的性经历而言，只有极少数的几次导致了对方在完事以后哭哭啼啼的结果。
在他们搞出来的强化咒法师的操蛋玩意当中有些可以说是尤其诡异的了。这本书里有个BoVD法术的善良版本，原法术让你可以叫出来几个怯魔仆从或者类似的玩意。但是要知道：恶魔仆从的HD上限与天界仆人的HD上限是分开计算并且可以累计的。看起来他们从来没有考虑过，你可能会去把这系列法术的一整套都集齐，然后叫出来一队恶魔，再叫来一队盖丁，接着再叫出来一队骷髅并且依此类推，因为你是个操蛋的法师并且根本不需要操心这些法术到底是[善良]还是[邪恶]的。要我说，所有这些微型军队的上限都应该合并计算才对。我的意思是，在控制喽啰数量上面，HD限制仍然是个极其无用的方式（因为HD和怪物等级之间只有微弱的关联性，而且怪物的战力水平也不是随着等级线性增长的）。但是对于每个召唤喽啰的法术都赋予玩家独立的喽啰池的做法，完全就是在公开讽刺这些法术存在限制的这一事实本身。
这一整章里面都充斥着一坨坨蹩脚的文字。它有38页长，而把它读完是一项痛苦而漫长的劳动，因为没有哪个法术的名字会告诉你它实际上有些什么效果，而这是因为它们的名字显然是用基督教意象的碎片玩我画你猜游戏时随机拼凑起来的（drawing pieces of Christian imagery from a hat, draw from a hat是一个类似抽签然后我画你猜的游戏。首先参与者在小纸条上写上东西，然后把小纸条放进一顶帽子里面让每个人随机抽一张，抽到纸条的人则必须把纸条上的东西画出来让其他人猜这是什么东西）。你看，至高风暴（exalted fury，显然这个译名虽然很大程度上超译了但是其实比原名更符合法术效果）和战嚎（warcry）是攻击法术而不是buff。而在章节开头的那些效果简述甚至超出了完全无用的限度。举个例子，当你在法师列表看到辉耀迷雾（radiant fog）的时候可能会觉得十分兴奋：它的说明是它相当于重雾术并且同时能够造成目眩或目盲效果。这时候你的感觉就像是“我靠这他妈真是太屌了（Holy Shit That's Awesome）”（译注：这似乎是个网络meme，似乎经常用来形容一些极为古怪但是看起来很赞的搭配或者场景。见下。）但是实际上呢，这个法术就像重雾术一样作用，但是允许用法术抗力来忽略它的阻碍移动效果（而这使得它完全不相当于重雾术），而它的致盲效果仅仅适用于对光敏感的敌人（符合这个条件的敌人的清单在除掉兽人和卓尔之后短得可怜，而且卓尔还有SR）。顺便一提：没有人在乎一个敌人是不是在豁免失败以后陷入目眩状态，因为这仅仅是让它们的攻击检定-1而已。
（译注：下面是几个Holy Shit That's Awesome的用法例子。能get到那种感觉就行。
(http://www.goddessfantasy.net/bbs/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=101958.0;attach=87219;image)
(http://www.goddessfantasy.net/bbs/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=101958.0;attach=87220;image)
(http://www.goddessfantasy.net/bbs/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=101958.0;attach=87222;image)
(http://www.goddessfantasy.net/bbs/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=101958.0;attach=87224;image)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60bEhEIS4Sc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60bEhEIS4Sc)
不管怎么说，我给这一章的评分是D-。这里面确实有些可能真的会有人去用的东西，但这些东西中的大部分也是从信仰的守卫当中复刻的。
-Frank
延伸阅读：Pelor the Burning Hate (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?443306-quot-Pelor-the-Burning-Hate-quot-(from-Wizards-forum))
On the evil of Pelor
Pelor is commonly thought to be the near embodiment of Neutral Good. As a sun god, he is thought to be the enemy of the undead and the author of life through his gifts. He is also a god of Strength, for he advocates that the weak must be protected by those capable.
However, recent revelations have given rise to a sect of thought (some label it an outright heresy) that Pelor may not be what he claims to be. A passage in the Book of Exalted Deeds states that Pelor refused to send his paladin a sunfly swarm to destroy a vampire that had murdered his family, while the paladin was out doing Pelor’s work. In the same section, a CG god named Kord visited a plague upon his worshipper who was defeated on the battlefield. Speculations abound as to why Pelor refused his faithful paladin and range from defending the god (Pelor couldn’t allow himself to stoop to the mortal’s level of hate) to accusing the god (Pelor wanted to see his paladin suffer). No concrete answer could be found, but for those who thought it was a poor choice on Pelor’s part, it led to a path of horrific discovery after discovery.
Further investigation revealed (in the Epic Level Handbook) that the Lord High Priest of Pelor denounced her deity and the faith. It also said that the secret texts of a prominent religion, recently discovered, call into question the church’s real goal, its actual origin and the agenda of its god.
From there we turn to the Player's Handbook.
Jozan, the archetypical cleric of the Burning Hate is shown using symbol of pain, a 5th level cleric spell with the evil descriptor (PH 291). The SRD and PHB have two things to say about this:
First, a cleric can’t cast spells of an alignment opposed to his own or his deity’s (if he has one). Spells associated with particular alignments are indicated by the chaos, evil, good, and law descriptors in their spell descriptions.
Second, a cleric’s alignment must be within one step of his deity’s (that is, it may be one step away on either the lawful-chaotic axis or the good-evil axis, but not both). A cleric may not be neutral unless his deity’s alignment is also neutral.
This means that Jozan can not be good-aligned, since he can casts evil spells. Nor Pelor can be , because he can grant evil aligned spells, that can only come from a non-good deity. So, Pelor can not be good-aligned.
Also, Jozan has been seen stepping on the face of his allies to rise higher, rather than store his shield and mace (PH 68). That is not the act of a good-aligned being and shows quite a level of paranoia and mistrust against his allies.
Moving on from there to the Complete Scoundrel, we find the path of the malconvoker introduced. This path requires a non-evil alignment and deals in the summoning of demons. A quote from the iconic malconvoker: “Take him my slaves! Drag his soul back to your dark masters!” - Argyll Te’Shea, servant of Pelor and malconvoker. The summoning of demons has always been one of the most vile acts. Page 8 of the Book of Vile Darkness states that Consorting with Fiends is evil. The statement “Allowing a fiend to exist, let alone summoning one or helping one, is clearly evil”. More minor sections deal with ‘casting evil spells’ and ‘damning or harming souls’, both of which are clearly present within the Pelor-sponsored malconvoker. One could very well suspect this path to be nothing more than a thinly disguised trap for the unwary and their souls.
Also introduced into the Complete Scoundrel is the grey guard, which some may note “hey, that’s just a slightly lighter version of the blackguard!” Indeed. Another step into the Lower Planes, this one is aimed at paladins rather than wizards and clerics. While I have not been able to tie the grey guard directly to Pelor as of yet, it seems that the taint caused by his masquerade is growing to touch even the sincere good aligned gods.
Looking at the relics that Pelor sponsors shows another side of this dark story. The dawnstar, if sundered or broken, deals massive damage to all other creatures (aside from the wielder) within a 30 foot radius. Clearly, this power was inserted with no thought given to the cost for the wielder’s allies. The original dawnstars were given to 4 solars who rescued one of Pelor’s paladins from Baator (known as Perdition in some texts). A question arises then: what exactly was the paladin doing in Hell? If he had died and gone to Hell, that suggests some oddity concerning his faith and alignment. If he ended in Hell due to his own dealings with the devils (which are endorsed by the Church of Pelor, don’t forget), then it seems that Pelor was flouting the Pact Primeval, an ancient law enacted before Pelor’s time. It seems that there are only a few possible answers. One, Pelor is truly of Hell, and his worshipper ended there because of his faith. Two, the paladin ended up in Hell of his own actions and Pelor gave no thought to the stability of the cosmos in order to bring him back. (Probably out of fear for what information torture would bring to the paladin’s tongue.) Three, Pelor sponsors LE paladins, known as paladins of tyranny (in a complete twisting of the term paladin) because he is a vile god of evil.
The Inquisitor Bracers are another magic item sponsored by Pelor. These bracers justify the use of force on innocent people in order to sort them out from undead. You can’t use the power of the bracers with a touch attack (to see if the positive energy perhaps burns the undead). You must swing your weapon with all force at the target, and hope that the positive energy undoes any mistake you might make. What a sick idea. A paladin on a different world once had a similar idea for dealing with undead. His name was Prince Arthas. Of Warcraft III fame.
Pelor’s final relic is a sun shard, which is fairly simple, it fires searing light at two targets. This isn’t damning in and of itself, but consider that while other good gods (Elonna and Yondalla for example) offered relics that aided mortals, Pelor’s are all intended to destroy. This is of course, not a huge point against Pelor, but when added onto the mountain of evidence, seems to be just one more confirmation.
One adventuring group, headed by a tough talking thug named Dyson, followed the path against Pelor when they discovered something amiss within his church. Connections were drawn between Pelor and Baal. That story can be told by Dyson himself or his dungeon master Feanor. It should be noted however, that they began following this path of discovery prior to the release of the Book of Exalted Deeds. They were the first to see the truth and were shunned for it at the time. Those of us who have had our eyes opened to the light of the Burning Hate owe them a debt of gratitude.
Another adventuring group, this one composed of angels, were betrayed by their god into the hands of Lixer, a Prince of Hell. They were broken, one by one. One was twisted into a demon, one lost faith in the path of the Celestial Compact, one was blasted from existence and the last was petrified and stands still in the Court of a Lord of Hell. The god was not named, but he was a god of the sun. Again, this story predates the release of the Book of Exalted Deeds.
One final member of Dicefreaks has added information. Alratan was the first Freak to bring up evil uses for positive energy and good uses for negative energy. While his study does not accuse Pelor of anything (or indeed, deal with Pelor at all), it does point to an alternate path of positive energy, with which Pelor is definitely associated. (Positive energy, not the alternate path.) This is important because many dubious (and some slack-jawed) people have pointed towards Pelor’s association with the sun and positive energy as proof of his inherent goodness.
It must be noted that nothing is proven. Pelor still sits in Elysium. No good-aligned gods have moved against him, nor have they chilled alliances with the Sun God. It may be this is a smear campaign engineered by fiends, or simply the overactive imaginations of mortals. However, the above presented are facts, not fiction. Draw your own conclusions, but think twice before you choose the True Believer feat in Pelor’s name. Below are my own conclusions drawn from the evidence.
Pelor is a Neutral (lawful tendencies) Evil god of Sun and Strength.
Pelor is a god of skin cancer, sun burns, thirst, and burning agony.
Pelor hates undead as they cannot properly suffer in the same way as mortals.
Pelor’s divine realm is on Elysium.
Pelor has deceived the good gods and mortals for so long that he has grown complacent in his position. The recent revelations are not purposeful, they are accidents caused by the god being sloppy.
Pelor has many connections with Hell through both Bel and Belial and previously through Zariel.
Pelor may have engineered the Great Fall of Eblis, Triel, and the others.
It is unknown if the devils, yugoloths, or demons are aware that Pelor is evil. Presumably they are ignorant.
The above is intended to make clear the position of those people who claim Pelor is evil. It is not intended as a slur on those who seek to worship Pelor as a benign deity nor as concrete proof of his evil. The investigation into his misconduct is currently ongoing and no final judgement should be passed at this juncture.
延伸阅读：Pelor the Burning Hate (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?443306-quot-Pelor-the-Burning-Hate-quot-(from-Wizards-forum))
On the evil of Pelor
Pelor is commonly thought to be the near embodiment of Neutral Good. As a sun god, he is thought to be the enemy of the undead and the author of life through his gifts. He is also a god of Strength, for he advocates that the weak must be protected by those capable.
However, recent revelations have given rise to a sect of thought (some label it an outright heresy) that Pelor may not be what he claims to be. A passage in the Book of Exalted Deeds states that Pelor refused to send his paladin a sunfly swarm to destroy a vampire that had murdered his family, while the paladin was out doing Pelor’s work. In the same section, a CG god named Kord visited a plague upon his worshipper who was defeated on the battlefield. Speculations abound as to why Pelor refused his faithful paladin and range from defending the god (Pelor couldn’t allow himself to stoop to the mortal’s level of hate) to accusing the god (Pelor wanted to see his paladin suffer). No concrete answer could be found, but for those who thought it was a poor choice on Pelor’s part, it led to a path of horrific discovery after discovery.
Further investigation revealed (in the Epic Level Handbook) that the Lord High Priest of Pelor denounced her deity and the faith. It also said that the secret texts of a prominent religion, recently discovered, call into question the church’s real goal, its actual origin and the agenda of its god.
From there we turn to the Player's Handbook.
Jozan, the archetypical cleric of the Burning Hate is shown using symbol of pain, a 5th level cleric spell with the evil descriptor (PH 291). The SRD and PHB have two things to say about this:
First, a cleric can’t cast spells of an alignment opposed to his own or his deity’s (if he has one). Spells associated with particular alignments are indicated by the chaos, evil, good, and law descriptors in their spell descriptions.
Second, a cleric’s alignment must be within one step of his deity’s (that is, it may be one step away on either the lawful-chaotic axis or the good-evil axis, but not both). A cleric may not be neutral unless his deity’s alignment is also neutral.
This means that Jozan can not be good-aligned, since he can casts evil spells. Nor Pelor can be , because he can grant evil aligned spells, that can only come from a non-good deity. So, Pelor can not be good-aligned.
Also, Jozan has been seen stepping on the face of his allies to rise higher, rather than store his shield and mace (PH 68). That is not the act of a good-aligned being and shows quite a level of paranoia and mistrust against his allies.
Moving on from there to the Complete Scoundrel, we find the path of the malconvoker introduced. This path requires a non-evil alignment and deals in the summoning of demons. A quote from the iconic malconvoker: “Take him my slaves! Drag his soul back to your dark masters!” - Argyll Te’Shea, servant of Pelor and malconvoker. The summoning of demons has always been one of the most vile acts. Page 8 of the Book of Vile Darkness states that Consorting with Fiends is evil. The statement “Allowing a fiend to exist, let alone summoning one or helping one, is clearly evil”. More minor sections deal with ‘casting evil spells’ and ‘damning or harming souls’, both of which are clearly present within the Pelor-sponsored malconvoker. One could very well suspect this path to be nothing more than a thinly disguised trap for the unwary and their souls.
Also introduced into the Complete Scoundrel is the grey guard, which some may note “hey, that’s just a slightly lighter version of the blackguard!” Indeed. Another step into the Lower Planes, this one is aimed at paladins rather than wizards and clerics. While I have not been able to tie the grey guard directly to Pelor as of yet, it seems that the taint caused by his masquerade is growing to touch even the sincere good aligned gods.
Looking at the relics that Pelor sponsors shows another side of this dark story. The dawnstar, if sundered or broken, deals massive damage to all other creatures (aside from the wielder) within a 30 foot radius. Clearly, this power was inserted with no thought given to the cost for the wielder’s allies. The original dawnstars were given to 4 solars who rescued one of Pelor’s paladins from Baator (known as Perdition in some texts). A question arises then: what exactly was the paladin doing in Hell? If he had died and gone to Hell, that suggests some oddity concerning his faith and alignment. If he ended in Hell due to his own dealings with the devils (which are endorsed by the Church of Pelor, don’t forget), then it seems that Pelor was flouting the Pact Primeval, an ancient law enacted before Pelor’s time. It seems that there are only a few possible answers. One, Pelor is truly of Hell, and his worshipper ended there because of his faith. Two, the paladin ended up in Hell of his own actions and Pelor gave no thought to the stability of the cosmos in order to bring him back. (Probably out of fear for what information torture would bring to the paladin’s tongue.) Three, Pelor sponsors LE paladins, known as paladins of tyranny (in a complete twisting of the term paladin) because he is a vile god of evil.
The Inquisitor Bracers are another magic item sponsored by Pelor. These bracers justify the use of force on innocent people in order to sort them out from undead. You can’t use the power of the bracers with a touch attack (to see if the positive energy perhaps burns the undead). You must swing your weapon with all force at the target, and hope that the positive energy undoes any mistake you might make. What a sick idea. A paladin on a different world once had a similar idea for dealing with undead. His name was Prince Arthas. Of Warcraft III fame.
Pelor’s final relic is a sun shard, which is fairly simple, it fires searing light at two targets. This isn’t damning in and of itself, but consider that while other good gods (Elonna and Yondalla for example) offered relics that aided mortals, Pelor’s are all intended to destroy. This is of course, not a huge point against Pelor, but when added onto the mountain of evidence, seems to be just one more confirmation.
One adventuring group, headed by a tough talking thug named Dyson, followed the path against Pelor when they discovered something amiss within his church. Connections were drawn between Pelor and Baal. That story can be told by Dyson himself or his dungeon master Feanor. It should be noted however, that they began following this path of discovery prior to the release of the Book of Exalted Deeds. They were the first to see the truth and were shunned for it at the time. Those of us who have had our eyes opened to the light of the Burning Hate owe them a debt of gratitude.
Another adventuring group, this one composed of angels, were betrayed by their god into the hands of Lixer, a Prince of Hell. They were broken, one by one. One was twisted into a demon, one lost faith in the path of the Celestial Compact, one was blasted from existence and the last was petrified and stands still in the Court of a Lord of Hell. The god was not named, but he was a god of the sun. Again, this story predates the release of the Book of Exalted Deeds.
One final member of Dicefreaks has added information. Alratan was the first Freak to bring up evil uses for positive energy and good uses for negative energy. While his study does not accuse Pelor of anything (or indeed, deal with Pelor at all), it does point to an alternate path of positive energy, with which Pelor is definitely associated. (Positive energy, not the alternate path.) This is important because many dubious (and some slack-jawed) people have pointed towards Pelor’s association with the sun and positive energy as proof of his inherent goodness.
It must be noted that nothing is proven. Pelor still sits in Elysium. No good-aligned gods have moved against him, nor have they chilled alliances with the Sun God. It may be this is a smear campaign engineered by fiends, or simply the overactive imaginations of mortals. However, the above presented are facts, not fiction. Draw your own conclusions, but think twice before you choose the True Believer feat in Pelor’s name. Below are my own conclusions drawn from the evidence.
Pelor is a Neutral (lawful tendencies) Evil god of Sun and Strength.
Pelor is a god of skin cancer, sun burns, thirst, and burning agony.
Pelor hates undead as they cannot properly suffer in the same way as mortals.
Pelor’s divine realm is on Elysium.
Pelor has deceived the good gods and mortals for so long that he has grown complacent in his position. The recent revelations are not purposeful, they are accidents caused by the god being sloppy.
Pelor has many connections with Hell through both Bel and Belial and previously through Zariel.
Pelor may have engineered the Great Fall of Eblis, Triel, and the others.
It is unknown if the devils, yugoloths, or demons are aware that Pelor is evil. Presumably they are ignorant.
The above is intended to make clear the position of those people who claim Pelor is evil. It is not intended as a slur on those who seek to worship Pelor as a benign deity nor as concrete proof of his evil. The investigation into his misconduct is currently ongoing and no final judgement should be passed at this juncture.
“Alratan was the first Freak to bring up evil uses for positive energy and good uses for negative energy”
我很好奇是什么用法
延伸阅读：Pelor the Burning Hate (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?443306-quot-Pelor-the-Burning-Hate-quot-(from-Wizards-forum))
On the evil of Pelor
Pelor is commonly thought to be the near embodiment of Neutral Good. As a sun god, he is thought to be the enemy of the undead and the author of life through his gifts. He is also a god of Strength, for he advocates that the weak must be protected by those capable.
However, recent revelations have given rise to a sect of thought (some label it an outright heresy) that Pelor may not be what he claims to be. A passage in the Book of Exalted Deeds states that Pelor refused to send his paladin a sunfly swarm to destroy a vampire that had murdered his family, while the paladin was out doing Pelor’s work. In the same section, a CG god named Kord visited a plague upon his worshipper who was defeated on the battlefield. Speculations abound as to why Pelor refused his faithful paladin and range from defending the god (Pelor couldn’t allow himself to stoop to the mortal’s level of hate) to accusing the god (Pelor wanted to see his paladin suffer). No concrete answer could be found, but for those who thought it was a poor choice on Pelor’s part, it led to a path of horrific discovery after discovery.
Further investigation revealed (in the Epic Level Handbook) that the Lord High Priest of Pelor denounced her deity and the faith. It also said that the secret texts of a prominent religion, recently discovered, call into question the church’s real goal, its actual origin and the agenda of its god.
From there we turn to the Player's Handbook.
Jozan, the archetypical cleric of the Burning Hate is shown using symbol of pain, a 5th level cleric spell with the evil descriptor (PH 291). The SRD and PHB have two things to say about this:
First, a cleric can’t cast spells of an alignment opposed to his own or his deity’s (if he has one). Spells associated with particular alignments are indicated by the chaos, evil, good, and law descriptors in their spell descriptions.
Second, a cleric’s alignment must be within one step of his deity’s (that is, it may be one step away on either the lawful-chaotic axis or the good-evil axis, but not both). A cleric may not be neutral unless his deity’s alignment is also neutral.
This means that Jozan can not be good-aligned, since he can casts evil spells. Nor Pelor can be , because he can grant evil aligned spells, that can only come from a non-good deity. So, Pelor can not be good-aligned.
Also, Jozan has been seen stepping on the face of his allies to rise higher, rather than store his shield and mace (PH 68). That is not the act of a good-aligned being and shows quite a level of paranoia and mistrust against his allies.
Moving on from there to the Complete Scoundrel, we find the path of the malconvoker introduced. This path requires a non-evil alignment and deals in the summoning of demons. A quote from the iconic malconvoker: “Take him my slaves! Drag his soul back to your dark masters!” - Argyll Te’Shea, servant of Pelor and malconvoker. The summoning of demons has always been one of the most vile acts. Page 8 of the Book of Vile Darkness states that Consorting with Fiends is evil. The statement “Allowing a fiend to exist, let alone summoning one or helping one, is clearly evil”. More minor sections deal with ‘casting evil spells’ and ‘damning or harming souls’, both of which are clearly present within the Pelor-sponsored malconvoker. One could very well suspect this path to be nothing more than a thinly disguised trap for the unwary and their souls.
Also introduced into the Complete Scoundrel is the grey guard, which some may note “hey, that’s just a slightly lighter version of the blackguard!” Indeed. Another step into the Lower Planes, this one is aimed at paladins rather than wizards and clerics. While I have not been able to tie the grey guard directly to Pelor as of yet, it seems that the taint caused by his masquerade is growing to touch even the sincere good aligned gods.
Looking at the relics that Pelor sponsors shows another side of this dark story. The dawnstar, if sundered or broken, deals massive damage to all other creatures (aside from the wielder) within a 30 foot radius. Clearly, this power was inserted with no thought given to the cost for the wielder’s allies. The original dawnstars were given to 4 solars who rescued one of Pelor’s paladins from Baator (known as Perdition in some texts). A question arises then: what exactly was the paladin doing in Hell? If he had died and gone to Hell, that suggests some oddity concerning his faith and alignment. If he ended in Hell due to his own dealings with the devils (which are endorsed by the Church of Pelor, don’t forget), then it seems that Pelor was flouting the Pact Primeval, an ancient law enacted before Pelor’s time. It seems that there are only a few possible answers. One, Pelor is truly of Hell, and his worshipper ended there because of his faith. Two, the paladin ended up in Hell of his own actions and Pelor gave no thought to the stability of the cosmos in order to bring him back. (Probably out of fear for what information torture would bring to the paladin’s tongue.) Three, Pelor sponsors LE paladins, known as paladins of tyranny (in a complete twisting of the term paladin) because he is a vile god of evil.
The Inquisitor Bracers are another magic item sponsored by Pelor. These bracers justify the use of force on innocent people in order to sort them out from undead. You can’t use the power of the bracers with a touch attack (to see if the positive energy perhaps burns the undead). You must swing your weapon with all force at the target, and hope that the positive energy undoes any mistake you might make. What a sick idea. A paladin on a different world once had a similar idea for dealing with undead. His name was Prince Arthas. Of Warcraft III fame.
Pelor’s final relic is a sun shard, which is fairly simple, it fires searing light at two targets. This isn’t damning in and of itself, but consider that while other good gods (Elonna and Yondalla for example) offered relics that aided mortals, Pelor’s are all intended to destroy. This is of course, not a huge point against Pelor, but when added onto the mountain of evidence, seems to be just one more confirmation.
One adventuring group, headed by a tough talking thug named Dyson, followed the path against Pelor when they discovered something amiss within his church. Connections were drawn between Pelor and Baal. That story can be told by Dyson himself or his dungeon master Feanor. It should be noted however, that they began following this path of discovery prior to the release of the Book of Exalted Deeds. They were the first to see the truth and were shunned for it at the time. Those of us who have had our eyes opened to the light of the Burning Hate owe them a debt of gratitude.
Another adventuring group, this one composed of angels, were betrayed by their god into the hands of Lixer, a Prince of Hell. They were broken, one by one. One was twisted into a demon, one lost faith in the path of the Celestial Compact, one was blasted from existence and the last was petrified and stands still in the Court of a Lord of Hell. The god was not named, but he was a god of the sun. Again, this story predates the release of the Book of Exalted Deeds.
One final member of Dicefreaks has added information. Alratan was the first Freak to bring up evil uses for positive energy and good uses for negative energy. While his study does not accuse Pelor of anything (or indeed, deal with Pelor at all), it does point to an alternate path of positive energy, with which Pelor is definitely associated. (Positive energy, not the alternate path.) This is important because many dubious (and some slack-jawed) people have pointed towards Pelor’s association with the sun and positive energy as proof of his inherent goodness.
It must be noted that nothing is proven. Pelor still sits in Elysium. No good-aligned gods have moved against him, nor have they chilled alliances with the Sun God. It may be this is a smear campaign engineered by fiends, or simply the overactive imaginations of mortals. However, the above presented are facts, not fiction. Draw your own conclusions, but think twice before you choose the True Believer feat in Pelor’s name. Below are my own conclusions drawn from the evidence.
Pelor is a Neutral (lawful tendencies) Evil god of Sun and Strength.
Pelor is a god of skin cancer, sun burns, thirst, and burning agony.
Pelor hates undead as they cannot properly suffer in the same way as mortals.
Pelor’s divine realm is on Elysium.
Pelor has deceived the good gods and mortals for so long that he has grown complacent in his position. The recent revelations are not purposeful, they are accidents caused by the god being sloppy.
Pelor has many connections with Hell through both Bel and Belial and previously through Zariel.
Pelor may have engineered the Great Fall of Eblis, Triel, and the others.
It is unknown if the devils, yugoloths, or demons are aware that Pelor is evil. Presumably they are ignorant.
The above is intended to make clear the position of those people who claim Pelor is evil. It is not intended as a slur on those who seek to worship Pelor as a benign deity nor as concrete proof of his evil. The investigation into his misconduct is currently ongoing and no final judgement should be passed at this juncture.
其实这里面很多论据都是规则变化和设计师拍脑袋导致的吧，还有诸如坏人书对一些邪恶标准的绝对化
不过有意思的是，某刻板印象中培罗才是最嫉恶如仇的激进分子之一，core belief系列反倒说培罗在奥斯的反邪恶势力中还算相对温和的了