Book of Erotic Fantasy-worth the shame?

[Thealtruistorc]

Look, I am not entirely comfortable with owning a sourcebook with that title, nor do I like my d&d games getting sexual beyond the occasional evard's black hentai joke or screwing random npcs off-camera. Does this book contain any valueable player content (good feats, prcs, or new races) that would make it worth obtaining?

[Windstorm]

I was gifted a copy as a joke (I'm quite reserved most of the time) and it doesn't have a whole lot in there that would be the kinds of things you're looking for. It is not a terrible book, and having something like it is certainly better than not having someone attempting to tackle the subject. it does have a few things in it that are pretty funny, depending on your sense of humor.

[Zweisteine]

I vaguely remember someone saying that one of the PrCs in that book is good.

There are, however, many better books you could get. (Magic Item Compendium, Spell Compendium, the Tome of Battle, the Tome of Magic, other books, Unearthed Arcana, the EPH, etc.)

From what little I know (I saw a friend's copy once), the book is meant for more mature players. If you aren't comfortable with it, and don't plan on including the things most of the book is entirely focused on, you don't need it.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

It has a prestige class that's basically Incantatrix condensed into three levels. It's extremely powerful, something any spellcaster who uses metamagic should take. If this is the sort of thing you're after, then go for it.

[Erik Vale]

I think it has a feat based wizard/sorcerer/spellslot recharge/overcharge trick that's nice if you can do it off screen, and another psion recharge trick.

[MadGreenSon]

The fluff sections of the book are written in a very mature tone to cover the more sexual sides of D&D, including various bits on how various races view the matter, including reproduction, etc. Not bad info, if your game might need that.

However, many of the crunchy bits are either broken or silly. I do use some of the information in the book in my games for flavor purposes and world building, the actual game mechanics I mostly leave behind.

So it really depends on whether or not the information is worth ignoring the silly for you.

[Dimers]

I mostly agree with MadGreenSon. BoEF has valuable discussion of sexuality (and to a degree love) in a nonspecific pseudo-medieval-fantasy-gaming world and is valuable for thought experiment value. The crunch is not worth the cover price. And if what you want is the discussion, Naughty And Dice is probably a bit stronger in that regard, if less focused on D&D in particular.

[JimboG]

If you're not comfortable with the subject matter, you're most likely not going to like anything in it, and the few things that are functionally useful without a sexual connotation are sparse at best.

[Alleran]

The fluff sections of the book are written in a very mature tone to cover the more sexual sides of D&D, including various bits on how various races view the matter, including reproduction, etc. Not bad info, if your game might need that.
And some amusing snippets, from time to time.

"One Ooze. Idiot damages Ooze. Two Oozes."

[RedMage125]

I also must concur with MadGreenSon.

The sections on the book revolving around various D&D-based views of love and sex are handled fairly well.

Ever wondered what happens when an elf mates with a gnome? BoEF has that. Ways that different alignments view love and sex, including a female paladin having a one-night stand with a female bard. Which I found interesting, not because of the girl/girl part, but from the fact that so many people think that LG = uptight, "no sex before marriage", or even celibate.

Not all of the art is Mature Content. In fact, most of the art, even that which contains nudity, is fairly tasteful, but there's enough of it that crosses the line to make most people dismiss the book's contents as cheap and tawdry.

Some of the crunchy bits in the book, though...are questionable in value. Unless your campaign is very focused on sexual content, most of the crunchy bits will be of very little use. And others are grossly overpowered, or laughably underpowered.

[BrokenChord]

I think that PrC is called... Metaphysical Shaper? Hm. But yeah, it's all sorts of crazy broken, letting you take ability score penalties instead of spell levels when applying metamagic. It is in no way sexual, but was included mostly for the purposes of them being able to add "oh, and uh, spells and stuff can't quicken the process of healing the penalties, except of course for our other Prestige Class, the Sacred Prostitute. So now that PrC is useful, because it's the only way to speed up the penalty recovery process, so you should use it, yup!"

[Porthos]

It's got a What's New comic by Phil Foglio in it, so it can't be completely worthless. :smalltongue:

[Crake]

I've actually been using the book of erotic fantasy for both the games I've DMed so far, because my players develop quite intimate connections with NPCs, and I'm perfectly comfortable roleplaying everything from romantic dates, all the way to the passionate night of lovemaking that follows. I'm even using an appearance score from BoEF in my current game, as well as allowing the enhancement feats (the ones where you get a cumulative +2/4/6 to an ability score for each time you take the feat, for 24 hours after you do the dirty dance for 20/40/60 minutes straight) as well as some of the spells (a succubus for example, sent out a wet dreams spell to one of the players that she is seducing), so I have to say that the book is quite useful if you're running a game where the players are mature enough to include sexuality without it falling apart into giggles and laughs.

But, as you said, you aren't really comfortable with that, so you should probably just not bother.

[Bullet06320]

It has a prestige class that's basically Incantatrix condensed into three levels. It's extremely powerful, something any spellcaster who uses metamagic should take. If this is the sort of thing you're after, then go for it.


I think that PrC is called... Metaphysical Shaper? Hm. But yeah, it's all sorts of crazy broken, letting you take ability score penalties instead of spell levels when applying metamagic. It is in no way sexual, but was included mostly for the purposes of them being able to add "oh, and uh, spells and stuff can't quicken the process of healing the penalties, except of course for our other Prestige Class, the Sacred Prostitute. So now that PrC is useful, because it's the only way to speed up the penalty recovery process, so you should use it, yup!"

metaphysical spellshaper is an awesome 3 level PrC

and I use the Sacred Prostitute as good flavor for worshippers and clergy of Sune in the Forgotten Realms

[sonofzeal]

I've gotten good clean use out of it. It has fantastic sociological and biological information in it, and you don't need a raunchy game in order for information on Gnome family units or Elven gestation times to be relevant. The Spell section as well contains a fairly broad selection of spells that are entirely appropriate for traditional adventuring. Healer sorts will especially appreciate some of the options in there.

All in all... it's hardly a regular, but I've gotten more use out of it than some official WotC books I've owned.

[MadGreenSon]

I've gotten good clean use out of it. It has fantastic sociological and biological information in it, and you don't need a raunchy game in order for information on Gnome family units or Elven gestation times to be relevant. The Spell section as well contains a fairly broad selection of spells that are entirely appropriate for traditional adventuring. Healer sorts will especially appreciate some of the options in there.

All in all... it's hardly a regular, but I've gotten more use out of it than some official WotC books I've owned.

It's perfectly fine material if you just take a little time to sift out the silly or pointlessly porny bits in the rules, feats, spell and item section. I found most of the monsters, Classes and PrCs to be either pointless, NPC worthy (Sacred Prostitutes might be a good fit for Sune, Sharess, and similar deities worshipers to have, not good PC material though) or outright silly (Imagist "I can do magic because I'm pretty!":smallyuk:)

I already allow Incantrix, no need to have someone double-dip into Metaphysical Spellshaper too.

Even though it's never come up in a game I've run, it's personal canon that the Gnomish Kama Sutra exists in any setting with Gnomes. :smallbiggrin:

[Zanos]

The section about Perform(Sexual Technique) and size penalties was pretty amusing.

It's not a terrible book, but if you're just looking for crunch I'd skip it.

[Theprettiestorc]

It might also be noted that there's a PDF online for it, and a Book of Unlawful Carnal Knowledge for Pathfinder, as well. There were a lot of silly things, yes, but also spell applications that you'd have to realistically think about, considering that a good deal of mages are lonely, and desperate, sometimes.

That said, I also do like Nude Fighting rules. I'd say it's more a discipline of distraction, depending on how you read into it, and with a fighting class without armor(say, a Monk or a Barbarian(if they're crazy)), it would be pretty decent for enemy debuffs. Again, though, it all comes down to how much you're willing to go into it.

There was also a part in there about social dresses and such, so I thought it was neat. Also, it had my favorite magic item ever.

http://i.imgur.com/LBWVPMx.png

[Scootaloo]

I found it to be pretty "meh" overall. Some of the perspectives and ideas are okay, but I got the feeling that the author put a lot of effort into basically "Bondage is perfectly normal, okay? Okay? Okay?!" That is, the book tries very hard to be self-justifying. The art is... bad, too. not as in gross or over-the-top, but... bad. The modeling is awkward and the photoshopping is amateur at best. It's really just a book that feels unnecessary - a group mature enough to use it probably isn't actually going to gain anything at all out of it.

However, "Nymphology," from Mongoose press... takes itself far less seriously and is actually pretty funny. With spells like "Prismatic Chastity belt" and "Hypnotic Rump," and monsters like the bearded clam and collosal gay al (a gigantic multicolored allosaurus that sings) to say nothing of the "mystic pimp," it's a good exerise of B-grade bawdy humor.

And if you want to run sex like a really terrible swords and sorcery movie from the 80's, there's the Quintessential Temptress, also from mongoose. if you ever wanted rules for running a brothel, well, here's your book.

[prufock]

There are a few cool spells in it, but also some stupid or broken ones. Metaphysical Spellshaper is awesome but likewise brokenly powerful.

[atomicwaffle]

The section listing all the venereal diseases is downright hilarious (and brutal). My friends and i couldn't stop laughing at the 'Sacred Prostitute' class.

I 'legitimately acquired' a PDF with 'related material'. If you can get ahold of a physical copy of the book i'd ALMOST recommend it if the price is reasonable, it is a collectable after all but i wouldn't dwell on it.

[TeslaJr]

IMO, thing only thing that's really worth it is the Metaphysical Spellshaper PrC, and that doesn't even have anything to do with what the book is about. MPS plus Incantatrix make an insanely powerful combination, and anyone who is using MM should definitely take it.

[Soarel]

The whole thing is quite cringeworthy, especially the sex magic classes.

Sex and D&D don't mix. You want porn in your RPGs? Get back to me after you've read FATAL and see how that trainwreck of a game turned out.

[Coidzor]

Tasteful, Well-Balanced, Well-Written. Pick... 2?

I believe that's the usual refrain about BoEF anyway.

Certainly interesting. Whether it's right for your group is hard to say without knowing what kind of people they are.


It might also be noted that there's a PDF online for it, and a Book of Unlawful Carnal Knowledge for Pathfinder, as well. There were a lot of silly things, yes, but also spell applications that you'd have to realistically think about, considering that a good deal of mages are lonely, and desperate, sometimes.

What, another Book of Unlawful Carnal Knowledge? Oy! How many of them are there now? :smallconfused:


The section about Perform(Sexual Technique) and size penalties was pretty amusing.

It's not a terrible book, but if you're just looking for crunch I'd skip it.

Ahh, yes, the basis for the Pervirtuoso (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?167278-The-most-move-in-the-world/page3)! Good Times. :smallamused:

[Larkas]

Meh. It's not bad, but I've gotten more use out of Chainmail Bikini. No, really!

[Coidzor]

Meh. It's not bad, but I've gotten more use out of Chainmail Bikini. No, really!

In the vein, I believe Portable Hole Full of Beer is supposed to be a hoot.

[torrasque666]

Sex and D&D don't mix. You want porn in your RPGs? Get back to me after you've read FATAL and see how that trainwreck of a game turned out.


*curls up into ball and stats crying*

[Larkas]

In the vein, I believe Portable Hole Full of Beer is supposed to be a hoot.

I've heard so too. Never got to buying the Bride of Portable Hole, though, which is a revised and expanded version of it.

...That's a real book, ok? :smalltongue:

[tri]

The Metaphysical Spellshaper PrC in it is supposed to be pretty good, but I don't think the book is worth it just for that.

[Talya]

The whole thing is quite cringeworthy, especially the sex magic classes.

Sex and D&D don't mix. You want porn in your RPGs? Get back to me after you've read FATAL and see how that trainwreck of a game turned out.

Considering the sorceress that is my avatar that I played in a Forgotten Realms campaign for over five years, I disagree.

Now, for the OP:

I am not prudish, by any means. My characters tend to be highly sexual in nature. And I even I have to pick and choose parts of the BoEF that are worth using. It has some good bits, some OK bits, and a large percentage of useless crap.

[Pluto!]

I found it to be pretty "meh" overall. Some of the perspectives and ideas are okay, but I got the feeling that the author put a lot of effort into basically "Bondage is perfectly normal, okay? Okay? Okay?!" That is, the book tries very hard to be self-justifying. The art is... bad, too. not as in gross or over-the-top, but... bad. The modeling is awkward and the photoshopping is amateur at best. It's really just a book that feels unnecessary - a group mature enough to use it probably isn't actually going to gain anything at all out of it.
This was basically my impression as well. The presentation is awkward, the content is rarely interesting and is even more rarely useful, and its most popular piece of material is notoriously broken.

[Larkas]

Considering the sorceress that is my avatar that I played in a Forgotten Realms campaign for over five years, I disagree.

Now, for the OP:

I am not prudish, by any means. My characters tend to be highly sexual in nature. And I even I have to pick and choose parts of the BoEF that are worth using. It has some good bits, some OK bits, and a large percentage of useless crap.

Eh, people have different thresholds for dealing with the subject of sex in their games. I tend to treat it rather seriously (eh, as seriously as I perceive it to be in the real world, in any case), but I, for one, don't really feel at ease to tackle it at a game table. Heck, I don't feel at ease tackling affectionate, non-sexual relationships between PCs and NPCs in my games (something I consider a serious flaw of mine, by the way, since I can't really embody a NPC easily without feeling weird). Even though I'm not exactly a prudish person, I guess my superego is fiercely so. Not that I know enough Psychology to have any idea of what I'm talking about. :smallbiggrin:

I do, however, see the worth in the BoEF - both for more serious games, like the ones I tend to run, and for more lighthearted ones. It's just something I wouldn't use directly at a game table, even though I have used snippets from it for world building.

That's why I've got more mileage from Chainmail Bikini. Yes, even in a serious game. I'm weird like that. :smallbiggrin:

[Talya]

I do, however, see the worth in the BoEF - both for more serious games, like the ones I tend to run, and for more lighthearted ones. It's just something I wouldn't use directly at a game table, even though I have used snippets from it for world building.

That's why I've got more mileage from Chainmail Bikini. Yes, even in a serious game. I'm weird like that. :smallbiggrin:

I made use of parts of BoEF, Chainmail Bikini, and Nymphology all in one character sheet.

[Larkas]

I made use of parts of BoEF, Chainmail Bikini, and Nymphology all in one character sheet.

Now THAT is a character sheet I'd like to read. :smallbiggrin:

[Talya]

To be fair, it was her Paladin cohort that made use of chainmail bikini. I suppose that's a second character sheet.

[cosmonuts]

My group IRL wants to use BoEF. I trust them to be mature in their handling of these game aspects, but I don't know what these add to the game besides metaphysical spellshaper, which I've heard is incantatrix OP (not like my group would be able to tell, though).

I said "no" because I think it's aesthetically displeasing to detail out sex in a combat RPG, but my group seems to think it's a good idea.

[Talya]

Now THAT is a character sheet I'd like to read. :smallbiggrin:

Here...
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?69461-My-favorite-character&highlight=my+favorite+character
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?78574-My-Cohort&highlight=my+favorite+character

Somehow her old character sheet is blank. I still have access to it, but it's been erased. (this makes me very sad...for such an Arabian Nights themed character -- to have gotten Character Sheet ID 1001 made me giddy.)

[PersonMan]

Sex and D&D don't mix. You want porn in your RPGs? Get back to me after you've read FATAL and see how that trainwreck of a game turned out.

False blanket statement, strawman, then pointing to FATAL as the "inevitable conclusion" of having sex in DnD? I'm not sure if I can take this post seriously.

[Shinken]

False blanket statement, strawman, then pointing to FATAL as the "inevitable conclusion" of having sex in DnD? I'm not sure if I can take this post seriously.

I'm not sure you're supposed to...

[Frozen_Feet]

BoEF has several good spells and items that deal with pregnancy and finding a partner. It also has the awesome Sacred Prostitute class, which is just hilarious in combination with Paladin. The rules for appearance are also usable.

Overall, it's pretty mediocre, though. The art is not as enticing as the name suggests. In my opinion, the sexiest picture in the whole damn thing is the cover. I'd recommend buying it if you can find it in the discount bin.

It's not really bad enough to be ashamed for. Go and look in your average D&D sourcebook these days - you will find female characters with raunchier attires than seen in the entire book. Basically, if you have anything with chainmail bikinis or Drow or the like in your bookshelf, you have nothing to lose - you have already admitted to being a huge nerd who likes weird porn in the eyes of all non-roleplayers.

[lytokk]

For some people, sex and D&D don't mix. In my games, once the scene gets to its inevitable conclusion, we just fade to black. For the fun of it, there's a simple check, either dex, cha or con, just to gauge performance, thus affecting the fame the PC may or may not have. Some people may go into more detail, some people may want less detail than that. It all comes down to personal preference and there is no 1 right answer to the question. Though, I am the kind of DM who wants the players to push their percieved comfort boundaries from time to time, and I encourage the players to do it with me. Pushing past percieved is the only way to find actual boundaries after all. Of course, once you find actual boundaries, its time to stop.

the BoEF has been a joke book around our table a few times, since none of us own a copy. I've looked through it once or twice, and it always had interesting information that never actually came up in a game, I think species gestation periods were in there, which would be useful if it ever affected the PCs, but thus far hasn't happened.

[Talya]

For some people, sex and D&D don't mix. In my games, once the scene gets to its inevitable conclusion, we just fade to black.

For the most part, that is also the case in any games I'm in. Many things happen "off camera."

[Larkas]

Here...
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?69461-My-favorite-character&highlight=my+favorite+character
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?78574-My-Cohort&highlight=my+favorite+character

Somehow her old character sheet is blank. I still have access to it, but it's been erased. (this makes me very sad...for such an Arabian Nights themed character -- to have gotten Character Sheet ID 1001 made me giddy.)

Hey, now... I remember the joke about the sheet number and most of what I've read in both threads... I think I may have seen both characters way back when. That means I've seen them when I was just a lurker! Those were some very interesting characters! Thanks for bringing them to the world, Talya! :smallsmile:

[Coidzor]

For some people, sex and D&D don't mix. In my games, once the scene gets to its inevitable conclusion, we just fade to black. For the fun of it, there's a simple check, either dex, cha or con, just to gauge performance, thus affecting the fame the PC may or may not have.

Low quality extemporaneous erotica narrated by someone who is not an experienced narrator of erotica doesn't seem like it would be many people's cup of tea, I must admit. Or rather, hope. Off camera and fade to black are handy things, yes.

[toapat]

I feel like there should be a book that has the material of nymphology, chainmail bikini, and BoEF combined, with a general maturity of writing more along the lines of CB (knows how to present the material with a bit of flavor but also recognizes that this is side material for a bit of fun.). CB is a fun read, kinda silly, and nice as fluff material, while most of the BoEF is well written, its written IMO just too seriously for its own health at points.

[Coidzor]

I feel like there should be a book that has the material of nymphology, chainmail bikini, and BoEF combined, with a general maturity of writing more along the lines of CB (knows how to present the material with a bit of flavor but also recognizes that this is side material for a bit of fun.). CB is a fun read, kinda silly, and nice as fluff material, while most of the BoEF is well written, its written IMO just too seriously for its own health at points.

Makes sense, yah.

[toapat]

Makes sense, yah.

the great tragedy of that would be that the loss of Nymphology's aphorisms in the spell descriptions, such as the bard getting lynched because his spell collapsed mid escapade.

[Dr. Azkur]

This is a pretty good review:

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/9/9982.phtml

[sonofzeal]

Spells I use from BoEF, that get added to the Healer spell list:

Pleasant Dreams
- blocks all negative magical dream effects

Detect Disease
- Incubating/Infected/Carrier

Mantle of Love
- 1 min/level
- +4 moral bonus on saves
- target must remain in sight of the caster

Resist Temptation
- Personal
- +4 Will vs charms, enchantments, etc
- +4 vs Diplomacy checks with sexual overtones

Touch Me Not
- +2 deflection AC
- touch or grapple = 1d8+1/CL damage
- defensive only

Analyze Ancestry
- 10 generations of geneology information
- material component: 100gp of herbs/oils

Healing Sphere
- 1 minute or until used
- provides light as "light" spell
- can be targetted up to 25+5/CL ft away

Succor
- 1 min/level
- absorbs <=5 negative levels or level drain
- absorbs <=4 points of ability damage per stat

Hedonist's Delight
- 1 hour/level
- cure spells on target are maximized
- heightened sensitivity to all pleasures
- target gets +2 to craft checks

Magic Status
- as "status" except identifies any spells+CL

Mind to Mind
- 10 min/level
- see and hear through target
- gaze attacks affect both

Sanctuary, Mass
- One creature/level

Kiss of Life
- "Raise Dead" for creatures dead for CL rounds

Peace Aura
- 40' emanation, 24 hours
- any attacks incure 1d6/CL force damage
- Will Half

Shadow Life
- no-penalty "raise dead", only lasts 1 day/level
- caster takes 1 negative level while active

Spread of Contentment
- Calms hostile creatures within 10-ft/level radius.
- requires lammasu's feather


How many of those look like they came from a book about sex? =P

[toapat]

How many of those look like they came from a book about sex? =P

Mantle of Love, Hedonist's Delight (Wizards would have been alot more harsh with a spell like that) as well. the rest seem normal

[BananaPhone]

I think there is also a feat in it that allows you to gain temporary stat increases if you bed your lovers or something like that for X amount of time. I can't remember off the top of my head.

I just remember once that there was an NPC Empress in a game I was in who had a harem of gigolos, and she used that feat to gain a bonus to her casting stat for extra spell pain before going into battle.

[AugustNights]

Sex and D&D don't mix. You want porn in your RPGs? Get back to me after you've read FATAL and see how that trainwreck of a game turned out.

I fail to see how a single poorly executed example is demonstrative of an overall synergistic failure between two concepts coming together. A rather small sample size with some glaring lurking variables.

On subject, I don't care for the BoEF too much, simply because I don't care for the questionable to bad consent of some of the content. Nevertheless, it isn't a terrible book. It's by no means a great book, and most of the rules inside it could be easily cooked up as homebrew bits where and when needed. It's third party, if I'm not mistaken, though I understand some of the writers or developers also worked on various 3.5 material, or some sort of loose connection. Anyhow, if you're not interested in the topic, this book probably isn't for you.

[Talya]

The BoEF suffers for being the BoEF. It had a good writer, but terrible editing. No decent publisher was going to touch it with the proverbial ten foot pole, so the production values were lower than they could have been for anything else. It's sad, but BoEF is about as well done a book as it's possible to make on the subject.

Nymphology, Chainmail Bikini, etc. benefited from "campiness." Humor somehow makes sex more palatable to a publisher. Treating it seriously? Forget about it.

B.U.C.K. is nothing but homebrew, with similar levels of quality.

[toapat]

The BoEF suffers for being the BoEF. It had a good writer, but terrible editing. No decent publisher was going to touch it with the proverbial ten foot pole, so the production values were lower than they could have been for anything else. It's sad, but BoEF is about as well done a book as it's possible to make on the subject.

Nymphology, Chainmail Bikini, etc. benefited from "campiness." Humor somehow makes sex more palatable to a publisher. Treating it seriously? Forget about it.

B.U.C.K. is nothing but homebrew, with similar levels of quality.

BoEF is actually very dry. Nymphology is way, way too far out of reasonable as far as level of humor, ending up with a sort of BoEF problem in that the material has One tone and that tone is good for a minute then grinds on and on. The reason why i like CB is because its able to present material seriously when it comes down to it, but presents the material with at least an understanding of what its talking about enough to not take itself wholly seriously. Its written more like one of the Races Of books, where the author is not fully informed, trying to hold off on oppinions, but is still changing tone as the book goes on

BoEF, comparatively, is written with a syntax similar to Faiths and Pantheons, in that the material is presented very carefully in a purely academic manner. The material shouldnt be purely tongue in cheek (like how Chainmail bikini begins serious, goes silly, returns serious for the feats and stats, then finishes out with a silly story), but it should honestly NOT be itself written in a purely formal manner.

Although PHfoB + Son + Bride are lumped together with the other books they shouldnt be counted. They are just silly books which have a few clippings from these other books

[atemu1234]

I found some parts of the book useful. Most of it's good for background things, don't even dream about letting PCs take ranks in Perform (Sexual Act). Let there be, for example, clerics with detect pregnancy and the like if you plan on a PC's in-game girlfriend getting pregnant. Otherwise, don't bother.

[RavynsLand]

I actually have the book but have yet to really go through it, it seemed pretty bland and BDSM-focused from what I could tell. I'll look over it again and see if I find anything.

[Coidzor]

I found some parts of the book useful. Most of it's good for background things, don't even dream about letting PCs take ranks in Perform (Sexual Act). Let there be, for example, clerics with detect pregnancy and the like if you plan on a PC's in-game girlfriend getting pregnant. Otherwise, don't bother.

Hey, the Pervirtuoso is great. :smalltongue:

[Flame of Anor]

My friends and i couldn't stop laughing at the 'Sacred Prostitute' class.

You know that sacred prostitutes were a real thing in some periods of history, yes?

[Fooliscious]

Most of the hangups in here seem to be coming from two places.

The first being the book is too serious/academic. I find that to be a good thing. Discussing these things maturely is a much better way to handle the content then to make a joke out of it. People being afraid to discuss maturely is the reason a good chunk of the world is so screwed up sexually.

Second one is that a lot of people that have commented just seem straight up uncomfortable with the content. Don't bash a book because you don't like what it says. BDSM, kink culture, diseases/preventatives, all of this is relevant to a world and a lot more common than you think.

Now I will say that there are silly aspects of it that weren't well thought out, and a lot of the classes are functionally terrible. But the plethora of other information and unique spells make up for it.

[Talya]

BoEF is actually very dry.

That's what I said. And that's a good thing. But it also hurts the production values. Sex-humor quickly devolves into silliness - and that silliness makes it more palattable to would-be publishers.

[RavynsLand]

Most of the hangups in here seem to be coming from two places.

The first being the book is too serious/academic. I find that to be a good thing. Discussing these things maturely is a much better way to handle the content then to make a joke out of it. People being afraid to discuss maturely is the reason a good chunk of the world is so screwed up sexually.

Second one is that a lot of people that have commented just seem straight up uncomfortable with the content. Don't bash a book because you don't like what it says. BDSM, kink culture, diseases/preventatives, all of this is relevant to a world and a lot more common than you think.

Now I will say that there are silly aspects of it that weren't well thought out, and a lot of the classes are functionally terrible. But the plethora of other information and unique spells make up for it.

This guy.

This guy's going places.

[Fooliscious]

This guy.

This guy's going places.

Go me I guess?

[toapat]

That's what I said. And that's a good thing. But it also hurts the production values. Sex-humor quickly devolves into silliness - and that silliness makes it more palattable to would-be publishers.

the problem i have is that, its Academic dissertation dry. The material is interesting but its written with very little character (which is expecially bad when you get to the flesh golem section). The only other book written in such a way is Faiths and Pantheons, which at least has some justification because its supposed to be a book written about the gods of Faerun from within Faerun by a cleric who is utterly terrified of getting smote.

[illyahr]

As someone who owned a copy and actually went through everything, I have to agree with the general consensus on most points.

The lore in the book is amazingly thought out and well put together. How each race and alignment view sex and reproduction is well thought out and done in such a way that it can be taken seriously without devolving into silly jokes that would make most people ignore it for serious play. This is probably the most useful part in the whole book.

The classes, while interesting, are mostly nonfunctional. The Imagist gets a free cohort and the Inspire Smite Evil and constant Sanctuary effects are pretty cool. However, it doesn't have any staying power. You possess a series of buff and healing effects but all of it relies on you having someone you can have sex with as that's what powers your spells every morning. The Tantrist is just a Wizard who uses sex to fuel his spells, so same issue. The Kundalini tried to fix the monk by giving them some spellcasting, but it was put together so poorly that it doesn't do any good.

The PrC's are mostly useless. The Metaphysical Spellshaper is extremely broken and no DM should allow the shenanigans it allows unless they are prepared to counter with the same. Most of the others are good for NPC's, but you won't find many PC's who would consider them. You might as well ignore the entire section.

About half of the feats are actually pretty decent. As stated above, there is a series of feats that will boost one of your stats by +2 for 24 hours for 20 minutes of sex and they can each be taken multiple times (requiring a round of sex for each one). The remaining useful ones have similar levels of utility. Not good feats, but usable and may have niche functionality with some builds.

The spells are actually mostly pretty good. Many of them are sexual in nature, but they can be used to great effect. I would guess about 75-80% are useable without too much disruption. sonofzeal posted a few upthread that give you a good example of what most of them are like.

The races. Oh wow, the races. Most of the races in the book are actually really good. For example, there is basically an evil cupid demon that chooses its targets based off of what would cause the most pain and suffering to those involved (example: elf princess and an orc barbarian convict). Not just the full races, but I have used some of the templated races to grand effect (granted, the mechanics need a little work). The Felid template is a great template for any class that relies on DEX or CHA.

tl;dr It is, overall, an extremely well-written read that suffers most with the mechanical aspect of D&D. Most of it won't see play in your campaign, but it makes a great fluff reference material for the occasional bawdry bard or spellcasters who prefer to enjoy themselves (let's face it, which of us hasn't wanted to play one of those?). The lore alone is almost enough to buy it by itself. It is, however, up to you if you want to use any of it.

[RedMage125]

A year and 9 days. That's some decrepit thread necromancy.

[ZamielVanWeber]

I also want to point out: the imagist does not need to have sex to power her spells. The tantrist does (and casts off of three freaking stats anyways) and the kundala is listed as that in the fluff, but not the crunch. The imagist also does this weird thing where her spell list gets better and better as it goes up, ending up with a 9th level spell list that includes wish, miracle, and gate, all noted powerful spells.

[EugeneVoid]

This is just grave-robbing at this point.

[Haruki-kun]

The Winged Mod: Thread Necromancy.