Okay, so, recently I've been taking another look at the Book of Exalted Deeds. Yeah, groan away. The book's got a lot of problems. The whole "Good is just Evil multiplied by -1" mentality. The whole "If you do anything bad or even neutral, ever, you're not Exalted" mentality. The rampant contradictions in the book. The apparently random assignment of certain convictions to Good (I'm hardly the first person to point out that "Vow of Chastity" really doesn't have ANYTHING to do with being capital-G Good). Complete and utter nonsense like Ravages, Afflictions, and Holy Mindrape (er, "Sanctify the Wicked"). There's a lot to dislike about the book.

That said, there's still some redeeming qualities and some interesting stuff in the book, and I'm futilely hoping against hope to spark a reasoned and level-headed discussion about what parts of the book, if any, are actually workable and interesting. Having a resource for characters who really are capital-G Good is an interesting topic to me, and for all the book's flaws, there's still some stuff in there that isn't utter crap. (Yeah, you have to dig for it, but it's there.)

So I ask you, fellow Playgrounders, what useful material do you take away from the (usually wisely) viewed-with-skepticism BoED? What material in it is an interesting concept wrapped in an awful presentation that just needs a little more reason and maturity to be interesting at the table?

Some topics I'm especially interested in, if you want a starting point:

-What do you think the at-table consequences of a Vow of Nonviolence (NOT a Vow of Peace, that's just asking for trouble) character are? What do you think they SHOULD be, in a well-reasoned and mature group?
-Which of the Vows are nonsensical, and why? Which are reasonable to the point that they are better represented by a feat (and the accompanying benefit) than by simple roleplaying choices?
-What kind of responsibilities does a GM face with an as-written Exalted player in a non-Exalted but non-Evil group? What kind of responsibilities SHOULD a GM face in such a situation?
-Say there's an Exalted character in a party that includes characters who engage in practices that the Exalted character is against (for example, a Vow of Nonviolence character who watches an ally kill someone before the VoN character can react and stop them). Obviously, this should lead to some interesting roleplaying moments at least once. Should this KEEP happening, however? If the Exalted character disapproves but doesn't want to force his (or her) allies to adhere to his strict moral code, how should this be handled at the table? Do we need to roleplay the VoN character tsk-tsking the others after every single fight? If so, how does that actually improve the game? If not, how do you defend against the charge that you're "handwaving away what should be interesting moral dissonance?" Where's the middle ground?
-What kind of moral dilemmas is it fair to throw at an Exalted character, and what kind are just jerkass "YOU FALL!" moments? I believe that Exalted characters should have to make tough decisions, but where's the line between a tough moral decision that's fun for everyone at the table and simply punishing the player for being Exalted?
-How big of a role is it fair to place on conversion of opponents? What's the best way to reconcile a character who believes in redeeming the enemy with a party that's okay with more up-front violence?
-When should a player really not try to play an Exalted character? There's the obvious case (only Exalted character in an otherwise Evil party), but to intentionally use a loaded term that the BoED tends to dislike, there's a lot of gray area between the extremes of an all-Evil (or all-Vile) party and an all-Good (or all-Exalted) party. When does a player's choice to be Exalted cause more problems than it's worth, and why?
-How should we consider the magic in BoED? Some is ridiculous prima facie (Holy Mindrape is just the most obvious example), but is any of it reasonable? What do you think of the Sanctified Spell mechanic? What about the Abstinence component mechanic? Why?
-What's a good reason (in-character and out-of-character) for a character to be Exalted instead of just very strongly Good? What's not a good reason?
-There's a lot of problems in the book, and some of them have relatively simple fixes. What kinds of things would you tweak almost without a second thought, if you had a player in your group who wanted to be Exalted?
-How can a character be Exalted without falling into the "Stupid Good" pit? How should we expand their ability to be Exalted without being stupid?

This is of course not an exhaustive list. It's just me kind of brainstorming the kinds of things I'd like to see discussed in the context of the BoED.

The BoED has some major problems, but even if it handles the concepts in an extraordinarily clumsy way, it's still got some interesting topics to consider. Let's have a mature and level-headed discussion of the interesting parts.

(Please don't just say "The BoED is garbage, ignore it." I'm the first to say it's rife with problems. That's not the point. The point of this thread is to discuss those problems, think about what would make them better, think about what is and isn't salvageable, think about what we would do to make the book less terrible. I know it's probably futile to hope for mature discussion on such a tender subject, but come on, please?)