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Ok so, "Complete Champion" is another one of the "Complete" series of supplements for Wizards of the Coasts' Dungeons & Dragons game. This one is a player's guide to divine heroes. Let me say first that, even though the art in D&D books is pretty consistently good, for some reason I found the art in this book to stand out. I really liked the images. I don't think the art was any better than normal, it just caught my eye.
The introduction of the books speaks briefly on the role of "faith" in a world where the gods are real and active, which can be a difficult concept sometimes. The "religion" section of the book details the D&D churches as the organizations that they are, using the same rules as the affiliations from the PHBII. I think that's a nice touch as it gives some benefit to those clerics who have more temporal ambitions and it highlights the notion that while gods may be divine, religions are mortal institutions. Like affiliations, good standing with the religion grants the member rank and benefits, be they spell-like abilities or bonuses to certain actions. There's even a breakdown by domain at the end of the chapter to aid the DM in designing his own religious affiliations.
As usual, for the powerfully religious character that doesn't want to be a cleric, paladin or druid there are "alternative class features", which allow a touch of the divine for other classes. These are cleverly tied to the class, like "Spiritual Totem" for the barbarians, "Hymns" for the bards and so forth.
New feats go without saying. What stands out here are the "Domain" feats, which are tied to the domains and mostly grant spell-like powers, but you can only have two.
There are also several "divine" affiliations that aren't specifically religions. These follow the standard affiliation rules and are mostly tied to the new prestige classes. Briefly, there's the "Fist of the Forest", a kind of feral monk/barbarian hybrid, "Forest Reeves", basically a wilderness cop, "Holt Wardens", who are the spiritual leaders for the "Guardians of the Green" organization, and a bunch more. Really, they don't seem to stand out on their own. After a while, they're just a bunch of numbers and powers collected together. Some of their illustrations are inspiring, though.
There are, of course, new spells. Again, nothing too interesting, but then I don't play spellcasters. There is some information about "power components" for spells. Difficult to acquire items which can be consumed in the casting of a spell to increase its potency. They add a nice touch of tactics and color. There are also "special holy symbols", which might vary slightly in appearance from the norm but also grant bonuses to spell level for certain types of spells or other benefits.
The magic items section is more of the same with various weapons and armor and such. They do use the new magic item format found in the "Magic Item Compendium" though, so that's a nice touch. There are also "domain staffs" which are much like the rune staffs available to arcane casters. The domain staffs allow the caster to use up a prepared divine spell or spell slot to cast one of the spells "known" by the staff. The spells in the staff are, of course, thematically grouped by domain.
The last chapter has several divine sites with information and maps, and also a section on the "divine quest" and the sort of thing one would expect from a "mission from god".
The book is hardbound, full color, 158 pages and runs $29.95 US. Keeping in mind that I rarely play clerics or paladins or druids, or even spell-casters in general, I don't see much that you need in this book. The religions as affiliations are pretty nice, as is the advice on faith and divine quests. The rest of it seems to fall flat, in my opinion. I'd have to think hard about buying it for $20. $29.95 just seems a bit much.
