Book of Exalted Deeds -Vow of Poverty and Vow of Peace bonuses

[Balder]

A player in my group plays a cleric, and has taken the Vow of Peace and the Vow of Poverty. The problem is that we somewhat disagree on how the rules should be read.

Vow of Peace, Book of Exalted Deeds p. 48:
[...]Second, you gain a +2 natural armor bonus to your AC, a +2 deflection bonus to your AC, and a +2 exalted bonus to your AC. This exalted bonus does not apply to touch attacks and does not hinder incorporeal touch attacks. Brilliant energy weapons, however, do not ignore it. It does not stack with an armor bonus. If you also have the Vow of Poverty feat, the natural armor, deflection and exalted Armor Class bonuses granted by that feat all increase by +2.[...]

He argues that this means that his AC bonus from Vow of Poverty increases by +6 in addition to the +6 AC bonus granted by Vow of Peace. In other words, he argues that a character with Vow of Poverty gets a +12 bonus from Vow of Peace instead of +6.

The way I read the rules, it just means that although the Vow of Peace AC bonus doesn't stack with other AC bonuses, it does stack with Vow of Poverty bonuses. The wording is rather vague, IMHO, and allows for either interpretation - but I think his seem illogical, not to mention unbalancing. A +12 bonus means that any monster capable of hitting him, even occasionally, can wipe the floor with the rest of the party.

So the question is, which one of us is right?

Regards,
Balder

 

[Pyrex]

Vow of Poverty grants Armor bonuses, Deflection bonuses, Natural Armor bonuses and Exalted bonuses to Armor Class.

Vow of Peace grants Deflecton bonuses, Natural Armor bonuses and Exalted bonuses to Armor Class.

Normally, bonuses of the same type don't stack (i.e. the bonus from either vow will not stack with Barkskin or Shield of Faith); however, in this case, Vow of Peace specifically states that if a character has both vows, that the Natural Armor, Deflection and Exalted bonuses to Armor Class granted by Vow of Poverty are all increased by +2.

So yes, in this case, they stack.

 

[htetickrt]

He argues that this means that his AC bonus from Vow of Poverty increases by +6 in addition to the +6 AC bonus granted by Vow of Peace. In other words, he argues that a character with Vow of Poverty gets a +12 bonus from Vow of Peace instead of +6.

I think you are, but maybe I'm misunderstanding the question. The Vow of Peace stacks with the appropriate bonuses for the Vow of Poverty, so when these bonuses total +6, the overall bonus is +12. However, the vow of peace just grants a static +2 to three different AC-related bonuses, while the vow of poverty increases these same three over 20 levels. The extra +6 seems like a lot at low levels, but given the difficulty such a character has in doing anything offensive whatsoever to nearly all enemies, I don't think this is really unbalancing. At least it hasn't been for my NPC monk who has taken both. Plus such characters often have lower saves, thanks to the slow progression of resistance bonuses.

Hope this helps, and welcome to the boards.

 

[Balder]

Thanks for the replies,

I think that solves the problem... I'd completely forgotten that bonuses of the same type don't stack. This led to the problem of him getting the Vow of Peace bonuses twice.

I feel pretty stupid for missing something like that. Well, thanks a lot anyway, it solves the problem and my ego will recover.