defending monk*vow of poverty*empower spell*polymorph. Help appreciated

[Cephid]

Thanks alot everyone for the responses.
The two full answers sound good to me.
empower=1.5xtotal. (I know it can be better than maximise in a few cases, but I think I'll just reap the benefits.
1 hit min for monk, not just holding. (if you have 2 defending weapons, do they stack with each other? Sounds silly but fun )

On the other two:
Thanks mvincent for the links to vow of poverty. I was really hoping for a list of the abilities gained and any prereq.'s as I don't have the Book of Exaluted Deeds. Could someone please post that for me?

As for the polymorph question, what do most people do? Is it OK to have a cave troll launching lightning bolts and swinging a great sword(via transformation)? What about an ape?

Thanks in advance for your help guys.

 

[Artoomis]

...Thanks mvincent for the links to vow of poverty. I was really hoping for a list of the abilities gained and any prereq.'s as I don't have the Book of Exaluted Deeds. Could someone please post that for me?...

Sorry that's not OGL material. It would be against board rules, not to mention copyright laws, to post it for you to use.

Your best bet is to either buy or borrow the book.

 

[mvincent]

As for the polymorph question, what do most people do? Is it OK to have a cave troll launching lightning bolts and swinging a great sword(via transformation)? What about an ape?

Yup

 

[Kularian]

if you have 2 defending weapons, do they stack with each other? Sounds silly but fun

I don't see why not. It specifically says in the Defending property that it is, "a bonus that stacks with all others." I've made generous use of this interperetation with NPC's, hehehe. Generally it was a Sword 'n Board Fighter/Knight, with both the shield and sword with Defending, allowing them to use it exclusively against the warriors in the group, and then use their full enhancement against those with higher AC/lower BAB. I'm not entirely certain how it works with Touch or Flat-Footed, though. Considering it "stacks with all others," I've ruled it increases both, but I'm not certain of the RAW.

 

[mvincent]

if you have 2 defending weapons, do they stack with each other?

Nope.

Defending has the following wording:
"a bonus that stacks with all others."
... this is sometimes interpreted as evidence that it stacks with itself, even though this appears unwarranted.

Take for example the wording for unnamed bonuses:
"A bonus that isn’t named stacks with any bonus."
... this is similar to (or even more permissive than) the wording for defending weapons, yet we do not interpret that to mean they can stack with themselves. In fact, we know that unnamed bonuses don't stack with themselves.

It is most reasonable to view the bonus from defending as an unnamed bonus (and likely the most balanced way to handle potential stacking problems).