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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ruleslawyer" data-source="post: 2955379" data-attributes="member: 1757">Er, why, exactly?Repeated analysis of VoP on these boards has shown that it's about on par with standard wealth; VoP has the advantage of providing slightly higher bonuses, balanced against the disadvantage of the PC being unable to apportion those bonuses to desired uses. It's *very* useful for monks, useless for primary martial classes and wizards, possibly very good for sorcerers (depending on how you handle material components), and probably broken for druids... but only because wild shape is extremely problematic.  Thus, is the faulty mechanic VoP, or wild shape?I'd say that almost all of the things listed by mvincent are features, not bugs; stuff that clever PCs can and should be able to do. But, since we're going about this, my favorites are:1) Anything that turns a spell-like ability or spell into a supernatural ability. This includes some applications of Assume Supernatural Ability (SS), the Supernatural Spell feat (SS), and the Dweomerkeeper's mantle of spells class ability. The twin problems with this sort of thing are (a) avoiding XP costs and (b) bypassing spell resistance. Very bad for lots of potential spell applications.2) Any ability that allows the Frenzied Berserker to auto-save, reroll, or otherwise handwave his Will save to come out of frenzy. The FB is "balanced" by the fact that it's too dangerous for a normal PC to take, since his allies stand a chance of getting beaten on by him; anything that eliminates that danger probably overpowers the class.3) Using the rules for thrown or falling objects to calculate damage. Just say no. This is where shapechanged blocks of adamantine and weird hulking hurler builds come from.4) Bag of rats. Yes, it is still possible to pull it off in a certain limited context (Combat Reflexes + AoOs from rats + Great Cleave). 5) Polymorph, although as far as I'm concerned, WotC's new policy should be considered official errata. Use the trollform and dragonform and whatever other polymorph subschool spells instead of the core spell, as appropriate.6) Gate. Yes, it is still too powerful; 1000 XP cost be damned. The spell still allows a 17th-level wizard to summon a solar (CR 23), or even a theoretically more powerful creature. Very bad.7) Abilities that allow an action plus a full attack. This includes the special dimension-walking ability of the Telflammar Shadowlord (UE), but I'll bet there are a few other similar abilities elsewhere in the expansion books. This is very, very bad. At best, all of these abilities should work like Manyshot (conferring x attacks as a standard action, with precision-based damage applying to the first attack only). 8) Natural Spell. Maybe it's not really that powerful, but I have the image of a druid in innocent-sparrow form flitting about near the bad guys using a host of deadly spells to mess with them.9) Blasphemy/holy word/etc plus caster level increases. It's very easy to get CL increases in D&D (prayer beads, hierophant PrC, domain abilities, etc.); you can get your 20th-level cleric to hit CL 28 without too much difficulty, meaning that 18-Hit Dice creatures (like, say, that pit fiend) die with no save when whacked with a holy word. Worse still, you have true madness with high-HD half-fiend creatures and PCs.10) Thrallherd is a messy class indeed; too much opportunity to take advantage of followers and exploit certain infinite loops.In general, I think the easiest way to deal with all this stuff is to hit the WotC Character Optimization boards and just check off all the crazy stuff they're doing, then declare it illegal.</blockquote>

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