So tell me about the Book of Exalted Deeds in play

[Elric]

Vow of Poverty is well balanced. It provides some benefits that are not very useful and does not take the lowest marginal cost approach for the benefits that it does. I'm playing a VoP monk and his non-exalted feat choices are the main source of his power. Touch of Golden Ice is bad at high levels, but could be very powerful at the lowest levels (except that 1d4 Dex/enemy doesn't matter to an enemy who is going to be knocked out anyway).

Vow of Poverty makes your character self-sufficient. This is otherwise extremely rare in higher level D&D.

Some of exalted spells are really powerful. I think Clerics are allowed to spontaneously cast Sanctified spells and the attack spells are much stronger than normal cleric attack spells (Hammer of Unfairness, Rain of You Win Long Combats, Last Judgment if you are a celestial)

 

[DM-Rocco]

I won't comment on anything but this, be aware of a rogue (or other class with evasion ability) requesting a starmantle cloak

 

[Mucknuggle]

I disagree with all of you that say that Vow of Poverty is too powerful. Even for a Monk or a Druid, they are much better off with magic items. I, along with many other regulars over on the WotC Character Optimization board, have tested out various different VoP characters and compared VoP vs non-VoP characters. We've come to the conclusion that a VoP character is slightly more powerful than his fellow party mates in the early stages of his adventuring career, but that by the time we reach a "high" level of play (mid to late teens), the VoP is actually disadvantaged due to his lack of magical items. Even more so for spellcasting characters.

Aside from that, most BoED stuff is pretty much balanced. I can't seem to recall anything too game breaking, and trust me, if there was anything, it would be common knowledge to me, and the rest of the Character Optimization community, by now.

 

[Elric]

One point that I forgot to mention is that Vow of Poverty becomes less and less powerful as players have access to other books besides the DMG to choose magic items from (this assumes that they have some flexibility in the magic items that they get).

From what I hear, the book of exalted deeds has some very powerful magic items. As a result, if you use the full BoeD then the VoP character will miss out on these (presumably undercosted) items. If you stick with only items that are listed in the DMG, Vow of Poverty becomes more powerful than if you expand magic item choices to other books.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

For anyone who's had a Saint in their game (whether you gave the template to a PC or played a PC with the template) how did it go?

It seems to offer a lot for +2 LA. I've never had the chance to use one/play with one, but the template gives a tremendous amount of abilities for the cost. Do the requirements to acquire the template balance it in any way? Or is it just one of the more broken parts of the book.

As to my experiences with the BoED, I've enjoyed it quite a bit. I think it's a well-written book, with the majority of material being quite balanced and interesting. The Vow of Poverty matches up nicely with PC wealth limits, and will only be overpowering in low-wealth/low-magic campaign. Many of the feats are flavorful and interesting, and the PrCs seem balanced as well. I'm particularly fond of the Swanmay and Annointed Knight.

 

[ruleslawyer]

For anyone who's had a Saint in their game (whether you gave the template to a PC or played a PC with the template) how did it go?

It seems to offer a lot for +2 LA. I've never had the chance to use one/play with one, but the template gives a tremendous amount of abilities for the cost. Do the requirements to acquire the template balance it in any way? Or is it just one of the more broken parts of the book.

Note the text at p.29 of BoED. The LA for the template is "artificially low" because it's a reward for exemplary behavior.