Neo said:
His characters as per the Vow gets no money, magic iteme tc.. shares, but I don't prevent him from carrying healing potions the others may give to him. the vow is about being poor, not being stupid afterall
This is very much a no-no. The entire point of VoP (as with all the other feats, spells, and PrCs in the book) is that the moment you start "gaming" them to reduce the drawbacks, you're not conforming with the spirit of the rule to begin with.
Regarding the BoED more generally: I'd say it works well in play IF you make it clear that the array of options it contains represent a reward for role-playing a VERY Good (capital "G") character. Introducing the book mid-play should not cause any problems; in fact, most of the stuff in the book is better implemented toward levels 5+, when players can relax a bit about survival and start focusing on developing truly virtuous heroes. However, the main caveat I'd suggest is this: Use BoED only if you have a group oriented toward roleplaying rather than powergaming. Otherwise, the entire point of the options contained therein is lost.
Down to specifics...
Special Rules: Lotsa good stuff here, including channeling and sanctified stuff, which are great. The one section that I'd think carefully about are the ravages and afflictions. IMHO, "good" versions of poison really shouldn't exist; they're explained nicely, mind you, but they rub me (and might rub you or your players) the wrong way. Afflictions bother me less than ravages (it's easy to see "divine punishments" in a D&D game) but again, I wish that evil at least had that edge going for it, and that disease were just a bad thing, period.
One thing I'd just flat-out ignore is the suggested+2 LA for a half-celestial; it's fine at +4, and I don't see why BoED tries to bring it down.
Feats: IMHO, the feats are actually quite well balanced, with the exception of Touch of Golden Ice, which is a bit overpowered at low levels and just kinda silly (see Special Rules, above). VoP is a bugbear for many, but the fact is that the vow really just replaces standard wealth by level, with the extra bonuses of being non-sunderable and of granting exalted feats (which, as others pointed out, aren't abundant enough to be so great after you take two or three), and the concurrent penalty of affording reduced flexibility and completely barring access to certain capabilities (e.g. invisibility, flying) compared with characters who have a well-chosen magic item selection.
PrCs: Some good stuff, some borderline power concerns. Specifically, the Celestial Mystic (especially when applied to a sorcerer, since the CM arguably gets a whole raft of spells known at 2nd level), the Champion of Gwyn..., the Fist of Raziel (which is just plain better than taking levels of paladin past 2nd), and the Lion of Talisid (applied to a straight druid, it's again pretty much a pure improvement) are all at least balanced high, if not just overpowered. They won't break a campaign, but they're mightier PrCs than any I've seen, including the much-maligned incantatrix.
Spells: Haven't run into many problems here.
Starmantle and
sublime revelry might be a bit powerful in that they confer blanket damage reduction, but probably not given how high level they are.
Magic Items: Devilhusk armor really doesn't seem like something that belongs in this book; it sounds like something a demon would wear. And absolutely NO retributive amulets unless you want your PCs nearly immune to weapons, please.
and I'm quite happy with him being denied money, magic items, not being able to have weapons etc.. offered or loaned to him by other PC's etc.. as part of his vow, but i'm not going to implement the vow in such a way as to help encourage his death.
