VoP with Ancestral Relic

[nittanytbone]

One of my players wants to combine Vow of Poverty with an Ancestral Relic, as he's sacrificing all that treasure anyways.

This is why I think it should not work:

- Vow of Poverty forbids owning anything of value. An Ancestral Relic must be of at least Masterwork Quality. The cheapest masterwork item in the PHB, masterwork tools, are 50 GP. Even a single masterwork piece of ammunition is 6 GP. That's too expensive for someone with VoP to own.

- The spirit of VoP is that the bonuses you gain from the feat replace those from treasure/wealth. Thus, the spirit of the rules would oppose combining these two (ancestral relic is just a way to obtain a piece of high quality gear).

- Items given away or sacrificed with VoP must be given to NPCs/NPC institutions. They are not meant to be retained within the party of PCs in any way. Ancestral Relic retains wealth within the party, in effect letting you get something for nothing.

Does that seem like reasonable logic?

 

[frankthedm]

One of my players wants to combine Vow of Poverty with an Ancestral Relic, as he's sacrificing all that treasure anyways.

This is why I think it should not work:

You are right.

I'd recommend disallowing the VOP in general if you have players trying to get around it’s very clear limitations. Many times players try and finagle around it and then it falls on the DM to be the bad guy by enforcing the irrevocable loss that the player agreed to when taking the vow.

Recent topic on VOP http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=206506&page=1&pp=50

 

[Zurai]

Does that seem like reasonable logic?

Absolutely. The character cannot own anything with any value at all. Doing so instantly and irrevocably violates the Vow of Poverty and the character loses all the benefits permanently. VoP and Ancestral Relic are mutually exclusive.

 

[brehobit]

Absolutely. The character cannot own anything with any value at all. Doing so instantly and irrevocably violates the Vow of Poverty and the character loses all the benefits permanently. VoP and Ancestral Relic are mutually exclusive.

Agreed.

I could see allowing it if you strip some of the VoP benefits. But I'd go with a "no" by default.

 

[s-dub]

If he wants to get a magical weapon with VoP he should just go ahead and go for the Kensai class.

I was going to recommend Rich Burlew's Bearer of the Ancestral Weapon but that also requires a masterwork weapon.

IMHO: VoP is a hard beast to play that you really shouldn't use unless you're an RP heavy group. It emphasises true self-sacrifice and is fairly meaningless if used as a way to power game.