Vow Of Poverty...

[Fieari]

I had a player take VoP, and I hated it. The rest of my players weren't happy about it either.

On average, I give out the treasure as designated by the reccomended gold value at any given character level. On average. That means that there will be times where the actual treasure value is FAR FAR lower than it should be, and times when the treasure value is CONSIDERABLY HIGHER than it should be.

I found that during the times where the party has less than usual, that the player with VoP is incerdibly overpowered. When it came to fighting monsters at that level, I had two options: make the monsters weaker than usual... in which case the rest of the party might as well sit back and watch Mr VoP demolish everything singlehandedly, or give them normal (or higher) CR'd monsters.... and watch the rest of the party have nothing useful they can do while Mr VoP defeats the foe, just with some difficulty now.

This is NOT made up for during the times when they have more treasure than usual. Because then Mr VoP is -dead weight-.

In order to have a VoP player in the game, the DM must... MUST be ABSOLUTELY ANAL about treasure values. He can't let the story dictate what is available when. My DM style is to make everything the party has meaningful in some way... if this makes them more powerful, I adjust. Less powerful, I adjust. No adjusting is really possible when it comes to the VoP.

As such, I have banned it from all my games since then.

 

[Eolin]

Here's my limited experiece with it.

We had what amounted to a two-person game. One of us was a cleric, the other a fighter. We both took VoP, the cleric at character creation, the fighter iirc, got VoP at sixth level.

Now what became game-breaking was this ... the fighter was a *forsaker*. They already get bonuses for not having magic, and on top of that he was getting bonuses for not having equipment.

It became really broken, especially as he continued to put as many stat points as he could into Con. I believe he started with an 18 con, got forsaker at 2nd level (talked the GM into Lightning Reflexes being a fighter bonus feat -- why isn't it?), and was damn-near unkillable.

Especially as he got to add his con mod to his AC thanks to being a forsaker.

The cleric was good at what he did -- casting and turning. But he was a bit overshadowed by the fighter's raw power.

I still want to play sorcerer with VoP and Eschew Materials. I'd have fun with that -- especially if we got kidnapped and put into the gladatorial pits (actually happened to me in a game.)

 

[Taloras]

We are in an Epic campaign(24th level). Unfortunately, we are a split party...some good, some very evil(undead). We had a player come in with this feat....he lasted one session because the Ghost with an aging ability(something from Ghostwalk I hear) killed him....before that though, he was doing great.

I had considered playing a Favored Soul of Ilmater with this feat....I actually have him written up...Vow of Poverty, Vow of Nonviolence, Vow of Peace. Unfortunately, the evil characters in the game would kill him outright....

Honestly, the feat didnt do too much good in our game when we already have one overly powerful character killing all the rest (he apparently wants everyone to create undead so we can have an all undead party....nevermind that the rest of us refuse...he simply kills everyone who doesnt agree.....im just waiting for him to meet my new Radiant Dragon monk with a shapechange item. Yea, its a powergame, but its the only D&D game in town)