Vow of Poverty

[Moon-Lancer]

I agree. It was hard to play an exalted charicter. Not something i would lightly do twice, however i dont regret it, but at times i wish i could have played inbetween good and netural.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Holy Symbol Tattoos or Ritual Scarification? I'd take those on a case by case basis. If the Ascetic (VoP PC):

1) pays to have a professionally done tattoo- Violation of his VoP.

2) has it done by priests of his faith in exchange for a donation to the temple- No violation.

3) does it himself with simple inks and equipment- No violation.

4) does it himself with expensive tools and inks that he bought- Violation.

5) does it with expensive tools and inks found on an adventure- No violation.

6) has it done with expensive inks and tools out of gratitude by a professional whom he has personally helped- No violation.

and so forth.

OTOH, branding is a painful enough process I'd call it fair no matter what the situation...especially if the brand is put in multiple places (because you don't know what hand you'll have free at any given moment).

 

[Nonlethal Force]

That's fine, but why not allow people who are only interested in the roleplaying experience of having a character not dependent on gear and not the roleplaying experience of having a "super-good" character to use some sort of VoP-equivalent as well?

Um .. sure. Did I say you couldn't?

I was merely referring to a post above that said that most VoP characters are that way because of the numbers, not the RP. I was merely giving a counter example and admitting that such a counter example may be in the minority.

As for the rules, exalted characters are good. I wouldn't personally call a super neutral person exalted. Nor would I call a super evil person exalted.

If you want to talk about various house rules for these things I would say:

1. I have no problem allowing Poverty to any alignment. If you did, you would need to change some of the mechanics names ... if not a few of the functions. A LN VoP cantidate should not receive Exalted Strike, for example. I would give them something called (for example) Rite Strike: A player receives the same magical enhancements as Exalted strike except that their attacks are considered Lawful, not Good. Etcetera for evil VoP as well as for Chaotic VoP. And so on and so forth. I'd also recommend going through all the exalted feats and changing them to be equitable through all 4 alignments, because it wouldn't be right for a LN VoP to have to select exalted feats.

2. I would also rename champions of the alignments. Super-Good (regardless of LG, NG, or CG) would remain exalted. Super-Lawful (regardless of LG, LN, or LE) might be called Ritualized (or Ordered, or something else...). Super-Evil (regardless of LE, NE, or CE) would most likely be called Vile. Super-Chaotic (regardless of CG, CN, or CE) would likely be called Random (or Unordered, or something else). I would not call anything exalted except one of the 3 good alignments.

 

[Nyeshet]

In a normal-wealth / -magic game VoP is a bit on the weak side. If the game is higher than normal wealth / magic then the VoP is notably underpowered - perhaps the type of thing you might give an NPC rather than a PC. In a low wealth / magic game the VoP is possibly overpowered (dependent on how low the wealth / magic is compared to a 'normal' game).

So it really depends on the setting and the DM's distribution of wealth / magic compared to what the setting is designed for considering 'typical'.

 

[Moonstone Spider]

I'm always tempted to try to figure out how to use VoP for a "Conan" like character who blows all his cash on wine, women, and song after getting rich. Totally in-genre for most fantasy but utterly impossible in DnD with the huge dependence on magical items to stay even with CRs.

So far I've never actually pulled it off.

 

[Sithobi1]

Well, judging by how rich most PCs are, you'd have so many women you couldn't...uh...service them all, so much wine it'd drown or kill you, and so much song you'd be deafened by it.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

He could buy a Ring of the Ram...and an Immovable Rod...