What does the Vow of Poverty do?

[Olorin]

The thing has a radius of 120' of illumination, and as written, lasts for DAYS. So, in our group, the guy casting it was 14th/15th level. So, that spell lasts for half a month at that level. That's almost as good as a permanent magical effect.

And it deals 2d6 damage *per round* to vampires, shadows, and evil outsiders.

Maybe it was unique to my campaign, but they just happened to fight shadows, and vampires. So yea, it was uber powerful. I cut the radius in half, and cut the duration down a lot. It was still powerful.

I agree (and I mentioned in my previous post) that the duration is a bit much. I would lower it to 10 min/level or maybe even 1 min/level.

Against a 14th-15th level cleric, shadows are nothing more than bumps in the road unless they are heavily bumped up (even a Greater Shadow is only CR 8). And vampires that can challenge characters at that level (hopefully with spellcaster levels) have a variety of ways of dealing with this spell.

I'm not trying to be argumentative... I agree that there are certainly things in the BoED that can be abused. I just thought the description of this particular spell as an example of that was a bit off. Just my humble opinion.

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

The benefits of VoP must be comparable to the rewards from the DM in your Campaign for other characters. Monte Haul campaigns would probaly see a VoP character extremely underpowered. Your mileage may vary. My observations in game, and discussions from the messageboards lead me to believe that it is a volatile subject which should be weighed carefully before making a decision to use the feat chain. Interestingly enough, the most vocal objectors seem to be those with no VoP roleplaying experience on either side of the screen.

One thing for sure though, a character who takes the VoP sure has some interesting roleplay opportunities, which can be fun for the party and a creative DM.

 

[Halivar]

The benefits of VoP must be comparable to the rewards from the DM in your Campaign for other characters. Monte Haul campaigns would probaly see a VoP character extremely underpowered.

The OP'er's DM definitely runs a high-powered game (I should know; he's my DM and roommate, and his favorite activity is rolling on the treasure tables). Taking VoP in his game is dangerous because you are forever limited in capability to what VoP give you; the mad lewt you'd otherwise get in those huge treasure troves is forever lost to you. No wings of flying, no boots of haste, no cloak of resistance, no +5 holy keen vorpal flaming burst greatsword of wounding. I originally suggested it to Kashell because I know those mad lewt piles his DM throws him simply don't have much value for a monk. VoP is a good way fro monks to "catch up" in a high-powered game.

 

[Felon]

The long and short of it is that the authors of BoED should be caned.

I mean it's bad enough that it's the most munchkin book WotC has published, but even worse, it's intended to be a companion to Monte Cook's BoVD, which was just the opposite: mostly very underpowered evil fluff. It's quite a terrible clash of flavors.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

The long and short of it is that the authors of BoED should be caned.

I mean it's bad enough that it's the most munchkin book WotC has published, but even worse, it's intended to be a companion to Monte Cook's BoVD, which was just the opposite: mostly very underpowered evil fluff. It's quite a terrible clash of flavors.

You know, were I going to take a class or a feat that the DM could strip off me if I didn't play it right (as he thought it!), it better be worth my effort.

Brad