Vow of Poverty fix

[Prime32]

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Vow of Poverty [Exalted]
Prerequisites: Sacred Vow
Benefit: Your body replicates the effects of magic items of your choice, using standard Wealth By Level; this functions as if you had equipped the items as normal, except that they cannot be separated from you (if an item would be held rather than worn, you can summon it to your hand at will and it vanishes if it leaves your posession). You may enchant natural weapons and natural armor as if they were manufactured weapons and armor (if you do not possess a natural armor bonus, treat as natural armor that grants +0 AC). Expendable items such as potions and wands cannot be emulated by this feat. You may change this "equipment" whenever you gain a character level.
Special: You must forsake all material possessions, with the following exceptions: You may carry and use ordinary (neither magic nor masterwork) weapons if they have utilitarian purposes, such as a quarterstaff that serves as a walking stick, kama used as farming tools, or an axe used for chopping wood. You may wear simple clothes (usually just a homespun robe, possibly also including a hat and sandals) with no magic properties. You may carry enough food to sustain you for one day in a simple (nonmagic) sack or bag. You may carry and use a spell component pouch, as well as any items granted by a class feature (such as a wizard's spellbook or a kensai's bonded weapon). You may carry items of greater value in order to transport them, as long as you avoid using or benefiting from them.
You may not use magic items of any sort, though you can benefit from magic items used on your behalf - you can drink a potion of cure light wounds a friend gives you, receive a spell cast from a wand, scroll, or staff, or ride on your companion's carpet of flying. You may not, however, borrow a cloak of resistance or any other magic item from a companion even a single round, nor may you yourself cast a spell from scroll, wand, or staff.

[Lycanthromancer]

Don't forget to allow for class-required items, such as divine focus/holy symbol, as well as to allow for using items on behalf of others but not for yourself. This would let a VoP monk (for instance) heal others using potions, or to close a portal to the Abyss with the magic sword used as a key to seal it.

I would also kill it as a feat and have it as a universal ACF, as well. Why on earth would you want to waste two feats on a restricted version of what you should be getting anyway, unless it's a low-wealth game? I can understand reflavoring or whatever, so there's that, but wasting two feats on it is...bad.

[oslecamo]

It's missing the "You must donate your fair share of treasure" clause. Otherwise nothing stoping the rest of the party from picking up your part of the loot and then investing it in consumables they use back on you, basically doubling your WBL.

[RobbyPants]

Lycanthromancer and Oslecamo already covered most of my concerns.

I know the other vows have Sacred Vow as a prerequisite, but I'm not sure it's really necessary. Now, if all of your "gear" functions inside of an AMF because it's a part of you, then I can see blowing a feat on this. If not, then Lycanthromancer is right, and I wouldn't see a point on spending a feat to get what you were already going to get anyway.

[oslecamo]

I know the other vows have Sacred Vow as a prerequisite, but I'm not sure it's really necessary. Now, if all of your "gear" functions inside of an AMF because it's a part of you, then I can see blowing a feat on this. If not, then Lycanthromancer is right, and I wouldn't see a point on spending a feat to get what you were already going to get anyway.

-You become immune to disarm/stealing and probably dispel/sunder/disjuction/rust depending on how you read it.
-Your "equipment" doesn't show up, which offers the option of looking unprepared/harmless, which comes in handy in a bunch of situations.

This is, have part of your equipment be a colossal something/airship/castle and you can summon it to the battlefield instantly.

Sure, it may not be leadership, but still offers a bunch of nice stuff.

EDIT:Basically, if this didn't cost a feat at all, it would be an auto-pick for everybody and their mother, since you lose nothing pratical and gain a bunch of extra options. Just have some NPC/minion carry around the ocasional consumables and use them on you as necessary.

[Lycanthromancer]

I know the other vows have Sacred Vow as a prerequisite, but I'm not sure it's really necessary. Now, if all of your "gear" functions inside of an AMF because it's a part of you, then I can see blowing a feat on this. If not, then Lycanthromancer is right, and I wouldn't see a point on spending a feat to get what you were already going to get anyway.

-You become immune to disarm/stealing and probably dispel/sunder/disjuction/rust depending on how you read it.
-Your "equipment" doesn't show up, which offers the option of looking unprepared/harmless, which comes in handy in a bunch of situations.

This is, have part of your equipment be a colossal something/airship/castle and you can summon it to the battlefield instantly.

Sure, it may not be leadership, but still offers a bunch of nice stuff.

EDIT:Basically, if this didn't cost a feat at all, it would be an auto-pick for everybody and their mother, since you lose nothing pratical and gain a bunch of extra options. Just have some NPC/minion carry around the ocasional consumables and use them on you as necessary.

But you also lose a lot of options, too. You can't really use anything that doesn't take up a body slot, you can't use magical weapon abilities that don't function on an unarmed strike, you can't share your wealth with, say, your animal companion, and (related to the first issue) you can't use consumables at all, unless they're for someone else. I'd say that what you give up is about equivalent to what you gain, so that's basically a wash, I think.

[oslecamo]

Vow of Poverty [Exalted]
Prerequisites: Sacred Vow
Benefit: Your body replicates the effects of magic items of your choice, using standard Wealth By Level; this functions as if you had equipped the items as normal, except that they cannot be separated from you (if an item would be held rather than worn, you can summon it to your hand at will and it vanishes if it leaves your posession). You may enchant natural weapons and natural armor as if they were manufactured weapons and armor (if you do not possess a natural armor bonus, treat as natural armor that grants +0 AC).
...
you can drink a potion of cure light wounds a friend gives you, receive a spell cast from a wand, scroll, or staff, or ride on your companion's carpet of flying.

-You can still use stuff that doesn't take a body slot. They just appear when you will them and go away when you drop them.
-You can enchant your natural weapons as manufactured weapons. Any manufactured weapons, not just melee ones.
-You can still drink/buff yourself into a stupor as long as the consumables are tecnically coming from somebody else.

So, all you "lose" is the opportunity of making broken minions even more broken.

Except you can just make your minion take this feat. Now it also has full indestructible WBL.

[RobbyPants]

I never even considered giving this to minions to boost their WBL like that. It's be incredibly metagamey to say that only people with PC class levels can take this feat, but I'm not sure of a good way to fix this.

[Lycanthromancer]

It's missing the "You must donate your fair share of treasure" clause. Otherwise nothing stoping the rest of the party from picking up your part of the loot and then investing it in consumables they use back on you, basically doubling your WBL.

I think it might be better if the wording was such that you're donating something of equivalent value to WBL. That way you can donate services and whatnot, and you don't take the party's wealth. Then you're not taking what the party considers its property, and the DM could just offer slightly lowered WBL to accommodate. Then everyone stays happy.

[Maat Mons]

You could make it a trait, but have it be, say, 90% of wealth by level.  Getting somewhat less money, then, is the cost for the various benefits. 

[oslecamo]

It's missing the "You must donate your fair share of treasure" clause. Otherwise nothing stoping the rest of the party from picking up your part of the loot and then investing it in consumables they use back on you, basically doubling your WBL.

I think it might be better if the wording was such that you're donating something of equivalent value to WBL. That way you can donate services and whatnot, and you don't take the party's wealth. Then you're not taking what the party considers its property, and the DM could just offer slightly lowered WBL to accommodate. Then everyone stays happy.

Forcing the DM  to recalculate every treasure source the party comes across is the opposite of happiness. Donation is simple, flavourful, and allows for a party that isn't fully composed of greedy misers neither considers everything they can get their hands on as "its property".

[Lycanthromancer]

It's missing the "You must donate your fair share of treasure" clause. Otherwise nothing stoping the rest of the party from picking up your part of the loot and then investing it in consumables they use back on you, basically doubling your WBL.

I think it might be better if the wording was such that you're donating something of equivalent value to WBL. That way you can donate services and whatnot, and you don't take the party's wealth. Then you're not taking what the party considers its property, and the DM could just offer slightly lowered WBL to accommodate. Then everyone stays happy.

Forcing the DM  to recalculate every treasure source the party comes across is the opposite of happiness. Donation is simple, flavourful, and allows for a party that isn't fully composed of greedy misers neither considers everything they can get their hands on as "its property".

They kill things and take their stuff. If that doesn't qualify as "greedy miser" then I don't know what does.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Hmm, similar to something I came up with last year -- just using WBL-mimicking.  I got rid of the feat costs entirely (and the bonus exalted feats; most of them are garbage anyway) and just went for making it a balanced choice compared w/ getting items.

(click to show/hide)

Vow of Poverty: You swear to forsake the use of all magic items, seeing them as wasteful extravagances in a world where many lack even a few coppers to purchase food. At 1st level, you gain a starting wealth of 100 gp (regardless of class, no more than half on any one item) spent on mundane, non-masterwork gear as you see fit. Should you expend or lose any items, you may replenish your supplies after spending at least 8 hours in a civilized area, up to the 100 gp value limit, including changing what gear it is.

 Benefit: You gain boons equivalent to what masterwork and magical items could grant. Starting at 2nd level, based on the wealth per level for your level in gp, you gain an equal amount of "essence points." Select benefits equal to what you could have achieved through purchasing items of that value, with a limit of 1/3 your "essence points" or less on any one "item." You must pay the masterwork cost before adding enhancements to any arms or armor. You can only select continuous, unlimited use-activated or command word activated , or uses per day items. You cannot select expendable items such as wands, potions, and so forth. You may completely change your benefits each time you level up, otherwise your selections cannot be altered. All of these benefits are Su abilities and are suppressed in an antimagic field. If you imbue items such as weapons with this essence, they function as masterwork/magical items only for you.

 Drawbacks: You lack the flexibility of using expendable items. Your effective wealth for any given level remains at the minimum expected level for the entire time you are at that level, before bumping up as you level, while as a normal character sees gradual increase in wealth and power over the course of the level.

 Special: You cannot give your share of treasure to allies, it must be donated to the poor, used for charitable causes, and so forth. This vow requires no feat or class feature cost to select, it is meant to be a balanced option w/ using magic items. You must not willingly use or possess masterwork or magical items in order to retain these benefits, though you can receive helpful spells from allies if the spell has no expensive material component or focus costs. Should you willingly break this vow, you immediately lose all benefits until you receive an atonement spell.