Vow of Povery in D&D type Games

[Imperial Overlord]

It's quite clear the the Vow of Poverty feat in D&D is broken and a bad idea to let into your game. That doesn't mean the idea of having a character take strict religious vows isn't interesting. Are there any ideas on how to handle the concept without hosing the player or wrecking the game?

One idea I was kicking around, with regards to monks specifically, was increased experience points. Since they are forgoing the use of powerful gear, the challenge level is actually higher for them and they should get more xp.

[White Haven]

Yeah, I'd agree there. NWN went the route of having an entire assload of Monk-only gear, and it just got silly. They became as gear-dependent as any other class.

[SirNitram]

VoP can be resynced, but the problem is the proper sync up will be dependent on the DM's ideal view of how much gear to give out.

The problem, of course, is that the loot the party gets is random; the VoP'ers is static.

But let's step away and view the feat in context of what it, in universe, entails. It doesn't mean 'You can have my share, friend adventurer' and you get bonuses. It means you're contributing to some worthy cause. So could one instead tweak it towards donating stuff and gaining enchantments as if you were enchanting gear. This should obviously be handled with the same difficulty level of making gear as you prefer in your games, and would give the DM more control.

[dworkin]

Isn't it just like the Old school Paladins where they gave their share to the 'League of Good Guys' or whatever. My GM always told us where the loot had gone. Sponsering this or that new paladin, building this mission/border fort, freeing these prisoners and so on. It also made for the occasional fun game when we found out someone had snaffled it down the line...

[Kuja]

I haven't checked the BoED recently, but I do remember that to maintain VOP you must adhere to a strict code of conduct. In my world, RPing your character to the hilt means you can probably get away with more than someone just going 'yeah, whatever'. I'd allow VOP but you'd better be on your best frigging behavior at all times.

[Setesh]

I don't see how its 'broken', you have to take a prerequiste feat to have it thereby giving up two 2 feat slots, meaning no one gets off light for it, you could take it at first level if you have a class with a bonus feat or play a human, but the advantages don't really outweight the downside.

The only class that won't lose out big time are monks but even then most of the advantages of VoP duplicate existing monk benefits without really improving anything, the only real benefit for monks is the early +4 to AC and sustenance, maybe the bonus exaulted feats, at high levels it really isn't any better than a regular monk tricked out with magical gear.

[lance]

The only class that won't lose out big time are monks

Actually druids are the ones who don't lose out.

[CDiehl]

I think what really makes Vow of Poverty unbalanced is the ability score increases (+2's to a new ability each time, and a +2 to all the ones already increased), the AC bonus and Greater Sustenance (not only do you not need food and drink, but air). Most of the advantages seem minor and spread out over a lot of levels. I think the ability score bonuses can be decreased to a single +1 to one ability each time. The initial AC bonus could be decreased to +2 and half the +1's cut out. The Greater Sustenance could be left as it is, but effects that cause suffocation still do damage. For example, a rope or a tentacle around your neck is still painful, and spells that cause suffocation can be considered to block the sustenance. Also, if the bonus exalted feats are too much, cut them back to every 4 levels instead of every 2.