Non-material rewards for players.

[Qc Storm]

I am playing as a Vow of Poverty Wildshape Ranger. My DM is a bit overwhelmed by this, since he says he does not know how to reward me, as I cannot own wealth and items.

What kind of rewards would you suggest him? "Homebrew" also welcome.

[Know(Nothing)]

Bonus feats, extra skill points, ability boosts, hero points, (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/hero-points) helpful contacts in cities or guilds, etc.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Social and plot rewards.

Let the ranger be given awards and honorific ranking within an organization. Let him be recognized as a hero to the people by the common folk and good nobles alike. Let him be given items and treasures in big ceremonial fashion that he immediately donates to charitable organizations; as opposed to simply having it picked up off the corpses of his enemies and hauled by the party and/or porters to town for the same donations.

Hero worship is a thing and this is a character that's clearly intended to be a hero; righting wrongs and vanquishing evil simply for its own sake.

[Qc Storm]

Thank you for your input. I'll be bumping this to gather a bit more opinions.

[Falcon X]

Think about your character. Fighters love finding money and stuff because it makes them stronger.
You are a person who has taken a Vow of Poverty due to faith, love, or some other abstract reason.
So, that's where you put your reward.

I once played a Paladin/Consecrated Harrier with a Vow of Poverty. When we adventured, he still got his share of the treasure, but just plain didn't care. Money was meaningless to him, so he'd find people to give it to.
Naturally, people liked this and he gained a lot of allies, blessings, and favors for this, even though he didn't ask for them. That was as strong as any weapon, and very rewarding for the character.

One example was when we were attacked by brigands while defending a caravan. My guy detects evil and finds the one brigand who is not "evil", but merely neutral.
He quickly kills an evil guy to show his power, then knocks the weapon out of the Neutral guys hands and starts a dialogue that was essentially. "Look, you're loosing here. Now, I know you aren't an evil guy and must have a good reason for doing this. So, surrender and you can come with us. I'll give you my share of the treasure as we go. All I ask is that you promise to take up an honest trade."
He said yes, then gave me his backstory. Nice moment.
Thing is, I started converting people as we went and giving them my share of the treasure to take care of their needs.

[Diarmuid]

He can reward you the same as he does for everyone else. In fact he should.

It's up to your character to make sure you appropriately donate and account for your share of any rewards so you can continue to benefit from the bonuses the feat is granting that are intended to take the place of the normal "rewards" you would get.

Getting special rewards that arent taken into account by the feat somewhat defeats the purpose of the limitation on the feat, doesnt it?

[Kelb_Panthera]

He can reward you the same as he does for everyone else. In fact he should.

It's up to your character to make sure you appropriately donate and account for your share of any rewards so you can continue to benefit from the bonuses the feat is granting that are intended to take the place of the normal "rewards" you would get.

Getting special rewards that arent taken into account by the feat somewhat defeats the purpose of the limitation on the feat, doesnt it?

Since the player can't use those things anymore, they're no longer rewards for him. Just the spoils of war.

VoP, and in fact most of the RP heavy material in BoED, requires the DM to be okay with running a less traditional, "kill the monsters and take their stuff" campaign for it to be meaningful and rewarding to the players that choose it. Assuming that the DM is okay with that, alternate, non-material rewards for VoP characters is not an unreasonable expectation.

@ the OP:

You did clear VoP with your DM before you built the character, right?

[Metahuman1]

Here is what I'd do.

Tell him when he gives the rest of the PC's gold, he gives you Exhualted points or Sacred points or what ever he wants to call it. These points can be spent for effects and bonuses.

These effects and bonuses have prices, that must be paid in these points, that mimic magic items.

Thus, you can use it to get important bonuses or immunity's that are essential to funtion in this game as it progresses, and still not be given gold.

[Qc Storm]

Since the player can't use those things anymore, they're no longer rewards for him. Just the spoils of war.

VoP, and in fact most of the RP heavy material in BoED, requires the DM to be okay with running a less traditional, "kill the monsters and take their stuff" campaign for it to be meaningful and rewarding to the players that choose it. Assuming that the DM is okay with that, alternate, non-material rewards for VoP characters is not an unreasonable expectation.

@ the OP:

You did clear VoP with your DM before you built the character, right?

Yes of course. It is traditional in our games for the DM to distribute freebies for the "lesser" classes during the campaign. These usually take the form of useful items to help balance things out a little. Considering I'm playing with a Wizard, a Psion and a Cleric, I'm not the top murderhobo in the gang.

I can deal without this help, but the DM insists, so I've been trying to help him.

[Metahuman1]

In that case, I'd say my suggestion might make even more sense then I though it did when I made it.

[BowStreetRunner]

On the one hand, the inability to gain material wealth is supposed to be offset by the powers granted by VoP. So if in place of material wealth the DM gives a VoP character additional benefits that other player characters don't receive, the DM potentially over-inflates the VoP character's relative power.

On the other hand, I've played a VoP character and they can become dreadfully unexciting - like Muad'Dib after he becomes fully prescient. You always know exactly how your character is going to look at every level. There are fewer surprises waiting for you. So offering alternative ways to make playing the character fun - like using the rules for Contacts, Houses, Guilds, and Organizations from Cityscape, or the rules for Commanders and Teamwork benefits from Heroes of Battle - can be important to maintaining an enjoyable game environment.

I think the key here is that, in order to maintain balance, anything extra offered above and beyond material wealth also has to be available to the other characters. The other characters may divide their focus more, or even spend almost all of their attention on gaining wealth, while the VoP character will naturally spend more time focusing on non-material gains that are available.

[Kelb_Panthera]

When you actually crunch the numbers VoP comes out well behind wealth by level. It was -not- meant to completely offset the lack of material wealth, only to make that lack of wealth viable by keeping base numbers relevant and adding a few niche perks. This is something long since established by the community and well known.

Giving a VoP character no non-material rewards is as unfair as giving the rest of the party only enough material to equal 2/3 of their expected WBL.

Of course, there's nothing at all to stop the DM from giving similar non-material rewards to the other PC's in lesser or even simply different ways.