Druid build thought

[Hurnn]

I was looking through my BoED and read Vow of poverty and thought this might be amazing as a druid.


http://dndtools.eu/feats/book-of-exalted-deeds--52/vow-of-poverty--3081/

I beleive that all the bonuses should apply to you while you are in your wild form, which would get around a lot of the hastle involved with shapechanging, losing item bonuses, no magic weapont ect.

I know its 2 feats but as a human you could grab it early and easily especially if flaws are allowed.

Does anyone have any opinions or insights as to why this would not work?

[eggynack]

It'll work pretty reasonably. The noble druid is one of the few classes in the entire game that can competently use VoP, though they're generally worse with it than if they were using items. Items are awesome like that. There're a few reasons for that level of VoP effectiveness.

First, and most importantly, druids do not need items to function. There's a whole list of things that other classes, like the monk, need in order to not face a mass of problems, and druids get pretty much all of them in class, because druids are awesome.

Second, there is incentive to ditch items. You can use items in wild shape, traditionally with wilding clasps (MIC, 190), but it costs more than it does for other classes. As you noted, VoP stuff stacks with wild shape, so it's a simple thing. Also, druids often face more specialized item desires than some other classes, owing partly to how much stuff you just have.

Third, druid exalted feats don't run dry as quickly as they do for some classes. There really aren't that many of them, to the extent where you're going to inevitably take some real clunkers, but druids get some great ones. Exalted wild shape is fantastic, and exalted companion is solid if you use it to put VoP on your companion. Stuff like intuitive attack and touch of golden ice also synergize very well with a druid's style.

So, that's why VoP is good on a druid. However, as I noted, it's still worse than not-VoP. Items are just that good, and most of what VoP gives you is numbers. Druids, like all high tier classes, transcend numbers to some extent. If you really want exalted wild shape, and you do, you can just take it normally, and it'll cost you one less feat. If you want to do this to avoid the hassle, go right ahead, because that's a great reason to pick up the feat. Druids are complicated, and reducing that complication can be a good thing. However, if you're doing this because you think that it's an optimal route, it isn't. Maybe in a game with low cash, and limited access to a magic mart, but in a standard game, played by the RAW, it's anything but optimal.

[Khedrac]

Druid is the commonest Vow of Poverty build, though incarnum users are generally thought to be better with it.

There is one potential drawback though - a druid casts spells using a sprig of holly or misletoe not a holy symbol. VoP ha an exemption for a cleric's holy symbol, but while a sprig of holly or mistletoe are going to be very cheap in most areas (and thus permissable) they are not guaranteed to be allowed possessions under VoP and in some environments will be really expensive (middle of a desert).

All that said, with all the extra options in the books now VoP is generally reckoned to be very weak, it covers one's stat boost items and nothing else.

[eggynack]

There is one potential drawback though - a druid casts spells using a sprig of holly or misletoe not a holy symbol. VoP ha an exemption for a cleric's holy symbol, but while a sprig of holly or mistletoe are going to be very cheap in most areas (and thus permissable) they are not guaranteed to be allowed possessions under VoP and in some environments will be really expensive (middle of a desert).

I can see no such exemption for divine foci, for either druids or clerics. The only thing I can see listed as being allowed is a material component pouch, which doesn't cover this. It's a weird issue, and one that should likely just be ignored.

[bekeleven]

I can see no such exemption for divine foci, for either druids or clerics. The only thing I can see listed as being allowed is a material component pouch, which doesn't cover this. It's a weird issue, and one that should likely just be ignored.

VoP's precise wording has to be ignored if the feat is used at all, given that it bars things like opening doors or using silverware. Play to the spirit and the feat works-ish, on a druid or totemist.

[eggynack]

VoP's precise wording has to be ignored if the feat is used at all, given that it bars things like opening doors or using silverware. Play to the spirit and the feat works-ish, on a druid or totemist.
Indeed so. I was just pointing out that clerics aren't really exempt from VoP's weirdness, any more than druids are. The weird finagly bits of VoP that make it problematic should just be ignored, especially due to how suboptimal it is in most cases.

[(Un)Inspired]

I've recently seen one problem in game that VoP causes that isn't strictly mechanical. Part of the fun of adventuring is discovering treasure and getting cool new gear.

A party I ran recently saved a kingdom and the king give out grand treasures to the party. Everyone was so excited about their new magic items except the VoP Sacred Fist. He did a good job role playing his character refusing, then donating away the kings grand offers to him but he told me after the session that it was kind of a bummer watching everyone else get excited over their new toys.

I guess what I'm saying is, if you plan on playing a VoP Druid just be aware of the non mechanical repercussions as well.