Why is VoP good-only?

[Thealtruistorc]

Wouldn't most gods regardless of alignment grant you some sort of boon if you surrendured all of your belongings in their service?

This could also apply to other vows.

[Aquillion]

Wouldn't most gods regardless of alignment grant you some sort of boon if you surrendured all of your belongings in their service?

This could also apply to other vows.No, because VoP is about more than just bribing your god with your stuff in exchange for benefits. The idea is that living a particular sort of life is pleasing to them; for evil gods, that isn't the case. In particular, an evil god isn't really going to care as much about sustained adherence to a particular ethos -- you might be able to perform a ritual sacrifice to them in exchange for power, but they're not going to give you more for that particular sacrifice just because you dutifully do it every day as opposed to having been a Paladin up until then. In fact, sometimes they'll give the Paladin more.

(Evil gods do have rules for sacrifices, though. From what I recall, they're hilariously broken.)

[137beth]

Because it appears in BoED, and most things in BoED/BoVD have superfluous alignment restrictions.
I'd expect more good VoPers than evil ones, simply due to evil having more greedy characters, but even an evil character could desire the benefits associated with VoP assuming it were mechanically altered to not be a trap option, but that is a discussion for another thread.

It doesn't make any less sense than half the other stuff in BoED, at any rate.

[Coidzor]

While I could definitely see certain deities taking delight in someone destroying vast quantities of wealth, it's mostly because it was brought up for BoED.

Also the whole Evil thing would mean that destroying large scale public works(bridges, aqueducts, systems of dams and dykes that allow a country to have sustainable agriculture for its population base) and other stuff wouldn't really be an object, so tying it to WBL denial becomes conceptually more difficult.

[bekeleven]

Because good is dumb (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7XVcqZodAM).

[Flickerdart]

You could quite easily retool it to a Vow of Greed, where the feat requires you to obsessively hoard your wealth and never spend a single copper you come across. Any equipment you acquire you must never use (because that hurts its resale value) and sell as soon as you can for some of that sweet, sweet gold.

[Jeff the Green]

There's at least one way I've heard of that would work for Evil: Vow of Extravagance. Basically, you're required to obtain as much wealth as possible (preferably at the expense of others), but you're not allowed to do anything useful with it.

[icefractal]

With VoP, you're supposed to be giving away the loot as charity, not burning it as a sacrifice. So, the god in question would have to care about that.

On the other hand, there's no reason that something similar wouldn't make sense for other gods, with a modification in the theme. For example, a god of entropy/destruction might give you power for smashing all your possessions.

On the third hand, VoP is not that great a way to do item-less characters anyway. If you're entering into homebrew territory anyway, you might as well use a more balanced method.

[The Oni]

I would second the notion that evil-equivalent VoP is Vow of Extravagance. Although, ironically enough, a Vow of Extravagance might actually be *worse,* because not only do you have ****ty to no equipment but you also have a bunch of gold to carry around and you're basically a highwayman's wet dream.

[Coidzor]

I would second the notion that evil-equivalent VoP is Vow of Extravagance. Although, ironically enough, a Vow of Extravagance might actually be *worse,* because not only do you have ****ty to no equipment but you also have a bunch of gold to carry around and you're basically a highwayman's wet dream.

That or you have to dig up the old orgy rules and piss away the entirety of your share on not just beer & whores to last until the next adventure, but the most expensive booze & parties & so on available. Probably something to do with encouraging decadence and the like in the general populace too.

[Jeff the Green]

That or you have to dig up the old orgy rules and piss away the entirety of your share on not just beer & whores to last until the next adventure, but the most expensive booze & parties & so on available. Probably something to do with encouraging decadence and the like in the general populace too.

I've been trying to figure out how to make such a vow harm the economy too, but I'm coming up with bupkis that isn't super speculative and chaos theoryish. (It probably doesn't help that I took one semester of econ and slept through most of it.)

[Coidzor]

I've been trying to figure out how to make such a vow harm the economy too, but I'm coming up with bupkis that isn't super speculative and chaos theoryish. (It probably doesn't help that I took one semester of econ and slept through most of it.)

All I can think of easily is intentionally causing a recession/depression. But that's probably less spending habits and more actively doing an evil scheme and thus more the subject of an adventure/campaign/downtime sidequest than downtime itself?

Or intentionally encouraging industries that harm/exploit or funnel cash to evil organizations?

[Crake]

You could quite easily retool it to a Vow of Greed, where the feat requires you to obsessively hoard your wealth and never spend a single copper you come across. Any equipment you acquire you must never use (because that hurts its resale value) and sell as soon as you can for some of that sweet, sweet gold.

I think I prefer the Vow of Hedonism, which requires you spend all of your wealth on LIVIN' THE LIFE! Spending all your money on drugs, alcohol and hookers.

[nedz]

I think I prefer the Vow of Hedonism, which requires you spend all of your wealth on LIVIN' THE LIFE! Spending all your money on drugs, alcohol and hookers.

Rock and Roll — you forgot Rock and Roll.

[Necroticplague]

VOP is good-only because good gods will recognize and reward selflesness. The evil gods, on the other hand, don't care. They have no care what you do with your possesions, because such matters are beneath them.After all, eliminated wealth can always be acquired later, so such is a temporary loss. If you want your evil masters to take notice of your actions, you're gonna have to do something with more permanent significance than just cough up a few gold peice. You have to either show how willing of a pawn you are, or provide them with more souls. For the latter, there are sacrifice rules (one good know:religion check and helpless sap away from a free wish). For the former, you have a great deal of feats. for the other, you either become so devoted that your master actually brands you spiritually, and take the Evil Brand line of feats, or you show your willingness through self-flagellation that is regarded through the Willing Deformity line, whether its through flogging yourself to show you will suffer for your master's sake, and find your scars have turned into armor, or whether he blesses your marred eye with sight unseen as reward.

In summary, Evil doesn't have "vow" feats because it already has several ways to represent the evil equivalent.

[Telonius]

Personally I houserule it as open to Lawful Evil characters.

Think about it. A deal where the tempting devil gets all of the character's wealth, the character becomes steadily more Lawful and Evil as he progresses, that leaves the character in worse shape than he would have been if he'd never taken the vow? The Imp who came up with the idea was immediately promoted to Falxugon as soon as Asmodeus heard of it.