I think I'm insane or I want to make a Vow of Poverty Monk

[Spore]

To make matters short: I play in a very low optimization group with focus on social play and I want to introduce a friendly monk accompanying their endeavors. For fluff reasons I would love Flowing Monk and for power reasons I'd like Qi Gong Monk.

Do you think I could pull my own weight in a group with a well played Ranger and Paladin/Gunslinger and a overwhelmed Oracle of the Flames?

For several reasons my party frowns upon a Monk with stacked vows (because a player not playing anymore stacked Vow of Peace/Celibacy/Chains/Silence onto his character to channel his inner munchkin basically destroying any and all ways to roleplay with him) so my priority is a Monk with a Vow that adds tons of flavor and is somewhat decent.

I as a player have the tendency to screw myself over with Archetypes...

[Ninjaxenomorph]

Hmm. Well, I was going to say get another vow at least so retraining out of VoP is possible, but if it's that way... Nope, got nothing. I had an NPC planned at one point for my own campaign that was a Trox monk that stacked Silence (his tongue was cut out) Chains and Poverty (at the time he was a prisoner). He was still going to retrain when he got the chance.

[Spore]

Is VoP monk really that terrible? I guess he is decent until the standard DR monsters and flight hit the game. But still since my group is so low optimized I think I can have a go at this.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

The problem lies in that martial characters kind of require magic items to be able to catch up to monsters, and with VoP, you are allowed one item that has any value. And a stringent DM might say that item is supposed to be something with personal significance, and that it can't be swapped out.