Monk Vow of Silence + Spellcasting

[Poblobo]

If someone wants to play a Sonk (Sorcerer-Monk), and they take a Vow of Silence, how would you allow a player to go about that?

Would you make an exception to their vow for verbal spell components?
Would you make them take the Silent Spell metamagic feat, meaning they would have spells they can't use?
Would you let them forgo the verbal components because of the vow and impose some penalty on casting?
Or is it their own fault for not considering the full implications?

Personally, I like the idea of having a Greybeards sort of character who never talks except to do crazy stuff.

[Calthropstu]

I would not make the exception as a GM.

However, I think Oracle might be the better way to go for this... since they literally have a way to do precisely this. "Vow of silence" and the oracle curse mute go very well together, and if you take say an elemental oracle mystery, the flavor becomes very akin to that of a sorcerer.

[Necroticplague]

Would you make an exception to their vow for verbal spell components?
Would you make them take the Silent Spell metamagic feat, meaning they would have spells they can't use?
Would you let them forgo the verbal components because of the vow and impose some penalty on casting?
Or is it their own fault for not considering the full implications?

I'm fair and even in my application of the rules. He can speak no words, not even the verbal components for spells. If he wishes to use spells with verbal components, he has to use Silent Spell. He is free to simply not pick spells with verbal components, as an alternative.

[Arutema]

He would be wise to take the Psychic bloodline so that his spells have thought and emotion instead of verbal and somatic components then.

[Psyren]

All the Vows do in Pathfinder is grant extra ki. If you're not using your ki all that much then the vow isn't doing much for you.

The Shigenjo Oracle (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/featured-races/arg-tengu/shigenjo-oracle-tengu) is a caster that gets a ki pool, which not only allows you to skip monk entirely, it means you qualify to take vows too. As Calthropstu mentioned, they can then take the Mute Curse to silence all their spells for free and keep the vow.

Alternatively, the Qinggong Monk and Unchained Monk get a series of SLA powers that are fueled by ki, so vows are useful for them too. None of these powers have verbal components, so you ca use them without breaking your vow. (Well, ki shout may get you dirty looks in the monastery.)

Thirdly, you can be an Astomoi (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/more-races/race-points-unknown/astomoi), a LA 0 psychic race that always uses thought components instead of verbal components. Thus you can be any class you want (e.g. Wizard) and still take this vow.

Whichever route you end up going, always take Vow of Truth along with Vow of Silence. Since you can't speak, you can't tell lies, so keeping both vows is easy and you end up with bonus ki for free (except in the case of the Astomoi). Consider also Vow of Chains, which generally does very little to impede a caster. With a permissive GM, your Astomoi could also take Vow of Fasting since they don't eat or drink.

[NOhara24]

If someone wants to play a Sonk (Sorcerer-Monk), and they take a Vow of Silence, how would you allow a player to go about that?

Would you make an exception to their vow for verbal spell components?
Would you make them take the Silent Spell metamagic feat, meaning they would have spells they can't use?
Would you let them forgo the verbal components because of the vow and impose some penalty on casting?
Or is it their own fault for not considering the full implications?

Personally, I like the idea of having a Greybeards sort of character who never talks except to do crazy stuff.

I don't make mechanical exceptions for any of my players - it is 100% their fault for not considering the implications. There are ways to get around spellcasting - but I would imagine it would be pretty awful RPing a character who took the Vow of Silence. Based on that alone I would strongly discourage anyone from playing a character like this.

[Zanos]

I'm fair and even in my application of the rules. He can speak no words, not even the verbal components for spells. If he wishes to use spells with verbal components, he has to use Silent Spell. He is free to simply not pick spells with verbal components, as an alternative.
Second. I don't make exceptions just because a player thinks a character concept is super rad.

[Poblobo]

Thanks for all the advice peeps, I'll take all of these into account during my games

[Sayt]

I'd probably let the character take a feat to reduce the level adjstment of a metamagic feat by 1 to a minimum of +0, and no increased action cost. Does not stack with other reduction