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rrwoods
2021-04-21, 12:03 PM
One of my friends is running a Vow of Poverty cleric, and as is typical for a VoP character is running out of stuff to pick for his bonus feats. Also his normal feats.

House rules in play:
* Guan Yin exists as a diety, and among her domains are Travel and Meditation (the one that gives Sudden Empower).
* We are running with the channel rules from Complete Divine, with very little if any outside modifications (e.g. Exalted Turning really is just adding 3d6 to the amount of damage the turn deals).
* Vow of Poverty bonus feats can be anything "on-theme", at the DM's approval. You'll see some examples in the build; anything that is "reasonable" is fair game here.
* EDIT: His holy symbol doesn't break the Vow.

The build so far:

(After racial bonuses, level increments, VoP enhancements, and some in-game rewards) Str 8 Dex 10 Con 16 Int 13 Wis 24 Cha 20
LG lesser aasimar cloistered cleric of Guan Yin 14
Cleric 1 - Sacred Vow
Cleric 2 -
Cleric 3 - Vow of Poverty, Pious Defense (bonus)
Cleric 4 - Exalted Turning (bonus)
Cleric 5 -
Cleric 6 - Mitigate Suffering, Nymph's Kiss (bonus)
Cleric 7 -
Cleric 8 - Pious Soul (bonus)
Cleric 9 - Pious Spellsurge
Cleric 10 - ???* (bonus)
Cleric 11 -
Cleric 12 - Martial Study: action before thought, Touch of Healing (bonus)
Cleric 13 -
Cleric 14 - ??? (bonus)

... When I started this post it was to ask about level 14 and beyond. But now I see that he actually doesn't even have bonus feats for level 10 either (or, at least, my record of his character doesn't have it), so stuff to retroactively fill that slot would be cool too.

This character is primarily a leader/controller in most fights, using party buff spells (and pre-buffing at least one character with Tyche's Guan Yin's touch) and battlefield control (we're still getting mileage out of ice slick). The other characters are a whisper gnome swordsage focused on shadow hand, a goliath crusader/RKV, a half-orc cleric of Pelor, and a malconvoker. We aren't looking for anything super-high-powered, but we're having trouble finding anything that doesn't just suck. I'd call this game low-to-mid op; e.g. despite being a frontline melee focused cleric, the half-orc is not overly buffing themselves but rather using spells like blade barrier to add BFC and damage. I think the malconvoker has cast glitterdust a total of once over the 14 level campaign.

So: We need feat suggestions!

Palanan
2021-04-21, 12:15 PM
Depending on where your party is, Defender of the Homeland might be situationally useful. It's from Champions of Valor, p. 28.

Also, if your DM is open to quality homebrew, Mephibosheth's Exalted Feats (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?164659-3-5-Exalted-Feats-for-Everyone!&p=9178638) could be worth looking through.

Telonius
2021-04-21, 01:46 PM
How about Travel Devotion? If the character already has it as a Domain, it would certainly be on-theme.

Gavinfoxx
2021-04-21, 01:49 PM
Don't you need Worldly Focus?

rrwoods
2021-04-21, 03:25 PM
Don't you need Worldly Focus?
I was confused by what you meant at first, but that’s because I forgot one of the house rules that makes this even work at all: His holy symbol is a tattoo explicitly houseruled to not break the Vow.


EDIT:

I like the Travel Devotion suggestion. I think somehow I had a brainslip, and was blind to it because he already had the domain itself.

He is extremely direct-combat-resistant (both as a player and a character), so those homebrew feats don't really fit. (Besides, if he's reduced to needing to deal damage despite the presence of swordsage + RKV + melee cleric + summons, we got issues...). We are almost never in our homeland at this point in the campaign. I might have a look over Champions of Valor for other feats though.

Silly Name
2021-04-21, 03:47 PM
Any reason for why no metamagic feats+Divine Metamagic haven't been taken? As a buffer, extending and persisting spells is a simple but effective tactic.

Another good option for DMM is Reach Spell, so that he can deliver Touch range buffs and debuffs even from afar.

rrwoods
2021-04-21, 04:05 PM
Any reason for why no metamagic feats+Divine Metamagic haven't been taken? As a buffer, extending and persisting spells is a simple but effective tactic.

Another good option for DMM is Reach Spell, so that he can deliver Touch range buffs and debuffs even from afar.

This might be the direction he goes for the rest of the levels. DMM: Persist *might* be optimizing past the table but it's worth talking about. But metamagicking buff spells is a good suggestion and I will definitely pass it along!

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2021-04-21, 04:19 PM
I'll agree that DMM: Persist and probably Extra Turning (several times) is the way to go, given the lack of items. Use DMM: Persist for Righteous Wrath of the Faithful on the whole party, Ice Axe so he can melee, Mass Lesser Vigor on the whole party, Elation on the whole party, etc.

Troacctid
2021-04-21, 04:20 PM
Maybe another reserve feat? Summon Elemental has a pretty solid reserve effect, while the abjuration ones are nice for the caster level boost to dispels.

You could look to improve turning further with Quicken Turning or Empower Turning.

Vow of Nonviolence is nice if you're trying to be a pacifist anyway.

Delta_tea
2021-04-22, 12:26 AM
Since he's collecting all of those Vow feat he may want to consider a Saint template.