Exalted feats question

[enderrocksonall]

In the BoED the feats Vow of Non-violence and Vow of Peace preclude the user from dealing real or ability damage to enemies. Does this mean that the Touch of Golden Ice feat earlier in the book is unusable?


Edit:In conjunction with those feats, I mean.

[Quietus]

That would be correct.

[MandibleBones]

Well, on certain types of enemies, to be sure. IIRC, Constructs, Undead and Plants don't count as people.

[Starsinger]

Well, on certain types of enemies, to be sure. IIRC, Constructs, Undead and Plants don't count as people.

But aren't they immune to ability damage?

[MandibleBones]

Good point - my bad.

I've forgotten: are evil outsiders included on the list of things Thou Shalt Not Smite with a Vow of Peace?

[Emperor Tippy]

Well, on certain types of enemies, to be sure. IIRC, Constructs, Undead and Plants don't count as people.

If you want to be especially fun you can say that only your race counts as people. Everything else is a monster.

[MandibleBones]

If you want to be especially fun you can say that only your race counts as people. Everything else is a monster.

For a standard good cleric, or even a Paladin, maybe. Exalted people are supposed to be completely beyond that - monstrous humanoid, giant, heck - even dragon - all are living things that should be treated as such.

If you're not a Vow of Peace or Vow of Nonviolence devotee, sometimes this can indeed mean "they needed killin'," but you're still (in the Exalted character's mind) ending the life of a living being.

[Emperor Tippy]

Depends. If RPed properly you can have a character that truly believes that nothing except himself is a living being. Everything else is just a figment of his imagination. And no one can prove to him that they are alive because he just thinks its another figment.

Hmm. That would be a fun character to play.

[The_Snark]

Depends. If RPed properly you can have a character that truly believes that nothing except himself is a living being. Everything else is just a figment of his imagination. And no one can prove to him that they are alive because he just thinks its another figment.

Hmm. That would be a fun character to play.

Existentialism, hmmm? Might be fun, but the character still wouldn't qualify for exalted feats.

[MandibleBones]

Hmm. That would be a fun character to play.

Yes, and he might even manage to be "good," or at least non-evil. However...

Might be fun, but the character still wouldn't qualify for exalted feats.

Quoted for truth.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Yes. [Exalted] feats in general, and Vow-based feats in particular, have well-spelled-out definitions of how you must act in order to use them. If you're going to play one of Tippy's hypotheticals, the character is not Exalted. They could be Good, if delusional, if the DM wants him to get away with it. The way the rules of the BoED are written though, you'd lose VoPeace as soon as you hit something with both a Con and Int score.

Now, I'm taking a devil's (archon's?) advocate point of view here. I agree with the obvious counterargument that roleplaying restrictions shouldn't really be balancing factors for feats. I agree, it's a ridiculous design decision, but it's there. If you remove the restrictions from the Vow feats, they become far more overpowered than they already are.

[Celsius]

Erm, I might be wrong, but doesn't the Golden Ice ravage affect even creatures which are immune to ability damage? As far as I recall, it specifically mentions extra damage to undead in the Ravages description...

[enderrocksonall]

Here is another question:

Does the +4 to special abilitie DC's from Vow of Non-Violence apply to the calming aura and the DC for enemy weapons to shatter from Vow of Peace?

So if I had a cha of 10 at level 1, would the DC for the calming aura be 11, or 15?

[Inyssius Tor]

You know, we have a special thread just for simple questions like that.