When VMC first came out I heard a lot of theoretical discussion about the system. Well, some time has passed and I'll bet people have actually made real characters with it. Any thoughts?
Bump
Honoring your bump: for the cheesiness, yes.
A Slayer with VMC Rogue would be a Martial concept for me to try in a future campaign should I get tired of casting. Or as a reduced caster like the Magus, go with VMC Fighter on Magus(Myrmidarch) just to see if I can out-Fighter the Fighter as a Medium-BAB half-caster.
In a campaign... ah yes, an Oracle with VMC Sorcerer (I chose Martyr Bloodline). Had fun with Mythic 1 given to me by DM. Screw Dodge, I went with Dual Path for that Feat choice and snagged Archmage. I don't get spells like a Sorcerer, but for all other intents and purposes I am an equivalent-level Sorc. So... for Wild Arcana, I would spend that Mythic Point to Swift-Action cast a spell from the Wizard/Sorcerer spell list that would be equivalent to what I would have access to as a Sorcerer of my level.
EX: Standard Action: Cast regular spell from Cleric/Oracle List, & consume spell slot as normal. Swift Action: Spend Mythic Point to cast a spell from the Wizard/Sorcerer list. Cheesy I suppose on what was a 7th Level (3rd Level spellz then...) Oracle to be able to essentially Quicken Arcane from Mythic using that VMC as a bypass with Mythic Bypassing the no-spells part of VMC in turn.
Critically, it takes too much tweaking. Personally, and I've stated as much to other Players/DMs in the past that in PF I regard Class Features as inherently more powerful than Feats if you choose a progression that caters to what you want your character to do.
I actually just built one, but haven't had a chance to play it yet. He's a Jekyll/Hyde Alchemist-Master Chymist build with VMC Barbarian in there. I feel very feat starved... but on paper he looks like he'll be pretty awesome.
I haven't made any new PCs since VMC came out. I've used it on two cohorts designed for my own PCs, a cohort I designed for a PC in a game I DM, and various NPC builds (mostly potential bad guys)
Some of the VMCs like Druid are a lot better if the character will suddenly pop into existence at higher levels (like cohorts sometimes do). Having a full strength animal companion at 11th level is pretty great and gives the cohort a flying mount (Dire Bat). I'm not sure how those first 10 levels would have felt though.
The Wizard VMC is pretty nice since getting a familiar alone would normally cost you 2-3 feats. Diviner's Fortune is tough to beat for an NPC helper or buff/support character but the Admixture school of Evocation has some nice stuff to offer a Sorcerer (along with Mauler familiar as a mount from the same VMC)
I'd imagine that Fighters could add a lot of flavor with VMC and still have enough feats via bonus feats to support fairly complex builds.
I really like VMC wizard, going Air school. You get a familiar, which would normally take a couple of feats anyway, plus at-will featherfall, levitate, and fly, and a couple of other things that don't matter nearly as much because who cares I have a familiar and I can fly!
Yes, VMC has helped my group a lot. We often do not have anyone who can disable magical traps (they can usually find them with Detect Magic or locate normal ones with Perception. We like that more characters can locate and bypass traps in Pathfinder, but it's nice not to burn all your Dispel Magic's on magical traps. So VMC, Arcane Duelist took variant rogue (so he feels kind of ranger-like) in the Nirmathas campaign, and the Cleric of Erastil took variant rogue (so she feels kind of trapper-like, which fits her hunter-ish backstory) in our Dragon's Demand module.
Personally I like using VMC, though it hasn't seen much use by any of the others in my group. I guess one reason for that is the featcost. Even though we don't really optimize, or even need to, in our games they're usually at a premium anyway. I get away with it because I usually play casters who don't really need a lot of feats but many other classes do. Another reason is that not all VMC's are that good or don't synergize well with a lot of classes. The aforementioned wizard vmc is probably the best one and can be useful for very single class.
There's a 3PP out there somewhere that offers partial and extreme vmc's, as well as vmcs for some other classes. I haven't read it though. If you come across it, it might be worth a look. I know I would if I weren't strapped for cash...