Zahh's page

"Ki Power: A qinggong monk can select a ki power (see below) for which she qualifies in place of the following monk class abilities: slow fall (4th), high jump (5th), wholeness of body (7th), diamond body (11th), abundant step (12th), diamond soul (13th), quivering palm (15th), timeless body (17th), tongue of the sun and moon (17th), empty body (19th), and perfect self (20th). This replaces the monk class ability the qinggong monk gives up for this ki power."

"A monk can discipline his body to hold more ki by upholding the strict tenets of a vow. By adhering to his vow's tenets, the monk's ki pool increases by the amount listed in the vow's description. Every vow comes with a penalty or limitation to offset this increase in ki. A monk can take a vow at any level, but it does not add to his ki pool until he gains a ki pool as a class feature. The ability to take these vows replaces the still mind class feature, even if the monk abandons all his vows."

Okay I'll go over how I read the qinggong monk "Ki Power".
Every level, you may take any ki ability you qualify for, but each one that you do take up costs you one of the listed class abilities. Which in my current understanding means you could dump the future hopes of getting "tongue of sun and moon," for a level 4 ki ability once you hit level 4. Also, if you decide say that you would like to keep a normal monk class ability that choice is permanent once you actually get it. So like at level 7 you decide to keep "Diamond Body," and play as a level 7 monk, come level 8 you cannot sacrifice it at that point for use in a level 8,6, or 4 ki ability.
I'm lead to believe this because in many other archetypes a high level class ability is replaced by a new, alternate, lower level class ability.
That's just my interpretation- I am open to other peoples opinions and arguments on it though, It just seems that most people assume you have to spend the class ability you would normally get that level for a ki power you qualify for... To me the wording there is vague and going by those mechanics gets a little funky because the ki powers and class abilities don't sync up well. I honestly have no clue how this archetype is supposed to work other than that I'm 95% sure you get to choose what class features you keep or trade- which is unlike all other archetypes I know of.

As for vows: In a pathfinder society setting how would these work? You would essentially have to take a vow by level 3 otherwise you get the still mind class ability... Is that wrong? Can you just say, oh no I would like to keep my options open for taking a vow so I'll keep my mind from getting too still? I basically see it like you have to take a vow, at least one, by or before level 3... at that point you can take up as many other vows at other levels as you see fit.
Is that the proper view on vows? I'm not asking if that is a cool way to house rule it or anything, but is that how they work... or am I mistaken?

Thank you for any light that is shed upon my monk questions!

Starglim, I think that Toughness and rebuild are a good recommendation, even though I disagree with your ruling. The question was do you have to choose a feat right away; and the way I read it, the text only says that you can't add feats before the other three steps of leveling up. I don't see any reason why not to let someone wait; they're only weaker in the meantime.

My GM essentially qualified his stance on feat queueing with "If you can survive in the meantime without your feats I'll let you spend them later." I certainly enjoy it as a house rule.

Right on, thank you for the clarification!

Can you hold onto a feat, and spend it later? Although I have had experience creating characters, I have only ever played with my relaxed play group. The GM didn't see holding onto a feat for later as terribly game breaking so he allowed it in the group. He was rather lenient, but is there any rule that makes you spend your feat when you get it? Is that just an unwritten rule, or the basic mechanic of a feat- to be spent immediately? One of the specific examples of this leniency was when someone had a feat they planned to get with their level 5 feat, but it required a BAB they wouldn't have until level 6 so the GM was alright with them holding out for a level to spend the feat at level 6. Again, this was not a Pathfinder society group, but I was just wondering if that would fly in a pathfinder society group