I've got a player who, for reasons I've not yet been able to figure out, is refusing all treasure, both monetary and magical. Player is playing a divine Wordcaster, and seems content with it. The party is only 2nd level right now, so it isn't an issue yet, but it'll quickly become an issue as the party levels, and starts encountering creatures with damage resistance. At that point the player is going to find themselves unable to fight with those creatures when combat becomes necessary, particularly when encountering creatures with spell resistance.
I've a feeling this is an RP exercise with the player (I hope to find more details on motivations the next time I talk with them), so I don't want to take it away from them; if they're having fun with their character, I'm fine with it. But to keep it from quickly becoming a source of discouragement at higher levels of play, would it be reasonable to offer them the Vow of Poverty from the old Book of Exalted Deeds to offset the otherwise unavoidable inability to overcome DR?
Or even better, has a more recent Pathfinder-specific version of the Vow of Poverty been published, or some other system wherein a player without appropriate magic items can still function on the same level as the rest of the party when such encounters occur? Your thoughts/recommendations are appreciated.
The Pathfinder version of the VoP is definitely not going to be any help there. The BoED version has its own particular issues, but it'll work much better for that character both flavor-wise and mechanically.
If you're open to non-official material though, you might want to look at Ashiel's karma-based rules for ascetic characters.
Will be back with link ASAP
PF vow os poverty is extremely bad. The 3.5 version is far form perfect but itis just better.
Here ya go!
Depending on how you want it to play out, you can tie the PC's karma progression to story and accomplishments rather than running in exact parallel to everyone else's WBL.
You might want to consider talking with the player. Discussion goes a long way.
3.5 Vow of Poverty has its issues. Its unfortunately weaker than actually having your WBL pick of gear. Its a lot better than nothing I guess. Pathfinder Vow of Poverty is much, much worse. As others have said.
If somebody wants to cripple himself I don't see why you should have to give him anything.
Now if he'd discussed it with you before hand that might be a different situation.
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Tarvi wrote: If somebody wants to cripple himself I don't see why you should have to give him anything.
Now if he'd discussed it with you before hand that might be a different situation.
Well... I'd suppose that you'd want to help them meet their character concept, and being that having no magic items or gold tends to hurt, giving them VOP benefits seems like a way for them to be the modest hero and not totally fall behind.
Tarvi wrote: If somebody wants to cripple himself I don't see why you should have to give him anything.
Now if he'd discussed it with you before hand that might be a different situation.
Tarvi, the issue isn't so much me feeling like I have to "give" them anything. I've talked with the player, and it's definitely an RP concept for them. I can work with as much RP stuff as I need to with little difficulty. This is purely a problem brought on by game mechanics.
Those mechanics just outright assume a character at a given level is going to have a certain minimum amount of magical enhancement, whether as simple as a weapon with an enhancement bonus or as complex as higher-end wondrous items, borderline artifacts, etc. Some encounters are designed to frustrate martial characters (giving casters a chance to shine), and some are designed to frustrate casters so the martial types have their moments in the spotlight.
But with a character who's refusing the acquisition of magic items (again noting that right now the party is just 2nd level; they've just acquired their first basic magic items in the last session, the most powerful of which is just a Hat of Disguise; no magic weapons have come into play yet, nor creatures requiring them to bypass DR), it's better to have a plan in place so that character doesn't fall behind in capability. No matter how confident a given player is, Pathfinder is still a group exercise, and when the rest of the party are churning out major numbers, and have a chance of being hit below 50% (i.e., high Armor Class, which is only achievable via magic items), and you're sitting there constantly having to reduce any hits you manage by 5 (or more, or by 100% because it requires a magic weapon or aligned weapon or other magic item to bypass the DR), it starts to become discouraging.
The system Mikaze linked to seems fairly workable. I'd change around a few of the actual concepts (I don't really want eastern mysticism concepts in my games, Monks notwithstanding; it's just a personal thing), but the mechanics seem fairly workable.
Given that he's a spellcaster, and a Wordcaster at that, he has a huge amount of versatility at his command. Spellcasters are probably the least affected by a lack of magical items, so long as he's considered this you may find he's not really behind the curve at all. He might have decided to switch to a more buff based style of casting once he meets creatures with a good SR for example (a very powerful way to play a divine caster it must be said). Definitely talk to him as you have said you plan to, see if he thinks that it might create problems in the future and suggest your ideas to help resolve it, but if he's adamant that he would rather keep playing this way without any extra 'stuff'... let him try. If it clearly is starting to hurt the group at higher levels, revisit it with him, but let him have a chance to do it how he wants at first.
If it's an RP concern, address it in an RP manner. He's a divine wordcaster; maybe some divine agent has an agenda aimed towards bringing wordcasting into more common usage and will be providing assistance "behind the scenes" to this character in particular. I don't know the details of the character (ie. alignment, deity, motives, etc) but it can be flavored appropriately. And, since this is a third-party acting on his behalf, it's under your control so its actions won't directly interfere with his character concept. This third-party may send NPC agents (who have appropriate magical gear) to assist the party by various means or other more indirect benefits at your discretion. Be creative, but just make sure not to steal the spotlight in the process. As a divine caster, he may be less willing to turn away a magical item when granted as a gift from a divine source and he is explicitly instructed to be its custodian and for what purposes it should be utilized.
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