New vow: Vow of magic forsaking

[JiCi]

Vow of magic forsaking: The monk has taken the vow to never use magic, be out of ethic, trauma or self-discipline. He mustn't use any magic item (including potions) or receive any magical effect, such as touch spells. The monk must make a saving throw to resist the effects of any harmless spell and mustn't willingly ask for such effects. Finally, the monk cannot willingly multiclass into a spellcasting class and must forsake the use of spellcasting if he already could cast spells. The monk's own abilities, be extraordinary, spell-like or supernatural by nature, are excluded from this vow, in addition of any ability gains as a racial trait or a template. A monk with this vow increases his ki pool by 1 ki point for every 2 monk levels (minimum +1).

Yes, I'm bringing back a very old concept that got first introduced in Champions of the Wild back in 3.0. There used to be a prestige class called the Forsaker, which was basically a warrior-like class that prohibited the use of any magic whatsoever while gaining similar effects as you leveled up.

I thought that it would fit well as a monk's vow. What do you guys think?

[Zhayne]

The monk is already one of the, if not the weakest class in the game. This renders him utterly unusable. The monk is gear-dependent, you make it so he can't be healed, making him an even bigger load, and adding a few points of ki doesn't even come CLOSE to making up for it.

This would need to provide armor bonuses, stat bumps, enhancement bonuses to attack and damage ... all the stuff that magic gear does that the game essentially requires.

[BokaliMali]

Zhayne, take a look at all the other monk vows. This one fits right in.

[Zhayne]

True. They ALL suck horribly.

[Makarion]

Even if the monk got 4 ki extra per level, this would still be a terrible character choice. I doubt you'd live to reach level 3. In other words, you'd probably never actually get to use those ki points...

[Nicos]

Zhayne wrote:

The monk is already one of the, if not the weakest class in the game. This renders him utterly unusable. The monk is gear-dependent, you make it so he can't be healed, making him an even bigger load, and adding a few points of ki doesn't even come CLOSE to making up for it.

This would need to provide armor bonuses, stat bumps, enhancement bonuses to attack and damage ... all the stuff that magic gear does that the game essentially requires.

Pretty much this.

[Nicos]

JiCi wrote:

Yes, I'm bringing back a very old concept that got first introduced in Champions of the Wild back in 3.0. There used to be a prestige class called the Forsaker, which was basically a warrior-like class that prohibited the use of any magic whatsoever while gaining similar effects as you leveled up.

Note however taht more Ki points do not give you anything close to that. For example what is the poin of having and extra attack if yo will fail the attack cause you lac of the str and the amuletof mighty fist?

[Drachasor]

A Quiggong Monk with infinite Ki points and instead of choosing abilities at various levels gained ALL choosable abilities could not make this work.

Well, maybe at level 7 since he could finally be able to heal. He'd die long before then.

[AnnoyingOrange]

Just extra ki for (most) vows does not work, they would need some extra ability to compensate.
Problem is that magic items that dont go to the monk get sold for more cash.. which is used to buy magic items for the other characters making them even more powerful and your monk even weaker comparatively.
Even if the monk gets his share in gold it comes down to be able to buy a monastery or something else quite useless for an adventuring party.

Sacrificing magical items as if sold for you to gain powers like slotless items could work if combined with the extra ki, so it would still be ok.

[LazarX]

JiCi wrote:

Vow of magic forsaking: The monk has taken the vow to never use magic, be out of ethic, trauma or self-discipline. He mustn't use any magic item (including potions) or receive any magical effect, such as touch spells. The monk must make a saving throw to resist the effects of any harmless spell and mustn't willingly ask for such effects. Finally, the monk cannot willingly multiclass into a spellcasting class and must forsake the use of spellcasting if he already could cast spells. The monk's own abilities, be extraordinary, spell-like or supernatural by nature, are excluded from this vow, in addition of any ability gains as a racial trait or a template. A monk with this vow increases his ki pool by 1 ki point for every 2 monk levels (minimum +1).

Yes, I'm bringing back a very old concept that got first introduced in Champions of the Wild back in 3.0. There used to be a prestige class called the Forsaker, which was basically a warrior-like class that prohibited the use of any magic whatsoever while gaining similar effects as you leveled up.

I thought that it would fit well as a monk's vow. What do you guys think?

Does anyone even TRY their concept in play before tossing it out for peer review these days?

I remember the Forsaker. No one in any of the groups I played with would touch it with a ten foot pole.