Monk Vows and Death

[mrianmerry]

So this recently happened, and me and the DM and team were having a brief discussion.

My monk died, and had taken vows of celibacy and fasting, as well as a vow of silence he was atoning for.

The party is planning to get him reincarnated next session, perhaps a few days post-mortem.

The questions I'd like clarification on are thus:
a- do his vows still bind him when he is reincarnated or is there some manner of choice going on?
b- for the vow of silence, does the month-long timer to retribution continue to count down whilst he is dead?

[Bob Bob Bob]

a. Vows are something you explicitly choose to take. Why would they suddenly expire because you died once? If you're referring to the fluff bit "A monk can discipline his body to hold more ki by upholding the strict tenets of a vow", how do you reconcile that with the fact that all of their monk powers immediately work in the new body despite being described much the same way?

b. I would say no. You aren't upholding your vow. You aren't doing anything. You're a corpse. I could see an argument for that specific vow though (as a corpse, you're not making any noise).

[mrianmerry]

Aye, that reasoning is pretty much in-line with what we were discussing.

I've no issue with the vows remaining, it's actually the rest of the party that are frustrated with them, so just wanted to find a more concrete source than our own discussion. Cheers!