Wizard Vows

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Dragondog

A Vow has the same cost no matter who you are. No matter if you're low ST or high ST. Warrior or wizard.

That isn't quite true. A Vow is always a personal thing. You may be asked to take it by someone else, but it's still your Vow and priced for the restrictions it places on you.

In my examples, I assumed a wizard because it appears that wizardly powers are to be tied up in the question. Remember that "No edged weapons" for clerics, when chosen, explicitly forms the basis of a Pact limitation that costs the cleric his powers if he picks up a blade! As has been hinted at here, the same Vow would be a free 10 points for a warrior with ST 20, Two-Handed Axe/Mace-20, and a huge maul. Likewise, my armor Vows took into account that wizards don't need armor as much as other characters – not with Armor spells, Shield spells, Iron Arm, etc., and not given that their profession isn't "warrior" but "support."

It also matters what the consequences are. It would be perfectly fair to say that wizards must take Vow [-10] to purify their minds to learn magic, but can then break the Vow later on at the cost of a level of Magery. The net effect on point value would be 0, but the wizard would really have to want to break the Vow! That isn't the same as the cleric case (a cleric loses his powers, he doesn't just drop a level of Power Investiture) because the wizard has no Pact. If a cleric's Pact were more severe, his Vow would rise to match it. These character-specific considerations are a big part of pricing Vows.