Cost: 1-8
Availability: Anyone
Your character has sworn some oath or accepted some taboo in exchange for power. Many priests and holy men swear oaths as signs of their devotion to their deities, and the deities in question bless their followers with magically conferred benefits as long as that oath remains fulfilled. The severity of the oath’s requirements is directly proportional to the number of points gained.
Minor Oath (1 pt.): An oath that barely restricts the character at all—never accept food from a red-headed person, never use bladed weapons, pray to your god once per day.
Moderate Oath (3 pts.): An oath that impedes the character, but not in any life-threatening way—no sex outside of marriage, never eat pork, pray several times per day at specific intervals, never start a fight.
Major Oath (5 pts.): An oath that interferes with the character’s life in a major way—never cut your hair, remain completely celibate, never use any weapons, spend at least one hour of every day in meditation, strict vegetarianism.
Legendary Oath (8 pts.): An oath that severely limits the character’s lifestyle—never bathe, embrace total pacifism, reject all forms of physical pleasure, never consume food or drink other than rice and water, spend at least six hours every day in meditation.
Unlike most Flaws, a player who imposes an oath on her character must specifically note what traits the bonus points gained were used to acquire, like so: Complete celibacy, Major (5 pts), +1 Conviction, 1-pt. Priest. If the character ever violates the oath, he loses the benefits associated with the oath until he has made suitable atonement. This atonement will generally take a number of months of contrition and penitence equal to the Flaw rating, as well as a sacrifice with a Resources cost of the Flaw rating or some other suitable, Storyteller-chosen form of repentance. In addition, at the Storyteller’s discretion, violations of major or legendary oaths may also result in divine punishment of some sort, such as the infliction of a Flaw or curse of some kind under which the character must labor until he has received forgiveness.
A character may have multiple oaths (but never more than one legendary oath). While multiple oaths may stack, if the character has more than one oath that interferes with the same general area of life (combat, dietary restrictions, sex, prayer, etc.), each oath after the first suffers a cumulative -1 reduction in value. For example, a character who has sworn never to start a fight and to fight only barehanded would gain five points for the major oath but only two points instead of three for the moderate oath. The Storyteller should not allow the player to select multiple oaths if one embraces the other. For example, it would be inappropriate for a character to swear a moderate oath to never start a fight when he has already sworn a legendary oath of total pacifism. Likewise, the player should not be allowed to stack an oath to never eat shellfish on top of an oath of strict vegetarianism.
Scroll of Heroes, p72