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I am building a D&D 3.5e Saint Cloistered Cleric with a Vow of Poverty and Vow of Peace. In the past two weeks, I ran across a character ability (a skill, feat, spell, alternate class feature, domain ability, or something) that had wording like:

as a free action you can consult your intuition and know whether something is in accord with your god's will [or breaks a vow, I'm not certain of the exact benefit]

I remember specifically that it was a free action and it let you check the status of an action under consideration. But I've spent 3 hours searching the Book of Exalted Deeds, the Player's Handbook, and Google and can't locate it.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Welcome to RPG.SE! Take the tour if you haven't already, and check out the help center for more guidance. \$\endgroup\$ – V2Blast♦ Nov 9 '19 at 6:42
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    \$\begingroup\$ Please, please, please make sure your entire party is on-board with this character. And that’s not just the DM, it’s everyone. Vow of Peace basically means your party can’t play D&D anymore, which is likely to bother people who wanted to play D&D and didn’t realize your character wasn’t going to let them. Also, bear in mind that, officially, you cannot use a holy symbol with Vow of Poverty. Absurd but true. I so very strongly recommend against this character; I certainly wouldn’t allow it in my game, and wouldn’t play in a game alongside it. \$\endgroup\$ – KRyan Nov 9 '19 at 12:34
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    \$\begingroup\$ More on why Vow of Peace is such a problem. Oh, and for that matter, on how Vow of Poverty is a problem too, albeit of an entirely different kind. \$\endgroup\$ – KRyan Nov 9 '19 at 12:56
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Might it be the Gift of Discernment? (Player's Guide to Faerun, page 176)

It does pretty much what you are remembering, letting you trade an entire feat and using a free action rather than a non-action to replicate the effects of the cheap magic item the phylactery of faithfulness (DMG 264) so that you don't have to use your head slot for it.

The feat Soul of Honor (Oriental Adventures pg 66) is also similar, except that it almost exactly replicates the effect of the phylactery, requiring a non-action, except it protects against honor and alignment changes rather than standing with deity and alignment changes.

If not either of those, The Prophet of Erathaoi prestige class (BoED pg 66) has a class feature that is limited to only a couple times per day which, in part, mimics that same item's effects.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Even if you have to pay 50% extra, the phylactery of faithfulness is still cheap; probably worth mentioning. It’s almost as if “gotcha” alignment handling is awful and Wizards of the Coast wanted to protect players from DMs who would do that... \$\endgroup\$ – KRyan Nov 9 '19 at 12:19
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    \$\begingroup\$ @KRyan If Wizards really wanted to protect folks from the jerk DM's Gotcha! alignment violations, the ability the feat grants would be automatic for anyone who could fall or lose abilities due to in-game actions. Then, instead, the feat would warn folks automatically when they were about to fall, no "moment of reflection" needed. This feat's existence has always struck me as just another tool for the jerk DM: He points to it after the PC's fallen and says, "O, well, I guess you should've taken the feat Gift of Discernment!" Ugh. \$\endgroup\$ – Hey I Can Chan Nov 9 '19 at 15:00
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    \$\begingroup\$ Thank you all; these are great comments. FWIW My character will have a Vow of Poverty, so the Phylactery of Faithfulness (or any other magic item) is unavailable. \$\endgroup\$ – Eponymous Nov 9 '19 at 15:04

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