[3.5] Advancing a character reincarnated as an animal?

[OttoVonBigby]

So in my house rules for the reincarnate spell, I decided that if a humanoid rolls badly enough, they can come back as a nonhumanoid (and vice versa). AFAIK the rules don't strictly allow for this but I thought it was a cool idea.

Now it's happened, and the low-level half-orc barbarian has returned to life as a dire hawk, with her memories and knowledge of language (though physically unable to speak) and all that. The thing I'm fuzzy on is what happens now that the character is back with the party and adventuring and gaining experience again.

The setting is just low-magic enough that items to give a dire hawk humanlike hands won't be readily available or known about. In light of this, I'd like to know what you folks perceive her options to be.

One seems to be advancing as a dire hawk (using the "Advancement" HD range). But if she wants class levels, is it as simple as just going back to her old XP total (minus the single-level loss) and leveling her up like any other character? It seems like it can't be that simple, but maybe I'm just overthinking it.

[KillianHawkeye]

The character's experience total shouldn't change (other than the proscribed level loss). She should retain all her previous class levels. The question you need to answer is whether or not Dire Hawk has a level adjustment. Also, given the Dire Hawk's racial animal Hit Dice, it will probably be a while before the character levels up.

[Cog]

The question you need to answer is whether or not Dire Hawk has a level adjustment. Also, given the Dire Hawk's racial animal Hit Dice, it will probably be a while before the character levels up.
The snipped part was absolutely true, but this I'm not sure about. You're already houseruling Reincarnation so that it can suddenly put a lot of RHD on you when it couldn't before, in a form that likely isn't well-suited to the character's previous build. Saying, "your character is too powerful now, so you don't advance as quickly," on top of that seems like a step too far. Many players would be happy to play out the results of this, but many would not - basically, I suggest talking to your player to see where they'd like to go from here, not us.

[Metahuman1]

I'd personally wave the Racial Hit Dice as an unnecessary Nerf and then hand the player Tome of Magic, Magic of Incarnum and Tome of Battle and maybe Complete Psionics and a link to the Minds Eye web articals to show them the Ardent and tell them to mix and match to there content.

You can probably make the excuse for any Vestige or Incarnum magic now on the grounds of "I've died and come back, learned a few things about souls along the way." for Psionics as "I've had to learn to use sheer mind over matter to funtion in this body, and I've taken it and run with it." and Tome of Battle as "I've had to adapt my fighting style to this body, but once I got the hang of it, watch out!" And then just let him go to town with the sub systems.

[Amnestic]

Just a note that if her intelligence score is 3+ then she's not an Animal, she's a Magical Beast, and her RHD would be adjusted (d8->d10, for starters) to represent that.

[RogueDM]

I agree with Metahuman1 in regards to waiving the Racial Hit Dice, or at least replacing as many as the character's original hit dice would allow. If the character's current level doesn't exceed their RHD then let them progress but each level replace a RHD with the new class HD. In some cases they'd lose HP from this, your barb doesn't have to worry about that here with d12.

IF you opt to keep the RHD in tact and either overwrite them or build off of them at least keep that in mind for the Effective Character Level and encounter balance. Personally, somewhat fluff dependent, I'd likely just toss the RHD if I could, or if it wouldn't make sense (in the case of a really BA creature) overwrite them gradually with class levels. Also have to factor in some manner of Level Adjustment based on natural abilities that don't balance with previous racial abilities.

Lastly, I would encourage some manner of psionics or access to magical communication at least with one or more party members. Could even have the bird-barian pass notes to the receptive party member(s).

Oh, one more thing, equipment: It will be expensive and it will be custom made. I would not rule it as exotic since it would be tailored to the character's new physiology. Armor, if any, would need to keep the weight restrictions for flight in mind... any encumbrance really. Weapons, I believe the Raptorans had a racial weapon that was a spear designed to be wielded in their talons. Other than that, a "helmet" with armor spikes could add damage to a beak attack, spiked "gauntlets" could add extra damage to claw attacks.

Good luck and tell your Half-Orc Bird-Barian I said "Caw!"

[Eslin]

Honestly, it's incredibly simple. For one thing, don't add any LA or RHD - this character didn't grow up as a dire hawk, doesn't have a dire hawk's thinking or mindset, etc etc. Reincarnate isn't fleshed out that well, but there's nothing to suggest that it shouldn't be treated any differently than a polymorph spell with a duration of instant.

He is now the man he was in a hawk's body. There are advantages and disadvanteges - he cannot use weapons (aside from unarmed strike and the mouth pick) or tools and will need specially crafted armour, can't speak and will now have a lot of trouble fitting in, but he now has better stats and 80ft fly speed.

Nothing really changes - he's lost a level, gotten a dire hawk's body and now has to decide where to go from there. He can keep advancing in barbarian if he wants, though he may want to go for improved/superior unarmed strike to get iterative attacks or can decide to multiclass, possibly into something that will let him speak/transform/use tools.

Gained: 12 dex, 4 con, 3 NA, 1d4 claw and 1d6 bite, 80ft fly speed
Lost: 20 ft land speed, use of hands (no weapons, no tool use, most day to day activities become frustratingly difficult), ability to speak, possible psychological problems, any chance of a normal life - no mate, no walking into the tavern and asking for an ale, no idle conversation to pass the time.



A name change to Tobias could help with the roleplaying =D

[Malimar]

...no mate...

Well, she could still meet a nice gentleman dire hawk to settle down and make a nest with.

[Eslin]

That's bestiality - not saying that the character can't do that, but most people would need to be pretty desperate to have sex with something of animal intelligence.