Reincarnation: Does Human to Elf Add 600+ Years to Lifespan?

[Basement Cat]

So here's the story: My solo paladin was doing his noble quest thing which involved helping a circle of Druids and suddenly--WHAM--he's not just dead but reduced to a greasy smear.

The catch was my paladin had knowledge and resources the druids lacked and direly needed so the leader of their circle--a really, really cranky half elf/half orc jerk--reincarnated me and I came back as an elf.

My paladin was in his early forties so I figured "Well, that puts me about halfway through the elven 700 year lifespan". The DM started to agree then paused and asked, "Does it? He could have another 660 years or so."

I blinked, "That would be cool!"

He grinned and replied, "But there's still that second roll we've gotta make..."

Thus endeth the story to date: My formerly human paladin has been reincarnated back from the dead as an elf.

Clarification: My formerly male human paladin has been reincarnated back from the dead as a female elf.

But how long does she have to live? Half an elf's lifetime or a full one?

My DM is pretty darn lenient on this point so I elected to be 40 years young...with another 660 years to go. I'm over forty myself but I certainly don't feel old so I figured to go by how old my character felt so the DM said "Sure, you're as old as you feel. Good thing you aren't Roger from Lethal Weapon, though."

But what do the rest of you think about this aspect of the Reincarnation spell? I don't see how reincarnating a wizened 90 year old wizard as a wizened 90 year old would be a good idea if they were going to die next week of old age so doesn't it make sense for someone to return as a young adult? Or do you see it differently?

For those whose thoughts run to such things the gender change bit is something he's always done with Reincarnation--your PC can agree to come back as race "X" but doesn't know there's a potential gender shift possible. That's determined after you're back by a 50/50 dice roll. Reincarnation's been used less than a handful of times over the years so this quirk of the DM's is just a novelty factor sort of thing.

[ThePolarBear]

But how long does she have to live? Half an elf's lifetime or a full one?


Reincarnation creates an adult body. So, enjoy your long lived female elf time, since the body would be around 100 years "old".

Edit: Obviously Imho.

[qube]

So here's the story: My solo paladin was doing his noble quest thing which involved helping a circle of Druids and suddenly--WHAM--he's not just dead but reduced to a greasy smear.

...

But how long does she have to live? Half an elf's lifetime or a full one?until the next time she gets reduced to a greasy smear :p

(in all seriousness, reincarnation is one of the few ways to get immortality (the ageless kind, not the 'can't be reduced to a greasy smear' kind)

As for the direct question - that depends on the DM, as the rules don't specify how old you, as adult, are.

[War_lord]

You would be a 40 year old Female Elf. Which could be very interesting from a roleplaying perspective since although elves mature at the same rate humans do, they're not culturally considered an adult until 100. So not only has your character gone from Male to Female, and from Human to Elf. They've gone from being automatically perceived by strangers as a grizzled voice of experience, to being automatically perceived as a silly teenager who should shut up and let the grownups talk.

[Clone]

The way I'd rule it would be you'd be the equivalent of a 40 year old human, so if humans in D&D live until 90ish and Elves live till 750ish, I'd make her roughly 325 or so, physically. Still a few hundred years benefit

[nickl_2000]

How does reincarnation impact stats? Do you lose the racial stats for the previous race and get it added from your new race?

[qube]

How does reincarnation impact stats? Do you lose the racial stats for the previous race and get it added from your new race?yes.


The reincarnated creature recalls its former life and experiences. It retains the capabilities it had in its original form, except it exchanges its original race for the new one and changes its racial traits accordingly.

and



Racial Traits

The description of each race includes racial traits that are common to members of that race. The following entries appear among the traits of most races.


Ability Score Increase

Every race increases one or more of a character’s ability scores.


Age

The age entry notes the age when a member of the race is considered an adult, as well as the race’s expected lifespan. This information can help you decide how old your character is at the start of the game. You can choose any age for your character, which could provide an explanation for some of your ability scores. For example, if you play a young or very old character, your age could explain a particularly low Strength or Constitution score, while advanced age could account for a high Intelligence or Wisdom.


Alignment

Most races have tendencies toward certain alignments, described in this entry. These are not binding for player characters, but considering why your dwarf is chaotic, for example, in defiance of lawful dwarf society can help you better define your character.


Size

Characters of most races are Medium, a size category including creatures that are roughly 4 to 8 feet tall. Members of a few races are Small (between 2 and 4 feet tall), which means that certain rules of the game affect them differently. The most important of these rules is that Small characters have trouble wielding heavy weapons, as explained in “Equipment.”


Speed

Your speed determines how far you can move when traveling ( “Adventuring”) and fighting (“Combat”).


Language

By virtue of your race, your character can speak, read, and write certain languages.


Subraces

Some races have subraces. Members of a subrace have the traits of the parent race in addition to the traits specified for their subrace. Relationships among subraces vary significantly from race to race and world to world.

(source: SRD)

[nickl_2000]

yes.


The reincarnated creature recalls its former life and experiences. It retains the capabilities it had in its original form, except it exchanges its original race for the new one and changes its racial traits accordingly.

and



Racial Traits

The description of each race includes racial traits that are common to members of that race. The following entries appear among the traits of most races.


Ability Score Increase

Every race increases one or more of a character’s ability scores.


Age

The age entry notes the age when a member of the race is considered an adult, as well as the race’s expected lifespan. This information can help you decide how old your character is at the start of the game. You can choose any age for your character, which could provide an explanation for some of your ability scores. For example, if you play a young or very old character, your age could explain a particularly low Strength or Constitution score, while advanced age could account for a high Intelligence or Wisdom.


Alignment

Most races have tendencies toward certain alignments, described in this entry. These are not binding for player characters, but considering why your dwarf is chaotic, for example, in defiance of lawful dwarf society can help you better define your character.


Size

Characters of most races are Medium, a size category including creatures that are roughly 4 to 8 feet tall. Members of a few races are Small (between 2 and 4 feet tall), which means that certain rules of the game affect them differently. The most important of these rules is that Small characters have trouble wielding heavy weapons, as explained in “Equipment.”


Speed

Your speed determines how far you can move when traveling ( “Adventuring”) and fighting (“Combat”).


Language

By virtue of your race, your character can speak, read, and write certain languages.


Subraces

Some races have subraces. Members of a subrace have the traits of the parent race in addition to the traits specified for their subrace. Relationships among subraces vary significantly from race to race and world to world.

(source: SRD)




Thanks, my fellow players are going to love it when the only way that they can be brought back to life in campaign is by this spell :smallsmile: (no bard, cleric, or other healers besides my druid).

[JackPhoenix]

Thanks, my fellow players are going to love it when the only way that they can be brought back to life in campaign is by this spell :smallsmile: (no bard, cleric, or other healers besides my druid).

I remember back in 3.5 days, when one of the characters in the game had to be reincarnated. Already weak Str 8 sorcerer ended up as female gnome... so -2 Str, and half carrying capacity for being Small. Couldn't even haul all her equipment, and ended up using the ranger's wolf companion as a mount to not slow down the party.

[qube]

I remember back in 3.5 days, when one of the characters in the game had to be reincarnated. Already weak Str 8 sorcerer ended up as female gnome... so -2 Str, and half carrying capacity for being Small. Couldn't even haul all her equipment, and ended up using the ranger's wolf companion as a mount to not slow down the party.gnome? pffft. My 3.0 monk reïncarnated into a black bear.

now ... THOSE where the days :D

[Biggstick]

Personally I would have the creature that's being Reincarnated in a body that's "appropriately aged" for the age they're supposed to be. A 40 year old Human would come back somewhere roughly between 200 and 400 years imo.

The reason I'd do this is think about an Elf being Reincarnated as a Human. If an Elf is 400 years old (a little passed middle age for an Elf) and is brought back to life through Reincarnate as a Human, they would be in a 400 year old Human body (according to your DM's ruling). That simply wouldn't work.

I absolutely love the gender roll your DM has brought in. Definitely stealing that for if my Players are ever in the situation in which they're being Reincarnated.

[War_lord]

I'm not sure I agree, the effects of old age are cumulative wear effects. a brand-new 600 year old body might not necessarily be as frail as you would imagine a 600 year old person would be. It's magic after all.

[Tanarii]

Why would you think a reincarnated creature doesn't retain it's maturity / age level? There's no reason it should suddenly be more youthful if reincarnated into a longer lived creature, or suddenly die of old age if reincarnated into a shorter lived creature.

(40-20) / (100-20), or 20 year / 80 years, for human fraction of time lived from physical maturity to maximum age (100 years old).
(750-20), or 730 years, for elf time from physical maturity to maximum age (750 years old).
So 40 year old human = 730*(20/80)+20 = 202 year old elf.

edit: btw you can reverse this to see when Elves (and dwarves) are considered socially to be Adults.
Elves, it's (80/730)*(80)+20 ~= 29 year old.
Dwarves, it's (30/330)*(80) ~= 27 year old.

[druid91]

As I recall. Reincarnation specifies that the body is always a young adult. Which is how you get reincarnation chain immortality.

[Naanomi]

I think there was a time (in 2e?) that reincarnation explicitly made you the 'equivalent age'... I had a goblin PC once (who didn't expect to live past her 30s) reincarnate into a pixie (with a multi-thousand year life span) and it blew her mind; I played her as super-cautious afterwards because I had 'so much to lose now'

[Tanarii]

As I recall. Reincarnation specifies that the body is always a young adult. Which is how you get reincarnation chain immortality.
You recall incorrectly. It specifies a new adult body. It cannot be a child body. But it certainly could be a decrepit oldster. Nothing about it implies you can grant a creature that died of old age a new life span.

Edit: Thought about this, and given the name of the spell, I can see why some people might expect it to provide a new lease on life for someone that died of old age. In that case, it'd certainly make sense to interpret 'new adult body' as providing a relatively young adult body, around or about 20 for almost all races (since that's when they almost all physically mature).

[Douche]

I always figured it resurrected you as an age proportionate to what age you already are.

So, like, if you're a 20 year old human, then you'd resurrect as a 100 year old elf.

Still around the same age physically, but now you have an additional 500 years to live instead of the 80 you'd have had previously.

[Tanarii]

So, like, if you're a 20 year old human, then you'd resurrect as a 100 year old elf.20 year old elf. Humans and Elves mature at the same age up to 20. (Or technically, you could read it as a 18 y.o. human is a 20 y.o. elf. But close enough.)

[druid91]

You recall incorrectly. It specifies a new adult body. It cannot be a child body. But it certainly could be a decrepit oldster. Nothing about it implies you can grant a creature that died of old age a new life span.

Edit: Thought about this, and given the name of the spell, I can see why some people might expect it to provide a new lease on life for someone that died of old age. In that case, it'd certainly make sense to interpret 'new adult body' as providing a relatively young adult body, around or about 20 for almost all races (since that's when they almost all physically mature).

I actually checked. It creates a new adult body. Which is likely where the impression came from new adult = newly adult = young adult.

[Biggstick]

The reincarnated creature recalls its former life and experiences. It retains the capabilities it had in its original form, except it exchanges its original race for the new one and changes its racial traits accordingly.

What I've bolded is what I'll be drawing attention to. It retains it's capabilities it had in it's original form. So the new body will have to have gone through the physical and mental stresses that the previous body had gone through to gain that experience and capability.


I'm not sure I agree, the effects of old age are cumulative wear effects. a brand-new 600 year old body might not necessarily be as frail as you would imagine a 600 year old person would be. It's magic after all.

To exemplify the capabilities the old body had would require, imo, the new body to have aged an appropriate length of time for that particular body type to have the same attributes and capabilities.

A 600 year old body will still have to have gone through the physical and mental stresses required to gain the capabilities that the PC has. Doing this in a Human body will cause it to become decrepit. This is why if a 600 year old Elf were to be Reincarnated as a Human, they would probably come back in a body aged somewhere within or later then it's 60's.


Why would you think a reincarnated creature doesn't retain it's maturity / age level? There's no reason it should suddenly be more youthful if reincarnated into a longer lived creature, or suddenly die of old age if reincarnated into a shorter lived creature.

(40-20) / (100-20), or 20 year / 80 years, for human fraction of time lived from physical maturity to maximum age (100 years old).
(750-20), or 730 years, for elf time from physical maturity to maximum age (750 years old).
So 40 year old human = 730*(20/80)+20 = 202 year old elf.

edit: btw you can reverse this to see when Elves (and dwarves) are considered socially to be Adults.
Elves, it's (80/730)*(80)+20 ~= 29 year old.
Dwarves, it's (30/330)*(80) ~= 27 year old.

Absolutely this. I wouldn't have worked out the exact math myself, but I'd do something very similar to this if a PC was Resurrected.


I actually checked. It creates a new adult body. Which is likely where the impression came from new adult = newly adult = young adult.

I think the issue coming in here is that some people are interpreting the words, "new adult body," in the way they'd like the spell to work. In the next paragraph of the spell Reincarnate, the spell says, "The magic fashions a new body for the creature to inhabit, which likely causes the creature's race to change." So in reading this part of the spell, what I'm coming up with is that the spell creates a new body, which happens to be an adult body (as described in the first part of the spell) for the PC's soul to enter. New is relative, as something that is old for me can be new for someone else. I think people are emphasizing the new adult part of the spell rather then reading both new and adult as adjectives to describe what type of body it is being created. It's not a new adult, it's a new body that happens to be an adult's body. It has gone through the stresses and joys required for the PC to retain all of their physical, mental, alignment, and personality traits of the previous soul.

[Toofey]

As a DM I would definitely make a PC in this situation roll their age.

[Naanomi]

If a child dies and reincarnated, it ages to adulthood then yes?

[FreddyNoNose]

If a child dies and reincarnated, it ages to adulthood then yes?

What do you think is the intention. By that I don't mean the nerd literal interpretation of it.

[Basement Cat]

If a child dies and reincarnated, it ages to adulthood then yes?

This is a devilishly good point. :smallwink:

Because a child's reincarnation is definitively outside defined parameters it requires recognition that the written description is incomplete and therefore necessarily open to interpretation.

Meta thinking suggests that the rule about reincarnating into a new adult's body is to avoid any pitfalls concerning characters coming back as preteens too undeveloped to function, but it still opens a big can of worms overall.

Reincarnation isn't Resurrection or Raise Dead. It's a whole different ball of wax and it's notable that the spell in no way alludes to the new adult body's age in beyond "adult". Given that 5th ed seems to deliberately avoid the topic of age I can't say as I'm surprised.

From what I'm reading, with replies being all over the place, it seems that "It's the DM's call" is the only likely consensus.

[JackPhoenix]

I actually checked. It creates a new adult body. Which is likely where the impression came from new adult = newly adult = young adult.

I think it's actually because it said young adult body back in 3.5e, it was changed for 5e. I, too, remembered the old description and had to check 5e PHB to make sure there's a difference this time. Dangers of being familiar with older versions of the game are still there even after years....

[some guy]

I think it's actually because it said young adult body back in 3.5e, it was changed for 5e. I, too, remembered the old description and had to check 5e PHB to make sure there's a difference this time. Dangers of being familiar with older versions of the game are still there even after years....

Yes, 3.5 said "new young adult body", 5e says "new adult body". I'm not sure if 4e had reincarnation.

[Tetrasodium]

Age. Although elves reach physical maturity at about the sam e age as humans, the elven understanding of adulthood goes beyond physical growth to encom pass worldly experience. An elf typically claims adulthood and an adult name around the age of 100 and can live to be 750 years old.

You are a elf with the body of a roughly hundred year old elf. It can't be year:year because a 300-400 year old elf is kind of middle aged.

Age. Humans reach adulthood in their late teens and live less than a century.
While a 300-400 year old human is otherwise known by more specific terms like "dead body", "rotting skeleton", "bleached bones", & most interestingly stuff like "lich"

[Finback]

gnome? pffft. My 3.0 monk reïncarnated into a black bear.

now ... THOSE where the days :D

<Bear> ROWRWOROAAUGH*





* "whoa - I know kung fu"

[Unoriginal]

<Bear> ROWRWOROAAUGH*





* "whoa - I know kung fu"

http://lol24.ee/public/pics/263663/263663659_0.gif

[Vaz]

http://i.imgur.com/tAV3wHl.png

[toapat]

http://i.imgur.com/tAV3wHl.png

you forgot a [

ah, sir bearington is always amusing when hes contextually relevant

i feel like the way to handle reincarnation reading this thread is the player projects their lifespan onto the target race, adjusting appropriately, then rolls 1d20, and possibly flips a coin, then you subtract that % years if heads or add that % years if tails to your current age

[Zorku]

Yes, 3.5 said "new young adult body", 5e says "new adult body". I'm not sure if 4e had reincarnation.
4e had Reincarnate as a ritual for 23rd level (equivalent to about level 15 in other editions, I think.)

It states that "the target is restored to life, health, and youth, but in a different form," and then goes on to explain that you're creating a new character from scratch except that they retain memories and experience points.

-

So going off of the D&D legacy as well as the cultural origin of the term, Reincarnate seems to be a rebirth type spell. In typical 5e fashion, the spell is now slightly more vague in its reading, so you can go ahead and change that at your table without admitting to this being homebrew rules, because you wouldn't touch homebrew with a 9 and a half foot pole.

In terms of balance, I also had a really strong inclination towards treating this like any other resurrection spell, but after having checked older spell descriptions, it seems like there is a very real benefit for gambling on what race you return in.

...except that I don't expect it to ever matter in play. It's pretty tough to get groups to do any kind of time tracking these days, and you're probably sitting at a rather old school table if you're ever being asked how you spend your down time. Age doesn't actually do anything in 5e, so unless you've actually got a rather sophisticated system of your own for making old age a part of your stories, using reincarnate to regain youth is kind of a roleplay gimmick.

What are you even going to do with 500 years anyway? The same thing you were going to do with roughly 40 years except 12.5 times over, but still at the same rate as everyone else?

[Submortimer]

yes.

The reincarnated creature recalls its former life and experiences. It retains the capabilities it had in its original form, except it exchanges its original race for the new one and changes its racial traits accordingly.


While I understand the concept, I would argue that a few things that could be considered racial traits should still carry over, those being proficiencies, languages, and feats: Even when they are gained by virtue of being a member of a specific race (such as elven weapon proficiencies or human bonus skills), they are still described as being gained due to learning and not merely some genetic benefit. Similarly, I wouldn't grant these benefits to a newly reincarnated creature: An elf that reincarnates into a Vhuman shouldn't automatically gain a bonus feat or skills, nor would a human that reincarnated into an elf gain new weapon proficiencies or languages.

but that's jut my two coppers.

[qube]

<Bear> ROWRWOROAAUGH*

* "whoa - I know kung fu"Actually, it's less fun (though more practical):


A humanoid reincarnated into an animal body can speak the languages it formerly knew and is a magical beast.

The free +15 strength, +2 dexterity and +8 constitution (which was in an age before D&D 5e's '20 max score'), and large size were also 'practical' :smallbiggrin:


While I understand the concept, I would argue that a few things that could be considered racial traits should still carry overI know, but rules are rules. Nothing stops you from changing them up for your campaign though if you feel that makes more sense to you.

[Toofey]

Man, I just read the 5e version of this. I miss the good old days where someone wandering nearby was like "wait, I used to be a person who died right now, near here, and my friends need me still" and got to the party like 20 minutes later. It doesn't make any sense, but it had flavor.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Man, I just read the 5e version of this. I miss the good old days where someone wandering nearby was like "wait, I used to be a person who died right now, near here, and my friends need me still" and got to the party like 20 minutes later. It doesn't make any sense, but it had flavor.
I'm sure this makes perfect sense to someone who knows what you're talking about, but thaat's not me. Which edition and abilities are you nostalgic for?

[Tanarii]

I polled two groups of players on this spell. The question I used was:
do you think 5e reincarnate should give you a body at the same relative age to your current age, the same age as you currently are, or a youthful body? Consider a middle aged human being reincarnated as a human, a middle aged human being reincarnated as an elf, and a middle aged elf being reincarnated as a human.

I didn't let them reference RAW first, so this was a 'how do you think it should work' question, not a 'how does it work RAW question'. There was only one Druid player, but he doesn't have access to Reincarnate yet. I consider the wording a little leading btw.

Every single one said that it should give a youthful body. When I told them the wording was "the spell forms a new adult body for it and then calls the soul to enter that body" and pointed out it doesn't specificy how old the new adult body is, only one person changed their mind to 'relative age'.

Totally unscientific but gives an idea of what two groups of people in my area think reincarnate (the word) means, and how it should work as a spell.

[Zorku]

I'm sure this makes perfect sense to someone who knows what you're talking about, but thaat's not me. Which edition and abilities are you nostalgic for?

I can't find an edition that explicitly says all of that, but 2nd and 3rd both use phrases like "in another body" instead of the "a new body forms in front of you" type language in other editions. This sounds very much like the kind of house ruling someone would make after having some minor introduction to Hinduism in a high school history class so I'd guess the DM is currently about 40 years old.

Having some existing farmer suddenly recall a former life (that largely overlaps their current life,) feels less druidic and way more wizard-y to me. Back in 2nd ed this was a spell wizards could cast, so maybe that's got something to do with it.


I polled two groups of players on this spell. The question I used was:
do you think 5e reincarnate should give you a body at the same relative age to your current age, the same age as you currently are, or a youthful body? Consider a middle aged human being reincarnated as a human, a middle aged human being reincarnated as an elf, and a middle aged elf being reincarnated as a human.

I didn't let them reference RAW first, so this was a 'how do you think it should work' question, not a 'how does it work RAW question'. There was only one Druid player, but he doesn't have access to Reincarnate yet. I consider the wording a little leading btw.

Every single one said that it should give a youthful body. When I told them the wording was "the spell forms a new adult body for it and then calls the soul to enter that body" and pointed out it doesn't specificy how old the new adult body is, only one person changed their mind to 'relative age'.

Totally unscientific but gives an idea of what two groups of people in my area think reincarnate (the word) means, and how it should work as a spell.Noting the bias you went in with seems plenty scientific. The small sample size makes this not rigorous, but getting large representative samples of roleplayers is gonna be pretty tough. If you had some underlying hypothesis and laid out what results would overturn it or support it beforehand you'd be right within the structure of something out of psychology or sociology.

What this actually is, is a sampling of players that don't spend their times in this forum (I presume?) and thus they make a nice out-group relative to the culture here. We all get very opinionated very quickly here, and a lot of us argue for the sake of argument, while I would expect that your sample lacks that fervor, or has quite a lot less of it on average.

From my perspective it seems kind of moot though, as all signs point to new youthful body being the intent behind the words. Nobody is really presenting substantial reasons for 'same relative age body' other than that they want it to work like that.

[Tanarii]

What this actually is, is a sampling of players that don't spend their times in this forum (I presume?) and thus they make a nice out-group relative to the culture here. We all get very opinionated very quickly here, and a lot of us argue for the sake of argument, while I would expect that your sample lacks that fervor, or has quite a lot less of it on average.Yep. That's was the point of the exercise. I can't speak with certainty, because my campaign is a (mostly) open table game that I run out of game stores. But from discussions with various players I've always gotten the impression that most of them aren't frequent forum-goers at all, and the few that do tend towards The-Forum-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named.


From my perspective it seems kind of moot though, as all signs point to new youthful body being the intent behind the words. Nobody is really presenting substantial reasons for 'same relative age body' other than that they want it to work like that.I was. The reason I'm discussing a 'new youthful body' is because I absolutely assumed the spell gave you a 'same relative age body', and it's purpose was to provide a lower-level way to resurrect someone who's body had been badly damaged / mostly destroyed. And was not intended in any way to provide a method for people that had died of old age (for example) a new lease on life.

Which, in retrospect and given the name of the spell, was pretty silly of me. :smallyuk:

[Zorku]

I wasn't saying that nobody supported that interpretation. I was saying that nobody has really presented arguments for why someone should go with that interpretation.

You had a little bit of relative age > absolute age, so that elves wouldn't get reincarnated and immediately turn to dust, but I never saw a concrete reason not to go with the youthful body concept. Players at a gaming store aren't necessarily a great place to look if you're coming at this from a game balance and "how powerful should a 5th level resurrection type spell be?" perspective, which is my best approximation of the motivating factors behind your previous interpretation.

[Tanarii]

layers at a gaming store aren't necessarily a great place to look if you're coming at this from a game balance and "how powerful should a 5th level resurrection type spell be?" perspective, which is my best approximation of the motivating factors behind your previous interpretation.True, and sorta kinda yes, that's where my assumption came from. But given the downsides to Reincarnation compared to Raise Dead (double cost, random race), in terms of balance, renewing your lifespan doesn't seem unbalanced.

Caveat: For modern D&D 5e, where typically age / long-term time generally doesn't matter. Since campaigns typically take place in significantly less time than the young adult to late middle age lifespan of the shortest lived races. Even IMC, which is an on-going multi-character/party campaign, is unlikely to go generational. Otoh it'd be hugely relevant factor in any campaign where the table is running an on-going where they retire high level characters and start over with the next generation (or even further in the future).

[ShikomeKidoMi]

Every single one said that it should give a youthful body. When I told them the wording was "the spell forms a new adult body for it and then calls the soul to enter that body" and pointed out it doesn't specificy how old the new adult body is, only one person changed their mind to 'relative age'.

Totally unscientific but gives an idea of what two groups of people in my area think reincarnate (the word) means, and how it should work as a spell.

Given that that's exactly how it worked in 3rd edition, you might want to check how many of them played that.

[90sMusic]

Reincarnate isn't going to keep adding cumulatively to your age or even "relative" age. It essentially resets the clock every time it is used, hence being one of the ways to be ageless in D&D, similar to using the Clone spell.

In older editions it even explicitly clarifies that it puts you in a "young adult" body for whatever creature.