Raincarnate funnies?

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Any of u all have any fun, odd or comical things happen with the Reincarnate spell? How did it go over or how did you all take it?

The first time I saw it a Half Orc Ranger in the party was Reincarnated as a human. He took it well, was happy to have a PC still and while we made some jokes off and on it wasn't a big deal.

A while later I used it in a game I ran. The party was hired to save an elf female from a dungeon and returned with her dead body. She Reincarnated and came back as a Half Orc. She wasn't thrilled, neither was her mother, but she was happy to be alive. Over the next several sessions in the background she was Reincarnated 13 times and kept coming back as things besides an Elf. On lucky 14 she made a pact and came back as an Elf. Her pact set off part of the next adventure with the characters.

I can see some players not being thrilled if their Tiefling came back as a Halfling or vice versa. How has it worked in your games?

[IIzak]

We actually used it on an NPC for a pretty funny and ironic effect. While working for the Church of Pelor, we tracked down this guy who had deserted the church and were told not to speak to him. We killed him, then found out that maybe wasn't the best idea when we nearly got stomped by his Arch-fey girlfriend. We drove her off by basically dealing a bunch of damage and promising to bring him back to life. None of us had any revive spells handy, so we found the nearest person who did, a Druid.

The druid casts re-incarnate and this dude comes back to life, but his memory reverts back to his pre-desertion days, so he is this devout follower of Pelor, the sun god. The hilarious and ironic part? He came back as a Drow elf. His god literally causes him pain whenever he's in his presence. Was pretty funny to all of us.

[nickl_2000]

I haven't done it, but I find the idea of playing a Path of the Zealot Barbarian with a Druid in the party very entertaining. Every day, the Barbarian offs himself and is reincarnated as a different race.

[HappyDaze]

I haven't done it, but I find the idea of playing a Path of the Zealot Barbarian with a Druid in the party very entertaining. Every day, the Barbarian offs himself and is reincarnated as a different race.

That's got to play hell with his mental state. Even more so if the sex of the body gets randomly assigned too.

BTW, what happens when a multi-class character adjusts ability scores for the new body and no longer qualifies to multi-class (because a required score dropped a racial +1 or +2 and becomes an 11 or 12)?

[MarkVIIIMarc]

That's got to play hell with his mental state. Even more so if the sex of the body gets randomly assigned too.

BTW, what happens when a multi-class character adjusts ability scores for the new body and no longer qualifies to multi-class (because a required score dropped a racial +1 or +2 and becomes an 11 or 12)?


Oh wow. That's complicated. If you loose the BardX out of your Wizard 5, Bard X combo, do you revert to just level 5?

[nickl_2000]

Oh wow. That's complicated. If you loose the BardX out of your Wizard 5, Bard X combo, do you revert to just level 5?

I believe that JC has said that you keep your class levels and can continue to gain in either of them, but I can't find the reference to it.

[HappyDaze]

Would a Variant Human reincarnated to anything else be forced to lose the exact feat they selected at 1st level? That would make so many optimizers cry especially as only the regular human shows up on the table, so you'd never get it back.:xykon:

[ProsecutorGodot]

Would a Variant Human reincarnated to anything else be forced to lose the exact feat they selected at 1st level? That would make so many optimizers cry especially as only the regular human shows up on the table, so you'd never get it back.:xykon:

Good question, I'd say since Variant Human's gain access to a feat via their racial traits (Variant Human specifies that all of the features it has replace the Standard Human's Ability Score Increase feature) they would lose the feat. Reincarnate replaces all of your racial traits with that of the new form.

We can't be sure if this was intended, as this is a fringe case relying on variant rules to be in play. It contradicts the idea that the creature retains all of the capabilities that it had in it's original form. If the situation came up at my table, I would probably rule that as long as they still met any prerequisites for the feat they would still gain the benefits from it.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Would a Variant Human reincarnated to anything else be forced to lose the exact feat they selected at 1st level? That would make so many optimizers cry especially as only the regular human shows up on the table, so you'd never get it back.:xykon:

Oh my! I wouldn't want to make it IMPOSSIBLE. I'd have to house rule in some v humans onto that table! Maybe let them pick a patron to have advantage on their Reincarnate roll lol.

[Kane0]

I remember we changed the table once to include more races as they came out but also a 95-00 result meant roll twice and combined the results, which usually meant you could be a half-breed of some very, very odd combinations.
It got a bit silly after we ended up with a half lizardfolk, half half-orc so we replaced that 5% with warforged.

[JellyPooga]

It does beg the question; does a Reincarnated character look the same but with slightly different features, or do they look entirely different. I can't see a Dwarf being happy about losing his beard....

[HappyDaze]

It does beg the question; does a Reincarnated character look the same but with slightly different features, or do they look entirely different. I can't see a Dwarf being happy about losing his beard....

It's an entirely new body. There's no reason that your previous "shell" should dictate how the current one looks (or sounds or smells).

But that's OK. As far as you're concerned, you're 100% adapted to the new form and everything "feels right" since the change is more than skin deep. This is obvious as you get racial traits that have nothing to do with biology (like bonus weapon proficiencies, tool proficiencies, languages, etc.).

[JellyPooga]

It's an entirely new body. There's no reason that your previous "shell" should dictate how the current one looks (or sounds or smells).

But that's OK. As far as you're concerned, you're 100% adapted to the new form and everything "feels right" since the change is more than skin deep. This is obvious as you get racial traits that have nothing to do with biology (like bonus weapon proficiencies, tool proficiencies, languages, etc.).

If that's the case, then how much (if any) of the rest of your personality changes? Would a Halfling-> Dwarf lose his happy-go-lucky pragnatism to have it replaced with dwarvish stoicism? What about the High Elf and his long-view -> Half Orc brashness? Or more extreme, the goblin hating Dwarf, taught that attitide by generations of his forebears, who becomes a Goblin? If he's truly comfortable with his new form, would that not include losing that prejudice along with his racial Stonecunning and Weapon proficiencies?

As a further corollary, if both physical form and personality are indeed changed so drastically, can it truly be said that it's the same person at all? I think most could accept that a being with the same mind and soul but a different body is the same person, but few would accept (once it's known) the reverse and even less likely if both mind and body have changed. That being the case, does Reincarnation really do what it says on the tin? Or should it also change other aspects, like Class or indeed Background to really reflect the notion that while the soul is shared, the character is no longer who they once were, either in body or in mind? Truly reincarnated, so to speak; same soul, new life entirely.

[Laserlight]

In a Mayaztecan world with basically only humans, elves, and orcs and half orcs, the party was fighting The One Called Night.

Colette the short, petite, little swashbuckler was killed, but Aberthol sacrificed himself to the fire and ascended as the New Sun.
Since Aberthol had become a god, I said he could grant spells. I handed him a big bowl of tokens and said "each of these is a spell level, usable for whatever the caster wants except Wish. Hand them out as you like. Have fun."

So everyone got a double handful of spell levels and spent a few minutes poring through the PHB to decide which spells they wanted to use. Multiple Meteor Swarms later, The One Called Night was no longer an issue. And one of the surviving PCs decided to bring back Colette -- via Reincarnate.

One random roll later, feisty little Colette was appalled to find herself the world's only gnome. Fortunately that was the last session of the campaign.

[Maxilian]

I had to use it once for a npc, it was someone i was supposed to rescue, and i did, and rescued her, and even got to capture one of the enemies to interrogate, as soon as i'm done, another party member arrive in the scene, and the first thing he does is:

https://d1u5p3l4wpay3k.cloudfront.net/hearthstone_gamepedia/thumb/5/55/Pyroblast_full.jpg/400px-Pyroblast_full.jpg?version=be02f948a0d08694a752964 d3ec918bf

in a 20x15 room.....

He even casted it as a lvl 5 Spell... so guess who took a lot of damage? Well... EVERYONE!

The woman i was supposed to rescue now dead, so the guy i was going to interrogate, and now i'm almost dead!!!!

The woman was a human, and when i reincarnated her, she came back as a Dwarf, she was not fan of it, but it also meant she could live much longer than what she was expecting... so it was not bad

[Misterwhisper]

It was in 3.5 but back in the day we had a Frenzied Berzerker Forsaken Barbarian, who got reincarnated as a warhorse.

He stuck with it, played it for a good long while too.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

It was in 3.5 but back in the day we had a Frenzied Berzerker Forsaken Barbarian, who got reincarnated as a warhorse.

He stuck with it, played it for a good long while too.

At least in this edition you come back as a humanoid lol. That would be rough and I applaud him.

[Misterwhisper]

At least in this edition you come back as a humanoid lol. That would be rough and I applaud him.

It actually worked pretty well, a frenzied berserker forsaker was so good it didn’t hurt that bad.

Nobody saw it coming when the horse broke all craz, sundered a few weapons with his hooves and was unkillable.

[Arkhios]

If a Storm Sorcerer got reincarnated as a water genasi, would that be called "Raincarnated"?

FYI, if you didn't notice/do it on purpose, you misspelled it in the topic... :smallcool:

[Sariel Vailo]

I make ye flip a coin durring reimcarnate gender changes to.

[CIDE]

I make ye flip a coin durring reimcarnate gender changes to.

I do the same. It makes more sense given the nature of the spell. All that said I've never played or DMed a table where we've ever used reincarnate. It's a huge bummer.

[Sariel Vailo]

I do the same. It makes more sense given the nature of the spell. All that said I've never played or DMed a table where we've ever used reincarnate. It's a huge bummer.

Saaaaaaaaaaaaame

[JackPhoenix]

Back in 3.5, I've had (well, not me, I was the GM) a human sorceress reincarnated as gnome. That wouldn't be so bad... if small creatures back then didn't have -2 Str. Being weak even before (don't remember exact value), she was now unable to carry even absolutely basic equipment without taking penalties from encumberance. And the lowered speed was bad enough even without that. Ended up using ranger's wolf companion as a mount to keep up with the rest of the group.