Question about reincarnate

[gryffydd65]

Ok so my question is if a lizard man druid recarnates a lizard man into a dwarf. Would the new dwarf know dwarven or retain draconic?

The spell is listed below for all to see.

Reincarnate

You touch a dead Humanoid or a piece of a dead Humanoid. Provided that the creature has been dead no longer than 10 days, the spell forms a new adult body for it and then calls the soul to enter that body. If the target's soul isn't free or willing to do so, the spell fails.

The magic fashions a new body for the creature to inhabit, which likely causes the creature's race to change. The DM rolls a d100 and consults the following table to determine what form the creature takes when restored to life, or the DM chooses a form.

d100 - Race:
01-04 Dragonborn
05-13 Dwarf, hill
14-21 Dwarf, Mountain
22-25 Elf, dark
26-34 Elf, high
35-42 Elf, wood
43-46 Gnome, Forest
47-52 Gnome, rock
53-56 Half-Elf
57-60 Half-Orc
61-68 Halfling, Lightfoot
69-76 Halfling, stout
77-96 Human
97-00 Tiefling

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.

[kbob]

RAW it would appear that they would swap languages. Languages are racial traits. The spell description for reincarnate says: "it[target creature] exchanges its original race for the new one and changes its Racial Traits accordingly." However, whoever the DM is in your game can choose to alter this if he/she wishes. It may just be an oversight from the game developers or that they just didn't go there because they wanted to keep things simple. At any rate, I personally would have them keep their original languages. It seems to fit better. It's the same person/soul with the same memory/experiences but just so happens to be in a different body or driving a new car so to speak (whether it's a car they like or not).

[Nifft]

If it's an NPC, then what happens is whatever is funnier.

If it's a PC, then what happens is whatever the player would prefer.

Yeah, this isn't what the rules say, but honestly Reincarnation is already a bit of an anti-choice, so I want to give agency back to the player ASAP.

[gryffydd65]

My idea is that lizardfolk want to infiltrate the closest town so the druid lizard folk uses reincarnation to change some of his followers. So they don't speak dwarven or elven just draconic and common.