Samsarans in Different Bodies?

[Palanan]

Samsarans are one of my favorite uncommon races, but given their concept—souls returning again and again—it seems odd that they’re essentially humans with minor cosmetic differences, and the assumption seems to be that only human souls can return like this.

Are there instances in the official mechanics or lore of returning souls from other races, such as dwarves or tengu or merfolk? Do they occupy samsaran-like versions of their prior bodies, or are they all funneled into the baseline samsaran body? And if there’s nothing official, how would you approach this? Would a returning tengu soul occupy a tengu body with samsaran stats, or is there another way to handle this?

[Wintermoot]

Samsarans are one of my favorite uncommon races, but given their concept—souls returning again and again—it seems odd that they’re essentially humans with minor cosmetic differences, and the assumption seems to be that only human souls can return like this.

Are there instances in the official mechanics or lore of returning souls from other races, such as dwarves or tengu or merfolk? Do they occupy samsaran-like versions of their prior bodies, or are they all funneled into the baseline samsaran body? And if there’s nothing official, how would you approach this? Would a returning tengu soul occupy a tengu body with samsaran stats, or is there another way to handle this?

First, as far as I am aware, its not a matter of "only human souls can return like this" because they aren't human at all. The Samsarans are a distinct race of blue-skinned humanoids native to Tian Xia. They are not human, only yet another string of human-like humanoids.

So when a Samsaran reincarnates, they are reincarnating from one Samsaran body to another Samsaran body.

Second, my group and I threw all that out anyway. I played a Samsaran who was originally a human. Specifically a greek general, who reincarnated into a stone statue of herself because of a specific ritual. In that game "Samsaran" was the name of any reincarnated soul who moved to a new body in the same way.

In another game, we had a samsaran who reincarnated in the normal fashion, but the "Samsarans" in that case looked like native american humans.

AS far as "official" mechanics and lore, nothing I'm aware of, but that's becuase in the official mechanics and lore, they are a distinct race all on their own.