Reincarnation and gender of the new form.

sullivan · Mar 30, 2005

Is your sex determined randomly during Reincarnation, or does it always remain the same? This popped into my head because of the Ring of Sustinance thread, but it's something that I've been curious if there is any semi-offical word on.

Gaming story: This actually came up once with a character of mine, a Dwarf that was delusional in thinking he was an Elf. At one point he died with no readily available means of Raise Dead or Resurection. On a whim the party Druid said "Hey, I'll Reincarnate him and see what happens." The roll comes up *tada* Elf.

However the GM said the gender was random, and it changed male to female.

So rather than basically curing a psychological identity problem he/she ended up just substituting one for another.

Patryn of Elvenshae · Mar 30, 2005

RAW, it remains the same. Reincarnation affects only your race / species.

However, it's not a far stretch to rule that random sex changes can happen as well - but it is a stretch.

Saeviomagy · Mar 31, 2005

Patryn of Elvenshae said:
RAW, it remains the same. Reincarnation affects only your race / species.

However, it's not a far stretch to rule that random sex changes can happen as well - but it is a stretch.

Given the amount of players who don't like to cross the gender line, it's probably a bad stretch unless the player in question asks for it...

sullivan · Mar 31, 2005

Saeviomagy said:
Given the amount of players who don't like to cross the gender line, it's probably a bad stretch unless the player in question asks for it...

True, I forget that the people I game with normally aren't nearly as squimish as most about such things. WotC might have even rejected writing possible gender changes into the rules because of that. They got rid of the specific gender-bender cursed items, though the drawback is still an entry on the random roll list.

frankthedm · Mar 31, 2005

Shame the girdle is not a specific item any more.

Great thing you can put it on any item as a drawback.

reanjr · Mar 31, 2005

Patryn of Elvenshae said:
RAW, it remains the same. Reincarnation affects only your race / species.

However, it's not a far stretch to rule that random sex changes can happen as well - but it is a stretch.

What if something is reincarnated as a species that doesn't have a gender. Or one which only has females. Or a hermaphroditic species. What happens in these cases (both to and from)?

Viktyr Gehrig · Mar 31, 2005

reanjr said:
What if something is reincarnated as a species that doesn't have a gender. Or one which only has females. Or a hermaphroditic species. What happens in these cases (both to and from)?

When reincarnated into a sexless, hermaphroditic, or single-sexed race, I'd say that the race's physiology overrides-- the character becomes sexless, hermaphroditic, or of the appropriate sex.

When reincarnated out of such a race, I'd say that the character's sense of identity more or less forces the new form to correspond-- the player picks the character's new sex. For truly and utterly genderless characters, a random roll would be appropriate, also at the player's option.

I'm more or less comfortable with genderbent characters because of my own predilection towards playing sexless races. However, I understand why a lot of people have problems with that, and forcing such a situation on the player/character is just sick, in my opinion.

Al · Apr 1, 2005

IMC Reincarnated characters roll randomly for gender. Needless to say, if the race is genderless, this is a moot point.

Gez · Apr 1, 2005

I've a DM that make it another roll. Odd you're male, even female.

That way, a male dwarf became a female elf!

But the funniest part was not the sex change. It was the racial ability adjustment change. From a Dwarf with average Con (10) to a sickly Elf (6 Con). Did I say the character was a Fighter? And that he was killed, the first time, by Wyvern venom?

Myself, I roll neither. As a DM, I chose what the target gets reincarnated into. Because I want it to depends on where the reincarnation spell is cast (so it'll always be a race that is common enough in the area, never something exotic), and I want it to depend also on the race and sex of the slain character.

Lord Pendragon · Apr 1, 2005

sullivan said:
True, I forget that the people I game with normally aren't nearly as squimish as most about such things. WotC might have even rejected writing possible gender changes into the rules because of that. They got rid of the specific gender-bender cursed items, though the drawback is still an entry on the random roll list.

I don't think a disinclination to play a gender change is necessarily squeemish. Some people, such as myself, prefer to play the gender of the character we've created, whether that starts out as a spartan young man from a hidden city of demon-slaying fighter-mages, or a teenaged girl who pulled herself up from the streets to begin a career as an actress and an acrobat. In either case, the focus of the character is on other things, rather than a cheap gender-change mid-campaign.

IMO Reincarnation has enough of a disincentive to its use in the uncontrollable racial change (most half-orcs I've seen played would rather stay dead than risk coming back as an elf,) without throwing in a gender change as well.