Reincarnate or "I'm a bugbear now what?"

[Bagpuss]

How does Reincarnate work?

Say I'm happily playing my Dwarven Fighter 2/Cleric 6 swinging my Dwavern Waraxe left and right, when I die and the helpful Druid in the party reincarnates me, as for example a Bugbear.

Important paragraph for reference

A reincarnated creature recalls the majority of its former life and form. It retains any class abilities, feats, or skill ranks it formerly possessed. Its class, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, and hit points are unchanged. Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution scores depend partly on the new body. First eliminate the subject’s racial adjustments (since it is no longer of his previous race) and then apply the adjustments found below to its remaining ability scores. The subject’s level (or Hit Dice) is reduced by 1. If the subject was 1st level, its new Constitution score is reduced by 2. (If this reduction would put its Con at 0 or lower, it can’t be reincarnated). This level/HD loss or Constitution loss cannot be repaired by any means.

I lose all my racial adjustments.

I lose the +2 Con, but do I also lose the -2 Cha? (It doesn't mention keeping it?).

On the plus side I gain

+4 Strength, +2 Dex, and +2 Con from being a bugbear.

Now that stats bit is obvious, now comes the tricky bit.... does racial adjustments just refer to stats? If that was true then I'd keep my dwarven darkvision even if I came back as a human.

But check the PHB glossary.

racial bonus: A bonus granted because of the culture a particular creature was brought up in or because of innate characteristics of that type of creature. If a creature’s race changes (for instance, if it dies and is reincarnated), it loses all racial bonuses it had in its previous form.

So I lose weapon familiarity and have to use my Waraxe two handed all of a sudden.
I suddenly gain a 20% XP penalty from going from favoured class Fighter to Rogue.
I suddenly gain 3 racial hit dice for being a bugbear, plus two feats, skill ranks and a +1 Level adjustment as well.

So I go from being a Fighter 2/Cleric 6 (an 8th level character) lose a level for dying becoming a Fighter 2/Cleric 5, but then have 3 Racial Hit Dice and a +1 level adjustment to be a 11th level character. So I'm not going to be able to level up for ages, have reduced XP awards compared to the rest of the party and on top of that a 20% XP penalty.

Seems really messy to me.

 

[darthkilmor]

So I go from being a Fighter 2/Cleric 6 (an 8th level character) lose a level for dying becoming a Fighter 2/Cleric 5, but then have 3 Racial Hit Dice and a +1 level adjustment to be a 11th level character. So I'm not going to be able to level up for ages, have reduced XP awards compared to the rest of the party and on top of that a 20% XP penalty.

Seems really messy to me.

If you're unhappy with your new form, maybe you should just shoot for:

A wish or a miracle spell can restore a reincarnated character to his or her original form.

Or kill yourself and have the druid reincarnate you again?

I think you've got all the rules right as far as what your new form entails(not sure about the HD bit but other than that)

 

[Doug McCrae]

How does Reincarnate work?

It doesn't. It's broken 1e legacy code that should've been fixed in 3e.

 

[Bagpuss]

If you're unhappy with your new form...

Not really unhappy the dwarf was just an example.

In the actual game it was a multiclass human monk/druid that wanted to be reincarnated since it suits a druid's faith, we actually decided to raise the character in the end due to the problems reincarnate would cause.

Thus we are currently trying to 'fix' reincarnate as we have no cleric and two druids in the party it is likely to come up again.

Plus it's not so much the player would be unhappy coming back as a Bugbear more the DM would be unhappy with one character suddenly being an ECL 3 higher than the rest of the party, as his penalty for dying. It makes balancing encounters pretty tricky.

 

[stonegod]

Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution scores depend partly on the new body

You loose physical modifiers (the Con, but you keep the Cha penality).
You gain the physical modifiers of the new form (as mentioned).

The reincarnated creature gains all abilities associated with its new form, including forms of movement and speeds, natural armor, natural attacks, extraordinary abilities, and the like

You keep all of your extraordinary abilities (because it does not say you loose them) from your last race and gain them from the new race. Darkvision is extraordinary. The FAQ may or may not contradict this last point.

 

[Bagpuss]

You keep all of your extraordinary abilities (because it does not say you loose them) from your last race and gain them from the new race. Darkvision is extraordinary. The FAQ may or may not contradict this last point.

FAQ doesn't need to because the PHB already does.

racial bonus: A bonus granted because of the culture a particular creature was brought up in or because of innate characteristics of that type of creature. If a creature’s race changes (for instance, if it dies and is reincarnated), it loses all racial bonuses it had in its previous form.

Darkvision is a racial bonus.

 

[nittanytbone]

The way I handled it back in 1E might help a group resolve it in 3.5 as well...

I always imagined Reincarnate as working similar to the appearance of Gandalf the White. He seems to be familiar with Gandalf the Grey, but clearly has different capabilities and a slightly different world view.

Back in 1E I always just generated a new character from the ground up of the appropriate level. So in 3.5, I'd just scrap the rules, make a new character (new ability scores, perhaps rolled from scratch if that's the campaign method) and go from there. The new character would be similar in role and abilities but perhaps build mechanically a bit differently.

For example a Wizard suddenly reincarnated as something with LA like a bugbear would be pretty useless. I'd let the player rebuild as a Duskblade or Fighter/Mage or something.

 

[blargney the second]

I make reincarnees lose everything from their previous race and templates, and gain everything from the new race except for racial HD and LA. It's just simpler that way.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Darkvision is a racial bonus.

No, it isn't; Darkvision is a racial trait. A bonus is a positive modifier.

-Hyp.

 

[Darklone]

Talk with your DM, it's pretty likely he doesn't follow the rules on that spell. Noone I know does