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)?
I don't know if the RAW actually saw gender/sex doesn't change. They don't say anything about it, either yay or nay. I suspect it's done that way to allow DMs to make the choice for their own games.
Personally, anyone who is reincarnated in my games has a 50% chance to go away. Interestingly, the spell had *never* been used in my campaign, in about 7 years, yet lately, a high-level druid is the only person in the party capable of bringing back the dead. This had never been house ruled, yet all my players assumed there was a random chance of switching gender.
One of the characters was a male elf, who had been slain several weeks ago, and been reincarnated as a different male elf......but he was slain again after a few sessions, and has now been brought back as a dryad, meaning a female form since there are no males....aside from satyrs, and since they're a different result on the chart, they don't count.
The player saw it as an opportunity for a change. He's been playing this character for 6 years, and miraculously, he's survived the entire time. But once he finally died for the first time, he seems to be having harder luck.
I've also tried a bit of a different take on the spell. Given that my campaign is a low-XP, slow advancement one, many characters have been in it for many years of play time, and they're still only about lvl 12 right now. Sometimes players experience character fatigue...the desire to try something different. So, I decided to allow characters to switch classes when they come back, if they're interested. The idea being that when they come back, though they remember their old life, they've also got a new mind that might not do things the same way....so that elf I mentioned had been a rogue/sorcerer, but is now a dryad wizard. So far it seems the best of both worlds. They're trying to roleplay it, and it allows them to try something new if a character dies, without the problems inherent in trying to introduce a new character into the party, not knowing any of the campaign history, what the PCs are up to, etc.
I guess it all depends on the comfort level of the group. I always just assumed you were supposed to roll, but I guess nothing specifically says you have to.
Banshee