D&D 5E The reincarnate table is an interesting thing

[Ruin Explorer]

I was looking at the reincarnate table and it's kind of fascinating. 21% chance to be "another bloody elf", 20% chance to be a human, 17% chance to be a Dwarf, 16% chance to be a Halfling, 10% chance to Gnome, and 4% each for Dragonborn, Half-Elf, Half-Orc, and Tiefling

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

Obviously the table is entirely optional, and the DM can always pick, and there are alternate tables out there, and so on, but I kind of wonder at how they chose these percentages. Elf being highest works as a call back to Ye Olde Dayes when Elves couldn't be brought back by Raise Dead, but Dwarf and Halfling seem kind of high, especially the latter (not typically a numerous race), and humans seem really low given how common they are.

Also horrible thought, and obviously one could crack down on it with "wrath of the gods" and so on, but if the DM did insist on rolling every time, couldn't you just, keep getting your party to kill you if you came back as the "wrong" race until you got the "right" one, assuming you had downtime? Unlike Raise Dead, there's no penalty to being Reincarnated. I'm not asking for a solution, note, just noting this with some amusement!

Also, has anyone ever actually seen this spell be used in 5E? And did you use this table or just pick?

 

[Fenris-77]

It makes a little more sense once I realized the Drow was more in the 3% per oddities list. That leaves elves, dwarves, and halflings about even, behind human. Sounds correct.

 

[atanakar]

We had one guy who played a racist character who hated half-elves. One day his character dies and all we can find is wizard willing to cast Reincarte. The player rolls and get, you guess it, half-elf as his new race.

I've never used reincarnation or raise dead, as a DM, in none of my campaigns. Dead is dead.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I find it more interesting that now you can't come back as a beast.

FWIW here is the AD&D Druid Table:

And the AD&D Magic-User table:

Of course, back then it was a 7th level Druid spell, but only a 6th level Magic-User spell. No a big deal though when you realize both classes got the spell at 12th class level...

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I find it more interesting that now you can't come back as a beast.

FWIW here is the AD&D Druid Table:
View attachment 121549
And the AD&D Magic-User table:
View attachment 121550
View attachment 121551
Of course, back then it was a 7th level Druid spell, but only a 6th level Magic-User spell. No a big deal though when you realize both classes got the spell at 12th class level...

These tables have a bit more style than the modern ones, but people would just try and cheese them, I guess, and it's always tricky to try and run an animal PC (though far from impossible).

 

[ccs]

I very nearly had a reincarnate scenario aimed at turning a 1/2elf into a human going on in my current game.

The 1/2elf cleric PC & a Vistani woman fell in love. They wanted to marry. Her grandmother, the matriarch of the clan though was against this* & forbade the union - on the grounds that the cleric was neither "of the blood"(IE; Vistani) nor human.
The would be bride assured the PC that of the two conditions him not being a fellow Vistani was something that could be dealt with. That the real deal breaker was her Grandmothers stance on non-humans.

So the party came up with the drunken plan to cross the mountains into the Valley of the Druids & arrange for the cleric to be ritually sacrificed again & again until he rolled "Human" on the reincarnation chart....
En-route to the druids though the players found a less absurd alternate way to change his race.

And then the player had to drop out of the game for a bit due to a forced shift change where he works.
Fortunately though the alternate process takes some time & he has the means to locate the rest of the party when he can re-join the game (in about another 3 weeks it's looking like).

*Actually, although it IS true that she doesn't have any fondness for non-humans, Grandma said this knowing that it would propel the characters towards a certain point.... And it did. As the DM I just hadn't ever considered the absurd idea of enlisting the areas druids to repeatedly sacrifice the cleric to achieve this end.

 

[Minigiant]

It just weirds me out that you can be reincarnated as a half-breed like a halfelf.

Oratiefling that insomesettings are descendents of magically changed humans.

Does Reincarnation take a census of the planet every time it is cast to factor in new races?

 

[Quickleaf]

Also horrible thought, and obviously one could crack down on it with "wrath of the gods" and so on, but if the DM did insist on rolling every time, couldn't you just, keep getting your party to kill you if you came back as the "wrong" race until you got the "right" one, assuming you had downtime? Unlike Raise Dead, there's no penalty to being Reincarnated. I'm not asking for a solution, note, just noting this with some amusement!

Well there is the component cost. "Rare oils and unguents worth at least 1,000 gp, which the spell consumes." But if money is no object – and your original race is on the table (sorry goliaths, goblins, firbolgs, etc, etc), go for it.

 

[Todd Roybark]

I find it more interesting that now you can't come back as a beast.

It was fricken terrible sometimes. When your beloved 12 level Magic User comes back as a bloody badger, and you are bound and determined to not role up a new character, it leads you to do this:

couldn't you just, keep getting your party to kill you if you came back as the "wrong" race until you got the "right" one,

It took 5 rebirths to become an elf again.

 

[Lanefan]

It was fricken terrible sometimes. When your beloved 12 level Magic User comes back as a bloody badger, and you are bound and determined to not role up a new character, it leads you to do this:

Your DM was being rather generous in two ways:

One, in allowing you-as-badger to keep your previous intelligence, memories etc., thus to realize you didn't want to be a badger.

Two, in allowing multiple rebirths in such a short time (even though RAW says it can happen, I'd still be looking for a few system shock rolls in there after the first rebirth).