D&D 5E [5e] Spell - Reincarnate - Can the "piece" be harvested BEFORE I die?

[Delazar]

The spells mentions "You touch a dead humanoid or a piece of a dead humanoid."

Can I harvest the "piece" in advance (say, a tooth) while I'm still alive, and then cast Reincarnate on the tooth?

I've recently been disintegrated, and there's no "pieces" left of my dead humanoid body...

But another PC has one of my teeth (it's a long story)... would that work?

Additional question. Disintegrate mentions "the creature can be restored to life only by means of a True Resurrection or a Wish spell". Does it mean Reincarnate won't work?

 

[DND_Reborn]

I don't see any reason why not. After all, the tooth is a piece of you.

I imagine the wording for Disintegrate was due to their thinking no pieces would be left.

All that being said, reincarnate would restore you at the point you were at when the tooth was removed. If the tooth was taken when you were 5th level, and you were disintegrated when you were 15th, you would be restored to 5th level.

That is how we would probably rule it anyway.

 

[Fanaelialae]

This is an unusual scenario, so it would be up to the DM.

By strict RAW, I'd say no, since Disintegrate says only True Resurrection works.

That said, I agree with @dnd4vr that this is a scenario the designers didn't consider. I would probably allow Reincarnate to work in these circumstances.

Finally, I wouldn't reduce your level to when the tooth was harvested. That sort of thing happened in older editions, but it doesn't mesh well with 5e in my opinion. 5e did away with level loss.

 

[77IM]

I have allowed this in the past.

The kenku wizard was shedding feathers all over the battle. Then, when he was polymorphed into a large bird, the beholder turned its anti-magic eye towards him, and the wizard changed back into a flightless kenku and fell onto a disintegration field (it's like a force field, but it disintegrates you). The party remembered what I had said about the feathers earlier, grabbed some, and they happened to have a druid handy to reincarnate.

The reason I allowed this is because it opens up some interesting story possibilities. Like, one way to capture some one would be to get a piece of them (a hair, say) and then assassinate them and then secretly reincarnate them. It might mean druids bank pieces of their allies (vials of blood, say) to reincarnate if needed, and those banks could be stolen and used for nefarious purposes (scrying, say).

 

[coolAlias]

Allowing it also gives reincarnate a decent use case, when most people would prefer raise dead as it is the same spell level, doesn't randomly change your race, and has material costs of only 500 gp instead of 1000 gp.

 

[gargoyleking]

The funny thing is 3.5 Reincarnate didn't cost anything I believe. I think the 'cost' was tied up in the randomness that the new form would take. Of course, i had a human reincarnated into a dwarf and couldn't be happier with the outcome. (Lost nothing from being human and gained most of the dwarf bonuses.)

Also, were I a DM, I would totally allow this.

 

[jasper]

The spells mentions "You touch a dead humanoid or a piece of a dead humanoid."

Can I harvest the "piece" in advance (say, a tooth) while I'm still alive, and then cast Reincarnate on the tooth?

I've recently been disintegrated, and there's no "pieces" left of my dead humanoid body...

But another PC has one of my teeth (it's a long story)... would that work?

Additional question. Disintegrate mentions "the creature can be restored to life only by means of a True Resurrection or a Wish spell". Does it mean Reincarnate won't work?

No, you are trying to cheese the result of the disintegrate. Or Yes, and evil Druid just cast reincarnate on the tooth, your current pc becomes soulless and a demon or my ex wife moves into its body. Run away. No you are dust. You took a powder. You are something to sneeze at. So Reincarnate will not work.
Now if you give me the long story I may allow it this once. And that once for the whole table.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

The spells mentions "You touch a dead humanoid or a piece of a dead humanoid."

Can I harvest the "piece" in advance (say, a tooth) while I'm still alive, and then cast Reincarnate on the tooth?

I would say that this doesn't work, because the piece was never a part of a dead humanoid.

 

[coolAlias]

I would say that this doesn't work, because the piece was never a part of a dead humanoid.

That's a fair, logical ruling. As a player, I'd be disappointed, but I'd be fine with it, especially since it means that disintegrate remains a viable method of keeping the BBEG down, at least until a few levels later.

 

[billd91]

Additional question. Disintegrate mentions "the creature can be restored to life only by means of a True Resurrection or a Wish spell". Does it mean Reincarnate won't work?

I'm going to echo Jasper in that I wouldn't allow using reincarnate on a pre-death donated body part to get around disintegrate's complication. Allowing it would also, in effect, steal a chunk of the clone spell's thunder. I don't particularly want to undercut the provisions of or roles of higher level spells with a cheaper resource.