Druid / Shifter? Reincarnated? Help pls...

Veldrane

First Post
Just a question, but IMHO it's a tough one... ...why shouldn't a Druid or Druid / Shifter Reincarnate in something like a Wolf / Bear / Wolverine to gain the stats bonuses - retaining all the class abilities as the spell states - and then become a humanoid again through Wildshape when it comes to interact with other humanoids or wear magical items?

THnx in advance for the feedback...
 

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With Reincarnate, you don't get a choice as to what your new body will be. Yes, you could come back as a Wolf, and get lots of great stat bonuses, but there's also a chance that you could come back as an Owl, Hawk, Sprite, or any number of other creatures that would severely hamper your abilities.

Using equipment and casting spells while in your natural form, if it's not humanoid, will be extremely hard.

The stat increases would only help you if you stayed in your natural form, though. When you Wild Shape into a different form, you assume the physical ability scores of your new form, which replace whatever your scores were before. If you become an Elf, for example, you get the default physical ability scores for an Elf from the MM. That's Str 10, Dex 13, Con 8.

Also, when a Druid Wild Shapes into an alternate form, all of their equipment melds into the new form. You could become a Human, but all of your equipment would be unusable until you regained your natural form.

Plus, and probably most importantly, a regular Druid can't Wild Shape into a Humanoid form. They are restricted to animals only at first, and then dire animals and elementals at higher levels.

A Shifter could, though, and they get to control which pieces of equipment meld into their new shape, but the stat issue remains. And a Shifter gives up 10 levels of spell progression to be able to do that. That's a pretty big hit for a spellcaster.
 

Actually I'm going for the Shifter anyway, so, let's see...
  • Casting in WildShape is not that difficult, via Natural Spells (and consider that I have only 5 Spellcasting levels - Druid 5 / Shifter X-)
  • The stat increase would help me with my HP, that is all I need, cause I get the stats of the creature I WildShape in.
  • As a Shifter, all the Magical Items reamains functional while I'm in WildShape form

So, considering these points, is it worth it (and possible) IYO?
 

Now you just have to hope that you roll well on the Reincarnation table. :D

Don't forget that you have to die first to be Reincarnated, and it costs you one level, just like Raise Dead.

If the opportunity comes up, I'd say to go for it. But I wouldn't kill myself just to get Reincarnated...
 
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This idea doesn't seem to make sense to me. Let me work through it bit by bit and see if I can follow the logic of it.

First, you are a druid/Shifter. You want to die and use reincarnate to get some better stats. Do you have another druid in the party? You're going to need somebody else to cast reincarnate for you.

Now say you do get reincarnated. You're hoping that you get a good animal, I suppose. There are some animals which receive no con bonus, and some which have a con penalty instead, but let's assume you are lucky enough to roll what you want. Say, a brown bear (Con +8). On the surface, this would seem great, except that from the SRD (highlighting mine):

A character reincarnated recalls the majority of his former life and form. He retains his Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores, as well as any class abilities or skills he formerly possessed. His class, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, and hit points are unchanged.

So while your con does go up, you gain no hit points from it at first. Certainly as you level up, I'd allow that con bonus to provide bonus hit points, but you aren't going to get any of that con bonus to levels you already have, because the spell specifically says that hit points are unchanged. You do still get a better fortitude save though.

Or do you? Remember that when you Wildshape you take the physical scores of the creature you've changed into. So your own strength, dexterity, and constitution are hardly ever going to come into play. Unless you like the brown bear enough to fight in it regularly, you'll never see a change in your saves at all, because those saves are always dependent on your current form. And if you did like the brown bear so much, why not just wildshape into it in the first place, instead of going through the convoluted effort of getting reincarnated?

Veldrane said:
The stat increase would help me with my HP, that is all I need, cause I get the stats of the creature I WildShape in.
[*] As a Shifter, all the Magical Items reamains functional while I'm in WildShape form


Are you talking about the HP you'll get from later levels? It's a pretty big risk doing this for such a small future gain. I'd probably recommend getting an Amulet of Health instead. Remember the possibility of changing into something that actually lowers your con score!

Also, you mention magical items remaining functional while you're in wildshape. I don't have MoTW with me, so I can't verify this. Do all magic items remain functional even while melded into your new form, or merely when you've taken a form that uses equipment and the item doesn't meld with you? I didn't think they did, otherwise the new magic item, the Wilding Clasp would be pretty useless...
 

Lord Pendragon said:
Also, you mention magical items remaining functional while you're in wildshape. I don't have MoTW with me, so I can't verify this. Do all magic items remain functional even while melded into your new form, or merely when you've taken a form that uses equipment and the item doesn't meld with you? I didn't think they did, otherwise the new magic item, the Wilding Clasp would be pretty useless...
The magic items do not function if they're melded only if the creature you turn into has a "place" or slot for the item does it function. But the items also resize. As far as the wilding clasp that's more for the straight druid or some other shapechanger.
 

Check out True Resurrection in MoTW to up your chances of getting a good result on the resurrection table.

Greg
 

Just checked the True Reincarnation... ...and the the "Reincarnation trick" (just to give it a name) seems even more advantageous, considering the double roll and the fact you don't lose a level...

...anyway, we're talking of a Shifter, and Shifter only, 'cause it's the only class or PrC that can have the items function also in WildShape, and WShape into humanoid in order to wear'em...

IMHO, this could be a nice way (and not bad in RolePlay too) to give the Shifter the little boost he needs (and it's a good use of a spell nobody usually consider)... ..your opinion?

(P.S. The hit points doesn't change could also be read as "the base hit points" meaning the die type or the actual base total; some DMs -me included- would rule that the new Con modifier applies, but that's not the point)

Edited for spelling
 
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Uh... I don't see the point. You can already permanently shift into any animal form that you want as a druid/shifter. It's just semantics to say that one form is more yours than another. Since reincarnation states that your mental stats, BAB, and HPs don't change it really gains you nothing from what I can see. *shrug*
 

Veldrane said:
(P.S. The hit points doesn't change could also be read as "the base hit points" meaning the die type or the actual base total; some DMs -me included- would rule that the new Con modifier applies, but that's not the point)

Edited for spelling
Reading that as you say is clearly wrong. The description because it says "hit points" not "hit die" so your new Con after being reincarnated doesn't change anything but your Fortitude save. Same as Wildshape.
A PC creature doesn't have a base hit die, it gains them as per class. So a person playing a dragon still only gets d4 when taking a level of wizard.
 

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