IcyCool said:
So, my gnome barbarian, Gorefoot, has been reincarnated as a halfling. The question came up, what do I lose and what do I keep?
My understanding: anything that depends on race, except for the automatic language, changes to the new one. Anything that isn't intrinsically racial carries over. The relevant text from the SRD at
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/reincarnate.htm:
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.
Note "class abilities, feats, or skill ranks"... racial abilities are conspicuously absent. Class advancement, skills and feats are generally things that can be attached to a body of any race, so no changes. But the peculiarly gnomish features go, and any peculiarly halfling features get grafted on.
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, but it doesn’t automatically speak the language of the new form.
Since you're getting the perks associated with halfling form (climb/jump/move silently bonus, saving throws, thrown weapon bonuses) it wouldn't make sense or seem fair for you also to keep the perks associated with gnomish form (LLV, Sp abilities, weapon familiarity, dodge bonus, racial attack bonus, alchemy bonus, saves vs. illusions)
Now here's the catch: the rules refer to abilities "associated with [the] form", without spelling out exactly what those are. Language, it is clear, is not associated with the form. That makes sense, because language acquisition is strictly cultural. So, are any of the abilities for which there is no explicit text whether or not they are associated with the creature's form also purely cultural? I'd think weapon familiarity, but that's the only one that clearly falls into this category. The halfling attack bonus with slings and thrown weapons may partly be due to the experience with those weapons in halfling culture, but could also have a physical component. Given the wording of the rules, I'd say you get the abilities associated with the new form, and lose those associated with the old form, unless that would be clearly inappropriate. Until consensus has been established for a particular ability that it would be clearly inappropriate for it to be changed, I'd assume everything racially dependent except languages gets changed.
So then, are there any particular abilities you want to make the case for being cultural rather than racial? (I note that if my suggestion regarding weapon familiarity were made official, it would have no practical effect on Gorefoot, since he doesen't use a gnome hooked hammer.)
Though since we're talking about reincarnating humanoids, usually, we won't see too drastic changes in Con. Nothing like a "My Constitution just increased by 10" or similar stuff.
