Reincarnate = Immortality?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don't really get the mad rush in 3E to make adventurers able to die of old age, such as removing potions of longevity. Something of reincarnate's power should certainly reset the age clock, IMO, especially with the randomness involved in it.

 

[Wilphe]

Isn't immortaility kinds flying in the face of the natural balance that druids stand for?

 

[moritheil]

Isn't immortaility kinds flying in the face of the natural balance that druids stand for?

Every time a thread on this topic pops up, I bring up that point, and everyone stares blankly at the wall until it goes away. I've heard all sorts of excuses, like, "Well, if misuse were a concern, they wouldn't have the spell!"

 

[interwyrm]

Isn't immortaility kinds flying in the face of the natural balance that druids stand for?

Nope. If being around forever means they can preserve the balance of nature, I'd say it's reasonable. In fact, I'd rather that druids don't die when their 'time is up.'

Actually, I think I'd prefer it if they still accrued physical penalties in their natural form, but were immortal.

 

[Sejs]

Isn't immortaility kinds flying in the face of the natural balance that druids stand for?

Every time a thread on this topic pops up, I bring up that point, and everyone stares blankly at the wall until it goes away. I've heard all sorts of excuses, like, "Well, if misuse were a concern, they wouldn't have the spell!"

If natural balance were something druids were solely concerned with, they wouldn't have the overwhelming majority of their spells.

They wouldn't get cure spells - if you get injured, you're supposed to heal naturally or be something else's prey. They wouldn't get reincarnate - if you die, by god you're supposed to stay dead, that's how nature works. They wouldn't get most of their attack spells - fire doesn't get tossed around in handfulls or drop down in roaring pillars from the sky. They frankly wouldn't get to do much magic, because magic is inherrently not natural; it's supernatural.

The kind of reincarnation immortality that's presented isn't an 'in your face, natural order' kind of immortality that undeath offers.

It's the appropriately successive cyclic immortality of a seasonal plant. It lives its time, it dies, and in doing so sows the seeds for its subsequent generation to spring forth from.

 

[Nefrast]

I suppose technically that would be a possibility to live on forever. But will your deity really grant you all those reincarnate spells to do this? (in the world we play not granting spells or granting other spells is one way how deities take influence in the doings of mortals)
And does the druid really wants to reincanate forever instead of living a petitioner's afterlive in the realm of his deity?

 

[PallidPatience]

Most druids (by RAW) get their magic strictly from faith, their ethos, and nature. Deities don't enter into it. This may be different in some campaign settings, of course.

 

[Li Shenron]

Say your old Druid is about to die of old age. He scribes a scroll of Reincarnate, hands it to a flinky, and then stabs himself to death. The spell specifically states that the druid returns in a young adult body, only one level worse for wear. By such means could a character live forever?

At least vaguely, the idea comes from real world belief, doesn't it? So it could be that a druid reincarnates over and over and is effectively immortal, as long as nothing prevents the process.

 

[Banshee16]

Say your old Druid is about to die of old age. He scribes a scroll of Reincarnate, hands it to a flinky, and then stabs himself to death. The spell specifically states that the druid returns in a young adult body, only one level worse for wear. By such means could a character live forever?

I suppose you could use it as such. You do come back as a new person. But I never really interpret that the spell gives you simply a new, young body, and lets you run off on your merry way. In my games, reincarnate spells often result in the character in a new body with which they are not familiar, with a new set of memories and sometimes, personality characteristics slowly appearing. Obviously this is a Rule 0, but I feel that it gives more impact to the spell.

Incidentally, if you don't want to do something like that, consider this. Just how much does that druid trust his flunky? Did he get angry at him for trampling the garden last week? This would be the ultimate form of the "trust" game. You have to *really* trust that your flunky will use the scroll to bring you back, and not turn around, and sell the scroll for a few months salary, bury your body, and take your stuff....

Banshee

 

[lukelightning]

Sure, why not? It's not like PCs die of old age. They die of old dragon.