D&D General Reincarnate is and has always been, weird.

[rmcoen]

Unless your dex was like 30 or something it probably wasn't a significant loss of function dropping it to ten. Even if it was 30 that raises the question of how the heck it got there.

Prior to 3.x you had a giant deadzone in attributes that made it so you didn't really even see ±1 till like 6 & 16 with strength being the only attrib with something like percentile strength 18/⁰⁰ so attributes really were not particularly important. In 5e it goes the other way where the deadzoneis N itty bitty 9-11 with ±1 kicking in at 8&12 but math being tuned so PCs are assumed to have 6-8 in primary attributes but massively benefit from 18 throwing them well beyond the curve

The difference between 10 and 18 was 4 points of bonus to AC (just like it is now), or 3 to ranged attacks. Except for a THIEF, who specifically got percentage bonuses to all the thief skills for a high DEX. (I don't recall them, but it varied by skill.) If your skill was 30%, and losing DEX made it drop to 15%, that wasn't just "3pt swing on a d20" (which is noticeable)... it was "only half as good as you used to be". (Same numbers, different perception, yay statistics!)

 

[James Gasik]

When you consider that the difference between a 17 Dex and an 18 Dex feels like an entire level of ability for a Thief with regards to their Thieving skills, yeah, losing a few points of Dexterity is a big deal. And at 10, the penalties would make you feel like you've gone down 2-3 levels (on top of the level loss from, you know, dying). And while the Gnome racial bonuses to Thieving weren't as incredible as say, a Halflings, it was still better than what Humans got...ie...nothing.

 

[rmcoen]

When you consider that the difference between a 17 Dex and an 18 Dex feels like an entire level of ability for a Thief with regards to their Thieving skills, yeah, losing a few points of Dexterity is a big deal. And at 10, the penalties would make you feel like you've gone down 2-3 levels (on top of the level loss from, you know, dying). And while the Gnome racial bonuses to Thieving weren't as incredible as say, a Halflings, it was still better than what Humans got...ie...nothing.
View attachment 433258

Thank you @James Gasik that's what I remembered... it was a huge downgrade of my capabilities (although I could Climb Walls better afterwards!). But, irrelevant now, as @jmartkdr2 pointed out -- the charts are more forgiving (always a PC race), you don't reroll stats... and race/species/affinity/whatever-the-new-name is gives no modifiers anyway!

 

[James Gasik]

The last time a character was reincarnated in a game I was running, I had a long chat with the player about their expectations and concerns. While in the old days, having your character transmogrified against your will was common, some people react badly to it, and when you consider that, for a very long time, coming back from the dead was already penalized, usually led to more insult than injury.

I had a Fighter in 3e who died sacrificing themselves to save their allies against a vampire. The party Druid offered up reincarnation as an option. Losing a level already felt like a punishment to me, since I also didn't get any xp from the battle I won, but I put my faith in the DM to maybe balance things out down the road.

Oh what a fool I was. The DM rolled the dice, chuckled, and told me that my Human Fighter was now a Gnome. I lost two points of Strength, could no longer wear my (medium-sized) armor, and had to give up my shield +3 in order to wield my axe in two hands. My movement speed was tanked (20 ft. base speed reduced by heavy armor), my AC drastically lowered (even with the +1 size bonus), and I became the butt of jokes. I was pretty miserable about it, though in retrospect, this was more to do with the fact that I was no longer happy being a Fighter. It seemed like at every turn, the DM, as new to 3e as I was, was constantly complaining about my AC, attack bonuses, and damage all being "too good" because his monsters kept dying "too fast".

I eventually got my humanity back, but I would have been better off, I think, retiring happily and asking to play a new character.

 

[Brendan Byrd]

2e Jakandor has a Transmigrate spell, which fits very well with the flavor of the Charonti culture; but not so much as an adventuring spell.