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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pukunui" data-source="post: 6801194" data-attributes="member: 54629">Hi all,In both of my most recent D&D sessions, I've had a PC die only to be reincarnated. In my homebrew campaign, the dwarf fighter got reincarnated as a half-orc, while in my Tyranny of Dragons campaign, the high elf rogue got reincarnated as a half-elf.In both instances, I was not entirely happy with the wholesale replacement of one set of traits for another. I think this is mainly because 5e races come with a mix of innate and learned traits. The description of reincarnate states that the creature "recalls its former life and experiences ... [but] changes its racial traits accordingly."So when the dwarf became a half-orc, it made sense that his ability scores would change and that he'd lose things like Stonecunning and Dwarven Resilience and gain things like Menacing and Relentless Endurance instead, since those traits are fairly innate. However, it didn't make sense to me that he'd lose his proficiency with smith's tools and become fluent in Orcish (while simultaneously losing the ability to speak Dwarvish), since those traits seem more like things he'd have gained from experience (he learned to use smith's tools and speak Dwarvish because he was raised by dwarves in a dwarf clan, not merely because he *is* a dwarf). In this case, I ruled that the PC retained his proficiency with smith's tools and the Dwarvish language but did not automatically gain the ability to speak Orcish. (Ordinarily, the loss of his weapon and armor training traits would've irked me too, but since the PC is a fighter, he technically didn't lose anything at all.)In the case of the elf, I did go with the wholesale swap, mainly because my Tyranny of Dragons players are still fairly new to the game, and I don't want to overcomplicate things for them. Plus, the decent amount of overlap between the high elf and the half-elf meant that his stats were only minimally affected. He ended up losing Trance, 1 point from his Dex score, and his free cantrip, while gaining another skill and a +2 to Charisma. I think it's a bit weird that he'd lose the cantrip and suddenly gain another skill - for the same reasons as stated above - but this time I just rolled with it, even though it didn't sit all that well with me.How do you guys feel about the wholesale swapping of racial traits via reincarnate? Are you cool with it? Do you think the spell should be changed to only swap innate racial traits and not ones that are learned? Do you think it's more an issue with the way the game handles race than the way the spell itself is worded?Lemme know what you think!Cheers,Jonathan</blockquote>

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