Reincarnation

[James McMurray]

I don't really mind the randomness though. Its the rules aspects (i.e. high stat mods) I don't care for.

 

[med stud]

If you take out the brown bear from the list it seems balanced. But even with the brown bear in the list, it is still a risk. Consider a mighty Owl psychic warrior. The you would have to subtract ECL to get the character on par

 

[DM_Matt]

True, but he uses Claws of the Vampire, meaning the added Strength is all he cares about. Of course, if he finds himself in a situation requiring missile weapons, then he will be a bit out of luck, as he'd be restricted to any ranged attack powers he knows.

Well, considering how high his con is going to be, on a lucky roll the Will save for a telekinesis is going to be tough to make (once he is high enough level to have telekinesis). He can use that to yank enemies into range to get pummeled.

 

[Destil]

There's some eratta for the chart: The sprite is off the list, now the pixie is an 83-86 and the satyr is an 87-90.

 

[James McMurray]

The party's druid diesd today, and they paid to get him True Reincarnated. He rolled fairly high (using my method) and came back as a Centaur. It could definitely be useful for him, but the 5'x 10' face is going to cause more problems then he may realize. the party is currently exploring the Citadel of the Planes and most of the areas there mean a 5' x 10' face is going to have trouble turning corner (90 degree angels in 5' wide corridors).

 

[magnas_veritas]

If you take out the brown bear from the list it seems balanced. But even with the brown bear in the list, it is still a risk. Consider a mighty Owl psychic warrior. The you would have to subtract ECL to get the character on par

In our game, a long time ago, our druid reincarnated as many of our fallen soldiers as possible, assisting with morale and such. One of the higher-level rangers actually became an owl.

Fast forward a few sessions. We're exploring an elven ruin, and run into what turns out to be a psychotic tree of some sort with prehensile branches, a funky non-magical invisibility effect, and a nasty acid-and teeth-filled maw. Most of the party goes down fairly quickly. While combat rages, the owl-ranger (who's been following the party tank around) starts flying around and making Heal checks to stabilize the downed party members. That owl saved half the party.

That being said, it really is a rather useless form.

Brad

 

[Hypersmurf]

We're exploring an elven ruin, and run into what turns out to be a psychotic tree of some sort with prehensile branches, a funky non-magical invisibility effect, and a nasty acid-and teeth-filled maw.

A Tangle Tree?

Got stats?

-Hyp.

 

[magnas_veritas]

Not when talking about Psychic Warriors and Monks. Even many spellcasters will be unhindered, so long as they took Eschew Material components (which nearly every spellcaster in my campaign has done). The massive boosts you can get to stats sem like they could be very overpowering.

Of course, my campaign features quite a lot of combat, meaning +15 to strength is even more useful.

Anyone have ideas on toning it down? I like the ECL idea.

What about giving the characer average stats for that animal type? Would that make it underpowered?

Why does it need toning down?

The spellcasters are still screwed, because most forms won't allow somatic components. Unless they're monks or psychic warriors who specialized in unarmed combat, any character'll probably have unusable feats now. There's only a 4% chance of them becoming a brown bear, so it's just as likely that the target will turn into an eagle (which also has a 4% chance).

If you look in the reincarnate spell description, it mentions that the DM can choose which form the character comes back in, as well as rolling. So, you can let them come back as a human or whatever, or roll randomly until you get something appropriate and not overly mean or overly powerful.

Brad

 

[magnas_veritas]

A Tangle Tree?

Got stats?

-Hyp.

May've been that, but I don't have stats. I was too busy weaseling my case to not die of falling damage from when that darn irritating tree dropped me ("the brush slowed my fall!").

Brad

 

[James McMurray]

The spellcasters are still screwed, because most forms won't allow somatic components. Unless they're monks or psychic warriors who specialized in unarmed combat, any character'll probably have unusable feats now. There's only a 4% chance of them becoming a brown bear, so it's just as likely that the target will turn into an eagle (which also has a 4% chance).

The entire party is made up of: Monk, Psychic Warrior (claw expert), Psion, and Druid (with Natural Spellcasting feat). Granted, there is only a 4% chance of a brown bear, but almost every form in that list gives bonuses without penalties. The enalties normally inherent in an animal form (no hands, not good at diplomacy) aren't applicable when the maority of the party can change shape when they need hands or a social appearance.

If you look in the reincarnate spell description, it mentions that the DM can choose which form the character comes back in, as well as rolling. So, you can let them come back as a human or whatever, or roll randomly until you get something appropriate and not overly mean or overly powerful.

True, but I don't want the players to feel they have no control over their fate. Part of the fun of reincarnation is rolling your new form. I may alter my method a bit though, to have the majority of the time the character comes back as his previous race. Perhaps

01-10 = new form is detrimental
11-29 = old race, old looks
30-70 = Old race, new look
71-90 = roll on reincarnation table
91-00 = new form is really nice