Speech possible after reinc into black bear?

[Skaros]

Hi all,

Here's, hopefully, a quick one.

A druid in our party has been reincarnated into a black bear.

According to the reincarnate spell description:

A humanoid reincarnated into an animal body can speak the languages it formerly knew and is a magical beast.

Can she speek elven or common and be understood by other elves or humans?

Can she cast spellls with a verbal component (I guess that depends on the previous answer)?

Can she use material and somantic components?

I wish my work didn't block access to wizards.com, but they do, so I don't know if this is answered in the D&D FAQ or not.

Thanks for your help,

Warren

 

[Kestrel]

I would say yes, or I did in my game. It was an easy decision though since the player had a feat from MotW which allowed him to cast in Wildshape form anyway.

BTW... The Reincarnate spell is a sacred cow that should have been hit with a big hammer and served up as steaks. Its way too confusing and annoying to be used. In my game, the creature reincarnated will always come back as the same type that he was previous. Humanoid, Animal etc.

The benefit for the spell is that you don't require the dead person's body. The spell generates a new one.

 

[Tiberius]

I would say yes, or I did in my game. It was an easy decision though since the player had a feat from MotW which allowed him to cast in Wildshape form anyway.

BTW... The Reincarnate spell is a sacred cow that should have been hit with a big hammer and served up as steaks. Its way too confusing and annoying to be used. In my game, the creature reincarnated will always come back as the same type that he was previous. Humanoid, Animal etc.

The benefit for the spell is that you don't require the dead person's body. The spell generates a new one.

I agree with the speaking part, as that is how I too handle it. With respect to your ruling on Reincarnate, Kestral, it seems to me that you have turned it into a 4th level Resurrection with a chance of coming back in a slightly different form. Have you increased its level, given the little actual risk involved, included some other balancing feature, or left it as is other than those changes?

-Tiberius