TomeWyrm's page

I was planning on making a reincarnated druid, and I discovered that the spell is a LOT more confusing than I originally thought it was.

With this spell, you bring back a dead creature in another body, provided that its death occurred no more than 1 week before the casting of the spell and the subject's soul is free and willing to return. If the subject's soul is not willing to return, the spell does not work; therefore, a subject that wants to return receives no saving throw.

No problems here, that's the duration of death and a rephrasing of the "Revivification against One's Will" rules in the Magic section of the PRD or Magic Chapter in the Core Rulebook.

Since the dead creature is returning in a new body, all physical ills and afflictions are repaired.

Still with you, makes sense here.

The condition of the remains is not a factor. So long as some small portion of the creature's body still exists, it can be reincarnated, but the portion receiving the spell must have been part of the creature's body at the time of death.

No issue here either.

The magic of the spell creates an entirely new young adult body for the soul to inhabit from the natural elements at hand.

Here we get a problem. Aging Effects. What happens to your bonuses to mental stats for getting older? I'll touch more on this later.

This process takes 1 hour to complete. When the body is ready, the subject is reincarnated.

No issues with this bit.

A reincarnated creature recalls the majority of its former life and form. It retains any class abilities, feats, or skill ranks it formerly possessed.

Ah, the source of another problem via Racial Traits. Humans and their bonus skill points (and honestly their bonus feat too). Do humans lose the additional bonus skill points, do they gain a "debt" of skill points without losing any? Racial Traits are not touched upon at all, and that is a SERIOUS oversight, in my opinion.

Its class, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, and hit points are unchanged.

HOLD THE PRESSES! If your Constitution score changes, so will your hit points.

Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution scores depend partly on the new body.

This part makes perfect sense, though a re-roll of stats would also make sense, as would getting an array.

First eliminate the subject's racial adjustments (since it is no longer necessarily of his previous race) and then apply the adjustments found below to its remaining ability scores.

DANGER Will Robinson! DANGER!! This says I remove ALL racial adjustments, and then apply the results from the table below, which only details physical adjustments... This is illogical and annoying.

The subject of the spell gains two permanent negative levels when it is reincarnated. If the subject is 1st level, it takes 2 points of Constitution drain instead (if this would reduce its Con to 0 or less, it can't be reincarnated). A character who died with spells prepared has a 50% chance of losing any given spell upon being reincarnated. A spellcasting creature that doesn't prepare spells (such as a sorcerer) has a 50% chance of losing any given unused spell slot as if it had been used to cast a spell.

The rest of this paragraph is unambiguous and makes perfect sense for balance and flavor reasons.

It's possible for the change in the subject's ability scores to make it difficult for it to pursue its previous character class. If this is the case, the subject is advised to become a multiclass character.

Ditto, makes sense here.

For a humanoid creature, the new incarnation is determined using the table below. For nonhumanoid creatures, a similar table of creatures of the same type should be created.

You might wish to clarify if the "GM's Choice" result should also allow you to change types or not. I've had a vindictive GM use reincarnate to turn players into rats before, and a line to the effect of "a creature can only be brought back into a new body of the same Type as its old body" would stem such abuses (and can always be house-ruled away if a particular GM doesn't like that change)

A creature that has been turned into an undead creature or killed by a death effect can't be returned to life by this spell. Constructs, elementals, outsiders, and undead creatures can't be reincarnated. The spell can bring back a creature that has died of old age.

No issues here

The reincarnated creature gains all abilities associated with its new form, including forms of movement and speeds, natural armor, natural attacks, extraordinary abilities, and the like, but it doesn't automatically speak the language of the new form.

Uh oh. Another confusing/vague/contradicting point. Does it gain Spell-like abilities? Does it gain Supernatural abilities? Does it gain Physical Racial Traits? Does it gain MENTAL Racial Traits? The spell is silent on those particular abilities/traits beyond "and the like", which is awfully vague and open to interpretations that can lead to broken and unplayable characters

A wish or a miracle spell can restore a reincarnated character to his or her original form.

That wraps up the quote of the spell from the PRD.

In summary, my questions:

Are racially granted training type abilities such as Elven Weapon Proficiency, or the Dwarven Hatred ability kept or lost on reincarnate?

Racially granted feats such as the Human bonus, or the half-elven skill focus. Are they kept? They should be because you keep all feats, but if you lose traits then they should go as well.

Do humans that reincarnate get to keep the bonus skill points they've gained? If yes, do they continue to gain new ones as they level? If no to either of the previous two questions, do they accrue some sort of skill point debt?

Are the benefits of aging kept? The penalties should (obviously) be lost, but nothing is ever said specifically about the mental stats or other purely mental abilities carrying over through reincarnate, or even aging ability score changes in general or specific.

Are racial class skills kept as class skills? Does it depend on training/physical form differences?

Do your hit points change or not? Because if your Con score changes, your HP ought to change as well, but the spell specifically says "A reincarnated creature ... hit points remain unchanged."

Do you retain your mental ability scores from race or not? The way the spell is actually worded, you don't. You are told to "eliminate the subject's racial adjustments and then apply the adjustments found below to its remaining ability scores." There are no exceptions given for the mental scores, and that leads to some mind-bending inconsistencies. If you reincarnate an elf as an elf; suddenly they become less intelligent; dwarves that reincarnate as dwarves become less wise and more charismatic, while gnomes and halflings become less charismatic if reincarnated as themselves or anything else... how does that make any sense?

Do reincarnated creatures gain the Spell-like Abilities of their new body? Supernatural traits? Anything that normally falls under "Racial traits" like the Lizardfolk's "Hold Breath", the Goblin's "Skilled" or "Fast Movement", or the Orc traits of "Weapon Familiarity" or "Ferocity"?

I'm sure there are more questions, but those are the ones I came up with myself and with a quick glance at the boards. Finding no "official" answer on the subject, I figured I should try and ask them all in one place for ease of FAQ.