Hi all,
I'm wondering about the Reincarnate spell effect when cast on outer planes.
I'm mastering an adventure on the 87th layer of the Abyss and a pc died. A druid cast Reincarnate on him. In your opinion:
1. Should the spell work also when cast on outer planes?
By RAW interpretation of the spell, I think yes, BUT.....
2. If the spell work, should the druid use the same reicarnation table as written on Core Rulebook?
I mean, the nature influence is absent in the Abyss, and the possibility to receive a human body should be lesser than that to get (in example) a tiefling one. You are in the Abyss after all.... chaos and evil rule there.
In the case the CR table shouldn't work, does anybody has a table usable in the Abyss?
This thoughts make me to focus myself also to the possible alteration to different class abilities in the Abyss.
3.Wild shape druidic abilit: is it alloweb to a Druid to wild shape into something in the Abyss? After all, Nature power is absent there.
4. Paladin auras & divine bond: does them work in Abyss? By RAW it seem yes, but this sound senseless to me.
How can a bond with a good God be useful in plnae where evil rules and shape everything to the point to counter the casting od good spells? The same with the Aura abilities of the paladin: if the Abyss is a place where evil and choas are overwhelming, how is it possibile that a single paladin spread auras of good powers?
Your opinion are welcone.
Druids are divine casters. They can be powered by faith in a god or faith in nature. Regardless, they aren't powered by the environment around them. Otherwise, their abilities shouldn't work right the moment they leave their home forest. Nothing in the rules tells you this, so it's understood that they function just fine wherever they're at.
Paladins are similar. They're direct agents of gods. A god can modify the Abyss. As a divine agent, a paladin's enabled to work the will of his patron wherever he goes. Now, certain things may not work as well (since the Abyss is Chaotic and Evil in alignment), but his powers don't shut down. Instead, like everyone else, he takes penalties to certain rolls (see relevant information regarding aligned planes).
Consider what happens if you weaken the abilities of characters when they go plane traveling. Does that mean your outsiders all get weaker when they visit other planes? Do their powers fail or change? How do you ever fight evil on its home grounds if your greatest champions are all short-circuited?
1), 3) and 4) surely should work. Balance-wise, you're pretty much hosing half of the party whenever they leave theie home turf otherwise. Of course, some abilities may be a tad weaker... that's where the rules of plane alignment come in (last time I checked, the Abyss was strongly CE-aligned, which in itself means a pretty strong disadvantage to most characters).
As for reincarnate, RAW have one table only. However, the spell states that a new body is formed from the natural elements at hand... while also stating that reincarnating non-humanoids will need another table. So, you can opt that the table
- is set up according to the creature being reincarnated, no matter where the reincarnation occurs
- is set up according to the environment only
- contains a mixture of both.
Personally, I'd have zero problems in ruling that reincarnation in the Abyss has a definite chance of calling the subject back into a tiefling's body (actually, I'd probably throw a cosmetic or trait-level quirk tied to the foreign plane into the mix anyway if the new host body is anything else)... but this is strongly within the realm of GM's definition.
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Reincarnate forms a new young adult body from the surrounding elements. It should work as written in the Abyss, but quite possibly create a body made of Abyssal matter. The GM might decide to make the new body an outsider, give it the fiendish template, give it the abilities of a petitioner of that plane, or rule that the character detects as chaotic evil as well as his actual alignment. edit: Making it a tiefling sounds good too.
my opinion:
1 & 4 should work without a problem
2 & 3 make good fluff, but don't let it get more powerful than meant, or else someone travels to plane X just to reincarnate into something optimal.
When in doubt, let the pit fiend lay an egg that bears a little goblin baby named ... (dead person name here).