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To make a really long story short, we needed a dragon alive, it died, I am the only one who can ressurect it.
Problem is, I play a druid. If you don't already know, druids are equipped with a single, surprisingly low level ressurection spell: Reincarnation.
Now, this isn't my first rodeo. Our party happened to be very good at dying, so I've used the spell about four times. However, never on a non-humanoid...
With that out of the way, my questions:
For a humanoid creature, the new incarnation is determined using the table below. For non-humanoid creatures, a similar table of creatures of the same type should be created.
1) What should the "similar table of creatures" look like for a dragon? Dragons of the same color with different ages? Dragons of the same age with diferent colors? A list of magical creatures?
2) Should the dragon get the body of a different color dragon, would it change its alignment? Should he get the body of a younger/older dragon, would its stats change accordingly? Should it get the body of a different magical creature, would it retain any of its non-body-related dragon abilities (spell-like abilities, cold subtype...)?
3) How do the penalties translate to a creature with no class levels? Does the dragon only get a -2 penalty to everything until it recieves a Restoration spell?
4) Let's assume the dragon change its alignment due to its new body (whether immediately or through roleplay over a long period of time). What happens if it recieves a Wish/Miracle spell to reverse the body change? Does it immediately go back to its original alignment or does it take time to change back, if at all?
All in all, looks like Reincarnation wasn't meant to be used on non-party-members (On non-humanoids, no doubt). Very thanks.
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There are a lot of gaps in the RAW/wiggle room for GM fiat, but I'll answer as best I see it.
1. Dragons belong to the "dragon" type. Make a table of creatures with the dragon type and roll on it. Reincarnate says: "The magic of the spell creates an entirely new young adult body for the soul to inhabit from the natural elements at hand." Therefore, the dragon is now of the Young Adult category, but: "It retains any class abilities, feats, or skill ranks it formerly possessed. Its class, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, and hit points are unchanged." In essence, only things like its fly speed, its size, and its natural armor bonus to AC change due to its altered age category.
2. Its alignment absolutely does not change. Bugbears are Chaotic Evil, but the spell never remotely suggests that a PC who is reincarnated as a Bugbear automatically becomes Chaotic Evil.
3. Correct.
4. Irrelevant. Your premise is false: Reincarnate never even implies that it changes someone's alignment. Their mind and soul is emphatically the same. If the dragon's alignment does change for some reason, it can't be a direct result of the spell, and therefore reversing the spell would do nothing.
Thanks a lot for the insights!
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One hell of a way for a dragon to restart. The Ancient dragon becomes a young adult with spell casting, bab, saves, and hit points for an ancient dragon but in a young adult's body. I wonder would the dragon see improvements at it's new body actually aged? Picking up all of the improvements granted by age to dragons.
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1. From a Rules Questions™ standpoint, that's up to the GM. It could be limited to a list of various breeds of true dragon, or it could include related things such as wyverns or linnorm, or it could include pretty much anything with four limbs and a pair of wings, such as a gargoyle.
2. Alignment does not change. Alignment descriptors in Bestiary stat blocks are the typical alignment for a creature of that type; they are usually not prescriptive, and "being reincarnated into a different body" is exactly the sort of thing that would cause one to have a different alignment from the norm. Now, if the dragon reincarnates into a body and decides to change their attitude and behavior to accomodate, that's the dragon's business, and that might cause an alignment shift depending on the attitude and behavior in question.
3. That and having 10 fewer hit points. Negative levels have a specific meaning in Pathfinder RPG. They have nothing to do with class levels and everything to do with Hit Dice. Read here for everything you need to know about it.
4. Per above, the only reason the dragon would change alignment is through personal choice. Thus, the only way to change it back "for reals" is through another personal choice.
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Thanks a lot for the insights!
You're welcome!
I wonder would the dragon see improvements at it's new body actually aged? Picking up all of the improvements granted by age to dragons.
This is incredibly fast and loose, but I would look to the Sun Orchid Elixir for a precedent on de-aging. It says: "All penalties to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution the drinker may have suffered as a result of advanced age are removed, but all bonuses to Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma that result from advanced age remain (although as the character ages again into middle age and beyond, he does not gain any of these bonuses a second time)." So I would personally rule that the dragon doesn't gain further mental benefits from aging until its physical age has caught up to its mental age again. Its size, natural AC, etc. would improve, but its BAB and such would not.
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You might want to pick up this 3rd party product for help figuring out how to reincarnate a non-humanoid.
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For the most part, having the dragon come back as another dragon is the best option, likely fill the central percentage areas with those chances, then go for slightly different variants, on the edges of the table for extremely low or high rolls (00 is GM's choice of course).
Haha, 01 on a d% is a Kobold: "Fear the Great and Powerful Vermithrax!!"
(...and as silly as that sounds, can you imagine a Dragon-Soul Kobold uniting all the Kobold clans? Scary stuff.)
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There's no better dragon disciple than a disciple of oneself.
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One hell of a way for a dragon to restart. The Ancient dragon becomes a young adult with spell casting, bab, saves, and hit points for an ancient dragon but in a young adult's body. I wonder would the dragon see improvements at it's new body actually aged? Picking up all of the improvements granted by age to dragons.
Nope.
Per Attack Bonus:
A base attack bonus is an attack roll bonus derived from character class and level or creature type and Hit Dice (or combination’s thereof).
Going from Ancient to Young Adult, it looses HD, so its BAB goes down.
Loss of HD also affects saves and hit points.
Spells: A dragon knows and casts arcane spells as a sorcerer of the level indicated in its specific description. Its caster level depends on its age, as shown for each type.
Spell-Like Abilities: A dragon’s caster level for its spell-like abilities is equal to its total Hit Dice.
A dragon's spell level is tied to its age category, and not to class levels. It has a new age, so it gets a new level. Its SLA's are also affected by the loss of HD.
EDIT: This loss of ability is quite bad for a dragon. Sure they keep the mental improvement due to age, but that is about it. But the spell is a great way to prebuff with an encounter with an enemy dragon. If you hold the charge, and manage to land the spell, poof: one hour later, you have a weakened enemy dragon.
/cevah
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Don't you have to kill the dragon, first?
So...
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Per Reincarnation,
It retains any class abilities, feats, or skill ranks it formerly possessed. Its class, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, and hit points are unchanged.
The spell does what it says it does, not what it could otherwise be deduced to do from miscellaneous rules elsewhere.
Per Reincarnation,
It retains any class abilities, feats, or skill ranks it formerly possessed. Its class, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, and hit points are unchanged.The spell does what it says it does, not what it could otherwise be deduced to do from miscellaneous rules elsewhere.
Would its hit points still be unchanged if the reincarnation results in a change to its CON score?
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Would its hit points still be unchanged if the reincarnation results in a change to its CON score?Per Reincarnation,
It retains any class abilities, feats, or skill ranks it formerly possessed. Its class, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, and hit points are unchanged.The spell does what it says it does, not what it could otherwise be deduced to do from miscellaneous rules elsewhere.
The change in Con would be the only thing causing a change to the dragon's hit points.