Reincarnate and Lightning Storm: Questions for Druid

[FableWright]

Huge fan of the new APG content, but it's leading to a couple rules questions for me.

First the easy one: How big are the clouds in Lightning Storm? I know that in Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e, you had a huge range to shoot from it; in D&D 5e, you get a 5ft burst of lightning, like you do in pathfinder.

Reading the rules as written, it LOOKS like the cloud is a 5ft burst that can make a 5ft diameter bolt of lightning and can never move over the duration of the spell, but I can't comprehend how that could be rules as intended for a 5th level spell.

(I'm also confused why Ice Storm's area is so small, but that's pretty unambiguous RAW.)

Now the hard one: What happens when a Reincarnation causes class feat prerequisites to no longer be met?

Let's take the hardest case, an Ancient Elf (Fighter Dedication) with Opportunist and Form Control. They becomes a Halfling with a strength penalty that puts them below 14 strength. By my reading, they lose their ancestry feats and heritage but not class feats. Since Opportunist was selected as a class feat, it stays, even if the prerequisites are not met, but Fighter Dedication, despite being a class feat, was provided by a Heritage and is removed. Form Control is like Opportunist and no longer meets prerequisites.

The rules on retraining state that "If you cease to meet the prerequisites for an ability due to retraining, you can’t use that ability." But Reincarnate does not mention retraining; should the two feats become invalidated? Should it be treated as retraining, and thus the two feats are unusable until at least two weeks of retraining occur? Is it GM discretion?

Thanks in advance!

[TheFinish]

For Lightning Storm: I think the clouds are also 5 ft bursts, since the description says if you're outside you can create two that cannot overlap.

Mechanically, it can only send the lightning bolts to the 5 foot burst you designated when you cast the spell, and this area cannot move, ever, for the duration of the spell (so better cast it on a chokepoint).

As a GM though I think it'd be fine to make the clouds as big or as small as you want, as long as the bursts from multiple clouds don't overlap.

For Reincarnate, it's a bit odd, but the description says:

"The target loses their heritage and ancestry feats, selecting replacements from their new ancestry. The target’s background, class features, and known languages remain unaltered."

For all Classes, Class Feats are Class Features and thus, under this reading, remain unaltered. However, on Page 18 of the Core Rulebook, it says:

"Prerequisites Any minimum ability scores, feats, proficiency ranks, or other prerequisites you must have before you can access this rule element are listed here. Feats also have a level prerequisite, which appears above."

If you think "Access" means "Take", then the character can still use those feats. If you think it means "Use", then they can't. I do think it's unclear and could be read either way, especially because the glossary says:

"Many feats and other abilities can be taken only if you meet their prerequisites."

So it just adds to the confusion. I think treating it as retraining is fair, but you could also just let them change them for other feats like you change the Ancestry feats.