Reincarnation

(Necromancy)


Range: Touch
Duration: Permanent
Area of Effect: Person touched
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 turn
Saving Throw: None

This spell is a replacement for both the mage and priest spells of the same name, and the original spells are removed from the system.

With this spell, the caster can bring back to life a person who died. The Person may be of any humanoid race and have died no more than one day per level Of experience of the caster ago. The essence of the dead person is transferred to another body, possibly one very different from his former body. Reincarnation does not require any saving throw, system shock, or resurrection survival roll. The corpse is touched, and a new incarnation of the person will appear in the area in 1d6 turns. The person reincarnated always recalls all of his former life and form, including character class.

The dead body - this must be the largest remaining piece of the body. Once the spell has been cast the body will slowly disintegrate over the 1d6 turns it takes for the new body to appear, normally leaving just a pile of clothes and equipment behind. All separated body parts that were removed less than a year prior to death also disintegrate. It has no effect on the reincarnation; if the body is artificially destroyed prior to the 1d6 turns expiring.

The spirit or soul - the soul must be willing to be reincarnated, if it is not, then the spell simply does not function at all.

The appearance of the new body - the new body will appear nude within 100 yards of the place where the reincarnation spell was cast.

The New Body

Race

The new race must be from the table below. Whatever the new race is the character always retains his of her old classes and levels. It is not necessary that the new race be allowed the multi/duel-classed combinations (if any) that the original character had, but the new race must be able to be any of these classes as a single classed character. (I.e. a cleric/mage could not be reincarnated as a dwarf as dwarves cannot be mages, but it could be reincarnated as a elf as elves are allowed to be mages or clerics.) [To allow easy interpretation of this the table below has been created to allow for this.]

D100 NEW RACE
 
01-06 Deep Dwarf
07-13 Hill Dwarf
14-20 Mountain Dwarf
21-25 Hairfoot Halfling
26-28 Stout Halfling
29-30 Tallfellow Halfling
31-33 Forest Gnome
34-40 Rock Gnome
41-46 Green Elf(sylvan elf)
47-55 Moon or Silver Elf (high elf)
56-60 Gold or Sunrise Elf (grey elf)
61-70 Half-Elf
71+ Human
ROLL MODIFICATIONS

+70% if the character is a Paladin
+60% if the character is a Bard
+40% if the character is a Mage of any type except Specialist Illusionist
+40% if the character is a Ranger
+30% if the character is a Specialist Illusionist


Gender

The sex of the character makes no difference to game-play except to the player, so if the player wishes to change the sex of his or her character when they are reincarnated it is up to them.


Religion

It does not matter to the Gods what race a priest or cleric is as long as they started their career as an allowable race, however, it may cause problems with other members of the clergy in game, additionally, the church may require some act of attrition. Religious marks, whether beneficial or baneful, are retained on the new body. These are marks of the god and are attached to the person, not the body.


Stats

When a character is reincarnated, the new body will not have the same stats as the old, also, one of the consequences of the magic is that the new body will always be a little less capable than the old. This is reflected in game mechanics as follows.

  1. Start with 24 points (as per initial character creation)
  2. Subtract 2 points for each time the character has been reincarnated (including the current one). Note that this may result in a negative number after a lot of reincarnates.
  3. Set each physical (str, dex, con, int, wis, chr) to a base of 9 and then apply the remaining points as desired. Note that no stat may be raised above 18 whilst allocating these points. If the remaining points are negative, stats must be reduced below 9 to compensate.
  4. Racial modifications for the new race are then applied.

Note:
Stat gains from magic items or effects that were acquired prior to the reincarnation are lost. However, where those gains were acquired from an item that may only be used once in a characters lifetime (e.g. gem of insight, book of quickness in action) the item may be used on the new body if rediscovered.


Height, weight and age

The new body will have height and weight determined randomly on the PH tables for the new race. The new body will have an age determined on the starting age table for the new race in the PH.


Racial abilities

All racial abilities of the old race, except languages, are immediately, and irreversibly lost. Purely physical abilities of the new race (e.g. infravision, hit point modification [see below]) are immediately available to the new body. Cultural abilities (e.g. detect sloping passages, detect secret doors) need a degree of acclimatisation and do not become available until the next adventure. No new racial languages are acquired.

Humans are a special case. There are three possibilities, Human to Human, Human to Other, Other to Human. Each is dealt with below.

Human to Human
Racial points spent on the old body, in any way are retained on the new (e.g. +1 HP, tough hide or any points carried through to class). Note that the way in which they were spent cannot be changed or adjusted in any way.


Human to Other
Racial points spent on class are retained unaltered. Racial abilities gained by spending racial points are lost immediately and irreversibly.


Other to Human
20 racial points are gained to be spent on the new body. Note these points may only be spent on racial abilities, no points may be spent on class or proficiencies, no points may be retained for later use, any unspent points are simply lost.


Traits and Disadvantages

All traits and disadvantages are carried, unmodified, into the new body.


Hit Points

The player must reroll hit points for the new body, CP's may be spent if available (2 per roll to roll two dice and take the best).


Curses

Purely physical curses (e.g. a cursed item that cannot be removed, a stat reduction) are not carried forward to the new body. All other curses (e.g. a reduction in all rolls, an alignment change) are carried through to the new body.


Innates and gained abilities

Some characters have innate abilities due to class, these are carried forward, innate abilities due to race are lost. Gained abilities (e.g. from Myth Drannor) are not carried forward if they are purely physical in nature (e.g. a boost to hit points), but are carried forward if they provide spell like effects (e.g. light 1/day, jump 1/week).


Permanent Spell effects

Any spell effects which were made permanent on the old body, by whatever means, are not transferred to the new body, except where they are discussed specifically in this document (e.g religious marks).


Raise and resurrect

Being reincarnated provides the character with a new body, and as such the number of times raised counter is reset to zero. Note that raise and resurrect do not reset the number of times reincarnated counter.


Note to GM's and players

This is effectively a character creation process and not a game action, as a result, all rolls should be made by the player, in view of the other players. There is no scope for GM intervention on any of these rolls. The only modification to the rolls which is acceptable, is that, provided the character has not already spent a CP on the adventure and that he has one available, the player may opt to spend a CP and reroll the new race type.