Sunday, November 22, 2015

Reincarnate, More Important Than You Think

In D&D, the only ways to regain youth are through the Potion of Longevity and the spells Clone, Wish, and Reincarnate.  No other spell provides the means to extend life.  The Potion of Longevity reduces one's age only by 7 to 12 years, whereas each of the above spells can provide a new (young) adult body.  An important benefit of a new (young) adult body is that it extends the overall life of the person.  Note that the spells Revivify, Raise Dead, Resurrection, and True Resurrection all return the original dead body to life, and do not provide a new (young) adult body.

The Clone spell is Wizard only, and the Wish spell is Wizard and Sorcerer only.  The Reincarnate spell appears only on the Druid spell list.  No class other than the Druid has the Reincarnate spell.  In my opinion, because of this exclusivity, the Old (Druidic) Faith holds more sway over the world than other faiths.  By perpetuating the lives of its Druids through the use of the Reincarnate spell, the Old Faith accumulates more Druids than other faiths amass Clerics.  Also, since Druids tend to live longer, there exist more Druids in the uppermost echelons of the Old Faith (high level druids) than their equivalents (Clerics) in other faiths.  Further, Timeless Body (Druid level 18 class feature), which ages a druid's body only 1 year for every 10 actual years, allows the most powerful Druids to live for centuries with need of only a few castings of Reincarnate.  The practitioners of the Old Faith have long been aware of this impact, and thus make a concerted effort to preserve the lives of their Druids, resulting in a sizable number of Druids that are older than the oldest of dragons.

As a 5th level spell, Reincarnate is more readily available than the Clone (8th level) and Wish (9th level) spells.  Therefore, Reincarnate would be more widely used than Clone or Wish.  And as previously mentioned, the practitioners of the Old Faith work in concert to preserve their Druids, whereas Wizards and Sorcerers function far more independently of each other.

In addition to returning a person to life and singlehandedly bolstering the strength of the Old Faith, Reincarnate also facilitates the learning of racial tolerance on a level otherwise unattainable.  By living life as more than one race, none of which were of their own choosing, Druids learn to understand and respect the perspectives of those races, allowing the Old Faith to be race neutral in a way that other faiths aren't. Thusly, the Reincarnate spell has a tremendous impact on the world.
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From a gaming perspective, it is my opinion that a Druid should begin its career with a race that provides no bonus to wisdom because reincarnating to another race would then impose no reduction in the Druid's wisdom score.

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