Especially the priest version, which should be the better of the two. In fact, I'm not at all fond of wizards being able to reincarnate others at all. But come on! Returning as a badger or a lynx? What is the point of the spell? Reincarnate the dead human ranger so he can come back as a raccoon, then find a wish spell to wish him back into a ranger?
What's that? But now he's a raccoon with 45 hp and great saving throws? Sigh.
On the priest table, 17 of the 21 options are non-PC beings (fauns, foxes, eagles, dryads, etc).
The wizard version is a lower level spell (6th as opposed to the priest version at 7th) and yet it's better.
All of the options listed for the wizard version are humanoid, and at least 7 of them are PC, class-eligible races (gnome, elf, etc). Not sure I like the ogre mage, troll or ogre options, but it's better by far than the priest version. This spell (either version) has almost never been used in my campaigns, so I never had a pressing need to "fix" it, but I've been wanting to just for the sake of doing so, for some time now.
I think with the exception of ogre mage, orge and troll (gotta find something to fill in for those), the list is decent. Character class would either have to be determined randomly by rolling for it, decided by the DM, or chosen by the player. Not sure though how to handle it and still make sense.
If a reincarnated being recalls all his previous knowledge, then let's say a human ranger of 10th level dies and is reincarnated as dwarf. Dwarves can't be rangers by the rules as written. But why can't he now? He remembers how to track animals, he still remembers how to navigate the woods, build shelters, etc and so on and so forth. He's just in a different body. On the flip side, it makes no sense to bring him back as a dwarven thief, because even though the dwarf can be a thief, the character (in his previous incarnation as a ranger) did not have thief skills (picking locks, climbing walls, picking pockets, etc). He isn't just magically given those skills, as those are not race specific skill, but rather class specific. He would, however, be able to detect slopes and see in the dark.
So I think the reincarnation spell needs a lot of fixing to make it workable.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
