Lives Everlasting

(inspired by the RSA: Reincarnation post)

Lives Everlasting

This is a powerful curse bestowed by the gods or other similarly powerful beings, it is far beyond mortal spell-casting except through the powerful rituals. There is no saving throw. It basically denies the recipient the afterlife by trapping them in a cycle of rebirth. 

If a character subject to the curse dies of old age, they are reborn as an infant of their race with no memories of their previous existence other than a sense of loss and denial that plagues them for their whole lives. If the character dies before his natural span is done, then he is Reincarnated (as per the spell) and his new form is rolled randomly. The reincarnation occurs instantly, preventing any chance of Raise Dead or Resurrection being performed. The soul is bound to the new form irrevocably. When that body dies, the same conditions apply.

Only direct divine intervention can fully counter this curse. A Wish spell or item can break the cycle, but only if used to permanently kill the character. Certain powerful items, such as the Deck of Many Things (i.e. the Skull card. The Void leaves the cursed soul intact, though trapped.) or a Sphere of Annihilation can grant a character release from the curse, but only in the sense that he is destroyed. 

RMA: Unicorns

Despite being a fantasy staple, I think I haven't seen this creature come up more often because:

• They aren't really a "monstrous" monster, aka "Something PCs are likely to fight."
• Very few of my players choose to play young maidens.

Back at Garycon last month, Jeff Rients ran an adventure with an insane unicorn prowling the caves. After that was over, I looked at the thing's stats, comparing it to a war horse (the scariest normal equine).

I just couldn't bring myself to use one of the 

seventeen MILLION "sparkly" images Google turned up.

It's faster than a war horse, has a better AC, more HD, and does more damage per attack (1d8 vs. 1d4). NTM it gets a third attack (horn). Unicorns also get that freaky teleport ability, so it'd be hard to finish one off without it escaping, especially with their skittish morale.

A wandering encounter with these creatures has a herd of 1d6 galloping about, which could really spell bad news for someone who decided to mess with them. The 1st edition version is even scarier, with human-level intelligence and a horn that does a d12 damage (doubled when charging!). 

All this makes me wonder about a good way to include a unicorn encounter that is not geared toward 8 year-old girls. Perhaps a woodland guardian? Or maybe a reincarnated NPC? Or maybe someone hung the MacGuffin around the unicorn's neck (a la "Amber") and it flits about resisting attempts to capture it? Anyway, it bears further thought. 

RSA: Reincarnation

This is one my favorite spells I've never seen used. I've heard campaign stories involving it, but I've never had it come up in a game I've run or played in. I think part of the problem comes from the fact that it's a high enough level spell (6th+) that a party that's powerful enough to be casting or paying for such spells will just go for Raise Dead or Resurrection instead of the far chancier Reincarnation to restore a dead comrade.

It's a shame, though. Despite some of the silliness –or perhaps because of it– Reincarnation is just riddled with possibilities. Before we get into it, here's some crunch:

In BX, it's a 6th level MU spell (I like how it's not divine/clerical in nature). In LL's AEC, Druids can cast it too.

Basically, what happens is that the spell "grows" the departed a whole new adult body. The exact nature of the body is random, though. Rather than try formatting the table here, I'll just provide an image of it from Cook Expert.

Now, as you can see, the odds favor coming back as some sort of PC, though not necessarily what the character was to start with (although you have a 30% chance of it). Since it doesn't state either way explicitly, the GM might have you keep your scores or re-roll. Frankly, I'd opt for the latter and maybe even roll for gender, but YMMV. You can't start higher than 6th level (d6), and your previous level can cap it before that. It's a little odd how a newly formed person can just "become" a class like cleric, but hey, it's MAGIC! The real fun begins when you roll a 10, however.

Monsters don't gain XP or levels, so if you end up a Lizard Man, you're stuck as a 2HD critter. That's kind of harsh, but the rules at that point didn't really have rules for monstrous PCs and a GM can tweak his game as he will.

While results like Ogre, Minotaur, "Weres", or Centaur might catch some eyes, the ones that I find particularly amusing include Ape, Roc, Blink Dog, and Neanderthal. The idea of a party with a sentient giant bird as a member, or a cave man, brings a smile to my face. Just think about the sheer level of roleplaying fun that could occur because of this.

As I said before, I think Reincarnation is unlikely to be a party's first choice for bringing back the dead. I do not think, however, that's the only way to introduce the spell into a campaign. Perhaps a curse that causes a character to never "die" but if he is killed, he is instantly reincarnated (preventing Resurrection and other spells from being used) into some other form? Maybe a magical trap that reincarnates those who are killed by it? Or a mad wizard who reincarnates PC(s) that he slew, as part of some bizarre plan?

I think a GM would want to be careful here. You don't want to make it into an excuse to screw over a player, but –assuming whatever got them into that mess was at least partly due to PC choice– then it's all good!