As near as I figure, this is how Death and Reincarnation works in Kaidan.
In Kaidan, death is final. Spells like Raise Dead, Resurrection and True Resurrection do not work as normal. Once you are dead, you must reincarnate or become a ghost, you cannot come back to life. Those mentioned spells do have an effect which I'll describe later. Based on your karma points acquired in life (described later), spells and funerary rituals applied can a spirit reincarnate with the best possible results.
The final goal being: you retain all the memories of your previous life (as well as all your former class levels, skills, feats, spells, powers, etc.) and a new body in a new character class (random or chosen by GM) that is half (rounded down) of your former life's class level. However odds are against success without the aid of Miko (Spirit Oracle) to assist in funerary and post-funerary rituals. You end up with a multi-class character whose life and advancements continue over multiple lifetimes.
There are basically two kinds of spirits involved in the reincarnation process: newly born spirits and reincarnated spirits. Newly born spirits are born when the host body is born, grows up from childhood to adulthood until some point later in his or her life when a reincarnating spirit attempts to take control by dominating that host body forcing the host's spirit to passive submission. Reincarnated spirits are all sentient that have recently died and now seek a new body to inhabit.
At the moment of PC death, the player rolls d20 + levels + 1 bonus point for every 5 karma points accrued in life. The result of this is kept by the GM until the moment when reincarnated spirit attempts to take control of the new host body.
A percentage of memory retention occurs as follows, and where above number result applies:
0 - 49% host spirit maintains control of host body, reincarnated spirit has no control, but is bound to the host body, until it dies, when the reincarnated spirit is free to attempt to control another host body through a domination attempt.
50 - 59% reincarnated spirit in control of host body, but 5 levels (memories) are lost in transfer process of reincarnation.
60 - 69% as above, but only 4 levels lost.
70 - 79%: 3 levels lost
80 - 89%: 2 levels lost
90 - 99%: 1 level lost
100% or more: no levels lost.
Thus say a 20th level character dies with save 25 points of karma accrued. He rolls a d20 and gets 12. This means he has 20 (levels) + 5 (1 bonus for each 5 karma points) + 12 = 37. This result still means that all memories are lost, and the reincarnated spirit is trapped in the host body until it reaches its normal death.
As mentioned above, Karma explained. Karma involves deeds that favor or disfavor innocents and the general population (GM's discretion on everything):
+1 karma point for any act that benefits a single innnocent individual.
+2 karma points for any act that benefits a family or village of innocents.
+3 karma points for any act that benefits a city, region, or major organization.
+4 karma points for any major act that benefits everyone.
-1 to -4 karma points for the exact opposite for those applying positive karma above.
Hindrances need only limit opportunity or bring discomfort, it does not have to include harm or death, though those do apply as hindrances.
Accumulation of both positive and negative karma, cancel each other out. Whichever type positive or negative karma as a remainder is used to determine caste destination in reincarnation, as well as bonuses applied to reincarnation check. Both positive and negative provide a positive bonus to reincarnation check. Thus 30 points of negative karma still applies a +6 bonus to reincarnation check.
100 positive karma points means reincarnate to next caste higher, while 100 negative karma points means reincarnate to next caste lower.
Castes top to bottom: noble, samurai, commoner, animal, eta/hinin caste, yomi hell realm.
Finally a new character class for Kaidan, called the Miko, uses the new Pathfinder class currently under playtest called the Oracle. The oracle is an instaneous divine spellcaster weaker than a cleric, but works something like as a sorcerer is to a wizard, an oracle is to a cleric. The oracle receives a limited access to divine spells, simple weapons and limited armor, but then receives a Mystery or Focus, a flavorful curse, and a series of revelations. These work like Pathfinder sorcerers bloodline spells and powers.
The Miko's Mystery (Focus) is Spirits. All its bonus spells involve spiritual nature, ie: Death Watch, Remove Curse, Dismissal, etc. All of its revelations or special powers directly relate to communication with the spirit world, creation of spiritually bound magic items and the safe transfer of spirits during the process of reincarnation in Kaidan.
Find Spirit - finds the new host body that houses the spirit of the departed in reincarnation.
Hide Spirit - once found, it can be hidden from others searching for the departed spirit...
Awaken Memory - can be used to offer those reincarnated spirits who failed in domination attempt to try again, plus grants a bonus 10% memory retention bonus for the roll.
Fade Memory - can be used to lessen domination success with a 10% penalty.
Bind Spirit - used to create spiritually bound divine devices of power like ancestral weapons.
Unbind Spirit - severs ties to spirits with bound objects.
Speak with Spirit - generally first revelation selected as this is necessary to successfully contact and communicate with any spirit.
Spirit Walk - dangerous ritual allowing a miko to detach herself from her body to attend to spiritual matters more directly, but risks domination attempts at her own body, and insanity checks for long durations away from her body.
Purge Spirit - used to break domination of a reincarnated spirit over its host's original spirit, sometimes used as a form of restoration against certain types of spiritual, ghost and monster attacks and curses.
Bind Memory - the most powerful ritual regarding the reincarnation process. This ritual applies a bonus to reincarnation checks when performed as a funerary rite to a death PC/NPC. Normally the spirit and the memory are bound by proximity, but sever by actual connection until after the reincarnation process is complete. Bind Memory forces the links to remain and greatly improves the odds of controlling the host body. With this ritual add 40 + Miko's level + her charisma modifier to the reincarnation check at made at the moment of death.
Use of Raise Dead spell cast at moment of death or during funeral grants a 10% bonus to reincarnation check.
Use of Resurrection spell cast at moment of death or during funeral grants a 25% bonus to reincarnation check.
Use of True Resurrection spells cast a moment of death or during funeral grants a 50% bonus to reincarnation check.
Use of these spells do not stack to improve the check attempt.
Thus a reincarnation spell (+25%) and a Bind Memory ritual (+50%) cast by 10th level miko (+10%)
who has +4 charisma modifier grants an 89% memory retention bonus on reincarnation. Which means the normal reincarnation check is 10 + charactera level + karma bonus + d20 means definite guarantee of 100% memory retention at reincarnation.
Without such assistance however, failure to retain any memories is almost guaranteed. Only 20th level characters with lots of karma points have any chance to reincarnate and maintain control of their characters without the miko's assistance.
Thoughts?
GP
[blockquote=Gamer Printshop]The final goal being: you retain all the memories of your previous life (as well as all your former class levels, skills, feats, spells, powers, etc.) and a new body in a new character class (random or chosen by GM) that is half (rounded down) of your former life's class level.[/blockquote]This strikes me as slightly strange- it makes class somehow ontological, as if you`re born a fighter or a mage or whatever instead of choosing that profession. This isn`t how I usually understand class to function in a d20 system - class isn`t a function of one`s being, like race, but a matter of one`s choices and one`s training. Is the new class somehow a carry-over of memories from the host being possessed by the reincarnating spirit???
Quote from: Steerpike[blockquote=Gamer Printshop]The final goal being: you retain all the memories of your previous life (as well as all your former class levels, skills, feats, spells, powers, etc.) and a new body in a new character class (random or chosen by GM) that is half (rounded down) of your former life's class level.[/blockquote]This strikes me as slightly strange- it makes class somehow ontological, as if you`re born a fighter or a mage or whatever instead of choosing that profession. This isn`t how I usually understand class to function in a d20 system - class isn`t a function of one`s being, like race, but a matter of one`s choices and one`s training. Is the new class somehow a carry-over of memories from the host being possessed by the reincarnating spirit???
Actually, no. For all intents and purposes the player creates a new character, preferrably a different class than was previously chosen, as if his original character is now dead, irrevocably. At the point the reincarnated soul attempts to takeover the new host body, the new character already exists, fully generated and statted and the new class becauses the character's primary class. If the reincarnation check succeeds, than memories of the previous life are attached to the new character, at first a mass of confusion, but over time the dominating spirit takes full control and the character is now multi-class with the new class as the primary one, and any of the preceding class as multi-class from memory.
Other problems can occur, especially if a given stat minimum was achieved to gain access to such and such feat. If the stat in the new class is less than the previous one, that feat is no longer accessable.
Most people reincarnate and forget their previous lives and live on in new lives in an endless cycle. Only a few multi-class with living memories of past lives, including specific heroes, villains, certain provincial lords, court members, most all onmyoji wizards, and of course the player characters.
Its part of what makes Kaidan especially unique setting - perhaps too provocative though. The setting manual will optionally offer all the races, classes, feats, spells and monsters as separate from the setting itself so users can can rely on the same rules for completely different oriental settings, apart from the bizarre mechanics of Kaidan.
Its not ontological at all. Think of it this way, the new character was born and grew up almost simultaneously with the PC, as its own person. It made its own decisions about what it wanted to be when it grew up, and eventually became that class. Now the PC dies, his spirit reincarnates and this other NPC is chosen by the cosmic powers to be the destination of the reincarnated spirit. The reincarnated spirit attempts to dominate the host spirit and take control of the host body. With successful reincarnation rolls and memory retention - the reincarnation occurs.
The new class, is a take over of someone else's efforts to get to that level in that class, not yours. You controlled the destiny of your spirit in your previous life. Now you begin again, but in a borrowed life that expands your PC in a multi-class manner, yet following Kaidan's bizarre mechanic, not the normal cosmological path.
GP
Hmm, Okay, I think see - thanks for explaining. Essentially the previous life of the host body isn`t erased, but retained, even if the memories of a previous life begin to resurface as multi-class features.
I'm also thinking of another dilema/opportunity for game design here...
Start with a newly born spirit in a newly born body. When a reincarnating spirit comes along and attempts to take over and dominate the host body, whether reincarnation check succeeds or not, there are now two spirits bound to the same body, with one or the other in control for the rest of that body's lifetime.
When that body dies, there are two reincarnated spirits seeking hosts.
Now consider there are varying availability of hosts, based on the current birthrate of various races, and castes, compared to the living conditions, ie: whether the nation is at war, whether pestilence or other disaster events have done any large scale culling of the population, etc.
There are times when plenty of available hosts are in the population, perhaps so many, that many newly born spirits will live the entire lifetime of the host body without a domination attempt. While there are times when too many reincarnating spirits are vying for control of a limited number of hosts. What happens to those reincarnated souls who cannot find a host body to reside?
I think they become some sort of revenant spirit, a type of undead "yurei" ghost; an NPC. Based on their levels and skills attained in life and their circumstance of death will determine what spiritual powers and attacks they now have. More than likely they will have a domination ability as normally conferred in the reincarnation process, but twisted in some evil way, so as to pervert the process and create hideous monster types of their host bodies. Perhaps they are damned to this condition as part of their undead curse...
Edit: a Kaidan rule - no more than two spirits can be bound to a single living host body. Only pure newly borns are subject to monster/spirit attacks that dominate in a successful attack.
Thoughts?
Another question that comes to mind. Is a given startup player character for Kaidan a newly born spirit, or is it already bound by a reincarnating spirit that failed its reincarnation check? Thus, is the PC subject to domination attacks of any sort?
I think, my Miko (Oracle) has a revelation (class feature power) called Find Spirit that is normally used to locating into whom a reincarnated spirit has bound itself, for the purposes of attempting to aid the new character to be dominated by a given reincarnated spirit (a dead PC), however, Find Spirit might also be used to identify if a given PC has a second spirit already attached to it.
I think most PCs should begin their lives as newly born spirits, and thus are subject to attacks by monsters/spirits that can dominate as part of its attack. The consequences of reincarnation and all these additional rules will only apply once that PC dies the first time.
I think you need to clarify things a lot to avoid confusion.
Reincarnation: Your write-up gives the impression that when ever someone dies, the spirit will always attempt to possess an existing body, and if the attempt it unsuccessful, it still becomes bound to that body but must remain suppressed for the remaining life of that body.
This then implies that newly born spirits are spirits that didn't exist previously, and that they are the only type of spirit that initially inhabit a creature that is actually born within the setting. This would also mean that the number of spirits within the universe isn't constant but ever increasing (there apparently being no way for spirits to cease to exist). This obviously cannot be intended, for it would quickly lead to an excess of spirits that cannot find a host body that isn't already inhabited by at least two spirits. But it is the impression one gets reading your explanation.
I would suggest making it clear that:
1. Completely new spirits are not created, at least not often. A newborn baby is a reincarnation of a person with many past lives. It just lacks all memories of those lives.
2. The above way is the common way that reincarnation actually happens within the setting. To make clear that this is so, you should state that either:
-2a: freshly deceased spirits must never even attempt a possession unless the interference of external powers enable them to do so,
-or-
-2b: if they do always attempt it, then failure must mean that they are forced to be born as infants as per the normal way, rather than becoming bound in the host they failed to dominate.
A different way to avoid trouble from having two spirits in one body but not allowing more than two (which seems a bit arbitrary ruling) would be that a dominating spirit literally kicks out the weaker spirit, while robbing it of it's memories.
If two spirits coinhabit a single host, then one of them will probably be dominant and will result in him gaining karma while the dormant spirit remains at status quo. Thus the dominant spirit might go on to reincarnate in a living host while the other will have to settle for a newborn.
But is it a common feature in Kaidan that you suddenly find a friend is a completely different person and that your friend's soul has been pushed away? Sounds somewhat traumatic to find that everybody is a possessing spirit.
Kaidan is supposed to be a dark fantasy setting, and that these "rules" seem counter-intuitive to how the reincarnation process should work - that is the intent. Kaidan's cosmic rules are based on an artificial construct called the Wheel of Life, created by a dark and powerful being with a darker sense of humor, at the founding of the Empire over 800 years ago.
Ghostman, your summary of what you think is going on, is exactly what's going on in Kaidan.
In Japan, Shinto is sometimes called the Realm of Eight Million Spirits, a way to describe an infinite number of spirits, which is how I intended the Spirit World of Kaidan to work as well.
What's not described is that there are times when there are more reincarnated spirits searching for a host body to take over, and there are just not enough host bodies available. What happens when a reincarnated spirit is left out in the selection of a new body - they become a Revenant Spirit, an undead being cursed to try and inhabit another living body, but never able to become a sentient living being any longer. They go mad and are destructive - perhaps the most common kind of undead being in Kaidan.
Undead spirits, unlike normal spirits can be utterly annihilated, which is often the end result of too many reincarnating spirits in existence. Whereas most spirits just change form and exist in the ether of the Wheel of Life.
@Cataclysmic Crow - is it common for a known person, to suddenly change because of interference with a new dominant spirit taking over and creating a stranger to those around the original? Answer: yes, it is common, which probably has a specific name for this condition. But in general the fact that spirits are trying to take over every living person's soul on a regular basis is in fact a common problem in Kaidan. Miko oracles are hired by individuals to help alleviate them of this curse by protecting their souls from domination by outsider spirits. Other divine spellcasters and Onmyoji Wizards make it a corresponding occupation to place protective hexes at the royal courts, provincial noble houses and other locations to protect the site from invasive spirits on the prowl for new bodies to inhabit. Perhaps individuals can obtain for some price, protective amulets that prevent attacks from invasive spirits.
Its possible I may need to add a mechanic that allows a failed reincarnated spirit to become a memoryless spirit to appear as a newborn or newly born spirit. No specific decision on that yet.
GP