Have a 2nd chance at life with this not quite undead species.
Reborn are creatures that have died, but for some miraculous and inexplicable reason, still live. Some simply have the breath of life returned to their bodies following a fatal incident. Others are the product of magic and science, stitching their flesh back together and reinvigorating this vessel with life.
Such an experience can be confusing and overwhelming, but also brings with it some supernatural capabilities. Reborn also bare the scars of their former life whether through literal stitches, or the scars of their formally fatal incident.
The Reborn has been updated from its original version in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft. The new version is built for D&D 2024 and can be found in Ravenloft: The Horrors Within. If you want to play a Reborn, then read on for advice, optimisations and tactics.
Is a Reborn the right species for me?
Choose a Reborn if you want to…
- Be great at skills
- Have greater resilience
- Be great at being underwater
A Reborn might not be for you if…
- You care little for skills
- Will not be dealing with aquatic areas much
What’s changed?
A few changes have mainly made the reborn worse by taking away some resilience and a skill proficiency. It is partially made up for by an improvement to knowledge from a past life. These changes include:
- Ancestral legacy: No longer retain skill proficiencies and movement speeds from a former species (or 2 extra skills). You do get a skill proficiency through knowledge from a past life though.
- Strange endurance: You no longer have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned and disease. You also get a choice of resistance against poison, cold or necrotic damage (rather than only getting poison resistance).
- Knowledge from a past life: Now can be used on a failed ability check rather than before you know the outcome.
Reborn traits
| Creature Type | Humanoid |
| Size | Small or medium |
| Speed | 30ft |
| Traits | Escaped death, everlasting, knowledge from a past life, strange endurance |
| Resistances | Poison, cold or necrotic, advantage against death saving throws |
| Proficiencies | 1 of your choice |
| Darkvision | No |
| Innate spellcasting | None |
| Book found in | Ravenloft: The Horrors Within |
Tactics
Reborn are primarily about greater resilience as well as having strong ability checks. As such, I’d recommend the following tactics:
Skill savant: Reborn are exceedingly skillful. 1 skill proficiency of your choice plus you can add d6 to some failed skill checks makes them really reliable with these. This is especially useful for classes that need plenty of extra proficiencies like party faces and stealth specialists. It’s also important for those involved in high stakes ability checks (like rogues).
Aquatic potential: Not needing to breathe can be very handy when dealing with being underwater. Some features and spells might make you a quick swimmer, but keep you limited when it comes to underwater breathing. Not needing to breathe means you can be underwater as long as you like and even cast verbal spells underwater without suffocating. Occasionally handy, especially if you can pair them up with competent swimming (like being a level 6+ ranger).
Resilience: A choice of 3 resistances is decent. Poison is the most common damage type in the game but necrotic can be common in some campaigns (especially Ravenloft campaigns). Resilience for death saving throws can be really useful too.
Choosing a class for your Reborn
Below I’ve scored how well each class works with a Reborn:
Artificer⭐⭐⭐
Barbarian ⭐⭐⭐
Bard ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cleric ⭐⭐⭐
Druid ⭐⭐⭐
Fighter ⭐⭐⭐
Monk ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Paladin ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ranger ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rogue ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sorcerer ⭐⭐⭐
Warlock ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Wizard ⭐⭐
*Star ratings scored out of 5
Best classes for a Reborn
One of the big things for Reborn is their skill capabilities. Any class that will regularly be making skill checks is going to do well here. Especially those that need a variety of skill proficiencies. On top of that, anyone that needs extra resilience.
This means that bards, rogues and rangers are your best options as the skill specialists among classes. Rangers in particularly rely more on being a bit more resilient and have the bonus of having a swim speed from level 6 so are best placed to take advantage of a Reborn’s breathless nature.
Frontline charisma builds can do well here too like paladins and bladelocks (blade warlocks) who both benefit from more resilience and the need for strong capabilities when using face skills.
Worst Reborn classes
Most classes benefit from increased resilience and will take some form of skill checks here and there so no choice is bad for a Reborn. I’d perhaps say that wizards maybe gain least from a reborn as they tend to try and avoid drawing attacks and use skills infrequently too.
About Reborn
Appearance
Reborn can take on a variety of appearances. This is partly because their original species affects how they look, but also because the method of becoming reborn affects this too.
Some Reborn may simply be a resurrected form of themself, but where the soul didn’t transition properly. But even this may have left them with the injuries they incurred during their former death. Others may be made from stitched flesh of many different bodies while others may possess clockwork organs. It’s up to you how your Reborn state affects your appearance. Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft actually gives many more ideas for how you became Reborn and how that affects your appearance than The Horrors Within.
How can you become a Reborn?
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft suggests several ways you might become a Reborn (you won’t find these in The Horrors Within, but they still work with the updated species):
- A magical resurrection gone wrong
- You’re made from the stitched bodies of multiple creatures, and possess their memories too
- You clawed yourself free from your grave and have only a single memory
- You were an undead creature whose memories returned
- Awoke in a laboratory surrounded by clockwork organs
- Released from petrification, but your memories and body have faded
- Your body is hostile to another spirit that replaces your missing limbs with phantasmal limbs
- You appear normal, but are filled with itchy straw
How to roleplay a Reborn
Most Reborn find themselves muddled by missing or even merged memories from multiple lives. They find themselves feeling and remembering differently from their former life.
You may find that your mood is more sombre or pensive and that your thoughts can become muddled and confused. Many Reborn seek to better understand their origins and who they are, piecing together parts of memories.
Other D&D species guides
Not sure a Reborn is the right species for you? Why not check out one of our other species guides for D&D 5e.
