Reincarnation

Reincarnation enables players to leverage their existing progress with one of their current Player Characters, and allows players to change certain decisions made in that character's advancement, like a respec, in the case of Lesser and Greater Reincarnation, or to create an all-new more powerful hero, in the case of True Reincarnation.

All reincarnated characters will retain the name and items from the previous character incarnation. Characters go through the Character Creation Menu, as when they started, and then they go on to a flying ship. There they speak to a historian, and go through a menu for their changes. If they are changing their classes (Lesser Heart +1, etc.), they have to immediately make that selection as they level up, or else they are stuck with their previous classes. Then they can level up to their current status.

Since update 11, experience / guild experience / crafting experience / loot boost potions carry over through reincarnation.

Lesser Reincarnation
Characters that undergo Lesser Reincarnation retain their race, gender, alignment and their Class Selections. They are permitted to re-spend their ability points, change their feats, reallocate skill points, redo their spell selection, etc., or are free to select a path. Unlike True Reincarnation, characters will retain all favor and experience, and reincarnate with the same number of build points of the current incarnation. If they have the Lesser Heart +1, +3 or +5, they can change one, three, or five of their Class Selections. The changes are made in two distinct phases: First, you change your stats and other character attributes and irrevocably accept those changes then you rework the character level by level i.e. you are asked if you wish to change your class at level 1, then at level 2, until you have changed the number of levels you are allowed to by you particular lesser heart of wood.

If you Lesser Reincarnate, you must wait 1 week before Lesser Reincarnating again or Greater Reincarnating. You may, however, under go True Reincarnation immediately after Lesser Reincarnating, as True Reincarnation is on a timer separate from the timer for Lesser and Greater Reincarnation. (That is, of course, provided you have not also Truly Reincarnated within a week's time.)

Greater Reincarnation
Greater Reincarnation has the same benefits as Lesser Reincarnation, and additionally will upgrade a 28 point (non-drow) character into a 32 point build character.

If you Greater Reincarnate, you must wait 1 week before Greater Reincarnating again or Lesser Reincarnating. You may, however, under go True Reincarnation immediately after Greater Reincarnating, as True Reincarnation is on a timer separate from the timer for Lesser and Greater Reincarnation. (That is, of course, provided you have not also Truly Reincarnated within a week's time.)

True Reincarnation
Once a character has reached level 20, they are able to undergo a true reincarnation. This allows the character to be reborn as a more powerful incarnation. Almost everything but the character's name and gender can be changed in this process.

Tapping into memories of their former selves, True Reincarnated characters will receive additional build points to spend in character generation, as well as unique bonuses in the form of access to Past Life Feats. Each incarnation will also be physically slightly larger than previous lives. That is, after a single true reincarnation your character will get slightly taller, and after a second true reincarnation, taller again. Further true reincarnation after the second will not make you any taller; a double true reincarnate is roughly 5% taller then a standard non-true reincarnate character.

True Reincarnation allows players to relive their journey through Stormreach. Characters will keep no experience or favor upon creation, will start at level 1 (regardless of VIP or Veteran Status), and require more experience to progress through each level. The first true reincarnation gives a 34 point build (30 for Drow), even if the character was initially created as a 28 points. The second and subsequent true reincarnations give a 36 point build (32 for Drow). In addition, true reincarnation allows a premium/f2p character to open quests on a higher difficulty - the first true reincarnation allows the character to open quests on Hard difficulty, and second and subsequent true reincarnations allow the character to open quests on Elite (VIPs can, of course, open all quests at Elite on any character).

If you undergo True Reincarnation, you must wait 1 week before True Reincarnate again. You may, however, under perform a Lesser Reincarnation or Greater Reincarnation immediately after a True Reincarnation, as True Reincarnation is on a timer separate from the timer for Lesser and Greater Reincarnation. (That is, of course, provided that you have not also Lesser or Greatly Reincarnated within a week's time.)

Some notes about True Reincarnation: (so better export before Reincarnating, and import after)(*BUG*)
 * 1) Your TR cache will be built. If you have any items in it from previous True Reincarnations it will not allow you to TR.
 * 2) Your mailbox is untouched; no need to empty it before True Reincarnation. The same is true of the Auction House.
 * 3) Since Update 13, you will keep your Tomes (of learning or bringing stat bonus) and their effect will apply as for lesser forms of reincarnation.
 * 4) You will not lose your items! All of the contents of your backpack and bank are placed in a new bank window called the Reincarnation Cache (remove only). Order of items is not maintained, so don't bother sorting before you reincarnate.
 * 5) * The remove-only restriction is not maintained if you are adding things to stacks of that item already in your TR cache; remove stacks from bags before you TR, so you can use your TR cache to store more of those stacks. You do have to remove the whole stack from the TR cache when you actually need to use the item. Split stacks of these items are auto-stacked in TR bank; however, you can place all but one back in your bags to maximize your extra storage abilities. Examples (Maximum stack sizes, if known - Otherwise, normal stack size should be assumed.) include:
 * 6) ** Epic Dungeon/Raid Tokens
 * 7) ** Portal Fragments - Healing Totems - Blade Storm Fragments - Infernal Pacts
 * 8) ** Rare scrolls
 * 9) *** Divine
 * 10) *** Arcane
 * 11) *** Artificer
 * 12) ** Draconic Runes (500)
 * 13) ** Adamantine Ore (30)
 * 14) ** Planar Shards (100)
 * 15) ** Siberys Dragonshard Fragments and Khyber Dragonshard Fragments (10,000)
 * 16) Keep your Sigil of Dal-Quor (flagged for Titan raid), Sigil Frame with additional pieces (partial flagging for Abbot raid), Phiarlan Pendant of Time (fast city travel), and go to the Silver Flame patron in the Marketplace and get a new Silver Flame Symbol. All can be used in your new life without having to work for them.
 * 17) Stock up on potions/scrolls/low level gear if you have a better Haggle now than you will at the start of your new life.
 * 18) If you are a Paladin, cast a bunch of Holy Swords before True Reincarnating if your next life will include at least one level of Paladin. The swords will be moved to your reincarnation cache and won't expire until you pull them out of the cache and log out. So, you can use one Holy Sword per gaming session in your next life. The Holy Swords are Minimum Level 10, Bound to Character, and class-restricted to Paladin with no UMD bypass possible.
 * 19) Because your Favor is reset, you will get the 25 bonus DDO Store points every 100 favor again in your new life.
 * 20) Your backpack resets to 3 bags, and bank to one bag (plus any DDO Store-bought personal backpack/bank bags).
 * 21) Your quest completions and timers are reset. Many players choose to wait until they get their 20th completion on some raids before TRing, such as The Shroud to get an Essence of Cleansing.
 * 22) Your spellbook is wiped - you will have to re-inscribe all spells.
 * 23) All your comments on your friends-list are wiped off
 * 1) Although you start again on Korthos island like any newly created character, you will not receive any starter items, nor Founder items, nor pre order bonuses again.
 * A larger list is on the forum here: The Great Big TR Checklist.

Quick summary
'Yes' indicates that item is reset by reincarnating.

1 - Wizards and Artificers will keep their spell books. They will not be able to select new/different spells leveling up, any additional spells desired will need to be learned through scrolls. All other spell casting classes will get to re-select spells. There is an exception for True Reincarnation - spell books will be fully reset if you TR. 2 - Due to Drow racial inherent stat bonuses, reincarnations into Drow will only yield 30 point builds on first reincarnation (32 on 2nd or higher).

How To Reincarnate
In order to reincarnate, you'll need to speak with Kruz the Reincarnation trainer in House Jorasco. He can be found at the top of the stairs in the south west garden. Kruz requires an item known as a "heart of wood" in order to reincarnate you. Hearts of wood can be purchased in the DDO Store. True Hearts of Wood for True Reincarnation can also be earned by trading Epic quest tokens for a True Heart of wood.

Developer quote

 * Recent update notes: This now applies to all forms of reincarnation. +4 tomes will apply at level 15. See Tomes for more information.