Reincarnation and the realm.

[garhkal]

Say bob the fighter, Fred the cleric, John the mage and jack the thief go out adventuring from town Bupkiss.. They are KNOWN to the people of the town but have yet to get much of a good rep.

Fred the priest dies in a dungeon, but cause John had a reincarnation on a scroll, Fred comes back to life as say a Bugbear..

They come back to the town. What would the guards reaction be? Would fred be allowed in? Would the others?
IF magic is common/known about, would those guards potentially know that "Good folk don't get reincarnated into evil monsters"?

[Billy_Buttcheese]

IMC, the townsfolk would be highly suspicious of Fred unless/until he performed some kind of clerical miracle. This supposes upon reincarnation he is able to retain his former memories/skills/abilities. It's been awhile since I've used that spell but after reviewing the Druid spell, it appears that Fred may not recall his former life. The M-U description is far more vague. I guess that's what makes a Raise Dead spell so much more desirable.

But to answer your original question, I would say Fred would be viewed with as much suspicion as any other bugbear would be. And the rest of the party would probably be as well, since their rep hasn't really been established, although as in most situations, the more coin the group spends, the more likely they will be tolerated.... As always, YMMV.

[Halaster-Blackcloak]

I'd say the typical townsfolk are not that sophisticated. They don't understand magic. The townsfolk recognize the PCs, but don't know much about them. And then one day they bring a bugbear into the bar? I see combat breaking out!

Even if magic is known about, the average person simply isn't that sophisticated and doesn't know enough about magic to really understand what's happened. All they know is - there is a big, stinky, nasty bugbear trying to get in. Not gonna happen.

[Billy_Buttcheese]

I'd say the typical townsfolk are not that sophisticated. They don't understand magic. The townsfolk recognize the PCs, but don't know much about them. And then one day they bring a bugbear into the bar? I see combat breaking out!

Even if magic is known about, the average person simply isn't that sophisticated and doesn't know enough about magic to really understand what's happened. All they know is - there is a big, stinky, nasty bugbear trying to get in. Not gonna happen.

Agreed and to my point. The average backwater, small town bumpkin might not even recognize a bugbear but they would certainly note the difference between Fred and the rest of the group. IMO, even if by chance Fred is able to recall his former abilities, it would be a looooooong time before he would be either accepted or even tolerated, even in a large city (might even be worse in a larger city).

[RPG Dinosaur]

And in my opinion, the issues would begin right at the entrance to the town. Repeating the point that the party doesn't have a good reputation established yet, if this scenario came up when I was a DM I would say that as soon as the party came in sight of the guard post, unless the party brought Fred in with restraints on (under the ruse that he is their prisoner, until the circumstances could be explained) the guards would demand from shouting distance that the whole party lays down it's arms and surrenders. If they didn't, I'd have the guards open fire with range weapons, they would continue to see the party as a threat until they did surrender and continue acting accordingly and the parties chance of using the town as any kind of base would be blown.
Slightly off topic, but do you remember the old 1E accessory The Rogues Gallery? Remember that in the back were all these biographies of characters that were created by TSR creators,employees and play testers? I specifically remember that there was this one where the male character was originally a Ranger IIRC and then was killed and reincarnated as a Lizard Man, there was a drawing of him. The biography made it sound like he retained all his memories, the transition caused him to shift his alignment from Good to Neutral and he became a Fighter. I remember that in the biography for the character it said something close to 'while (characters name) has become accustomed to dealing with suspicion and hate from society and has developed patience for it, his patience is not infinite'.